• Having an imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide can create serious problems related to inflammation and acidity, but without delving into the chemistry, simply know that you need to pay attention to both.
• The harder you work out your inhale and exhale, the less you’ll tire when you’re practicing or competing.
• Stress in the body raises cortisol in the muscles, and therefore places strain on the back through excess diaphragm tension. What this means is that negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger) hurt your back.
• Better inhales and exhales are part of the solution; addressing stress levels (and even deeper, subconscious emotional pain) is a big part of the cure.
• Vertical Breathing means you’re overusing neck and shoulder muscles (at the front and back of your body), which then throws the balance of muscles off all the way down your body. And it really does throw your balance off. Your natural center of gravity is right below your belly button. So you aren’t imagining the feeling of being more balanced when you breathe low; it’s real. As your center of gravity gets lower, you become both physically and emotionally more balanced.
• On the inhale, you should be thinking two things: Lower-body Breath and expand. On the exhale, think: Lower-body Breath and squeeze/contract. Remind yourself: “Inhale … expand. Exhale … squeeze.”
• Between each breath, a certain amount of carbon dioxide stays in your lungs, just settling there and getting stale (more if you are a really lazy exhaler). The result is that these organs can’t expand to their full capacity with fresh air on your next inhalation. In other words, your starting inhalations have to be less than optimal when you haven’t exhaled well. Often, the result is that you speed up the rate of your breathing in an effort to compensate, which ripples out as an imbalance of pretty much everything in your body and nervous system.
• Lower-body Breathing is anatomically congruous; Vertical Breathing is not—you’re going against the way your body and organs were built. A Lower-body Breath that expands on the inhale is a healthy breath. Turn your awareness inward: You’ll find it “feels good.” You’re not imagining it.
FAQ: How was I exhaling before? Before, you were using your shoulders to exhale: letting them fall and relaxing your belly—a very, very ineffective way to exhale.
• The belly breath really is just the beginner breath that helps break down the habit of keeping the middle of your body braced. It gets you physically used to the idea that there is movement from your armpits to your pelvis when you breathe.
FAQ: You talk about activating the diaphragm; when did it deactivate? It started when you started bracing your body, either as an emotional response or when sucking in your gut because you thought it was good for you. Little by little, your diaphragm got replaced by your neck and shoulder muscles, which would pull you up to breathe. Not to worry, though, because gaining understanding, stretching, and practicing the exercises in this book will get it back in gear, no matter how old you are now.
• The next stage in maximizing your inhalations is to consider the flexibility of your thoracic cavity. If you sit at a desk at work or spend several hours a day in a car, then your thoracic cavity is probably pretty darn rigid—the size of your lungs doesn’t matter. Making the intercostal muscles (between your ribs, and in your sides and back) more flexible means they’ll expand more, allowing you to take a bigger breath.
• At the top of your breath (and remember you aren’t really filling up —you are filling out ), relax your shoulders again and let the air feel as if it’s settling into your body. Then soften your pelvis (meaning relax your glutes and thighs) and notice the feeling of being more grounded. This should only take two to three seconds.
• At this point, you should be able to imagine in your mind’s eye how your pelvic diaphragm is the “bottom” of a container. Your belly and upper abs are the middle of the container, and your thoracic diaphragm is at the top. Some people envision a poster tube, others a long water balloon.