On episode two, season three, of ‘We’re Not Blowing Hot Air,’ Dr. Sarah Petrich – a physical therapist extraordinaire with a background and certification in Postural Restoration & Pilates – explains how the everyday way you move and hold your body is directly related to how you breathe. This highly-sought after expert in rebalancing breath, posture and movement patterns shares her hot take on why belly breathing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Plus, Dr. Sarah and podcast co-host, Lauren Carlstrom, unveil a new multi-part breathing series she created with Oxygen Plus. All this, and more, on this breathtaking episode of ‘We’re Not Blowing Hot Air.’.
About Dr. Sarah Petrich:
As a specialist in Postural Restoration, Pilates, & Dance Medicine, Dr. Sarah Petrich provides physical therapy and Pilates training focusing on re-balancing posture, alignment and breathing for patients and wellness clients.
When not in the clinic or on zoom, she's often traveling around the nation teaching educational courses to healthcare professionals, Pilates instructors and other movement specialists. You can find her and her courses on her website www.sarahpetrich.com and on Instagram @drsarahpetrich.
Catch Oxygen Plus at @oxygenplus on TikTok and Instagram
On episode two, season three, of ‘We’re Not Blowing Hot Air,’ Dr. Sarah Petrich – a physical therapist extraordinaire with a background and certification in Postural Restoration & Pilates – explains how the everyday way you move and hold your body is directly related to how you breathe. This highly-sought after expert in rebalancing breath, posture and movement patterns shares her hot take on why belly breathing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Plus, Dr. Sarah and podcast co-host, Lauren Carlstrom, unveil a new multi-part breathing series she created with Oxygen Plus. All this, and more, on this breathtaking episode of ‘We’re Not Blowing Hot Air.’.
About Dr. Sarah Petrich:
As a specialist in Postural Restoration, Pilates, & Dance Medicine, Dr. Sarah Petrich provides physical therapy and Pilates training focusing on re-balancing posture, alignment and breathing for patients and wellness clients.
When not in the clinic or on zoom, she's often traveling around the nation teaching educational courses to healthcare professionals, Pilates instructors and other movement specialists. You can find her and her courses on her website www.sarahpetrich.com and on Instagram @drsarahpetrich.
Catch Oxygen Plus at @oxygenplus on TikTok and Instagram
Welcome to the We're Not Blowing Hot Air podcast, powered by Oxygen Plus. This season, we're all about the newest proven wellness hacks that'll help you think, feel, and perform your best. Today, Dr. Sarah Petrich, a physical therapist extraordinaire, shares what Chin knows about the breath and movement. Let's start training for the game of life with this episode's special guest on We're Not blowing hot Air. Dr. Sarah Petrick . Pleasure to have you today on We're not blowing hot air.
Speaker 2:It's great to be here, Lauren.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's indeed. Robert is , uh, sends his regrets. He is in Vegas living it up. Um, so it's a shame he won't be here to learn with us, but I'm sure he'll pick up the re the recorded podcast episode later on.
Speaker 2:Well just have to survive without him . Yeah,
Speaker 1:We can do it. We can do it <laugh> . Uh, it'll be a good time. I'm excited. I I just wanna introduce you a bit more to our, our listeners. Um, well, first of all, you're a friend of our company. We've known you for quite some time, and , um, personally I've had the privilege of working with you in the realm of physical therapy. Um, you are a specialist in postural restoration through the Po po Postural Restoration Institute. You are a certified Pilates instructor and also have training and dance medicine, which sounds mm-hmm . Amazing. Um, you provide PT and Pilates training to help rebalance posture, alignment and breathing for patients and wellness clients. You do that both in person in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as via Zoom post Covid. So that's fantastic. And you are also, I think you should , I should mention you're very highly sought after and people fly you all around the country where you teach about the education of what you do to both healthcare professionals and instructors and other movement specialists. So I think it's quite amazing and awesome to have you here today. I do think you are an individual who, who's highly specialized in what she does, and , um, I can personally and professionally attest to , uh, your excellence. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, <laugh> .
Speaker 1:Great. Well, so I just wanna know, I mean, not everyone, I've, I've met a handful of PTs, but I have not really met anyone who has gone into more of a specialty after that training. Can you share with us why you got into the deeper dive that you did in the world of pt?
