Obviously the lungs are higher up than our stomach, so how come our bellies get bigger when we take a diaphragmatic breath?
How is it that I can control the balloonness of my belly even while holding my breath?
Thanks in advance!
In: 2
your lungs are what is expanding. they, and your stomach are higher in your body than you probably realize. the reason your stomach area expands is because you are pushing on your diaphram, that then pushes on your stomach.
Choir professor here!
When you inhale, what you are actually doing is asking your diaphragm to move down. It’s attached to the base of your lungs, so as they expand they create a low pressure area. Air gets sucked into the area, which is how you breathe.
When you *really* breathe in, like for singing, the diaphragm moves a little more. The lungs can only expand so much because you have ribs and other organs in the way. To make more room, your diaphragm pushes down until it’s gets to a part of your body where there aren’t any bones. This pushes out some organs and your belly.
Incidentally, if you’re having trouble doing this, lie on a flat surface. Your body does this naturally when you’re lying flat.
There are three types of breathing: Diaphragmatic breathing, intercostal breathing and clavicular breathing.
Diaphragmatic breathing involves pushing the diaphragm down. That pushes out your belly.
Intercostal breathing (intercostals are the muscles between your ribs) pulls your ribs up and outwards.
Clavicular breathing is the last. This involves expanding your lungs by raising your shoulders. This usually just assists the other two methods, although people with certain types of paralysis can learn to manage on just clavicular breathing for shorter periods of time.
The reason you can push your gut out while holding your breath is because:
* Air can expand. You can still push your diaphragm down even if you block the entry of new air into your lungs. This creates a bit of negative pressure inside your lungs.
* To some extent your intercostal muscles can compensate by giving in a bit. So compressing your chestcage to push out your gut.
P.S: If you’re a practiced singer or play a brass instrument you might notice that if you’re holding your breath it’s much easier to push your gut out if you’re not trying to keep your chestcage expanded at the same time (allowing you to increase your true waist measurement another few centimeters)
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