Do you ever feel like you’re not breathing as deeply as you could? Many people don’t realize their breath is restricted — especially around the ribs and diaphragm. The Stretch-eze® helps you change that. When you wrap it around your ribcage, the gentle resistance trains your breathing muscles to expand more fully and release more completely. You’ll feel your ribs open, your breath deepen, and your body find its natural rhythm again — calm, strong, and fully alive.

Breathing into Resistance: Strengthening the Lungs

Think of the Stretch-eze as a training partner for your respiratory muscles. As you inhale, the carefully engineered elastic fabric slightly resists your expansion — a mild, supportive load that strengthens the diaphragm and intercostals much like resistance training strengthens your limbs.

This is where functional breathing begins:

• The diaphragm descends fully, pulling air deep into the lungs.

• The lower ribs expand laterally into the fabric, not just forward.

• The exhale becomes slower and more controlled, improving carbon dioxide tolerance — a key to oxygen efficiency.

Over time, this kind of breathing increases your lung capacity, improves postural alignment, and deepens your sense of calm during movement.

Incorporating Oxygen Advantage® Principles

The Oxygen Advantage, developed by Patrick McKeown, emphasizes breathing less, not more — focusing on quiet, nasal, and controlled breathing to optimize oxygen delivery. Inside the Stretch-eze, these principles come alive:

Nasal Breathing:

Keep the mouth closed during your practice. The gentle pressure of the fabric on your ribs makes nasal breathing more conscious, promoting nitric oxide production and better oxygen uptake.

Soft, Slow Exhales:

Work with the fabric’s rebound to lengthen your exhale naturally. This helps retain more CO₂ — improving your body’s ability to release oxygen efficiently to your muscles.

Functional Breath Holds:

Try a brief breath hold after the exhale and before you pull the band around your ribs a little tighter. The light compression of the Stretch-eze supports the core while stimulating mild air hunger — training your respiratory system to become more efficient, not overactive.

Awareness of the Diaphragm:

The feedback from the Stretch-eze heightens your awareness of how your diaphragm moves — downward on the inhale, upward on the exhale. Over time, this improves not just your breathing mechanics but your posture and stability.

Embodied Breathwork: A Practice to Try

1. Sit tall inside your Stretch-eze, the fabric wrapped around your ribs and held in each hand (Rib-X Wrap) with the forearms parallel to the ground and your elbows hugged in.

2. Inhale gently through the nose, feeling the fabric expand in every direction as you pull the band a little tighter — front, sides, and back.

3. Exhale slowly through the nose, sensing the fabric’s embrace guiding your ribs inward as you relax the fabric around your torso.

4. Pause briefly at the end of your exhale before the next breath in.

5. Repeat for 10 slow breaths, maintaining awareness of calm, steady control.

You’ll notice a deep sense of centering — not only through your breath but throughout your entire body.

Why It Matters

In any movement practice, breath is the bridge between structure and sensation. The Stretch-eze turns that bridge into a living, responsive tool — teaching you how to breathe functionally, strengthen your respiratory muscles, and embody the calm focus that the Oxygen Advantage approach promotes.

With each inhale, you expand into support. With each exhale, you return to center. That’s the intelligent, embodied breath — amplified by the Stretch-eze®. To learn more about the variety of ways to benefit from the Stretch-eze, visit the Stretch-eze programs and grab yours in the Stretch-eze shop!