An important component to help our golf swing be as relaxed as possible, it is important to keep breathing throughout the swing. Due to daily activities and stresses majority of us do not use our breathing muscles efficiently.
Find out more information on how you can improve on our breathing, which in turn can help you stay relaxed during your round of golf, and/or when competing. Learn how most of us end up using other muscles to breath and that could potentially lead to more injuries.
Due to daily life stresses, working at a computer for long hours or being stressed during a Golf match, we can naturally forget to use our main breathing muscle; the Diaphragm. Instead, we hunch up, our neck shortens, tightens and drops forwards, and we start using our accessory breathing muscles to breathe rather than our Diaphragm. The diaphragm is a big muscle that attaches to the bottom ribs. Ideally the muscle should flatten when we breathe in and return to a dome shape as we breathe out. However, as explained, majority of us will only be using this muscle partially.
Our breathing rate can affect the rhythm of the ribs expansion as well as the rate at which oxygenation of the blood occurs, and poor breathing can mean reduced oxygen, which can lead to more stiffness and fatigue in the body, hence effecting your golf swing.
Here is a small video Tilly created during the lockdown, however, she gives more information of the factors that effect our breathing and talks you through a simple but effective exercise, you can practice at home to work on your breathing.