If you're not familiar, the diaphragm is a thin sheet of muscle, shaped like a dome, that separates the lungs and heart from the organs of digestion. It is responsible for breathing: as it contracts, the dome flattens and draws air into the lungs. At the same time, if everything is working well, the abdominal muscles and the ribcage expand to give room to the air entering the body, while at the same time, the pelvic floor lowers. As the diaphragm relaxes, it goes back to its dome-like shape, the abdominal muscles contract back into place and exhalation occurs. People (and animals who have diaphragms) breathe fully into their bellies when they're relaxed and not stressed or in pain. Because people are often stressed (i.e, in some kind of psychological pain state), we often lose the ability to belly breathe, or our ability to take a deep belly breath becomes diminished.
If you've asked about breathing in class before, you've probably heard my standard answer to the question of how to breathe during practice: just do it. Ensuring that you aren't holding the breath is very important, since many of us do that subconsciously while concentrating. There is another level to breathing during Tai Chi and Qigong practice: relaxing the breath so that it flows evenly and deeply (a fully belly breath / complete diaphragmatic breathing). Even though Tai Chi and Qigong can be vigorous exercise at times, and the heart rate will increase as you do some of the more challenging moves, the breath still tends to be long and slow, or should be. If you find yourself panting or your breathing becoming erratic or frantic, it's time to relax more deeply and work on deepening the breath, while asking if you're taking a complete breath.
I was always taught that it's important not to tie a pattern of breathing to Tai Chi and Qigong movements. Breathing will change and shift as you deepen your relationship with energy and with the practice, and so you shouldn't train yourself to coordinate the breath with each movement in a particular way. Doing so inhibits spontaneity.
I stand by that answer, but the fact is that many of us (myself included, from time to time) need to return to an evaluation of the breath and ask: is it truly relaxed? Is it deep enough? Is it flowing freely? And, most importantly, is the breathing mechanism doing what it's supposed to do? Most people breathe too shallowly, or clench while breathing (see above re: chronic stress).
The current state of research into breathing and its connection to good body mechanics and internal health supports the vital importance of good breathing. Erin Chapman and colleagues have argued that breathing is so important to correct movement that a breathing assessment should go hand in hand with treatment of musculoskeletal pain in active people. (You can read more about these assessments and the different types of breathing dysfunction here, in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.)
Disordered breathing also has implications for a wide array of seemingly unconnected issues. This article by Bruno Bordoni and Bruno Morabito in Cureus discusses the links between diaphragmatic dysfunction and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In the course of their discussion they link dysfunction of the diaphragm to a stunning array of physical issues, including (but not limited to): swelling or bloating of the abdomen, pelvic pain, lower back pain, TMJ (a dysfunction of the jaw), chronic headaches, GERD (acid reflux), anxiety, depression, increase in both pain and the perception of pain, and inflammation. That's a ton! (They link all of these issues to IBS—it is quite fascinating and horrifying reading. For those of you who were at class when I mentioned this topic, this is the article that started my deep dive into reading about breathing, after I had already begun to work with my own breathing as a new approach for a couple of issues I'm personally working on.)
My takeaway from all this is to reaffirm how vital it is for us to reset our relationship with good breathing mechanics from time to time. Fortunately retraining is accessible and something we can do from the comfort of our homes. (If you've got severe symptoms, you could consider consulting a doctor and ask about the possibility of biofeedback, which has proven quite effective in retraining the breath.)
I recommend working with the breath as a practice on its own, so that the diaphragm learns to move freely, and in coordination with the other body systems, and then trying to fold your new breathing habits into your practice slowly over time. For many of us, reminding the body of how to breathe well and completely will feel so good, it will become second nature (or become second nature again) while we do complex tasks, including Tai Chi and Qigong. Deep breathing / belly breathing / diaphragmatic breathing is a great practice to do hand in hand with the postural realignment work we've been doing in class recently, especially in Qigong. Releasing old and restricted breathing patterns will really help support the new postural and movement habits we're all constantly trying to develop!
Some notes:
A little goes a long way when you are first working with all this. Try doing some relaxed breathing where you just pay attention to the breath, and then 1-3 deep or belly breaths once a day. Work your way up to more.
Don't force anything. If you've been breathing more shallowly, you will be strengthening the diaphragm and the other muscles involved with breathing, as well as stretching them, but that doesn't mean you should force breath to deepen. Relax and allow the breath to move freely: belly breathing is a product of a relaxed body. Deepen your breathing over time, not all at once.
The concept of timing that we talk about in class—coordinating movement so everything works all together, and no body part is left behind—also applies here. If you haven't been breathing fully, then you'll probably hesitate to expand the belly when inhaling, and on exhalation, the contraction of the abdomen will probably lag behind as you release your breath. Try allowing the belly to expand (while relaxing it!) a little bit sooner than you think you should. Likewise, let the belly fall or contract "ahead" of the breath as you let it go and exhale. For me personally, the benefits I'm experiencing so far from working in a deeper way with my breath have largely come from completing the inward movement of the belly with exhalation, so I've been making sure to play with letting it contract more than it usually does.
Good luck! Don't overdo, don't strain, and enjoy folding this practice into your routine. It really doesn't take long, and it's deeply relaxing and refreshing.
Resources:
A good discussion by pelvic health expert The Flower Empowered on the relationship between belly breathing and the pelvic floor (6 1/2 minutes)