Speaker 2:Uh, to be honest , um, uh, it's because I went into physical therapy school , uh, really wanting to get to know , um, and understand how the whole body moves and not just each segment. Uh, and I didn't realize, you know, grad school is just the beginning and that's kind of where you need to start with your building blocks, but I really wanted to know the interconnectedness of how , uh, a foot and how a foot works and how it would affect a hip or a shoulder. Uh , because I know as my, with my background in dance , um, I had studied technique and form, but you could also just sense and feel how if you change one little thing, it could change your whole posture. And so , uh, really being able to , uh, intertwine the whole body and how it moves and address that , uh, with my patients and with clients to change how they feel in their bodies and help them feel better. Uh , that's, that's what drove me down that avenue.
Speaker 1:Hmm . Okay. What kind of dance did you do?
Speaker 2:Oh, I did , uh, all the , the traditional types like jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical , um, musical theater. Yeah,
Speaker 1:I couldn't , oh ,
Speaker 2:Okay . I couldn't stop growing up. <laugh>.
Speaker 1:You had the bug.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, even the grocery store aisles, I'd be tap dancing, <laugh> .
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. I still dance in the grocery store sometimes, and squeaky shoes especially. Gotta make it known that, you know, you're enjoying life, right, <laugh>?
Speaker 2:Yes , you bet.
Speaker 1:Um , movement is such an important part of enjoying life. And, you know, I think we we're gonna get into it a bit more, but the, the connection between movement and breath. I mean, I, as a myself, I was a, a classical, classically trained ballet dancer up until like 17. I had to decide like, I'm gonna go go to college and go that route, or am I gonna like try to get into a b t in New York and like, take that avenue and be a starving artist? And I choose , I did not choose that one. I'm here today instead. But I remember like in my training, which was quite rigorous, and usually like six, seven days a week, like, I remember like oftentimes like , um, having to breathe and catch my breath, but like, I absolutely, it had to be through the nose and I absolutely couldn't let any part of my body show that I was breathing. And no one talked to us about how to breathe. They just told us, like you said, like the technique and you know, if , if it looked correct and or it felt right. Right. But how, how is, I guess, like as a dancer, did you have that experience? Did people talk to you about breathing or was it more like overlooked and just something you had to learn your on your own?
Speaker 2:Well, I actually , um, had difficulty breathing. Uh, and part of it is because nobody trained me. How so , uh, dance, they, they really care about how you look <laugh> and not as much about how you feel. And guess what, it doesn't feel so hot when you can't breathe. And , uh, and the emphasis is so much on core stability and placement and , uh, of course just , uh, aesthetically trying to look thinner of course. And that's part of correct placement as well. Uh, getting your core stability there, but nobody taught you, taught you how to breathe and have core stability, which is a big problem. So actually when I was , um, 12, actually, I think I was a little younger , um, but , uh, I remember doing a performance and walking off stage and, and I realized, oh, I'm not, I'm not breathing that hard. That's amazing. And then I realized I wasn't breathing at all and um, and I took a deep breath of variant and I started hyperventilating and really ended up with me passing out and getting diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. Whoa. So it was kind of an extreme , um, experience. And I had a , luckily enough I had a dance teacher who just kind of taught me just, just to focus on my breathing, which does help quite a bit. Um, but fast forward , uh, um, I am, you know, in my twenties I started to learn a little bit more about breathing mechanics , uh, after grad school. Uh, and I don't, I don't need an inhaler or anything. Um, I think I was misdiagnosed to be honest. I think I just didn't know how to breathe. Mm-hmm . And have good core ability and good posture at the same time. And so it is possible to have both, but unfortunately it's never not really well known . Uh, it's not really well talked about. If you google breathing or diaphragmatic breathing, you're not gonna get , um, you're not gonna get a, an approach that allows you to find your core stability and breathe well. Usually what you'll find is belly breathing. So you'll get a lot more , uh, education on that, which guess what, that doesn't work if you're a dancer or an athlete , uh, trying to perform. When was the last time you saw like a , an elite gymnast or an elite , uh, uh, sprinter belly breathing while they performed? Uh , they're not gonna do that cuz they need their core stability for that performance too. So you need both.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So an that , that's I think one of the main things we wanted to talk to about today is this, this idea of belly breathing. I mean, it , it seems like it's such a hot topic still in sport actually. Um, how is that possible if it isn't that helpful to breathe through your belly cuz you lose that core stability that you're talking about?
