Posture and Breathing

Raising the body actually shortens those already too short muscles in the front, that causes a lessening of ease in breathing. The mere act of tightening muscles even slightly to make oneself more erect causes tightness in the entire upper body and reduces the ease of deeper breathing; we intuitively do not like. That is why most people, reminded or told to sit up straight, remain erect only for a few minutes before reverting to the former slouch.

Example: Just for the heck of it, sit, bend forward all the way so your hands touch the floor, and try to laugh out loud. Not too satisfying is it? That is because it is hard to breathe.

It is easy to spot someone with a distorted or negative attitude by their slumped shouldered, bent over, weak-kneed hang-dog posture. Posture greatly influences breathing AND attitude. Most of us know this already but still do nothing about it. I mean how many times have most people been told by a parent to sit up straight, and how many really do that?

Most of us have developed ways of using our bodies that limit the way the breath functions. As mentioned above, even holding oneself perfectly erect will influence the posture so much so that the breathing will be most often influenced negatively. Whatever your posture is at any given moment in time, you can bet it is influencing your breathing and attitude.

To repeat, you cannot HOLD yourself upright to achieve optimal breathing. By the time you might benefit from that, the muscles in the front of your body have become overshortened from slouching and overlengthened in the back. Raising the body actually shortens those already too short muscles in the front, that causes a lessening of ease in breathing volume. The mere act of tightening muscles even slightly to make oneself more erect causes tightness in the entire upper body and reduces the ease of deeper breathing; we intuitively do not like that. That is why most people remain erect only for a few minutes before reverting to their usual slouch.

Poor posture causes tension in various parts of the body. If your knees are locked, they block off energy flowing up and down your body, including your spine. This sends tensions into your pelvis and reduces the depth of your easy breathing. Standing with more weight on one leg does the same thing to restrict this energy. Less energy in the spine means less life force into all the major organs fed by the spinal nerves, including your heart and brain. Have you ever noticed that people who sit up straight seem to be more alert?...They probably are.

Rounded shoulders restrict the expansion of the rib cage and lung volume. Forcing the shoulders back and the body to remain erect improves the situation somewhat but again, also tightens up those same rib, torso and neck muscles and restricts the deepest easiest breathing.

Observe the pictures below for extreme examples of negative tensions, posturing and emotions as well as good breathing including soft belly. There is more lung tissue in the back of the torso than there is in the front.

NOTE SOFT BELLY

In her book Posture, Getting It Straight, Janice Novak states that good posture can add up to ten years to your life. Why do suppose that is?

See diaphragm development for more about the intricacies of developing the primary breathing muscle.

In the #191 Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing manual, you will see more examples of postural relationships and how they compromise the ability to fully breathe.

One needs to rapidly open the breath up to make it larger and more apt to notice changes in it from moment-to-moment.

TECHNIQUES AND EXERCISES TO AID POSTURE AND BREATHING
Integrate the Manual, #176 Rapidly Improving Your Breathing Video with #120 Better Breathing Exercise #1 and #130 Better Breathing Exercise #2. They can be purchased at a program discount at Rapid Breathing Development, Shortness of Breath.