Natural Breathing: the power of the diaphragm.

Respiration being a vital function, there is more than one way we can generate the motive force to move air in and out of the body. The major organ that is meant to carry out this action is, however, the diaphragm. If we understand how the diaphragm works we can maximise its efficiency. All the other modes of inspiration - abdominal, chest and costal breathing - can be useful for certain activities, but if they become dominant at the expense of natural diaphragmatic breathing then our health may suffer. We can learn to distinguish between the different types of respiration and to encourage the free movement of the diaphragm.