Welcome to Lesson #2 of Deeper. Slower. Easier. Level 1.
While your diaphragm technically pulls in the most amount of air, it’s not the only breathing muscle involved.
Enter your intercostal muscles. Inter = in-between. Costals = ribs. Intercostals = the muscles in-between your ribs.
You have two sets of intercostal muscles: the internal intercostal muscles and the external intercostal muscles. The former is on the inside, the latter is on the outside. See below.
When your external intercostal muscles do their job (i.e. when they contract), they lift and spread your entire ribcage. When your internal intercostal muscles do their job, you will forcefully exhale (think sneezing or coughing).
A great way to visualize how your intercostal muscles work is by imagining an accordion. There is nothing on the inside of the accordion that pushes out, right? Rather, an external force manually spreads the accordion, and (as a byproduct) pulls air into the instrument.
The same principal applies to you: there is nothing on the inside of your lungs pushing outwards to create your inhale! Instead, the surrounding muscles in your torso activate to do the work.
Try two breaths with me to understand that idea better. Do one breath while by placing your hand on your sternum and taking a huge breath. Feel how the entire chest plate moves forwards and towards your chin.
And then take a second breath by placing your hands on the sides of your ribcage. This should feel like a tug-of-war — a slight movement left and right.
You might surprise yourself with how deeply you can actually inhale. Keep practicing, though. In my experience people can breathe much, much deeper than they think is possible.
Check out the practice section if you’d like a guided session to get the technique down. Otherwise, keep going!
Peace,
– Ethan ॐ
P.S. Breathing with your ribcage also causes your heart to expand. This has an interesting effect: when you inhale, your heart will speed up (bigger heart = more blood = faster pumping), and when you exhale, your heart will slow down (smaller heart = less blood = slower pumping).
I talk about how to use this fact to adjust your blood pressure in DSE Level 2 and DSE Level 3. If that content isn’t out yet, make sure you sign up for my email list to be alerted when it’s released.
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- accordion breathing
- syringe breathing
- spherical breathing
- part the white sea
- coasting
- radiating
- sponge breathing
- scrubbing
and much more...
- accordion breathing
- syringe breathing
- spherical breathing
- part the white sea
- coasting
- radiating
- sponge breathing
- scrubbing
DSE | level 1
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