Abstract / Summary
The first paper of the series After Buteyko. Deep breathing, as the series uses the term, is a way the breath is organised, whatever the amount of air it moves: the diaphragm works against an abdominal wall that the pelvis holds in place, its action is expressed through the lower ribs, the flanks and the back, and tidal volume, rate and pauses adapt to the task. The abdomen may move with the breath or stay almost still, and neither tells whether the organisation is present. Most people have this organisation already and use it without knowing it whenever they run, carry, sing or play. The paper describes the progression from unconscious use to recognition, deliberate activation and ordinary life, and calls it the training of free will. Upright, a pelvis that tips forwards takes the support away from the abdominal wall: the viscera sink, the diaphragm sits lower and flatter, the lungs rest fuller than the task requires, and the breath moves into the upper chest. The paper connects the measured neighbouring relationships, the rise of the resting lung volume on standing, the tonic abdominal wall that limits it and the behaviour of the lower rib cage at different lung volumes, through the functional role of the pelvis. It joins the singers' terms support, appoggio and Stütze, and the German term Durchlässigkeit, permeability, to the physiology. A preface introduces the series; a list of the seven papers closes it.