Mindful Breathing and Body Awareness

Let's start 2011 with some mindful diaphragmatic breathing. Why? Because diaphragmatic breathing is the golden key to managing your stress and promoting healthful body mechanics!

The term diaphragmatic breathing refers to a type of breathing in which the focus is engaging the diaphragm as fully as possible and expanding the rib cage and muscles of the abdomen. This enables the diaphragm to fully descend and reascend during the breathing cycle.

This can be seen as an expansion (ballooning) of the abdomen during inhalation, and a contraction (flattening) of the abdomen during exhalation. Because of these visible changes, diaphragmatic breathing is also commonly referred to as abdominal breathing.


Here's an example of how diaphragmatic breathing can reduce stress and remedy uncomfortable body mechanics. Imagine this: you suddenly feel back pain while at work. In response, your breathing becomes accelerated and shallow. By becoming aware of your breathing pattern and slowly bringing it back to the deep, slowed respirations characteristic of diaphragmatic breathing, you bring awareness to your body mechanics and reduce your back pain.


It is essential that your breathing support you in this way no matter what you are doing. To develop a supportive breathing pattern, you need to become mindful of when your breathing is interrupted because of stress or pain, and then consciously return to diaphragmatic breathing. The following self-observation will guide you through a simple diaphragmatic exercise.


SELF-OBSERVATION
Mindful Diaphragmatic Breathing


Action. Sit in a comfortable position or lie down on the floor. If lying down, spread your legs hip-width apart and, if you like, put a bolster under you knees. Allow your arms to rest comfortably by your sides. If needed, use a small towel or pillow under your head. Once you are comfortable, allow yourself to feel the floor supporting your weight.


Feel. Now bring your attention to your breathing. Don't change anything about how you breathe, just become more aware of it.


Ask. Do you breathe deeply or shallowly? Slowly or quickly? Do you breathe from your abdomen, chest or both? Do you expand or contract your chest as you inhale? Do you expand or contract your abdomen as you inhale?


Rest.


Action. Place your hands on your chest. This will help you kinesthetically feel how your chest moves with each inhalation. Bring your attention to your breathing and as you inhale, allow your chest (rib cage) to expand. As you exhale, allow your chest to resume its shape. Slowly begin expanding only the part of your chest that feels accessible. Then, continue to expand your chest, allowing the sides to expand, then the lower parts, then the upper part until you feel the entire rib cage expanding with each inhalation. Each time your rib cage expands, feel how the rest of your body responds. With each exhalation, allow your body to relax and let go. The expansion and contraction of your chest should not feel effortful. If it does, make smaller, more comfortable movements.


Rest for a moment.


Action. Now place your hands on your abdomen. Bring your attention to your inhalation. As you inhale, allow your abdomen to expand. As you exhale, allow your abdomen to return to its flatter shape. As you did with your chest, start slowly and expand only the parts of your abdomen that feel accessible. Allow the upper abdomen, the middle and the lower abdomen to expand with each inhalation as you continue. As the expansion gets easier, begin to feel how the entire abdomen can expand as you exhale.

Rest again.


Action. Now, place one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen. Each time you inhale, expand both simultaneously. Each time you exhale, allow each to resume its shape. If this is an unfamiliar way of breathing, go slowly and don't push yourself. Be sure to rest when you need to.


Continue this diaphragmatic breathing pattern, sensing how your body can breathe effortlessly, yet efficiently. Discover how breathing in this manner does not require you to contract or tighten, but instead helps you to expand and relax.


When you are finished, slowly stand up. Because of how gravity acts on your body when upright, you may find it a bit more challenging to sense how your abdomen and chest move when you're standing. Nonetheless, take a few minutes in standing position to feel your breathing.


Practice mindful diaphragmatic breathing and utilize it to support you in every aspect of your work and life. By breathing fully and freely, you'll increase your body's ability to move effortlessly and decrease the chance of injury. Your body thrives on oxygen, so breathe and enjoy every breath you take!


~Excerpt from "Body Awareness: Mindful Breathing" by Barb Frye, LMT and Massage Educator, Massage and Bodywork, January/February 2011 issue.



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Fix Your Posture!

