Train Like A WLF 004: Breathing Isn’t Magic.
Hello! Welcome to the fourth Train Like A WLF podcast. This is number 3 in our series, “How To Own Your Home Workout,” aaaaaaand — here’s your tip!
That’s right, we’re getting right into the meat and potatoes of it. I don’t have time, and neither do you — and I mean that very lovingly. I don’t want you to have too much time, I want you to get right into this tip:
Breathing.
Everyone’s talking about breathing right now because obviously our biggest resource is our respiratory system in a time of compromised immunity and viruses, etc etc.
So all you need to do is know how your breath works.
All you need is to be confident in your abilities as an organic hydraulic pump mechanism.
So what that means is: exactly what it sounds like.
The human body is so blessedly simple* and I want you to understand that, so that you never feel that breathing is some sort of magical thing that you’ll never get a handle on. You will!
Air goes in — (Follow with me here, iiiiiiiinhale!) — everything in your body should expand. Belly, stomach, ribs, torso, just let everything poof out inside your body. (Don’t worry if it feels weird. It will feel weird because you’ve probably never done a studious, deliberate breath like this before. And “studious” is exactly how you want to approach it. You’re simply studying the sensations of your hydraulic pump mechanism, because these sensations are the switches and buttons to make that pump function. Make sense?)
And then — (Follow with me again now, whoooooosh!) — that’s your exhale. Everything contracts: that is oxygen leaving you, that is water leaving you. Remember, we exhale vapor! And that’s why people say that exhaling is very detoxing. Come on, you’re just getting stuff out of your body.
Inhale = fill everything up.
Exhale = empty everything out.
“Filling everything up” causes your pump to become full with “substance” (ie: oxygen) that’s going to literally push you through an activity.
That’s what I mean by “hydraulic pump.”
So when you’re trying to do a movement, that’s why they say in dance, “Exhale on the exertion,” so that you can accomplish a sexful —
(And I’m leaving this speech slip in, because it’s hilarious.)
— I mean, successful — I mean impossibly sexful, if that’s what you’re into — change of position. Impulsion.
Whatever you need, that’s there for you.
And that’s how you can use your breath.
If you liked what you heard, you know where you can find me: Facebook, @trainlikeawlf on Instagram, and worklife-fitness.com.
Own your workout! Peace.
*In this context, at least. Let’s not delve into biochemistry for now — I can refer you to a specialist.
