whygetfat on Nostr: Dr. Alexis Cowan: "When you think about all the postural and biomechanical stuff, ...
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "When you think about all the postural and biomechanical stuff, it's a brain issue, or it's controlled by the brain."
Aleena Kanner: "It's all a brain issue. That's why the mainstream media on posture drives me crazy. 'Shoulders down and back. Do this exercise.' It's just a brain problem. You're not in this hunched position for any other reason than you need to breathe. Your brain is just trying to get you to breathe better."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Yeah, When you're doing the 'shoulders back and down, stand up straight' thing you're shutting off all your breathing through your back."
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah, you're not getting any."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Maybe you want to talk about that a little bit on some of the exercises you're looking for expansion through the back to show that you're breathing correctly, 360°."
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah. Your lungs actually live up into your chest wall and into your back. All this demonization of not breathing into the chest is wild to me because we need expansion up here.
"And that doesn't mean that we need our neck to pull upwards [hunches shoulders]. We just need 360 expansion up into our chest, into our upper back, our posterior mediastinum. Our vagus nerve lies right in between your shoulder blades over there.
"When you're getting that breath there, you're actually stimulating the vagus nerve. You're stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system to pick up some speed and shut down your sympathetics.
"That's why breathing is so powerful. Even if you're just in a yoga class doing breathing, it's still very powerful for people. Now add a positional component and wow, you can make a world of a difference for somebody."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "You want to dispel belly breathing real quick?"
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah, belly breathing. Belly breathing is going to force you forward even more. First of all, your lungs don't live in your belly. That's number one. They literally live up into your chest, they come down into your rib cage. That's why you have the ribs. They're protecting your lungs, essentially. Your belly can rise ever so slightly when you breathe. That's fine. That's normal.
"But when I'm seeing these people have massive belly shifts, and no ability to move air anywhere else, I know that there's a lot of problems happening here. I know that this person has been taught faulty breathing, has practiced faulty breathing, and their whole center of mass is forward.
"Because when you breathe only into your belly, your rib cage has to actually elevate into extension, your pelvis has to dump forward, because the air is going forward instead of ever having some pressurization. So when you learn to breathe into your chest you can actually pressurize. Your belly will still expand ever so slightly, but your lung tissue is getting the movement.
"They say the upper third part of the lungs is the most limited to get air into, which is literally right up here."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Yup. I think that also has the highest density of alveoli too, so you get better gas exchange there."
Aleena Kanner: "I think so, too. Yeah. It's the most important place."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "It's better, actually. Yeah."
Aleena Kanner: "Right. Even just teaching somebody one technique can be the world of a difference for them, just to get air back there. Getting the rib cage into that internally rotated position instead of lifting upwards is going to change your whole center of mass. You can't force it; you have to do it through the breath. You have to breathe your way into these positions. That's why this posture stuff on the internet drives me bonkers because it's all forceful exercises, and it's not actually making significant change."
Aleena Kanner, postural restoration provider and certified athletic trainer, with Dr. Alexis Cowan @ 01:27:14–01:30:12 https://youtu.be/ZSaRFltisYY&t=5234
Aleena Kanner: "It's all a brain issue. That's why the mainstream media on posture drives me crazy. 'Shoulders down and back. Do this exercise.' It's just a brain problem. You're not in this hunched position for any other reason than you need to breathe. Your brain is just trying to get you to breathe better."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Yeah, When you're doing the 'shoulders back and down, stand up straight' thing you're shutting off all your breathing through your back."
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah, you're not getting any."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Maybe you want to talk about that a little bit on some of the exercises you're looking for expansion through the back to show that you're breathing correctly, 360°."
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah. Your lungs actually live up into your chest wall and into your back. All this demonization of not breathing into the chest is wild to me because we need expansion up here.
"And that doesn't mean that we need our neck to pull upwards [hunches shoulders]. We just need 360 expansion up into our chest, into our upper back, our posterior mediastinum. Our vagus nerve lies right in between your shoulder blades over there.
"When you're getting that breath there, you're actually stimulating the vagus nerve. You're stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system to pick up some speed and shut down your sympathetics.
"That's why breathing is so powerful. Even if you're just in a yoga class doing breathing, it's still very powerful for people. Now add a positional component and wow, you can make a world of a difference for somebody."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "You want to dispel belly breathing real quick?"
Aleena Kanner: "Yeah, belly breathing. Belly breathing is going to force you forward even more. First of all, your lungs don't live in your belly. That's number one. They literally live up into your chest, they come down into your rib cage. That's why you have the ribs. They're protecting your lungs, essentially. Your belly can rise ever so slightly when you breathe. That's fine. That's normal.
"But when I'm seeing these people have massive belly shifts, and no ability to move air anywhere else, I know that there's a lot of problems happening here. I know that this person has been taught faulty breathing, has practiced faulty breathing, and their whole center of mass is forward.
"Because when you breathe only into your belly, your rib cage has to actually elevate into extension, your pelvis has to dump forward, because the air is going forward instead of ever having some pressurization. So when you learn to breathe into your chest you can actually pressurize. Your belly will still expand ever so slightly, but your lung tissue is getting the movement.
"They say the upper third part of the lungs is the most limited to get air into, which is literally right up here."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "Yup. I think that also has the highest density of alveoli too, so you get better gas exchange there."
Aleena Kanner: "I think so, too. Yeah. It's the most important place."
Dr. Alexis Cowan: "It's better, actually. Yeah."
Aleena Kanner: "Right. Even just teaching somebody one technique can be the world of a difference for them, just to get air back there. Getting the rib cage into that internally rotated position instead of lifting upwards is going to change your whole center of mass. You can't force it; you have to do it through the breath. You have to breathe your way into these positions. That's why this posture stuff on the internet drives me bonkers because it's all forceful exercises, and it's not actually making significant change."
Aleena Kanner, postural restoration provider and certified athletic trainer, with Dr. Alexis Cowan @ 01:27:14–01:30:12 https://youtu.be/ZSaRFltisYY&t=5234