≡ Menu
Virginia Baseball Tournaments

Your #1 Built-in Tool for Athletic Performance and Recovery, Part 3

If you’re reading this, congrats! You’ve officially made it to the third and final post in this series! Blogs 1 and 2 unpacked the basic anatomy of breath and explored breath techniques to cultivate more power in the weight room and on the field. Let’s dive into another way you can use your breath to unlock athletic potential.

May I humbly present – the Psoas!

The psoas muscle (pronounced /so-as/) is a primary hip flexor that’s located on each side of the lower spine. It extends down through the pelvis and attaches to the thigh bones. The psoas is essential for walking, running, and stabilizing the spine. For these reasons, optimal psoas function is required for baseball players to reach peak performance.



A tight psoas muscle can create serious problems like pain in the low back, pelvis, hips, and knees. Tight psoas muscles can hinder a player’s joint alignment and posture and limit the ability to run fast, jump high, and throw hard. No bueno!

How do hip flexors become tight? A main cause is sitting for prolonged periods of time. When seated, the psoas is contracted and shortened. Over time, lots of sitting can result in the pelvis tilting forward, an exaggerated curve in the lower spine, and tight hamstrings. You can imagine how this would affect the quality of movement in the lower body! Believe it or not, baseball players actually do a lot of sitting. Think about the time spent in the dugout, bullpen, and during travel to and from games. And catchers…you guys are a whole different ball game! Hours of squatting keeps the psoas ultra-short (which equals ultra-tight)!

Physical and psychological stress can also make for tight hip flexors. The psoas is made of perceptive tissue, and is often referred to as the “fight or flight” muscle because it’s the muscle used to brawl or run when a threat is perceived. So, if a player is under stress, the psoas is unconsciously activated (i.e. shortened) and that internal tension is housed in the muscle tissue.

See how the hip flexors can become problematic even in the most elite players?

Fortunately, there are a ton of ways to combat tight hip flexors (yoga, foam rolling, and massage are common therapies). But did you know that you can use your breath to help release tight psoas muscles? Come on, you had to see that coming!

Interestingly, the psoas and diaphragm muscles are interconnected (see Figure 2 above). The ligaments of the diaphragm actually cross over the psoas. Because of this relationship, a tight psoas muscle can have an effect on the diaphragm’s performance and vice versa. This is why proper breathing is SO important! Movement of your diaphragm helps calm down the “fight or flight” stress response which helps relax the psoas muscle. This gives baseball players the ability to produce fast and powerful movements that provide explosive power.

Before you go trying to stretch your psoas into submission, keep in mind that this muscle is chronically tense due to positioning or from physical and psycho-emotional stressors. One of the best places to start is by working to turn off the psoas and allowing it to completely relax. This can be achieved through a simple restorative position known as a supine psoas release. In this position, the breath and gravity help to relax the psoas. It is also the perfect time to work on moving the diaphragm with the breathing technique reviewed in Blog Post 1.

After resting the psoas, try prone pelvic tilts. These exercises use a contract-relax approach to lengthen the psoas and get the pelvis into a more neutral position. You’ll need a chair (or weight bench), rolled-up towel or blanket, and a light sandbag (optional).

Supine Psoas Release

  • Lie on your back with your hips and knees flexed with legs supported on a chair or weight bench.
  • Bring awareness to your breath by resting your hands on your belly
  • As you inhale, aim to direct air past your chest to expand your belly, lower back, and sides of your waist.
  • As you exhale, allow your belly, lower back, and waist to draw in and the chest to fall.
  • Shoot for a 5-count inhale followed by a 5-count exhale
  • You can massage and further relax the psoas in this position by placing a light sandbag across the hips (you could also use a yoga bolster or pillow with a light kettlebell or dumbbell resting on top)
  • Hold this posture for at least 5 minutes while continuing your diaphragmatic breathing practice

Prone Pelvic Tilts

  • Lie on your stomach with a rolled-up blanket or towel under your thighs (an inch or so below your hip bones) and resting your forehead on stacked hands.
  • Contract your psoas by pushing your thighs down toward the floor to tilt the pelvis backward.
  • Hold for 3 breaths.
  • Relax for 3 breaths, allowing the pelvis to tilt forward
  • Repeat pelvic tilts 5-10 reps then relax completely for 5 minutes with the towel roll still under your thighs.


Breathe like you mean it.

Your #1 Built-in Tool for Athletic Performance and Recovery, Part 2

So – did you figure out if you’re a “chest breather” or a “belly breather” yet?

If you’re a chest breather, are you working to change that?

If you didn’t get a chance to practice the diaphragmatic breathing technique we outlined in part 1 of our series, here’s your invite to go back and check it out. It helps lay the foundation for today’s post.

By now, I bet you’re getting the feel for how mindful breathing can maximize athletic performance and benefit the body and mind in big ways both on and off the field. Some of this information might seem new, but the practice of breathwork has actually been around for thousands of years (we’re talking 1500 BCE here). In yoga, the practice of breathwork is called “pranayama”. This word literally translates to “breath control” (prana = life force; yama = control). Basically, if you can learn to control your breath, you can harness control of your body, mind, emotions, senses and awareness. That’s pretty powerful stuff! But it doesn’t come easy. It takes practice and a solid understanding of how the breath and body are connected.

Since diving into Part 1, it’s now obvious that breathing is more complex than just moving air around in the body. There’s an entire system of organs and muscles at play to make the whole operation run smoothly. Last month, we introduced the head honcho of all breathing muscles: the diaphragm. It’s the dome-shaped muscle that contracts and relaxes when we inhale and exhale.



