Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘breathing’

Take A Breath

Posted by terrepruitt on February 24, 2025

I’ve posted about breathing before. The one about breathing being a good thing, how we shouldn’t hold our breath and it mentions “sounding” in Nia because breathing is important especially when you exercise so actually making a sound can assist with breathing. There are multiple posts about pranayama the breathing techniques/exercises that are the fourth limb of yoga.

A couple of years ago I saw a product I thought was cute so I ordered some for my students. They are called Calm Strips. I ordered one for box breathing, one that is an infinity loop, and one that is a rainbow. The idea is to use your finger to slide along the strip, giving you something physical to assist with the breathing and perhaps help to remind you of the inhale, hold, exhale.

I think sometimes we all need to take a breath. And sometimes we may want to do it as more of a practice, like pranayama. Another post I have about breathing references a small 2001 study about how Rhythmic Breathing may have both psychological and physiological benefits.

I was just sitting at my desk and saw the envelope with the Calm Strips in it and I thought I would share. The strips are actually stickers so you can attach them to things and have them available for when you may want to use one. But, of course a calm strip is not needed to take a breath and/or to have a breathing practice. You basically just need to remember to do it or do it when you think you need it.

Here is a picture of the infinity loop and rainbow strip. I gave all the “box breathing” ones away, but I have the little card that came with them.

Pranayama posts:

Equal Breath
Cool Breath
Three Part Breath
Ujjayi Breath

What about you?  Do you ever need to just take a deep breath?  Do you ever stop and just focus on your breathing?

 

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Breathing – It’s A Good Thing

Posted by terrepruitt on July 11, 2013

Many people hold their breath while working out.  Or even just concentrating.  I was recently learning something and concentrating really hard and my husband said, “Are you holding your breath?”  I burst out laughing because I was in fact holding my breath.  I didn’t even realize it until he asked.  I thought it was funny that I was holding my breath and I thought it was extra funny because I remind people to breathe all the time.  Exercising and concentrating are two things that make people hold their breath so if they are concentrating while exercising it makes sense that it happens.  Also people tend to hold their breath when lifting something heavy.  This type of  maneuver or effect is called the valsalva maneuver or valsalva effect.  While some people who do heavy lifting claim it is good to do the valsalva maneuver and that it helps with the lifting others say it is not good and it does not help.  For me and my students breathing is ALWAYS in order.  How you breathe depends on what you are doing.  If you are lifting weights or doing exercises your breathing is different from when you are doing a cardio workout, such as Nia.

Breathing allows oxygen get to the muscles.  The muscles need that.  For me, I find that when I breathe I can move better.  That was actually the point of my husband asking me if I were breathing.  He could tell by the way I was moving that I was not breathing.  He was across the room and he could tell.  Even though the movement I was doing was very small by holding my breath my movements did not flow and were very sporadic.

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “If you do not breathe correctly, you do not move correctly.”  He got that from a campy film called  Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins from 1985, but, I’ll be darned if it is not 100% accurate!

One way trainers and instructors ensure breathing is to have the client/student talk.  When you are talking you are breathing.  In Nia we sing, laugh, shout, and in general make all types of noises.  In Nia we call it sounding.  By engaging in sounding we are ensuring we are breathing.  It is necessary for the body, but it is also fun for the spirit.

A sound made my a sharp exhalation helps both with stabilization of the core, but to me it seems to do a better job of engaging the core muscles than just holding my breath.  This method could be utilized during lifting or an agility move.  Sometimes when doing an exercise that is challenging it can help to pant with either your tongue out as an animal would or with semi-pursed lips.  Also when a muscles seems fatigued it often helps to take that extra deep breath.  No matter how you breathe remember it really is important to do so.  And even though it might sound silly that we “forget” to breathe, it is a common occurrence.  So practice remembering to breathe.  Breathing is a good thing!

Do you ever find yourself holding your breath?  When?

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