Walk The Walk…Breathe…Talk The Talk
You do it everyday, in fact you do it so often that you take it for granted. On average you take about 20,000 breaths in one day, it happens so naturally that your body goes through an entire process of inhaling, distributing oxygen and exhaling toxins with carbon dioxide without even thinking about it. Breathing is such an fascinating aspect of the human body yet it’s often forgotten; it happens consciously and unconsciously. When you go to sleep your body is still breathing without you having to prompt it to do so, on the other hand breathing is also a process you can physically and voluntarily control to your advantage. You can train and untrain the muscles in charge of your breathing, which makes this small overlooked process a pivotal part of our daily life.
As singers, dancers, performers, and humans we want to ensure we are breathing in an optimal way so as not to negatively impact how we perform our daily tasks both on/off the stage and at work or at home. Just think, if someone was to ask you to squat 20,000 times in a day, you would want to know that you are squatting with good form right?…Well the same applies to breathing. When you go about your day, the manner in which you sit, stand, move will affect the way you breathe and what muscles you use to do so. Unconsciously, you could be breathing yourself into negative postures and patterns which will affect how you move, how you sit, how you stand and more importantly your ability to perform at your best.
What I have learned over the years working with multiple people of all niches — performers and non-performers alike — is that minute details can make the biggest impact on how you train whether you are looking to live a regular healthy life or you are looking to improve your performance on stage. Your training ought to reflect the intricacies behind something as consequential as breathing. Especially if it has the power to dictate how you move, dance, jump, belt, and recover.
Not to mention that when you fully consider these activities you come to notice that we are talking about physical activities, so it leaves no question as to how physical training and breathwork are part of the same conversation.
If you don’t know if you are breathing properly or if you are confident that your breathing is optimal here is an easy way to find out more about the way you breathe.
Place your hands on your collar bones and take a couple of deep breaths (4-5 seconds in and 4-5 seconds out).
Do you feel your collar bones elevate or move up?
Can you feel your obliques and core tighten as you exhale?
Can you see your ribs expand forward and backward or expand on both sides when you inhale?
When you inhale you want your ribs to expand not elevate, this means you want a full 360 degrees expansion. When you exhale your obliques and deep core muscles are working tightening up as your diaphragm and ribs compress. Next time you are working out take 2 minutes before you start or 2 minutes at the end and I want you to focus on feeling your ribs fill up with air and expand with every inhale. This will allow your pelvic floor to drop and expand as it is supposed to. On the other hand, I want you to find your obliques and feel your pelvic floor pull back into your middle section with every exhale. This will allow your hip to position itself under your ribs for more effective diaphragm compression and expansion so your body can reset itself into more optimal positions for your daily life.