Diaphragm muscle

One cool thing that happens when the diaphragm is engaged through breathing is that it helps create a special type of pressure in the chest and abdominal cavities. From an athletic standpoint, if you engage the abdominal muscles when you exhale, it helps to stretch the diaphragm and lift your abdominal organs up against the muscle. This action stabilizes your lower back and the joints where the hips connect to the spine.

Put simply: exhale and engage your abs during the concentric phase of your lift, when you throw, and when you swing. Using your breath this way gives your spine an extra layer of protection and allows you to harness more strength from your core (this translates to more power). Win-win!



Try the Power Exhale.

Here’s the breakdown on breathing to enhance power output and stabilize your work chasse:

  • Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor
  • Inhale slowly for a full 3-count through the nose so that the belly rises, relaxing your abs
  • Exhale fully and more forcefully through the mouth, creating a “Ssssss” sound while pulling the ribs down, drawing the belly button in, and squeezing your pelvic floor muscles (as if you’re trying to stop yourself from peeing). You should feel a strong engagement of your deep core during the exhalation phase.
  • Repeat this breathing circuit 5 times. Rest a few seconds in between.

Once you’ve mastered this technique, it’s time to apply it.

Let’s think about how this power breath technique would translate to the weight room with a traditional 8-10 rep back squat.

Phase 1: Eccentric (downward) phase



Instructions: Inhale slowly through the nose on the way down, controlling the speed and range of motion of your descent

Phase 2: Concentric (upward) phase



Instructions: Exhale fully and forcefully through the mouth, pull the ribs down, draw the belly button in, and engage your pelvic floor as you explode upward. Notice how the exhale helps to stabilize your pelvis and keep your trunk in optimal alignment.

These same rules apply in the batter’s box. Inhale during the load and stride phases, and use the power exhale to amplify the swing and follow-through phases. This technique allows you to keep your ribs down, engage your core, and decelerate rotation more efficiently for a powerful stroke.



This week’s challenge – practice the power exhale technique during your lifts and your baseball drills. Drop a comment below and let us know what you think!

Your #1 Built-in Tool for Athletic Performance and Recovery

All too often we get sucked into the allure of external factors that enchant us with the promise of helping us build a better game: maxing explosive strength, developing consistency, improving control, movement, and mechanics…the list goes on and on.

The truth is, most of the advertised gear, concoctions, elixirs, and technology end up becoming a distraction from one of our most powerful sources of development:

The Breath

No, I’m not kidding. Mindful breathwork can be one of the most potent tools to help you realize your full potential both on and off the field. Breathing is key in getting the most out of your sets and training, helps protect the spine and increases the strength of stabilizer muscles, and maximizes emotional regulation and cognitive performance.

How often do you focus on breathing or training yourself to breath to optimize athletic performance? Chances are, not very often (if ever). Over the next several weeks, we’ll take some time to unpack the ways breath techniques can help you take your game to the next level.

Breathing (aka respiration) is essential for obvious reasons, but let’s take a minute to geek-out on the basic anatomy of breath just to lay a solid foundation for our series here:

Breathing is a complex activity that relies on coordinated action between our muscles of respiration and our brain. The primary players include the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles. There’s a team of accessory muscles that help out as well.


Intercostal muscles

Diaphragm muscle

The lungs (the most famous players in the respiratory game) allow gas to be exchanged between the air we inhale and our circulatory system. Basically, they help bring oxygen to the blood and remove carbon dioxide from the body. This is important for cell metabolism (to give us energy) and for keeping PH levels regulated in the body (to keep our organs from being damaged).



Lungs and windpipe (trachea)

Lucky for us, the process of respiration happens automatically. We don’t really have to think about breathing…
…or do we?

See, here’s the thing: most of us are doing it wrong!

Ever heard the terms “belly breathing” or “chest breathing”? Let me break it down for you.

When you inhale, your diaphragm muscle moves downward and makes more space in your chest for your lungs to expand. When you exhale, the opposite happens – your diaphragm relaxes and moves upward in your chest cavity. When we “belly breathe”, we encourage full oxygen exchange by allowing that movement of the diaphragm to happen. You can actually see the belly rise and fall. On the other hand, “chest breathing” is a shallower and less satisfying breath pattern because the lungs aren’t expanding to their fullest capacity. The chest usually rises and falls with little movement of the abdomen.

So how does this affect a ball player? Well, “belly breathing” (sometimes called “diaphragmatic breathing”) helps tone down the body’s fight-or-flight response when feeling over-amped from physical or cognitive stress, pressure to meet expectations, or even from too much caffeine. Being over-amped can negatively impact a ball player’s focus and concentration, motor coordination, ability to process information quickly, and regulate emotions. Belly breathing can help athletes control both the physical body and the mind to elevate performance when it’s game time (think at the plate or on the mound).

Here’s a step-by-step on how to belly breathe:

  • Lie on the ground with your knees bent and feet firmly planted on the floor
  • Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach

  • Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth (repeat x3)
  • Notice which hand is moving (the hand on your chest or the hand on your belly?)
  • Take another deep breath in and draw the air past your throat into your chest and then expanding to your belly.
  • Exhale and allow the air to leave your belly, then chest, and then throat
  • Aim for approximately a 5-count inhale followed by a 5-count exhale
  • Repeat for 10 rounds.

Once you’ve mastered this, you can apply the technique both on and off the field!
My challenge to you is to practice this technique daily over the next 2 weeks.

Your breath is a tool. Sharpen it daily.