Mapping the Breath
- Kat Kocurek
- Jan 15
- 5 min read
Here's a fun fact: You take an average of 20,000 breaths per day.
Did you know that?
I learned this statistic many years ago, but it still stops me in my tracks every time I encounter it. Of course we're breathing—we're breathing all the time (breathing is what signals that we're alive, no?). But 20,000+ "reps" per day? That number is so high it almost feels fantastical to me. But the research is definitive—we are champion breathers.
Given the sheer amount of energy that's dedicated to simply living in a breathing body (how many calories do you think you burn breathing 20,000 times per day?), it makes sense that the breath is a primary concern for all three of the modalities in which I work:
In Rolfing®, breath (and breath movement) is a primary lens I use when working with clients to help them move better and feel better in their bodies. Ida Rolf found the breath cycle to be an intrinsic governor of movement patterns and decided that the first functional goal in the classic 10-series format would focus on inviting more space for, freedom of, and awareness of the breath.
In yoga, breath work is a primary limb of practice. Yogis have long understood the breath to be part of a larger cycle of energy (prana) in the body, and that working with the breath provides opportunities to also work with that energy. Today, many westerners understand that pranayama involves working with the breath.
In movement, our ability to work with the breath correlates to our ability to control internal pressure systems and, therefore, our core. Core strength and control are of course critically important for exploring other movements and loads (i.e. running, lifting weights, etc.) free from pain, and can help us feel empowered to do more with our bodies.
What's your breath pattern?
You know how to breathe. Or, said differently, your body has known how to breathe since the moment you were born. So it makes sense that you may not have paused to consider your individual patterns of breath, especially when you're at rest and not needing to exert yourself to obtain more oxygen.
Admittedly, our individual breath patterns can be difficult to assess without a strong interoceptive sense (the capacity to sense your own body from the inside out). Working with a Rolfer or other manual therapist who has training with a focus on breath mechanics is a really powerful way to learn more about your breath patterns. In lieu of that, we have opportunities to use other feedback mechanisms (the ground, our hands, and other tools) to feel how the breath moves in our bodies.
As you practice finding your own felt sense of your breath rhythm, ask yourself:
Do you feel your rib cage AND your belly moving with the breath? If so, which do you feel moving more?
Do you feel the breath moving front-to-back AND side-to-side? If so, which direction gets more volume?
Do muscles in your neck activate when you breathe?
Where else in your body (besides rib cage and belly) do you feel your breath? This doesn't have to be effort or activation, but may feel like pressure or energy.
Expand your vocabulary in the language of breath
There is a lot of value in not just understanding what your prevailing breath patterns feel like, but also practicing other ways of breathing. Think of it like expanding your vocabulary in the language of breath.
When we practice different breathing patterns, we build new neuromuscular skills that serve as powerful resources for shifting our comfort, our posture, our mood, our inner pressure dynamics, our core support, and deeper physiological markers like circulation and oxygenation.
If you're at least partially convinced, here are a few of my favorite techniques (and resource links) to make it a bit easier to dip your toes into vast ocean of breath work practices:
Nasal breathing. Learning to breathe (and practicing breathing) through your nose instead of your mouth is one of the most transformative changes you can make to your breath patterns. This change alone can have major systemic effects on your body and overall wellbeing. Believe it or not, nasal breathing is somewhat of a lost art. Even if you feel that you mostly breathe through your nose, you likely breathe through your mouth more often than you expect. In this video, James Nestor (author of the phenomenal book, "Breath" - I highly recommend!) gives an overview of the benefits of nasal breathing, and techniques to try when you feel like you have a nasal blockage preventing you from comfortably breathing through your nose.
The three part breath (Dirgha Pranayama). This is a foundational pranayama practice in yoga. It helps to create a sense of possibility with depth and expansiveness of breath. Feeling all three "places" that breath can move in the torso helps our brains to map what a full breath might feel like. You'll also practice some fundamental principles of controlled breathing, which is a prerequisite for further work with pranayama.
360-degree rib cage breathing. This technique has been quite transformative for me, personally. Up until a few years ago, my adapted breath pattern involved sending most of my breath into my belly while using my neck and shoulder muscles to pull breath higher into my upper ribs and lungs. Enter, 360-degree rib cage breathing! There are quite a few ways to practice this, I chose this video because the teacher uses a prop (in the video she uses a theraband, but you could use a yoga strap, a dog leash, neck tie, scarf, belt, you name it) which really takes it up a notch. This has been important enough in my own journey that I recorded a version of this for an instagram post—in case you want to watch that instead.
Cat breathing for posterior rib cage expansion. If you're familiar with the cat / cow movement pair from the yoga asana canon, then it's pretty easy to imagine what cat breathing looks like. But the similarities stop there. The purpose of cat breathing is to hold cat pose while you cycle through a few rounds of breath, using your inhales to inflate the posterior rib cage (your upper back), and your exhales to invite more rounding and flexion through the spine. Be sure to contract your anterior chain to limit movement in the belly and chest—that way your breath has to travel elsewhere (hopefully, your posterior rib cage, an often "locked down" aspect of your torso that greatly benefits from breath movement).
Pelvic floor breathing. The pelvic floor plays a hugely influential role in your overall breathing patterns. The pelvic floor is a reciprocal diaphragm in the body that (among many other critical things related to your movement, excretory, and sexual wellbeing) helps you to manage your intra-abdominal pressure. Many of us do not have our pelvic floors "well-mapped"—meaning that the act of feeling our pelvic floors and assessing whether they feel tight or lax is a foreign concept (raises hand). Many who are introduced to this for the first time approach the work with skepticism and more than a little bit of apprehension. Much like the posterior rib cage, the pelvic floor is an often underutilized resource in your breath cycle, and learning how to not only feel it but engage it can be life-changing.
Interested in resourcing yourself with more opportunities for breath?
Rolfing® is a great place to start.
Breath-focused sessions are a core practice in the Rolfing modality. You'll learn about your existing breath patterns, move through a table session focused on helping you find new opportunities for breath movement, and go home with practices to help you build on the progress you make in the clinic. At 20,000 - 30,000 reps a day, your body will thank you.
