Poor posture is bad for us for many reasons, an important one being inefficient breathing and low oxygenation. Many people have poor posture for many hours a day in their office.
Here is a nice brief video on laptop (one of the worst culprits for poor posture?) ergonomics.
You could try this demonstration of how posture can affect breathing:
1) Sit in a relaxed manner (slumped?) on a dining room type chair (figure 3). Stretch out one hand as in figure 2 and place the little finger level with your naval (belly button) and the thumb on the base of your sternum (bottom of the ribs in the centre). You will notice the thumb and finger are quite close together.
2) Breathe on the back of your hand (as in figure 1, level with your top lip) and get the feel of the breath: moisture, warmth and force. Take your time, take a few normal breaths.
3) Now sit upright, imagining being pulled upwards by a string at the top of the back of your head, giving your diaphragm space to work. Notice that the thumb and finger are now wide apart as the front of the body elongates and opens (figure 4).
4) Again get a feel for your breath on the back of your hand: moisture, warmth, force, speed, faster slower, harder softer?
Most people will notice the breath is softer when sitting upright–a very good first step in better breathing.
The diaphragm is the major breathing muscle and shopuld normally be doing 80% of the work. A slumped position does not allow the diaphragm to work efficiently and encourages upper chest breathing, the stress response, heavy breathing and poor oxygenation.
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This is my very first time visiting your blog and I’m very fascinated. Many thanks for sharing and keep up 😉
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I have CFS for many years. I am try to increase the distance that I can walk, but am
have difficulty. If I lift an item that is too heavy for me, I become fatigued .
I then have to rest until I recover. The period of recovery sometimes prevents me
from walking as far, when I go back to the walking exercises.
I am slowly increasing the distance that I walk, but the resting period sets me back so that the next time I walk, I have to reduce the distance.
Many years ago, I did deep breathing exercises and they greatly helped. Yet, I read that it may be dangerous to do deep breathing. What do you think. I don’t want to do anything that will set me back. The only symptoms of CFS I have now are hyperventilating, fatigue with over-exertion. I live in NYC and wonder if you offer services to people living in States?
Hello Francine. It would be best to improve your breathing at rest before you try to exercise. I suggest that you pace yourself so that you can breathe through your nose all the time, you may have to slow down considerably so you do not get out of breath. Be very careful that you don’t trigger hyperventilation which could make your breathing worse. The breathing exercises have to be tailored to your state of health. What helped you before may not help now and could even be counterproductive. Yes I can take clients on anywhere over Zoom. You can contact me via the contact form on my website https://www.breathingremedies.co.uk/contact/