30 days of guided breath sessions
Back pain, pelvic pain, a posture that will not settle, a breath that stops short. These may have more to do with your diaphragm than anyone has told you. Thirty days of short, guided sessions to help you breathe fully again, and bring that breath into how you move.
Many of the people we work with have heard it from a doctor, a friend, or an app. It sounds simple. Yet when they try, the breath feels short, stuck high in the chest, or like it stops somewhere around the ribs.
Often times they have also been living with an aching low back, pelvic pain or pressure, or shoulders that creep up toward their ears no matter how many times they pull them down. They have tried stretching, strengthening, massage, and rest. It helps for a while, and then the discomfort comes back.
What you are noticing is real. These pieces may be connected, and the breath is one of the places where they meet.
How breathing changes
Breathing runs on its own, so most people never notice when it changes. These are the three patterns we see most often.
When the body is healing, it protects the area. The belly holds, the ribs stiffen, and breathing moves up into the chest. Research on abdominal surgery has shown the diaphragm itself can work less well in the days afterward.
Scar tissue can keep that pattern going. Think of a snag in a sweater. The pull travels through the fabric, and a scar on the chest, abdomen, or pelvis can limit how the ribs and belly expand long after the incision has closed.
Breathing responds to emotion as well as to your body's needs. When you feel anxious or rushed, breathing tends to get faster and shallower, and it shifts into the neck and upper chest.
That is useful for a short burst. When stress becomes the background of daily life, the fast, high breath can become the default, and the muscles of the neck and shoulders never get a break.
Watch someone lift a laundry basket, get out of a low chair, or reach for a high shelf. Many people hold their breath without knowing it. Holding the breath while you bear down raises pressure inside the abdomen and can spike blood pressure.
That pressure has to go somewhere. Often times it pushes down on the pelvic floor and stiffens the low back, which can be part of why everyday tasks leave you sore.
Meet your diaphragm
The diaphragm is the primary muscle of respiration, a dome-shaped muscle that sits under your ribs. Each time you breathe in, it lowers and widens. Each time you breathe out, it rises again.
Picture a canister. The diaphragm is the lid, the pelvic floor is the base, and the deep abdominal and back muscles wrap around the sides. When the lid moves well, the whole canister works together. When it does not, the other parts tend to take on extra work.
The diaphragm helps build pressure inside the abdomen that supports the spine when you move your arms and legs. Studies have found it moves differently in people with chronic low back pain.
The pelvic floor moves in rhythm with your breath and also works to steady you during movement. When the breath is held or forced, the pelvic floor often holds or strains with it, which may play a part in pelvic pain and pressure.
When the diaphragm is not doing its full job, the neck and shoulder muscles pick up the slack, like co-workers covering for someone who shows up but does not do their part. Over time those helpers tire and tighten, pulling the shoulders up and forward.
Each full breath gently moves the ribs, the abdomen, and the tissue beneath them. In our work, we use that movement as a quiet, built-in way to help tissue around a scar keep its glide, thousands of times a day.
What the research says
Here is a plain-language look at some of the work behind this program, what it found, and where the evidence is still growing.
Lower stress, anxiety, and low mood
A review of randomized controlled trials, the most rigorous kind of study, found that across 12 trials and 785 adults, breathwork lowered stress compared with no breathwork. Similar small-to-moderate improvements showed up for anxiety and depression.
Fincham et al., Scientific Reports, 2023. Read the study
Five minutes a day, for 28 days
In a Stanford trial, 108 adults practiced for 5 minutes daily. A slow pattern with an extended exhale improved daily mood more than mindfulness meditation and lowered resting breathing rate. The benefit to mood tended to grow the more days people practiced.
Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2023. Read the study
Heart rate and blood pressure
Across 31 studies and over 1,100 people, slow-paced breathing raised heart rate variability, a marker of how easily the body shifts into rest, and produced a moderate drop in systolic blood pressure after practice.
Shao, Man & Lee, Mindfulness, 2024. Read the study
The diaphragm steadies the spine
When people moved their arms and legs, the diaphragm stayed active to help steady the trunk while still keeping up with breathing. It worked with the deep abdominal muscles to raise pressure inside the abdomen in proportion to the effort.
Hodges & Gandevia, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2000. Read the study
It moves differently with back pain
MRI studies found that in people with chronic low back pain, the diaphragm tended to sit higher and move less during postural tasks. When the legs were loaded, many could not keep normal breathing movement going, suggesting the diaphragm struggled to do both jobs at once.
Kolar et al., JOSPT, 2012. Study. Vostatek et al., PLoS ONE, 2013. Study
Breathing added to core work
In a small trial of adults with chronic low back pain, both groups improved over 4 weeks. The group that added diaphragmatic breathing to core exercise saw larger drops in pain and disability on average, though the difference between groups was not large enough to be certain.
Masroor et al., Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 2023. Read the study
The pelvic floor breathes too
The pelvic floor muscles showed activity linked to breathing, and they switched on ahead of arm movements to help with posture. In other words, the pelvic floor is part of both your breathing team and your stability team.
