06/20/2024
Something that really has been bothering me about today's yoga and it's verbiage around breathing.
Yesterday I went to my first Pilates class. She mentioned in Pilates the lower abdomin offers light resistance to the inhale to create more expansion in the ribs VS Yoga which is breathing into the belly for a "diaphragmatic breath. I have heard this sooooooo many times and its wrong. NOT the Pilates but the Yoga.
1) All breathing is diaphragmatic. You can't breathe if your diaphragm isn't working. So every breath is a diaphragmatic breath.
2) Teaching a belly breath in yoga asana is not correct. The only way to get the belly breath to work is to relax the belly muscles, offer no resistance to the inhale and the chest/ribs move less i.e. less contraction of the ribs means less expansion.
3) If you relax the belly to do a belly breath you are NOT using the muscles of the core which is what keeps the rest of your joints safe when they are in movement/stretching or weight bearing. This is an unstable place to move from and can increase risk for injury.
4) The correct breath is slight restriction of the lower abdominal wall, allowing the ribcage to fully lift and expand, the resistance sends the diaphragm more inferiorly which support the spine, and the muscles of the core body are activated. Basically Pilates is correct.
What happened to yoga breathing in asana I just don't understand. How many times have we heard draw navel up when in Mountain pose but then it all goes into a hot mess when teachers tell their students to breath deeply into their lower belly when moving through asana.
Understanding the difference between a breath that supports active movement and a breath that supports rest and digest are two different animals. The belly breath or what is so often called "diaphragmatic" breath is the sleepy breath, the relaxed mental state breath, and also the breath of rumination if not controlled.
The state of attention is when the abdomin lightly resists the inhale and allows ribs to reach expansion (abdomino-thoraco)
Try relaxing your belly, keep that relaxation and go run up a flight of steps. Then go back and run up the flight of steps with the Thoraco-breath. Now you can get all the way up. Big difference.
This is also why asana is initiated on or immediately following an exhale, to encourage the engagement of the lower abdomin.
I really think yoga teachers need to understand anatomy but without understanding the physiology its just going to be made up stuff that gets handed from one teacher to the next with a degree of separation from good practice until it's no longer serving the health or wellness of students.
I understand I am over simplifying a complex physiological event but to be honest, there is a lot of common sense and body awareness if we just pay attention to our own bodily experience.
