Daily Tip #23 - Air Hunger

0:01 - Intro

Hello out there. I'm Shane from MATRIX. It's Wednesday. And if you're in Rhode Island it is a beautiful Wednesday! I'm bringing you Week-Daily Tip #23. Because it's so nice out, I'm going to try and keep this one really short. But just because it's short doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. Yesterday, I asked you to be brave and to do something that was a little goofy and a little bit weird. Hopefully, you try those exercises and got some benefits from them. Today, I'm going to ask you to be brave in a completely different way.

0:34 – Benefits of Air Hunger 

We are going to challenge your physical capacity. And in doing so, we're going to strengthen your cellular respiration. We've worked previously on some different breathing drills that increase CO2. Most recently was the Diaphragm Stretch, last week. Bag Breathing is another good example. Today we're going to do that in a more dynamic way. The benefits of that -- if you remember -- are increased CO2 means more oxygen transport, better cellular respiration, which means better cellular functioning. And so many other improvements throughout the body. Things like increased bone density. All these things CO2 can be drivers of. For today's exercise, the challenge is not only going to do those physical things for you, but it's going to challenge your mental resiliency. How far can you push yourself? We're going to do this very, very, very simply. And then I'm going to give you some options at the end as there are different ways to do it.

1:36 – How to Do the Drill 

What we're going to do today is called an Air Hunger drill. Basically, you're going to exercise without breathing. It's really hard. It seems easy in the beginning until you start getting that urge to breathe. And as you push yourself further, and further, and further, as more CO2 builds and builds in your body, it becomes that much harder to keep going. But I want you to do your best and push your limits. Very simply, the drill works like this. We take a breath in. We blow the air out. And then we exercise. I'm going to be doing squats. You can do pushups. You can do squats with me. You can do a wall sit. It's a little less dynamic, but your muscles are still working. You can do anything that you might think of. March in place. Run in place. It doesn't matter. The point is you're getting your body moving and you're working your muscles without any oxygen.

2:32 – Do the Drill

Let's give it a shot together. Be brave. Go for it!

3:00 – The Mental Side of Air Hunger

Take a second. That's a little breathing reset. And, yeah, it's a little uncomfortable, isn't it? It's a challenge. But as I've already mentioned, it can build some great benefits within your body if you practice it regularly. It gets you comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that has so many different possibilities for use within life. We're always put in different challenging, stressful situations. -- Can you think of any at the moment? -- If you have the ability to know that you can make yourself comfortable, no the matter of the situations, think clearly, you're going to be able to get through that. And I think that's something that we all need now.

3:44 – Hold the Inhale Instead 

When we just did this drill, we took a breath in and we blew the air out. Then we exercised. There are other options. You could take the breath in and hold the breath at the inhale. That's going to allow you to exercise longer. You're still going to get the same benefits at the end, you'll just be able to get more reps in. And it might be a little bit more comfortable for you in the beginning. So, that's another option of a way to try this.

4:12 – How Often? 

If you are going to do this at home, it's not something that you have to do a bunch of reps in a row. Maybe three times in a row would be the maximum for you to really get benefit from it. But doing this multiple times throughout the week, throughout the month, just taking that minute or two, will really start to build your comfort and build your capacity for these types of challenges.

4:35 - Recap

I hope you found that interesting. In recap, Air Hunger drill. Breathe the air and hold it or blow the air out and hold it. Holding is the important part. Then exercise. It's going to get you really, really, really uncomfortable by the end of it. Push through your limit. See how long you can hold on. Because on the other side, there's always that chance to breathe. It's going to help you physically, cellularly, and it's going to build your mental resiliency.

5:02 - Farewell 

Give it a shot, and then check back in again tomorrow 11 o'clock. I'll bring you a different Daily Tip.