Breathing with your Diaphragm

Breathing properly, especially while running, makes all the difference in the world.  It's called breathing with your diaphragm or stomach breathing versus chest breathing.

Back in the day at Broadcasting school we learned 'Diaphragmatic Breathing'.  That's basically using your diaphragm to pull air into your lungs and exhale completely. How it works is that when you exhale you intentionally push out your stomach and reverse it when exhaling.  It gets air into the deepest pockets of your lungs and evacuates more completely.  It takes a bit of practice to get it right but once you do it, it becomes natural.  You'll never breathe 'from your chest' again and wonder how you managed before. The best way to illustrate the benefits of breathing with your diaphragm is in the infographic below:

Until next time...
ThatRunninGuy