Diaphragmatic Breathing Part II

Do you believe in serendipity?  Seems like an odd way to start a post titled "Diaphragmatic Breathing Part II", doesn't it?  It connects.  Just give me a minute to get there.

Last night I was meditating.  Yet a new venture for 2017.  I have long known of the benefits but have just recently given it a truly full effort.  I am terrible at it.  I guess even more reason to keep doing it.  Even though I am not very good at it, it has really helped to calm my mind and give me clearer focus just in the 11 days that I have been employing this age old technique.

I use an app called "Calm".  You can download it from the app store.  It has daily meditations that are based around a theme.  Last night's theme -- "Serendipity".

So what does serendipity have to do with diaphragmatic breathing?  Well, nothing really, except for the fact that this morning while I was running I found myself employing diaphragmatic breathing and running with much greater ease and fluidity.  The serendipitous part is that I started this blog with a post on diaphragmatic breathing.  My meditation practice has been focused around breathing, especially "belly" or diaphragmatic breathing.  I realized this morning that perhaps, serendipitously, starting with diaphragmatic breathing was the best place to start as this is the basis for a lot of different applications from exercise to pain control.

I have never given birth, but have witnessed it - 4 times. Yes, I have 4 children.  For quite some time breathing techniques have been used to help manage the pain of delivery.  If breathing can help manage THAT pain, just imagine how effective it may be in helping with other pains.  There is a post coming on that very subject -- Pain.  Pain and its effects on the brain is the post, but there is discussion in that post about how breathing may be a critical step in breaking through pain.

It also hit me this morning that although I extolled the virtues of diaphragmatic breathing in my initial post and gave links to how to do it, there was not an explanation of how to do it during exercise.  So let's apply it to running as that happens to be what I was doing this morning, but realize you can apply this to any other activity, be it walking, cycling, swimming, etc.

So how do you do it?

For me, the easiest way to do it when exercising is to concentrate on pressing  or pulling the belly in as you breathe out.  Breathing out in this manner almost automatically forces you to breathe in correctly.  This helps to improve the amount of air and control the breathing rate.  The other helpful tip I can offer is to coordinate your breathing with your step rate.  So for example, every fourth step, I breathe out as my left foot hits the ground.  Depending on the pace and your lung capacity you may find that every 3rd or 5th step works for you.  It doesn't matter.  Coordinating it this way assists you in blowing off more carbon dioxide, helps you to "squeeze" the air out with your belly and thus pull it in using the diaphragm.  This leads to fewer breaths per minute, more efficient breathing and improved energy conservation.