Breathing is important. Obviously, but not all Breathing is supposed to be done the same. What I mean by this is our body responds to different stressers and our breathing is effect from each response. Being able to control our breathing or even perform it the correct way can help complete the task at hand.

Let’s say I am working out and I am in the middle of a squat session. During a heavy squat I brace and fill my diaphragm up with air and push my belly down and out. I hold that breath and descend to a squat position and when I come back up to stand I am releasing my breath helping me push through on the way up. Doing this allowed my body to stay tight ( by bracing) through the whole squat process. If I would have took a breath and let go (as I was descending in the squat) I would have had to take a breath at the bottom. Doing that would make me lose that brace and I would not be able to squat as much as I could.

When I run low steady distance runs I have a cadence when I breathe. When I throw punches I exhale on the concentric phase of the punch. Many different types of Breathing for many exercises modalities.

Well how do I know when and what breath work to be done? That’s a great question and Brian Mckenzie breaks down his 5 gears of breathe work for you here.

I’ve used this breathe work format for about a year and it’s helped me create some distance from my perceived limitations. I’ve done the battle ropes for 62 minutes after a max effort session. I had the better conditioning in my fight a year ago. I have increased my intra abdominal pressure for heavy compound lifts.

Breathing is not just for life or exercise either. When we’re in a fight or fight my version haha, our bodies pump more blood and dilate our blood vessel in order to keep us alive. I encourage you to try the box method,or the wim hof method to build better breath awareness.

As always keep getting in your reps Amrap as many reps as possible.