The Base of the Foundation: Reconnecting Your Breath for True Functional Strength
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As a mom, you're constantly breathing – but are you breathing in a way that truly supports your body, especially through the incredible changes of pregnancy and postpartum?
Many of us move through life with shallow breaths, unknowingly adding stress to our core and pelvic floor. But there's a powerful, innate system within you designed to provide stability, manage pressure, and act as the true base of your functional strength: your diaphragmatic breathing pattern.
As a pregnancy and postpartum fitness coach, a CrossFitter, and a mom who has navigated this unique journey myself, I know firsthand that mastering this foundational breath is the absolute first step towards a confident, capable, and symptom-free body, whether you're supporting a growing belly or rebuilding strength after baby.
In this post, we're diving deep into why this breath matters so much and, more importantly, how you can start harnessing its power today. Watch the video below for a step-by-step guide to reconnecting with your breath.
Why Your Breath is the Base of Your Strength
Your breath is more than just air moving in and out of your lungs. It’s the deepest layer of muscle we can strengthen, acting as the fundamental "base" of your entire functional foundation.
Think of your core like a canister: your diaphragm (the main breathing muscle, located under your lungs) is the lid, your pelvic floor is the bottom, and your abdominal muscles (including your deep transverse abdominis) are the sides. This entire system works together to manage Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) – the pressure inside your abdomen.
When you breathe optimally, you unlock several key benefits:
Core & Pelvic Stability: It builds core and pelvic stability from the inside out, establishing the deepest layer of your functional foundation. This connection is crucial for every movement you make and sets the stage for all other strength.
Deep Connection: It helps you truly connect with your pelvic floor and deep core, ensuring these vital muscles are engaged and relaxed effectively.
Improved Rib Cage Mechanics: Your rib cage should expand 360 degrees on the inhale and recoil on the exhale. This movement is incredibly important for overall pelvic floor health, core stability, and even your upper body mechanics (think shoulder stability and overhead movement!).
Stress Reduction: It stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, helping your body relax and shifting you out of that "fight or flight" state. This is especially beneficial for new moms navigating stress and sleep deprivation.
Effective Pressure Management: Learning to manage IAP is vital for supporting your core and helping to manage common postpartum concerns like pelvic floor dysfunction, prolapse, and diastasis recti.
The Mechanics of a Functional Breath: What Should You Feel?
When you're breathing optimally, here's what's happening and what you should aim to feel:
Body Positioning (Foundational for all breathing practice):
Ribs stacked over pelvis: Imagine a straight line from your shoulders through your hips, finding a neutral position where your ribs aren't flared and your pelvis isn't excessively tucked or arched.
Tongue on roof of mouth and retracted: This helps with good head, neck, and jaw positioning, creating a clear airway and supporting core connection.
Spine lengthened throughout: Avoid hunching or over-arching. Imagine lengthening the back of your neck, as if a string is gently pulling the crown of your head towards the ceiling, with a slight chin tuck. This helps minimize forward head posture and aligns your head over your spine.
The Inhale (Through Your Nose):
Quiet & Relaxed: Your breath should be quiet, without audible gasping or “sniffing” sounds. Crucially, your neck and shoulders should stay relaxed and still, not rising up towards your ears.
360-Degree Rib Cage Expansion: Feel your lower ribs expand outwards to the sides, gently forward, and even into your lower back.
Diaphragm Descends: Your diaphragm contracts and descends, opening like an umbrella and gently pushing air down towards your pelvic floor.
Abdomen & Pelvic Floor Expansion: Your belly, sides, and back should expand outwards, and your pelvic floor should gently lengthen and descend.
The Exhale (Through Your Mouth):
Gentle Sigh: Exhale through your mouth with a soft, gentle sigh, not a forcefully like you are blowing up a balloon.
Pelvic Floor Lifts: Your pelvic floor should gently lift upwards, helping to push the air back up.
Abdominal Contraction: Your low abs should gently contract and flatten, followed by the middle and upper abs, as your abdomen naturally recoils.
Rib Cage Compression: Your intercostal muscles (between your ribs) gently contract to compress your rib cage, guiding the air out. Your abs shouldn't be doing all the work here!
Diaphragm Recoils: Your diaphragm relaxes and recoils up under your rib cage, ready for the next inhale.
