Breathing

You can live a couple of weeks without food; several days without water but you can only live a couple of minutes without oxygen. Now we have your attention?!

We take breathing for granted, just because you breathe daily, doesn’t mean you are efficiently getting oxygen to your cells. This blog post will run through the ways to optimize breathing.

Why is breathing important?

- to stay alive (which is pretty critical)

- to enhance healing and parasympathetic nervous system

- to facilitate physical, mental and visceral function and performance

How to breathe?

Nose breathing for the win. When you breathe through your nose rather than your mouth the following happens:

- Air coming in is warmed, humidified and filtered

- Air is redistributed to the lower lung lobes where the highest concentration of blood is situated and,

- Nitric oxide is released to assist in redistributing the blood evenly in the lungs to ensure greater ventilation perfusion

- Respiratory Rate is slowed which relays signals of calm and relaxation to the brain, helping with stress management

- Diaphragm (main breathing muscle) is activated and simultaneously;

o Rest, Sleep, Digest and Heel nerve (Vagus Nerve) which reduces inflammation and improves sleep

o Improved rib control and inner core unit activation for prime spinal stability