what’s inside: Breathing Tutorial
By: Vaughn Gray
Reducing Inflammation
Vol. I No. 3 September 2009
By: Roger Maxwell
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Table of Contents Breathing Tutorial
3
The Basics of Proper Breathing
3
Poor Breathing Equals More Stress
5
Poor Breathing Also Distorts Posture
6
Learning to Breathe Right
8
Integrating Breathing with Proper Abdominal Movements
10
A Habit of Good Breathing
12
Complement Your Breathing Exercise by “De-Training” Your Traps
13
Summing Things Up
16
Reducing Inflammation 17 Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Vitamin E Can Stop the Pain
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Fish Oil Capsules
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Vitamin E
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Breathing Tutorial By: Vaughn Gray
Updated: 10/28/2009
The Basics of Proper Breathing One of the easiest things most people can do to improve their health, energy levels, and even their general mood is to learn how to breathe properly. It may come as a surprise to you that it’s possible to breathe improperly, but the fact of the matter is that just about everyone in America has less than perfect breathing technique. So what is proper breathing technique? A proper breath is taken through the nose into the stomach using the muscles of the diaphragm. People in less developed countries don’t need to be taught to breathe this way because they do it naturally from birth. In fact, all of us should naturally breathe into our stomach using the diaphragm. So why don’t we? Strange as it sounds, the reason that most Americans breathe into their chests and not into their stomachs is because we spend so much of our days seated. Sitting crunches down on the diaphragm (your primary breathing muscle) and turns it off. With your diaphragm turned off, you start to breathe through your mouth into your chest using the muscles of your neck and shoulders, which really aren’t meant to be used for breathing regularly.
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We’re able to breathe with the muscles of our chest and neck because they’re designed for “accessory breathing”. By accessory breathing we mean that chest breathing (raising the shoulders and chest to get air into the lungs) is only meant to assist diaphragmatic breathing when you’re out of breath. During a sprint, for instance, when you’re gasping for breath, a proper breath will start with the diaphragm contracting to fill the lower lungs. Once the lower lungs are full, the muscles of the neck and shoulders will contract, causing the chest to rise up and fill the upper lungs. Look in a mirror and take a deep breath. Focus on your shoulders. Do they rise up when you inhale? If so, you’re like most people – a chest breather. If your shoulders did rise there’s a good chance that your shoulders are chronically tight and you frequently develop knots in your shoulders and neck. This tension in your shoulders is being caused partially by the way you breathe. Better breathing, along with an exercise that we’ll cover at the end of this tutorial, will help alleviate shoulder and neck knots and tightness. Most people attribute tight shoulders to psychological stress, and they’re not wrong. But stress is only part of the picture. And further, poor breathing habits actually create increased stress.
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Poor Breathing Equals More Stress Poor breathing technique results in increased stress primarily because it limits the amount of oxygen that can be taken up by the lungs. Your body gets oxygen out of your lungs through capillaries - the thin blood vessels throughout the lungs that allow gases to flow into and out of your blood. These capillaries are about ten times as dense in the lower lungs as they are in the upper lungs. A chest breath only fills the upper lungs with air. As a result, the oxygen you breathe in during a chest breath doesn’t get to the area of the lungs where it can be efficiently absorbed. Take a full breath concentrating on filling your stomach and chest with air. Let it out slowly. It’s relaxing, right? Oxygen exerts a calming effect on the body. When people are highly stressed oxygen can be administered to help them relax. This is one of the main reasons that EMT’s give oxygen to people when they arrive on the scene of an emergency – to calm them down. Higher oxygen levels in the blood create shifts in brain chemistry that leave you feeling relaxed and at peace. The reverse is also true. Low levels of oxygen in the blood increases the levels of stress chemicals in the brain. Even mild oxygen deprivation can, over time, leave you feeling tense, anxious and fatigued. If you are a chronic chest breather, the odds are you’re walking around every day mildly starved for oxygen.
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In addition to increasing stress levels, lower blood oxygen makes pretty much everything in your body work more poorly– from your immune system, to detoxification processes in your liver, to mental functions. Chronic oxygen deprivation due to poor breathing habits is also associated with dramatically increased incidences of migraine and tension headaches. The stress caused by chronic oxygen deprivation isn’t limited to the mental sphere. This stress also results in the physical manifestations of tension, as muscles are held tighter, contributing to painful knots in the back and shoulders. Stress from poor breathing can even promote weight gain, since the body chemicals associated with stress, such as cortisol, tend to promote fat storage.
