In our western culture we have adopted the habit of breathing inefficiently.  We tend to overuse our upper body musculature through lifting our chest and shrugging our shoulders upon inhalation.

This type of breathing leads to the overuse and fatigue of those upper body muscles that are picking up the slack of a weak diaphragm.  This faulty pattern can then lead to pain and dysfunction in the upper back and neck.

The solution: learn intra-abdominal breathing.  A few exercises worth trying out are crocodile breaths, loaded medicine ball breaths, and the practicing of taking in deep breaths while in various postures and positions.

Tips

When inhaling focus on expanding your abdomen 3 dimensionally.

Test your ability take a quality breath by watching yourself in the mirror.  Does your chest raise, do you shrug your shoulders?

It can be hard to strengthen the diaphragm at first.  Be sure to take breaks if you get light headed from training.

Practice one of the techniques in the video below for 5 minutes each day.  Notice a change in stiffness or pain reduction in your upper back, chest or neck.

Once you become proficient in the above techniques, start strengthening your new breath in different positions.  10 strong breaths in any one of these will take you to the next level.