“When you hold your breath, you can’t breathe.” I saw that written once on a CrossFit white board. Of course, I thought it was so silly as to be hilariously funny and I’m still laughing.
However, it made me wonder if all of us who have internalized the commands of: “Big breath! Hold it! Exhale!” know precisely why those commands are important. It may be that we only know half of why they are important. That “half” would clearly be: “Strengthen your core!” Expanding our lungs and holding it--in tandem with seriously engaging the abs—support a solid body core and protect us from injury.
The other half is cardiovascular and has to do with blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac contractility, and conduction velocity between atria and ventricles.
This well known lifting ritual—inhale-hold-exhale—benefits you, the weightlifter, not only by enhancing your core strength, but also by helping to keep you from feeling wiffy at the end of the lift.
---Mary Boudreau Conover
Read the rest of Mary's Article
BIG BREATH! HOLD IT! EXHALE!
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Workout by Pat B: 4 rounds of:
7 Handstand Push Ups (Full ROM see photo)
135 pound Overhead Squat, 6 reps
315 pound Deadlift, 5 reps
CAUTION: This workout should be scaled. The deadlift weight should be 70% of your 1 rep max. The overhead squat should be 50% of your 1 rep max.
