Why Breathing Is Crucial To Doing Isometrics

You go to the gym and you learn specific exercises for specific areas of the body right? Now you also learn the breathing patterns of those exercises. The truth is, you learn to breathe for a reason but not every single exercise has a full on corrective way to breathe because once you start going heavier or faster during an exercise it doesn't matter, you're going to breathe differently. To me, you learn the correct way to breathe by utilizing intuitive matters of naturally breathing. Take the push-up for example; breathing is simple, you inhale going down, exhaling up right? That's one way to breathe, now go a little slower, are you going to breathe in and out the same way? No unless you can hold your breath like a freaking swimmer then maybe.

When it comes to Isometrics, there are specific breathing patterns and timing those patterns in order to prevent injury; this is very different than if you were to move using weights or bodyweight exercise. Your breathing through isometric exercise can determined a cause of injury or worse. The biggest lie about Isometric Breathing is being told to hold the breath because who does that the most? Bodybuilders. They squeeze every muscle on stage and so damn hard it looks like something is going to burst and more often than not, something has. Holding the breath while flexing a muscle can be seriously dangerous to your health and well being. Say you squeeze a gripper really hard and you hold your breath as you do so; a few things can seriously injure you such as breaking a rib, a busted abdomen, high blood pressure, snapped tendon, torn muscles and many other things. So how do you breathe during Isometric holds?

When I rediscovered isometrics in my early 20's, I was taught to breathe using what's called the "SSS" sound, now why do that? In simple terms, this breathing technique can relieve high blood pressure, create more stable contractions so you don't get injured and it creates a better surge of strength. When you're holding the breath as you flex as hard as hard as possible you're actually decreasing strength in a way in the functional sense because when this happens, your organs have to do far more work to help pump blood and infuse the muscle fibers than they're use to. With exhale breathing using this specific technique you're generating greater strength and infusing the muscles and tendons without overworking the organs to compensate. I don't know the exact science behind this and it's never truly proven but I do have experiences and the correct breathing can save your life.

Appropriate applied Isometric contractions with the breathing technique can help decrease fat by a large margin, not injure muscles or tendons but actually strengthen them, develop a leaner physique and not heavy bulk plus you're saving a shit ton of time on training. Isometrics are a phenomenal addition to your training regimen as they strengthen weak points, develop muscle control so when you do something strenuous, you can contract muscles needed on command and it aids in endurance. Be safe and don't get brain damage or pop a ligament from improper breathing.