The Difference Between Chest vs. Belly Breathing
You may have heard of the terms “belly breathing” or “chest breathing”.
Belly breathing typically means sending the inhale all the way into the low belly to expand it like a balloon, and exhaling to feel the waist cinch. This is crucial- but only half the equation. Chest breathing is typically vilified to mean short, shallow breaths that rely on the accessory breathing muscles and stress out the neck and shoulders. This can happen- but AGAIN, it’s only half the story.
Chest breathing gets a bad rap. When we are anxious and stressed, our breath gets shallower and stuck in the neck- notably in a muscle called the scalenes- the same muscle that helps to support your cervical spine in an upright position. Continuous shallow breathing can stress this muscle out and encourage forward head syndrome, and when the scalenes are already tight, it can be difficult to get out of this vicious cycle. However, in our effort to get the breath down and away from our “stress” areas, many pilates pros have relied on “belly breathing” to release tension in the neck and cue low ab (transversus abdominis) activation.
Most trainers don’t know how to pilates breathing
A lot of pilates instructors cue belly breathing to help you find your lower abs. Many make the mistake of isolating the airflow here. Strictly belly breathing, with no chest movement at all immobilizes the ribcage and mid back. No movement in the chest = no rib cage movement. No rib cage movement = tightness and stiffness in the thoracic spine. To top that off, when you are strictly belly breathing, the majority of the relaxed part of the breath is in the front of the pelvic floor- leaving lots of tension in the back. In addition, too much belly breathing can lead to decreased tone in the abs (by tone I don’t mean visible definition- i mean the physiological definition of tone, which is the balance of tension or contraction in your muscles when they are at rest.
Think of it anatomically: the ribs are attached in both the front AND the back. Our lungs live UNDER our ribcage. A balloon does not expand in one direction- it fills up three dimensionally. So should your lungs. When we expand our lungs with an inhale gulp of air, to make room for all that air, the ribs need to expand in ALL directions to accommodate. Any muscle that gets locked in the same position for an extended period, whether it is your hips in flexion sitting on the couch, or the muscles of the upper back getting caught in shallow breath. Bracing down and preventing this movement can get you caught in reverse breathing, creates pain in the back- and sends allllll of that pressure down into the pelvic floor.
How to improve your core strength through breath
Laying on your back on your mat, knees bent and hip flexors soft, place one hand on the chest and one hand on the belly. As you inhale, you want the belly AND the chest to rise evenly. In addition, you want to access BACK BODY expansion.
To check for back body expansion, as you inhale, let the chest rise, let the belly rise, but also feel the circumference of your ribcage expand that means laterally in width, and puffing up through the BACK BODY as well. I make a point to feel my bra strap press through the floor on the inhale, and it can also help to place one hand under your upper back to check for movement- you should feel your back ribs press into that hand on the ground on the inhale as the lungs expand, and shrink away as the lungs contract in again on the exhale.
Envision spreading the breath (and pressure) everywhere through the trunk- so rather than getting all stuck in the ribcage and creating a down pressure on the pelvic floor, everything is more evenly distributed.
Conclusion
This 3D breathing, not only creates movement where it was stuck before, the upper mid back, but mobilizes every body segment- you get movement in the chest, movement in front, side, and back of the ribs, releasing the paraspinals, gently stretching to the obliques, getting contraction and release around the low belly and syncs the pelvic floor and diaphragm to harness pressure functionally.
Get you a girl who can do both! (err…be that girl- you and your bod deserve it!)
If you need to see to believe, check out this IGTV demo-ing how to breathe deeply for rib mobility and pain relief and check out Helen Phelan Studio for a free 10 day trial to put it in action!
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