Take a deep breath. And another one. Which part of your body moved the most when you took those breaths?
Most of you will answer with some combination of chest and shoulders. When we breathe like this -- into our chest -- we fill our lungs to partial capacity. But when we breathe into our bellies and rib cage, expanding our thoracic cavity, we take in more air, and our entire physiology
changes. Why?
Your Diaphragm: The Body’s Master Regulator
When you breathe using your diaphragm -- an immensely underutilized, underappreciated muscle in many of us -- air descends into the lower part of your lungs where an abundance of parasympathetic nerve receptors live. Those receptors ignite the part of your autonomic nervous system that enables relaxation and restoration.
In this state, your diaphragm gently massages your organs, encouraging the flow of blood, lymph and nutrients, while removing waste from all the critical organs and tissues within your torso, including your womb. This continuous rhythm driven by your diaphragm prevents fluid stagnation and drives detoxification pathways through key organs like your liver, kidneys, skin and your lungs. We exhale to rid our body of carbon dioxide as well as metabolic waste. And so, a breath that delivers air deep within the lungs allows for optimal blood oxygenation, nutrient delivery and toxin removal. This in turn fuels our immune system and regulates pH balance, our hormonal system and our emotional state.
Yes, your diaphragm actually does much more than help you hold a note!
The Impact of Underuse
Our busy lifestyles have turned most of us into chest breathers, however. As babies, we need no instruction on how to breathe properly. For those of you with children, watch how they breathe into their abdomens, sparking a cascade of these amazing physiological systems that keep their bodies humming magnificently. As we grow older, mental and physical stressors take their toll on us, and we lose touch with how to activate the diaphragm fully. Our breathing grows shallow, and secondary breathing muscles, like the neck and back, attempt to aid us.
What’s more, this shallow form of chest-breathing fires up the other half of our autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic, known as our fight-or-flight stress response. In this state, blood flows to our extremities to prepare us to fight or flee, straining our cardiovascular, lymphatic, immune and digestive systems. (Raise your hand if stressful periods in your life have wreaked havoc on your gut. This is one key reason why!)
A Fundamental Stress Reliever
With the diaphragm wired to the parasympathetic nervous system, we have no better tool to dissipate stress. During pregnancy, this ability is invaluable as we seek to provide our babies the healthiest, safest as possible experience in the womb. When we suffer from stress -- however trivial or traumatic -- our baby experiences the biochemical effect. And chronic exposure to stress hinders cell growth, impacting organ and nerve development in utero during a time of rapid cell development.
A Core Stabilizer
Diaphragmatic breathing plays an enormous role in your physical abilities, too. The fascia of the diaphragm is connected to your mouth, tongue, heart, lumbar spine, pelvic floor and even feet! When you engage the diaphragm, you initiate a kinetic chain that aligns your body properly, enhancing mobility and protecting you from injury. The muscle is critical for postural control and maintaining core stability.
For those of you who are pregnant, training your diaphragm prepares you for the mental and physical endurance birth requires. If you’re caring for children beyond the womb, diaphragmatic breathing is step one to rehabilitating your core and pelvic floor while managing everyday movement without pain or injury.
A Remarkable Asset for Mothers and Babies
As you can see, the diaphragm is an incredible -- yet highly underrated -- muscle, which can influence your daily physical, mental and emotional experiences, beginning in utero. Breathing with your diaphragm builds core musculature, lowers blood pressure, reduces heart rate, decreases stress hormones, increases physical and mental energy, improves immunity and oxygenation of the body, pumps the lymphatic system and increases the rate of toxic elimination.
Practice breathing into your belly, and see how your energy shifts. In time, as you transition from chest breathing to diaphragmatic breathing, watch and feel how your health, mood and physical abilities improve in profound ways.
For a one-minute tutorial on diaphragmatic breathing, watch this:
References
Nestor, J, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, 2020
Bordoni B, Zanier E, Anatomic connections of the diaphragm: influence of respiration on the body system. J Multidiscip Healthc, 2013. 6: p. 281-91.
Goodlatte J, Fit for Birth Pre and Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist Manual, 2017.
Coussons-Read ME, Effects of prenatal stress on pregnancy and human development: mechanisms and pathways, Obstet Med. 2013 Jun; 6(2): 52–57.
Kocjan J, et al., Network of breathing. Multifunctional role of the diaphragm: a review. Adv Respir Med, 2017.
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