Fill The Bucket

And Other Easy Cues to Breathe Better

If you haven't been hiding under a health rock for the last ten years you probably know that the jury's out on breathing techniques. Even small doses of purposeful breathing are well known to improve your ability to shift into parasympathetic states more effectively. This means you reduce the negative effects of stress, relieve anxiety, and even improve sleep capacity.

But which ones should you do? Lots of breathing gurus means lots of breathing methods and techniques. Most of them with a fundamental assumption that limits effect. That assumption is that you care as much about being good at breathing as they do about teaching it. In my experience, most people don't. Like them you probably just want to know how it can help you feel and perform better at the stuff you already care about.

In my experience teaching the skill of breathing on purpose is much simpler than it appears to be. You don't need to know the names of any muscles involved and you certainly don't need to breathe into your belly (cause there's no lungs in there). In the last few years I've put most of what I used to teach in breathing seminars into a drawer that I open only when I'm talking to specifically interested parties (aka other breath nerds) or if it solves a unique problem. Otherwise, I keep it super simple.

This article offers two very simple cues for you to use. They will give you a starting point so that you can begin to explore your own breath mechanics whether for purposes of improved bodily awareness, enhanced relaxation, or to get some movement into your spine and rib cage to relieve tension or pain.

Not Belly Breathing

Insert typographic representation of a sigh here. When I teach breathing I'm often asked why I don't tell people to breathe into their bellies. Simply put, you don't have lungs in your belly. I want you to change the movement of the container that your lungs are inside of - your rib cage. So the cues I use offer the user more direct access to the thing we are trying to effect.

Rather than using an anti-cue that steers you away from something I don't want, breathing emphasized with the chest and neck, I use language that steers you towards what I do. In this case a smoother, deeper breath into the lungs. Another thing that the cues you'll learn from this article provide is a more universal application than belly breathing. If you find yourself in conditions where relaxing your belly is not an option, breathing this way will offer you more adaptive solutions. For example, if you're an athlete in training or on the field of play, you need your abdominals to be working and still access good breathing mechanics.

Let's take a look at the first cue.

Fill The Bucket & Slow the Exhale

Imagine that your torso is a big five gallon bucket like you get from a hardware store. When you stick a hose in the bucket and turn on the spigot, which direction does the water fill the bucket? It fills from the bottom to the top, right? As the water goes in does it just stay in the center? Of course not. It goes evenly out to the sides.

When you inhale think of air filling your lungs the same way water fills the bucket. From bottom to top and out to the sides. Adjust your speed so that you can keep the inhale smooth and even while you fill the bucket. Try to keep the inhale through your nose if you can unless it causes discomfort.

Stop reading for a minute, close your eyes and try it. Set a timer!

Did you notice any areas of the bucket where it felt stuck. Did the "water" go all the way around the bucket or just in the front? Your ribs go all the way from your sternum to your spine. Being able to get air 360 degrees is a literal increase in lung capacity.

Fill the bucket is probably my most used breathing cue in the last few years and has proven to be really effective in lots of different environments but inhaling is only half way there. Now we gotta let it out. The research consensus is pretty clear that exhale focused breathing techniques more effectively induce the relaxation response in your physiology.

After you fill that bucket with a slow, smooth breath pour the water back out but a little slower than it went in. Purposeful breathing with a focused on slow and deliberate exhalation has been consistently demonstrated to induce a parasympathetic activity. Your exhale can be through either your nose or your mouth but given the opportunity I again prefer the nose because it affords a chance to increase control over breathing. If it's uncomfortable or stressful for you to do so however, just use your mouth.

Try this:

• Find your pulse. Set a timer and just observe it for a minute.

• Now stand up, take a deep breath, hold it and run in place. Fast! Keep going and push until you're a bit more uncomfortable than you care to be. (Please don't die).

• Find your pulse again quickly. Now, fill the bucket and control the exhale. Really focus. Observe your pulse. Watch how you feel. Does your sense of body and mind change? How? Stay focused and observe.

These two simple cues can be used in any situation where you decided you want take control over how you're feeling or if you want to slow your heart rate down. Breathing techniques work on such a deep level of physiology that the context is almost irrelevant. Pretty cool!

You can integrate these as part of a focused breath practice you already have or sit or lay down for 5:00 to 10:00 and fill that bucket. Either way you will get some benefit from breathing better.

Open and Close the A

Another helpful cue that gets to the heart of moving the rib cage well is what I like to call the "A". The bottom of the front portion of your rib cage forms an angle called the infrasternal angle which kind of looks like the capital letter A. When you inhale, the A opens, when you exhale the A closes. Purposeful emphasis of this motion can get the ribs to move through larger ranges of motion which will stretch and strengthen both the diaphragm and intercostals (the muscles between the ribs).

This cue of opening and closing the A is very effective when married to exercises that flex and extend the spine. Sit ups and Jefferson curls are too easy examples of common exercises that can be made even more effective by adding this cue. Regardless of the specific exercise you chose or simply use the cue during a lying or seated relaxation session, opening and closing the A can help strengthen and condition ventilation muscles.

There are a myriad of benefits to this including most obviously breathing more efficiently in general but also providing an indirect way to increase spinal motion. Anecdotally, I've found this a very effective back door of sorts into reducing back tension and pain. Many exercises that flex and extend the spine for spinal health are large, gross movements that may allow for compensation that reduce effectiveness. By adding opening and closing the A you can further emphasize motion between spinal segments to offer relief and improve spinal health.

Try this modified version of the basic cat/camel exercise from yoga.

• Assume a tabletop position on all fours. Your wrists should be under your shoulders and your knees should be under your hips.

• Inhale slowly, arch your back slightly, and focus on opening the A.

• Exhale smooth, round your back slightly, and focus on closing the A.

• Perform 5-10 slow, purposeful repetitions.

Watch this VIDEO to see an example. But don't focus on arching and rounding as much as opening and closing the A!

You can use a few sets of this cat/camel exercise as part of a warm up or cool down or you can simply integrate this cue into exercises you may already do.

Simple Focus

Breathing is the simplest movement we perform and it should not be complicated to improve breathing skills to feel and perform better. These cues will help to orient your intention more effectively so you can become skilled at breathing on purpose.

Doing so can amplify your results in breathing practices you may already be using to manage stress or improve outcomes in exercises you are performing in your existing fitness routine.

Thanks for reading,

Rob

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