Case Study: Fixing Shoulder Pain and Rib Flare with Breath

I had a session with a new client recently and in our chat before getting to work she said that her shoulder had been bothering her lately like nothing she could do would allow it to relax.  (I know the feeling well!)

First, I just asked her to stand and breathe and just notice where her body went on its own.  I saw her leading with her pelvis forward, I saw her sitting into the lumbar spine, I noticed her breathing wanted to move upwards into her chest and I sensed a lack of connection to what was happening or how it was supposed to happen.

I find it's quite common for women to feel like they don’t know what’s happening in their bodies.  You go through life being told to push through pain, push through childbirth, that female bodies are just weird smaller versions of male bodies… it’s rare that we’re given permission to experience our bodies. But so often, when I work with women, I'm astounded at how quickly they can become connected to their body!

As we started working I gave her more precise information about how breathing is supposed to function.  I gave her tactile feedback about where her lungs were, about which parts of her body needed to move to breathe, and helped her feel what a deeper breath felt like in her body.  But most of all, I watched her body respond.

The exciting part of this work for me isn’t forcibly changing how people move, it’s how our bodies naturally respond when given more precise information about function and movement.  After about 15 min her posture had completely changed without me having to comment on her posture or ask her to do anything other than having more awareness of her breathing anatomy!

As we continued on I noticed that she had developed a bit of a rib flare from her high breathing pattern.  So I helped guide her breathing pattern from up and forward in her chest to more down and around her abdomen.  I introduced her to my proprietary breathing framework, The French Press Breath, and how she could apply this breathing pattern to yoga as well as sitting at a desk for work. I could tell she was a bit unsure how it would work for moving, but she said that even walking felt easier and more supported and not stiff like she expected it to.

By the end of the session her shoulder was more released than it had been in months - all without putting much focus on her shoulder.  The simple change in breathing pattern had allowed her shoulders to finally release instead of constantly trying to pull up on the ribcage and her rib flare had softened without her gripping with her abdominals .  The result? Not only did we fix her shoulder pain and rib flare with breath, but she felt stronger and more connected to her body than ever before.

Before she left she told me “So many of my friends are at this point in their lives where they want to take care of their bodies, but it’s like we’ve never been given access to them.  Not like this!”  

And that’s the truth, isn’t it?

We want to do something good for ourselves but we don’t know where to start and we do all these things and hope something sticks.  All the while we’re dealing with all these different issues - the shoulder twinge, the wrist pain, the back ache that always seem to come back.  So we decide that this is just how our body is and we continue to push through it and try to ignore it so we can get on with our lives... unwittingly separating ourselves further and further from our bodies.

But when you can work WITH your body, when you can use a breathing pattern that supports how your body actually wants to move, all these other issues might start to resolve on their own accord.  If I had started with my client’s shoulder we might not have found her rib flare or the breathing pattern that was pulling her shoulder out of whack… and my client might not have experienced how supportive and freeing it could feel to be in her body without pain.

If you want to learn more about my breathwork, I invite you to check out my free Release to Breathe course and dive deeper into how proper breathing can support your body in Breathe Your Blueprint.