Blog — Mark Shropshire

How You Breathe Makes All the Difference in the World

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen” – John Wooden

Of the three pillars of Original Strength™ (diaphragmatic breathing, vestibular stimulation, and movement that is contralateral or midline crossing) breathing diaphragmatically is probably the least appreciated. It’s not very sexy – you can’t really compare diaphragms: “Bruh, what’s your diaphragmatic function – do you even belly breathe?” Even in my own gym where we start EVERY work out, group or personal training with it – I still have to remind people to simply breathe. Those that do – always do! They understand at some level that purposeful diaphragmatic breathing if nothing else, makes them feel better. Those that don’t – usually don’t see the purpose of it all. To paraphrase a few conversations: “How can just breathing through my nose DO anything? It’s just breathing and I do that all the time anyway”. The devil is in the details and trust me, if you don’t understand what all the fuss is about – you are far behind the curve and missing a crucial aspect of your fitness training, general health, and how to optimally Press Reset.

If you have been to an Original Strength™ workshop you have received expert advice on how to optimize your breathing pattern, as well as how to use the diaphragm as the main respiratory and core stabilizing muscle. If you have not (Register for one here!) we should briefly go over some basics:

There it is! Approximately located in the middle of the torso, roughly along the border of the rib cage.

*hint – it’s the reddish / pink looking thing

Did you know:

· Your diaphragm is located in the middle of the chest cavity separating the lungs and heart from the rest of the internal organs located beneath it.

· When we use the diaphragm to breathe our belly will move up and down according to how the air moves into and out of our body. Air goes in – belly expands and moves outward. Air goes out - and the belly drops and moves inward.

· This is the muscle that mother nature intended us to use for respiration and works best when we breathe through our nose – remember: mouths are for eating and talking, noses are for breathing and smelling.

· This muscle also works to stabilize your core and is the kick starter for other muscles that stabilize your core. Yes, you can get a stronger more efficient core by breathing the correct way …. the opposite is also true!

· Breathing with the diaphragm and placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth (think where the tongue goes when you make the “N” sound – it’ll help you to remember where it’s supposed to go) helps to put the body in a state of relaxation by activating your parasympathetic nervous system – who couldn’t stand a little more relaxation in their life?

You might be saying to yourself “Yeah, yeah, yeah I know all that stuff – you’ve only been droning on and on for the past 8 years!” OK, I get it. We all need something new once in a while. So, without further delay let’s go for a deeper dive into how your breathing can have a profound effect on your performance, health and maybe even your longevity. As we already know, the ability to use oxygen is a limiting factor in many aspects of sport and performance. IF you want to improve your fitness and let’s face it, we all could stand to get a little better, here are a few things to consider. It all began a long, long time ago……

When we were children the simple act of breathing correctly began to literally shape how we would be able to perform physically later in life. When children breathe through their mouths or suck their thumbs the tongue will rest in the middle of or bottom of the mouth. Over time, as the bones of the face change and grow, the act of thumb sucking and mouth breathing can bias the shape of the face! The formation of the bones in the face are influenced by the muscles of the lips, cheeks and tongue. The lips and cheek muscles pinch in on the face while the tongue exerts a light outward counter pressure. When the mouth is closed and the tongue is on the roof of the mouth the upper jaw will develop according to the shape of the tongue which is wide and U shaped. When we mouth breathe the tongue is unable to exert its influence on the boney development on the face and the jaw. In response to the lack of this important stimulus the face grows long and narrow and the jaw tends to recede into the face. The net result of all this is a smaller, restricted airway making breathing under the stress of exercise harder than it was ever supposed to be. Obviously, this restriction of air flow limits the amount and rate of oxygen delivery to the tissues during a workout or prolonged physical activity. As the demand for oxygen increases past a certain point the individual is unable to supply that demand and the resultant sensation can be one of suffocation and panic. This increases respiratory rate further as the body calls into action it’s “panic breathing” muscles of the upper chest, neck and shoulders. Rapid fatigue sets in, as well as a quick switch over to the panic / sympathetic fight or flight response of the body. End result: performance— be it of the athletic variety or even just what should be a leisurely hike or jog around the block becomes compromised.

Try it your self – jut your jaw outward and breathe in through your nose, then pull your chin back (retract it) or simply push on the chin with your fingers and do the same thing. You’ll probably feel like the airway is restricted with the jaw pulled/pushed in.

Furthermore, children that breathe through the mouth or suck their thumbs unabated are more likely to have:

· poor posture and associated muscle weakness

· poor sleep quality

· low energy

· higher stress levels

· limited ability to concentrate

So really, the problem isn’t just confined to athletics and human performance, but extends further out into quality of life issues.

