How diaphragmatic breathing can strengthen your abs, support your low back, improve posture and performance, and help your body handle stress
You are probably breathing right now.
Unless you’re holding your breath while reading this, in which case… please stop.
Your body takes thousands of breaths every day without you giving it a single instruction.
You’re performing a natural core workout!
Pretty convenient, right?
But here’s the problem:
You may be wasting all of those repetitions.
Yep.
You could be using every breath as a tiny bit of core work—and instead, you might be asking your neck and shoulders to do a job that belongs somewhere else.
Think about that for a second.
You don’t have to schedule it.
You don’t need a gym membership.
You don’t need a mat.
You don’t need a fitness influencer yelling, “Ten more! You got this!”
You just need to breathe.
Correctly.
Because your diaphragm is a muscle.
Your abs are muscles.
Your obliques are muscles.
Your back muscles are muscles.
And they can all participate in breathing.
So why aren’t we using one of the things we do approximately 20,000 times a day as an opportunity to train the system that supports our spine?
Honestly, that’s a little ridiculous.
Your Belly Isn’t the Whole Story
If someone tells you to “breathe into your belly,” what do you do?
You probably push your stomach out.
Congratulations.
You’re halfway there.
Your belly isn’t supposed to be the only thing moving.
A good diaphragmatic breath expands your entire torso—front, sides and back.
Think about your rib cage as an expandable structure rather than a rigid box.
When you inhale, your diaphragm moves downward, your rib cage expands, and your torso makes room for the breath.
Your belly can move forward.
Your ribs expand sideways.
And your back can expand, too.
Yes. Your back.
That’s the part people often miss.
Your torso isn’t supposed to inflate like a balloon being filled from one end.
It’s supposed to expand around you.
Front.
Sides.
Back.
365 degrees of breathing.
And when that happens, your abdominal muscles, obliques, transverse abdominis, spinal muscles, multifidi and other muscles surrounding your torso get to participate.
Not with some giant, dramatic contraction.
They’re not sitting there doing bicep curls with every breath.
They’re coordinating.
Contracting.
Relaxing.
Stabilizing.
Adapting.
Over and over again.
All day.
Every day.
Which brings us to a very important question:
Why are we spending so much time doing 15-minute ab workouts when we’re already doing the most basic core exercise imaginable 20,000 times a day?
Because most of us aren’t using those breaths very well.
North-South Breathing Is Making Your Neck Work Overtime
Here’s an easy way to figure out what we’re talking about.
Take a really shallow breath.
Don’t change anything.
Just notice what happens.
Your chest rises.
Maybe your shoulders lift.
Your neck gets involved.
Everything moves up.
That’s what I call north-south breathing.
Now take a slower, deeper breath.
Don’t think “big belly.”
Think:
Expand.
Front.
Sides.
Back.
That’s east-west breathing.
Instead of lifting your entire upper body to make room for air, you’re allowing your rib cage to expand around the breath.
And suddenly your neck doesn’t have to be the star of the show.
Your trapezius can relax.
Your levator scapulae doesn’t have to keep helping.
Your scalenes don’t have to clock in for another shift.
Even your SCM can take the afternoon off.
They’re perfectly capable of helping you breathe when you need them.
They just shouldn’t have to help you breathe 20,000 times a day.
Because when your shoulders have to help you take every breath, they’re doing a job that belongs somewhere else.
And then we wonder why our neck and shoulders are always tight.
Maybe they’re exhausted.
Your Body Has a Built-In Core Workout
Here’s something you’ve probably experienced.
Have you ever laughed so hard with your friends that your abs hurt the next morning?
Or watched a movie so funny that you woke up the next day thinking:
“Why the hell does my stomach hurt?”
You didn’t suddenly develop a six-pack overnight.
You laughed.
A lot.
Your respiratory system just gave your core a workout.
Laughing involves repeated, forceful contractions of your diaphragm, abdominal muscles and other muscles involved in breathing and trunk control.
Your torso is working.
Your abs are working.
Your rib cage is moving.
Your diaphragm is working.