Speaker 2:Um, well , uh, we , uh, you and I , uh, actually record our whole , uh, segment on this. And so, and that's, we did secret . I'm really bad at keeping the secret. Um, but , uh, so , uh, that goes a little bit more into it, but mm-hmm . <affirmative> , if you just , um, if you think a little bit logically , uh, well belly breathing , uh, your lungs are not in your abdomen. So what's expanding is your internal organs are being pushed forward. So when you inhale with belly breathing, you're just sending the airflow straight down into your lungs. And if you ever have looked at what lung tissue looks like, we often depict it like really like upside down trees where leaves are going all different directions, not just straight down. So you have lung tissue that can expand forward and back and side to side and even all the way up to your uppermost ribs. So we wanna take advantage of all that lung tissue when you need it. And you can't really do that with just belly breathing. That being said , um, you're gonna find a lot of research and a lot of proponents of belly breathing and it's not entirely wrong. Um, if you focus on your breath , um, just by itself, it's gonna help calm your nervous system and relax you more, which is gonna help decrease anxiety, which is why it's often talked about in , um, psychology circles and mindfulness , um, meditation type of activities. However, you can also get good breathing mechanics and have some core stability too . And that is something that we're not training. Um, and so there's also research that supports that too. Uh, and so it's just , uh, there's , um, some , um, the , there's some , uh, challenges in what research we have that doesn't really compare different type of breathing styles really well against each other. Um, but if you just look at focusing on your breath, you're gonna find benefits no matter what, for the most part. So my ,
Speaker 1:So correct me if I'm wrong or being too reductionist in my thinking, but is it that it, the application, so it's okay and like functionally beneficial to breathe through your belly if maybe you're trying to relax, like just zoning out, meditating, maybe just getting acupuncture as I did this morning, kind of just do that kind of breathing more. But if you're wanting to be actively engaged and moving your body, is that when belly breathing doesn't really pass the muster?
Speaker 2:Um, I'm glad you asked that. Um , so it really depends on how , uh, belly breathing instructions are interpreted. So if you're literally just trying to fill your belly, really trying to , uh, almost make yourself look like you have a pregnant belly when you inhale, and that can be problematic. Uh , uh, we don't really wanna be pushing our internal organs forward and some people will also push downward on their pelvic floor. And so , uh, I think there's some , uh, possibility that if you push and bear down too hard with that type of breathing, that you could also pre create some problems. Um, belly breathing is best , um, done in like an observatory type of , um, way where you're just, if you put your hand like a hand on your abdomen and hand on your chest and you're just doing it while you're meditating, that you just go, oh, my belly expands a little bit, but really some movement through your rim cage is good because, well, that's where your lungs are mm-hmm . <affirmative> and , uh, and you actually want ribs to be nice and mobile. In fact, if you breathe and you get a little bit expansion in through that rib cage , uh, it keeps your you more mobile even while you're sitting at rest, which is always good for us. We don't wanna get stiff and , uh, tight . If you're one of those people that gets stiff after sitting for a while , even some , um, good quality breaths where you get breath that it helps expand even , uh, it gets your pelvic floor moving a little bit with your breath, but also gets your rib cage to expand. Um , that can be helpful with reducing some of that stiffness if you're sitting for a long time.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's neat. Um, so is it more like it's all about the lungs? Is that more of where the accuracy is in this statement? I mean, we don't wanna create enemies , um, but like, is belly breathing just as kind of a, a practice even for like r and r? Not really what we wanna aim for.
Speaker 2:I I ,
Speaker 1:I'm trying to cause trouble, Sarah . I'm just , I'm just trying to get, get the , the scootie on it.
