Overview of Respiration 

Lungs are in the chest and belly breathing, although contrary to its name, is breathing occurring in the chest and not in the belly.

This is the thoracic diaphragm —

It is a dome or a parachute-shaped massive muscle that separates the chest from the abdominal cavity.

It is the primary muscle of respiration because when the huge muscle contracts and the dome flattens, substantial negative pressure is generated inside the chest cavity to pull the lungs open and allow the air to move in.

Conversely, when the muscle relaxes and bounces back to its original shape, the rib cage and the lungs contract and the air moves out.

Since the muscle is considerably vast and strong, the powerful flattening of the dome during contraction increases the pressure inside the abdomen and the belly rises/moves outward.

Therefore, joining the aforementioned dots —

Belly breathing = diaphragmatic breathing = breathing happening in the chest/lungs.

It is easier to use the simpler terminology to precisely communicate the breathing instructions to the patient. Everybody understands ‘belly’ but not everyone may understand or even remember ‘diaphragm’.

The patient is likelier to remember ‘Don’t forget to breathe using your belly!’than ‘Breathe with your diaphragm!’. The visual feedback the belly movements provide synchronized with the breathing phases is useful for many.

This brings us to the following questions — Why belly breathing? What good is it?

Belly breathing employs the use of diaphragm and therefore reinforces the correct and the most natural way of breathing.

Using the diaphragm ensures that even the smallest and the most distal air sacs in the lung open and participate in the oxygen exchange.

Diaphragmatic breathing is deep breathing. It induces relaxation — a technique vastly used in yoga and meditation to combat panic, anxiety, and stress.

Opposite of belly breathing would be chest breathing a.k.a. shallow breathing. Shallow breathing inhibits the use of diaphragm and substitutes it with muscles between the ribs. These muscles are accessory or secondarymuscles of respiration and inefficient when used standalone.