How does the Diaphragm come into being?

How strangely do most of us come to know our diaphragms?
(Video clip from the last Diaphragm/Breath/Voice class bit.ly/32uJXAM)
We begin with an awareness that something is moving within us when we breathe. Not just an expansion of our ribs, but some intimate displacement of our belly by our heart/lungs. This motion feels hard to describe -- urgent yet vague, voluntary yet instinctive, powerful yet soft.
Then at some point we get an image -- A muscular dome strung between bony attachment points. Sternum and lower 6 ribs, xiphoid and upper 3 lumbar vertebrae. With this musculoskeletal entity we graft an idealized motion on to our breath -- this is how we "should" breathe, given the canonical form inside our chest.
If we are lucky and curious, we learn some different anatomies that offer us new possibilities for sensing and working with breath. We learn its innervations by phrenic and thoracic nerves. We learn the attachment of diaphragm to organs above and below, we learn of its myofascial continuities with psoas / QL in the deep abdomen.
By now we have a rich and versatile image in our minds. But it might now seem like a complex machine. What of that initial feeling? The pregnant poise nestled inside, intelligent and alive, hinting at new dimensions to our sense of self?
This is where a little embryology can give us a new angle. Diaphragm not as a breathing muscle, but as a stretched canvas of development. That's what this video is about.
Friends, I hope you enjoy this video, and if so please like/share/subscribe. If you work in healthcare/manual therapy, please consider joining for this weekend's online/in-person course, Neurofascial Approach to Diaphragm, Breath and Vocal Column.
Neurofascial Approach to the Diaphragm, Breath, & Vocal Column
Saturday, Nov 5th - 11:00am-5:00pm
In-person class: 6hrs/$130
Access to online class (live or on your own time): 3hrs/$60.
For more info and to sign up: bit.ly/32uJXAM
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References mentioned in video:
Structure of the Human Pericardium and Responses to Pathologic Processes (Rodriguez and Tan, 2016)
www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiol...
Respiratory failure due to diaphragm paralysis after
brachial plexus injury diagnosed by point-ofcare ultrasound
(Yajima et al 2022)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Biomechanical simulation of thorax
deformation using finite element approach (Zhang et al 2016)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...