Speaker 2:<laugh> , you know, I, I just, I'm, I'm kind of towing the line. I don't want people to think that your belly doesn't expand at all.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It doesn't , it is not that it doesn't move at at all. It can move a little bit. Um, I don't like people pushing it out. Uh , got it . And that's usually, so I tend to rant against belly breathing, full disclosure. Um, and the reason is because most people try to push their abdomen out and when you try to push your abdomen out, you're pushing those organs out and you could be bearing down on your pelvic floor. You also, in order for that belly to expand, what do you have to relax? You have to relax your abdomen. And if you look at the research, you actually want at least a little bit of core stability, even at rest, even at when you're sleeping at night, because your abdomen should actually be participating in your rib cage posture as you breathe. So it helps control the posture of your rim cage and to some extent your pelvis as well, so that we have good diaphragm diaphragmatic movement and pelvic floor movement integrating all together with how you hold your body itself.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Like the perfect machine, the vitruvian man, like every, all the, like when I learned about fascia after I was a ballet dancer, I learned about it. I, I was like , it suddenly all made sense to me. And how we talk about like, even breathing into like your toes at the end of your fingertips and, and meditation and stuff, sort of like it , it's this idea of like having one whole solid but always moving body. Is that more of like what we're going for when we talk about, as Joseph Pilate said, above all, learned to breathe correctly?
Speaker 2:Ooh , good quote Lauren . I mean you said that in
Speaker 1:Your series, but Okay .
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Okay . Well, I was gonna say, where'd you get that? How you <laugh> You did say that. And really , um, your breath moves you , uh, and your whole body can integrate with your breath. But um, yes, you're , um, because you're the , we think of just the diaphragm, but the diaphragm, like I had mentioned earlier, works with your pelvic floor and we're really controlling air pressure through your whole trunk. But even the ability to sense your feet on the floor and be grounded also really helps you utilize certain muscles that support the posture of your trunk, that help you manage air pressure and breathe and , um, open and it decompress and compress , um, through your trunk dynamically. So our breath is dynamic and it also works with our movement. And in fact , um, the best voice teachers will tell you you're not just breathing with your diaphragm and singing with your diaphragm. You are singing with your whole body. Oh , cool . I took a , I took a wonderful voice , um, seminar was just all about vocal chords and, and um, of course they're gonna talk about breathing, but , um, I remember this , uh, elite instructor that , um, that she, if you wanna be someone on Broadway, that's who you go take your voice lessons from. Wow. And she kind of did a little whisper to the audience that was all medical professionals and she goes, I am so excited I get to tell people this, but you gotta use your whole body, you gotta use your legs, you gotta use your core. And you don't wanna be just, she actually said you don't wanna just be belly breathing. You've gotta use your core too to support your breath, to , to project well and not hurt your vocal cords in the long run.
Speaker 1:Sarah , I got, I got the goose. I did, I got goosebumps on that. I, I think like, cuz it what to me, like what it connects with in my heart and life is like, just like that again, like being connected, heart, soul, mind, body, all of it . And then just like taking whatever it is you do or enjoying the world or day and just doing it in full and like letting you know, like this vessel of our body, like letting the breath like lead and connect and drive it. Like that's, I think what is exciting and, and, and I think we all can connect with no matter what we do for a job or what we're doing on a given Friday. Like it's, it's about like, how is our breathing supporting what we're gonna be stepping into, you know? And I just, so it's, it's just, I think it's such breath, how to breathe, the most important thing you can do above all, learn to breathe correctly. I mean that it, it really is a part of it, but is it just that easy? And this might lead into our, again, Sarah's Dr . Sarah's very first video series ever , which Oxygen Plus finally recruited here after like three years of hardcore negotiations <laugh> , we
Speaker 2:Finally,
Speaker 1:We finally struck a deal with her.
Speaker 2:Um , and it's mostly pinning my schedule down . Well,
Speaker 1:Yeah, time.
Speaker 2:That's , that's
Speaker 1:Vital. That's the , the the biggest resource, right? Like constraint . Right . But no, and we have several now several videos that we're gonna be rolling out to our audience and our listeners and, but it's really best to watch him <laugh>. But , um, so they'll be on YouTube, on our YouTube channel on Oxygen Plus. But what, like, what that , and so we do talk about belly breathing in those, but is it just the lungs and, and using the lungs more to be connected to your breath? Or are there other missing major elements? Like how would you approach, how would you approach just talking to somebody about like, Hey, I don't think I'm breathing correctly. How do I, how do I like go through this with you in my head?