And you’re doing all of it without a single crunch.
This is why I want you to start thinking differently about core training.
Your body doesn’t care what we call an exercise.
It responds to the position, movement and demands we give it.
And breathing is a demand.
A very repetitive one.
Your Diaphragm Is More Important Than You Think
The diaphragm is a large, dome-shaped muscle underneath your lungs.
When you inhale, it contracts and moves downward.
That helps create the pressure change that brings air into your lungs.
At the same time, your rib cage expands.
Your intercostal muscles—the muscles between your ribs—help your rib cage move.
Your abdominal wall and other muscles surrounding your torso respond to the change in pressure.
This isn’t a single-muscle operation.
It’s a team sport.
And like any good team, everybody needs to know their job.
The diaphragm shouldn’t have to hand the job off to your neck every time you need a breath.
Your abs shouldn’t only show up when somebody says, “Okay, everybody, 30 crunches.”
Your back muscles shouldn’t only be invited to the party when you pick up a barbell.
These muscles are already part of the breathing team.
We just need to let them work.
Your Low Back Gets to Participate, Too
Here’s where diaphragmatic breathing gets particularly interesting if you spend a lot of time sitting or deal with low back pain.
Your torso is not just your abs.
It’s the front, the sides and the back.
When you breathe properly, the muscles surrounding your spine participate in the constant cycle of stabilization, expansion and relaxation that happens with every breath.
Your low back isn’t sitting there doing nothing.
It’s part of the system.
And this matters because we’ve already established something earlier in this book:
The low back is often doing too much because something else isn’t doing enough.
Sometimes your low back needs more strength.
Sometimes it needs more movement.
Sometimes it needs less work because another part of the body isn’t pulling its weight.
Breathing isn’t going to magically cure low back pain.
If only it were that easy.
But improving the way your diaphragm, abdominal wall and spinal muscles work together can give your torso another tool for creating stability.
And you don’t have to do a single sit-up to practice it.
The Desk Jockey Is Breathing in a Terrible Position
Let’s talk about your average office worker.
You sit.
You lean toward your computer.
Your head moves forward.
Your shoulders round.
Your rib cage settles into that familiar slumped position.
Then you stay there.
For hours.
And you breathe.
Over and over again.
Now, I’m not saying every person who sits at a desk is secretly destroying their respiratory system.
But position matters.
Your rib cage needs room to move.
Your diaphragm needs room to move.
Your torso needs room to expand.
And if you’ve spent eight hours folded forward like a human question mark, you may not be giving any of that system much room to work.
Then Saturday comes.
You decide you’re going to be a weekend warrior.
You go play pickleball.
You run.
You golf.
You lift.
You play tennis.
You decide today is the day you’re finally going to get back into shape.
Your body is thinking:
“Oh. So we’re athletes again?”
This is where breathing becomes part of the bigger picture.
Are we breathing poorly because we’re stuck in a position?
Or are we stuck in that position because we’re breathing poorly?
Who cares? Fix both.
Your Neck Isn’t Supposed to Be Your Backup Diaphragm
When your diaphragm isn’t doing enough of the work, your body has backup plans.
The trapezius.
The scalenes.
The levator scapulae.
The SCM.
Those muscles can absolutely help with breathing when demand increases.
If you’re sprinting up a hill, you’re going to recruit more muscles to help you breathe.
That’s normal.
The problem is when your body starts treating every ordinary breath like you’re sprinting up a hill.
Then those muscles never really get to clock out.
And that can contribute to the feeling of tightness and tension we commonly experience through the neck, shoulders and upper chest.
Your neck has enough responsibilities.
Holding your head up all day is already a pretty significant assignment.
It doesn’t need a second job.
The Chicken-and-Egg Problem
Here’s the frustrating part.
We don’t always know which came first.
Are you breathing poorly because your body is stuck in forward flexion?
Or has your breathing pattern helped reinforce the position you’re in?
Yes.
That’s my answer.
Who cares? Fix both.
If you’re constantly sitting in a collapsed position, work on your position.
If you’re breathing shallowly, work on your breathing.
