Top mistakes people make when starting HYPOPRESSIVES…

These are the top mistakes I see when people start hypopressives, make sure you’re not making any of these…….

⇨ Paradoxical breathing: Paradoxical breathing is when the chest expands on inhale and the belly draws in and then during exhalation the abdomen pushes out. Make sure this isn’t happen and if you think it is then please book in for a 1.1. 

⇨ Lack of rib movement when breathing: Make sure your ribs are moving when breathing laterally. Breath into the front, sides and back of the ribs paying particular attention to the sides and back. You should feel a 360 movement of your ribs. If you’re struggling with lateral breathing my programmes have lots of warm up exercises so that you can get the most out of your practice.

⇨ Creating pressure not reducing it: Make sure that you aren’t pushing your abdomen out when trying to do the apnea - this can be a sign that you’re increasing the pressure rather then decreasing it which will put pressure on the pelvic floor. If you’re unsure about this then please book in for a 1.1 session so that we can check your breath work. 

⇨Over exhaling: You don’t need to exhale every little bit of air out of the lungs. In doing this we can sometimes create pressure rather than reduce it. Keep the exhale soft and slow and stop at the natural end of the exhale.

⇨ Sucking the belly in: We want to avoid sucking in the belly to move the ribs. The belly may draw in when we get a good rib stretch but we want the action to come from expanding the ribs first. 

⇨ Taking in air: It’s important not to breath in before the apnea. If you take in air then your rib and diaphragm stretch won’t be as effective at creating that vacuum and suction to lift the pelvic floor and organs. 

⇨ Tensing the abdomen: The more we tense the belly the less likely we will be able to get the diaphragm to stretch. Try relaxing the belly after the 3rd exhale before doing the apnea. 

⇨ Using accessory muscles: We want to avoid using the scalene, the sternocleidomastoid, the pectoralis major and the trapezius to widen the ribs. The expansion wants to come from widening the ribs and that can be achieved by taking a fake inhale either by plugging the nose or without. 

⇨ Poor posture: You want to make sure that your alignment is correct in the postures. Most importantly that the pelvis and rib cage is neutral and stacked. It will also help symptom improvements if you are adopting the postural principles of the pose. 

⇨ Inconsistent practice: A consistent and regular practice is key to seeing symptoms improve, my programmes are a great way to stay on track with the practice. They add in progression every week and give you new flows to try.

⇨ Sticking with the same poses: To see symptoms improve and to maintain those improvements we need to be working through a variety of poses and adding in more challenge for the pelvic floor when needed. Working through loaded and unloaded postures is how we get the most out of the practice. My programmes add in new postures weekly to challenge the pelvic floor and core but do so gradually.

⇨ Don’t give up: The apnea can take a while to master- don’t give up. Even if you don’t feel the ribs moving now it doesn’t mean to say you won’t after some practice. It takes quite a few of my women about 6 weeks to really start to see and feel the apnea rib stretch. 

If you’d like more support from me and are interested in trying one of my programmes you can read more about them HERE