Move It Monday – Respiration

Do you know how many breaths a day most people average? It’s 20-22,000 per day, which is 140,000 – 150,000 per week!

Yep, that’s a lot.

That makes it by far the most automatic thing that we do — but it is also trainable. You can choose to hold your breath when you go underwater or go past that open sewer grate, so that makes respiration something we have control over (and can therefore train).

Why should you train respiration?

Poor breathing patterns lead to oxygen/carbon dioxide imbalances in the body, which throws off the pH balance in the blood, which leads to all sorts of symptoms, including: frequent sighing or yawning for no apparent reason, dizziness, nausea, aching muscles, insomnia and nightmares, anxiety/phobia, ringing in the ears, tachycardia (rapid pulse),  erratic blood pressure, etc…

Quite the crazy list of symptoms, right? And millions of Americans are diagnosed with chronic hyperventilation, with millions more who likely suffer symptoms and remain undiagnosed.

A quick test

Sit up in your chair nice and tall, one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. Now, breathe. If your top hand moves up towards your chin or moves more than the one on your abdomen, your breathing pattern is upside down — you should start your breaths by filling the bottoms of your lungs first.

The fix

Hands on the chest and abdomen, just like before. Now, I want you to count to 10, 2 counts to inhale through your nose and 8 to exhale through some lightly pursed lips. Focus on filling your lungs from the bottom on up. Repeat 10 times — ideally several times throughout the day. Because breathing is such an automatic activity, the first few tries at this might be difficult — in that case stop before you get to 10, and come back and try again later.

Remember, because we breathe so many times during the day without thinking about it, it is going to take some time and practice to fix the patterns. But, it’s well worth the time spent.

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