Warning Wed: Don’t stop breathing

If you have only been a spectator of personal trainer and trainee workouts, you may have wondered why the trainer keeps reminding them to breathe. Surely, having been breathing since the time of birth, we don’t need such reminders!

You will be surprised to know, that a lot of people have a tendency to hold their breath during the most strenuous part of the exercise. I have also been asked many of times: “What is the proper way to breathe Beki when I’m doing… ?”

Does it really matter?

Yes, it does.


Improper breathing can lead to an increase of blood pressure which can cause a series of not so results: dizziness, light headedness, nausea, hernia, heart attack, even a stroke! It gets even worse for people who have hypertension or high blood pressure already! By disallowing the proper oxygen supply the body and heart demands during an intense workout, the body will react! (its not dumb you know!)

Proper technique is a very simple trick of knowing when you are using energy or force (concentric phase:contraction of the muscle group- exhale here) and when you are on the relaxing (eccentric phase: muscle group is released or stretched back to normal- inhale here).

Another trick I tell my clients is:
Inhale when working with gravity (movement is going down towards the earth; ex: down part of a squat) and exhale when you are working against gravity (upward movement from the earth; ex: straightening the legs up from a squat).

For your cardiovascular training, no need to stress yourself out with different breathing techniques. Just make sure you are breathing..and breathe naturally.




Until next time team, breath is life-you stop breathing, you stop living... so don't stop breathing.

Health respect & happiness,
beki