Breathing is a simple, yet elegant, lifelong tool humans utilise from the day we are born until the day we pass on. However, regardless of its integral importance to our existence, breathing as a skill manages to seemingly go unnoticed due to its habitual and unconscious nature. Little too many realise (other than keeping us alive) the power that breathing can have on us as individuals in terms of pain relief, stress relief and performance optimisation.
The way we breathe can affect mood, stress, pain, posture flexibility and more. With that being said, the above are strongly linked as contributors to poor breathing patterns. Therefore, one cannot be present without the other and one cannot be addressed optimally without addressing the other.
In order to breathe optimally, certain muscles are required to achieve this, along with mobility of the joints around them. These main areas are our upper back/rib region and lower neck/shoulder region. Commonly many people will have the tendency to breathe in a ‘shallow inhalation’ dominate pattern. The result can result in an overuse of the lower neck and mid/upper back muscles. This can lead or contribute to complaints of discomfort in these areas. Along with this, this style of breathing requires a change in posture to enable its function, which can also be a factor relating to discomfort.
OHL resident Myotherapist Mike performs breathing screens and assessments during his consultations. He can identify styles of breathing habits, provide education, awareness and simple yet highly effective corrective programs related to optimising breathing. The beauty of breathing is that it is constant, therefore these programs can be applied anywhere at any time during training, work or rest, and results can be measured easily and made extremely quick.
The take home message being... Breathing patterns may not be the glaring issue for most causes of discomfort, though due to its strong intertwining link to affecting many other causative factors, it is something that should be strongly considered addressing.
You can book in with Myotherapist Michael Jephcott from this Thursday onwards via our online booking facility or by calling our team on 9431 5955.
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