Breath Training Along the Full Movement Spectrum
Part IV
Breathing for Core Stability + Strength Training
The Great Core Debate
There’s such a rich conversation in the age-old debate between the Strength World and the Rehab/Functional Training World, and that it is, “How do you actually train Core Strength"?” and “Do you need to even do targeted Core Stability when Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, etc., use the core and strengthen it along the way?” The disagreement stems from a few things, though at first glance, I think it tends to just speak more to preference: Some find “bigger” movement patterns more meaningful, while others find “root cause” to be more meaningful. I’d say the answer lies somewhere in the middle (as usual!) and of course, depends on your goals/baseline level of health.
But…let’s consider this common scenario I see all. the. time. :
Jack needs to lose about 50 pounds. This is doctor’s orders, and he’s feeling some stress since he’s got a pre-diabetes diagnosis, high blood pressure and his lower back has been bugging him from carrying the extra weight. He starts training with the primary goal of weight loss, with secondary hopes to lower his BP and get rid of his low-back pain. He trains for 3 weeks and then his hip starts screaming at him. This derails training for a week and he’s also now nursing a strain indefinitely.
When we go from “not a lot of movement” into “movement-on-the-regular”, strains + pains can happen, But, what those strains/pains often tell us is that your core strength has some missing links. It’s usually smaller muscles/connective tissue, taking on much more than they should for a lack of strength in the larger muscle groups. These are common compensatory strategies and what plagues so many of us. This is where tension starts to build as those smaller muscles are screaming for help, while the larger muscles are just trying to move you (walk, step, bend, lift…the basics of living).
Another common scenario:
Jane is always on-the-go. She considers herself an active person — works, gardens, house-holds, runs kids, organizes a lot in her neighborhood. She has been struggling with some shoulder tension + low back pain. She realizes she needs to add Strength Training to her activity list, so begins a program and realizes her back pain and shoulder tension is limiting her ability to complete/do her workouts. Her consistency suffers and her never-ending list of priorities has her pushing self-care to the bottom of the to-do list. Her pain ends up getting so bad, she goes to the doc, who orders her PT for 6 weeks, and they tell her she needs to develop her Core Strength.
The lesson here? Every, single movement (no matter how tiny on the Movement Spectrum), is dependent on your Core Strength. Your ability to stabilize, produce and absorb force is the #1 determinant for injury — whether that be chronic injury, bad posturing of your body + mind or acute stress on your body or mind. The body is a system of interconnectedness, not compartments. So, whenever I hear someone suggest Core Stability training is auxillary or isn’t really as effective as Strength Training, I tend to think they’re missing some essential learning components on Movement Mechanics/Advanced Anatomy, common Postural/Emotional + Mental Compensations in the modern world and how force is produced, absorbed or stabilized in the body.
Finding the Right Modality
As always, it’s finding the right mix of: where your baseline strengths/weaknesses actually are, core stabilizing techniques and effective exercises that help you (re)pattern strong movements of your body AND mind. This is where someone like me is very helpful. A good trainer will have the right mix of training experience in their own body, experience training others and the kind of knowledge that can design a program to meet your needs.
Breath Training is Core Stability training. Period. In order to have a strong core, you have to build those muscles in isolation, in their kinetic chain, and in the body’s dynamic movement patterns. We’ve already mentioned that Breath helps us train these smaller movements on the spectrum:
self-awareness
Nervous System regulation strategies (calm, amp-up, balance, sharpen our focus)
functional movement in the core/intra-abdominal space
awareness of + access to mobility in the thoracolumbar spine, pelvis, neck and shoulders
Now we can talk about how we can use breath to develop strength in our global movement, which is what most of us come to someone like me to do! To start, I’ll share with you what modalities I use (have training in) that gives you a really effective program. I’ll go in the order on the Movement Spectrum.
Breath/Somatic Training (Essential Somatics, Postural Restoration, Restore Your Core, DNS, Pilates, Kinstretch)
Core Stability Training (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS), Postural Restoration, Restore Your Core, Pilates, Kinstretch)
Mobility Training (Functional Range Conditioning, Kinstretch, Postural Restoration, Dynamic Variable Resistance Training DVRT)
Strength Training (DVRT, Strength + Conditioning Coaching, Pilates, Corrective Movement)
A good practitioner will have a set of efficient tools and know how to use them for custom jobs. My job is to give you better access to your fullest range of strength. Each one of us uses some combination of the above practices to develop our strength where-needed. So very often, we come with “gross motor” skills but lack the more subtle stabilizers that coordinate movement with the bigger muscles. This is where we have movement break down. If we understand that (1) Breath is the a primary functional movement, (2) a strong set of Instrinsic + Extrinsic muscles = strong breath and (3) breath control = control of our Self and Balanced State, then we know that Breath will bring us back to what needs to be strengthened every time. Whether that be cardiovascular fitness, hypertension, stored trauma, weak muscles, overactive muscles, overactive mind, postural dysfunction…everything. And breath will make YOU the master of your strength, not someone else (trainer, guru, doctor, etc), because it will provide the right feedback, as long as you have a skilled guide knowing where to help you begin, progress and develop your strength over time.
Our next series will focus primarily on Nervous System Regulation. While breathing is often considered to be a primary tool for this, I believe it has more to do with our Feedback Loops and using them in systematic ways. As many of you know, our Pillar App is in its infancy stages (some of you are using it already), but my hope is to give everyone access very soon to a comprehensive Nervous System Regulation program that we can use in-supplement to our primary strength practice and develop the strongest body/mind possible using progressive overload principles.
Until then, much-love to you,
Kate
Bonus Footnote:
Breathing in Bracing
Before I wrap this up, I need to touch on 3 different strategies for using your breath to help stabilize your core, as you’d do in a big lift. Many of us have been trained to do this or have at least heard about them:
Bracing (breathing)
Valsalva (breath hold)
Bearing Down (breath hold)
Bracing — This is when we stiffen the core muscles as if bracing for impact, stabilizing the spine.
Valsalva — This is a bracing technique where you increase Intra Abdominal Pressure via a big inhale, then an exhale against a closed glottis (at the center of your larynx and allows for air flow in breathing). This causes your diaphragm + pelvic floor to move up + your abdomen moves out
Bearing Down — Here is another forced exhale like Valsalva, that causes the pelvic floor to relax and move downward. This is why it’s used in childbirth and sometimes to help you poop.
Bracing + Valsalva are great for lifting, but we should never bear down in resistance training.
But the bigger point is that most people don’t know how to breathe to brace in any of the above techniques. It requires first a solid understanding of your inhales + exhales AND how you manage (or don’t manage) pressure, how strong your core muscles are and whether you’re ready to coordinate that breathing movement with a dynamic action. If there were any protocol for training these, I’d start with the first parts of our spectrum and stay there until you’ve mastered them.
