(Imagine your abdominals are like this corset – tightly wrapped around you)

What is lateral breathing?! Put very briefly it is a breathing technique used in Pilates where, slowly inhaling through the nose, you fill the sides of your abdomen continuing to keep your abdominals tightly engaged. Upon the exhale you engage your abdominals more then again on the inhale you keep them tight by breathing in slowly and into the sides of your abdomen. This my friends is the key to supporting your back and thus an important aid in the resolution of back pain. Lateral breathing will allow you to continue to engage your deepest abdominal muscles whether you are breathing in or out. So this is all the time, unless you’re not breathing, but in that case back support isn’t really a big issue.

Let me tell you a little bit about your abdominals and why learning this technique is so beneficial. There are four layers of abdominal muscle, three of which wrap around you, connected to the bottom of your ribs and the top of your pelvis. These three layers are your (in order from deepest to most superficial) transversus abdominis, internal obliques, external obliques and the rectus abdominis. Your most superficial layer is the rectus abdominis or your “6 pack”. This muscle does not wrap around your body, it is merely connected in the front of your body from where your ribs meet in the middle (xiphoid process) to the very top of your pubic bone. It helps you to flex your body forward and back. It also ASSISTS all your other abdominal muscles in important movement and activities like breathing. On its own though your rectus abdominus (6 pack) is metaphorically and literally superficial. Unfortunately this is exactly the reason why marketing is aimed at this very limited use abdominal muscle. Since it is so superficial and can be seen – it is immediately over glorified and shoved in our faces via media marketing “6 pack, washboard, rip, tore, super – jacked abs” while your other abdominal muscles are ignored altogether and thus the real beneficial function of your abdominal muscles are missed completely.

So let me introduce you to these other lovely abdominal muscles. Your external obliques which are under your rectus abdominis go around your torso and its fibers all run in one direction on a slant. Your internal obliques are under those and also wrap around your torso. Its fibers are also on a slant and run in the opposite direction of the external obliques. Then MY FAVORITE abdominal muscle and deepest – the transversus abdominus. It wraps around your torso and its fibers run horizontally. So if you imagine all of those muscle fibers drawing tightly around you in all of those directions (horizontally, sideways in two different directions and vertically) you would have one rocking corset to support your entire spine.

Since we all have this internal corset just waiting there for us to use, let me come back again to lateral breathing. It is the key to firing up your internal corset. To practice this you can either sit or stand, whatever position is most comfortable where you can best concentrate. Sit/stand up straight and tall. Interlace your fingers on the front of your abdomen and take a deep breath in through the nose. Then exhale out of your mouth as if you were breathing through a straw – this way the air is slow and controlled. It will give your brain enough time to connect with all of those abdominal muscles and pull them deeply toward your spine throughout the exhale. Then, the hard part, slowly breathe in through your nose imagining that corset is still very tight and all of the air is going into the sides of your torso (not your chest! if your ribs start to expand and flare out that will indicate chest breath). Then do it again and again and again and again and again.

You should feel your abdominals working hard because they are. As you continue to breathe also imagine you are growing taller – that the top of your head is going to reach the ceiling. Ideally when you exhale your fingers are interlaced and when you inhale they stay that way. If your fingers come apart your abdominals are no longer engaging and pulling toward your spine. Take note of the pictures below:

Lateral breathing front view (left correct right incorrect)

Lateral breathing side view (left correct right incorrect)

Notice in the pictures on the left side the fingers are closely interlaced. This is how you want them to stay whether you are exhaling or inhaling. The picture on the right shows a lack of abdominal engagement. Notice the fingers are no longer as close together. This is VERY subtle but very important. Ideally you continue to practice this until it becomes second nature. Whether you sit or stand or bend or twist you have your abdominals engaged and constantly supporting your back. And this my friends is how you fix your back. With the abdominals engaged your back is free to rest and flex as opposed to being tense and stressed and in pain. I can not tell you how many clients have had back pain resolve just by learning to take the stress out of it and put that stress right into the abdominals instead. Go ahead and give lateral breathing a try! Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions.

My next blog will be about how muscle memory is totally a thing.