Breathing Your Way Out of Back Pain

I want you to stop whatever you are doing and think about what your body is doing right now. Are you standing, sitting, or lying down? Is your back straight or hunched over? Do you have pain anywhere? Where are your shoulders? Are they up around your ears from stress, or are they relaxed? Finally, how are you breathing? Are you taking long slow belly breaths or are they short and up in your chest. Do you feel your shoulders move up and down every time you breathe?

If you are like most people, you probably just corrected about 10 things you noticed were not optimal for your posture or your functioning. The scary thing is, if you had not just thought through that, how many more hours would you have been stuck in that position before you finally moved? It has been shown that keeping a static posture for just 20 minutes can take up to 60 minutes of motion to “undo” the postural changes you have created. This means that if you sit at a desk for 2 hours then stand up and move around, it could take up to 3x as long for your body to fully regain its mobility.

Now think about what your typical day looks like. Do you sit for 20 minutes then move around? Or do you sit for 4 hours, walk to lunch, sit down to eat, walk back, and sit for another 4 hours? Or do you not take a lunch at all?! If this sounds like you, hopefully it is clear that in a short period of time you will quickly lose mobility and function. This means less ability to participate in day-to-day activities, and a much higher risk of pain or injury.

The Pain Epidemic

Did you know that 80% of people will experience some form of back pain in the next 10 years? You may be suffering from back pain right now! What is interesting to reflect on, however, is that back pain is very poorly correlated to joint or disc issues. Most people, if given an MRI on their back, would show some sort of bulging disk or degeneration. The odd part is that those people with bulges are just as likely to experience back pain as those without any issues at all. So if it is not the structure that is leading to all that back pain, what is?

If we think back to our 20 minute model, we can see that there may be other factors at play. If you put yourself in a poor postural position for most of the day, stressed out, and breathing poorly, you have a high likelihood of aggravating your back. Not because this activity is “strenuous” like picking up something with your back, but rather because the position is taxing on your nervous system. When you combine this with a stressful job, your body becomes locked in this tense state that makes moving very difficult and can make even bending over to tie your shoe an all-out effort. This is why some people will throw their back out just by bending over to pick up a pencil…their nervous system was not able to respond!

Just Breathe

Right now Americans spend about $26 billion dollars on back pain therapy. While this is a huge amount to begin with, what is disturbing is that we don’t see the back pain issue getting any better. What we are starting to learn is that while certain rehabilitative techniques can help relieve people of back pain, they are not very good at preventing future episodes of pain. Luckily, we are also starting to discover what DOES help keep people out of pain for the long run. One of the most overlooked strategies for long-term back health is optimal breathing.

Here is a link to a study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16053121) looking at how breath therapy compared to physical therapy over a six-month period. What they found was that both of the groups that were studies improved about the same amount with those using breath therapy having a quicker response time. This is crazy to think about, but let’s think about the role of breath in back health.

1) Proper breathing reduces stress. Stress leads to muscular tension, making it harder to move properly and also promoting tightness in all muscles. Avoiding this is key in keeping the back, as well as the rest of your body, working at its best.

2) Better breathing means more oxygen for your muscles. Muscles must have oxygen to function and when your breathing is shallow, your ability to fuel your muscles is limited as well. This can lead to more pain and fatigue in any given area, but again, the back is already susceptible, due to all of the stress you are putting on it.

3) Possibly the most import role that breathing plays in low back health is allowing for proper core functioning. When you breathe with your chest, you are actually using your shoulders and neck to lift your rib cage. This is why people think they “store stress” in their necks—their neck and traps have been working all day to help them breathe! While this is an issue in and of itself for shoulder and neck health, it is also a huge problem for the low back. When you use your neck to breathe, you are also using your shoulders to brace your spine. If you have ever done a push-up or row exercise and found your shoulders at your ears, this is what has happened. You took an improper breath and now your neck is locking down to protect your spine. The problem is that these muscles are a long way from your low back and while you are trying to hold your abs tight, they have nothing to brace against. All of your air is up in your chest and your abs and low back are left to fend for themselves.

Let’s compare this to what happens when you take a proper breath before moving/lifting. When you breathe correctly, your abdomen and sides expand. Think of your midsection as if it were an inner tube. When you achieve this type of breath, you now have created pressure within your abdomen which you can use to brace against. It is your very own weight belt! This type of breath is what allows people to lift hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds without hurting their backs. It’s not just that they have big muscles, they have big breaths too!

The Fix

The biggest difference between those with low back pain and those without is breathing. If we combine poor breathing with extended periods of poor posture and stress that further promote this type of breathing, it’s no wonder so many people have back pain. So what do we do?

The first thing I would encourage people to do is to learn how to breathe. We talk about breathing a lot, so check out this previously posted article where we show you a low level breathing exercise that can really help to teach you proper breathing. Once you know how to breathe, start thinking of ways to incorporate it into your daily routine. Maybe you put a little note on your computer saying “just breathe”. Maybe you try to take a break from sitting once an hour (or more) and just move around and take 10 deep breaths. At the very least, if you do currently exercise, you should never lift another weight without learning how to take a proper breath.

If you can start building this into your routine, you will find that your back pain will start to take care of itself and that your posture and stress will improve as well. It’s amazing how simple it is sometimes. Now we just have to take action.