The Art of Breathing...
- Shanu Shashank
- Jul 27, 2020
- 3 min read
One of the most basic processes for our survival in day to day life, while there is no rocket science explanation needed when it comes to the importance of breathing, it is equally an overlooked concept, whether it comes to the role in exercising or even on attaining a sheer focus on any activity or an object. Talk about meditation studies, one would definitely come to know the importance of focusing on this process of inhaling and exhaling, where our lives exist. Before we go into the process and importance during resistance exercises, let us first understand the basics.
What if I ask you- “How often do you breathe properly??”
Almost all of us do shallow breathing by just filling the upper portion of the lungs and raising the chest.
One definitely needs to have a look at the infants when they are just born. Their stomach rises and falls after every breath when they are asleep, which perhaps is the correct way. It is possible to achieve when one breathes through the stomach pushing the diaphragm out to take in air.
But, why do we need to practice it?
Practicing this regularly might help us to take in greater volume of oxygen and we know the importance of oxygen in our daily lives; digging deep, it serves as our survival source by helping in energy production (Glucose produced from the food we eat combines with oxygen to produce ATP).
There are several other advantages too, like helping in increasing our alertness and reflexes, for relaxing and managing stress, controlling psychological states, as well.
Just recall the last time when you got angry and someone would have asked you to take a deep breath. That really helped, didn’t it? Our ancestors were quite smart. They used to practice yoga as a healthy way of life.
The yogic breathing exercises have been one of the widely used relaxation exercises. The yogic breathing — “Pranayama”, is a unique method to balance the autonomic nervous system by manipulating the breath movement, while influencing psychological and stress-related disorders.
The environmental pollution, increased pace of life, psycho social disturbances, eating habits, and sedentary lifestyle have increased stress levels and the related disorders.
Well enough of Yoga , let us talk about Weight lifting. It’s the same old practice that one needs to implement while lifting weights.
Taking in air during the eccentric contraction (when the muscles lengthen themselves), while exhaling during the concentric contraction (when muscles shorten). Ex:- Breathing in while squatting down and exhaling when coming up.
While this has been widely accepted by individuals all across the world, yet there is a more advanced way to it, termed as valsalva maneuver.
What is this valsalva technique?
It is the process wherein you forcibly breathe out against a closed windpipe, while keeping the glottis closed.
This helps trapping air inside the lungs, thus creating a pressure inside our abdomens, known as intra abdominal pressure.
The process demands you to take a deep belly breath (just an analogy, not literally expanding the belly), such that you close your glottis and exhale against it, which perhaps helps in stabilizing our torso against heavy loads. Eg- Creating the pressure tight before you squat down, and breathe out only when you have come up after completing a repetition, repeat.
The pressure filled in abdominal and thoracic cavities help create an insulation and therefore helps reduce the load on the lumbar and thoracic spine, which also helps prevent our central nervous system from injuries.
So, here’s an analogy for this — try relating this to those lorries carrying heavy loads on the highways, they are able to do it for the fact that the tyres have air filled inside them. Hence, better your breathing in this process, better will be the tightness of your core, and thus smoother and safer will be your lift.
When to efficiently incorporate it in training?
For the beginners, it would be practically tough to follow this process alongside learning the basic movements and exercises, initially. Going with the traditional process — inhale during eccentric contraction and exhale while concentric could be a good approach to start with.
Learning to apply the concept of valsalva could be really helpful when you are trying to lift more than 60–70 % of your max, especially in unsupported compound lifts, such as squats, dead lifts, bench press, when the chances of injuries could be high, if the basic cues are not taken care of. The increase in abdominal pressure helps maintain rigidity and thus prevents the central nervous system from injuries. This also helps get you those extra pounds on the bar.
Practicing the valsalva technique during isolation exercises like bicep curls or assisted machine exercises like lat pull down could be tough, when you are trying to pull in more number of repetitions. Sticking to the former technique could be good here, while one can try improvising upon valsalva with practice and time.
Keep breathing!
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