Sunday, November 15, 2009
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="630" caption="We are pretty sure no lawsuits were filed against this gym, despite the likelyhood that patrons held their breath at appropriate times."]
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From the Breathing article at Mike’s Gym by Bill Johnson (our emphasis):
The second major fault we see is exhalation at the point of effort. This practice arose primarily because academics, whose biggest exertion was probably tying their shoes, told insurance companies that holding the breath during effort increases intra-abdominal pressure, raises blood pressure and puts the heart and arteries at risk. So, for insurance purposes, many gym clients are taught to exhale as they make an effort.
It is true that retained breath on effort raises intra-abdominal pressure. That’s exactly how the body is programmed. Intra-abdominal pressure stabilizes the core. That’s why you inhale sharply as an evolutionary reflex when faced with a sudden threat. As part of our ancient fight-flight system, the body is programmed to inhale to stabilize the core, to make the body as strong as possible for fighting or fleeing.
In the Power Program, we take advantage of this superb fight-flight reflex, to apply maximum effort by inhaling immediately before effort, and momentarily retaining the breath during the rapid concentric contraction, then releasing the breath evenly during the slow eccentric contraction. Unless your client knows how to do this breathing, they will never be able to apply maximum effort. Worse, if you habitually use the exhale-on-effort nonsense taught in many gyms, you will be weak in movement on the sports field, and highly subject to lower back injury as the destabilized core has to use the spine to take the load. At the Colgan Institute we teach boxers, martial artist, and all combat athletes to strike their opponent just as they finish exhaling, because that is when the body is weakest. All the top coaches we know teach the same.
Workout
Complete 5 rounds for time of:
- 5 Kettlebell snatch, left
- 20 Kettlebell overhead walking lunges, left hand
- 5 Kettlebell snatch, right
- 20 Kettlebell overhead walking lunges, right hand
Weight for boys: 24kg; weight for girls: 16kg
