Do you know the right way to breathe? (hiking related)

Factual Questions
1

I picked up a pamphlet in a B&B on a hill walking trip recently that gave general tips on hiking. One thing it recommended went like this (from memory)

‘There are two ways to breathe. You can breathe in by expanding your chest, or by pulling your diaphragm down by expanding your belly. This last way is the best way to breathe on a long hike in the hills. Your chest muscles will get tired if you’re constantly enlarging your upper chest. It’s better to gently breathe using your belly, maintaining your energy through the day.’

Do you think this is correct? It does make some sense to me - I agree with the bit about different ways of breathing, whether one is better than the other is not as clear cut, particularly for a medium intensity activity like hiking.

2

It’s a common instruction for meditation, as well.

3

I was going to say “In and out, in and out,” but clearly this discussion is too advanced for me.

4

Granting the premise: wouldn’t then your lower abdomen get tired instead?

I’m no expert hiker, but I’ve been on my fair share of long hikes – “My chest muscles are tired from breathing” is not a complaint I’ve ever heard from anyone.

5

Pretty much the same thing taught to me when I used to sing, and when I played the saxophone. I never got a good explination of WHY I should breath from my abdomen, but I sure heard it repeated enough times.

6

[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate]
Pretty much the same thing taught to me when I used to sing, and when I played the saxophone. I never got a good explination of WHY I should breath from my abdomen, but I sure heard it repeated enough times.
[/QUOTE]

Also taught to me in at least three different martial arts schools.

It would make sense that it takes more energy to expand your chest, as you are working against your ribcage. With your gut you are just moving squishy organs out of the way.

7

The diaphragm is a lot stronger than the intercostals, and has a greater possible range of motion, so yeah, it makes sense. You can get more air into the lungs with a diaphragm breath than a “shoulder” breath, and so it doesn’t need to be repeated quite as quickly. The same thing is indeed taught to singers. I never thought to try it while hiking.

8

My thought (from having nothing else to think about during long boring yoga meditations) is that the abdomen and trunk muscles have a much greater mechanical advantage for moving the diaphragbm (never could spell that ;)) than the chest muscles do. Greater mech-adv means less fatigue.

And from martial arts, I can tell you that it hurts far more if you get caught in the chest/ribs during a chest-breath than an abdomen-breath does. This is because your chest and ribcage muscles are more relaxed and flexible when you are breathing from the lower body.

9

That’s two out of three, really. Belly breathing accounts for more than half of your capacity. Next is the ribcage breathing, from the rising and falling of the sternum relative to the spine. Then, you get another 5% or so from clavicle breathing. To understand, do it in stages. Without expanding your ribs, pull down with your diaphram. That’ll make the belly pooch out. Then raise your ribs, and you’ll feel some more air come in. Then roll your shoulders back for an extra little sniff.

Many people breathe shallowly, with the ribs. Tight pants don’t let us belly-breathe. If you are one of those, many of the tiny air sacs in your lungs never get to expand. When you switch to full breathing, you might get some coughing as these long-unused sacs blow out some mucus. Don’t be alarmed.

10

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.

Hop, rest, hop, rest, hop, rest, rest… dang.

ETA: was going to post the Larson cartoon with it, but couldn’t find a link.

11

My chest certainly hurts during the 2-mile run in an Army PT test. I was told to get rid of the pain by breathing out forcefully and emptying my lungs entirely. The rationale is clear; it’s to really stretch out the tired muscles, like stretching out a cramp. It helps a little, but only for a few seconds.

The belly breathing is something I’ve been told my whole life by just about every teacher of a physical activity. Not only is the diaphragm utilized more, it also pulls air deeper down in the lungs, where better (?) gas exchange takes place.

12

Not to hijack the thread, but related to this very OP: What about running? Could that be why my chest always hurts? Also, I get that “stitch” a lot - that tightness around the bottom of the ribcage. I think people call it a “stitch”, and I have to walk it off.

Are there breathing exercises to bring attention to what one is doing? I have trouble picturing what has been said here…other than “breathing in and out”.

Bonus question: Does running in colder air make the chest hurt/burn more?

  • Jinx
13

[QUOTE=Tastes of Chocolate]
Pretty much the same thing taught to me when I used to sing,
[/QUOTE]
That’s where I heard it too. (What? I went to a highschool that had a big theatrer department, event the jocks used to learn to sing.)

It also helps if you’re carrying a big heavy backpack.

14

[QUOTE=Jinx]
Are there breathing exercises to bring attention to what one is doing? I have trouble picturing what has been said here…other than “breathing in and out”.
[/QUOTE]
Ever use your tummy muscles to stick your gut out? “Hey, guys! Look, I’m pregnant!” It’s the opposite of sucking in your gut.

Sometimes people keep their lower ab muscles tight (in the slightly sucked in position) which means you’re drawing air in more from your upper body. In the aforementioned theater class whne they taught us to sing, they said you can tell when people do this because they tend to lift their shoulders up a little too.

