呼吸，你懂了嗎？

我們強調呼吸，因為呼吸好比行路、睡眠、進食一樣如此重要；而一個理想的呼吸，是能夠放鬆繃緊的神經、啟動核心肌群、並且改善身體姿勢。

最理想的呼吸方法，是利用「呼吸肌肉」擴張及收縮胸廓及腹腔，胸廓部分主要由肋間肌負責，腹腔則交由「核心四兄弟」負責 。兩者同步，軀幹就會環形擴張。

吸氣時，在肋間肌帶動下，肋骨似「泵」及「手把」一樣向外向上提，橫膈膜收縮往下降，將胸腔擴張；橫膈膜藉筋膜與「核心四兄弟」連結，骨盤底肌往上提，腹肌往外擴，所形成的腔體令腹內壓似氣球一樣上升，穩定脊椎。

側面看，胸、腹一同擴張，形成桶狀；而由於腹部前後方沒有骨頭支架制衡，當吸氣至末端時，就需要靠意識控制，令前後肌肉的張力如「牆」一樣制衡腹內壓力，腹內空間多了，吸氣就能變得深而長；同時其壓力又可穩定脊椎。而呼氣時，腹內壓下降，「核心四兄弟」與肋間肌同時收縮，橫膈膜放鬆上提，使空氣從胸、腹腔吐出。

從擴張及收縮字眼可見，吸氣時胸腔及腹腔的肌肉均處於一個伸展、拉長的狀態，副交感神經被伸展運動活化，使人放鬆；而呼氣時肌肉則處於用力、收縮的狀態，能有效啟動核心肌群，穩定脊椎。

由此可見，全呼吸是比胸式或腹式呼吸，更值得推薦。

Breathing takes an important role in our daily life. Not just for gases exchange but also relaxation, core activation and posture correction - if it is an ideal breathing.

In an ideal breath-in action, intercostal muscles bring the ribcage upward and outward, the diaphragm contracts and descends, then thoracic cavity expands and creates a negative pressure, resulting a breath in action. At the same time, the descended diaphragm, uplifted pelvic floor, elongated multifidus and the transverse abdominis will creates an intra abdominal pressure to stabilise the spine. So that the torso will expand outward in all directions - to the front, the side and the back as well.

The abdominal muscles act as a wall to push against the intra abdominal pressure in order to create spine support and stability.

On the other hand, everything reverses when breath out. Core muscles contract, diaphragm relaxes and ascends, both thoracic and abdominal cavity shrink and squeeze the air out.

From the word expands and shrinks, it indicates the breathing muscles in the cavity are being stretched when breathing in, it activates the parasympathetic nerve and gives a mood of relaxation; while those muscles are being contracted when breathing out, core muscles activated and the spine is being stabilised.