An obvious question is “What do I do about it now? I can’t go back and change time”. While that is largely true you can begin to improve your own particular situation with the simple practice of mindful diaphragmatic breathing. If you’re not sure what that is or what it looks like, you can take a look here (drag your courser over the word “here”, press the “Ctrl” button on your key board and click on it).

By starting to learn how to breathe this way you can improve the function of your diaphragm muscle – the body’s primary muscle for respiration and deep inner core stability. After a while your skill will improve and you can try to breathe this way while you are seated, and soon after, while you are walking. The goal is to be able to breathe through your nose via the diaphragm no matter what position you are in. At this point you can try to breathe this way during a workout or sports practice if you are in athletics. If you lose control of your breathing during a workout, just simply stop what you are doing, resume your proper breathing pattern as soon as you can and then continue. Easy!! The diaphragm is a muscle and will respond to use and stress being placed on it like any other muscle – it gets stronger and more efficient at its job. You’ll find that in a few weeks’ time you’ll be able do it without as much effort as before.

While you can’t change what you did in the past, you can always change what you do in the present and get a little better along the way.

That’s a thought that has probably passed through the minds of many of the people that I work with. And to be honest with you dear reader - its a relevant thought indeed. To answer that question and maybe a few more, a little back ground perspective…….

8 years ago when I was introduced to it - I was on a quest to figure things out. I knew how to write effective programs to make my athletes faster, quicker and more agile. Largely that’s pretty easy to do if you arm your self with some rudimentary anatomy, physiology and kinesiolgy skills and train your eye for simple movement. Cross your fingers that I didn’t fall asleep in exercise physiology class then add in a little work ethic and the results are usually predictable in the positive direction. The hard part was getting people to move better. That is sort of a broad topic and on a certain level very individualized and transient.. Good movement to your post op ACL patient, your NFL combine athlete and weekend warrior all mean different things. I knew that stretching wasn’t cutting it. I was using another movement system at the time but it wasn’t always getting the job done. Plus, the set up for the movement correctives as they were/are called was labor intensive. Additionally, this particular system wasn’t always appropriate for every person I worked with. I needed a method that I could use with all the people that I worked with - meaning it had to be scalable. I had to be able to use it with my post rehab people, my tier 1 athletes, my tier 101 athletes and my personal training clients, some of whom are not exactly spring chickens (you know who you are). Not asking a lot really.

Enter my first experience with Original Strength or OS as I’ll call it from here on out. With in the first hour or two of the 2 day intensive work shop I knew that I was on to something that I could use with everyone. If I was a physical therapist I could use this stuff. If I was an NFL strength coach, I could use this stuff. If I was working with special operations soldiers in the military I could use this stuff. If I was working with my mother who was a retired music teacher, I could still use this stuff.

I think you get the point.

I had found what I was looking for. And best of all - the stuff would stick. It improved movement on the spot for a lot of people. For others the movement they did have began to feel smother and easier to them. I saw people whose fingers hadn’t visited their toes in years have a tearful reunion. Butts and calves were friends again after seemingly eons apart (read - they could squat). Things that were lost had been found. Best of all - there were no rules to this stuff. Just principles. So as long as you stuck to the principles, everything was fair game. Now this REALLY appealed to me. Being the creative sort that I am, I soon found my self floating in a sea of MSU (making s#!+ up) and loving it.

“Soooooo good for you Mark”.

True enough, good for me, but more importantly, GOOD FOR YOU.

I now had access to people who were also on a quest to help others move and by extension, perform better. But wait, there’s more. They were willing to share their knowledge with me. If i couldn’t figure it out I had knew a bunch of smart people that could help me help you.

What they taught me was that in it’s infancy - human movement boils down to some basic things that we all did, more or less when we were developing as human beings. If we recreate that scenario as best we can - we can somehow move better. It is a lot like going back to school and retaking a class that you had kinda forgotten about but still use to varying degrees.

What I am referencing is something called the Neurodevelopmental Movement Sequence. Or put more simply - Stuff We Did As Babies Because We Were Curious About the World and We Wanted To Explore It. Neurodevelopmental Movement Sequence sounds cooler though. Breathing with our diaphragms, stimulating our vestibular system and moving in mid-line crossing or contralateral patterns. We all did that stuff so that we could eventually get up and walk on two feet and get into all sorts of cool stuff - - and not put it back where it belongs.

So, there you have it. Simple. Scalable. Effective. Good fundamental movement is the foundation that all training should be based on. And that in a nutshell, is what OS is and why I like it so much.