
Chest vs. Stomach Breathing - gprasanth
http://www.livestrong.com/article/310564-chest-vs-stomach-breathing/
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Aloisius
Can we not promote livestrong since they just spam out nearly identical
articles all day long? They make finding actual answers on health nearly
impossible. Reminds me of eHow. Take a look at:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+protein+per+day+liv...](https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+protein+per+day+livestrong)

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foobarbazqux
Just flag it if you think it's off-topic.

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geal
Stomach breathing is used by musicians, to get enough air to maintain the
notes. It is not necessarily easy to start breathing like that, because the
natural feeling is that your lungs are more filled with chest breathing. It is
wrong, though, you get much more air by playing with your diaphragm.

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tootie
I learned it when I took martial arts lessons in college. I think a lot of
athletes are taught to do it. I belly breath all the time now, but I don't
know if it's because I was trained or I was always doing it.

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rdtsc
I stutter and was taught that trying to breathe using the stomach might help
as it reduces tension in the vocal cords and is more relaxing. I usually
forget to do it but seeing this reminded me of that advice.

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Raphmedia
I used to always breath like that. For some reason, I was very stressed those
past weeks and now I notice I am barely breathing. I felt out of breath all
week.

Thanks a lot for the link. Wouldn't have noticed how bad my breathing is
otherwise... !

It's crazy how stress can affect a body. I really have to get back to doing
yoga. Never felt as healthy and good as when I did yoga.

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hga
If you suffer from stress as I do, you'll breathe too much from your lungs,
and it can be very good to lie down, do the one hand on each thing and
consciously change your pattern into a better one (at least for the duration
of the lie down).

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snowwrestler
It's weird, I've always breathed with my stomach. If I'm not thinking about
it, my chest is almost still and my stomach moves in and out as I breathe. I
assumed this was normal until I started reading articles like this. I had
terrible asthma as a kid and I wonder if that contributed to learning to
breathe this way.

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georgemcbay
FWIW, I'm also a "natural" stomach breather and also asthmatic (though it was
never "terrible").

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rlivsey
To add more anecdotal evidence, I too had childhood asthma (was on a
ventilator when very young, inhalers until ~16) and am a "natural" stomach
breather.

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latortuga
I'm surprised to see something on this topic as I've never really thought of
stomach breathing as something with health implications.

Trained singers and some instrumentalists (those that require wind, i.e. not
violinists) will already be very aware of this difference - using your
diaphragm to breathe is emphasized early and often during lessons. I can
recall my 7th grade choir teacher having a new kid in choir lay down on the
floor to practice his breathing. It turns out it's quite a bit easier to
breathe deeply with your diaphragm when laying on your back. You notice it
almost immediately but it takes time to get used to doing it while standing
up.

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joshuahedlund
If I'm reading this right, it's saying that _sole_ chest breathing is bad, but
it's not recommending "shorter" _sole_ stomach breathing, either, but a
"longer" inhaling that fills the stomach _followed_ by the chest? It also
doesn't say anything about nose vs. mouth; should I go for nose-in/mouth-out
or nose-in/nose-out, and is it different for, say, general cubicle sitting vs.
jogging?

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chadillac83
In some breathing exercises I've done as part of a self defense and training
course we focused a lot on breathing, especially controlled breathing under
very stressful situations. We'd spend good portions of the glass matching
breathing with strides, punches, and grappling. That being said it really
showed me the importance of breathing, even for random stress. We always did
in through the nose and out through the mouth. The nose is a bit more
restricted so it allows your diaphragm a little more resistance and seems to
allow deeper more controlled breathing, plus it just feels good. When under
heavy stress we often would take little bursts of fresh air through the nose
and out of the mouth to help get oxygen to the muscles that needed it under
said stress.

I didn't really stick with the class after finding some flaws with it but I
learned some stuff in the long run, and the breathing thing has stuck with me
after feeling it's effects.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz-
PkaaImCE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz-PkaaImCE)

This was my instructor, dude had a pain threshold that was unbelievable. You
can see him using the techniques while being... abused.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD4_RfEmWBg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD4_RfEmWBg)

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CodeMage
_Place your right hand on your chest, and your left hand on your stomach and
breath normally. If your right hand rise more, you are a chest breather, and
if your left hand rises more, you are a stomach breather._

I couldn't help find it humorous that it's harder to determine the answer when
my left hand starts in a position that's significantly higher than my right
hand.

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dClauzel
If you try to breath with you stomach, you are going to have some gaz to
evacuate. Better breathing with your lungs ;)

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foobarbazqux
If you sit still, exhale a little, and let go of any conscious effort to
breathe but also don't hold your breath, you will eventually start stomach
breathing automatically. Or at least you will if you're me. It's kind of
interesting.

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gprasanth
It's simple things like this, that blow my mind. How ignorant I was the whole
time, about a very important thing!

Anyway, long term catastrophe averted.

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sp332
A curious thing is that you can also breathe by lifting your shoulders. It's
not very effective (or comfortable) but it works.

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pasquinelli
"Breathing is the most natural action for humans and other living creatures."

here's an article on how to do it.

~~~
Leepic
Just because you're doing something naturally doesn't mean that you'll do it
efficiently.

