Anatomy of Breathing

FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT RESOURCES

This video builds on the “Anatomy of the Core” lecture, and goes in depth into the core muscles that are involved in breathing. After you go through both videos and your homework PDFs, remember the key takeaways from this section.

Why We Care About Breathing

• Inhalation naturally facilitates extension of the spine.

• Exhalation naturally facilitates flexion of the spine.

• The health of the diaphragm is directly related to core strength because 80% of our breathing muscles are core-stabilizing muscles!

• The diaphragm gently pulls on the psoas during exhalation creating a slight elongation of the psoas. If the breath is shallow then this elongation cannot happen and the psoas remains short and tight (especially if it already is due to sitting a lot or poor posture.

  • The inverse is true. If the psoas is tight it will limit the retraction (on exhalation) of the diaphragm.

  • The same relationship is true for the diaphragm and qudratus lumborum, which helps to tip the pelvis forward during breathing and stabilizes the low back as well as extends the low back.