"Where They Got It Wrong Chronicles" - Breathing

by Neil Anderson

I've been in the health and fitness biz, exclusively, for over 16 years now.  That is long enough to see some things come and go.  It is also long enough to EXPERIENCE where experts got it wrong and have reversed their positions.  What was once considered "law" in becoming healthy is now, not only proven wrong, but may even be bad for you.   

Breathing is one place they got it wrong.

If you were forward thinking enough to have been working out in the late 80's you'll remember:

"BREATHE OUT UPON EXERTION."  Or, "BLOW OUT WHEN YOU PUSH." 

Remember this?  Back then, in the health and fitness scene, it was bright colors, Doc Marten's, Hammer pants, and lots of HISSING.  Everyone was HISSING.  Aerobics instructors were HISSING.  Weight lifters were HISSING.  Trainers were telling their clients to HISS.  I even witnessed a water-aerobics instructor encouraging her class participants to blow bubbles under water when they did certain movements. 

This HISSING (pursing lips and teeth and blowing out while lifting) was supposed to help keep your blood pressure down.  Back then, high blood pressure was supposedly one of the biggest dangers and drawbacks to exercising. People who exercised were told by those in the know (mainly doctors and rehab specialists) that exercise was inherently dangerous.  And people who chose to exercise (not considered entirely necessary back then), had to be careful not to have an aneurysm, stroke, or heart attack while doing it.  To prevent such, they were to avoid and suppress their natural instinct to grunt and hold their breath for an instant while lifting something heavy.

This was great advice, but it only applied to a VERY small portion of the exercising population.  These were mainly heart patients.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of exercisers could be harmed by NOT taking a deep breath and holding it briefly while exerting. 

How? 

BACK INJURIES. 

It turns out that your natural instinct to grunt and hold your breath a little while lifting heavy and/or shifting your weight vigorously serves a purpose.  By holding your breath a little with each rep, you create intra-abdominal pressure.  This pressure supports and substantiates spinal integrity.   When you blow out you create an absence of intra-abdominal pressure and expose the muscles of the spine to greater strain.  This increases your chances of sustaining an injury. 

Also consider the fact that blowing out may be keeping you from health and fitness gains.  Your body is nothing if not self-preserving.  Built-in mechanisms may prevent you from making injurious mistakes.  Lack of intra-abdominal pressure for support may cause your body to naturally and subtly weaken its output during lifts.  There are many examples of this.  Weak output yields weak results.  

How did they get it so wrong back then? 

It was trickle down science from cardiac rehab. 

You have to remember that very little was "scientifically" known about exercise and its effects in the late 80's.  Back then you only had a couple choices for selecting an exercise method.  These came from popular culture (sports, celebrities, magazines) or the medical field.  And since FEW people trusted the dubious nature of the advice given by popular culture, the general public was more apt to seek out and obtain advice from those in the medical field (equally dubious as it turns out).  

And the advice given was..."don't hold your breath while exerting."  

This advice was quickly adopted by popular culture (sports, celebs, magazines), integrated, and perpetuated in a way that it still exists today.  And it is still as bad for you as it ever was - unless you have a blood pressure issue. 

If you are still HISSING while exercising, consider stopping.  You have taught yourself to lift in a way that is anti-nature.  Your natural urge to hold your breath briefly (DO NOT HOLD FOR LONG PERIODS - you should breathe between each rep) during each rep of heavy exercise is there for a reason.  And unless you've been specifically told by a M.D. or therapist to "blow out while you lift" you may be unintentionally exposing yourself to needless injury or shorting yourself the full benefit of your workouts.   

Yawning While Exercising

by Neil Anderson

Yeah, we see you over there.  Yawning.  Acting all bored.  Like today's workout is simply a breeze and you can't understand why the rest of us are hacking and puking and gasping for air.  What...these workouts not TOUGH enough for you???

HA!  Just messin with you.

We all do it.  Yawn, that is.  Especially during exercise.  

No one really knows why, but exercise and other stressful situations can induce yawning attacks.  Professional runners, bikers, even swimmers have been known to stop and even pull out of events due to excessive yawning attacks.  Just couldn't go on due to too much yawning.  Can you imagine?  

