When learning to perform an exercise or to hold a position for an extended time, many people are taught to count through them or to count for a period of holding time. When you are counting seconds, your attention is drawn to the time remaining and you tend to focus on the pain you feel as your muscles ache and start to shake, instead of the performance of the exercise itself. This causes you to 'suffer'. When you learn how to relax in and through the positions, you will reap the far reaching benefits of which the exercise is meant to create.
In order to relax, one must breathe deeply. It is best to practice through a demonstration in order for you to realize the experience of this deep breathing technique.
Sitting at rest, with your back straight in a chair.
Breathing through solely the nostrils, inhale completely, hold for a count, then exhale and hold for a count. Take the air into the bottom of the lungs first, allowing it to travel upwards, expanding the ribcage and lastly your chest. If doing it correctly, you will notice your belly expanding first, then you'll feel the air pushing out the ribcage and your back. You may likely yawn sometimes. That's a good sign. It means that you are expanding your lung capacity. Continue to breath this way and as you start to get your rhythm, each time you take another breath, you will naturally start to breath a little slower. With this relaxed mindset, you will be able to go a little further or hold a little longer with ease.
Please apply this deep breathing technique to one or more of the following exercises and stretches and notice how your body responds. You will feel it relax 'through' the discomfort and pain your muscles may be experiencing.
- Hamstring stretch: Simply sit on the floor with feet open in a V. Inhale reach up, exhale bend forward reaching toward the toes. Stay low and ease up just a bit as you inhale, then on the exhalations allow yourself to move forward.
- Chair: Stand, Bend the knees into sitting position, stay in this imaginary chair and extend your hands above your head, straighten out the arms and reach for the sky, look up. HOLD, the position and KEEP BREATHING.
- Floor Bridge: Lying on the floor with knees bent, slowly lift your hips and torso off the ground and get as much height as you can by inching your shoulders underneath you and slightly squeezing the glutes. HOLD, the position and KEEP BREATHING.
- Plié: Stand with the legs widened about 4 feet apart. Inhale as you lower, Exhale as you rise.
Please apply this technique to all your exercises always. You will notice that your muscle memory and strength and mind clarity will improve. If you simply apply this deep breathing technique anytime, anyplace you feel stress, it will dissipate.
The importance of cardio respiratory exercise; it cannot be stressed enough. It alarmed me the first time I noticed that I was out of breath from going up a flight of stairs. Now, I know this is a common occurrence, however, I used to run a thousand stairs in a half hour and feel amazing afterwards. For me to walk a normal pace up twelve stairs and be winded took me off guard. Naturally, I thought the worst…” Perhaps I have a lung problem or perhaps I have a heart disease.” I had to consider that I did change my workout routine. I was doing 30-60 minutes of cardio exercise on various machines at the gym, 3-4 days per week. I supplemented and changed up the cardio by substituting occasionally with running stairs when the weather was good. But when I changed jobs, I stopped the cardio routine like I had been for so many years. I stopped going to the gym and exercised at home instead. I continued with other types exercise, but my cardio was down.
But I didn’t actually feel as if my body had changed. I still felt great up unless I did something of exertion. I went to my doctor and got a check-up. I told him that I was getting short of breath when I did something that required exertion, for instance I noticed these symptoms greatly when going out dancing (also far less these days!) or running up my stairs at home or doing a quick paced yoga. He asked how many flights I was running… I told him about 3-400, he told me there was nothing wrong with me and that I was fine…”Anyone who can run that many stairs doesn’t have a lung problem.”
Boy! It didn’t take very long for my body to change. Within a matter of a couple of months, my body has suffered the consequences of not getting enough cardio respiratory exercise. I had to consider that my body did change a bit and that I needed to recondition. I realized that I needed to do something, but I didn’t have the living space, nor the money to purchase a cardio machine. So I started running up and down my stairs at home. Albeit boring, when it’s cold out, something is better than nothing. I do my own variations of kickboxing, butchered dancing, and combo cardio fitness routines. Now, when I incorporate cardio into my workouts, I have no choice but to listen to my body when it works a little slower and gets tired a little faster and my heart doesn’t beat as fast as it used to when doing the workouts.
I know I’ve gotten older, and by nature, the heart slows down, but I WANT TO BOOGIE on the dance floor like I used to. The good ‘ole days had me dancing my ass off, nonstop for twelve hours, to my favorite djs. I haven’t yet worked up to my former levels, but I’m not giving up. I know that when I jump off the wagon, I have to get back up. The longer I stay off, the longer it takes for me to get back to where I left off. It doesn’t pay. It pays to stay on. A lot of times it’s tough to keep riding, but quite frankly, the consequences of jumping on and off are greater that just getting through those tough short moments and hanging on. So my advice to you all, is to STAY ON THE WAGON, no matter what. Hey- we all jump off, but GET BACK ON, no matter what. Your body and mind will be so grateful, you WILL reap the benefits. TRUST ME, I KNOW. And YOU KNOW it too. IF YOU LISTEN TO YOUR BODY WHISPER, YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO HEAR IT SCREAM.
