Exercise 2 - Sniff (Breathing In)
Correct breathing plays a crucial role in pelvic floor control. We will always be using the inhale to let the pelvic floor go and exhale to contract in. We start by learning to inhale and let go.
In this exercise we learn how to inhale directly to the abdomen, the chest must not rise, this is very difficult for some people and can take a long time to master.
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Exercise
When you breathe out it should be as if the air has disappeared, you open your mouth and the last of the air comes out in a short sigh, this will mean that you have released completely on the in breath. Imagine you are breathing onto a pair of spectacles you want to clean, there is not a strong emphasis on the out breath. At this stage the exercise is over. Repeat the exercise for several minutes until you feel that the chest is completely relaxed and that the abdomen is completely soft on the in breath.
1. The most important thing during this exercise is to palpate the upper abdomen especially the upper triangle formed by the ribs with your finger tips. The most common mistake is to force the abdomen out while trying to get the air into the abdomen – it must be completely soft both at rest and during the in breath, you must keep palpating all the time. 2. Often the chest will keep lifting before the air gets to the abdomen as the diaphragm is not used to descending so much. If this happens keep one hand on your chest so that you can stop the inspiration as soon as it rises and start again. 3. If the ribs do not move at all you might begin to force the air past the ribs, this can be seen as a narrowing below the ribs in the space where the ribs should expand, this should be corrected by flattening the palm of the hands over the side of the lower ribs and expanding out into the hands on the in breath 4. When the abdomen is overactive and in a holding pattern it can be difficult for it to fill out completely. You can put a hand on the lowest part of the abdomen nearly over the pubic bone and imagine that you are flopping your tummy as if like a muffin over the muffin case as you release the lower tummy over the pubic bone. The abdomen here is very close to the pelvic floor so it can help to connect with the pelvic floor 5. If the out breath at the end is very long it means that you did not let go completely on the in breath and you now need to breathe out the CO2. Your aim is to make this out breath shorter and shorter. Watch your chest as some of it was probably held there.
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Tips 1. When the pelvic floor is out of balance we often find the abdominal muscles are also very tense. This exercise is especially good for helping to loosen these abdominal muscles. 2. This exercise requires concentration so please be patient as you develop these skills. 3. We cannot over emphasise the importance of learning this basic breathing exercise. In clinical practice this exercise will always take up a large part of a treatment session. 4. Although you should practice this technique daily, it should not be used as a way to breathe throughout the day.
5. You can think of filling it out like a balloon or filling out the flexion line(the line running across the middle of your stomach) to make it disappear. This is counter intuitive. Normally when we breath in deeply we think of inhaling by pulling in our stomach and lifting the chest. The abdomen must stay completely soft. |
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