BREATHING AND THE PURSUIT OF STILLNESS

By Juan Pellot

Juan is a coach, educator, presenter and part of the Pre-Script ™ community of coaches.

As a member of the US National team, Juan has won World Championships and successfully coached athletes at a domestic and international level. He holds the rank of Master of sport in 32kg the clean and jerk and held a US national record in the 78kg body weight division.

His attention to detail has helped Weightlifters, Powerflifters, Crossfitters and Kettlebell Sport lifters compete at levels they had once thought out of reach. Juan believes intelligent choices are the key to longevity when pursuing strength.

BREATHING AND THE PURSUIT OF STILLNESS

All movement starts with a decision. You either turn the dial towards breathing or you crank it in favor of bracing. Regulation of breathing and bracing not only has a dramatic impact on your success in performing a task, but in your ability to reduce likelihood of injury. Regardless of how basic or complex the task, if these two elements aren’t in alignment, dysfunction will eventually manifest itself.

But what factors influence the turn of this dial? Are you going to run a marathon or attempt a Squat PR? The two tasks are both lower body dominant but are vastly different when it pertains to energy systems utilization, force development and the management of external forces placed on the body.

In order for us to understand how this intertwines with the various expressions of movement we must understand the role of the diaphragm.
The diaphragm has three primary functions.
Respiration, which is the intake and expulsion of oxygen, providing a passive form of stability.
Stabilization, where in conjunction with the pelvic floor a piston like mechanism is created to stabilize the trunk. Aside from stabilizing the trunk the intra abdominal pressure contributes towards the transference of energy in movement.
Lastly there’s the contraction of the sphincter which controls the release of gastric liquids and gases.

Why is all this important to establish early on?

To mitigate injury and maximize performance of course!

If we want to isolate the function that most interests us in the pursuit of strength, let's dive into how the diaphragm creates stability. The diaphragm eccentrically loads during the exhalation phase as it rises upwards and concentrically loads and pushes downwards during inhalation. This is where we see the creation of intra abdominal pressure.

One strategy we can use to create stability is crocodile breathing. This can be performed lying face down and using the tactile feedback of the floor to reinforce your brace. We can also do it face up with our hands on our stomach as we inhale against our palms. This is an easy way to correct the chest and neck dominant breathing patterns we often see. Doing this allows muscles like the Sternocholoidomastoid to maintain its role as an accessory breathing muscle and delegates the workload to the diaphragm.

Taking time to establish proper bracing mechanics can improve athletic performance and reduce the likelihood of injury. By bracing and creating proximal stability you are not forced to over utilize the tissue surrounding adjacent joints to get the job done at the expense of that distal joint’s range of motion.

In essence, if you breathe and brace better, you’ll move better. Movement efficiency is the linchpin that will grant you progressive gains in performance and add longevity to your lifting experience.