Last updated September 2, 2024
Your lungs fuel your body with gas. As they expand and contract, nearby muscles — including the belly and the chest — move along with them. Between belly breathing vs. chest breathing, which is more effective in relieving stress? Find out below the benefits and best practices for respiration.
How Chest Breathing Works
Chest breathing is known by many terms, such as shallow, costal and thoracic. It’s a process that draws in a minimal amount of air into the lungs with the help of the muscles in the rib cage and upper chest instead of the diaphragm.
This type of respiration is linked with many conditions, such as:
- Anxiety disorders
- Hyperventilation
- Hypoventilation
- Asthma
- Pneumonia
- Shock
- Stress
- High blood pressure
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chest breathers have shallow breath, which is often a symptom of a health issue. Moreover, it restricts how effectively oxygen is distributed throughout the body.
This affects respiratory chemistry by reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. As a result, the pH of the blood increases, putting the body in a state of respiratory alkalosis, which affects your performance and health, as well as the musculoskeletal system.
How Belly Breathing Works
The rate and depth of your breath can determine the state of your mental health. Hence, you’ll hear therapists suggest inhaling from your stomach to relax when you’re stressed or anxious because it’s associated with positive outcomes. You inhale by actively engaging the diaphragm, which draws the air in, resulting in deep breaths.
Some people refer to belly breathing as deep or diaphragmatic breathing. Practicing it boosts your sleep and focus, and eases anxiety, stress and depressive symptoms. You could see the benefits in as little as 5–10 minutes.
Between the two, it’s recommended to inhale with the belly. However, since others find it easier to draw air in with their chest, practicing doing so safely is the best way to minimize the negative effects. Talk to a doctor, respiratory therapist or breathing coach for advice.
Should You Fix Chest Breathing?
The health distinctions between belly breathing vs. chest breathing are significant, so you should know which is better. It’s better to fix a chest breathing pattern even if you have a condition. Otherwise, it can cause tension headaches, coughing, hoarseness, tightness around the area, shortness of breath and anxiety.
Work with a therapist who can teach breathing techniques and walk you through a guided exercise to strengthen your diaphragm. At first, you may need to pay more attention to your breath pattern, but it becomes your default with practice.
When Chest Breathing Is Beneficial
Breathing into the chest has an upside, particularly when performing activities requiring intense physical effort. For instance, it’s useful after you run, skip and play outdoor games, as it increases oxygen exchange by expanding the chest cavity and engaging the upper lungs.
However, doing chest breathing for a long time is generally unhealthy because it can impact the internal exchange of gas. Do some exercises and practice techniques until diaphragmatic breathing becomes automatic to you.
What Are the Benefits of Belly Breathing?
Breathing through your belly offers a host of science-backed benefits. It helps you relax, reduces blood pressure and heart rate, and increases the amount of oxygen in your body.
In addition, it boosts muscle function during exercise and is more effective at removing stale air from the lungs. Belly breathing can improve the following four conditions:
Stress
You can tell a person is stressed based on the way they breathe. When under pressure, their inhalation pattern is shallow, with small breaths that raise the shoulders instead of inflating the belly.
This can prolong feelings of anxiety, and worsen stress symptoms like breathing difficulty, headaches and fatigue. Belly breathing through the nose will slowly calm the nerves and introduce calmness to your system.
Anxiety
Breathing using the diaphragm promotes respiration as a conscious activity, shifting focus from symptoms like heart palpitations to calmness. When anxious, take slow and controlled deep breaths to disrupt the fight-or-flight response and recenter your mind.
COPD
Belly breathing can help manage breathlessness in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Those who practice diaphragmatic breathing exercises improve the following functions:
- Breathing frequency
- Oxygen saturation, which measures the amount of gas in the blood
- Forced expiratory volume in every second, which is the air the patients can force out of the lungs in one second
- Forced vital capacity or the amount of air patients can exhale after taking their deepest breath
Deep breathing exercises can minimize COPD symptoms and improve lung functions. It’s a valuable strategy in complementary therapy.
Asthma
If you’re diagnosed with asthma, you can retrain how you breathe, increase the flexibility of your rib cage and make your respiratory muscles stronger with breathwork. Some exercises to try are pursed lip breathing, the Papworth method, the Buteyko breathing method and yoga breathing exercises.
If you’re new at breath control techniques, you’ll find many video resources online and on YouTube. Some of these are guided, so follow the instructions to start the practice.
Belly Breathing Offers Stress Relief
Between chest breathing vs. belly breathing, the latter has more merits to health. However, as you age, it changes to the chest because of stress and a harmful lifestyle.
Fortunately, you can retrain the way you draw air by doing exercises. Make time for practice to restore your normal breathing.
About the author:
Mia Barnes is a freelance writer and researcher with a passion for healthy travel and wellness. Mia is the founder and editor-in-chief of Body+Mind magazine. Follow Mia and Body+Mind on X and Instagram @bodymindmag!
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