If your rib cage isn’t moving well, give it opportunities to move.
If your core isn’t coordinating well, give it better work to do.
The body doesn’t need us to find the one magical culprit.
It needs us to give it better options.
The Gym Bro Who Forgot to Breathe
Now let’s talk about the gym.
You know the guy.
He’s lifting something extremely heavy.
His face has turned a fascinating shade of purple.
His entire body is braced.
And he’s holding his breath like he’s trying to win a submarine competition.
Now, before I get angry at the internet, let’s clarify something.
There are situations in heavy strength training where breath-holding and bracing can be useful.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about making breath-holding your default strategy.
Your muscles need oxygen.
Your body needs oxygen to produce energy.
When you’re exercising, especially when you’re performing repeated efforts, your breathing needs to support the work you’re asking your muscles to perform.
You want your muscles working hard.
You don’t want your respiratory system fighting against them.
And breathing properly also helps your trunk manage pressure and coordinate with your arms and legs.
That matters when you’re lifting.
It matters when you’re running.
It matters when you’re jumping.
It matters when you’re changing direction.
Strength is great. Strength that knows how to move is better.
And Your Muscles Need Oxygen to Perform
This one seems obvious.
Your muscles need oxygen.
Yet somehow we still have people holding their breath through an entire set like oxygen is a luxury item.
Think about an athlete running the bases.
They leave home plate.
Accelerate to first.
Round the bag.
Keep going.
Change direction.
Accelerate again.
And if they’re lucky, they make it all the way around to home.
Their muscles are working the entire time.
They need oxygen.
The better the body can manage breathing while producing movement, the better it can support that movement.
This is one reason breathing matters so much for young athletes.
And it’s one of the reasons it belongs in the foundation of NextGen Performance Lab.
A Kid Who Can’t Breathe Efficiently Can’t Perform Efficiently
Performance doesn’t begin with strength.
It begins with movement.
And movement requires oxygen.
A young athlete doesn’t just need to be strong.
They need to be able to coordinate their body while they’re moving.
They need to accelerate.
Decelerate.
Change direction.
Throw.
Jump.
Run.
Recover.
And breathe through all of it.
A baseball player can’t run the bases on an empty tank.
Neither can a soccer player.
Or a basketball player.
Or a swimmer.
Or a kid trying to win the last 30 seconds of a race.
If the body isn’t breathing efficiently, the muscles aren’t getting the support they need to keep working.
And once fatigue shows up, movement quality can change.
That’s why coaches should care about breathing.
Not because we’re trying to turn every athlete into a meditation guru.
Because breathing is part of performance.
You can’t build athletic performance on a foundation that doesn’t know how to breathe.
Now Let’s Talk About Stress
Your nervous system is paying attention to your breathing.
It has to.
If you’re being chased by a rampaging mastodon, you’re probably not going to sit there and calmly inhale for 10 seconds.
You’re going to run.
Or scream.
Or do whatever your prehistoric survival instincts tell you to do.
That’s appropriate.
Your body has correctly identified:
“We are in danger.”
Your sympathetic nervous system is helping you respond.
But here’s the problem.
Your nervous system doesn’t always know the difference between a mastodon and a terrible Tuesday.
A near-miss in traffic can spike your stress.
A difficult conversation can spike your stress.
A work deadline can spike your stress.
The person who just sent you an email beginning with “Per my last email…” can spike your stress.
None of those things require you to physically run for your life.
So here’s where breathing can become useful.
When you deliberately slow your breathing and take deeper, more controlled breaths, you’re giving your nervous system a different signal.
We’re okay.
We’re sitting in a car.
We’re sitting at a desk.
We’re standing in the kitchen.
We’re not being chased.
We’re breathing slowly.
There is no immediate threat.
Slow breathing can help shift the body toward a more relaxed parasympathetic state.
This isn’t a treatment for chronic anxiety.
It’s simply another tool you can use when everyday stress starts getting the better of you.
So the next time you’re sitting in traffic and the person in front of you is driving like they’ve never encountered a steering wheel before, try something.
