The role of breathing techniques in back pain recovery

Written by Mathieu Stremsdoerfer, CEO and Co-Founder at Healactively

Sometimes the most powerful recovery tool is the one you’ve ignored the longest—your breath.

When people think about back pain, they often focus on muscles, joints, or posture. But few realise how deeply connected breathing is to both pain and healing. The way you breathe can either help your body relax and recover—or keep it locked in tension and stress.

Learning how to breathe properly isn’t just about calmness. It’s about giving your body the foundation it needs to move, support itself, and heal.

Why breathing matters more than you think

Breathing isn't just about oxygen. It plays a direct role in:

• Core stability

• Muscle relaxation

• Nervous system regulation

• Pain perception

When you're under stress or in pain, your breathing often becomes shallow, fast, and chest-dominant. This activates your sympathetic nervous system, the “fight or flight” mode.
Over time, this keeps your body in a heightened state of tension, which can increase your pain sensitivity.

By contrast, deep, diaphragmatic breathing activates your parasympathetic system, the “rest and recover” mode. It lowers stress hormones, reduces muscle tightness, and creates the right internal conditions for healing.

Breath and the deep core

Your diaphragm is not just a breathing muscle, it’s part of your core.

Together with the pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, and deep spinal stabilisers, it forms a pressure system that supports your spine.
When breathing is restricted or dysfunctional, this system weakens, leading to:

• Poor spinal support

• Increased load on the lower back

• Difficulty activating the right muscles

• More pain during movement

Correcting your breath helps re-engage the entire deep core system.

How to use breath to support your recovery

You don’t need hours of meditation or breathing exercises to benefit. You just need to build small habits of awareness and correction.

Start with this:

• Sit or lie down comfortably

• Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly

• Inhale through your nose and let your belly rise

• Exhale slowly through your mouth, feeling your ribs move inward

• Try 5 rounds, focusing on slow, relaxed rhythm

Once that feels comfortable, integrate breath into movement:

• Breathe out as you engage your core during exercises

• Use slow breaths to relax before stretching

• Practice exhaling fully to release tension

These habits gradually rewire how your body responds to both stress and effort.

Healactively’s integration of breath and movement

At Healactively, we see breath as a central pillar of recovery, not just an add-on.

Our philosophy blends breathing with movement and posture work to help you:

• Stabilise your core

• Reset your nervous system

• Reduce sensitivity to pain

• Move with more control and less fear

We don’t treat breath as fluff. We treat it as function.

Ready to breathe your way into better movement and real relief?
Join Healactively today, where every breath becomes part of your recovery.