Abdominal Breathing: How to Stop Chest Breathing.
Right now, before you read any further, take one normal breath and pay attention to what moves. Maybe your chest lifts, or your shoulders rise up toward your ears, or the movement happens lower down in your abdomen. Hold on to your answer, because by the end of this lesson, you'll know exactly what it means and what to do about it.
Two Ways to Breathe
Most people breathe in one of two ways. The first is chest breathing, where each breath stays high and shallow in your upper chest. The second is abdominal breathing, where each breath travels low and fills you all the way down to your abdomen.
Chest breathing has its place. Your body shifts into it naturally during hard exercise, like sprinting up a flight of stairs or finishing a tough workout, because in those moments you need to move a lot of air fast. The trouble starts when chest breathing becomes how you breathe all day long, while you're sitting at your desk, watching TV, or lying in bed.
Fast, shallow breathing high in your chest is the same pattern your body uses when it feels threatened. When you breathe that way all day, your stress response, often called fight or flight, stays partly switched on even when nothing is wrong. Your body stays braced and ready for action, like a runner crouched at the starting line waiting for a race that never begins.
Practice: Check How You Breathe Right Now
Sit comfortably with your back supported.
Place one hand flat on your upper chest and the other hand on your abdomen, just above your belly button.
Breathe normally for a few breaths, without trying to change anything.
Watch and feel which hand moves more.
If the hand on your chest moves more, you're breathing high in your chest. If the hand on your abdomen moves more, you're already breathing into your abdomen, which is a great place to start from. Either way, you now know your starting point.
Signs Chest Breathing Has Become Your Normal
Chest breathing can feel completely normal when you've done it for years, so here are a few everyday signs to watch for.
Tight shoulders and neck. Your diaphragm is meant to do most of the work when you breathe. When you breathe high in your chest, your diaphragm barely moves, so the muscles in your neck and the tops of your shoulders take over and pull your ribs up with every breath. Those muscles are backup muscles, meant to help only when you're breathing hard, like during a sprint. When they work on every single breath all day long, they get overworked, and that leaves your neck and shoulders feeling tight and sore.
Frequent sighing or yawning. You might sigh or yawn throughout the day without noticing it. Your body does this to grab the deeper breath it's been missing.
Never getting a full breath. You might feel like you can't quite take a satisfying, deep breath, no matter how hard you try.
If any of these sound familiar, chest breathing has likely become your everyday pattern. The good news is that your breathing pattern is a habit, and habits can change with practice.
The Way Your Body Was Designed to Breathe
Abdominal breathing is the way your body was built to breathe. Watch a baby sleep, and you'll see their abdomen rise and fall with every breath while their chest barely moves. That's your natural pattern too, before years of stress, long hours hunched over screens, and habit taught your body to breathe high in your chest.
Here's what's happening inside you. Right under your lungs sits your diaphragm, a dome shaped muscle that stretches across your body like the top of an umbrella. When you breathe in, your diaphragm tightens and flattens downward, which makes more room in your chest and pulls air into your lungs, the same way a balloon blows up with air and deflates when air leaves. As your diaphragm moves down, it presses on the organs below it, and that's why your abdomen rises.
When you breathe out, your diaphragm relaxes back up into its dome shape, and your abdomen falls. With each full breath, your lungs get the room they need to fill completely. Your body also receives a clear message that you're safe and it's okay to relax.
What Abdominal Breathing Does for You
Slow abdominal breathing helps bring your heart rate down, and it gives your tired neck and shoulder muscles a chance to finally let go. It also helps with a deeper problem. When stress becomes a constant part of your day, your body keeps producing higher levels of cortisol, the hormone connected to long term stress and over time that can affect your sleep, your mood, your weight, and your energy.
Practicing abdominal breathing regularly helps your body lean on its stress response less often. Over time, that supports better recovery for your mind, your emotions, and your body. Each slow breath into your abdomen is a small daily step toward a calmer baseline.
The Most Common Mistake
Almost everyone makes the same mistake when they first try abdominal breathing. They push their abdomen out with their stomach muscles, like they're flexing for a photo, but opposite. That isn't abdominal breathing, because it simply tenses a different set of muscles.
Real abdominal breathing happens on its own when you let your diaphragm drop as you breathe in. Your abdomen rises because of that movement, so you never need to force it out. Keep your chest and shoulders relaxed and still, and let your lower body do the work.
If You Can't Feel It Yet
Abdominal breathing can take a few tries before it clicks. If you're struggling, try these.
Lie down. Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Gravity does a lot of the work in this position, so your abdomen rises and falls more easily without your chest taking over. Once you can feel the movement lying down, it gets much easier to find it sitting or standing.
Use a book. While you're lying down, rest a light book on your abdomen. Watch the book rise as you breathe in and lower as you breathe out.
Drop your shoulders. If your shoulders creep up toward your ears as you breathe in, let them drop, and try your next breath with them resting down.
Slow down if you feel lightheaded. Lightheadedness usually means you're breathing too deeply or too quickly. Go back to your natural breathing for a minute, then start again with gentler, normal breaths.
A little movement in your chest is completely fine. Your goal is for the hand on your abdomen to move more than the hand on your chest.
Practice: Abdominal Breathing
Sit with your back supported, or lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
Place one hand on your upper chest and the other hand on your abdomen, just above your navel.
Let your shoulders drop and your jaw soften. Close your eyes, or rest your gaze softly on the floor.
Breathe in slowly through your nose for three or four seconds. Let the breath travel down so the hand on your abdomen rises while the hand on your chest stays mostly still.
Breathe out slowly for four to five seconds, and let your abdomen fall.
Keep breathing this way for five minutes at a slow, comfortable pace.
Let your breath return to normal, open your eyes, and notice how you feel.
Take It Into Your Day
You can practice abdominal breathing almost anywhere once you know how it feels. Try it while you're sitting at your desk, waiting in line at the grocery store, or lying in bed before you fall asleep. It doesn't need a quiet room or a set amount of time, only your attention.
Your Homework
Practice abdominal breathing for five minutes once a day for the next seven days. Pick a time that fits your day, like right after you wake up or right before bed. By the end of the week, you'll likely be able to feel your breath moving into your abdomen without checking with your hands at all.