Speaker 2:Well , uh, there's a reason why we have several series , uh, <laugh> on talking about breathing and, and still there's even more , um, subjects that one can talk about because , um, you've got, you've got an upper airway, so you've got your nasopharynx and then you've got your throat. And so all of that can get really complicated and there can be certainly things that block that , um, that airflow. And, and then you also have , uh, just the more of the lower airway, which is much more of what we were, we've been just discussing, right . Uh, which is , uh, lungs and diaphragm. Uh, and if you , uh, start talking to like a pelvic floor physical therapist, you start talking about the pelvic floor even being part of that breathing system. Um, so it can get really complicated really fast, and it means that we have also several , several valves along the way. And so there's a lot of areas for restriction and problems. Uh, so one of the first things if people are really concerned about airway, and we talk about this in one of the series, is we talk about really it's , it's super important to be able to breathe your nose and inhale through your nose. And we talk about all the reasons why , uh, if you , um, want to impact your health in a multitude of ways, not just even feeling better with your breath, but , uh, cardiovascular health, all sorts of pieces of your health healthcare are affected by just the small little thing of being able to breathe your nose. It's huge. Um, and then your breath really is the starting part, a starting place for your posture. So , uh, a friend of mine or a colleague of mine , uh, James, Dr. James Anderson , uh, he , uh, has , uh, often said, you don't hold your posture. Your posture holds you mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And what he is really getting at is you can try to think yourself to death and having the best posture ever. Uh, you can tense all the muscles up to get there and have the best Instagram picture ever, but , uh, it doesn't matter if you can't breathe. So it really kind of starts neurologically and also respir. So your breath really does control your posture. We wanna get and achieve good posture in a way that feels good. It doesn't really matter to me if you have the most beautiful looking posture, but you have tensed everything up and you're coming in with migraines and neck pain and low back pain and pelvic floor dysfunctions because you, you ha you've figured out how to get beautiful looking posture, but you don't know how to breathe and manage air pressure and feel good internally. So we want your posture to really start inside of your body. And if you have all the internal biomechanics working well for you, it will appear better too. But it starts within instead of starting with a picture
Speaker 1:That is seriously profound. And I wish like everyone on Instagram who's posing weirdly could get that message <laugh> Well, like , so they could feel better. I think that's what it comes down to. I mean that's, and, and the physiological benefits of, of getting your breath in order. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then , uh, what's challenging is, you know, what's easier is when you're addressing posture and even um, with breath is to visually try to figure it out, oh, it's supposed to look like this. Um, and then, then we are going down the rabbit hole of just trying to make it look like the right thing instead of trying to figure out how it feels. So , um, and, and me as a physical therapist , um, I don't always trust everybody <laugh> with if, if they even know what a good breath feels like. To be honest, there's a lot of people who haven't been breathing well since they were a kid . Um , so what I rely on are actual objective tests to , uh, figure out if someone really has good posture of their rim cage that supports good breath mechanics. Uh, and that is gonna be revealed to , uh, by looking at shoulder range of motion and some rib tests. And so , uh, that's another thing that we kind of have a sneak peek at looking at in, in our series. So if you're kind of curious Hmm . Maybe , uh, I fall into one of these categories , um, I can I I show you a little bit of some signs that you could also be not breathing well , uh, that are a little more objective.
Speaker 1:That is very cool. Cuz we don't often hear about that. We often hear you have to breathe well to like, put that tape over your mouth and sleep at night and that's gonna fix everything if you to be a nose breather. But it can go past the upper respiratory as you were saying, and actually being how your ribs are for the majority of the day. Right. Your posture. Yeah . How all that is. That's incredible. And also like what about like if your knee or hip or leg is off, is that also something that can affect how your lungs work and or your upper respiratory?
