As we continue to break down the breath in this Monday Move series, today I was going to focus a bit on diaphragmatic breathing. According to Blandine Calais-Germain in the book Anatomy of Breathing, this type of breathing is often called stomach breathing or abdominal breathing. It especially affects the inhalation phase and is most often practiced while at rest, breathing normally.
Diaphragmatic breathing works by 2 principle mechanisms. In the first, the diaphragm is lowered as the central tendon pulls the diaphragm toward the pelvis on the contraction. We will talk about the other principle mechanism next week. But here is an exercise that demonstrates what happens to the belly with this type of breathing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-_NNCrrdus
