Hypopressive Breathing

A specialized postural and breathing method to recondition the deep core muscles.

My curiosity about hypopressive breathing started after coming across a youtube video made by Alana Blanchard, a pro surfer. I clicked on the video because of the caption that wrote, “breathing tutorial for back pain, smaller waist, bloating, ab separation and more!” I followed along and loved it! Alana was guided through the hypopressive breathing flow by Dr. Angie Mueller, which made it easy for me as a beginner to follow along. After trying it, I wanted to learn more, so I went digging for information about this hypopressive breathing technique, and the following is everything I found.

We are constantly increasing our intra-abdominal pressure through running, jumping, sit-ups, weight lifting, sneezing, coughing, laughing and sitting to name a few. The issue is that when intra-abdominal pressure is increased, the pressure on the spine and pelvic floor also does. This becomes problematic when the pressure and gravity cause pelvic organs to move downward and cause the pelvic muscles to become stretched and weakened, leading to inflammation. Many problems can occur from this, such as menstrual issues, sexual dysfunction, bladder problems like incontinence, urgency and frequency, core muscle weakness, prolapse, bowel problems like IBS and constipation and back pain. Therefore, hypopressive breathing is a great way to recondition your body because it combats intra-abdominal pressure.

Hypopressive breathing aims to reduce the pressure in the pelvic and abdominal cavity by combining a specific breathing technique with various postures. To break down the word hypopressive, hypo means low and pressive means pressure. Putting this all together, you have a low-pressure way to work your core. This method strengthens and rehabs your pelvic floor and intrinsic core muscles by reducing intra-abdominal pressure. By practicing this breathing technique, you are decompressing the spine, reducing pressure in the abdomen and pelvic floor and strengthening your core, all of which can significantly reduce issues such as back pain, abdominal separation, incontinence and prolapse.

You might be asking how do you train hypopressive breathing? The idea is to elongate the spine, narrow the waist and open the ribcage. During the inhale, you concentrate on expanding the rib cage only and not the belly. On the exhale, spinal elongation is performed. After you exhale and breathe out all of the air in your lungs, an action called apnea is performed, where the empty lung breath-hold combined with rib opening creates a vacuum in the abdomen, and the abdominal wall is reflexively drawn inward and upward. During this time, the abdominal and pelvic organs are lifted. There are numerous postures that you can sequence through, but often the first posture to learn is laying on your back with your knees bent and in dorsiflexion. (Insert Picture) Once you are familiar with the technique, there are sequences of postures like you would do during yoga that can last from 5 to 30 min.

Let’s take a look back through history to see where this technique derived from. Hypopressive breathing is a mixture of ancient yoga techniques tracing back to the 2nd-century B.C.E like uddianabahnda (also known as the abdominal lock), which was used for digestive health and clearing the chakra and new philosophies created by a doctor in the ’80s named Dr. Marcel Caufriez who was the first woman’s health doctor to use hypopressive breathing to help treat urinary, gynecological and postpartum issues. Since then, it has been picked up in Spain and turned into a whole-body training system called Low-Pressure Fitness created by Dr. Tamara Rial and Piti Pinsach. As for the present, hypopressive breathing is becoming more popular around the world as a way to train the core, which is why I decided to try it out.

The Hypopressive breathing technique is for everyone, young and old. It’s a very therapeutic way to heal and strengthen the body and should be explored. Athletes will find it helps to engage the core intrinsically, creating a base of stability for the generation of power to be used in all movements within their sport. I found that after a couple of 10-minute flows, my core felt more switched on than it had been in the past, and my breath capacity increased noticeably. Besides the physical benefits of this technique, it also provided a way to relax through meditation while still moving. I noticed that after each session, I felt grounded and in a better mindset with anxious thoughts coming to rest. Focusing on my breath and how each breath sequence felt was calming for my mind. I highly recommend trying this breathing technique for the body and the mind.

Here is the list of benefits:

• decompresses the spine
• reduce back pain
• narrows the waist by tightening the abdominal fascia.
• heals prolapse
• heals incontinence
• heals ab separation
• improves core strength
• increases respiratory capacity
• clears the mind
• improves whole-body circulation and reduction in blood pressure
• sexual enhancement

I recommend finding a practitioner certified to teach hypopressive exercise, although they are hard to come by or talking to a licensed physiotherapist if you are not sure if it is safe for you to perform this breathing technique. Listen to your body and only do what feels good.

Here is Alana Blanchards youtube video on hypopressive breathing:
https://youtu.be/6MLSGg_uZnk

Sources:

Mueller, A. (2021, April 7). Hypopressive Training. Core Recovery. http://www.corerecoverypt.com/blog1/hypopressive-training.