Breath coordinated movement is a powerful means to improve function. Breath is how we stabilize! When we inhale, we breathe down and out. This increase in pressure stabilizes the spine. When we exhale, we breathe up and in. This increase in muscular activation also stabilizes the spine.
Inhalations are the eccentric/lengthening portion of our breathing pattern; we inhale to lengthen, stretch, and build tension in the abdominal cavity. Inhalations generate energy and pressure so that the abdominal cavity can recoil.
Exhalations are the concentric/shortening portion of our breathing pattern, OR the relaxation portion, where we release the energy gathered during the inhalation.
We inhale to increase tension and gather energy, and we exhale to either release that tension/energy or use that to recoil with exertion.
So how do we coordinate this with movement?
We want to match the portion of the movement to the same portion of our breathing pattern. During the eccentric portion of the movement, we want inhalation or the eccentric portion of breathing. We want to inhale when we are moving with gravity or with resistance. Examples include: lowering in the squat; lowering the bar to the floor in a deadlift; lowering from a pull-up. There is an option to inhale at the top of the movement so that we can increase pressure within the abdominal cavity to stabilize the spine, or you can inhale the entire descent. The pros and cons of each option are:
Inhale at top & hold breath on the way down: generates most pressure to stabilize the spine; great for heavy lifts and external loads. But, if you have a compromised pelvic floor or abdominal wall (such as during pregnancy and early postpartum), it may not be beneficial to move under load with a high amount of pressure.
Inhale the entire duration of the descent: generates less pressure to stabilize the spine, but helps to manage pressure within the abdominal cavity in a more controlled state. Would be more ideal with a decrease loading as opposed to trying to max a lift.
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During the concentric portion of the movement, we want exhalation or the concentric portion of breathing. We want to exhale when we are moving against gravity or against resistance. Examples include: rising out of the squat; lifting the bar from the floor in a deadlift; pulling towards the bar in a pull-up. You can consider moving against gravity to be the exertion, or the hard portion, of the movement. There is an option to exhale at the bottom, to use the release of energy to recoil out of the bottom of the squat; you can exhale the entire way up; or you can continue to hold your breath until you finish the entire movement.
Exhale at the bottom/entire way: releases energy from the inhalations increase in pressure/tension to use to recoil from the bottom of the movement; releases pressure to lift up and in with the pelvic floor to manage pressure in the abdominal cavity; better for those during pregnancy and early postpartum, where managing pressure is important. It is important that exhalations are up and in with the pelvic floor and abs; if we exhale down and out, or bear down with exhalations, we are increasing pressure downward on the pelvic floor with not only an increase in pressure but also an increase in muscular force. This mismanagement of pressure could result in worsening of prolapse or inhibit the healing of diastasis recti postpartum.
Hold breath: maintains intraabdominal pressure from the inhalation to stabilize the spine throughout the entire movement; can be helpful for heavy lifts and external loads; if pressure is lost, the energy leak can compromise form for heavy lifts.
Choosing your breathing method will depend on your phase of life, how far along in your healing process you are postpartum, and your fitness goals.
What is bearing down?
Bearing down is when you exhale down and out and put a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor. Think about when you are pooping or trying to pee, when you push down; that is bearing down. You could see how this could be an issue since exhales involve muscular activation. When we exhale down and out, we have both the combination of muscular activation and an increase in pressure that pushes on our pelvic floor.
During pre-pregnancy bearing down may feel like a reoccurring habit every single time you lifted a weight (this still doesn’t make it a good habit).
During both pregnancy and postpartum, you are working with a slightly compromised pelvic floor. If you continue to bear down during lifts, you will probably reach a point of failure in the pelvic floor much quicker than pre-pregnancy.
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What does failure look like in your pelvic floor?
Pelvic floor failure is pelvic floor dysfunction, or a reduced ability to properly function. This could mean pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, or pelvic pain. Pelvic floor dysfunction tends to be a pressure management issue. So, maybe don’t bear down on your pelvic floor during lifts? This includes picking up your kid.
During pregnancy, the pelvic floor already has an additional load (yo baby) on it that makes puts it in a compromised state. Think as if it were your ankle, you wouldn’t want to keep rolling an injured ankle; that would make it worse and worse until it failed to function. Then in the postpartum, we are healing from pregnancy. Same ankle analogy, if we finally healed our ankle, we wouldn’t immediately go and roll it on purpose. We would probably injure it again or cause further injury.
We use the following drills to help train breath and movement coordination
1. How to Breath Drill: First, we need to learn to breathe properly
The drill we like to use in our studio to help pregnant moms learn to diaphragmatically breath is to wrap a theraband (or any thin resistance band, your hands would do fine too if neither of those is available) around the bra strap line, and to sit on a partially deflated pilates ball.
First, focus on inhaling and expanding into the theraband, both sideways and backwards. Don’t focus as much on expanding forward into the belly. Exhale, allow the ribs to relax and come back to center, releasing the tension in the band. Repeat this for ten breaths, focusing solely on the ribs expanding and relaxing.
Next, focus on inhaling and expanding into the deflated ball. Feel your pelvic floor push into the ball during an inhale, and then gently lift away as if you were picking up a blueberry with your vagina, but don’t crush it! Repeat this for ten breaths, focusing only on the pelvic floor expanding and relaxing.
Finally, try to sync the two movements together. Inhale, both ribs and pelvic floor expand outwards, exhale, both ribs and pelvic floor relax and return to their starting point. Repeat this for ten breaths.
2. Perform Unweighted Movements to Reinforce Breathing Pattern: Exhale on Exertion AKA Exhale on the Hardest Part of the Movement
We like to have our clients first try movements unweighted, or even supported, prior to loading. This allows them to explore breathing with movement without any additional variables.
Squat: We like to start with either a kneeling squat, supported or assisted air squat, or an unweighted box squat to teach breathing with the squat.
Deadlift: We like to start with the PVC Hinge or banded good morning to teach breathing with the hinge movement.
Push: We like to start with an elevated push up or floor press to teach breathing with a push type movement.
Pull: We like to start with a ring row or banded pulls (rows, face pulls, pull aparts) to teach breathing with a pull type movement.
For core exercises, we tend to start supine to teach the movement with breath, then gradually move to kneeling, half kneeling, seated, and then standing. This includes the pallof press and diagonal banded pull downs.
Coordinating breath with movement is the best way to support optimal function. The more we can coordinate our breath while we move, the better we set up ourselves to properly stabilize and function throughout our days. We want to move with comfort throughout pregnancy, recover in the postpartum, and meet the demands of motherhood with strength and ease. This coordination is the first step towards that.
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Learn more about coordinating breath to movement in our online fitness programs! We offer prenatal, postpartum, and beyond fitness programming both online and in-person.
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