Either Breathe or Faint - A True Story

Guys its time to relate to a personal experience, and talk to you about a very important lesson – you can literally faint if you don’t breathe while exercising.

Just last Sunday I was out running my 6 miles of the day, syncing my steps with the beats of David Guetta’s new song, When Love Takes Over - A brilliant running tune. So there I was, on my last bend when I saw my arch running nemesis, Crazy Legs, through the corner of my eye. Crazy Legs! He’s a heck of a runner and we often run into each other at the track around the park. And when we do… its Game On!

It started as an innocent crossing that ended in two guys acting like kids, trying to show each other off. That was 7 months ago. Now after all this time, nothing has changed. We still try to kick each other’s butt. We never meet after covering the same amount of distance; but if I were to be honest, then I must tell you that Crazy Legs is somewhat of a professional runner and beats me 7 out of the 10 times we run into each other....

But last Sunday I had decided, that there was no way ol’ Crazy is going to get the best of me. So as soon as I saw him, I started accelerating. That sneaky little running maniac saw me gain speed and the next thing I know, he’s right behind me. Since I was on my last leg, I kicked myself into high gear. The thing about Crazy though, is that he doesn’t give up easily. He started matching my speed step by step. Determined to kick his butt, I went into an all out sprint. I did realize at that point, that I was holding my breath, something I used to do a lot when I was younger; but I thought what the hell – I’m almost there. I knew the consequences of not breathing, all too well. But I still thought I could pull it off for a couple of 100 meters. Turns out I was wrong.

I did beat Crazy that day buts it’s a very hazy memory that I didn’t even get to gloat about; because as soon as I stopped, I got light headed and extremely dizzy and almost fell down flat on my face. Lucky for me Crazy Legs was trying to catch up, because he kind of held me upright till I regained my strength. And that’s something he got to gloat about. Curse him!

But there’s a very important lesson here guys: No matter how “into it” you get, you gotta breathe while exercising. For those of you who are wondering, holding your breath creates pressure in your chest that slows down the blood flow back to your heart; which means less blood pumped out. Try it. Hold your breath and feel your pulse. You’ll feel it slowing down. This happened to me while running but its more probable at the gym, where you tend to hold your breath more, with the weight lifting and all.

Although breathing properly consists of finding your own breathing rhythm, you can find some great material online to help you get there. Here’s one article we came across, for breathing while running, on the Runner’s World site, while this is another one we came across on a site called essortment

For weight training, according to an article in the 2005 March/April issue of the Health and Fitness journal publication of the American College of Sports and Medicine(ACSM), breathe in while bringing the weight towards you or while lowering the resistance, and breath out while moving the resistance away from you. Here are a few other sources that are helpful:
http://www.bigmusclesbuilding.com/breathingweightliftingexercises.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/breathing-during-weight-training.html

So again, repeat after me:

I will not hold my breath while exercising

As for you Crazy Legs, it ain’t over yet. I’m gonna even up the score soon, so be ready for it. Btw thanks for saving me from denting my face :)


Stay Fit
Apollo