Life-Improving Breathing Techniques To Adopt When you’re Over 40
Give yourself faster recovery before, during, and after every training session, to leave feeling energised and more up for going again tomorrow.
Good breathing techniques can have a huge effect on recovery times and wellness.
THE BRIEF
Time to read: 2 minutes 30 seconds
Time to action: 60 minutes
Mantra: Breathing - honestly, there’s a right way to do it
Main message: Small changes that make workout recovery much easier at 40+
Stat: We breathe in and out 22,000 times a day. Here’s how to make 10 of those 22,000 put the other 21,990 into perspective
We are not the biggest fans of some parts of the “wellness” industry here at FORM. It’s not the messaging, of course – we’re fully behind that – it’s just hard to hear another Notting Hill guru tell us how they gave up investment banking to find themselves at 31. And that they “really discovered breathing”. Discovered. Breathing. It makes you want to punch yourself in the liver to ensure you’re not a glitch in the Matrix. But behind the £3 bracelet beads and £20,000 worth of dental work, there are some truths to distil. We’ve decoded the mystic speech into three “actuals”, to improve your workout and workout times. Because breathing, it turns out, is open to everyone.
Step 1: Create active recovery during sets
Consider active recovery and use it between lifting to boost your recovery time, which will help you lift more in your next set. Here’s how:
Breathe in for 3 seconds.
Hold for 3 seconds.
Breathe out for 3 seconds.
Repeat three times.
Do this while holding a stretch for a different muscle group to the one you’re training. If you’re training your upper body, stretch your calves.
This time management trick makes your workout faster, helps you stay active during your rest periods, and will leave you feeling youthfully limber across your whole body.
If you feel good after leaving a workout, do it again tomorrow. The breathing, we mean, not necessarily the workout!
Step 2: Nose breathe during cooldowns
Taking time after exercise to decompress leaves the body feeling far better than if left unstretched post-workout. It increases the longevity and resilience of your tissues and nervous system, so you feel energised instead of spent after training.
Do the following post-workout to have a quicker cooldown time:
Use your nose to breathe in for 2 seconds.
Exhale for 4 seconds.
Hold your breath for 2 seconds.
The idea is to slow your exhales and use your nose as much as possible as you move from stretch to stretch. Keep that mouth shut – the nose is currently your go-to source for that content-rich air that’s all the range in W11.
Step 3: Breath slowly to energise your evening
After your final set, your heart rate is set to 100 RPM, and your mind is hotter than a V8’s exhaust. This “overdrive” can weaken the immune system, decrease appetite, and even fluctuate your weight.
One of the best ways to relax is to use diaphragm breathing. The idea is to become aware of your breathing and make it as calm and quiet as possible. Do this for 5 minutes as you leave the gym, drive in your car, or walk home:
Inhale: 3 seconds.
Hold breath: 2 seconds.
Exhale: 4-6 seconds.
Hold breath: 2 seconds.
Repeat: 8-10 times.
Breathing makes you better
These little things make a massive difference to the rate you improve.
Pick a couple of these techniques, and you'll recover stronger; try all three, and you'll be surprisingly ready to do it again tomorrow. Or, to quote the Notting Hill guru master, “We can show you how to breathe for a better quality of living: £3,000 for a 40-minute group session. Let us know?”
ENERGY RABBIT
Not simply a life coach, but an award-winner in the wellness sector with over a decade of experience. Rabbit specialises in the accessibility of information – if there is a theory worth exploring, Rabbit will work out how easily it can be integrated into your everyday life.