Understanding Your Pressure Management System
Your abdomen functions as a pressure system. Picture it like a canister where your rib cage is the top, and your pelvic floor is the bottom. Your diaphragm and pelvic floor essentially work in tandem, passing air back and forth as you breathe. They both ascend and descend at the same time, but in opposing phases (one contracts while the other relaxes).
Whenever you exert yourself – whether lifting something, coughing, sneezing, picking up your kids, bending down, working out, etc. – you generate pressure in your abdomen. The "easiest" way to generate this pressure is often by bearing down. However, it's so important to learn how to generate pressure using your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and deep core so you are not bearing down and putting excessive pressure directly onto your pelvic floor or diastasis recti.
What Happens When Your Breathing Isn't Optimal?
When you are not in a deep, functional breathing pattern, your body finds less efficient ways to manage pressure. This can lead to:
Restricted Rib Cage Movement: Your rib cage might be stuck either expanded or compressed, or not moving effectively throughout the inhale and/or exhale. This limits full lung capacity and proper core function, and it puts pressure down on your pelvic floor.
Shallow Breathing: Air often goes up into your chest, neck, and shoulders instead of down into your abdomen and pelvic floor on the inhale. This can lead to neck and shoulder tension.
Compensatory Muscles: Your back muscles might try to work instead of your diaphragm, leading to stiffness, pain, poor posture and/or dysfunctional movement patterns.
Ineffective Pressure Management: When pressure isn’t managed effectively between the pelvic floor and diaphragm, these muscles are unable to contract and relax optimally. Every muscle needs to be able to contract and relax, lengthen and shorten, to be strong and work effectively.
If your diaphragm and pelvic floor aren't moving well, they can get stuck either in a lengthened or shortened position. This makes them weak and/or tight and overactive, which can lead issues such as pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic pain, tailbone pain, leaking, and discomfort with sex.
Path of Least Resistance: Air takes the path of least resistance. In pregnancy and postpartum (especially early), this is usually the belly because the abdominal muscles were stretched out, and/or the pelvic floor because of delivery (if vaginal). If you cannot effectively manage pressure, then every time you lift something, pick up your kids, workout, cough, or sneeze, that generated pressure goes directly into your pelvic floor or diastasis, potentially worsening symptoms.
Your First Step: Mastering Side-Lying Breathing
Now that we understand the mechanics, let's put it into practice with one of my favorite foundational exercise: Side-Lying Breathing. This position is great for truly feeling that 360-degree breath and connecting with your core and pelvic floor without fighting gravity.
Give It A Try (Just 2 Minutes!):
Lay on your side with a pillow (or your arm) supporting your head and neck.
Bend your knees and bring them up toward your chest comfortably.
Place your top hand on your rib cage so you can feel the front of your ribs with your fingers and the back of your ribs with your thumb.
As you inhale slowly through your nose, focus on feeling your abdomen and your lower ribs expand in all directions (front, sides, back). You might feel your pelvic floor lengthen and descend. Your neck and shoulders should remain relaxed.
As you exhale gently, sighing the air out through your mouth, feel your ribs come back in and down, and imagine your pelvic floor gently lifting up (like an elevator closing).
Try 5-10 slow, deep breaths, focusing on this expansion and gentle recoil.
Why this matters: This simple practice is truly foundational for supporting your core and pelvic floor throughout pregnancy, and for "waking up" these crucial muscles after childbirth.
It’s your body's built-in "pressure management system"— vital for supporting your growing belly, enhancing comfort and helping to manage common pregnancy discomforts such as back stiffness, neck tension, and pelvic pressure, and even preparing your pelvic floor for birth. Then, after baby, it's crucial for restoring stability, supporting your pelvic floor, and preparing you for everything from picking up your baby to bracing for a heavy squat.
It’s the very first step in empowering you to restore that crucial connection, making all your future movements stronger and safer, and supporting a return to your workouts and activities with greater control and confidence, minimizing common concerns like leaks.
Troubleshooting Your Breath: Common Challenges & Solutions
Mastering this breath is a practice, and it's completely normal to encounter some challenges. Here are common issues and what you can try. Remember, focus on the challenges that resonate most with your experience:
"My Rib Cage Feels Stuck (Compressed or Expanded) and Isn't Moving!"