Speaker 2:Uh, well, I'd actually say it backwards. So , um, our diaphragm is inherently asymmetrical. So you have , uh, everybody, unless you have a very rare genetic , um, disposition, it's called in something like in situ verti that I might be pronouncing that wrong. Uh, but it is super rare. In fact , uh, it , it was discovered that a 93 year old woman had passed away like several years ago and it's so rare that it was on the national news that she had this, this disorder. And it's not really a disorder, it's a genetic , um, mutation , uh, per se. And it's just where all your internal organs are reversed. So instead of your liver being on the right side, it's on the left side . Wow. I've never seen a person with it. Um, and I've never even heard of somebody who's seen a person with it. Yeah . It's so rare. Wow. So, so , uh, the rest of us, which is everybody pretty much , uh, your right diaphragm is more dominant and more domed up and the left side is more shallow and weaker and we even have more nerve innervation to the right side than the left. You have more fibers of the right side of the diaphragm in intersecting into the spine versus the left. So we get actually a asymmetrical tendency even through our breath patterns. And if that gets past a certain threshold of imbalance, it can really pull and twist your body into certain pretty predictable patterns. And so that's part of why, why I got really into testing breath is because it also helps me figure out these movement patterns that are causing hip pain, knee pain, all sorts of different types of , uh, compressions and impingements that occur throughout the body because the diaphragm actually has a huge role , uh, or an huge influence on the spine. And if it's influencing it in an imbalance way and pulling it into more compression or extension on one side, it's gonna start to rotate the body and create a pattern that can be not , uh, not beneficial long term for someone if they get stuck in that cycle.
Speaker 1:So, and some of the tests that are in the series that we're gonna be unveiling, they actually, people can do these at home by themselves.
Speaker 2:Um , well , uh, they're a little tricky to do at home in the sense you can kind of maybe screen yourself a little bit. Um, you , I think I kind of demonstrate , uh, some easy ones so they're less valuable. Uh , sometimes people will cheat. So , um, okay . There's that <laugh>. So then I guess Yeah . But you can kinda look at a few of them and get an idea. Uh , and then if you're really , uh, if you wanna look more into it , uh, then you can uh, try to find a postural restoration , uh, certified , uh, therapist near you . They're really well trained on that.
Speaker 1:Okay. And so they are, they do exist,
Speaker 2:Right ? They do exist, yep . You're the only one
Speaker 1:I've ever met, but
Speaker 2:They're , they're not in all parts of the country to be honest. Ok . Alright . Um, but uh , they, they do exist and they have , they , they're the website of the institute. You can find them on there . They've gotta find a provider there.
Speaker 1:Great. The Postural Restoration Institute.
Speaker 2:You got it. Okay .
Speaker 1:Got it. All right , great. Yeah. And um, I would just say if there is a listener that has something and they can find someone, just message us dms on Instagram or wherever at oxygen at oxygen plus, and we'll try to connect that , um, to you. Cuz I can, again, I can personally attest when I started realizing my alignment was off, not like in the chiropractic sense, but in how I, my body mechanics, how I breathed , how I moved was I, I had to, with use Dr. Sarah , I relearned how to, how to move in my patterns and how to change and , and then my breath followed and now I'm perfect. <laugh>
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. Ok . I still work on it. That's,
Speaker 1:That's the other key, right? Like, it's not one and done. Like it's always being aware of, of your body. Can you speak to that? How do you take care of yourself in , on the matter of , of breathing well and, and wellness?
Speaker 2:Well, I think e e every physical therapist and and movement professional can attest to always working on themselves. Yeah . You really never, you're really never , um, perfect. And part of the reason is , um, we all have asymmetrical biases , uh, and it's just inherent in how we're built. We're built neurologically that way. And actually it's , uh, really a blessing in disguise. Um, it's, it kind of gives us a little momentum to get started with some movement. Uh, so it's not really that bad. It's just bad when it becomes really over dominant in one way or the other. And that can really easily happen, especially in our society , um, how we're living today. So we sit a lot more , um, yeah . We're ,
Speaker 1:We're not supposed to sit Right. Like even sitting's not like a human design.
Speaker 2:Right . Uh , we're , we weren't, we weren't evolution. We're not, we haven't evolved, let's put it this way. We haven't evolved to chairs Yeah . Yet , uh, not enough time has passed. Um, we haven't evolved to western toilets, which is why we have developed, not we, but there's been the development of squatty potties. Yeah . Thank goodness. Um , we really not to squat squatty
Speaker 1:Potties , um, so much like how they do maybe in parts of, of like I , when I was in Beijing mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I saw, is that what you mean? Where you just literally squat into the hole? Like you
Speaker 2:Lean <laugh> . That , that , that's , uh, love
Speaker 1:We're about this .
