To Ribcage or Belly Breathe?

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Have you been to a yoga classes and advised to breathe into your belly for fuller deeper breaths? While it’s not necessarily a ‘bad’ cue, it’s just not exactly correct for everyone.

This may not be a great cue, for instance, when you are pregnant or had a baby and may be dealing with weak pelvic floor issues or diastasis recti. (Diastasis recti is overstretched connective tissue, the linea alba.) This linea alba connects your left and right rectus abdominus muscles. More about that here (link to DR post). So by belly breathing, it may only increase pressure onto ‘weak’ areas.

I was the teacher that cued ‘breathe into your belly’ for ages. Until I aspired to become pregnant myself and lead me to question what I’ve heard passed down from countless teachers. So, I embarked on a quest to learn more about the mechanics of breathing and relation to the ‘core’.

Let’s look at the mechanics and anatomy of breathing first. 

The lungs are located within the chest cavity. They are protected by the rib cage, which is made up of 12 sets of ribs.

The diaphragm, your respiratory breathing muscle, lies just below the lungs.  It separates the thoracic (chest) cavity from the abdominal cavity.  During the inhalation, this dome shaped muscles contracts and moves downward (imagine an upside-down umbrella). This creates space in your chest cavity to allow the lungs to expand.  Subsequently on exhalation, the opposite happens as your diaphragm relaxes and moves back upward.  

It has been said healthy movement of the diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve increasing vagal tone, a fundamental component of the parasympathetic (rest and digest) branch of the autonomic nervous system. Moreover good vagal tone is associated with down-regulation, calm, emotional regulation and better physical health and more.

Julie Wiebe, a US based physical therapist, specialises in returning women to fitness after injury and pregnancy, has a signature concept of the ‘Piston Breathing’. 

Essentially Wiebe describes our core as the dynamic interaction of the diaphragm, transversus abdominus, multifidus and pelvic floor, which functions as a unit. Similarly to a mechanical piston. Watch the video below where she explains this interplay.

The Diaphragm leads the charge

The diaphragm acts as the driver that leads this dynamic interplay. These components working well together create the postural stability to drive good core function.  Find out more about your core 4 here. Above all, this is the important foundation from which to build strength upon for sustainability and longevity.

Let’s recap on the mechanics of this ‘piston’ and core four elements.  The diaphragm expands down and out on the inhalation. This then leads to the ribcage expansion and belly contents moves down and out (slightly). The pelvic floor expands due to the increase in intra-abdominal pressure. Conversely, during the exhalation, the pelvic floor springs back up and the abdominal contents pull in. Then the ribcage and diaphragm lifts back up and in as the intra-abdominal pressure decreases. This excursion of the breathing cycle creates necessary components for the stability and dynamic interplay of the system.

This is the important foundation from which to build strength upon for sustainability and longevity.

Do you breath hold, abdominal grip or pull your belly in for stability?

Breath holding, sucking in guts and abdominal gripping, are not the best way to create long-term stability in your system. Firstly, these strategies are like a band-aid, a quick fix that can help you create stability if you just had a baby and need to pick your baby up, or lack general strength to lift something heavy, for instance. Secondly, they can contribute to more issues down the road particularly If you layer improper movement patterns on top of this.

Further, the other problem with breath holding or abdominal gripping is that it limits the ability for the diaphragm to descend and lead this critical movement and interplay between the pelvic floor, transverse abdomen and diaphragm. Therefore, abdominal gripping creates excessive intra-abdominal pressure pushing downwards. As a result attempts to have a ‘flat’ belly and abdominal gripping can lead to a lower belly ‘pouch’.

To belly or ribcage breathe, it’s more about the intention.

We’ve said belly breathing to get people out of upward chest breath (shoulders moving up and down). But, what we really want is a 360-degree, or 3-Dimensional breath. In other words, the ribcage expansion happens first and spills over a small amount of belly expansion. Check out this instagram post below.

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A post shared by Melanie Matulka | Yoga and Movement Professional (@yogaandmobilitywithmel)

Deep breathing involves a lot of rib movement.

The cue to ‘belly breathe’ can cause a person to bypass ribcage movement by directing the air only to the belly. In effect, not filling up the lungs and increasing intra-abdominal pressure into an already weakened abdominal and pelvic area.

Pregnancy, non-optimal movements or postural tendencies can contribute to issues with diastasis recti, a weak pelvic floor/ lower back pain. So repeatedly belly breathing places excess pressure and load onto already weakened tissue, leaving you more vulnerable.  Which is not what we want!

In addition, it can be a shorter, shallow breath which does not fill up the lungs. As a result defeating the purpose of accessing fuller deeper breaths to tap into the parasympathetic (rest and digest) autonomic nervous system.

360-degree, or 3-Dimensional breath

360-degree ribcage breathing does not place excessive downward pressure onto potentially weakened pelvic or abdominal region.  Instead, it spreads the pressure in a 360-degree space, front, back and sides of the body, read: not just downward. 

Today’s lifestyle has us sitting more often, moving less and increased tightness and tension in the mid and upper back. Anatomically, the ribs are connected to the spine. So, when you deny this essential ribcage movement, it adds to even more stiffness and tightness to the spine. The ribcage becomes locked and less mobile. That is to imagine it like a sprained finger that you wrap to keep it from moving and bending. The body craves movement! Ribcage breathing is akin to giving your spine an ever so needed internal massage. Gently kneading and creating movement with each breath.  Magical.   

Try this.

First place your hands around your ribs, fingers in the front and thumbs at the back.  Now, take a breath and notice what you feel.  If you do not feel movement under your hands, your lungs and ribcage are not expanding much with your breath.   If you feel movement, congrats! Likewise, you’re doing it.  Repeat this several times with your eyes closed and see what you notice. Awareness is key.

Practice makes progress.

Now, maybe you’ve tried it now from the linked posts – and find it’s actually really hard to do. 

You’re not alone. Just like you might go to they gym to lift weights and get stronger, it doesn’t happen after one session. That is to say it takes repetition, practice and effort. Certainly, with mindfulness and awareness it will start to come more naturally. 

If you do belly breath, don’t stress! In short, it’s not ‘wrong’ necessarily if you only belly breathe, it is worth to try different ways to breathe.  Repeated movements and moving only one way keeps us stagnant. As another favourite Aussie physiotherapist, Antony Lo states, move in all the ways.