Sunday, October 25, 2009

Breathe in. Breathe out.

A Fundamental Act of Life That is So Easily Taken For Granted: Breathing!

It has been proven that the average person uses about a third of your natural lung capacity.
Going back to the pre industrial era, diaphragmatic breathing occurred naturally when individuals were much more active performing manual labor on farms and hunting for food.
Modern life has challenged the average person to use the full capacity of the breath: poor posture, bad habits such as smoking, restrictive clothing, lack of exercise, diets that lead to high blood pressure, increasingly rapid and emotionally stressful lives, polluted environments, slouching in front of computers are among the few things that contradict the ability to breath efficiently.


Diaphragmatic Breathing?
This is the most natural and healthy way of breathing that we tend to forget over time; our breathing becomes shallow or irregular or both.
The primary muscle for breathing is the Diaphragm. It is the dome shaped muscle situated underneath the frame of the ribcage and separates the lungs from the stomach. It is a very thin, wide muscle that inflates and deflates much like a parachute. During inhalation the diaphragm descends downwardly in the torso increasing the volume of the lungs to take in oxygen. On exhalation the diaphragm floats back up the torso expelling the carbon dioxide from the lungs.



Stress Remedy!
Taking 10 minutes a day to simply breath deeply will undoubtedly help to reduce anxiety and/or stress. It is important to know that Deep Breathing means to inhale and exhale long and slowly. The best way to breath deeply is to build up little by little. The lung's capacity starts to expand, and as a result your mind becomes calmer, more balanced, and you will be able to concentrate more fully. If you are able to breathe anywhere from 1 to 4 times per minute you can reach a distinct, calm meditative state.
Reaching this state by simply focusing on the breath serves as what I see as sort of a mental and emotional reset button. We can definitely all take a little break from the madness!


In Pilates How Do I Keep My Belly Flat and Still Achieve a Full Breath?
In relation to movement and pilates there is an emphasis on maintaining a flat belly while performing exercises. A huge misconception, I have found, with pilates is always holding and stiffening to pull in your abdominals. In actuality the key is striking a fine balance between letting everything hang out and clenching your body. I like to call this: active abdominals.
Breathing in 3D allows full breath to occur while keeping your abs connected. The most profound cue I have used and learned in teaching is to 'breath into your back'. To encourage posterior breathing is the most effective way to help my clients keep a flat belly while performing exercises and still achieve a full breath.
This will also allow you to wail at the top of your lungs and run around on stage during your performance! Im pretty sure Gwen is hip to posterior breathing ;)

Breathing to Move!
It is very common that people hold their breath while performing exercises. In order to for the best results in your workout you must keep the breath flowing.
According to Kelly Kane of the Kane School of Core Integration, using the full capacity of the lungs is paramount to creating movement in the thorax as well as the whole body. Unfortunately many of us do not use the fully capacity of our lungs in three dimensions. The three dimensions being superiorly to the first rib collar, laterally to the side seam of the body and toward the heart, posteriorly to all aspects of the ribs and inferiorly toward the abdomen.
This statement has totally illuminated the importance of mobilizing the breath in all aspects of your body so that you can move to your ultimate ability. So keep the breath moving!

Any questions!? Just ask ;)















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