Touch Your Toes with the Maestro Part I: Diaphragmatic breathing
Maestro comin at ya with the crazy hair ?Breathing is the most fundamental movement pattern we have, and if you don’t own it, you don’t own movement! Most of us are living in a pretty dysfunctional state, employing paradoxical breathing patterns and sending all the wrong signals to our nervous system. Enter: diaphragmatic breathing. When we breathe properly, the diaphragm contracts and descends, compressing the contents of our abdominal cavity and causing our bellies to stick out. As I said in the video, this is how we first learn to pressurize our system and generate core stability. Additionally, the vagus nerve resides in the center of the diaphragm, and taps into the parasympathetic nervous system, our REST and DIGEST system. When we take diaphragmatic breaths, the contraction and relaxation of the diaphragm massages the vagus nerve and sends a signal out to the body to chill the F out. If you’ve got perpetually tight hammies then the first thing you need to do is get out of that continous state of flight or fight, and get the nervous system to calm down and allow those muscles to relax. First step, 5 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing every night.
Feet up in that 90-90 position to allow the low back to relax and take the hip flexors out of the equation. One hand over the belly, one hand over the chest. Inhale through the nose, with the belly rising into the hand, and the hand over your chest remaining relatively silent. Think about getting those ribs to expand outward and also breathing into your low back. Exhale through your mouth and allow the belly to sink down. Eyes closed, eyes open, whatever you want, just RELAX. Add in this technique throughout the day as able, but for starters just focus on doing this every night. Until you master this, those toes are gonna be a long ways off.
Peep da link in the bio ??for a closer vid of diaphragmatic breathing.
Tomorrow night, Part II. Stay tuned!
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