079: The Forgotten Strength Tool for Menopause and Osteoporosis

In this episode, Carly shares the most overlooked yet powerful strength tool for women in midlife your breath. 

As we navigate menopause and osteoporosis risk, we often focus on weights, diet, and movement, but forget the foundational role of diaphragmatic breathing in building strength, stability, and recovery.

Carly explains how proper breathing activates your deep core and supports spinal safety, especially for those with low bone density or previous fractures. You’ll also learn simple techniques to reconnect with your breath, calm your nervous system, and enhance post-workout recovery: all without needing more time or equipment.

This one’s a blend of science, practicality, and compassion... especially for those of us navigating the beautiful chaos of midlife.

Links:

- Get support with your breath and build your foundations in The Strong Bones Starter Kit: >>> Link

- Book a free Clarity Call >>> https://carlykillen.com/book-call

- Contact Carly for 1:1 coaching support: carlykillenpt@gmail.com

Thanks for listening to the Strong Bones Coach Podcast

If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question about today's episode or to find out how you can get support from my coaching, reach out on the following links:

hello@carlykillencoaching.com

https://www.instagram.com/thestrongbonescoach

Thanks for listening to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast!

If you’d like to get in touch with a question about today’s episode or find out how I can support you with coaching, here’s how to reach me:
📧 Email: hello@carlykillencoaching.com
📱 Instagram: @thestrongbonescoach

Do you crave unshakable confidence in your strength from midlife and beyond? Would you love to achieve your goals without sacrificing family time or self-care?

Ready to take your strength to the next level? Start building a stronger body and healthier bones with my Strong Bones Starter Kit—your step-by-step guide to safe and effective strength training at home.
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Thank you for being here, and I look forward to supporting you on your journey to strength, health, and confidence! 💪🦴✨

Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Welcome back to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast with me, your host, Carly Killen. Today I'm here to talk to you about one of the most underrated tools in your strength and bone health toolkit. That is your breath. Now before you assume this episode is all about yoga or meditation, it's not, although these can be very helpful things, this is all about how proper breathing, especially connecting to your diaphragm, will directly impact your strength, your spinal stability, and even your recovery from workouts. With World Breathing Day landing this week, I thought, what better time to bring this to the forefront? So let's get started. So why is breath a strength training tool? when we think of strength training, you're probably thinking about dumbbells, resistance bands, gym machines, but you're not wrong there. We often forget that the diaphragm is a muscle too, and a highly powerful one at that. And here's the thing, modern life tends to train us out of our perhaps most optimal breathing. Just think about how often you find yourself busy, distracted, feeling the pressure of life, the demands being pulled in all kinds of ways with the various. Commitments we have, especially when we're hitting midlife, those perimenopause and menopause years, and when we're in this state, we often shift into shallow chest breathing, those quick upper body based breaths that are actually telling your body, we're not safe, we're in danger. Even if you're just reading emails or rushing to pick up the kids or grandkids. It's because this style of breathing activates your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight mode. You might have heard of that. And if this system is always switched on, it's harder for your body to feel safe, grounded, but even rested. Yes, this affects your sleep too. When we breathe low into the belly using our diaphragm, it naturally triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. This is your rest and digest mode. This tells the body you're safe now, and that's when the real strength and the real healing happens. So let's talk about the diaphragm and spinal stability. Taking it a step further. The diaphragm doesn't just help you breathe. It also plays a key role in your core stability. You might consider your core to be your abs, your abdominal muscles, and you're not completely wrong. Your core actually consists of all of the muscles all the way around the front and the back, a bit like your own personal corsets, when your diaphragm is working well in sync with your deep core muscles, your pelvic floor and your spine, it creates something called intraabdominal pressure. Think of it like an internal brace or a corset, if you will, that protects your spine during lifting and movements. So that's not just in the gym. That's every day as well. So this is especially important if you already have osteoporosis, especially if you have a history of spinal fractures. We want to move with strength, but also allowing that stability and safety. So having a strong core, a connected diaphragm and pelvic floor, allows those muscles to essentially create enough pressure in your abdomen to hug your spine. You may have heard me before if you've been listening a while, how the muscles hug the bones to help them move. And it's similar for the spine too. Before we move on, can I just remind you that you are listening to a podcast? So nothing I say today is intended to be a replacement for medical advice. So if you have any health concerns. I'm not sure exactly how this applies to you. Please do seek help from your own medical health provider. Of course, you can contact me on carlykillenpt@gmail.com if you'd like to speak to me in more detail. But let's start to look at this practically if you can. If you're not driving, we can give this a go now. So putting down anything you're holding, if you can place your hands on the sides of the bottom of your rib cage and just start to breathe slowly through your nose and see where you can feel. Can you feel the air entering your body? Where does it travel to? Does it travel through the upper part of your chest? Can you feel it moving down into the belly? Can you feel. Your ribs start to move sideways as well as forward. You might start to feel this into your hands. As you inhale, you may notice your ribs moving outwards and forwards, pushing your hands away, and as you exhale, you might start to feel how the hands are drawn back into the center again. Give that a go for a few breaths. Now if you don't feel much movement, if you don't feel that connection with your diaphragm, that's okay. Please don't panic or feel discouraged. So many of us have spent years breathing up in our chests, so reconnecting with your diaphragm can take some practice and patience. So be gentle with yourself here. Perhaps aim for a little bit of breath awareness each day, just like what we did just now. Over time, that connection tends to return. But remember, you don't have to figure this all out alone. This particular breath work is something I coach within all of my services. It's covered within my strong bone starter kits and all my one-to-one and group services too. So I'll pop a link in the show notes if you'd like to explore that further. So let's talk recovery. You might think your muscles get stronger during your strength session. You are not entirely wrong there, but really the magic happens in the recovery. That's when your body rebuilds and gets stronger and one of the best tools to support that. That's right. That is your breath. Here's something you can try after you've finished your strength session. Allow yourself to pause for maybe 30, 60 seconds and just focus on taking three or four long, slow exhales. So just a natural inhale and just see if you can slightly extend your outbreath, your exhale. A lot of people find that it helps to do the through pursed lips, a bit like you're blowing through a straw. So nice and slow and evenly. You might want to aim for a count of six or eight, but it might be shorter, especially if you've had a tough workout. No need to hold your breath. No need to force this or make it longer than it's comfortable. Just focus on making your exhale a little bit longer, then you'll inhale. This is really effective when it comes to activating your parasympathetic nervous system, that rest and digest node. Remember, it helps to lower your cortisol, reduce inflammation, and get you back into that healing rebuilding state. You can also practice nasal breathing, which is our natural way of breathing, but sometimes we can move to mouth breathing when we're busy stressed, or perhaps just old habits, especially if you struggle with things like allergies, particularly as well in the UK we're moving to spring and some of the allergies are starting to kick off for some people. If you can bring extra attention to your breathing, particularly nasal breathing in your rest periods between exercises, this supports your recovery between sets and it can help improve your overall training performance. It helps get that rest in making you even more ready to lift those weights again. So how does this apply out in the day-to-day real world? Well, if you've never thought much about your breath, allow this to be your invitation. It's not about being perfect. You don't have to go from your shallow chest breathing to full yoga style breath overnight. We don't need to be sat in a yoga mats. Cross-legged or the eyes closed, but you can just tune in even just once or twice per day. It can make a huge difference. And if you're already working on strength training, especially if you're navigating menopause or living with osteoporosis, this breath connection can help you find a safer, stronger foundation to build from. And let's not forget. When we breathe better, we feel better. We can feel grounded, calm, focused. That's a win all around. So to wrap up, remember, your breath is powerful and we often underestimate it. It's also free. It's available to you anytime, and it might just be the most underrated strength tool you've got. So if you'd like support, learning how to breathe, brace, move safely and powerfully, whether you're just getting started or ready to take things further, I'd love to help you. So you can check out the Strong Bone Start Kit or book a Clarity call with me using the links in the show notes. So until next time, breathe. Stay strong and take care.