Is breathing with your shoulder the best recovery alternative?
Health Disclaimer:
These articles are for educative and entertainment purposes only. They are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have a current injury or are in pain, please seek the advice of your regular health care provider. You are responsible for your own safety and health at all times. Especially, given physical activity is not without risk and can cause harm. By engaging with any content on this website you acknowledge and agree that Eccentric Physio is not liable for any direct, indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or other damages arising therefrom.
Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment because of something you have read on or accessed through this web site.
TL: DR - I would argue it is better to train your primary breathing muscles to perform as breathing muscles and your secondary breathing muscles to do their primary jobs i.e. let your shoulder blade muscles do their shoulder blade movements. To achieve this, you will need to work on building stability around your abdomen and rib-cage so your diaphragm can work solely as your breathing in muscle.
You can breath with your shoulder?
I have seen a few articles pop up recently talking about this study (1). Now I am not saying it is awful advice. Considering they only looked at hands above head vs hands on knees (HK), all we know for certain is about what they tested. The point here is to not take away from their article but to hopefully add a little more and get you guys thinking differently.
So!! I’d ask you to consider a different perspective first! They even mention this at the very end of their discussion. “Consistently, supine posture results in accelerated heart rate recovery (HRR) and has been documented in soccer players. However, the supine position is not a practical alternative for athletes recovering from repeated sprints in game competition. Thus, the results from this study indicate HK as a viable option when supine positions are not feasible.”
What does that mean? It means lying on your back was even better for recovery than hands on knees. First, how are HK and lying on your back different? Different postural requirements. Second, the HK position gives you more stability to be able to relax and breathe from then the hands on head position. You are using your shoulder blade muscles to stabilise so you can breathe with your ribs! As a short term option this is fine. As a long term pattern this is not fine as your shoulder blade muscles will prioritise doing their breathing job instead of doing their movement job of assisting your arm. Potentially better to work on the endurance of your spinal erectors so you can hold yourself up and maintain good breathing mechanics. If you lose spinal stability the diaphragm is a great candidate for creating stabiltiy with its lumbar spine attachments. If your diaphragm is busy stabilising your spine you’ll likely kick in other breathing muscles to help. See where I am going with this domino effect?
Instead of promoting HK as a recovery position I would encourage establishing better breathing mechanics through better stability mechanics that do not require your shoulder blades for stability. I would also encourage you to ask if you are pushing yourself too hard. You may need better dosing of high intensity training. This study had participants running 4x4 minutes at 90-95% of their heart rate. That’s insane! That is sustaining nearly max effort running for 4 minutes with 3 minutes to recover a total of 4 times. That is not repeated sprints. How long does it take to sprint 400 meters on average? The current mens world record is 43.03 seconds by Wayde van Niekerk (2). The women’s is 49.59 by Marita Koch (2). Now this is a loose estimation but lets say you run near full effort for 4 minutes. Most people would maybe run AT LEAST 400 meters? When was the last time you sprinted 400 meters, without stopping, in a sports game?
Now I am not having a go at the original study. Their goal was to exhaust people and see what position they recovered best in. They met their goal and came to a conclusion. What I am suggesting is to think critically about the carryo ver to sport. If you are working that hard in a game, for that long, you are likely not fit enough and shouldn’t be playing regardless. For example, average %HRmax in amateur female footballers has been recorded as 81% HRmax (3). Some food for thought. I digress!
So to summarise:
If you are working that hard, for that long, you will be exhausted. Lay on the ground, get your heart rate down and relax. If you’re not sure how get in touch! The goal is to recover. Might as well do it in the best load sharing pattern.
It’s arguably a better long term strategy to use your primary breathing muscles to recover. Not your secondary breathing muscles (like your shoulder blade muscles). Especially considering your lungs exchange more oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lower lobes AND your secondary muscles fatigue much faster.
If you have to work that hard during a sports game you’re probably not fit enough to be playing at that level. Go work on your breathing, fitness and stability. Don’t trade mobility and power for stability. Earn the ability to play or do the task you want to do.
I have left more than a few stones un-turned in this article :). If you have other information to the contrary please discuss in the comments!
Stay inquisitive and do the basics well,
Ciaran
References:
1. Michaelson, J. V., Brilla, L. R., Suprak, D. N., McLaughlin, W. L., & Dahlquist, D. T. (2019). Effects of Two Different Recovery Postures during High-Intensity Interval Training. Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, 4(4), 23–27. https://doi.org/10.1249/TJX.0000000000000079
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/400_metres
3. Mills, C. D., Eglon, H. J., & School of Sports and Exercise, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Campus, Gloucester, GL2 9HW, UK. (2018). Heart Rate Intensity in Female Footballers and its Effect on Playing Position based on External Workload. Sports and Exercise Medicine - Open Journal, 4(1), 24–34. https://doi.org/10.17140/SEMOJ-4-157
Copyright Disclaimer - This article is protected by the Copyright Act 1994. The author controls the copyright of this article. Recognition of the author’s right to be identified as the author will be acknowledged and when relevant the author will be acknowledged as the author. You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from this article. For further information you can reference the Act here: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/whole.html