This is a nice little diddy written by Mr. Eric Grimsley. The dude knows his stuff and is a great trainer and educator at Iron Strength Kettlebell Gym. I think you will enjoy this blog. I sure as hell did.
By Eric Grimsley
We can all use less stress in our lives and a side effect of stronger does not hurt either. Good thing there is something we can do that can give us both of these things at once! What crazy, elaborate, difficult exercise can do this?! Breathing. Yes, breathing. It’s the simple things in life. The thing we do every day that keeps our heart beating. The only problem is that there are plenty of people that could be doing it better and I can tell you how.
When we were born, we used our diaphragm to breathe. Our bellies would push out as we inhaled and then we would exhale the air. If you forgot what that looked like, watch how babies and toddlers naturally breathe. This is what we should strive for. This day and age, many of us are chest breathers. When we inhale air, our chest rises up and we use our secondary breathing muscles as our primary breathing mechanism. This starts our stress, fight or flight, response system in our body, throwing hormones off course and could have a hand at causing chronic inflammation. Good news though, we can take advantage of our parasympathetic response, the rest and digest state, and take back control. We do this by finding our diaphragm and belly breathing. 
What is the diaphragm? It is a dome shaped muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen and serves as our main breathing muscle. It is also the top of our inner core, with the pelvic floor being the bottom. If the top of our inner core is not being used to the best of its abilities, strength leaks out and we are not tied together.
Let’s get back to finding our diaphragm and using it to access the benefits of less stress and more strength. You will come down to the floor and lay flat on your stomach, resting your forehead on your hands in what is called the crocodile breathing position. Your mouth will be closed, your tongue should be placed at the roof of your mouth behind your teeth, and you will inhale/exhale through your nose. As you inhale, you should feel your belly push against the floor with your lower back rising towards the sky. You DO NOT want to feel your chest coming up first. Really think about breathing down to the waistline and feel your belly fill up and expand towards the walls. Control the exhale and repeat. Make sure your arms and upper back are relaxed. Melt into the floor and focus on belly breathing. This should really calm you down. You may also feel tightness in your upper back or neck decrease. 
Where does the ‘more strength’ come in? I mentioned earlier that the diaphragm is the top of the inner core and if it’s not strong, our center is not strong. We must have a strong center to move well and have strong limbs. The diaphragm works with the other muscles in your center like the pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, and back musculature to create a strong and stable center. When these muscles are activated by the simple act of belly breathing, we become reflexively strong. In other words, our inner core unit is turned on and allows us to safely move, create force, and absorb force.
How can I use this for strength training? Belly breathing is a gentle form of strength training and also serves as a great way to recover from a set of squats, presses, deadlifts, etc. You can put your rest time to better use by adding this in. Do a set of your given exercise, then get on the floor and breathe deep to the belly (remember: mouth closed, tongue to the roof of the mouth, and breathe through your nose). After you feel you have recovered, go for your next set and note any changes in how it felt. Repeat through this cycle. I used this during a press workout last week and even after my 6th and 7th sets I was still getting improvements. Very simple and effective.
When you are doing your next set of squats, try out this breathing position and see if it makes any difference in your sets. I bet it will. What if I don’t do squats? Well, you should be. You will be on your back with your knees pulled in towards your chest. Stay nice and relaxed and breathe to the belly. You should feel your belly push against your thighs in this position. Here is a picture of the breathing position to try.
This should give you a great starting point with decreasing stress, while increasing your strength. Let me know how it goes for you and enjoy!
*But wait, there’s more!: Belly breathe while trying to fall asleep in bed. It will do wonders. Take care!
You can catch more great information in episode 19 of the PB and Gainz Podcast!
Eric Grimsley is a Certified Personal Trainer in the Sugar Land, Tx area at Iron Strength Kettlebell Gym. He is also an Original Strength Coach and a StrongFirst Kettlebell Instructor. More importantly, a proud husband and father. You can contact him at: egrimSFG@gmail.com
PB & Gainz 