Lifting heavy may attract attention, but if you’ve always found it difficult to bend forward and touch your toes or sit comfortably in a squat to the floor, then you could be setting yourself up for an injury prone future
For most gym go-overs, the goals are to get bigger, more shredded, and sweat during a tough workout. Stretching always seems to be last on the mind. But in order to prevent injury, we need less constant tension in our muscles. So, let’s forget stretching for now. I’m going to teach you how to increase flexibility in an even simpler way – through breathing!
The Power of Your Breath
Breathing is our most fundamental and basic function of life. It is what keeps us alive and moving. Yet, just as we suddenly lose the ability to squat to ground from when we were kids, we tend to lose the ability to breathe properly as well.
Breathing requires the diaphragm to contract and relax, just like any muscle throughout our bodies. Our diaphragm, which rests just below the ribcage, is our most important muscle in respiration. It also helps with core stabilization, working with the obliques, quadratus lumborum, the pelvic floor and transverse abdominis, to make up the top portion of your core. Everyone talks about wanting a strong core, but you better make sure the roof is working well first.
When we contract our diaphragm correctly, we are helping fuel our muscles with oxygen needed to carry heavy loads and sustain better performance. Beyond performance, diaphragmatic breathing taps into our parasympathetic system of our central nervous system (the brain) and tells the body to chill out!
Our muscles are not solely run by how much we move them, but also how much force the brain tells the body they need to produce. When we can relax the nervous system more frequently, we relax chronically tight muscles as well. So rather than stretching, take 5 minutes every night to lie in bed practice this diaphragmatic breathing technique.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Step 1. Lay on your bed with a pillow to support the head and place a few pillows under the legs. If you can raise the legs to 90 degrees in a resting position, that would be preferred.
Step 2. Place your hands around the side of your low ribcage. Make sure the shoulders can be relaxed and notice if there is any tension up by the neck.
Step 3. Bring your attention to your ribcage. Take a 2-4 second slow breath in through the nose. Feel the low ribcage expand into your hands (sides, front and back). Then take a 6-8 second breath out either through pursed lips like blowing out a candle or out through the nose.
Step 4: Maintain the focus on the ribcage. Is one side expanding more than the other? Can you send breath into that side more?
Another technique to increase ribcage expansion is to add a gentle squeeze right before you inhale. Not only will this technique get you out of your mind (clarity) and into your body, but it will also turn on what is known as the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system - the system that allows the body to rest, relax, and digest. Not only relax the body, but actually relax muscle tissue! Relieve tension, decrease spasms and reduce inflammation to ultimately reduce pain! Come back here anytime you feel pain, stress or anxiety.
I guarantee if you were hop out of bed and try to touch your toes again, you’d be further than before. A relaxed nervous system and muscles fueled with oxygen will help you to lift heavier, squat lower, and live longer.