Breathing Strategies for Different Body Types: Why One Breathing Drill Doesn't Fit All
Oct 17, 2026
The breathing strategy that works for one person can be the wrong one for someone else. Depending on your posture or body shape, you may need different constraints and cues to help the core canister work well: using the diaphragm and the lower abdominals while finding the areas of the body where you need to create expansion. In this video I compare two body types side by side.
Body type 1: reading the posture
From the side, the first person is in a little more of an anterior pelvic tilt. I think that's totally fine, and she can go into and out of an anterior or posterior tilt, so we don't need to try to force anything. If she can't get out of that lumbar curve, then we might want to change something, but she isn't stuck there.
She also has a straighter thoracic curve, and when she breathes, all of her air goes up into her chest. So the constraints should help her get more expansion in other areas, and make it easier for her to engage her deep core during breath work. A towel roll can help regain curve where her upper back is straighter.
Blowing out the candles
First, a soft slow sigh on the exhale. Then an inhale and blow out candles on the exhale. For the first person, the ribs came down better with the blowing-out-candles breath. She already tends toward a pursed-lips exhale, and I'm not afraid of her doing this, since she isn't inadvertently getting too much rectus and too little lower abdominal. So a pursed-lips exhale is a good strategy for her to get the ribs to come down. I'll also support her neck and give her some curve in the lower back, to keep the airway open and the chin lifted.
Adding a ball to limit chest expansion
After a full pursed-lips exhale, keep tension throughout the abs and watch where the pressure goes on the next inhale. She still gets a lot of chest wall expansion, so I add a constraint to reduce it. I only had a 20 pound medicine ball here, but I'd recommend something smaller. Place the ball over the area that is overly inflated, holding it in place so it compresses that area down. This helps her get more expansion elsewhere, into the back of her body, all the way from the upper thoracic region down into the lumbar spine. On the exhale, blow out, hold the abdominal tension, and you can even push down more.
A caveat: for people who are very extended with an anterior tilt but are actually compressed up high, you may not want to use the ball. We still want them breathing into that compression.
Body type 2: a different strategy
The second person has a different body and posture, and needs a different breathing strategy. When I have her exhale and blow out birthday candles, her upper abs hug in in a not-so-great way and push pressure down, which is more gripping, and that isn't what we want. Switch to fogging up a mirror, a much gentler, softer exhale, and everything evenly hugs in, the whole core connects, and the pressure doesn't get pushed forward. It's a totally different result.
For her breathing strategy, I want to make sure she isn't tucking under. Because the pump handle chest wall is compressed, a towel behind there helps keep the chest nice and open. As she exhales and fogs up the mirror, the ribs come back and together, and the whole core connects. She can hold some of that tension, and when she inhales you can see the chest rise and expand, which probably feels good for her system. Then she fogs up the mirror again as she breathes out, with no upper ab cinching and no pressure pushing out.
Watch more
Breathing in Extension, Not Just Flexion | Diaphragm & Rib Cage Mechanics
How to stretch your diaphragm for better 360° breathing
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