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In my last post I introduced the idea of diaphragmatic breathing and gave you an overview of its benefits. While you can clearly find moments throughout your daily life to practice this technique, understanding how to implement this into a training routine is not as well defined. In my next post I will discuss a possible progression for training diaphragmatic breathing, but for today I want to look into when it would be most appropriate to use this breathing technique within a training session.
As always, the goals and abilities of the the individual in question will factor into when during their daily training routine diaphragmatic breathing should be enforced in order to see the most benefit from it. I will break the training session down into four broad segments during which diaphragmatic breathing can be trained--the warm-up, intra-set, inter-set, and the PTR stage at the end.
The Warm-Up
There are a few options when it comes to teaching diaphragmatic breathing at the time of the warm-up--before, during, and after. As obvious as these three seem, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to teaching diaphragmatic breathing during each. If someone is new to diaphragmatic breathing, before they warm-up would be ideal because it could not only serve prepare their mind and body for the training ahead, but they will also be most fresh at this point so fatigue will be least likely to negatively affect the learning process. Unfortunately, when some people come in to train they want to get going as soon as possible, so getting them to slow down before they have even started may prove to be difficult.
During the warm-up can help to further reinforce diaphragmatic breathing once it has already been learned and controlled. The warm-up exercises are often done at a more relaxed pace than the rest of the training, which would make it easier to implement this new skill.
After the warm-up is where I have found the most success teaching diaphragmatic breathing with my clients. They have started to meet their psychological need and expectations for movement during training with the warm-up and they aren't trying to execute another skill at the same time. I have found that the people I have worked with have been most receptive to implementing diaphragmatic breathing at this point in the training day. However, some people may feel like now that they are warmed up and ready to go, practicing the breathing technique is just slowing them down, so you will have to judge each situation accordingly.
Intra-Set
I have found this method to be the most difficult time to teach diaphragmatic breathing. Even after somebody is able to perform it well before or after the warm-up, the intensity of their working sets may be too high for them to diaphragmatically breathe throughout. In an ideal world, I would then lower the intensity of the working set such that they are able to diaphragmatically breath during it. The issue that arises with this is having to balance the client's expectations of challenging them physically so they don't just feel like they are paying for breathing lessons while still stressing the importance of this technique. Until a client fully buys in to this concept and becomes proficient enough at it such that it does not take constant conscious effort to perform, it will be very difficult to implement diaphragmatic breathing intra-set. But fear not, because by properly progressing and implementing it throughout the other stages of their training day, they will soon be on their way to maintaining control of their breath while they exercise.
Inter-Set
This is a golden time to implement diaphragmatic breathing, especially if your client likes to talk between sets and you want them to stay focused on the task at hand. Not only will it allow them to recover faster, but it will also keep their mind on their body and their training throughout a greater percentage of their session.
A highly effective means of improving recovery time is to stress diaphragmatic breathing between bouts of conditioning exercises. For your competitive athletes or your more intense general population, strongly encouraging diaphragmatic breathing between wind sprints, bike sprints, or sled pushes can do wonders for their ability to recover between sets.
PTR
PTR is an acronym for a phrase I first heard from Martin Rooney: Progress To Rest. Essentially, this is describing the time that is usually referred to as the "cool-down". I prefer the term PTR because it implies that there is a process that must take place in order to properly achieve the end goal of rest and recovery. PTR is a favorable time to try to teach and enforce diaphragmatic breathing because the client or athlete often feels that this time should be relaxing or bordering meditative relative to the rest of the training session. As I discussed in Part 1, I have found diaphragmatic breathing to be a great relaxation method for myself. Hopefully you have not pushed them during their training that day to the point where they cannot effectively learn this skill due to fatigue, but understand that this is indeed a skill, so it may be more difficult to learn at the end of a training session regardless of the intensity.
In my next post in this series I will discuss a progression for teaching diaphragmatic breathing.
Charlie Cates, MATs, CSCS
Self Made®, Owner and Founder
Charlie Cates is a Muscle Activation Techniques™ specialist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. He is the owner and founder of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. A 2010 graduate of Williams College, he has worked with competitive athletes and everyday people of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s to 85-year-old retirees. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.
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