It’s hard to imagine how much muscle and joint pain has its origins in breathing dysfunction. Very few rehab specialists recognize this fact.
When we end up in the left AIC right BC pattern, we develop predictable restrictions in our ribcage which makes it difficult to breathe properly.
Of course, we probably don’t know that we can’t breathe correctly. Our brain will figure out a way to do it, no matter what.
The problem is that when we begin to use compensatory muscle activity to overcome ribcage restriction, we end up with restricted movement of our entire body.
Restricted movement ends up in pain.
The reason is simple.
The same muscles that we use for compensatory breathing, in particular our neck and lower back muscles, also happen to have outsized influence on the movement, or lack of movement, of our ribcage and pelvis and even our jaw!
Oh, yes, TMJ pain can be a result of improper breathing.
If we use neck and lower back muscles to help us breathe, the overactivity of these muscles ends up restricting the movement of our ribcage and pelvis.
And when you begin to realize that our appendages– our arms, legs, and neck and their corresponding joints– are wholly dependent on the pelvis and ribcage for their proper movement, you start to see the problem.
There is no part of the body that compensatory breathing can’t reach with it’s tentacles.
Restoring proper breathing patterns has to be the first step in any resolution of joint and muscle pain.
