The Simplest Tool for Your Health

Often, it's the simplest concepts that are most effective. The key is to keep them at the top of your mind and APPLY them consistently, so that they occur automatically.

As one whose deepest way of learning is through experience, I've been exploring a tool to help my body that's made a profound difference in my health, posture, and movement. Since it's worked so well for me, this is a main concept I've been using with my Postural Therapy clients. I'm finding it to be a game changer in promoting health, both physically and emotionally.

SIMPLY BREATHE!

Whether it's laying in the Static Back Position (as described below), or in rotational stretches in which we're opening up the space in the muscles in the rib cage, obliques, and hips, focusing on allowing for the stomach to rise and rib cage to expand on the inhale, and then gently relax (recoil) on the exhale, makes each exercise and stretch highly more effective.

Static Back Abdominal Breathing is an exercise that is both simple to do and highly effective in aligning your body. All you need to do is lay on the floor and put your feet up on a bed or chair (create a ninety degree angle with the hips, knees and feet). Allow your knees to relax out, with your arms just below shoulder height and palms up. If you're back is too rounded or head too far forward, you may place a small pillow under your head. Now just breath for 5-10 minutes in this position: Inhale, stomach rises; exhale, it goes down - this is how toddlers breath and most adults reverse this due to stress or incorrect patterning.

When you first get into the position note if your hips feel even on the floor, is there more pressure on one side? Do the same with your shoulder blades and back of the shoulders. After 5-10 minutes, retest these three points to see if they've evened out and if your back has relaxed.

The hard surface will not allow your body to default into its normal incorrect patterns, and the weight of gravity will help your body to regain its alignment. I often do this first thing in the morning to counteract the effects of the positions my body gets into while sleeping. I find it amazing how the rotation in my hips and shoulders is eliminated and I feel so much better and ready to start the day.

Why does this work?

The diaphragm is part of the deep Postural line of muscles and fascia (connective tissue) that my teacher, Dr. Andrew Buser coined the "Anti-Gravity Kinetic Chain". These are the muscles that we want the brain to tell the body to recruit first to create a stable foundation for the bigger mover muscles - the ones that look good in the gym or get us from point A to B. When the body recruits the larger muscles before the postural stabilizing ones, the bones can get pulled out of position which can create rubbing in your joints and compression in your spinal discs.

Breathing fully and naturally helps guide the brain/body connection to engage the Anti-Gravity Kinetic chain primarily to create the scaffold for everything else to work around, providing stability for your body. When this happens, the spaces between our joints and discs open rather than compress (the effect of most formal exercises and movements). In creating more space between the bones, we can now begin to use the 'right' muscles to pull the bones back into their optimal position, thus, addressing the postural cause of one's pain, injuries, and movement restrictions.

The Postural Therapy Sequences I give my clients keeps shifting from many exercises to fewer. We explore in-depth which exercises are the most profound in creating the new postural patterns and focus on optimal breathing with each one.

In many contexts, I'm continually experiencing that "less is more". When it comes to promoting better health, doing less exercises while focusing on full, deep breathing is helping to create more efficacy for better posture and movement, pain mitigation, and simply feeling good.

Give it a try:

Breathe deep, slow breaths while you're performing a stretch you normally do, or while laying in the Static Back Position for 5-10 minutes and see if it makes a difference!