The importance of deep physiological breathing

Of all the major functions that support life, breathing is, along with circulation, the most important. It is obvious that respiratory function plays an important role in our lives. Especially when we are suffering from respiratory failure, we see how the difficulty of breathing properly handicaps our health. Ms. Metge-Sandra has devoted her whole life to developing her method. I was given the chance to meet her in Paris and to be trained to teach her method.

Born in the south of France in 1909, she died in Canada in 2002. Grand Prix du Conservatoire de Musique de Paris singing and piano, singing teacher, she observed the impact of respiratory function on various people in order to help her students develop mastery of their body as an instrument. She also created respiratory gymnastics that favoured the mechanism of deep physiological breathing rather than that of partial chest breathing.

She quickly realized that her work went well beyond singing. His method is based on the mechanism of deep physiological breathing, the one we have at birth. In this respiratory rehabilitation, great importance is given to spontaneous exhalation. This respiratory work ensures the development of deep muscles: dorsal, abdominal, transverse and oblique muscles, allowing the diaphragm to be the motor of the respiratory act.

This method, having preventive and curative therapeutic properties, permanently ensures the physiological breathing and physiological voice of every human being.

Ms. Metge-Sandra is one of the few people, in the respiratory field, to point out the importance of respiratory rehabilitation insisting on “spontaneous exhalation” in the buccal position of laughter.

Here is what Ms. Metge-Sandra observed:

The majority of human beings do not know how to breathe and practice a respiratory mode that is sufficient to maintain life, but very insufficient to ensure the profound exchanges that guarantee a physiological and psychological balance that modern man is very far from knowing.

Unmuscular by his sedentary life, in a polluted atmosphere, struggling with a hectic pace of life that wears out his nervous system, the man of the 21st century does not know how to breathe, can no longer breathe fully and practices lazy and partial breathing: chest breathing.

In truth, any subject practicing this incomplete breathing is subject to fatigue, regardless of his activity, this famous fatigue, so frequent in modern man, general fatigue resulting in everyday life from the insufficiency of exchanges and the lack of oxygen in the body, nervous fatigue of which the medical profession is worried, without, for this, finding an effective remedy.

It is through the practice of deep breathing, physiological breathing, that any subject can access, by “remushing”, to deep exchanges in the respiratory system in everyday life, to calm and to the possibility of physical effort without fatigue.

Contemporary writings consider breathing to be the work of the lungs with the help of the nose and mouth. The lungs collect and exchange gases (using blood cells as vehicles), but in reality, every living cell in the body plays a role in breathing. All cells in the body need oxygen to live, develop, and produce the energy needed for bodily activities. The role of the lungs is to extract oxygen from the air, to transfer it into the blood which will carry it to the body's cells.

Other functions of breathing include regulating the quantity of water in the blood system and contributing to the body's thermal balance.

It is also noted that the fundamental process of respiration is the chemical use of oxygen by the cell in order to oxidize energetic substances and release the energy they contain. This results in the release of H20 and CO2. This happens in mitochondrion 1. So this is a function of the utmost importance for each of our cells.

Through its respiratory system, our body communicates widely with the outside world. It is on an area of 130 m2 that our most intimate tissue, blood, comes into contact with the ambient air through the pulmonary alveoli.

There is a physiological evidence of considerable importance: this mechanism of respiratory function can be controlled by our will. Indeed, our will can change its frequency; the number of breaths, exhales and inhalations, which are 12 to 16 per minute, can be increased or decreased, either by speeding them up or by slowing them down. Our will can change the rhythm of breathing by amplifying or shortening the exhalation or the inspiration. Finally, our will can suspend respiratory function for a few moments by blocking its mechanism using the dorsal, abdominal and diaphragm muscles.

While our will cannot have any influence on the digestive system, whether it is the peristaltic movements 2 of the intestine or the secretion of the liver, while our will can in no way intervene in our glandular functions, while it remains powerless to modify the beats of the heart and arteries, our will, on the other hand, has a precise action on breathing.

A very unfortunate observation, this function, which is life itself, the only function on which our will has an action, is both the most unknown and the most neglected.

But how can we overlook a function whose essential role in life we have just determined? The man of the 21st century does not know how to breathe fully, can no longer breathe fully and practices lazy and partial breathing: chest breathing.

Respiratory diseases continue to increase and the weakness of the respiratory muscles increases this degeneration.

Deep muscles, if they are not developed through precise respiratory work, do not allow deep breathing, physiological breathing, which gives exhalation the most important role in the respiratory act.

By practicing this breathing mode, people focus all their attention on emptying the lung air during exhalation without worrying about the inhalation which is carried out automatically and in direct relation to the extent of emptying caused by exhalation.

PARTIAL CHEST BREATHING

In chest breathing, attention is focused on breathing in in order to store as much air as possible in the respiratory system. Inspiration is active and is systematically caused by the movement of the thorax upward and the elevation of the shoulders.

On the other hand, expiration, which is always neglected and only partially empties, is in a sense passive and exchanges are reduced as much as possible: there is therefore under-oxygenation. This lack of oxygen is the basis for physiological and psychological disturbances. Anyone with this mechanism is familiar with shortness of breath.

This mechanism of chest breathing uses only a small portion of the muscles, neglecting the diaphragm, abdominal muscles and dorsal muscles.