Poor Breathing Also Distorts Posture If you’re not yet convinced that you need to learn to breathe right, here’s another good reason: Since the muscles of your shoulders aren’t built to work as breathing muscles all of the time, using them this way overstresses them. Overstressed muscles develop knots, and get short and tight. In addition to being painful, short tight shoulder muscles can also distort your posture. When your upper back and shoulder muscles get tight, they rotate your arms inward and pull your shoulders forward. This causes your upper spine to bend forward. Your head follows along, and also moves forward. These patterns of postural distortion can then contribute to neck and back pain, in addition to just plain looking bad. Poor posture is endemic these days,
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and bad breathing technique is a big part of the cause. Changing the way you breathe won’t immediately improve your posture in and of itself, but it will help prevent your posture from getting worse. Once you start breathing properly, most postural distortion patterns you do have can be easily corrected with exercise. Check out our Improving Posture and Alignment tutorial for more. Breathing seems like such a simple, innocuous thing that it’s hard to believe improper breathing techniques can cause so many problems. But, ultimately, everything our bodies do depends on oxygen, so it isn’t really surprising that our bodies should be so sensitive to blood oxygen levels. In addition, we take over 25,000 breaths per day. With so many repetitions, it makes sense that any problems with the mechanics of breathing can have profound effects on the health of the muscles involved. (Imagine what doing 25,000 improper biceps curls each day would do to yoru arm muscles) Hopefully we’ve convinced you that learning how to breathe properly is worth your while. So how do you get started?
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Learning to Breathe Right As discussed, a proper breath is taken into the stomach using the muscles of the diaphragm. The first step to learning how to breathe into your stomach is to gain control over the diaphragm and the other muscles of your abdominal wall. You can begin practicing controlling your abdominal wall with an exercise called the tummy vaccum.
Perform the tummy vaccum on all four with your wrists held directly under your shoulders anPerform the tummy vaccum on all four with your wrists held directly under your shoulders
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and your knees directly under your hips. Keep your spine straight, being careful not to arch your lower back. Begin the tummy vaccum by letting your abdominal wall fall towards the ground. Try to expand your abdomen as much as possible, like kids do when making a “big belly”. While expanding your abdomen towards the floor try not to move your lower back. When you’ve expanded your abdomen as far as you can (Position 1), reverse this motion, and suck your stomach in as far as you can. When you’ve drawn your stomach in as far as possible (Position 2), switch directions again, dropping your abdominal wall back towards Position 1, Repeat this sequence for a few minutes a few times per day to gain better control over your abdominal muscles. It’s best to perform the tummy vaccum in front of a mirror so you can watch your form. Do this exercise shirtless or in a sports bra so you can see your stomach and back in the mirror. Try to focus on letting your abdomen fall down towards the ground without moving your back in any way. Most people initially have a tough time dropping their abdomen down without moving their lower back (if you look closely, our model arched her lower back in the photo in Position 1 - try not to!!!). You don’t have to get it perfect the first time, but you should concentrate on moving your lower back as little as possible. In addiiton, try to make the movement in the tummy vaccum as smooth as possible. At first,
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your abdominal wall may move up and down in fits and starts. Try to keep the motion slow and even. Once you’ve got the hang of moving your abdominal wall in and out smoothly, you’re ready to integrate this motion with breathing.
