Breathe Chest Only

We have belly only breathing and we have chest only breathing. It is usually more difficult to breathe chest only than it is to breathe belly only. Here I present the chest only breathing and in the following two exercises I present ways to help you free up your chest.

The goal is for you to have access to individual groups of muscles, to be able to separate different muscle groups. If you have a problem with using the accessory muscles of respiration or a problem because you use your diaphragm to push the chest up, you will work on that separately. The fact of either or both of these problems does not prevent you learning to breathe chest only, to separate the chest breathing from the belly breathing.

On page 66, under the heading "INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES," I wrote about different chest shapes. There I introduced you to the idea that in some people the chest is held down in chronic exhale while in other people the chest is held up in chronic inhale. Figure 14 on page 67 showed examples of a model with a barrel chest held up (in chronic inhale) and of a model with a long thin chest held down (in chronic exhale).

Now even if your chest is held up — and thus you can not get much air into your chest since it is already up in chronic inhale position — you can still practice this exercise. You do not need to wait until you get the chest down before you do this one.

There are two common mistakes in chest only breathing.

The fist common mistake is to tense the abdomen before the chest inhale is started. Figure 26 is an example of tensing the abdomen. So, starting at the point of a finished exhale, before you even start the inhale, you will see tensing of the upper abdomen just below the ribs. This prior tensing of the abdomen is usually associated with using the diaphragm to push the chest up.

The second common mistake is to do the majority of the inhale with the chest with no abdominal tensing but near the end of the chest only breath, the abdomen is tensed to allow more air into the chest. This action, too, has the function of using the diaphragm to add more air to the chest inhale.

Recall that you can use a tape measure to see that the chest is expanding. But perhaps the best easy test is to place your hands flat on the abdomen to check for tensing of the abdomen (Figure 27).

Figure 26

Figure 27

If you have a long thin chest held in chronic exhale and can not get it to move use the next exercise (extend belly, breathe chest only). If you have a barrel chest held up in chronic inhale, then use the push breathing exercise to get it down. I discuss the push breathing exercise on page 94.

Don't short-circuit this exercise either. Proper breathing is so powerful all by itself in effecting change in the your nature that you should never rush from one exercise to the next.

ALWAYS TOO SLOWLY.

Extend The Belly, Breathe Chest Only

This sounds easy, but it is a beauty. It is the best exercise there is for (1) learning to not use the diaphragm to push up the chest, (2) learning to breathe with only the chest. This exercise will not teach you to not use the accessory muscles of respiration. This exercise is applicable for everyone but it is THE exercise to use for people with a long thin chest to get the chest up.

At this point, I would like to add a note. All the material in both parts of this book are NOT calisthenics or a health club workout. The goal, purpose, and effect of all these exercises — both here and in Part Two — is to change your nature and develop more personal freedom and enjoyment.

It would be nice if I could explain all this; but that would be a technical discussion with lots of theory and lots of references. All I can say here, and emphasize as well, is that it will happen. It will not happen quickly, nor does one want it to happen quickly; but continued and conscientious use of these exercises will do that.

It is not uncommon for people doing these exercises to have various feelings, from laughing to crying and everything in between. In fact, some of the exercises in the two part of this book are designed to accomplish exactly that. But it is not emotion that we are after. If some emotion occurs, let it continue; but only to your personal point of comfort. Allow the emotion to grow and spread throughout your body, but don't push yourself. This is not a contest and it is not a performance. Feeling is appropriate, but it is not our goal. Our goal is character change, not emotional fireworks.

If your chest is mobile (remember: that's when the tape measure shows the chest expanding during the inhale), this exercise is usually pretty easy. If your chest is held down, held up, or you use your diaphragm to push the chest up, this exercise will be both hard and exhausting.

If it is hard, it only means it is more important; but it also means don't push it. Do as much as you can and then pass on to another exercise. There is always the next time.

The technique is easy. First, breathe with your diaphragm, extending your belly as much as you possibly can. If you can, get it down to the bottom of your abdomen, down to the pelvis so that your whole belly is one big round balloon.

Footnote 18. See the chart on hyperventilation (pages 59-60) for emotions frequently seen with hyperventilation.

Now holding your belly out, breathe into the chest. Take as big a breath as you can, but only into the chest. Do not let your belly contract or tense even a little. Exhale normally with the easy 'ah' sound and normal speed. This sounds easy, it is not. Years of experience have shown the author just how difficult this is for most people.

It is natural to think that contracting the abdomen during the belly-out-chest-only breath would mean that the whole abdomen tenses. This is not the case. Some people do contract or tense the whole abdomen, but others contract only the top of the abdomen below the ribs and others contract only the bottom of the abdomen in the pelvic region. While Figure 28 does not show the belly extended, it does show hand placement you can use to tell if your belly contracts (after being expanded) during the chest inhale part of the breath.

Figure 28