One of the things we do know about yawning is that it isn't due to your body not getting enough oxygen.  That is an old wives tale.  It used to be thought that yawning was your body's way of opening unused air sacks deep within the lungs, which were supposedly closed due to periods of inactivity.  Yawning was supposed to expand your chest cavity making it possible to take in more air and open these sacks.  The problem with this logic is that researchers found that yawning didn't improve physical capacity (a marker of improved oxygenation) after 1, or several yawns.  They also learned that even while a patient was confined to breathing 100% oxygen - they still yawned!  

So, why do we do it?  Some argue that it is due to our natural impulse to improve posture and stretch muscles in our chest cavities.  Some say it is our way of relieving tension in our jaw and neck.  Some think it is a long since abandoned human manifestation of dominance.  That's why hippos, lions and apes are thought to do it.  Some say the opposite.  They say that humans may yawn as a sign of submission.  It is a behavior observed in dogs.  No one really has the answer to why we yawn.  

What we do know is that excessive yawning can be a sign of very serious health problems (sleep apnea, depression, anxiety, heart defect).  You should see your doc if you yawn more than 3x per minute for several hours in a row for several days in a row. 

The other thing we know is that people have more yawning attacks when they are over-stressed, over-stimulated and/or over-tired.  I would argue that if you don't become one, or ALL THREE of these things before, during or after a GPP workout - you aren't human.  In that case, these workouts are too simple for you and you probably ARE bored.  If this is, or ever becomes case, then take it from us - you are fit enough.  You may stop now.  

No More Vitamin "I"

by Neil Anderson

Have you been taking Ibuprofen or other NSAIDs before or after workouts (or during) to recover faster from the workout and decrease pain?  You might be making it worse. 

The British Journal of Sports Medicine (43: 548-549, 2009) reported that more than half of all exercisers are self-medicating with Ibuprofen in an attempt to alleviate pain from their workouts.  They are convinced that popping a couple “vitamin I” is as important to their workouts as pulling on their exercise shoes.  While those who take these pain killers swear by their effects, it appears their own blood work would disagree. 

David Nieman a well-known physiologist and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus took a look at the stresses that exercise places on the bodies of race participants.  He found that rigorous exercise affects runners’ immune systems and muscles negatively.  This was to be expected, however during the study he found something even more “disturbing.”  He found a majority of runners were supplying their own physiological stress, in tablet form.  Some were even taking it during the race.  While their intention was to decrease the inflammation caused by extreme exercise, he found they were in fact doing quite the opposite.  After looking at the blood work of those taking anti-inflammatories he found that the markers of inflammation were much higher over those who hadn’t taken them.   He also found signs of mild kidney impairment and, both before and after the race, of low-level endotoxemia, a condition in which bacteria leaks from the colon into the bloodstream. 

Researchers have long known that popping NSAIDs before or after workouts was counter-indicated.  Stuart Warden, an assistant professor and director of physical therapy research at Indiana University, who has extensively studied the physiological impacts of drugs and exercise found (along with other researchers) that NSAIDs actually slowed the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones.  “NSAIDs work by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins,” substances that are involved in pain and also in the creation of collagen, Warden says.  Collagen is the basic building block of most tissues.  So fewer prostaglandins means less collagen, “which inhibits the healing of tissue and bone injuries,” Warden says.  This includes the micro-tears and other types of trauma to the muscles and tissues that can occur after any strenuous workout or race.    So, blunting the effect of collagen through the use of NSAIDs will, over time, weaken tissues and bone.  This can eventually lead to breakdown and injury.  Chronic use of NSAIDs can also cause ulcers and gastrointestinal distress. 

The weird part of the study was that Warden et. al. found that the painkillers weren’t really helping the racers in the first place.  In one study they conducted, researchers were placed at water stops along the route of several races.  They asked participants if they had taken NSAIDS or not.  They also asked what their pain levels were.  They found there was no reported difference between pain levels for those who were taking them and those who were not.    Conclusion: it doesn’t help. 

When does it help to take NSAIDs?  Proper usage is between you and your doctor.  Generally, you should only take NSAIDs during times of acute injury or inflammation as per doctor’s instructions.