It is believed that as much as 60% of the population do not breathe properly.
That's scary. 

What we mean by that, is they either breathe too quickly and shallowly (hyperventilation) or they breathe with their upper chests and not their diaphragm (an inverted breathing pattern).

Many also hold their breaths for extended periods without knowing it. A phenomenon that we have gone to great pains to study and understand here at Backbone. These Breathing Pattern Disorders not only create a lot of tension in all of the bodily muscles and eventually pain but can lead to many other symptoms less well recognised. (eg. pins and needles, numbness, headaches, gastric reflux).

Nick has been studying and teaching breathing training for 25 years. In fact it forms part of every examination he makes of a patient. Particularly, as if you breathe poorly, stretches that you do will be much less effective, particularly for the neck and chest. This is because if you are using the wrong muscles to breathe with, you will tighten them again immediately after releasing them. Nick was originally exposed to the potential of studying breathing science in the late 1990’s, when he worked with Prof Konstantin Buteyko at The Hale Clinic in London. 

He was so blown away by its ability to treat a wide variety of conditions that he completed Buteyko’s course. With a few tweaks since, it is now widely received to be a definitive approach to breathing pattern disorder. For the last 11 years Nick has worked with a leading hedge fund, studying the neurobiology of stress in traders and its effects on decision-making, as well as how to recognise when they are stressed and using breathing monitoring to detect changes in neural state. For example when stress actually changes the way we see/attend the world. We begin only to see the negative things in life which might affect us, not the opportunities that open themselves up to us to move forwards.

Apart from the beating of our hearts, breathing is the most fundamentally important function of the body and its mechanism is driven almost entirely by the brain and musculoskeletal system. The rate and depth of breathing (10 – 14 breaths per minute at rest) is governed by our central nervous system (CNS) and is ‘hard wired’ from birth. The CNS connects to the large ‘dome-like’ muscle inside our chests called the diaphragm. On breathing-in (inspiration), it contracts, and air rushes into our lungs. As it relaxes, on breathing out, we expel the air again. During that cycle we have taken in oxygen and given out carbon dioxide, a waste product gas, which we do not want in our system.

Each ‘breath cycle’ should be slow and deep and should be carried in and out through the nose. When we take exercise, of course we breathe faster and we tend to bring in use of the mouth for larger volumes of air. But the use of the diaphragm should still follow normal breathing. This is the pattern we are designed to follow throughout life. For many however, it has been lost for a variety of reasons both physical, emotional and environmental.

Our busy lifestyles induce a constant low level of stress. In fact our culture is not structured to promote personal safety. It unambiguously states, that we cannot work hard enough, be successful enough, attractive enough, accumulate enough and that everything is vulnerable. Add in higher levels of emotional trauma; including bereavement, relationship problems, moving house to name a few, and we begin to breathe in a way consistent with when we were roaming the plains under threat of being chased by predators.

The part of the nervous system which controls the rate and depth of breathing is called the Autonomic Nervous System. In turn there is a see-saw system between the parasympathetic side which governs all of our relaxed, ‘vegetative’ functions, such as digestion, heart rate and kidney function. (ie when we are relaxed and at rest) and the sympathetic nervous system which mobilises all our fright/flight responses.

Mechanically, we shut down the diaphragm and the larger, stronger lower ribs and begin to breathe by elevating the smaller upper ribs which should only be used in extreme circumstances such as extreme exertion/exercise or asthma attacks!
At a musculoskeletal-skeletal level, this leads to significant changes in posture of the head and neck, tooth grinding/clenching as well as changes in our ability to think! (cognitive function). In fact studies have shown that we lose a minimum of 25% of our cognitive function when we breathe this way 

As an example: If you work in a corporate or stressful environment, how often have you noticed, that when you go into a pressured meeting / presentation, you seem to lose your normal degree of wordiness when speaking; you just can’t think of the words and your short term memory for facts and names is impaired?

That is because as you breathe faster and more shallowly, the ‘cognitive’ (thinking) forebrain switches off and your more primitive hindbrain kicks in. This is the area related to running and self-preservation, not talking and debating!

The benefits of good breathing

• Postural stability: Creating a mobile, supportive spine leads to correct posture, fluid movement, agility and correct locomotion.
• Health of the nervous system. The brain and nervous system are together the biggest users of oxygen in the body and are extremely sensitive to changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide balance. The nervous system is housed in the spinal column which is pumped by breathing movements.
• Removal of waste products: 70% of the body’s waste products are eliminated through exhalation! If we don’t breathe out fully enough then we have to store those toxic by-products in our tissues.
• Lymphatic pump: Essential for maintaining the health of our immune system.
• The ‘Relaxation response’: this is the conscious use of breathing to induce relaxation and to dispel feelings of anxiety and panic. It induces rational thinking to see through our problems.
• Breathing removes and maintains Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. This is just as important as the oxygen level, if not more so.
• Breathing regulates the body’s pHie. the acid-alkaline balance of the blood. Many of our organs, including the brain, can only function optimally with the right pH environment.

So you can see, breathing is the ‘governor’ function of the body and most of us are doing it wrong!

Chronic hyperventilation (CH) or short rapid breathing

Disrupted breathing patterns mean not only that the breathing muscles are working at a terrible disadvantage but also the neck and shoulder muscles pull on the spine, collarbones and base of the skull. Upper chest tension leads to aches and pains.
CH involves running more air through the chest than the body can deal with at rest, as well as puffing off too much CO2. At its worst it can initiate episodes of feeling panicky, rapid pounding pulse rate and cold sweat and sometimes tingling and light-headedness.
This often occurs at night or in tense environments.
Common markers of hyperventilation are yawning, sighing and regular breath holding.

TEST YOURSELF

An easy test is to place your right hand on your tummy at any time, without thinking about it, quickly and simply close your mouth and ‘sniff’! If you are breathing correctly, as you sniff, your abdomen should come out and expand momentarily. Most likely you are not, and it will go inwards (an inverted breathing pattern).

How to breathe properly

• Lying on your bed or the floor, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your tummy.
• Close your mouth completely and breath in and out only through your nose.
• Take one of your usual breaths and you will realise that the hand on your chest not only moves first but much more than the tummy hand. It should be the other way round!
• On the next breath, imagine the air going in through your nose, down your wind-pipe and straight into an inflatable ‘bag’ in your stomach. Imagine the hand on your tummy is a brick. Think about expanding your tummy to lift the brick.
• As you slowly inhale, also try to prevent the ‘chest hand’ from moving at all, instead, feel the air inflate your abdomen until you achieve a pot-belly tummy. You should also be aware of a stretch sensation deep inside your chest, this is your diaphragm firing and stretching. It is a good thing!
• The ‘in’ breath should take 5 seconds and the ‘out’ breath 7 seconds.
• Carry out 10 of these breaths but no more, it will get easier each time.
• By the end of the ten, you may feel a little light-headed, like when you blow up a balloon. Again this is normal and is due to the change in gaseous exchange in your lungs. It shows how your body has got used to the ‘bad’ breathing.
• There is one down side. You will need to achieve 50 of these breaths a day! (as 5 sets of 10 breaths). This is to retrain yourself. First set when you wake, last set when you lie in bed before sleep. That’s only 30 (3 sets of 10) to find during the day! Yes you can change the habit of a lifetime!”

Don’t underestimate the improvements you will see.
You will sleep better and feel recovered and rested in the morning.
Slowly you will reverse all of the symptoms we have already discussed.
Try it, you have nothing to lose!
Good luck!