Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively

Breathing is an important factor of having good posture at a computer. When I sat at a desk 40 hours per week, physical and mental stress would cause me shallow breath and posture that was poor. My shoulder tension was out of control. My shoulder blades were uneven. I had pelvic floor issues from sitting too long. The natural curves in my spine were always out of alignment.

It felt like the air I was breathing would barely pass below the airway in my neck, much less into my lungs. As soon as it would enter my lungs, I would exhale it out. The air was in my lungs long enough to keep me conscious. Instead of letting my breath work for me efficiently, my brain and body were always in more of a defensive state. All of my muscles were either compressed or overextended. They were all tight, especially breathing muscles like the diaphragm, abdominals, and muscles throughout my rib cage.

Nothing on my website is medical advice. It’s for informational purposes only. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the poor posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned.

Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively

You are your primary caretaker. Not your doctor, surgeon, coach, or physical therapist. They all play a role. But, they also have their own agenda and their own motivation that’s not always in our best interest, regardless if it’s intentional or not. Do your research and make good decisions. Be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare, breath and posture.

I started to pay attention to my lack of breath and posture mistakes. So, I read 2 books about breathing. The first was titled “Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic.” It was written by Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich. The second book I read was “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.” It was written by James Nestor.

I also took 2 classes that taught me valuable breathing exercises. I took an in-person course led by Brian Mackenzie at shiftadapt.com. The other was a 10 week online course led by Wim Hof at wimhofmethod.com. I would definitely recommend each of these books and trainings to anyone who wants to improve their breath and posture. (Side note: I’m not compensated by any of these writers or teachers for mentioning their work. I’m simply a paying customer who enjoys their content. My quality of life has improved because of what I’ve learned from them.)

Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively

I’ll write future articles that summarize what I learned from each of the books I read, as well as the classes I took. In this article, I won’t go too in depth about what I’ve learned from each one specifically.

I have 2 main goals for this article:

• I want to express how breath work is directly related to having good posture at a computer.
• Also, I want to introduce readers to the books and classes that taught me everything I know about breathing exercises.

Here are the 3 main points I’ve learned so far.

I needed to increase the amount of air I was taking into my lungs.

Physical and mental stress from my desk job were causing shallow breathing all day and night. The first of the breathing exercises I tried was called box breathing. Box breathing is a very basic breathing exercise where you breathe in, hold, breathe out, then refrain from breathing (for the same count on each of the steps). For example, the first count I used was 4 seconds. I would inhale slowly for 4 seconds, hold my breath for 4 seconds, exhale slowly for 4 seconds, and then refrain from breathing for 4 seconds. All 4 steps are the same amount of time. That’s why it’s called box breathing exercises. Eventually, I would increase the amount of time for each from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.

Box breathing definitely increased the amount of air I was breathing in. It didn’t only help while I was actually doing the breathing exercises. It also increased the quality of my breathing throughout the day, especially during my movement habits.

I needed to increase the amount of time air spent in my lungs.

To do this, I needed to get used to taking slower, deeper breaths. Ironically, this would mean breathing less number of times. I learned this from Brian Mackenzie at shiftadapt.com. He has a free breathwork test located at shiftadapt.com/breathwork. Once I took this test, it gave me a new protocol for my breathing exercises. I scored under the Apnea 2 category. The test gave me a new breathing protocol of:

1. Inhale for 6 seconds.
2. Hold for 18 seconds.
3. Exhale for 12 seconds.

As of writing this article, I’ve been doing this protocol for about 6 months. I usually spend at least 5 to 10 minutes a day on it. This protocol has improved my breathing in a big way when it comes to having good posture at a computer. I definitely recommend taking Brian’s test to see what protocol is best for you. Again, it can be found at shiftadapt.com/breathwork.

I needed to breathe through my nose as much as possible, not my mouth.

This goes for both inhaling and exhaling. It doesn’t only apply when doing breathing exercises. It applies all day, even during movement habits. I needed to decrease the number of times I breathed through my mouth.

There are many reasons that breathing through the nose is more efficient. For me, the biggest reason had to do with decreasing headaches. I think overusing my jaw muscles to breathe through my mouth would cause excessive muscle tension throughout my head, neck, and face. Also, I used to be a chronic mouth breather, on both the inhale and exhale. I believe my jaw muscles were one of my most overused muscle groups.

For example, let’s say I would breathe 15 short, shallow times per minute back then. And that’s being generous. I probably averaged more breaths than that. If I opened my mouth to breathe 15 times per minute, that’s 900 times per hour. Being a chronic mouth breather, I got to the point where I didn’t open my mouth to breathe anymore. It just stayed open all the time. Even when I would close my lips, my teeth were still wide open because my jaw muscles were so used to being in that open position.

Since I’ve started breathing through my nose more, I’ve noticed an improvement in the health of my jaw and face muscles. They’ve relaxed much more. My headaches have also decreased because I don’t open my mouth thousands of times a day to breathe. I used to get a couple headaches a month. Now, I will go months without having one. It’s a pretty righteous feeling to be able to say that.

Thanks for your interest in sitting posture. If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to improve your good posture.

If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.  

>>> Click here to pick up your copy

This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.

Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.

Take care,

Todd Bowen

P.S. You can sign up for my free computer posture newsletter here.