Dr. Amy: Breathing Away Back Pain
Last time, we looked at how breathing can relieve pain by changing our body position and breathing process. Now, we will dive into how breathing can relieve low back pain.
Connected to the…
The back is made up of many bones, muscles, and other soft tissues that are all designed to work together. When we are young, we can bend and twist in any direction without thinking about it---all our bones, muscles, and tissues are in the right position for this to happen.
Improper Tension
The problem occurs when we hold tension in our bodies. This tension causes these tissues to stop working together as they were designed. The tension typically results from physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual stress.
Unnatural Posture
Another part of the problem is that we’ve been trained to hold our body in an unnatural position. From early on, we are told to suck our gut up and in, pull our shoulders back, and stick our chest out. If you look at an infant, they don’t do this unless they are upset and crying. Our bodies are not designed to hold themselves that way for a long time. Growing up, we’re told it’s excellent posture.
Stress Affects Breathing
Combining this body position with the tension that develops from stress leads to extra tension and strain on the lower back. It also changes our breathing process to rely on the lower back muscles to breathe.
The Back is Not for Breathing
Many people are unaware that they use their back muscles to breathe. We want to avoid breathing with these muscles because they are not designed to be used for breathing. There are two ways that you can test to see if you are using your back muscles to breathe.
Test Your Breathing
1. Test for relaxation
The first requires you to sense your back muscles relax. Lie on the ground with your feet up on a chair so your hips and knees are both at a 90° angle. Inhale and exhale to see if the low back fully relaxes into the ground and stays there. Often, people feel their back tightening or lifting up on the inhale, or they feel the back tightening as they try to squeeze their gut to blow air out. Both ways lead to overuse of the back muscles and can contribute to pain.
2. Curl into a ball
If you can’t get on the ground or sense your back muscles relax, another way to test if you’re using your back muscles to breathe is to lie on a bed. Curl up on your side in a ball, or go on your forearms and knees in a prayer position and curl up in a ball. When you inhale, note if your chest, shoulders, and head try to lift up and back, pulling you out of that ball shape. If so, you are likely using back muscles to help you breathe. Ideally, we want to stay curled up in a ball and breathe without trouble.
Release The Grip
Learning to separate the back muscles from breathing is vital because we inhale and exhale about 15 times a minute. If you’re using these muscles to breathe, that’s a lot of overuse for your back. Another reason for changing your breathing is to help your back learn to drop the front ribs in and down. This releases the low back muscles. When the back muscles release their abnormal grip on the bones in the low back, it allows the joints to align.
Change Your Breathing
You can learn to do this by changing your breathing. When you work on your breathing process, it’s key to look at the position you hold your body in to make sure you are training your nervous system and muscles correctly. A good place to start learning this is in a seated position.
Sit in the right chair
Sit in a chair. Sitting all the way back is important to allow your body to relax into the back of the chair. It should have a solid back. The chair should have a slight backward tilt. Your feet should be solidly on the ground, with the heels touching the ground in a relaxed way. Your knees should be directly in front of you without crossing your legs. The top of your knees should be at the level of the crease at the front of your hips. Often, people sit in a chair that’s too high for them and need books or a platform under their feet. Sitting in this chair, you can start training your breathing.
Belly breathing
Now, let’s breathe. We are often taught to squeeze our gut when we exhale. Instead, as you exhale, relax the area around your belly button so the ribs in front drop down and in to release the low back muscles. Then, when you inhale through your nose, relax the low back and feel how your body can draw air into the lungs like a vacuum. Relaxed breathing will become easier as you shift to using your diaphragm instead of your back, shoulders, and ribs to breathe.
Unwind the tension
Relaxing the low back muscles during inhalation and exhalation can provide significant relief. The abnormal tension begins to ease up, allowing the bones to slide and glide more in the joints. This can make bending, twisting, and moving through daily activities easier. The key is to practice daily. The nervous system will continue to tighten the muscles since they were trained that way for years.
Stabilize
Once you learn to change your breathing mechanics to reduce back pain, you have to stabilize what you’ve learned to prevent slipping into old habits. That’s the hard part. Learn to sense your muscle tension and check your breathing technique often to maintain good mechanics. We’ll dive into this in future articles.
Breathe Away Back Pain
We are well on the journey to reduce back pain and breathe like our bodies were designed to. Give it a try!
