Training Programs

Attached are your training and nutritional protocols for next week. Please review each day closely.  Also, be sure that you have enough time to complete the warm ups and cool downs as outlined for each workout for maximum productivity and accurate results.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

As you continue to improve your health and performance by 1% each day, I want you to focus on one of your daily elements outlined in your daily schedule: diaphragmatic breathing.  Your diaphragmic is a large flat muscle that allows you to breathe by puling oxygenated air and expelling unwanted carbon dioxide.  For many, this breathing mechanism is the weak link to performance because less air enters the lungs and the blood does not receive the proper amount of oxygen necessary to perform physical activity (at any intensity).

Here is a breakdown of an incorrect breathing mechanism (illustrated more clearly during the fight or flight response to something stressful):

• During inhalation, the abdominal muscles relax and are gently pushed out, allowing the diaphragm muscle to contract and lower.
• Exhalation involves the contracting of the abdominal muscles with slight flexion of the spine
• The chest should move very little during normal breathing and should expand only during more forced inhalation, and only after the abdominals are relaxed. This process is enhanced during training and racing where the additional expansion of the lungs is necessary to exchange the gases quickly (oxygen and carbon dioxide).  This process sounds simple, but many athletes breathe just the opposite – they pull their abdomens in when inhaling and expand their chests.  This results in less air and oxygen being taken into the lungs with less carbon dioxide  being removed.  If you find that you breathing patterns emulates the above, there is good news: you can re-train the neurological components of breathing!

Practice these three steps when you lay down at night when you won’t be interrupted for a minimum of 15 minutes (video link):

• Put your right hand on your belly button; your left hand between your chest muscles.
• Lay still and just breathe easily for a minute or two (don’t try to fix or trick yourself here).
• Focus on inhaling through your belly button and then letting the air fill up and into your chest.

This will not come “easy” initially, but remember, you are re-wiring your body to breathe properly.  During times of stress outside of athletics, you can use this technique to keep the oxygen levels at a peak which will in turn allow you to think more clearly.

Diaphragmatic Breathing, another tool to help you Working Smart, Not Hard and Avoid Overtraining!

Yours in sport & health,

-Coach Robb, Coaches and Staff

Thought for the week:

“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.”