Speaker 2:We didn't know we were gonna go down the pelvic floor route, but , uh, we're , we're still designed as human beings to squat as we defecate mm-hmm. <affirmative> . Um, and so, and actually , uh, I have a whole book called Nature's Best <laugh> and it's all about squatting. Uh , and, and the reason why it's good for you for your , uh, internal organs , uh, in countries that they do squatting all the time for mm-hmm . Um, going to the bathroom , uh, they have , uh, very low or no incidents of appendicitis and other kind of , uh, uh, digestive system issues, which is interesting mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but they, they also, part of the reason is they , uh, there's a muscle that releases when you go to the bathroom that way and it allows full , um, elimination. So we don't, we don't have any like old, you know, junk stuff. Your , but we don't need , like , when
Speaker 1:You get older, you don't need like colon . Do they not need colon screenings or whatever that stuff is when you get older?
Speaker 2:Well, I , I can't attest colon that , oh , I , I can't attest to that. I'm guessing l and I don't know if they've done that research or not. So I haven't looked at that. What's
Speaker 1:A squatty body ? That's something we can now buy in the western world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay .
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's, it's just a stool that you put in front of your toilet mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you , it raises your feet up so that you're more in a squatting like position.
Speaker 1:So it's a stool
Speaker 2:<laugh> . It's just a stool , no
Speaker 1:Pun intended. Yeah .
Speaker 2:It literally is a <laugh> . No <laugh> . Why have I not ever thought of that before ? I
Speaker 1:Dunno . I have a dirty mind.
Speaker 2:<laugh> , but, but yeah, it's like a stool and the , the squatty potty itself, it's just shaped so that it fits around your toilet so that it kind of tucks in and it's not in the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah . Now available on oxygen plus.com , I think we're gonna kill it with
Speaker 2:That .
Speaker 1:Make our own ,
Speaker 2:We're gonna make our own . How do we get our topic ?
Speaker 1:Um, I dunno , I kinda actually manifested it. I really wanted , I did in my head really wanna get you talking about the toilet squad . I dunno how it happened, but it's
Speaker 2:Good .
Speaker 1:Hilarious. Cause it's No, no, because it's also true. Like, it's thinking about just how we function and how it's awkward and our world has become awkward and unfriendly to how our bodies need to be. Like thinking about even posing for photos all the time or working at a desk all day. Um, it, like, it's , uh, just about and , and lack of movement mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Right ? Like, I, I try to intentionally every, every so often when I remember I'm coming back from the bathroom at work, I try to do a , a couple cartwheels once a day <laugh> , you know, just because like, I want, like I love it. I just, yeah. I just wanna like stay active and , and mobile and not be that stiff person. I did my, my tip for from this today is to really remember to breathe while I'm sitting during a long period at work. Like if I have that is that my breath can actually gimme momentum and freedom and not lock me up. I love that. So thanks for saying that.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yep . And , uh, and there's the , even even if you're , um, at a desk and you're doing a standing desk , um, that's, that's nice in theory, but we're still not meant to stand still for long periods of time either. Mm . And we're not even meant to like, converge our eyes for that long. So all of those things kind of in general kind of make us a little more narrow and tense where we really need to get movement and get broader and um, and uh, and breathe. Of course. So , uh, so just kind of generally how we live our lives, even as a physical therapist, I move all day. Yeah . I still have to take care of balancing myself out cuz I still sit in front of TV for a couple hours every night, <laugh>. That's alright . Yeah. You know, and I still have my paperwork to do, so, you know, you gotta keep yourself balanced somehow.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well I think it's like, honestly being in community, like knowing you, knowing other wellness minded people and healthcare professionals that like are really like, trying to do it and trying to give it and help make people healthier and make, you know, the world a better place to live in. That to me is like what kind of keeps me in balance. It's just being connected like that. So , um, I I will say , um, so we talked a lot about the nasal breathing series. I'm so excited about it. It's gonna lot , it's gonna drop soon and um, we'll send that out on , on social and all that good stuff. Um, if I wanna know though, if you could tell our listeners one thing that you want them to know about physical therapy that maybe not every , uh, other physical therapist knows. What is that one thing
Speaker 2:<laugh>? Well , uh, the first thing, I mean, it , it's gonna be a repeating point, but Okay . It's okay. Uh, it, it really begins with breath. Um, everybody needs to learn how to ace breath. Um, and uh, that means being able to breathe through your nose ideally and being able to expand your lungs in three dimensions so that when you inhale, you don't just expand your abdomen, but you expand , uh, your ribcage just forward and back and side to side . And you should be able to get air in your upper chest. That's not illegal. You just don't wanna use your neck to do it. Um, so we really wanna have good excursion of that rim cage while having good core stability . So good breath mechanics through the nose. Good. Um, diaphragmatic , um, mechanics that integrate with your abdomen and your pelvic floor is really essential. The most, essentially the most important thing you can do to help decompress your spine and keep yourself from getting impingements , uh, throughout your body. Um, pain syndromes and things like that.
