Good running is about more than just leg muscles: those that power your breath can be just as important. A physiotherapist explains how good posture will help you get more from your running
We all know it’s important to focus on your skeletal muscles when it comes to training; but it’s easy to forget that running is also about the muscles that power your breath. Great running is achieved when you can efficiently pump oxygenated blood around your body and expel waste products quickly. Good lung capacity equals deeper breaths, efficient oxygen transfer and, ultimately, improved running performance, and your posture has a direct impact on your ability to do this well.
Let’s review the anatomy of a breath: a dome-shaped muscle called the diaphragm sits under your ribs and powers your inspiration and expiration – a bit like a plunger elevating and depressing to inflate and deflate the lungs. Other muscles assist the diaphragm; the muscles between your ribs (called the intercostals) open and close the ribcage, and the scalene muscles elevate the ribcage; all working together to enhance your breath. You breathe in, the diaphragm pushes down, creating space for the lungs to fill, the intercostals help to expand and compress the ribs as the lungs fill and empty. Lovely oxygenated blood pumps around your body to those hardworking muscles, powering you along the pavement. So, the bigger the lungs, the better the breath, right? Not quite.
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