How to breathe with the diaphragm (breathing muscle)?

Caution : You must consult your doctor for your health. This page presents only a personal and alternative point of view which should not be considered as an attempt to prescribe medicine.

Breathing is a phenomenon that largely contributes to the functioning of our body.

As a result, a man deprived of his breath for even a few minutes risks quite simply losing his life.

However, sometimes there are circumstances that make it difficult for people to breathe.

Others, on the other hand, do not breathe as they should.

Therefore, these people breathe more in the chest or collarbones.

This mode of breathing has nothing to do with natural breathing because it takes place at the level of the diaphragm.

So how do you go about it?

First phase of the exercise: inspiration

As you probably already know, breathing takes place in two main phases.

These include the inhale and exhale which is easy to observe with this video.

During the inhalation phase, you should inhale deeply until your belly swells.

But you will have to be careful when breathing in, because you have to make sure that the air you inhale goes to the level of the abdomen.

It is necessary to avoid as much as possible that this air remains at the thorax level.

When air enters the lungs, the diaphragm should descend lower than in the case of chest breathing.

During its descent, the diaphragm exerts pressure on the abdominal organs.

The viscera are therefore pushed downwards by the diaphragm, which causes the belly to swell.

As it descends, the diaphragm pulls the lungs down.

The latter are thus able to store a larger volume of air.

In addition, to inhale effectively, you must above all do it slowly and deeply (downward).

Now let's see the second phase.

The second phase of the exercise: the exhalation

Like any breathing exercise, the second phase of the diaphragmatic breathing is to breathe out.

This will consist of evacuating the air that you have stored in the lungs.

When you breathe out, the diaphragm tends to relax and move up towards the chest.

On its ascent, it compresses the lungs, causing the expulsion of the air stored by them.

This expulsion of air is done either through the nostrils (at rest) or through the mouth (during intense physical exertion).

It is this rise of the diaphragm, followed by an evacuation of air, which causes the belly to deflate.

For a successful exhalation, your good posture with your back straight should allow your stomach to enter naturally without forcing.

You must therefore make sure that your spine is straight and not curved forward.

Likewise, you should note that exhaling is an exercise that is done as slowly as breathing in.

You really have to let go because it promotes a relaxed state of your whole body.

The rhythm to adopt for a diaphragmatic breathing exercise

Breathing with the diaphragm is an exercise that you must repeat every day, and in a phased manner.

Initially, it requires a duration which is between 5 and 10 minutes.

But you can gradually increase the duration as you start to get used to it.

In addition, make an effort to gradually slow down your breathing rate.

NOTE: the secret of breathing lies in slowness, in slowing down your breathing, in calming it.

Breathing with the diaphragm is clearly very beneficial for our organism.

It not only allows the entry into our body of a fairly large volume of air, resulting in optimal oxygenation of our organs.

But in addition, this method is much slower and deeper than other breathing techniques.

Apart from these advantages, it clearly helps alleviate stress.

It also provides a feeling of serenity and well-being on a daily basis.

In my comprehensive intermittent breathing training, I also teach a secret technique to unblock your diaphragm.

How to breathe when you have a blocked diaphragm?

Unfortunately, the stress is so intense for some people that they end up with the diaphragm completely blocked.

Indeed, anxiety tends to stretch the muscle fibers of this muscle located at the level of the energy heart.

The plexus, the diaphragm, are places that greatly somatize emotions and tensions.

This is why it is sometimes necessary to use special techniques to unblock your diaphragm.

At the osteopath, we will often unblock the diaphragm by massaging the diaphragm under the ribs, but also by unblocking the spine.

But these manipulations do not solve the problem in the long term.

The secret lies in the fact of breathing slowly, calmly, quietly, without hurrying and above all without hyperventilating.

Then follow my training on intermittent breathing to discover my secret technique;)

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