Speaker 1:Thank you Dr . Sarah . We're all gonna be free and happy and move about and have the best day every day . Thanks to you. I, I do mean that. I think it's, it's, it's just, it, all these things are important that we talk about, about wellness, but the breath , I don't think that there's a more important subject. Um,
Speaker 2:You do it every moment of the day.
Speaker 1:How do you breathe oxygen plus
Speaker 2:<laugh> ? Ah . Um ,
Speaker 1:I'm surprising you with that question . We used to ask all of our , our guests that question.
Speaker 2:Um , well, I , I actually helped , uh, helped you guys change the instructions a little bit on how you breathe. O plus. Um ,
Speaker 1:I can no longer take credit. No , I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:We worked together on that. That's so true.
Speaker 1:It's so true. That is awesome. That is awesome. And,
Speaker 2:And we changed it , uh, to incorporate making sure we exhale completely. Because if you don't get the air out, you can't get new and fresh air back in. Um, and you also want to raise your CO2 levels a little
Speaker 1:Bit . James Nester , thank you very much. Yep .
Speaker 2:Yep . And it's, it's really so that you have enough CO2 in your bloodstream so that you can take the oxygen when you inhale from the hemoglobin and deliver it to your tissues. Otherwise you aren't really gonna utilize your product the best. So you wanna be able to exhale completely. I have people pause to give them a little bit more time to let their diaphragm dome up and relax. Well, because it will be more efficient and, and it will contract better , uh, from a more relaxed state. And then we have changed the instructions so that you inhale to your nose, which , uh, you're just gonna have to watch the , uh, video series to find out why that's so important. Cuz there's so many reasons you won't even be able to get into it here.
Speaker 1:Nose breathing is the best. I wanna see like a ton of Instagram videos nose breathing out there. That's what I , that's gonna , I'm just gonna like put that out there right now. If you're a listener and you have an Instagram, like anyone following you, just do a , do an oxygen plus nose breathing. Make it funny, make it hilarious. I don't care. I just really wanna , um, I wanna get the word out that it's all about the nose breath. And we know now our, our abdomen, lung, lung support breathing is important. Let it let it flow forward, backwards outside all of it. Sarah , this is like, you're, you're setting us free. I love it. I really do. I'm gonna get drop your website and um, your Instagram. So it's doctor , it's not doctor, sorry, you are a doctor, but it's Sarah Petrick. So s a r a a p e t r I C h.com.
Speaker 2:You got it.
Speaker 1:And then it's at Dr . Sarah Petrick . So we will have this in the, the notes on the bottom of the, the show episode. So you can find her there. Do you want them to email you personal questions?
Speaker 2:<laugh> ? You can email me or Instagram me <laugh> . Yeah , either
Speaker 1:One . You can DM or anything you want. Guys, you heard it here. I'm just kidding. Um , yep .
Speaker 2:There , just know it takes me a few days. I'm a slow emailer <laugh> .
Speaker 1:It's all right . Right . Oh, did you have an actual email you wanted to give or just dm?
Speaker 2:Oh, it, it's on my
Speaker 1:Website. Oh, great. Okay. Awesome. You're very available. Um, and affable and just all around . Amazing. So I, Dr . Sarah , thank you so much for being on. We're not blowing hot air. You're welcome. Anytime . But really, we're gonna just, just savor these amazing videos that we'll talk about more breathing and , um, and we just are glad you're here. Thanks.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening. If you love our podcast as much as we do, do us a solid and subscribe to share, rate and review. We're not blowing hot air, so more people get the chance to catch the powerful wellness hacks we're bringing to our world.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is powered by Oxygen Plus. We're not Blowing Hot Air is produced by Robert Burns and me, Lauren Carlstrom. Our editor and engineer is Katie Cox. Our assistant producer is Jordan Schultz . Keep breathing easy.