Daily Tip #25 - Puff Walking
0:01 - Intro
Hello again, I'm Shane, from MATRIX. It's Friday. And that's a reason to celebrate! Not because you're not going to be getting any Tips over the weekend. That's kind of sad. But because it is the weekend and -- here in Rhode Island -- it's actually supposed to be nice outside. So, what I wanted to do for you today was give you a Tip that you can take outside with you and use.
0:24 – Puff Walking
We've done some Tips like this before. Most notably, Peripheral Walking that we did in the beginning. This Tip is going to be very similar in the fact that you're just going to be going out for a walk. You're going to be doing something to train your body while walking that nobody else is really going to know that you're doing. What this is called is Puff Walking. It's another breathing drill. We've been working on that all week long, so at this point, you should have a pretty good idea of how important breathing is and why it's so good for stress reduction, overall health, and immune function. I won't go into that again. I'm just going to give you the drill.
1:01 – How It Works
When you're out walking, -- let's say you're going for a 20-minute walk -- just like peripheral walking, this is not something you're going to do for the entire 20 minutes. You're only going to be doing it for maybe a few minutes here and a few minutes there to challenge your respiratory system while you're walking. The way this works is you're going to be trying to take teeny tiny little in-breaths and then teeny tiny little out-breaths so that you're using the full capacity of your breath while you're walking. Just like we did yesterday in those stretches. I'll say that again after I give you a quick little demo.
1:42 – How to Do It
What it looks like is while you're out for a walk, -- say I'm going to be working to the number 5, that means 5 in-breaths and 5 out-breaths -- I would try to breathe through my nose for 5 times in. After that, I then breathe out consecutively 5 times with each step.
2:07 – Some More Details
That's all it is. It's that simple. However, that does not mean that it's easy. To reiterate, there's an in-breath -- a consecutive number of them with each and every footfall -- and then a consecutive number of out-breaths for each and every footfall. It is pretty easy when you're down in the 2, 3 level. But if you start trying to do 10, 12 in-breaths, before you're doing 10 or 12 out-breaths, you really have to get some control over your breathing to be able to take tiny little sips instead of bigger gulps. Because if you breathe in too much, you'll fill up and you won't have room for the rest of those numbers. So, one more time just to see how it works. Remember, when you're walking, you're going to be breathing in and out through the nose and not making a sound because nobody else around you is supposed to know what's going on. I am purposefully I'm making noise so that you can match how I'm breathing with the footfalls. Last time. Let's try 8. 8 In, 8 Out.
3:08 – One More Demo
3:19 – Summary
Hopefully, that gives you an idea of how the drill works. Remember consecutive breaths with every footfall and it should be silent. You're doing all of that breathing in and out through your nose. That's what really makes it challenging. I would love to hear -- after you give it a shot this weekend -- how many breaths you were able to get up to. Ideally, in this type of thing, you could be shooting for 20 to 30 in-breaths, and then 20 to 30 out-breaths. That's really great control over your breathing system and using the volume of your lungs. Probably when you first start, that 4, 5, or 6 might be where you're at. It takes some time to figure it out and learn how to do it.
4:02 - Farewell
That's it for today. Give this a shot report back. Let me know how you did. And we'll check back in on Monday for another week of Tips. See you then!