Diaphragm: The Hidden Powerhouse Behind Confident Communication
Diaphragm
Remember the time when you laughed so much that your tummy ached? Or the violent spasms you get in your stomach when you hiccup? That was actually your diaphragm at work.
Picture your diaphragm—the second largest muscle in your body; lying beneath the lungs, it separates our chest cavity from our abdomen. We may not be able to feel it, as it lies horizontally across our body, but it is essential for deep breathing and projecting our voice, as it is the major muscle of respiration.
At rest, it’s dome-shaped, and when we breathe in it contracts and flattens, creating a vacuum in the chest, which sucks air into the lungs. Then when we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and air is forced out. It does this mostly involuntarily, but because it is a muscle we are able to build it as we would any muscle by taking it to the gym.
Why is this important?
Building a stronger diaphragm will help us counteract the shallow chest breathing which gives us a weak, breathy voice that lacks impact. Ever wondered why your voice sounds shaky when you get nervous? Deep-rooted breathing will get rid of that.
On the other hand, with shallow breathing we speak from our throat; we’re not using our diaphragm and our chest and nasal cavities, which are resonant centres. The result is a thinner, more strained voice, which lacks depth and warmth. Plus with less airflow support the vocal chords are put under more pressure and this tension can lead to a raspy, weak or even nasal tone.
Even so, a good projected voice will make us sound more confident and connected and so we will feel more confident and connected.
How do we know if we’re breathing incorrectly? Our throat will tell us. Think of those nights out in crowded venues when we’ve had to raise our voice, or when we’ve been to a concert or sports fixture and been singing and shouting. The next day we may feel it as irritation in our throats, or maybe we’ll lose our voice altogether. These aren't merely inconveniences; they're your body's urgent signals that your vocal mechanism is under duress. If we continue to put a strain on our voice like this we can end up with nodules on our vocal chords. When it sounds sore, as with any muscle, we need to rest it. Continuing to put pressure on it by using numbing sprays and carrying on using it, is a bit like twisting your ankle and then insisting on hopping around on it all day!
Your Diaphragm Workout Plan
How can we build our diaphragm so that we can have a strong, supported voice, and don’t speak from our throat? The path to vocal mastery begins with intentional diaphragmatic development.
Firstly, we must relax our throats by yawning. This lifts our soft palate and opens up the back of our throat so that any sound doesn’t get stuck there.
Next, make sure that our neck and jaw are relaxed and that there’s no unnecessary tension. Stand about a meter from a wall and blow out to a point at eye height. We should feel our stomach contracting down as we do this. Blow out to increasing counts, breathing in through the nose, at the beginning, and blowing out in a consistently steady stream of air for 5, 10, 15. By doing this, it’s as though we’re taking the muscle of our diaphragm to the gym and building it with reps.
Nurturing Vocal Recovery
If the throat feels sore, rest it. Keep it warm with a scarf and rehydrate it with plenty of water. Steaming is also really good - use a bowl of boiling water, with some tea tree, eucalyptus or peppermint oil in it (they are soothing and anti-inflammatory), a towel over the head, but if we’re in the office, we can fill up a mug and cup our hands round it. Breathe in, yawning at the same time, as this opens up the throat, relaxing the tense muscles and increasing blood flow, which will reduce inflammation and speed up healing. The steam also hydrates the vocal chords reducing the feeling of scratchiness and discomfort.