Integrating Breathing with Proper Abdominal Movements Start integrating proper breathing with the right abdominal movements by blowing all they air out of your lungs by pulling your stomach in as far as it will go (Position 2). Hold this position for a second, then release your abdominal wall down towards the floor (Move to Position 1) . As your stomach wall falls down toward the floor breathe in slowly through
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your nose. Think about aiming your breath low into your stomach, filling your belly with air like a balloon. Fill your lower lungs to capacity by expanding your abdomen fully. As you do so, try not to let your chest and shoulders rise up towards your head, filling your upper lungs with air. When your your belly is as expanded as you can make it, meaning your lower lungs are full -(Position 1), pause for a second, then start to exhale by drawing your belly button up and in back towards Position 2, actively pushing air out of your lungs using your stomach muscles like a bellows. Through all of this keep looking in the mirror, staying conscious of not moving your back or shoulders in any way. Be especially aware of any tendency to contract your shoulders and neck muscles to draw breath into your chest. The idea here is to breathe using the diaphragm alone. Your chest should never rise up during this exercise Once you’re comfortable breathing like this on all fours, where gravity is assisting you in dropping your belly down, start practicing belly breathing standing up by alternately expanding and contracting your abdominal wall to draw air in and then blow air out in the exact same fashion. For a few days, practice in front of a mirror, continuing to pay attention to your lower back and hold it still. After this, start trying to breathe into your diaphragm all of the time, staying especially consicious of breathing diaphragmatically while seated. In order to breathe with your diaphragm while seated, you’ll have to sit up straight, which will have the side benefit of helping you begin to develop better posture. You goal is to get to the point where you start breathing into your diaphragm as a matter of habit without thinking about it.
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A Habit of Good Breathing The way that movements become habitual is through the establishment of motor programs for those movements in our brains. Research indicates that it take about 500 repetitions to write a new movement program, but about 5,000 repetitions to rewrite one that is already established. Since most of us have been chest breathing for a good part of our lives, it takes a lot of repetitions to completely change our breathing patterns to the point where diaphragmatic breathing becomes instinctive. But if you try to remember to breathe diaphragmatically throughout the day, 5,000 reps will pass in no time, and proper breathing will become unconscious and habitual. When you’re first getting started, practice diaphragmatic breathing on your hands and knees at least five to ten minutes, three times per week. You can do this breathing exercise as a part of regular workouts, or anytime throughout the day. Feel free to practice breathing even more frequently if you like. The more you practice, the faster you’ll develop the habit of proper breathing. You really can’t overdo breating exercises.
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Complement Your Breathing Exercise by “De-Training” Your Traps “Detraining” a muscle may not sound like something you’d ever want to do (We’re pretty sure we made the word up actually), but the fact of the matter is that when certain muscles get too big, too strong, or too active, they can actually do our bodies harm. Nowhere is this more true than in the upper trapezius. The upper trapezius is the large muscle above your collar bones that you use to shrug your shoulders. It is one of the major muscles of accessory breathing. As discussed in the beginning of this tutorial, when accessory breathing muscles are used to breathe all of the time, they get overworked. The upper trapezius responds to being overworked by becoming shorter, tighter, thicker, and developing knots. All of these effects not only distort posture, they also actually make it harder to breathe properly. Short overdeveloped muscles undergo a process called “facilitation”. What this means is that as these muscles are worked more and more frequently, they tend to contract more and more easily with less and less stimulation from the nervous system. Most people’s upper traps are highly facilitated, meaning they fire on a hair trigger. As a result, many people find it hard to stop breathing with their
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traps by raising their chests up, even when they are concentrating on trying to breathe with the diaphragm. Fortunately there is a way to “detrain” muscles. Simply stated, you detrain a muscle by working its antagonist. Most of the muscles in the body have antagonists. Muscles are antagonists to each other when they perform opposite actions at the same joint. For instance, the biceps and triceps are antagonists. The biceps flex the arm while the triceps extend the arm. When you exercise a given muscle, that muscle actually shuts off its antagonist. This is an important effect. If the biceps didn’t shut off the triceps during a biceps curl, you wouldn’t be able to lift as much weight because the triceps would actually resist the biceps’ action. Over time, training the antagonist of any given muscle can actually reverse facilitation. All of this might sound a bit complicated in theory, but it’s charmingly simple in practice.The traps shrug the shoulders up. Therefore the antagonists of the traps must push the shoulders down. The primary muscle that does this is called the serratus anterior. The name isn’t important. The real question is how do you train it! You train the serratus anterior (turning off the traps and defacilitating them) by doing what is, essentially, an “anti-shrug” (forgive another linguistic sin). In a shrug you raise your shoulders up towards your ears. An anti-shrug (or, more formally, a “straight arm dip”) involves pushing your
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shoulders down, moving your shoulders away from your ears. To perform an anti-shrug (straight arm dip), find a chair or any other stable surface where you can rest your hands with your feet on the ground and your body suspended in the air ( Position 1 shown below).
