Can you breathe your way to your weight loss goals?

June 18, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

Someone famous and spiritual once said, “If you can control your breath, you can control anything.”

Who said it?

Really, I dunno. I’m too lazy to look it up.

But whoever it was that uttered that maybe slightly paraphrased platinum string of verbal pearls hit the nail on the head. I mean, really. Think of what you could live without for a day or two. Food. Water. Your favorite Netflix show. (Note I said “your”, not “mine”…) But, without air – without oxygen – we’d each be gone pretty flippin’ quickly. Our breath is super crucial to the whole living thing. It’s part of the package deal that comes with being a creature on this planet. And that doesn’t just go for surviving – but thriving too. Here we’ve got this endless supply of life sustenance, and we so often use it totally wrong. Now, we’ve already talked before about how focusing on the breath can help you self calm so you’ll make better lifestyle choices. We’ve related that to everything from addiction to weight loss. (Yoga and meditation have beautifully proven that.) We’ve even discussed how tuning into your huffing and puffing can improve your more hardcore workouts. It keeps you from getting anxious or calling on the wrong muscles to do the job you’re after.

But there’s yet another way our breathing can benefit our fitness path.

And that’s when you do what.

It seems simple. There’s two parts to breathing. Sucking in the oxygen molecules and shooting out the CO2 from your face holes. Inhale. Exhale. Simple, right? Now, you may’ve heard before how you should “exhale on exertion” when you’re doing anything from situps to up-dog (#YogaTerms). And you may’ve dismissed it. (Mostly ’cause no one ever really told you why.) I’m totally with you on that. If I don’t have a rationale for doing what I’m told, nine times out’ve ten, I’m not doing it. So here’s the big answer for why exhaling on exertion’s gonna be your magic answer to making weight loss easier.

(Supersaiyan transformation face optional)

See, when you exhale, you contract your abdominal muscles. Seeing as your abs are an important part’ve your core – you need that activated for a whole lot’ve exercises. And, while that whole nugget’ve knowledge may not sound so groundbreaking, it kinda is. It goes for every kinda exercise – not just crunches. Think about it. If you’re doing fifty squats and not recruiting your core, do you think that beach booty’s coming your way as fast as it is for the chick who is? Probably not. And, if you’re not engaging your abs during a situp, where do you think it’s gonna pull instead? Your back and maybe even neck – putting you outta gym commission for a couple’ve days, and putting you behind on your goals.

(And walking like Herbert. Or his dog.)

Also, if you’re not calling on your core to do the dirty work, you end up fatiguing all these other muscles in your body. So what? Well, when you tire out your other muscles – even if you don’t strain something – you’ll probably end up fatiguing pretty fast, ending your workout early, and giving up. Worse? Ending on a bad note makes for really poor motivation next time you’re sofa surfing and trying to talk yourself into a gym sesh. It’s kinda crazy how such a simple activity can maximize your results and minimize your waistline. But it totally can.

So, let your breath do the dirty work of getting washboard abs…

And losing weight.