Top 5 Fridays! 5 Techniques to Try With Diaphragmatic Breathing

If you do not regularly cue diaphragmatic breathing in your practice, you should reconsider! It has a great effect on relaxation, mobility, and core activation.

Here are 5 techniques you should try using diaphragmatic breathing with.

uhh... he's not quite getting to end range, get breathing!

1) Lateral Shift Correction, SGIS

End range is key, and you'd be surprised how well a few properly executed breaths can get patients moving a bit further
have the patient push on their hips with the arm against the wall, hold the end range for 2-3 breaths, repeat

cervical extension and diaphramatic breathing = better end range
photo bomb by Carl

2) Repeated Extension in Lying

As a progression and improvement on "sag" overpressures, have them do again 2-3 good belly breaths after their elbows straighten all the way
this normally gets their hips dropped closer to the table just a bit more
make sure to also have them extend their head/neck as well to further slack the posterior chains

one of my favorite exercises!

3) Open Book Thoracic Rotation

Proper diaphragmatic breathing is essential to improve thoracic mobility, which in itself often helps chronic cervical, glenohumeral, and lumbar issues
make sure the patient is holding the upper LE down with the bottom hand and using their top hand to "pull" their sternum along to get thoracic rotation, and not just scapular retraction
several minutes of back and forth rotations with about 30-60 seconds of deep breaths at end range to finish off gets the thoracic spine moving!

4) Standing Psoas Stretch

as seen in this video

noticing a pattern here? 3-5 good diaphragmatic breaths often dramatically improves hip flexor mobility

poor Mike, not the most mobile of guys! We're working on it!

5) Standing Hamstring/Sciatic Neurodynamic Tensioner

anterior tilt, hip adduction, IR, ankle dorsiflexion
you may oscillate any of those components in addition to.... diaphragmatic breathing!

The possibilities are endless, but take anything that you used to do statically and make it more dynamic with a few well cued and performed diaphragmatic breaths!

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