Breathing

Breathing during any form of exercise is often taken for granted. We breathe all the time and often underestimate how much the way we breathe helps during our exercise routines. Many people make the mistake of unconsciously holding their breath when doing exercise. This in turn causes unwanted tension in the muscles, making the activity that much harder.

Why Breathe?

Breathing properly promotes blood flow and increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles. Breathing slowly and easily also helps to relax your muscles, which makes exercises easier and more beneficial.

Learn to Breathe

If you have not been breathing properly during physical activities, it might seem a little awkward at first. Once you learn how to breathe properly, the process becomes second nature. The whole trick to breathing properly, is knowing when to breathe in (inhale) and when to breathe out (exhale).

Exhaling occurs whenever you are moving weight. Sometimes it is away from your body (as with leg presses or push-ups) and sometimes it is towards your body (as with bicep curls or lateral pull-downs).

If you get confused in the beginning, that is all right. The important thing to remember is to breathe no matter what. Holding your breath will not help you at all, and you will find yourself tiring faster. For your body to get the maximum results, you have to consciously make an effort to do everything you can to increase internal performance.

Here are two breathing exercises that help promote breathing and relaxation:

Breathing Tips

It gets a little confusing when it comes to exercises where you press / push. So on pressing / pushing moves, exhale as you push/press and inhale when you return to the starting position. If you're performing a front squat, exhale as you press your legs and inhale as you return them back to the 90 degree angle.

• Before you push or pull any weight you should always take a deep breath.
• Filling your lungs with oxygen gives you oxygen rich blood.
• Don't release the air after you have done the exercise, release while your doing it.
• Take very slow deep breaths.
• If you don't breath while exercising you are reducing the blood flow to your brain and increase pressure in your chest this can never be a good thing.

How to Breathe during Exercise

Proper breathing and sufficient oxygen intake are crucial when exercises like stretching, pilates exercises. Do not hold your breath while exercising. When exercising, the heart pumps more blood and the lungs take in more air to meet the increased oxygen demands of the muscles and to remove the extra carbon dioxide given off by the working cells. The harder we exercise, the greater the demand placed on our muscles and the greater the demand for oxygen.

Breathing during Abdominal Exercises

With all abdominal exercises, exhale as you contract / exert / come up / crunch your abdominals; inhale as you relax / lower / return to the starting position. You can find variety of ab crunch workouts will help to tone your middle.

Key points to remember

• Throughout the abdominal exercise, keep your abdominal muscles tight.
• It's not the number of repetitions, but the quality and technique that gets results.
• Breath out as you curl up, breathe in as you return to the floor.

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