Bill Hartman

Author: Bill

  • Breathing Exercises: Using your abdominal muscles for a successful inhalation [video]

    Breathing Exercises: Using your abdominal muscles for a successful inhalation [video]

    Abs Move Air for Better Movement

    The influences of gravity and our anatomy establish a path of least resistance of airflow to the lower front of the lungs and ribcage. Your ability to exhale effectively is dependent on your ability to expel the air from this area.
    It is the abdominal muscles that strongly influence how well you move air out of the lungs and ribcage. As you complete the exhale and the ribs move downward, you’ll feel the abdominal muscles become active and firm.

    Relaxing the abdominal muscles gives up control of lower ribcage, and it refills with air upon the next inhalation.
    The abdominal muscle should be active to control the rib cage but not restrictive to inhalation. Without control of the lower rib cage, the upper and back portions of the rib cage cannot expand with air. This may limit your ability to reach fully overhead (airflow to the upper ribcage is required) or bend forward (airflow to the back of the ribcage is required) without compensating around a limitation.

    To optimally activate the abdominal muscles as you breathe, we’ll further modify the instructions in the breathing retraining exercise to the following:
    • Take a normal breath in through your nose and blow ALL of your air out through your mouth. To assure that you exhale fully, at the end of your exhale, attempted to sigh the remaining air out of your lungs as if to fog up the world’s largest window with your remaining breath.
    • As you blow out all the air from your lungs, you should be able to feel your lower back contact the floor as the abdominal muscles become more active.
    • Pause and hold your breath for a count of 5
    • Follow this pause with a normal inhalation through your nose while you maintain your lower back in contact with the floor.

    The chest and abdominal area expand simultaneously and evenly during a successful inhalation. You may find that the amount of inhaled air feels somewhat restricted at first. This is quite common and improves with time and practice.

    This type of breathing sets the foundation of your ability to alter the air pressure and achieve comfortable movement during exercise.

    It’s important to reiterate that there is not one best way to breathe just as there is not one best way to move. The goal is to restore and access your full movement capabilities. This breathing activity is merely the first step to break you out of limiting patterns of posture and movement.

  • Talking Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat

    Here’s a little white board talk breaking down some concerns with the rear foot elevated split squat (aka Bulgarian Split Squat).


     

  • Movement and Pressure

    Movement is pressure management. This video I shot of our local Tube Man is representative of this thought.

    He dances by altering his internal pressure.

    We create internal forces via fluid (air or water) pressure to overcome the forces that are applied against us such as training loads, ground reaction forces, and gravity. If we didn’t produce pressure internally, we’d most likely collapse and be stuck with the movement capabilities of a boneless chicken.

    The greater our ability to manipulate the internal pressures regardless of the task, the greater our tendency to move well or accomplish a task. When we fail to shift or manipulate the internal pressures, movement is restricted or biased.

    Either we simply cannot execute a task effectively or we may be limited to such a degree that we lose the ability to dissipate or distribute stress, tension, or pressure throughout the body. In this case, focal pressure and tensions may result in pain. Ask any couch potato how their back could just start hurting for no reason.

    Remember the last time you had to sit on an uncomfortable chair for an extended period of time and your butt started to hurt. Too much pressure in one place for too long. Pain can simply be the same problem.

    Performance training, or just intensive exercise training over a long period of time, can intentionally bias how we manage pressure as it may enhance the intended outcome for a specific sport. Generally speaking, this can be seen at the highest level of sport quite effectively as certain body types tend to be more effective at producing these biased pressures for a successful sports outcome.

    Olympic swimmers are built similarly as it makes them more efficient in the water. Powerlifters look the same as it enhances their stability under incredibly heavy barbells. Offensive lineman tend to be built differently from wide receivers, quarterbacks, or running backs. Form follows function.

    Before you start yanking and pulling muscles that you blame for a lack flexibility or perform some silly “activation” or isolated exercise to strengthen [insert muscle of blame], consider how we manage internal pressures first.

     

  • Overcoming Resistance… The mental kind

    Overcoming Resistance… The mental kind

    The battle must be fought anew every day. – Steven Pressfield

    The War of Art is a book written by Steven Pressfield originally intended for writers, artists, and creative types to overcome the issues associated with starting and completing any new work or activity.

    The first third of the book (and most of the remainder) is especially perfect for anyone starting a program with the intent of changing their behaviors to support better health or to change their body.

    Pressfield writes of the greatest enemy of any long-term, meaningful endeavor that promises reward for delayed gratification being RESISTANCE. He even mentions activities of starting any health or diet regimen, any activity aimed to achieve tighter abdominals, and programs designed to overcome an unwholesome habit among those meeting the greatest RESISTANCE.

    In fact, the more important and the more meaningful the activity of choice, the greater the RESISTANCE.

    He goes on to introduce you to this enemy of success and accomplishment and then provides the answers to overcome it. If you’re struggling to get started or to stick with your lifestyle changes to transform your body and your life, it’s a quick read that may get you over the hump and keep you on track.

    Humpday questions…

    What or where is your RESISTANCE?

    What one activity or upgrade did you commit to adding to your program this week that you need to reinforce and double down on to overcome your resistance?

    What one action can you take starting today that will make everything else easier to execute?

    What unnecessary activity can you eliminate or say no to this week that will provide the time you need to accomplish your goals? (Yes, you’re allowed to say no.)

    Your comeback starts today.


     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Student Lesson… How to Prepare to Argue Your Point

    It’s okay to disagree. We can all have an opinion or a point of view.

    As a Padawan, what’s the best way to argue your point or to speak against an idea or concept?

    Here’s my answer in 90 seconds.