Do you want to get the most out of your workout? Well, if you’re not breathing properly, you’re making a big mistake. Try these breathing exercises to make your workouts more effective and improve your stamina overall.
READ: The Best Back & Lats Exercises For Your Home Workout (Dumbbells Only)
Working out is tough and tiring. And you should always be aiming to present yourself with new challenges in pursuit of your fitness goals. But it doesn’t need to be an excessive overhaul. There are several tweaks that you can use to improve your routine and give yourself something extra that serves as a catalyst for a more effective workout. Paying attention to your breathing is one of the smallest things you can do to make the biggest difference.
“When you [think about] the rate, quality, and control of your breathing in your training, you can get better results,” Mike Clancy, C.S.C.S., an NYC-based strength coach, tells SELF.
Driving your breath from the diaphragm can also help you avoid those dreaded mid-workout side stitches, or abdominal cramps, which are typically the result of “using [the wrong] muscles to drive respiration,” says Dean Somerset, C.S.C.S., Edmonton, Alberta–based kinesiologist. Beyond this, breathing properly provides you with several emotional and mental benefits, along with the physical benefits, such as reducing your heart rate and lowering blood pressure.
So you can add the following breathing exercises to your routine to get the results you want:
Belly breathing
This is a very simple technique and great for when you first start practising your breathing. It may be hard at first, but if you persevere, it will pay off and make other exercises easier to pull off. To do this, lie on your back with your knees bent slightly, place one hand one your stomach and another on your chest. Slowly inhale through your nose and feel your stomach press against your hand. Then exhale through your mouth as you feel your stomach muscles tighten.
This allows you to focus on your breathing while doing your exercises. Putting that focus while lifting weights or while doing cardio, particularly when it comes to getting your form right.
Lion’s breath
Commonly used in yoga, the lion’s breath technique has several variations, but you can start off on your hands and knees. Spread your fingers wide and widen your eyes while inhaling through your nose. Then, when it’s time to exhale, widen your mouth with your tongue sticking out as you breathe out. This may seem a little silly while you’re doing it but you can add it to any exercise you like and it helps relieve your body of stress and toxins.
Breath focus technique
This exercise focuses on words and imagery. A 10-20 minute session of sitting or lying down (note this should rather be done before or after a workout, not during).
Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, become aware of how you’re breathing and try different variations, taking deep and shallow breaths from time to time. Be mindful of your posture changes when breathing in different ways. Now try to see how deep breathing affects your body by putting your hand on your stomach like you do in the belly breathing exercise. Let out a large sigh when you breathe out and bring in peaceful imagery while breathing. Image inhaling positive feelings and exhaling negative thoughts. Tell yourself that you’re breathing in “relaxation and peace” and when exhaling tell yourself you’re exhaling “toxins and negativity”. Tailor this for your own personal struggles and you’ll find that it can help relieve you of many of your emotional and mental burdens.
4-7-8 breathing
This helps you relax by, once again, focusing on the movements of your stomach with every inhale and exhale. You’re also required to hold your breath and take long exhales from time to time and it’s not very easy to get used to. You can also do this either lying or sitting down, placing a hand on your stomach and the other on your chest.
Take a deep breath while counting to four in your head, hold your breath for another seven and exhale from your mouth for eight seconds. Repeat as many times as it takes for you to relax.
Roll Breathing
This allows you to use every part of your lungs and to focus on your rhythm. This is an advanced exercise that allows you to take control and use more of your lungs more efficiently, but beware… it is a big challenge.
Practice this exercise for 3-5 minutes at a time. Once more, place your hands on your chest and stomach to feel how your body moves with each breath. Try to expand your stomach when you inhale so that your hand goes up with each breath. Your chest should remain still. Breath in through the nose, out through the mouth, ten times. Now that you’ve inhaled into your lower lungs, inhale again and, at the halfway point, continue breathing into your upper lungs so that your chest rises, rather than your stomach. Exhale slowly while making a “whooshing” sound and allow your stomach to empty before your chest.
As absurd as it sounds, breathing properly is far from easy. And make no mistake about it, you need to practice these exercises on a regular basis in order to get your breathing rhythm up to scratch, but over time, you will find that it far easier to breath while doing that dead-lift or once you’re 6km into your run. And, seeing as we spend literally every day and night breathing, you might find that it has plenty of other benefits.
COMMENTS