When to Hold Your Breath?

It can be advantageous to hold your breath in order to manage the pressure gradients in your torso, and you would want to do this to stabilize your spine. The first Feldenkrais move is to heighten your sense of those pressure gradients. It is as though you put your spine in a container (the torso) and you pump up the pressure in the container — and hold all the relevant diaphragms — so that the air helps you to hold your spine 'like a stick.' If you want a stick-spine and are doing something rather extreme — explosive movement or heavy lifting — then holding your breath could be very good organization. But it is a bit of a boutique tactic.