BREATHING EXERCISES
"If breathing is not normalized, no other movement pattern can be". Karel Lewit, M.D.
Breathing exercises - let alone how you breath on a regular basis - may not sound too exciting, but the benefits can be vast and profound. And they're free.
There are many different philosophies and techniques when it comes to breathing exercises, and as always what is best for you, well, "it depends". We'll share a few techniques and principles here. This first one has been researched several times with well designed studies, and each time it was found to be as effective as muscle relaxers.

Inhale through your nose for six seconds.
Exhale through your mouth for six seconds.
Repeat this for five minutes, three times a day.
There is no holding of the breath.
If six seconds is too difficult, just do what you can, but keep the length of the inhalation and
exhalation the same.
Diaphragmatic breathing is also very effective, and it can be combined with the aforementioned exercise or used on its own. Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the parasympathetic portion of your autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system influences many of our "unconscious" behaviors, such as our heart rate, breathing rate, digestion, stress level, and more, and the parasympathetic portion of this system will cause these processes to relax or slow down (thus earning the moniker the "rest and digest system").
To perform diaphragmatic breathing, first visualize your diaphragm, which is a large dome shaped muscle that is oriented horizontally and separates your chest cavity from your abdominal cavity. When the diaphragm contracts, it flattens and depresses into your abdominal cavity (thus causing your belly to rise) and when it relaxes it returns to it's dome shape. You can consciously influence this muscle and increase it's activity by having it contract down into your abdominal activity, at which time you'll also find your belly rising or expanding laterally. More astute or skilled diaphragmatic breathers may also notice their low back muscles relaxing and even their pelvic floor relaxing during this contraction, and eventually it will indirectly cause many other muscles to relax, perhaps none moreso than the scalene muscles in your neck.
Here is a video to help you see and understand diaphragmatic breathing. (You can do this in any position, but it works best as demonstrated).
If you want to use breathing as a way of increasing stability in your spine - and we recommend that you do so - you can do the above and simply maintain some of the 360 degree expansion that occurs during your inhale and then continue to breath "on top of it" as you maintain that expansion. We'll let Mary Massery, PT - the creator of this model - explain things so that she gets the credit she deserves. Please watch this video if you want to understand how your breath influences your spinal stability: https://youtu.be/IeiKhMmjDGc?si=VA69H8l6zb54Sccm
A word to the wise: While some people do these exercises and get immediate results more often people need to stick to a program for several days , weeks and sometimes months before noticing improvement. At the same time, people that have faith and stick with a breathing exercise program tend to love it and get consistent and lasting results.
Lastly, please don't do these exercises while driving, because it can cause you to get into an accident. We've had several people do their breathing exercises while driving (against our advice) and drift into the next lane as a result of the parasympathetic effect before they realized what was happening. Clearly this isn't safe for you or those around you.
In general, we encourage you to "dive deep" into the world of breathing and breathing exercises. More than likely a focus on breath and breathing will be a component of your physical therapy, so the more you learn on your own, the better. If you have some time to spare and you want an overview of breathing, along with an appendix of various types of breathing exercises, you might want to read the book "Breath" by James Nestor. It's not an academic book - and please know we base all of our work on the best available evidence - but it's a great read and as mentioned, it provides a great overview of breath and some (but not all) of the many ways breath can affect us in our day to day lives.