Don’t honk.
Don’t gesture.
Breathe.
Your blood pressure—and your criminal record—may thank you.
The Professor Posture Breathing Test
Okay.
Let’s see what your breathing is actually doing.
This isn’t a medical test.
It doesn’t tell you whether you have a lung disease.
It is a functional breathing challenge designed to make you pay attention to how well you can control and utilize your breath.
And you can do it almost anywhere.
Sitting at your desk.
Sitting in traffic.
Standing in your kitchen.
Standing in line at the coffee shop.
You don’t need equipment.
You don’t need an app.
You don’t need a wearable.
You need a clock.
Here’s the challenge:
Inhale slowly for 10 seconds.
Don’t gulp.
Don’t lift your shoulders.
Let your torso expand.
Front.
Sides.
Back.
Hold that breath for 10 seconds.
Then:
Exhale slowly for 10 seconds.
Try to still be releasing air as you reach the number 10.
Then:
Hold the empty breath for 10 seconds.
That’s 40 seconds.
Now start again.
Your goal is to continue the pattern for a full minute.
And while you’re doing it, pay attention.
Can you inhale slowly for the entire 10 seconds?
Can you hold comfortably?
Can you exhale slowly for 10 seconds without running out of air?
Can you remain empty for another 10 seconds?
Do your shoulders start creeping toward your ears?
Does your chest rise dramatically?
Does your belly expand?
Do your ribs move?
Can you feel your sides?
Can you feel your back?
And here’s the really interesting part:
Does it feel different sitting down than it does standing?
Try it both ways.
Most of us spend a ridiculous amount of our day sitting.
So yes, you can try this at your desk.
You can even try it sitting in traffic.
Just, you know, keep your eyes on the road.
Now Try It Lying Down
This is the easiest position for most people to feel what we’re talking about.
Lie on your back.
Put your feet flat on the floor.
Bend your knees so your legs form an upside-down V.
Relax.
Now breathe.
Don’t think:
“Push my belly out.”
Think:
“Expand my torso.”
Front.
Sides.
Back.
Notice your rib cage.
Notice your belly.
And notice your low back.
As you inhale, can you feel your low back move gently toward the floor?
Can you feel your ribs expand?
Can you feel your sides move?
Can you feel your torso become larger?
That’s what we’re looking for.
Not a giant gulp of air.
Not a dramatic chest lift.
Expansion.
You Don’t Need Another Ab Workout
I’m not telling you to stop strength training.
I’m not telling you to throw away your planks.
I’m not declaring crunches illegal.
Although I wouldn’t mind if we put a few of them on probation.
I’m saying your body has more ways to train your core than the fitness industry has convinced you to believe.
Breathing is one of them.
Your diaphragm, abdominal wall, obliques and spinal muscles can coordinate thousands of times a day.
So if you’re trying to improve core strength, posture, low back stability or athletic performance, don’t overlook the thing you’re already doing all day long.
Breathing isn’t the entire answer.
But it’s part of the answer.
And unlike another 30-minute ab workout, you don’t have to find time for it.
You’re already doing it.
Breathe Like Your Body Has a Job to Do
Your diaphragm is a muscle.
Treat it like one.
Your torso isn’t supposed to move only forward.
Your rib cage isn’t supposed to be a rigid box.
Your shoulders aren’t supposed to lift with every breath.
Your neck isn’t supposed to work overtime just because you need oxygen.
And your abs don’t need another 100 sit-ups to prove they exist.
Your body was designed to breathe.
It was designed to expand.
It was designed to stabilize.
It was designed to move.
And when those systems start working together, something pretty remarkable happens.
Breathing becomes movement.
Movement becomes stability.
Stability supports strength.
And strength gives you more options.
Whether you’re sitting at a desk in Tampa, lifting weights at the gym, chasing your kids around the house, running the bases, or trying not to lose your mind in Florida traffic—
take a breath.
A real one.
Front.
Sides.
Back.
Let your diaphragm do its job.
Let your torso participate.
And remember:
The body doesn’t just need oxygen. It needs to know what to do with it.
