Movement Monday: Breathe Right

Another Monday.  Another tip to help you navigate the treacherous office jungle.  We can combine the technique from last week:

https://onebody.live/2018/01/29/movement-monday-countering-anterior-dominance/

with this one and begin to stack our movements and thus recreate a pattern of optimal functional movement.  It may seem counterintuitive to seemingly push out or expand the belly when inhaling and decompress or empty it when exhaling, but this is indeed the idea.  If this is a new idea, begin by standing, and placing one hand on the abdominal region and concentrate on expanding while inhaling and decompressing or drawing the belly closer to the spine while exhaling.  Note any movement of the chest, for the sake of this exercise it should be minimal at best (dependent on the depth of the breath), and the shoulders, which should be even less. Obviously, as with any new or foreign technique, it may seem awkward and require a decent amount of thought and intention at first.  However, as you become more proficient at this, like anything, it will become second nature.

Mastering this technique and reprogramming your respiration pattern through repetition will lead to increased diaphragmatic excursion (the diaphragm moving up and down) and take the workload, and thus the uncomfortable strain, off of those accessory respiratory muscles in the chest and neck that we mentioned in the demonstration above.  In addition to tapping into a biohack for activating the calming parasympathetic nervous system (while congruently inhibiting the stress activated, fight or flight, sympathetic nervous system), you will also be familiarizing yourself with and enhancing your ability to truly activate and brace your core.  This skill is vital for all movement in order to maximize power, move efficiently, and hedge your bet towards pain free movement, and will be the focus of a future Movement Monday to come.

Keep that one body moving, my friends.