The Problem: A 'stuck' rib cage can lead to inefficient pressure management, pushing air upwards into the chest/neck and downwards onto the pelvic floor. This constant downward pressure can contribute to issues like prolapse or a constantly tightened, overactive pelvic floor (causing pelvic pain, tailbone pain, pain with sex, deep hip rotator tightness, hip pain, back pain, and even leaks or a heavy feeling).
Try This:
Focus on Side-Lying Breathing: This position helps to "unstick" your ribs. Really focus on directing the air into the top side of your rib cage on the inhale.
Towel Roll Assist: For a compressed rib cage, try placing a small towel roll under your bottom ribs (on the side you're lying on) to encourage more expansion into that area on the inhale.
Sitting & Leaning: Sit and lean to one side (away from the side you want to expand) to create a stretch, then try breathing into the "stretched" side.
For Rib Cage that Can't Compress (Stuck Expanded): Your diaphragm might be in a constant state of inhalation, putting constant pressure down on your pelvic floor. This also causes pelvic floor tension.
Stay in side-lying breathing, but focus intensely on the exhale. Make your exhale twice as long as your inhale.
Give some gentle overpressure on your ribs with your hand on the exhale, guiding them inward, without letting your abs grip forcefully to pull the ribs down.
"My Back Keeps Arching or Taking Over!"
The Problem: Core Instability & Compensation. If your back muscles are trying to do the work of your diaphragm, it means your core isn't stabilizing effectively.
Try This:
Breathe in Child's Pose: This position puts your back on a gentle stretch and helps "close off" the belly as the path of least resistance. Focus on directing the air into your back body, feeling your low back expand into your hands or the floor.
"All My Breath is Going into My Belly!"
The Problem: Limited 360-Degree Expansion. Especially in pregnancy and early postpartum, the path of least resistance for air is often the belly because the abdominal muscles were stretched. This means less 360-degree expansion.
Try This:
Child's Pose Breathing: This helps to "close off" the belly as the primary path and encourages air to go into your back and sides.
Side-Lying Breathing: As taught in the video, this position helps you feel lateral rib expansion.
"I Can't Feel My Breath in My Pelvic Floor!"
The Problem: This often happens due to tension in the pelvic floor. Every muscle needs to be able to contract and relax, lengthen and shorten, to be strong. If your pelvic floor is stuck in a tense state, it can't move with your breath.
Try This:
Conscious Pelvic Floor Relaxation: Before you inhale, gently contract your pelvic floor (like holding in pee), then consciously and completely relax it, letting the contraction go. Keep it relaxed, then gently inhale. You might need to practice releasing tension before you feel the movement.
Child's Pose Breathing: This position can also help encourage pelvic floor relaxation.
"My Inhale Feels Like Pressure Down on My Pelvic Floor!"
The Problem: If you're bearing down on the inhale, you're creating downward pressure that can strain your pelvic floor or diastasis.
Try This:
Stay in Side-Lying Breathing: This position helps reduce downward pressure.
Gentle Pelvic Floor Pre-Activation: Gently contract your pelvic floor just enough to "brace" it slightly (about 10-20% effort), then try inhaling, directing the air into your ribs and back. This gives your pelvic floor a subtle support to prevent bearing down.
Your First Step Towards True Functional Strength
Mastering your breath is the ultimate foundational exercise. It's the base of the foundation for every movement you make, every lift you perform, and every step you take in your motherhood journey. By learning to use your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and deep core effectively, you empower your body from the inside out.
Ready to build a truly strong foundation and move with confidence?
I'm deep in the exciting work of building my signature online program, "Restore and Rebuild Your Foundation: A Phased Program for Postpartum Recovery." This program is designed specifically for active moms like you, offering a clear, safe, and progressive path to empower you to rebuild your core and glute strength, improve mobility, and prepare you to return to the gym confident and feeling your best.
This blog post is just a glimpse of the comprehensive guidance you'll receive. Make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter for more actionable insights, tips, and updates on the program launch!
Ready for Personalized Support?
While this blog post and my upcoming program provide comprehensive guidance, I also offer one-on-one coaching for those who need more tailored support. My virtual and in-person (in your home) packages are designed to give you highly personalized attention. I currently accept a limited number of just 3 one-on-one clients at a time to ensure dedicated support.
Visit my website to learn more about my personalized coaching packages and see if we're a good fit.
Jess Schaffer
Functional Foundations Owner & Coach