These days, a daily routine might look as such: drive to work, with shoulders protracted, chest caved in, and a hump in the thoracic spine. At work, sit at your desk in the same position. On the drive home, mimic your morning commute posture, and to top it all off, slouch in front of the television at night. Its no wonder most of us show horrible thoracic spine mobility and that "hunched" over posture.

While it is understandable that you need to perform those daily tasks (except the television part), there are ways to overcome those posture inhibitors.

First, we can stretch the muscles that become too tight from sitting all day long. Second, we can strengthen the opposing muscles to help "pull back" the shoulder blades.

Here are some quick tips:

Pectoralis major stretch (chest):

Stand at the end of a wall or in a doorway facing perpendicular to a wall. Place the inside of your bent arm on the surface of the wall. Position the bent elbow shoulder height and turn your body away from positioned arm. Hold that stretch for at least 20 seconds and repeat with opposite arm.

Anterior Deltoid stretch (shoulder):

Sit on the floor. Lean back and place your hands flat on floor behind your body slightly wider than shoulder width with your fingers positioned away from your body. Slide your hips forward away from your hands. Hold that stretch for at least 20 seconds.

Barbell Row (strengthens rear deltoids):

Bend your knees slightly and bend over a bar with your back straight, approximately horizontal to the floor. Grasp the bar with a wide overhand grip. Keeping upper arm perpendicular to your torso, pull the barbell up toward your chest until your upper arms are just beyond horizontal to the floor.

Dumbbell Reverse Flye (strengthens rear deltoids):

Grasp dumbbells to each side of your body. Bend your knees and bend over through your hips with your back flat and close to horizontal to the floor. Bend your elbows slightly and have your palms facing together. Raise your upper arms to sides until your elbows are shoulder height.

By adding these stretches and strengthening movements into your daily routine, you can fight against bad posture, and keep your shoulders, neck and back pain at bay!

-Eric, Trainer, FT Newtonville

http://www.fitnesstogether.com/newton

Losing Weight During the Winter

Things change during the winter months, the sun sets earlier making your evenings at home longer and you are not able to be as active outside. Because of this you want to come up with a different dieting and exercising strategy. One that allows you to eat your favorite foods so your diet doesn't stagnate and one that allows you to get more benefit from less exercise.

Let's modify your diet plan.

When you diet, typically you keep your calories low week after week. What happens is your body adapts to this lower calorie intake by slowing your metabolism. During the more active summer and fall you might have been able to keep your metabolism higher with added activity but now in the winter, you likely notice your weight loss slow.

What you want to do to keep your metabolism pumped up and also keep you from feeling deprived during the winter months is add a high calorie cheat day to your dieting week. This one day will boost your fat burning metabolism up and speed fat loss.

This concept is not new, in fact it has been well researched and proven to work and it is just what you need to keep your body from adapting to your low calorie diet!

Let's modify your exercise plan.

You simply cannot be outside getting the same level of exercise, so it will help to learn a way to exercise that allows you to cut your time commitment in half while increasing your fat burning. The way to do it is to vary your intensity during your workout.

Simply take 20 minutes of cardio and vary your pace between periods of low intensity and periods of maximum intensity and you will be burning fat more efficiently the entire day.

Losing weight during the winter is easier when you learn how to make your diet and exercise work better and burn fat more efficiently!

~The above is an excerpt taken from an EZineArticle entitled "Losing Weight During the Winter - Secrets and Strategies to Easily Burn Fat Over the Winter" by Dr. Becky Gillaspy, EZineArticles.com Expert Author

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Pressed For Time Training

In a perfect world, you would have time to accomplish all your everyday tasks. However, we do not live in a perfect world and it is hard to find the time to get everything done on your agenda. Most of the time, the first activity that gets tossed to the wayside is your health!

You don't need hours upon hours of free time to get a good workout in. It comes down to taking advantage of whatever free time!

Here is a sample workout that you can do while watching television at night:

Every 10-12 minutes perform:

- 1 plank for 60 seconds

- 1 set of regular or modified push-ups

OR

Every 3rd commercial break perform the movements (you will be surprised how quickly three commercials come!)

You don't need to devote your entire day to training, however, by adding in something as easy as this you can still work your way to your fitness goals!

-Eric, Trainer, FT Newtonville

http://www.fitnesstogether.com/newton