Benefits of Breathing : Series Part 2

How Training your Breathing can help with Chronic Low Back Pain: 

• It turns out that the body will always prioritize breathing at any costs – as we need to breathe to stay alive. When we fatigue, the body will send all resources to our vital organs including our lungs and diaphragm, this is necessary for survival.  The diaphragm is the key muscle for breathing and core strength. It works in conjunction with the abdominal muscles, pelvic floor, and deep muscles of the spine to create stiffness throughout the torso. This trunk stiffness and spinal stability helps maintain efficiency for the body and creates an ideal environment for pain free movements for the low back. 

• With an increase in respirations (rate of breathing) there will be an increased engagement in the diaphragm muscle. Due to this greater demand in muscle activity, the body will have to redistribute blood from the legs and arms and bring it to the diaphragm and vital organs. This is known as the respiratory “steal” phenomenon. In turn there will be a decreased delivery of oxygen to the working muscles (arms, legs, and low back) which will lead to earlier fatigue, and decreased exercise performance.

• As the diaphragm works harder or if it is weak and untrained (btw Sam and I have solutions for this), it will begin to fatigue. In order to meet the increased breathing demands, muscles from the neck and upper chest will redirect their energy to assist these increased respiratory demands. While this can allow for the individual to meet the increased breathing rate, consistent reliance on these accessory muscles can distort the chest wall, reduce efficiency of breathing and create neck and chest pain.  With prolonged poor breathing, continual shunting of blood to the diaphragm (respiratory steal) will occur to meet the demands of increased respiration. This process will shunt blood away from the low back, which can lead to chronic low back pain.

• In Summary if we can improve diaphragm function (coordination, strength, and endurance) through breathing training there will be a major improvement in back pain due to: 
  • Increased core strength and spinal stability – better than any other core exercise. 
  • Reducing the respiratory “steal” phenomenon which will improve blood flow back to working muscles in the legs, arms, and low back, thereby reducing low back pain.

• Interested in breath training? Click here or contact us directly at 303-939-004!