benefits to breathing

Breathing– essential for all animals on earth in some capacity. As humans, breathing is a subconscious activity that keeps us alive; providing our blood with oxygen to relay to organs and muscles. What if we could use this simple subconscious activity not only to stay alive but to improve organ function, decrease stress, improve mental health, improve quality of sleep, increase strength at the gym, reduce pain, decrease blood pressure, and so much more? With five minutes a day of purposeful, conscious, deep breathing, all of these benefits could be yours! 

When we deep breath, expanding our lungs and belly, we are engaging our diaphragm (a muscle that helps our lungs expand fully). The diaphragm, in return, stimulates a nerve called out Vagus Nerve. This nerve is partially responsible for the parasympathetic system; your “rest and digest” part of your nervous system. A lot of words to basically say: deep breathing = relaxing benefits. Hundreds of research articles portray the benefits of deep breathing. Explanation of some of the benefits and how to perform deep breathing are discussed here. 

There are many suggestions as to how to deep breath, but a few themes continue to present themselves in the literature. First, full expansion of the belly and ribs will allow for the diaphragm to contract. Second, a slow exhale stimulates the vagus nerve. Lasty, having a hard end point to each step of breathing allows for further relaxation. For example a common deep breathing pattern is breathing in through the nose for 4 seconds, holding breath for 7 seconds followed by a slow exhale of 8 seconds through the mouth. This is called the 4-7-8 Technique!

Overall, performing this type of breathing for 5 minutes a day can improve mental health, decrease stress, decrease blood pressure, and improve lung expansion. Oftentimes people enjoy pairing this with their yoga, meditation, or affirmation practice. Breathing like this at certain times of the day can also have further benefits. Practicing prior to going to sleep can quiet the mind and make it easier to fall asleep. People with pelvic floor dysfunctions may benefit from breathing prior to intercourse to decrease pain with penetration, or breathing prior to having a bowel movement to decrease straining and help with constipation. Taking a deep breath in and holding while executing a proper core brace improves intra abdominal pressure and will increase the ability to lift heavy at the gym; especially on max-out days. 

There are plenty of apps, Youtube videos, and in-person yoga/meditation classes that help walk through breath work. No time to try these? Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique in the car on the commute to pick up/drop off the kids, to/from work, on the way to a workout class, etc. In a world that continues to become more and more stressful, we all could use daily deep breathing practice.