Do you hold your breath during exercise? Most people do. You probably don’t think about breathing when you’re exercising — unless you’re digging deep or lifting.
Do you focus on breathing when you’re simply walking around the house, or going up stairs? Probably not, but it can make a big (huge) difference because exhaling makes you use your abdominals instead of your back.
Breathing while exercising will over all make you stronger because you are using more muscles while performing your exercises, instead of just one muscle group. And when I say breathing while exercising, I mean exhale while you are performing the greater effort of your exercise: inhale on the easier part, then exhale on the more challenging part.
Breathing while you exercise is often overlooked while various body parts and muscles are focused on, but breathing is as important as your form. Breathing as you move is part of your correct form. The reason why is simply because breathing involves your engaging your core.
You probably haven’t thought about your bellybutton lately, but it is the focus of one of my favorite tips: the act of exhaling helps you pull your belly button in. In other words, while standing or sitting tall, take a breath and then exhale, completely. You can try it out wherever you’re reading this. Can you feel your ribs come together and your stomach muscles tighten — and your waistband loosen?
You also can sit or stand with your spine up against a wall, hips and shoulder blades flat, and back of your waste slightly away from the wall to allow your natural curve to remain. (It’s OK if your head does not touch the wall; it depends on how rounded your upper back and shoulders have become, causing your chest to cave.)
While keeping your shoulder blades and hips flat against the wall, (or the back of a chair, place one hand across the front of your ribs, so you can feel the rise and fall of your ribs with each breath. Now exhale all of your air without allowing your chest to cave or roll away from the wall or chair. Inhale then exhale again, feeling your spine getting longer and taller against the wall. Now do you feel your waist band become looser as you exhale? If not, focus on your waist and spine getting longer during your next exhale. Because you are pulling your belly button in towards your spine as you sit taller you are shrinking your waist! This is the same thing we do when we’re wearing pants or a dress that’s a little too tight.
This is what is meant by engaging your core. Keeping your waist shrunk while your chest is lifted and ribs pulled together whether you are inhaling or exhaling causes you to keep your core engaged. You’ve already done it!
The more challenging part is to keep engaging your core while you perform an exercise. For example, during a squat, if you inhale while you are squatting you are ready to use your exhale as you stand. It is easier to stand if you use your abdominals and bum and hamstrings, so exhaling as you stand engages your abs.
Keeping your weight evenly distributed throughout your feet while you squat and stand helps you use your bum and hamstrings instead of locking your knees or using your back (in other words, your bum has to go back the same amount your chest goes forward). Now inhale as you squat again, but grab a 10lb weight while down there. Exhale as you stand and you should feel your abdominal muscles helping support the extra weight you just lifted instead of your back. Squat again with extra weight and keeping your body weight throughout your feet all through the exercise – now you should feel your bum and hamstrings kick in as well as your abdominals as you stand.
Using your breath while climbing stairs, or box jumps, or single leg squats, or high step-ups helps you save your back and knees by using your abdominals and bum/hamstrings. In other words you will use more muscles doing the same exercise but you spread the work out over more muscles so no single muscle or joint take the brunt of the effort. More on this next time!
Let me know how you do with these tips by going to my website susannaengfitness.com and schedule a Free Core Call. These calls are 30min long and you can ask any questions you have about the above process, how to address your specific body, how to incorporate what you learn into your daily activities, and about my training techniques.
Want to try working out via FaceTime? You can go to my website, susannaengfitness.com, schedule a Free Core Call, learn more about the benefits of hiring an experienced personal trainer, and options for training digitally with me.