This respiratory mechanism, which is practiced in various activities, is the mechanism that is considered to be “normal”. The deep muscles are little used due to poor use of respiratory function and intense cerebralization.

As long as we insist on taking in air before each exhale, it will be difficult, or even impossible, for muscular subjects to regain and maintain the tone of the entire dorsal and abdominal muscular apparatus. The purpose of all breathing exercises should be to tone up, to fix the muscles in their true anatomical place.

We can think of chest breathing as a kind of organic deficiency, respiratory infirmity. Disciplined respiratory rehabilitation must correct and lead everyone to the practice of total breathing alone, the one that we all have at birth, that is to say the mechanism of deep physiological breathing.

DEEP PHYSIOLOGICAL BREATHING

Deep physiological breathing gives exhalation the most important role in the respiratory act. The subject who practices this breath focuses all his attention on emptying the lung air during exhalation without worrying about the inhalation which is carried out automatically and in direct relation to the extent of the emptying caused by the exhalation.

Exhalation is active with the aim of maximum emptying of pulmonary air during exercise; inspiration achieved in the immobility of all auxiliary respiratory muscles and the diaphragm is in a sense passive: exchanges are increased to the maximum.

The deep breathing muscles are a real support corset for the viscera. During physiological breathing, the most important muscles in the body participate in the respiratory act.

This respiratory mechanism is far from being inaccessible. In certain manifestations of the day, the body regains this breath: laughter, screams, tears, droppings, coughs. Nature immediately fixes the muscles in their true anatomical place. Some sports and certain professions maintain this mechanism thanks to the precision and tone that deep breathing requires.

Exhalation is the vital phase for resistance in respiratory function:” Who has breath lives a long time, intensely and peacefully ”.

“The majority of human beings only breathe halfway; we inhale because that part of the respiratory act is the very condition of life. But we don't bother to exhale because of muscular laziness and yet, we better repair our strength by exhaling more slowly than by trying to inflate our lungs with air. [...] With training, we are thankfully able to make our breath as good as it was previously unconsciously bad.” 4

Voice and breath are extremely physiologically linked. The voice is only the sound reflection of an exhalation. Without breath, the voice does not exist. The human voice remains the most valuable means of communication between people. The human voice and breathing through the centuries have been important indicators of the human condition. Man is shaped by his environment. In an Aesop fable,
Xanthos orders Aesop to buy the best at the market. Aesop only buys languages under the pretext that there is nothing better than language, the link of civil life, the key to the sciences, the organ of truth, reason and prayer.

How can respiratory function be improved in people with cystic fibrosis?

As we have seen, when respiratory work primarily involves inspiration while neglecting exhalation, the diaphragm and all the other auxiliary, dorsal and abdominal muscles, transverse and oblique cannot do in-depth work. The tone and exchanges in the pulmonary alveoli remain weakened. All the importance we give to noisy exhalation with the buccal position of laughter using various movements, leads to respiratory gymnastics where the whole body breathes and strengthens. This exhalation is not a simple breath, but an exhalation noise where the deep muscles are more stressed and especially trained for better tone. All people with cystic fibrosis, with noisy exhalation, benefit from extensive ventilation, which causes phlegm to clear. It is a real autoclapping: the sputum is produced without violence and with relief. We give an important role to the nasal passages in promoting better respiratory health.

Some important tips:

• All breathing work must begin with an exhale: do not force your breath. Keep your mouth open in the laughing position and breathe before doing an activity. When you are out of breath, exhale calmly. Your breathing rate will return to normal.

• Take care to maintain good back and abdominal tone. Deep breathing gradually gets the muscles used to regain stamina and strength after interventions. Exercising is good, but fatigue should always be avoided during training. We most often work on breathing exercises on the ground. It is important
to feel the spine firmly on the ground, which helps to strengthen the pulmonary system.

• It is essential to train your breath. The control of respiratory function based on the mechanism of deep physiological breathing using
upon spontaneous exhalation guarantees good control of breathing.

• Respiratory rehabilitation is very necessary for lung transplant patients. After the procedure, when they have to breathe by themselves without a machine, it is often panic. All the importance given to controlling exhalation, without rushing the respiratory muscles, allows them to avoid panic and, at the same time, to regain contact with respiratory function. Calm and relaxation are extremely necessary for them.

Every person, one day or another, faces challenges. Unfortunately, illness is one of these trials. Good muscle tone is the safety engine for deep physiological breathing. Reeducating your breath, regardless of your physical condition, is a step towards the recovery of better health. In this respiratory rehabilitation, an important aspect is added, that of ethics. A large team at the Jules-Verne Clinic in Nantes, composed of Alan Boone, who teaches Ms. Metge-Sandra's method, and Dr. Philippe David and Dr. Gérard Dabouis, have consolidated, with a team composed of various specialties, a work of paramount importance for the health of the patient and for the caregivers.

Marlène Turcot
Respiratory gymnastics teacher
Quebec (Quebec)
Canada

Bibliographical references:

1. Element in the cytoplasm of the cell whose essential role is to ensure oxidation, cellular respiration, the storage of energy by the cell and the storage of certain substances (Le Larousse)

2. Refers to contractions that occur in tubular organs and cause the contents of the organ to move. (The Larousse)

3. (Taisen Deshimaru, The Practice of Zen).

4. (William Knowles, The Knowles Method of Breath Training)

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