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Your Diaphragm is a Core Strength Game Changer

Yoga Medicine 500HR participant Gry Bech-Hanssen for Yoga Journal shares how your diaphragm is an often overlooked core muscle. Learn how your diaphragm could be a core strength game changers. 

Why Your Diaphragm Could Be the Core Strength Game-Changer You’ve Overlooked

Most yogis are familiar with their diaphragm in the context of pranayama practice, but core work? Not so much. Yoga Medicine teacher Gry Bech-Hanssen explains.

As a yogi, you know how important good breathing is for your overall health and wellbeing. Your breath affects all of your vital systems, right down to the cellular level. It impacts your sleep, memory, energy level, and concentration. But in a busy life, even for yogis, breathing well can be easier said than done. Poor posture (all those hours hunched over a keyboard or steering wheel), emotional stress, mental pressure, conscious or unconscious movement patterns, and lack of movement can all contribute to restricted, shallow breathing and tension in the diaphragm, your primary breathing muscle. Though you may not be aware of poor respiratory mechanics throughout your day, the effects can be profound. Did you know that the way you breathe (or don’t) also influences how effectively your muscles work?

Read the rest of the article here.

About the Author

Gry Bech-Hanssen is currently working toward her 500-hour yoga teacher training with Tiffany Cruikshank. Based in Oslo, Norway, she has a background in contemporary dance and has been teaching movement for well over 10 years. She teaches yoga and pilates in groups and therapeutic private sessions, and is also trained in Structural Bodywork, massage, and Neurokinetic Therapy. Gry is passionate about using yoga in combination with all the other tools in her tool box to help people make lasting changes in their bodies and lives. You can find more about her at www.somawork.no.

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