Fitness Fun Fridays #11

Wooooo.... lucky number 11. I can barely believe it. I've only got a couple more until 13, which is actually a lucky number of mine. (I know it's a bad luck number to everyone else, but I'm a different cat :) So we are slowly approaching a cross roads here at FFF, nope it doesn't mean I am done with it or anything, but we've finally covered most of the bases and preliminary material. So, I'm going to open the floor up to anyone who is interested. What do you want to see next? Are you confused on anything? Do you want a whole post on random tips and tricks? Does that weird pill on late night TV actually work? Ask away, and while I am not an expert on everything, I'll do my best to give my researched opinion on it. And if I don't know, I'll find out, because you can never learn too much, right? :)

A very clumbsy, but extremely creative and funny friend of mine had a question about breathing. I think this is a great concept to cover, because it can be quite tricky, and much like climbing monkey bars made of Jell-o, it's hard to get a handle on. So let's rock. Hahaha Twisted Sister is playing right now :)

When you lift weights, your blood pressure increases like crazy. Blood pressure, if you aren't entirely clear on it, is the amount of pressure placed on the arteries in your body. I'm sure you've heard the number 120/80 before, and know that is associated with a normal measurement of mmHg in blood pressure. The first number is the amount of pressure on your arteries during a heart contraction, while the second number is the pressure exerted during relaxation of your heart. The reason we want a low resting blood pressure, is because it is related to how hard our heart has to work to pump blood. Imagine if your TV remote was busted, and you had to JAM the numbers down to get them to work? Annoying right? Well your heart is annoyed if it has to pump harder to just push red gloop around :0

The reason I am getting all 8th grade sciency on you is because... you might be surprised at how high your blood pressure gets during weight training. For short periods during the lifting motion, blood pressure has been measured to be in upwards of 300 and beyond. Your muscles contract, your arteries have more pressure exerted on them, and more blood flow is needed because you are moving muscles. Does that number sound like alot? You betcha... but before you get all nervous know this... it is NOT dangerous to most people. The reason is because the amount of time this pressure is exerted is minimal. You lift for a couple of seconds at a time, and then it's over, and you rest. It is different from prolonged high blood pressure, which is hypertension.

So, to get back on task... this ties perfectly into breathing. Breathing relaxes, and more importantly, decreases the pressure in your body. When you hold your breath... your lungs, your heart, and your abdominal cavity increase their pressure immensely, for however long you continue to hold it. (Can any of the mothers help me out on this?... I uh, can't) This is something we definitely do not want to do. We want to place as little extra strain on our bodies as we can... because, honestly, just working out is tiring enough :)

So breathe out. Remember when I talked about the different kinds of contractions? During the lowering action (eccentric for all the smart kids out there), breathe in... and then as you contract the muscle (concentric) breathe out.

So for example... you are doing a pulldown. As you bring the bar towards your chest, you breathe out, and as you lower it away from you slowly, you breathe in. For a squat or leg press, you breathe out as you extend your legs and push up. Whenever you exert the force to move the weight in the direction you want, breathe out. This helps to keep the pressure in your body normalized and at a much safer level. If you can imagine, if a family member of yours has high cholesterol or high blood pressure, they need to be very careful and understand this concept. They should also see a doctor before starting to work out.

Alright, that's going to wrap up today. There's this chill in the air, and I really, really like it. It's crisp, and a little tart. Kind of like a good Crispin Apple or maybe a Pringle made out of Sour Patch Kids... wow that would be gross. Thanks for all the support with these, and don't worry FFF will be back on Friday again. Remember, take it slow and learn one cool thing a day. Have a good weekend guys and gals :)
Charms
Breathing