TheTodd
Jedi Council Member
Generaly, I am not so sure about breathing while exercising, because many of us have very bad breathing habbits even with regular EE. But an interesting question, how do we breathe while exercising? Ok, when you are relaxed/seated, you breathe with your diaphragm and you can see the result, your belly protruding, but how to breathe exactly while exercising, when all of your muscles are tense? Some say with your diaphragm, into the belly with abdominal muscles contracted. But is that really with the diaphragm?Thanks for sharing!! It looks like a great workout! I will definitely try it!
One quick question that I didn't find in the thread (nor I can find the answer in the video since my screen is not big enough to watch it properly ). Is belly breathing the one prefferred for all exercises or is there any set of them for which "chest" breathing would be "better"?
Personally I try to avoid "chest" breathing in general because of the reasons explained on the EE program, but at the same time the few yoga postures that I was taught were all done by breathing with the chest -at least those were taught to me that way, but of course I could have been misguided-.
Any advice on that maybe? Thank you!
Some offer explanation of diaphragmatic breathing while weight lifting:
Here is mention that if you breath properly during exercises, your body increases flexibility:
And many many more videos on youtube speak of the same thing.
Many of them mention that breathing with your belly, and not your chest(!), is one of the most important things when lifting/exercising - because of core stability, spine position, safety, oxigen uptake, proper muscle activation and so on.
So, recommendations from these youtube videos are: breathe into your belly whenever possible (not just exercising) and when your abdomen is activated/contracted enough, your chest should rise also. And that should be diaphragmal breathing (very roughly speaking). Avoid shallow chest breathing.