Morning,
How are you now that we are "officially" into Autumn? Ok, who, after last weeks edition, went to The Range to see if the Xmas decs were out? I can confirm that someone did and guess what? Our fears were confirmed and Christmas had already begun on Bank Holiday Monday!! So depending how you feel about the whole festive thing, The Range may be a place to avoid until after Halloween at the earliest.
On Saturday I attended The Big One Fitness day at The English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. A wonderful day spent doing various exercise sessions & lectures. One session was dedicated to Wellbeing and looking at treating the body "wholistically". Wellbeing was defined as "A state in which a human being functions at an optimal level of integration between the elements of body, mind & spirit. The well individual is one who is happy,healthy, and whole and who perceives his/her life as one with meaning and purpose".
We then went through how the body becomes imbalanced and the effects on the body each phase produces. One thing that came up was the importance of breathing correctly and here is what was like an "Eureka" moment.
Hands up if you suffer with a stiff neck? Even after a (hopefully one of mine) massages, do you sometimes still think there is tension in the neck area? Maybe we have to start looking at your breathing, learning to use your diaphragm because, believe it or not, we use the muscles of our neck to breathe. If we breathe incorrectly,take shallow breaths, not enough oxygen enters the body. To enable our bodies to perform everyday tasks, our neck muscles become overworked and stressed attempting to get sufficient oxygen into the body.
In a cruel twist of fate, our neck muscles are linked to the sympathetic nervous system (that which operates without any human interference) so when they are overworked, this system releases stress hormones (the fight or flight response), so we begin feeling stressed, agitated, panicky etc which aggravates the condition and so things start to spiral out of control. By learning to breath correctly can result in an array of health benefits.
The next image will give you an idea on how and where we should breathe,in through the nose, out from the mouth.
The next time you come for treatment and your neck is stiff, let's look at your breathing
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