3034: Are You Breathing Correctly During Training by Eric Leija on Mastering Your Breath to Improve Endurance and Strength

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[00:00:48] Hey there, happy middle of the week Wednesday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I read some of the best health and fitness blogs to you with a little bit of commentary at the end. And don't forget, I answer your questions every Friday. You can send your question to health at oldpodcast.com. That's health at oldpodcast.com. And like I do every Wednesday, I wanted to share a little bit of inspiration.

[00:01:14] I was listening to the book, Talk Like Ted by Carmine Gallo, and he was talking about the power of persistence in your professional life. Specifically, here's what he had to say about it. Quote, Every no means you're one step closer to yes. And with that, let's get right to today's post and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:41] Are You Breathing Correctly During Training by Eric Leija of ericleija.com There are very few instances I can think of where breathing isn't important. I hope you get the sarcasm. And training is definitely not one of them. Breath plays a larger role in training than you might expect, and not just endurance training. Controlling your inhales and exhales can either weaken or greatly improve your power output and gains for the long haul,

[00:02:10] since it's as easy to fall into bad breathing patterns as it is good ones. Here, I'll outline why breath is so important, and how to utilize those inhales and exhales for maximum benefits. Correct breathing. Why it's important. At first glance, it's easy to say, a breath is a breath, no matter when you take it. But trust me, when you start seriously working out, you'll notice how breath can not only impact your oxygen levels,

[00:02:39] and therefore your stamina, but also your power output. To begin, when you breathe correctly during all types of training, you are pulling in ideal levels of oxygen and pushing out the correct levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2. If your breathing is short and quick, CO2 builds up in your system and increases your heart rate and lactic acid production, which in turn decrease your endurance and muscle stamina.

[00:03:08] Breathing incorrectly can also limit your power output. Not only does excess lactic acid in your muscles cause them to fatigue faster, but holding your breath, or not breathing with movements correctly, can result in less ability to push weight. If you watch master athletes or veterans in the gym, you'll notice they tend to exhale loudly when pushing weight. This is because it lends an explosiveness and power to the push. How to breathe correctly.

[00:04:07] This may be inhaling during the extension of a biceps curl, then exhaling as you curl up during the contraction phase. However, even with this being said, there are variations here that are not a one size fits all. For instance, during my training, I like to set up all of my movements with one big inhale that expands my trunk and abdomen. Think of it like setting up a brace for beginning the movement. From here, I breathe underneath that brace,

[00:04:36] mixing up my breathing patterns depending on the movements. To illustrate, I inhale at the top position of a clean with the bell on the floor, and then exhale in expansion when I move the weight up into the rack position. From here, anyone can choose to either hold their breath at the top, then inhale as they go down, potentially helping keep a brace in place to protect your back, or they can take another full breath at the top and exhale back down.

[00:05:07] As you can see, this is a variation of exhaling with exertion that you can try. Improve your breathing. Aside from focusing on your breath during training, you could also do certain breathing exercises that can help strengthen your diaphragm and expand your lungs. One of these techniques is called diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing for short. In reality, this should be our natural way of breathing. However, many of us tend to breathe shallowly

[00:05:36] due to stress and habit. To practice belly breathing intentionally, sit or lay down in a comfortable position and rest your hand on your belly. Inhale deeply, focusing not on inhaling into your chest, but into your belly and the bottom of your lungs. Your belly should rise up, meaning you're going to loosen those ab muscles, and you should feel the expansion in the bottom of your lungs. Hold your breath for a count of three.

[00:06:03] Then, exhale fully until all of the oxygen has left your lungs. Repeat for at least five minutes each day. You can also practice a yogic breath technique called breath of fire, which helps strengthen the walls of your diaphragm and abdomen. Lastly, consider your posture, since it can significantly affect your ability to take a deep breath when you're slouched over. This places extra weight on your lungs and doesn't allow them to open fully.

[00:06:32] Focus on chest opening stretches and back exercises if you find this to be the case. You just listened to the post titled, Are You Breathing Correctly During Training? by Eric Lea of ericlea.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Oikos presents 15 seconds of strength. Here we go. Steve's got a trunk full of groceries and no one to help him. Oh, that's tough, Jim. Looks like a five-trip load at least. He grabs the first bag, the second,

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[00:08:31] During a particularly grueling workout, you end up holding your breath. Once you finally take another breath, it feels like all the blood has left your brain and dropped to the heels of your feet. You start seeing spots, and your body begins to wobble. Watch out, because your body's heading for a crash landing right on the gym floor. It happens to the best of us. I actually had this happen to me a few months ago. In fact, it happened almost exactly as I just described it.

[00:09:00] I was near the end of a particularly challenging workout and completely stopped paying attention to my breathing, even though I know better. I just wanted to finish the workout and be done with it at that point. So, after finishing the set, I dropped the weight, stood up, and started seeing spots. Then, the room started to spin. Before I knew it, my entire body was tilting to my left. My head was on course to smash right into the steel frame

[00:09:30] of my assault bike. It took me a moment, but I realized that this tilting was not normal, and I quickly caught myself before making contact with my bike. What just happened? Well, there's actually a term for this. It's called the Valsalva Maneuver. The name makes it sound like a cool, new workout move, but it's not. By holding our breath during a particularly tough rep, we force our blood pressure to get too high. In response, the body says, uh-oh,

[00:09:59] blood pressure is too high, that's no good, we better bring it down fast. And it does. So, our blood pressure drops dramatically, which leads us to feeling faint, seeing spots, and tilting to our left. But, if we can stay consistent with our breathing, and as Eric said, exhale upon exertion, we can avoid this very unpleasant experience. Take it from me. Alright, that does it for today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday

[00:10:29] if you're listening in real time, and I'll see you back here for tomorrow's show, where your optimal life awaits. Let's see you back here.