breath-work and movement?

Breathwork and exercise are often seen as ways to improve health, vitality and mood. But rarely do people combine the two. . . let’s take a look at what happens when we do.

Breathwork is the practice of intentionally regulating the breathing in order to bring about a desired state. Sometimes we use breath work to calm the body down, sometimes we use it to energize the body and bring some intensity to the system.

Movement is similar in this way. Sometimes movement is more restorative, sometimes it’s more strenuous.

In both breath work and movement, we need a balance of flow and fight. This leads to balance in the body, gains of strength, more confidence and the ability to safely reach our fitness goals.

So how do we combine the two?

First, let’s start with an important rule. . . do not hold your breath during exercise. Although many people teach breath holding to “brace the abs” this is actually incorrect and causing a disconnect mentally, and physically to the task at hand.

When we continue to breathe through our movements, we stay better connected to our muscles and their proper range of motion. To find your mobility, you can inhale to begin a movement, and stop the movement when your inhale stops. This keeps us connected to the proper muscles and greatly reduces injury risk. If we go past our inhale, we displace tension, and run the risk of getting hurt. It also causes the correct muscles to shut off, and our survival muscles to turn on.

We can use a nasal inhale to keep the system flowing through movements, or we can use an aggressive grunt or yell to give us more power as we go through difficult or heavy lifts.

The real key is to not hold your breath, to practice breathing deep into the low abs, and to continue to work on both movement, and breath work together.