How to breathe to prevent neck strain

This blog takes a look at Diaphragmatic or Abdominal breathing. Most people tend to only breathe into their chests and necks. This means that muscles that aren't supposed to be used as the main breathing muscles are over working. Then you guessed it... neck pain. Our diaphragm is our main breathing muscle. This is the one that pulls the air into our lungs. If we use this correctly then it reduces tension in the body especially the neck. 

In the above pictures you can see the Diaphragm muscle as a dome shape and attaching to the inside of the ribcage.

The Scalenes are in the next picture. They are a group of 3 neck muscles that attach from the side of the neck to the ribs and are mostily involved in neck stabilisation (keeping your neck head and neck upright) as well as tilting your head to the side. The 3 Scalene muscles are the Anterior, Middle and Posterior Scalenes.

In the video below I demonstrate Diaphragmatic breathing.

People can also struggle with diaphragmatic breathing and this can be a result of tightness in the muscles. At Muscle Therapy Australia we can release the diagraphragm muscle to help you to expand this breath. We can also release other breathing muscles such as the intercostals, scalenes and more.