![\"Man](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Breathe-Header-1.jpg\")
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How to breathe<\/span><\/i>? Do people really need instructions on breathing? I mean, isn\u2019t doing so as natural, as, well, breathing?<\/span><\/p>\n Well, take a breath right now.<\/span><\/p>\n Did your chest go up and down?<\/span><\/p>\n Congratulations, you just failed at breathing. <\/span><\/p>\n Surprisingly enough, even something as supposedly instinctual as breathing can go awry. But don\u2019t worry, by the time you finish this article, you\u2019ll be on your way back to the kind of optimal breathing you did as a baby, and the better health that comes with it. <\/span><\/p>\n The majority of people in today\u2019s modern world don\u2019t breathe the way the body is designed to breathe. <\/span><\/p>\n Most of us use what breathing expert Dr. Belisa Vranich calls \u201cvertical breathing.\u201d When you breathe vertically, your shoulders go up during the inhale and everything in your torso stretches up vertically. When you exhale, your shoulders go back down.<\/span><\/p>\n While it may feel like you\u2019re taking a full breath when you breathe vertically, you\u2019re not. You\u2019re primarily using the tops of your lungs, which are the smallest parts of these organs. By using less of your lungs to inhale, you\u2019re depriving your body of the oxygen it needs to function at its best.<\/span><\/p>\n But vertical breathing doesn\u2019t just diminish our inhaling; it also messes up our exhaling. A vertical breath doesn\u2019t allow us to expel all of our air completely. As Dr. Vranich explains, by not fully exhaling, you don\u2019t allow your lungs room to breathe in fresh, new air. You can\u2019t take a full, deep breath because there\u2019s no room in your lungs to do so. This feeling like you can\u2019t really breathe deeply is called air hunger, and it can lead to some health issues like vascular dementia (more on that in a bit).<\/span><\/p>\n Vertical breathing isn\u2019t all bad. It\u2019s what your body does naturally when your fight or flight response kicks on. It\u2019s when you\u2019re breathing like that all the time that it becomes a problem. <\/span><\/p>\n You didn\u2019t start out life doing vertical breathing, and if it\u2019s inefficient and causes potential health problems, why do most modern Westerners fall into this pattern?<\/span><\/p>\n In her book <\/span>Breathe<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Dr. Vranich traces the cause to the following factors:<\/span><\/p>\n Poor breathing patterns can also be caused simply by being dealt a crummy genetic hand. Chronic allergies, asthma, or a deviated septum can prevent you from breathing properly. In addition to working on your breathing patterns, you\u2019ll need to see a doctor to address these underlying issues.<\/span><\/p>\n Vertical breathing is the most common breathing issue, but other types exist as well.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Dr. Vranich, these include:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlright,\u201d you might be thinking. \u201cI\u2019m a vertical breather. But big whoop. I\u2019m alive. I run 5Ks. It must not be that big of a deal that I\u2019m not breathing the way nature intended me to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While it\u2019s true your poor breathing is giving you enough oxygen to live, you\u2019re likely not getting enough oxygen to function at your very best. What\u2019s more, the health issues that come with poor breathing often come on very slowly, sometimes over years or decades, so it\u2019s hard to recognize that your poor breathing is negatively impacting your vitality. <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Vranich lays out several health issues that can come from improper breathing, and they all stem from a decrease in oxygen. Since your body uses oxygen for a host of physiological processes, when you\u2019ve got less of it, your body and mind don\u2019t function at their best. This can result in:<\/span><\/p>\n The bottom line here is that while poor breathing might not kill you right away, it can be a contributing factor to myriad health issues and make you feel a low-grade crappiness. <\/span><\/p>\n In addition to exercising, eating right, and getting enough sleep, breathing the way nature intended can help optimize your health and well-being. <\/span><\/p>\n So let\u2019s dig into how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n So an improper breath is vertical. Does that mean a proper breath is horizontal?<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, yes it does. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead of breathing with your shoulders and chest, a correct breath uses your diaphragm muscles. And when you breathe with your diaphragm muscles, your belly moves in and out, while your chest and shoulders stay still. <\/span><\/p>\n The best way to feel and see what proper diaphragmatic breathing feels and looks like is to do this simple exercise:<\/span><\/p>\n Grab a stack of light books, lie down on the floor, and place the books on your belly. Now inhale slowly into your belly. If the books are moving up, you\u2019re inhaling correctly. Now exhale, slowly. If the books go back down, you\u2019re exhaling correctly. Do this several times so you can get the feel of it. <\/span><\/p>\n Now that you\u2019ve experienced what horizontal breathing feels like while lying down, stand up and take another breath. Your belly should be moving out while your shoulders and chest stay still. <\/span><\/p>\n Getting the inhale part of a proper horizontal breath is pretty easy for most folks. The exhale part is a bit trickier. <\/span><\/p>\n According to Dr. Vranich, when most people exhale they just relax their stomach and sort of collapse their torso. While that will let some of the air out of your lungs, it doesn\u2019t get all of it out. You need to actively squeeze out the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n How do you do that?<\/span><\/p>\n By using your pelvic floor. <\/span><\/p>\n Your pelvic floor consists of 20 muscles that support the organs near your pelvis. You use your pelvic floor muscles when you stop your pee midstream. <\/span><\/p>\n You might be thinking \u201cHow are the pelvic floor muscles, which are pretty far away from the lungs, involved with breathing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As Dr. Vranich explained in my podcast interview with her<\/a>, your pelvic floor muscles are connected to your diaphragm via your psoas muscles. The diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles work together to help you inhale as much air as possible, and then exhale as much air as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s try using those pelvic floor muscles for the latter process. <\/span><\/p>\n Take a big belly breath in. When you exhale, instead of just relaxing your stomach muscles, squeeze your lower abs and contract your pelvic floor muscles like you\u2019re trying to hold in your pee. Feel how that muscle contraction helps push the air out of your lungs more effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n This back and forth between the diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles as you inhale and exhale is sort of how billows work. The diaphragm expands to fill your lungs up with air. Then your pelvic floor contracts to push it out.<\/span><\/p>\n In our podcast interview, Dr. Vranich described what happens when you bring the inhale and exhale together to take a proper breath:<\/span><\/p>\n On the inhale, I want you to relax your glutes. You relax your pelvic floor. You relax your belly. <\/span><\/p>\n [On the] exhale, you squeeze your ribs, your abs, and you contract your pelvic floor.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is how to breathe properly. This is how nature intended us to breathe before we picked up all those bad habits<\/a> thanks to modernity.<\/span><\/p>\n If you have a baby, watch them sleep. This is how they breathe. Their belly goes out when they inhale, and when they exhale, they actually do it with a bit of force because they\u2019re using their pelvic muscles. Their billows are working as designed.<\/span><\/p>\n After years of improper breathing, you\u2019ll have to train yourself to breathe like this again. Spend 5 to 10 minutes each day deliberately practicing your natural and correct breathing. Dr. Vranich recommends doing it right before going to sleep at night, as the slow, deep breathing will help you better relax and drift into slumber.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat Poor Breathing Looks Like<\/h3>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Vertical.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhy Most Modern People Breathe Poorly<\/h3>\n
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Other Types of Breathing Issues<\/h3>\n
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The Health Risks of Poor Breathing<\/h3>\n
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How to Breathe Correctly<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Structural](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Inhale-Exhale-1.jpg\")
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