Place your hand on your stomach and breathe. If you do not feel your belly swell during inhalation, yours is an impaired breathing . It is common. You breathe with your chest, performing a breathing called "non-physiological".
Under normal conditions, the inhalation phase should be performed by the diaphragm muscle, while the exhalation phase should be passive, unless the expiratory act is forced.
Why all this? We cannot breathe properly because of the modern lifestyle we adopt, full of stress, anxieties and family and above all working tensions. These lead us to breathe with the upper portion of the ribs and to maintain, for the whole day, an inspiratory block, almost never completely expelling the air.
In doing so, the diaphragm remains at the bottom, as if blocked, allowing the other muscles to work. Let's try instead to breathe correctly, with the diaphragm, suggesting some diaphragmatic breathing exercises.
Diaphragmatic breathing exercise
Breathing well is essential. A useful and simple exercise that you can perform every day can be that of deep diaphragmatic breathing that will reduce tensions and help us relax. In a comfortable environment, sit on a comfortable sofa or chair with your back straight and your chest in a natural position, inhale slowly and deeply for about 5 seconds until the lungs fill, expanding the diaphragm.
Then slowly exhale the air from the lungs for about 7 seconds, contracting the diaphragm. Repeat the exercise for a few minutes each day. This exercise is useful for controlling breathing, decreasing intercostal tensions and relaxing the abdomen.
We propose another diaphragmatic breathing exercise. Lie on your back, legs bent, relax and start breathing. Put one hand on your belly and one on your chest. Inhale with the nose, inflating only the belly, leaving the chest still; then exhale with your mouth open, deflating your belly.
The use of hands is used to make you aware of the movement and to understand if you are working with your stomach or if you are doing ribs during breathing. The air must come out of the mouth in a natural way, as if it were a sigh of relief.
Warning: do not force breathing because you may experience hyperventilation or dizziness.
