Previous articles in this series discussed where the air actually goes—mouth, nose, trachea, and lungs—and contained information about the ribs, diaphragm, musculature that acts on the ribs, the abdominal cylinder, and the muscles of the pelvic floor. This article will address the movement of the spine during breathing. For each of these articles, I’m going to restate the main idea, which is that there are lots of moving parts associated with breathing, and any time any of those parts is not able to move in the right direction, at the right time, and/or with the right amount of ease and freedom, it’s going to impact the quality of our breathing.
Spinal Excursion
Have you ever held a sleeping baby and observed that there was still movement happening through the tiny body? What about watching or holding a pet as it sleeps? Do you notice the subtle movement of the pet’s head relative to its butt? In both cases, the movement that you’re observing is movement of the spine and we call it spinal excursion.
When you inhale, your torso gets deeper and wider to accommodate the movement of your ribs up and out. When you exhale, your ribs move down and in and your spine lengthens as a result. This movement of spinal excursion will only happen if you’re starting from a place of dynamic balance and your arms and legs are moving well. Spinal excursion is an involuntary movement; it happens on its own, if we let it and do not work against it.
Movement Activity
To feel this movement, you can drape yourself over a physioball or a stack of pillows. You can experience the spinal excursion as you inhale and exhale. When you come to standing, the feeling of the spinal excursion is much more subtle and won’t be as drastic as what you experienced while lying down to breathe.
Here is another activity that you can try to feel this spinal movement:
Lie on the floor, knees bent, with your head barely touching a wall, using a thin book under your head to maintain head balance. Exhale fully so that you feel the top of your head nudging gently into the wall. Monitoring your rib movement with your hands, inhale deeply feeling the 360 degree expansion throughout the torso. While keeping your neck free, and eyes and nose pointing to the ceiling, notice how the top of your head is now not in contact with the wall. As you exhale, you should notice how your head returns to its nestling against the wall.
How we interfere with spinal excursion
1) Sometimes, we try to artificially create movement throughout the spine while breathing. This is not the same as the involuntary movement that happens all by itself. This is an example of trying much too hard.
2) When the head comes forward and the pelvis tucks under and also moves forward in space, it’s very hard to feel the spinal excursion. Our spine is busy holding us in this unbalanced way and the spinal excursion doesn’t happen.
Video – Roger Fiammetti respiration totale
Here is a short video that allows you to see this movement. You’ll also see movement of the ribs and the diaphragm. Unfortunately, it is narrated in French and there is no English translation. This is a case where a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words. Enjoy!