Why "Sandbag Breathing" for the diaphragm is wrong-headed

In this month’s Zoom with my subscribers, Janese brought up the subject of strengthening the diaphragm, referencing an article I’d read years ago recommending using a sandbag on the belly as resistance training for the diaphragm.

 Her question gave us the opportunity to examine the reasoning behind the practice—and where I think that reasoning goes wrong. This, in turn, led me back to an analogy I came up with years ago: the story of the zookeeper and the cheetah. The video below contains a detailed kinesiological explanation of why resistance training for the diaphragm is as wrongheaded as trying to strengthen a weak cheetah by putting barbells in its cage.

If you don’t have eight minutes to watch the video, here’s the TL;DR: A belly breath against the resistance of a sandbag may sound like a logical way to strengthen the diaphragm, but doing so requires increasingly restricting the rib cage while the diaphragm contracts, in order to direct its action exclusively into the bulging of the abdomen. Why? Because the three-dimensional action of the diaphragm is just as much about expanding the rib cage as it is about bulging the belly.

The diaphragm is less like a weak muscle that needs weight training and more like a cheetah in a cage: putting weights in with the cheetah would be useless, but giving it enough space to do what comes naturally is the best way to keep it healthy and strong.

In short, the cheetah—like the diaphragm—does not have enough space to move freely if its cage is too restricted.

The misunderstanding that belly movement = diaphragmatic breath = proper breathing and ribcage movement = unhealthy/accessory breathing is a myth I've been debunking for decades.

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