I love saying to my clients "take a deep breath in", instantly you see stress begin to leave their body. Strangely none of us really think about breathing our body just does it naturally, thank goodness! Yet it can have a great impact on our life, the benefits are huge...from aiding in relieving depression, stress, fatigue, sleep issues, headaches and digestive disorders to name a few.Whether it be Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi or Weight lifting; breathing is an integral part of these techniques. There are many different ways and philosophies to breathing properly, in yoga we call it pranayama, all our important and worth exploring. I'm going to focus on the Pilates method, which has more attention to the core. Begin by finding a comfortable position lying down on your back with your knees bent, perhaps closing your eyes. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Place your hands on your belly and begin to breathe into the stomach, fill it up like a balloon and as you exhale pull the belly in engaging the transverse abdominals. After a few attempts, work on not letting the belly expand, just pulling in. Keep the back in neutral position, maintaining a natural curve. After you feel comfortable with that, place your hands on the outside, lateral back part of your bottom ribs. Move the ribs like an accordion, ribs move sideways as you inhale and as you exhale ribs fold back down. Keep the tummy in through out but don't suck in. With practice this will become second nature.Did you know the average person takes in 21,600 breaths per day, wow! Strangely our right lung is larger than the left lung? And 70% of waste is eliminated through the lungs.
Lastly shallow breathing can cause memory loss, so in the end no matter what technique you choose... just do it!!!