Feel Better and Get Healthier by Simply Breathing!

I’ve found that as a personal trainer, a lot of people come to me with questions about how they should be breathing, both when exercising and when living their everyday lives. It’s a good topic to be thinking about because so many of us are not breathing properly. Those shallow, small puffs of air most of us inhale don’t give us near enough oxygen to maximize our body’s performance.

The Best Way to Start Breathing Properly is Through Belly Breathing.

Here’s how to belly breathe:

1. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Take a deep breath in through your nose, ensuring your stomach (not your chest) inflates with enough air to rise up.
2. As you exhale slowly, gently press on your belly. This will push up on your diaphragm to help push the air out.

Try taking six to ten deep, slow breaths per minute for ten minutes daily to experience a reduction in your heart rate and blood pressure over time.

I find this breathing method is really beneficial to complete either before or immediately following a stressful event. It will bring you back to a calmer reality pretty quickly.

Stress can really take a toll on the healthy lifestyle you are trying to build for yourself.

Having Problems Belly Breathing Automatically? Try This.

I learned a great way to practice your belly breathing from Paul Chek, a skilled Holistic Health Practitioner. He recommends that you tie a thick string around your waist rather snugly. Every hour, push against that string for twelve deep breaths, to encourage belly breathing. I can attest to the fact that if you do this for a few days straight, belly breathing becomes a lot more automatic for you moving forward.

Want to Hold Your Breath for Over 1 Minute AND Have Enough Energy to Climb Mount Everest?

Believe me, you can hold your breath and feel like a superhero afterwards, with the ‘Wim Hof Method‘. This breathing method really shows you the power of breathing in 3 simple steps:
1. Breathe 30 really deep breathes in and out, either through your mouth or nose. It should feel like more air is coming in versus out. This method actually enriches the oxygen levels in your body. It also changes your body’s pH and hormones.
2. Simply hold your breath and watch the clock spin. The first couple of times I did this, I was able to get to just over one minute without breathing, now I’m up over one and a half minutes.
3. Breath in one more time as much air as you can and hold your breath for another 15 seconds.

It’s amazing how much energy and strength you feel after completing this breathing exercise – try it!

This breathing technique has been proven to help reduce depression, increase energy and immune system strength so that you can enjoy more life! It really does show us that we’re not taking in enough oxygen on a daily basis.

Combining deep breathing with proper nutrition and exercise will improve your health.

To Sum it Up…

Breathing is so important for our bodies to function properly. Despite the fact that it’s the absolute first thing we do when we enter this world, it’s amazing that most of us aren’t breathing correctly. Give both of these breathing techniques a try and you will realize pretty quickly, how important it is to spend a few minutes a day focused on this basic activity.