Breathing is one of our most important functions and forms the foundation of movement, health and wellbeing.
When we breathe, there is a movement of oxygen into the body and the removal of carbon dioxide. This is called respiration. The respiratory system is located in the thorax(ribcage).
However, the first zone of breathing starts from the nose, and the upper airways serves as a pathway for the conduction of inhaled gases.
There are 3 groups of muscles involved in respiration:
· Diaphragm
· rib cage muscles
· abdominal muscles
The diaphragm is a very important breathing muscle as it represents 80% of breathing. When the diaphragm is performing its function, it results in efficient ventilation. This improves oxygenation throughout the body and decreases the work of breathing.
When there are recurrent or chronic changes in your breathing pattern it can cause dysfunctional breathing. This means the mechanical work of breathing increases and the efficiency of ventilation decreases. In this case people rely more on the accessory/rib cage muscles for breathing and do not utilise the diaphragm fully - resulting in more shallow breaths. The lower part of your lungs are not fully utilised when we’re breathing with a shallow pattern. There are many different factors that can attribute to dysfunctional breathing such as underlying respiratory conditions like asthma, postural changes/problems, stress, musculoskeletal problems, just to name a few.
Now think of adding the wearing of a mask to these factors as well. How does that affect our breathing patterns? For some people, the mask results in taking more short and shallow breaths. Some people might already be in the habit of using more of the accessory muscles for breathing and not using the diaphragm sufficiently and therefore not taking enough deep breaths. The wearing of a mask could be making this cycle even worse. Therefore we need to make time for some deep breathing exercises - also sometimes called abdominal or belly breathing. There are great benefits to doing deep breathing exercises:
· it slows your rate of breathing so that it expends less energy
· it helps you to cope with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
· it improves your core stability
· it improves your body’s ability to tolerate intense exercise
· it lowers your chances of injuring or tiring your muscles
· it helps with relaxation, which will lower the harmful effects of the stress hormone cortisol in your body
· it lowers your heart rate
· it improves respiratory capacity
· it helps to lower blood pressure
Have a look at the link/video below which demonstrates deep breathing.
Please contact us if you realise that this is an area where you struggle or if you feel that something is restricting you from being able to do optimal deep breathing.
ALTA SMIT PHYSIOTHERAPISTS:
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