Have you given much thought to how you breathe during your workout? If not, you should. Again, consult your physician before starting a workout program.
Breathing is important to your workout and your health. When doing resistance training you want to breathe in when the muscle you are working is being contracted and then breathe out as it is being stretched. The reason you want to breathe this way is that you will get more oxygen to the muscle you are working if you breathe in when contracting the muscle. The more oxygen you can get to the muscle the more energy it can burn during the contraction giving you a better workout. It can sometimes feel awkward breathing this way, but it is worth it.
So, what happens if you breathe out on the contraction and in on the stretching of the muscle? A slightly less efficient workout is all. But we want the most effective workout we can create, right? So pay attention to how you breathe!
Most importantly just breathe. Do not hold your breath! DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH! Do I need to say it again? Do not hold your breath. Here is why: holding your breath lowers your blood pressure. If you lower your blood pressure by holding your breath, then release your breath you can raise your blood pressure too quickly. This is called Valsalva Maneuver. So, remember to breath.
Now that we know how to breathe, let’s talk about blood pressure. Do you know what your blood pressure is? You should. High blood pressure is known as the silent killer because so many who die as a result of having high blood pressure never knew it. If you don’t know it, please find out what it is.
Blood pressure consists of two numbers. The first number is the systolic pressure which is the pressure exerted by the contraction of the heart. The second number is the diastolic pressure which is the pressure in the blood vessels when the heart is relaxed. Blood pressure is often stated as a number “over” a second number. For example, 120/80 is stated as 120 over 80. 120 is the systolic number and 80 is the diastolic number.
Once upon a time a normal blood pressure was in the range of 90 to 135 over 50 to 85. If your blood pressure was more than 140/90, then you had high blood pressure. Do you remember in a previous blog I talked about how movie theaters were enabling me in my obesity by widening their seats and even having arms that lifted up if I still needed more room? Well, unfortunately, even the medical community is susceptible to such behavior. Remember to consult your physician about your blood pressure! But we now have new levels of blood pressure due to the increased blood pressure of the population. They are as follows:
Normal
Less than 130/80
High Normal
Between 130/85 & 139/89
Mild Hypertension Stage 1
Between 140/90 & 159/99
Moderate Hypertension Stage 2
Between 160/100 & 179/109
Severe Hypertension Stage 3
Between 180/110 & 209/119
Very Severe Hypertension Stage 4
Over 210/120
Are they serious?!?! This approaches insanity or some absurd (and not funny) joke. What are they thinking? Please, do not be satisfied with anything other than normal. Even at my most obese my blood pressure was about 120/80. Now that I have lost 125 pounds by working out aerobically & anaerobically and eating right I have watched my blood pressure fall to 108/54. I felt good. Now I feel great! And, my heart thanks me for it.
Consult your doctor about your blood pressure. You should know what it is. If it is high, get it under control!
Here are a few factors associated with high blood pressure or at least the risk of high blood pressure:
Smoking (if you smoke, please quit)
Stress (don’t sweat the small stuff)
Diabetes
Sodium intake (put down the salt & give Mrs. Dash a fair shake)
Alcohol (please drink responsibly)
Not exercising (the heart is a muscle, y’all)
Family history
Oral contraceptives
Weight (too much is not a good thing)
Gender (women once again are proven to be the superior gender, sorry guys)
Race
Age (the one factor that I can’t outrun, well one of three – gender family history too)
Take care of yourselves. Let’s continue to work toward you fine. Remember to breathe!
Until next time,
Michael
fromfat2fine 