Test your breathing this week, take a very deep breath and see if your shoulders rise and you fill your chest or whether you fill your belly and ribs.

#cubreath #cupod

@aj.afterbabyfit - afterbabyfit.com / @sweatandshineon - sweatandshineon.com

A lot can change from just a breath. Fun fact: when babies take their first breath it closes a hole in their heart. Breathing is fundamental, natural, something we generally take for granted. Breathing is always the first session in our postpartum programs, resetting is and pushing it down into the belly and the ribs instead of allowing the breath to live in our neck and shoulders.

When you are pregnant, your organs shift and the baby takes up space in your belly and ribs that you would normally use to breathe. It’s a huge mental challenge to shift your breath and start to use your core muscles to breathe again. Breathing into your shoulders and chest is a stressful breath. Breathing into your belly and ribs is a full breathe, calming or meditative breathe that fills your body with oxygen.

In order to correctly engage muscles we first need to work on the breathe and posture and then work from there. An entire niche of physical therapy is actually dedicated to the mechanics of breathing, to help with dysfunction in breathing. Breathing is really efficiency of gas exchange, and supporting the function of your organs. The chest breath or stress breath doesn’t promote that exchange.

You need big breaths to sleep to function throughout your day. Are you someone that takes short breaths and has high anxiety? If you aren’t breathing well at night while you sleep you will wake up feeling tired and not rested. This applies to everyone not just postpartum.

Breathing can relax your parasympathetic nervous system and calm you. The ribs can actually become really tight and rib mobility is important, actually putting your fingers in between the rib bones and breathing in to that space to release the tension. Set a timer for 5 minutes and see how wonderful your big breath feels after. Adding focused breathing to your exercises makes them more challenging and intense. For example, using a balloon can add intensity to an exercise.

Holding our breath during movements is called the Valsalva maneuver. This increases your blood pressure very quickly. And many people do movements without realizing they are holding their breathe. Many times people hold their breathe during a plank, trying to brace their core. You need to be able to brace your core and still breathe through it. Practicing the inhale and exhale.

Teaching a child to breathe when they are feeling stress or anxiety can help calm them. And holding them tight to feel the breath and mimic the breath can be such a powerful tool to reach calm. One breathe at a time.