How to Belly Breathe & Why You Should Be Doing It!

Learning how to breathe properly will not only greatly improve your lifts, but may also improve your stress levels. This is because when we take deep breaths into our belly, we signal to our body to be in a more relaxed and less stressed state. Today, let's talk about how belly breathing relates to lifting!

Belly breathing helps us shuttle oxygen to working tissues, as well as lay the foundation for our mind-muscle connection with our core. Belly breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing) is simply a practice of taking deeper and fuller breaths, by encouraging the full lengthening and relaxation of our core musculature, followed by the natural passive rebound of the same musculature.

How to Belly Breathe

1. Lie on your back, preferably on a floor or a semi-firm surface to help provide your body with more accurate proprioceptive feedback

2. Lay with your knees up, feet planted, and then find your neutral posture with your pelvis, then ribs, then shoulders, then head

3. Place one hand on your lower belly, near your belt line. Place the other hand somewhere near your upper belly or lower chest

4. Take a slow deep breath in through your nose feeling the air pass through your nasal canal, down your throat, through your chest, passing your first hand and reaching to your second hand, and as your breath reaches deep into your belly feeling your abdomen expand laterally and posteriorly just as much as anteriorly

5. Then slowly exhale through your mouth, feeling both hands fall

6. Remain here and try to slow your breathing even further, as you connect more and more to your breath as it flows under your top hand and reaches to your lower hand. Try your hands in different positions around your belly to feel the expanse on the breath in

7. Take about 20 breaths here. As you feel proficient with Belly Breathing lying down, progress to sitting up at an incline, sitting upright, standing, and even on all fours. Use this resource to learn Belly Breathing, and then continue to practice it for reinforcement as often as daily

Click the button below to see one of our coaches demonstrate belly breathing!