SubscribeAre you engaging your diaphragm?
You take thousands of breaths every day—imagine the impact if each one was optimized for your health. Here’s your simple, yet powerful checklist for proper breathing:
- Use your nose
- Engage your diaphragm
Let’s dive into why these two steps matter and how they can transform the way you breathe.
🫁The diaphragm is the main breathing muscle. When you breathe in, the diaphragm contracts down, and the intercostal muscles—the muscles between your ribs— move out. The pressure in your chest goes down and air moves into the lungs.
With each inhale, the aim is to saturate the blood with oxygen—O₂— and then distribute the oxygen-rich blood to the organs and tissues.
During an exhale, the process works in the other direction: Carbon dioxide—CO₂— rich blood from the organs enters the lungs. The diaphragm relaxes up, intercostal muscles move in thereby decreasing the pressure in your chest and you let the air in your lungs out.
As mentioned in a previous blog post, the gas exchange O₂ ⇄ CO₂ happens in the alveoli. Here's the key: the lower parts of the lungs carry more blood than air thanks to gravity. By engaging your diaphragm, you draw air deeper into your lungs, improving the oxygenation of the blood.
👃With nasal breathing, you slow down your breath. There's more resistance to airflow in the nasal cavity than in your mouth. You're also more likely to engage your diaphragm during nasal breathing. And by taking longer, deeper breaths you'll achieve greater O₂ uptake in the blood.
Let's bring it all together 💫
For effective breathing
- use your nose
- engage your diaphragm
The more you practice these two steps, the more natural they’ll feel.
You take thousands of breaths every day. Make them count!
Stay healthy, stay happy.