Hodges, Sapsford & Pengel, Neurourology and Urodynamics, 2007. Read the study
Surgery affects the diaphragm
After upper abdominal surgery, breathing capacity and diaphragm movement stayed markedly reduced for about a week, and the researchers pointed to the diaphragm itself as a cause. Lower abdominal surgery had a smaller, shorter effect.
British Journal of Anaesthesia, 1987. Read the study
Holding the breath raises pressure
Bearing down with a held breath during lifting raises pressure inside the abdomen and chest and can sharply raise blood pressure. That is one reason we teach breathing through effort rather than holding.
Hackett & Chow, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2013. Read the study
These findings are encouraging, and researchers are careful to call many of them a starting point. Some studies are small, results vary from person to person, and few follow people for months afterward. Breath practice is a support for your recovery, not a replacement for your medical care.
Why guided
Most people cannot see their own breathing pattern, the same way you cannot hear your own accent. A guide gives you something to listen to and compare against, so you can feel the difference between a held breath and a free one.
Positions and cues help the ribs and belly expand, so the neck and shoulders can stop covering for it.
Paced breathing with a longer exhale gives your body a reliable way to settle, which gets easier the more you practice it.
You practice exhaling as you lift, stand, and reach, so the pressure supports your spine and pelvic floor rather than bearing down on them.
A short session waiting for you each day takes the guesswork out, and consistency is where change tends to build.
A message from your instructor
Jenice Mattek
IMS, LCMT, OTA
Co-author of What Lies Beneath
I was five years old when I was diagnosed with migraine headaches. They followed me through school and well into my mid-twenties. By then I was taking up to 800 mg of ibuprofen a day, and I had tried nearly everything I could think of: massage, heat, ice, rubs, rest, stretching, strength training, and more. Along the way I developed weakness and pain in my arms, neck, and upper back. Some days it was hard to think clearly, to work, or to simply take part in my own life.
Then the right people came into my life. With their help, I discovered that the way I was breathing was a big part of what was driving the pain in my head, neck, and shoulders. I also began to see how the posture and movement patterns I had carried since I was young, in daily life and in exercise, were adding to my discomfort.
In less than two years, I no longer needed any pain medicine. Today, more than 25 years later, my headaches are rare, fewer than one a month, and when one does come, it is mild. Breathwork is still the first thing I reach for to ease it.
That freedom from pain is what drives me to share this work, so that you, too, can discover a tool you already carry within yourself.
Every day, I work with each of my clients on bringing better breathing into their healing, and on using it to improve posture and help the body move and feel its best. I offer this program once or twice a year, and I refresh it each time with what I continue to learn from that work.
I am so glad you are here, and I look forward to breathing with you for the next 30 days.
Jenice
Each week builds on the one before, following the same principles we use in the clinic: Alignment, Breath, and Control. Sessions are short enough to fit into a morning, a lunch break, or the few minutes before sleep.
Notice
Learn where your breath goes now, without changing it. This gives you a starting point to compare against later.
Make room
Gentle positions that help the ribs, belly, and pelvic floor move with the breath, so the diaphragm can take back more of its job.
Slow down
Paced breathing and longer exhales, the patterns studied for stress and heart rate variability, practiced so they feel steady rather than strained.
Breathe as you move
Bring the breath into lifting, standing, walking, and reaching, so it supports the activities you need, want, and love to do.
What you receive
The core program
One session for each day, [SESSION LENGTH] each, with seated, lying, and standing options and adjustments for tender scars and limited shoulder movement.
Bonus 1
Gentle exercises that pair each movement with the breath, so you build strength without bracing or holding. A good bridge between breathing on the floor and breathing through your day.
Bonus 2
Plain-language lessons on the diaphragm, pelvic floor, spine, scar tissue, and nervous system. When you understand why an exercise works, it is easier to keep doing it.
Bonus 3
Watch to learn the positions, then switch to audio once you know them. Practice on a walk, in the car before work, or lying in bed.
Bonus 4
Return to your favorite sessions, or pick back up when life gets in the way. You have more than twice the length of the program to finish and repeat it.
From a previous participant
"I am following along with the 30 days of breathing. It is helpful to have your cues and reminders every day! I am feeling improvement in my hips, which I am so happy to feel. Thank you for putting this together. I truly appreciate it!"
It can. Scar tissue and the guarding patterns that form during healing often stay long after the incision has closed. Just like the bottom of an iceberg, the part you cannot see may be doing the most.
The diaphragm attaches to the ribs and the lower spine, and it works with the pelvic floor and deep core to support you. When it is not moving well, the low back and pelvis often take on extra load. These symptoms may be far from your lungs and still be connected.
Please check with your surgeon or care team first, especially in the early weeks. Once you are cleared, the sessions offer gentle options, and you can always stay with an easier version.
Stop, return to your normal breathing, and rest. Lightheadedness can happen when breathing changes too quickly, which is why the program moves slowly and never asks you to force the breath.
That is what the 65 days of access are for. Pick up where you left off. Consistency helps, and research suggests benefits can build with more days of practice, but you can move through the 30 sessions at a pace that works for your life.
A quiet spot and something comfortable to sit or lie on. A pillow or rolled towel can help with some positions.
A few minutes a day, guided by a team that helps people return to the activities they need, want, and love to do. Starts [START DATE].
Questions first? Call 773.343.4012 or email our team.
Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.
