Movement · Chest
Diaphragmatic breathing
Reviewed by Dr. Ryan Rietz, D.P.T. and Dr. John Breyman, D.C.
Breathing led by the diaphragm rather than by the neck and shoulders. The diaphragm descends on the in-breath, the belly and lower ribs move outward, and the chest stays comparatively quiet. Good looks like: a soft, unhurried breath low in the trunk, the lower ribs widening sideways rather than the shoulders lifting, and a longer out-breath than in-breath. Because the diaphragm is also part of the core cylinder, how someone breathes and how they stabilise are the same question — which is why breathing gets addressed alongside back and neck complaints, not separately from them.
Also known as
- belly breathing
- diaphragm breathing
- deep breathing