Breathing and Health

I have mentioned before how important power training or force training is. Well in this entry we are going to talk about some specific techniques of power training. The first step is to learn abdominal breathing. Without this step you are hopelessly lost. Basically abdominal breathing is the act of expanding the abdomen when you inhale and contracting it upon the exhale. This expansion and contraction will feel somewhat forced at first. The best way to start to get the hang of this is to place your hand on your upper abdomen. (Many people recommend the lower abdomen but this is stomach pushing, not abdominal breathing) Once your hand is on the upper belly you practice expanding it outward and trying to feel your diaphragm, a large plate like muscle under your rib cage.

Once you get the knack of expanding and contracting your upper belly, relax and start trying to breathe in when the diaphragm expands and out when the diaphragm contracts. This is quite difficult to do for most people and really is most easily learned in a class situation. However, any effort is very, very useful. You will begin to get more air into the lungs on inhale and then you will push out waste gases on exhale. This is so valuable that you cannot underestimate its worth.

Most people are chest breathers, they take shallow sips of air while leaving poisonous carbon dioxide and other wastes in the lungs. This is a terrible state of affairs. Only with real, deep abdominal breathing can we even begin to talk about being healthy, let alone having internal force.