Today’s muscles are accessory muscles for breathing. The Sternocleidomastoid muscle and the Scalene muscle function to move your head, but they also act as breathing helpers when you’re out of breath like after some hard exercise or narrating a really long sentence with no commas.

When we live in a constant state of anxiety, hurrying and stress , we tend to recruit these muscles with shallow breathing rather than using our main breathing muscles, the Respiratory Diaphragm and the muscles between our ribs. This can become habitual and cause the accessory muscles to become over-worked and tense.

Next week: The Respiratory Diaphragm. The Big Bad-A Breathing Muscle.