Learning Proper Breathing Mechanics

This will be a brief session to retrain your breathing patterns,

Create an awareness around how you're breathing,

And to introduce you to proper mechanics.

We're going to be working on horizontally breathing,

Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the nose.

I'd like you to find a phone charger cord,

A tape measure,

Anything that you can take and just wrap around your chest.

Take a comfortable seated position with your back straight,

Either on the floor or in a chair,

Whatever is comfortable to you.

Take your cord and wrap it around your chest.

I want you to place it just below your sternum,

The middle to low part of your rib cage.

Now just pull it tight so you can feel it pressing in to your body.

I want you to just slowly inhale in through your nose,

Trying to expand your ribs horizontally,

Breathing into the cord,

Feeling the cord expand as you fill up your lungs completely.

And now slowly exhale,

Squeezing your core muscles together,

Squeezing your ribs down,

And having the cord come back in.

Inhale,

Filling all the way up,

Breathing into that cord,

Having it expand,

Getting a full 360 degree expansion into your ribs and into your belly.

And on the exhale,

Squeezing your core together and trying to exhale out all the air.

Slowly fill up through the nose,

Feel the air coming into your back,

Into your ribs,

Getting that full expansion,

And exhaling,

Squeezing everything out.

Just continue this on your own,

Slowly inhaling,

Filling up.

Make sure to keep your shoulders stable and just visualize breathing horizontally into the cord and then slowly exhaling,

Squeezing everything out.

You can do this as long as you'd like.

This practice will help activate your diaphragm and introduce you to proper breathing mechanics,

Creating that horizontal breath that we're looking for.

Thank you for joining me today.