Patriot Health Digest
The importance of abdominal tone is rarely spoken about, but it is very critical, especially for proper breathing as you get older.
Oxygen is the main nutrient for making energy in the body. If you disrupt the efficiency of your breathing mechanism, you will create an energetic deficit for yourself which you will then compensate for by consuming bad sources of energy in the form of junk food and energy drinks.
In this video, Paul Check describes how to find some of these basic problems with abdominal tone and how to fix them.
The one problem most people have with abdominal toning is their habit of holding their abs tightly inward. That leads to not being able to breathe correctly because you are holding your abs inward constantly.
Fitness trainers who are smart will see this immediately as they test your core and see that you don’t let your abdominals go. Then, as you learn how to breathe properly, you might not expand your abdomen because you’re conditioned to hold them tightly.
Breathing is one part of the nervous system that must work at all costs. If anything gets in the way, it will create compensations that work against you and might even harm you over time.
The first two-thirds of a breath should be from your abdomen, protruding your belly out without your chest being involved. It’s only that last third of your breath where your chest moves.
Here’s a quick test:
Try breathing in deeply while holding in your abs. It’s impossible, right? Then, take another full breath, and you’ll feel lots of tension in your respiratory muscles and your upper trapezius and neck extensors.
This leads to headache syndromes and decreases the blood-flow in your brain.
If you’re having abdominal tone problems, consider taking working with a fitness trainer to get personalized tips on your unique issues.
