Diaphragmatic Breathing Coaching Session
I want to take you through some diaphragmatic breathing. So this is belly breathing. This is just going to help your core function a lot better.
So what we're going to do is, I want you to start . . . we're going to put your hand on your chest, one hand on your stomach. And I want you to take a couple deep breaths for me. Which hand do you feel moving more? Ok, so what we really want for optimal core function, we want this (stomach) one to be moving a lot and this one (chest) to hardly be moving at all. So go ahead and try to even that out a little bit more, so this one is doing most of the work. Good. That's better. Let's take a few breaths there. That's getting better. That's staying nice and still, and this is coming up. Good. As you advance on this at home, I want you to also think about expanding out to the side with you breath, too. Not just straight forward, but up and out to the side. Good. That's better. Push into my hands there. Great. And you're keeping that top hand nice and still.
Let's go ahead and flip over onto your stomach. And we're going to just work through different positions here. So, I really like where your hands are right above you on your forehead there. That's nice and comfortable. Now go ahead and take a deep breath in for me. Good. Okay. So we want to make sure, just like we were doing on your stomach, we want to make sure that this tays nice and still up here. And you want to think about taking a deep breath, pushing your stomach in towards the floor while your back rises up into my hand. Good. And this is staying nice and still, which is exactly what we want.
Alright, lets go up onto your hands and knees. Good. And let's go ahead and do that same breath again. So this happens a lot of times. When we change positions, especially when we get to harder positions, we'll kind of revert back to our habits of breathing through our upper chest. So what I want you to do is, again, I want you to think about this being really still, and then all the movement, you want to kind of bring it down through your stomach there. Good. Is it okay if I put my hand on your stomach? Okay. So I want you to think about, like you're filling a bowl there. That's awesome. And you're keeping this nice and still. Really good. And what you'll do at home is you'll just spend a few breaths in each position until you can get it and then transition to the next.
Go ahead up onto your knees for me. Go back to one hand on your chest, one hand on your stomach and go ahead deep breath. Again. Once again, keep that nice and still. So we don't want this coming up from up here. You kind of tend to have a lot of tone up in there. So we just want that to stay still and this to come out. That's exactly what we want.
Let' go ahead and turn and face this way. And what we're going to do is you're going to bring one knee up. There you go. Just like that. And this leg being straight behind you here. And we're going to go back into this position . . . hand on chest, hands on stomach. Deep breath again. So you feel you're getting a little bit unstable here okay. This is the same type of position of standing on one leg, working on your balance. We're doing the same thing here. So what I want you to do is I just want you to go a little wider there for me. And I want you to get to a point where you can really just do that belly breath and keep that nice and still. Good. Stay up nice and tall. Very good. You can see as you let that core go, that those obliques go, you'll start to feel your balance kind of shake around. But once you get stable and feel comfortable, you can walk that foot in a little bit. Good. And you might feel a little more out of balance again, and that's okay. Just try to return to that breathing. It's ok to feel a little bit out of balance, but you should still get your full breath. If you can't get your full breath, go back wider.
So what I'm going to have you work on until we see you again . . . your goal is to be able to get this foot all the way over here, in line with this knee, in line with this back foot all on the line. Okay. Fantastic!
