Strength Train Your Breath
This video demonstrates how to use some of the cool tools MATRIX have for breath training with our clients. You'll also learn about why taking the time to train breathing can be so valuable.
0:00 - Hello out there, it's Shane from MATRIX Personalized Fitness. In today's video, I'm going to be talking to you about breathing. Specifically, the tools and toys that I use with my clients to help train their breathing.
0:15 - Now, I think we can all agree that breathing is super important. We know that we can live without food for a few weeks or over a month. We know that we can live without water for a couple of days or up to a week. But when it comes to breathing, we can't survive more than a couple of minutes. Considering how important breathing is, it really surprises me that we don't spend more time training ourselves to breathe better, as well as the muscles that help us breathe.
0:39 - Now, I've put together a couple of other blogs and video posts all about breathing. They talk about how breathing can help you from the standpoints of relaxation, all the way to losing weight. And I've also talked about some of the different movements and exercises that can help you breathe better. All of those are listed below with links in the description.
0:58 - I've also, in the description, added a link to a PDF document that lists all the different breathing muscles and exercises you can do to train those [muscles]. So feel free to check it out.
1:07 - But for today, I want to introduce you to these toys. The first one is our Expand-A-Lung. This is like a snorkel. It's a mouth breathing device that has a number of different settings. You can have it almost all the way open to almost completely closed, where you get no oxygen at all. The way I use this one is for strength training. Basically, if we're targeting one of the muscles that you'll find in that PDF, you can put this device in your mouth, think about contracting that muscle as the PDF describes, and then do a couple reps of trying to breathe through the device, really feeling that muscle squeeze. It's very similar to doing a bicep curl. And the amount of restriction that you put on your breathing is similar to the amount of weight you would be holding while doing that bicep curl.
1:50 - The second device is our Elevation Training Mask. I think [the Elevation mask] super cool because it looks like the character Bane from the Dark Knight Rises. My wife Carolyn, our massage therapist, she can't stand me wearing it. She thinks it's terrifying. But this device is cool because it's not just mouth breathing, but it also covers your nose. This allows you to breathe and do normal everyday tasks. So this device can be worn while doing typical household chores, while going for a walk, or actually during other workouts. I use it to train for the group exercise classes that I teach, so that I have more lung capacity to be able to speak during those classes. [The Elevation mask] simply slips on over the mouth, straps around in the back, and then you breathe through it while you're doing your activity. This [mask] is great for doing two things. One, building endurance of the [breathing] muscles. Having a constant low grade restriction allows those muscles to be able to work harder for longer periods of time. Secondly, it gets you used to having more co2 in your system. Because your out breath is trapped within the mask, you're working at higher levels of co2. And this can have huge benefits from increasing bone density, to driving more oxygen into the cells, so on and so forth.
3:03 - So these are just two of the cool devices that we use here at a MATRIX. I've included links again in the description, if you're interested in buying them.
3:09 - If you have any questions about more specific ways to use them, feel free to send us an email or reply to the links that we put out on social media.
3:19 - Anyways, I hope you found this interesting. Please have a wonderful day and I'll be back later on with some new cool stuff for you.