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Staring from Position 1, with your arms straight, your chest up, your spine straight, and your head as high up towards the ceiling as you can get it, begin this exercise by letting your torso fall straight down towards the ground. Keep your arms locked straight. Your head should fall down between your shoulder girdle to about the level of your ears, without your arms bending at all at the elbow. When you reach the bottom of this motion (Position 2 - note that, for now, this picture is worng - the arms should not bend), switch directions, and push your head and torso back up towards the ceiling (Position 1). Again, be sure your arms stay locked straight, your spine stays straight, and your chest stays up the whole time. Breathe in, filling your belly with air as your torso is moving down toards the ground. Breathe out, pushing air out of your lungs by pulling in your stomach as you’re pushing your torso and head up towards the ceiling. Perform as many reps of this exercise as you can without exhausting yourself, up to 30 or 40 reps at a time. Do 3-4 sets a few times per week.
Summing Things Up Improving your breathing technique is one of the easiest, most effective things you can do to improve your health. Combining the breathing exercise illustrated here with the “anti-shrug” exercise outlined above, should help you begin breathing better as a matter of habit within weeks. Once you do start breathing better all of the time, you’ll most likely find the tension in your neck and shoulders easing up. You may also find yourself feeling less stressed and more alert and energized as you go about your day. In the end just about every cell and organ in your body depends on oxygen. Proper breathing technique will more thoroughly oxygenate your
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body, and in doing so, help just about every organ and cell in your body to do its job better, leading to more energy and better overall health.
Food for Thought Reducing Inflammation Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Vitamin E Can Stop the Pain By: Roger Maxwell
As a stroke survivor, you might experience headaches as well as swelling and pain — also called inflammation — in any affected joints and limbs. This takes place as the brain and nervous system heal. With help from your health care provider, there are a number of ways to reduce the effects of inflammation, including the use of nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.
Fish Oil Capsules The U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements, part of the National Institutes of Health, has researched omega-3 fatty acids in the forms of docosahexaenoic
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acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Among the office’s findings: • Both DHA and EPA reduce pain and swelling of the joints and limbs. • DHA produces a compound that helps reduce swelling brought about by” insults” (the medical term for”injury”or “trauma”) to the brain. • EPA helps to reduce swelling by limiting the amount of inflammatory compounds the body can make. Fish is a good source of both DHA and EPA. Choose fish oil capsules that include both DHA and EPA to reduce swelling and pain. There are many fish oil supplements on the market: some are made so they don’t cause a fishy aftertaste or burps. Find a fish oil capsule and treatment regimen that you and your health care provider feel is right for you.
Vitamin E The health benefits of vitamin E are well known. The Office of Dietary Supplements Vitamin E Fact Sheet notes that antioxidants such as vitamin E protect cells against free radicals — unstable molecules that cause tissue damage and possibly some diseases.
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Vitamin E also: • helps reduce pain and inflammation. • boosts immune function. • helps with in DNA repair and other metabolic processes. The Office of Dietary Supplements notes that two national surveys found most Americans do not receive the recommended intake for vitamin E (15 mg or 22.5 IU per day for men and women older than 14) in their diets. Good sources of vitamin E include: • vegetable oils. • nuts. • green leafy vegetables. • fortified cereals. You and your health care provider can find a supplement that ensures you get the vitamin E you need for good health and that fights pain and inflammation. While modern medicine relies on medications, many of which offer a great deal in the way of healing, we shouldn’t forget the power of nutritional supplements that work with your body naturally, just like food, to help it heal faster.
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Roger Maxwell had a massive stroke in March 2003. When his regular rehab ended, he set up a plan for full recovery. Today, he is a marathon runner and full-time patent attorney. Maxwell’s recovery is detailed in Taking Charge of Your Stroke Recovery: A Personal Recovery Workbook (www. takingchargebooks.com).
Res-Q 1250 fills the need for a fish oil capsule that is both highly purified and contains the maximum amount of EPA and DHA possible per capsule. With 200 capsules per bottle and the price as low as $31 a bottle (for the purchase of six and $33 for the purchase of three), you are getting a fantastic value and a truly healthful product.
Res-Q 1250 is indicated for both prevention and recovery from heart attack and stroke. Omega-3s are part of the basic building block of human health.
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