As an exercise to get us to breathe properly, they had us lie on our backs and with every draw, try to lift our bellies to the sky. You get used to the rhythm.

It’s something you do naturally anyway, but I find when I run, I tend to hold my abs a little tight, I don’t know why.

15

[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone]
Ever use your tummy muscles to stick your gut out? “Hey, guys! Look, I’m pregnant!” It’s the opposite of sucking in your gut.

[/QUOTE]

The diaphragm is the only muscle that can actively stick your gut out. You have to relax your abdominal muscles (rectus, external/internal obliques, tranversus) while you contract the diaphragm. I suppose in a strict sense your pelvic floor muscles also contribute a trivial amount by tightening and lifting the pelvic floor.

Alligators, by contrast, actively use an intra-abdominal muscle to breathe. Their diaphragms are just sheets of tendon and do not contract; instead, muscles that stretch from the liver to the pelvis contract and pull the liver away from the head. The liver acts like a piston and expands the lungs as it moves.

16

Hey, I tried this last night, and god-dayum! What a difference. To put it in context, I’m a morbidly obese woman, and I can usually walk about half a block before I’m winded and three blocks before I’d rather just die here than make it home.

Using the belly-breathing technique, I walked home from the train station last night*, slightly more than 1 mile, in 16 minutes in -20° F windchill - and I was barely huffing when I got home! While it’s not exactly hilly terrain, this technique is useful for more than just hiking! Now that I know about this, I’m going to *walk *to and from the train twice a week, instead of driving my car and parking it near the El stop. Thanks!

*I was planning on taking a cab, but decided, "what the heck? I’ll start walking, and when I’m winded, then I’ll catch a cab. Made it all the way home before I was winded!

17

[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion]
I was going to say “In and out, in and out,” but clearly this discussion is too advanced for me.
[/QUOTE]

A few years ago we had a Doper write a post about how he knew how to breathe better than other people. According to him, it was all about exhaling, not inhaling.

I don’t think I responded to the post because how the hell you do respond to something like that?

I suspect if people do err in breathing technique, it’s related more to unconsciously tightening up muscles, and the critical issue is relaxation, not “don’t move your chest.” If you’re relaxed, your body will breathe in the most effecient manner possible.

18

[QUOTE=IntelSoldier]
My chest certainly hurts during the 2-mile run in an Army PT test. I was told to get rid of the pain by breathing out forcefully and emptying my lungs entirely. The rationale is clear; it’s to really stretch out the tired muscles, like stretching out a cramp. It helps a little, but only for a few seconds.

The belly breathing is something I’ve been told my whole life by just about every teacher of a physical activity. Not only is the diaphragm utilized more, it also pulls air deeper down in the lungs, where better (?) gas exchange takes place.
[/QUOTE]

I hoped I wouldn’t have to get all detailed. I’ve studied this a lot. That doesn’t mean I know everything about it, but I have quite a basket of information.

Okay, first, here’s a great ribcage animation from Harvard, showing how the volume rises and falls as your ribs do.
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/hse/video/hse2_9.html

Your lungs aren’t just two oddly shaped balloons. The air passages branch out to thousands of tiny chambers, like two huge bunches of grapes. Each little round airbag is surrounded by tiny blood vessels. The skin between air and blood allows the exchange of gases. The blood lets go of carbon dioxide as it takes in oxygen. The deeper you breathe, and the more completely you empty the lungs, the more little air bags (alveoli) get to participate. Shallow breathing people have hundreds of air bags with the same stale air for hours at a time. Some bags even fill up with liquid.

It seems counter-intuitive, but fast breathing is not the most efficient way to breathe. The gas exchange is not that quick. When you exhale, you breathe out most of the oxygen that you breathed in. The greatest gas exchange happens when you have the greatest number of air bags inflated. During exhaling and inhaling, some air bags are collapsed (and not working.) So, if you can fight off the urge to exhale immediately, gas exchange increases. Wait a step or two before exhaling.

If you are a sprinter, everything is different. In the 10 to 14 seconds of your dash, the oxygen content in your blood won’t change much. Top sprinters don’t breathe at all during the race. Every bit of muscular work must be concentrated on the race, and it can’t be wasted in breathing. You can gasp when it’s over.

So, let’s review. To exhale completely, roll your shoulders forward, drop the front of your ribcage down, and use your belly muscles to force your liver, heart, etc. up into your chest. You can’t get all the air out, unless you are fatally crushed.

To inhale all you can, use the diaphram to push your guts back down as far as you can, pull your ribcage up, and roll your shoulders back. If you can, hold that pose for a step or two before puffing it all out.

One more thing. If you hold your breath by closing your throat, and let pressure build up in the lungs, efficiency goes way down. That’s why some people get dizzy while straining on the toilet.