How do you release tense respiratory muscles? | The respiratory musculature

How do you release tense respiratory muscles?

Tense breathing muscles can be extremely painful. In order to release the tension, the muscles must be stretched, which in turn causes pain, but is essential to achieve the pain-free initial state. Even if it is unpleasant at first, you should consciously relax during all exercises.

Various exercises help to stretch the respiratory muscles. – One exercise is the Pasha Seat, in which you sit on a chair or armchair with your legs apart, lean against it and let your arms hang loosely. Then you take a deep breath so that the chest rises and the belly bulges, and then you relax.

Repeat this exercise a few times to relax the shoulder, neck and abdominal muscles. – Another possibility is to sit on a stool with your legs apart, bend your upper body forward, rest your elbows on your thighs, let your head, arms and shoulders hang down and breathe in and out as deeply as possible. This exercise can also be done standing up against a wall.

• If the muscles between the ribs are tense, you can try to stretch them by “sniffing”. In doing so, you “sniff” through your nose like a dog and repeat the exercise a few times. – If the hardening of the respiratory muscles is persistent, you can also use mud packs and massages to relax.

What is respiratory muscle training and how is it performed?

Respiratory muscle training or also respiratory gymnastics serves to strengthen the respiratory muscles. Both the strength of inhalation and exhalation as well as endurance can be trained by means of various devices or exercises. Not only people with respiratory distress or lung diseases use respiratory gymnastics, healthy people also use this technique – for example singers and musicians who play a wind instrument.

Thus, various devices aim to promote the strength of the respiratory muscles by means of resistance. For example, a device for respiratory training generates a pressure that makes inhalation impossible at first. If the patient breathes more strongly on the device, the pressure is increased and, above a certain threshold, a valve opens to allow fresh air to flow in.

This training device is called “Threshold IMT” and is often used by COPD patients for exercise. Another device allows the patient to exhale against a resistance so that the muscles responsible for expiration are specifically trained.