A Breath of Fresh Air

When it comes to fat loss and fitness one of the foundation principals has to be breathing. It goes without saying - breathing is fundamental to life. You can survive approximately thirty days without food, you can survive for about ten days in a moderate climate without water, but you can only survive up to three minutes without oxygen.

It is estimated that you take between 15,000 and 25,000 breaths per day, and whilst it might not seem like a big deal to many, breathing correctly can have a huge impact on the way you think, the way you feel and the way you look.

For many of the people that visit my studio I look at various aspects of their health and well-being including nutrition, hydration, exercise, digestion, sleeping patterns and thoughts and emotions, but time and time again improving their breathing patterns has turned out to be a simple and very effective way of getting them to look and feel better.

Sure, it’s not the most important aspect of fat loss but you will be surprised at how big an impact it will make.

Speaking to my friend Judith Davis from Spinal Breath just last week made me realise just how big a deal it is. Judith made the point that if you watch a baby breath they will go up and down like a bellow. Somehow over the years, perhaps due to stress and anxiety, we seem to change our breathing patterns to shorter shallower breaths. In Judith’s opinion shallow breathing leads to a shallow expression of self and that the way we breathe is the way we live our lives. To change our life – we need to change the way we breathe.

Whilst I appreciate Judith’s spiritual sentiment I think you can also look at a number of more physical aspects of breathing that are very important.

In my experience, shallow or inefficient breathing mechanics requires an increase in respiration and heart rate. This in itself requires excess energy to fuel. This also creates excessive load on the respiratory muscles such as the scalenes, which causes what’s called a forward head posture. This can lead to headaches, neck tension, fatigue, poor concentration, and can even make your blood more acidic due to less oxygenation of the blood (this is important because diseases are more prominent in acidic environments).

Furthermore, diaphragmatic breathing pulls air into the base of our lungs, where, due to gravity, our blood tends to be. With oxygen being a key nutrient this can lead to more oxygenated blood and more energy. Also due to the location of our diaphragm as it contracts and relaxes it massages our liver, bladder, and small and large intestines so therefore aids digestion and elimination.

As a side note the diaphragm is one of your core muscles so getting it to function properly can lead to a reduction in back pain.

You get my point… breathing properly is important.

So what do we need to do?

In my opinion, Judith’s advice was fantastic. She suggested the at the beginning of each day you should make a commitment to becoming more aware of the way you are breathing throughout the day.

In simple terms two-thirds of a breath should come from your belly. So by putting one hand on your belly and the other on your chest you can simply monitor how you are breathing.

Judith also suggested every morning and evening you should take 20 conscious breaths. It doesn’t take very long so I guess you have nothing to lose!

If you wanted any help and support of course you can ask me for more info or you can book in with Judith at Spinal Breath on 01483 828497 and become aware of The Art of Conscious Breathing.