Deep Breathing Exercises for Improved Health and Faster Weight Loss Results
Did you know that oxygen burns fat? We all assume that it’s the exercise alone that causes us to burn fat. What happens when we exercise? We breathe heavier and deeper. This in turn delivers more than our usual amount of oxygen throughout our body’s cells. This seems to be one of the world’s best kept secrets. Yet it isn’t. Numerous books have been written about the benefit of deep breathing.
We’re able to store food and drink, but do we store oxygen in our bodies? Nope! We must continually inhale and exhale. What happens if we stop? We die. Not a pretty picture. So why have we let this very important source of fuel get away from us?
It’s very likely that our lifestyle has changed so drastically that oxygen is simply taken for granted. But just jump into a swimming pool and start swimming under water. What are you thinking about now? Even as you swim, you think about finally breaking the surface and gasping for that breath of fresh air. Am I right? Isn’t it ironic that the only time we think about the air we desperately need to survive is when we’re in an extreme situation where we’re not getting it?
Do you know that 70% of the waste inside our bodies get eliminated through breathing? So, think about it… if you’re not breathing properly, are you getting rid of all that waste? Nope. The waste that you’re failing to eliminate will cause problems for your body. Headaches, slower metabolism, other aches and pains, stress, etc. Breathing properly can overcome many of these problems and more.
Shallow breathing causes your body to slow down, gain weight, and maintain a poor shape. It makes sense. The more shallow we breathe, the more waste we have in our body. The more waste in our body, the worse we feel, and the more overweight we become. How does that happen? The cells in your body perform two functions. The release of energy (which is good) and the storage of fat (not so good). Of course some storage of fat is necessary for us to live. Just not excessive storage of fat.
The less oxygen you provide for your body, the more fat you’ll end up storing inside of it. The more oxygen you provide, the more energy you’ll release. It’s the release of this energy that burns fat. Have you ever felt tired? No energy? That’s because your body isn’t releasing as much energy as you need.
Remember the digestion process? Shallow breathing creates slower digestion, which in turn slows down the rate of all the chemical reactions inside our body – or in other words our metabolism. Slower metabolism causes us to feel hungry or even starved more often. When our body feels starved, it stores more fat so it can live.
Convinced yet? The connections are there. We need more oxygen. We may need even more in the future. As our air becomes more polluted, re-training our breathing now will keep us healthy later on. Okay, so now we know that we need to inject more oxygen into our systems. The question is how?
Deeper Better Breathing for Optimal Health and Faster Weight Loss Results
In this day and age, most of us breathe air up into our chest. Look at yourself in the mirror. Your lungs hang all the way down toward the bottom of your rib cage. More than likely, you’re not filling them up with the precious air they need. Most of us inflate just the upper portion.
Simply lay down totally flat on your bed, your couch, or floor. Relax for a second or two before taking a deep breath. Now breathe in deep through your nose. Push your belly up while taking the air inside. Stick your chin on your chest and watch your belly rise. When you’ve got as much air as you can hold, stop and hold your breath. Try holding it for ten or twenty seconds. If you’re like most people, you’re dying to let it out at the end of the twenty seconds. Go ahead. Pitiful isn’t it?
Not only that, but did you feel your lungs stretching out? You don’t feel that very often do you? It feels good and bad at the same time, right? That’s because you’re not used to it. Try it a couple of more times. It gets easier each time, right? That’s the beauty of re-training yourself to breathe properly. It is easy! Don’t you feel relaxed and refreshed at the same time? Your body is saying thank you, thank you! Just that very tiny bit of deep breathing and your body feels better. An immediate reaction.
Now think of this. That extra oxygen you gifted your body with is now moving through your bloodstream, slightly increasing your flow, and getting rid of excess waste and fat. All that in a matter of seconds! Keep lying on the floor, bed, or couch, and practice a little more. Get used to how deep breathing feels. Close your eyes and sense the rhythm of the deep breath you’re taking. Memorize it.
Keep practicing for 5 more minutes. Now sit up. Again, try to accomplish the same deep breath while sitting up. Sit up straight. Start breathing in through your nose -then slowly stick your chin on top of your chest and watch your belly inflate with air. This may be a little harder because you might unconsciously revert back to shallow breathing. You’ll know that this is true if your belly isn’t inflating and you feel all the air in your lungs high in your chest. Don’t give up. Concentrate on inflating your belly. Once filled as much as possible, hold it for twenty seconds and release through your mouth. You must practice this technique a few times to get used to it.
So by now, you should have a real sense of how to breathe deep. Now what? Take a day or two and just practice the technique. Learn how your body feels. Memorize the actual process of taking in, holding, and releasing all that extra oxygen. After a day or two of practice, you’re ready for your daily workout.
What’s all this have to do with your program? Plenty! Think about it… Oxygen is fuel for your body as is food. There are no calories in oxygen. You can breathe in all you want for as long as you want and still no calories! Not only that, but the extra oxygen you take in will cause the chemical reactions in your body to take place much faster, thus, you burn more calories than you take in. This in turn speeds up your metabolism and makes you burn more fat.
Deep Breathing Workout
You’ve practiced a couple of deep breathing techniques. You know how it feels to breathe deeply. Now to put it into play. Stand up straight and tall. Place your feet apart about twelve inches. Relax. Loosen up a bit. Roll your shoulders and neck.
Breathe in deep through your nose for five seconds. In these five seconds, you want to get as much oxygen into your lungs as they can hold. This will take you four or five tries. You can use your watch, face a clock with a sweeping second hand, or count to yourself while taking in the air. Eventually you won’t need a watch, clock, or count. But for now, it may help you get the feel of it.
Once you’ve accomplished getting as much oxygen as your lungs will hold in five seconds, hold that oxygen in place for twenty seconds. If you can’t reach twenty seconds right now, don’t worry, you can work up to it. If you can only hold it for ten or fifteen seconds, that’s fine for now.
Once you’ve reached the twenty seconds, or less if you can’t hold it that long, slowly exhale through your mouth for ten seconds. 5-20-10.
Your exhale is just as important as your inhale. It’s your exhale that is getting rid of that 70% of waste inside your body. Most of us are just as shallow on our exhale as we are on our inhale. On the exhale, pull and press the air from your diaphragm up and out through your mouth. Shape your mouth into a small circle, approximately the size and shape of a dime. Remember, you’re exhaling twice as slow as your inhale. To make sure you get as much carbon dioxide out of your body as possible, pull your stomach in as you get to the end of the exhale. This movement will help push the stale air out of your lungs.
As soon as you’ve reached the end of your exhale, your immediate reaction will be to inhale more oxygen. This is good. Don’t stop. Don’t rest. Go head and inhale again repeating the same procedure. This is your second repetition of 5-20-10.
At the beginning of the Workout, we want to get in fifteen reps. That’s fifteen times doing the 5-20-10. We also want to perform these fifteen reps four times a day. Balance them throughout your day. Perform one workout right after you get up in the morning as well as one workout right before you go to sleep. You can perform this workout in bed if you like. The other two workouts should be performed right before eating lunch and dinner.
This workout accomplishes a few things. First of all, you’ll kick your metabolism up into high gear first thing in the morning and help your body burn fat throughout the day. Again before eating lunch and you’ll gain new energy for the rest of the day as well as burning fat. Another workout before dinner and you won’t feel as hungry. You’ll feel satisfied a little sooner. The last workout before bed relaxes you for your well deserved sleep and burns fat throughout the night.
Pretty easy. Now combine proper exercise with eating the right foods and you’ll turn your body into a fat-burning machine!