One of the common things I see during my remedial massage therapy sessions is a weak core which predominantly results from poor posture. You only need to look at the people around you and you’ll most likely be able to spot someone who’s shoulders are hunched over ever so slightly, their upper back has a bit more curvature to it than it should, and their neck is more forward than it should be. This is the inevitable state of where we are now given that we as a species have gone from a life where our days were full of physical exertion to a life where it’s mostly sedentary.
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The art of breathing – properly
Ahhhh breathing… it’s something that is so subtle to our systems and yet is one of the most important aspects of our physical being that we completely take for granted. Take a moment now to notice your breath – are you breathing from your chest or above, or are you breathing from your belly? Most of us breathe from the chest and up. Unfortunately, that’s not how we are designed to breathe. The diaphragm The main muscle of respiration in the body is actually your diaphragm (as a side note, isn’t it funny that the diaphragm’s shape is very similar to the shape of the lungs). So, during inhalation, the diaphragm contracts (i.e flattens out) and pushes down on the abdomen, and during exhalation, it relaxes and the pressure is taken off the abdomen. This means that it’s your belly that should be the main mover during breathing as opposed…
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