is the luckiest person alive. Proper training from the Queen of abs. Now exhale.

Leah... you are a bad-ass! If you'd be so kind as to answer one question for me, I'd really appreciate it... how do you train yourself to do one-handed push ups? For some reason push ups kind of hurt my wrists after a while and building up to do them one-handed seems an unlikely possibility for me. How do you do it?

My question is the say as someone else's. Does it really matter whether you breathe through your mouth or your nose? Does it make a differnce? Can you tell?
*|*Dr3aMs..Of..DeAf*|*

Traditionally I'm an uppper body dumbbell girl. Are cables more effective in engaging your core during upper body work (curls, tri's and chest)than dumbbells?

NICE SHIRT LEAH!!

Your level of oygenation is critical at all times, but especially when working out.

Sit there in your chair right now and concentrate on your breathing. Don't breath heavily, just make yourself aware of your respiration.

Got it? Good.

Now, still paying close attention, reach over and pick up the stapler. Did you notice that as you did that, you breathed in and your stomach muscles tightened just a bit? Well that's just a stapler. Imagine now that you are pulling 50lbs of weight. You breathe in to give those muscled the oxygen they need to pull the weight.

But wait! There's more.

You need to breath in through your nose because you don't want to get too much air in those lungs. It's kind of the law of diminishing returns. Too much air and you'll choke. As you exhale, you release all the toxins (carbon monoxide) that your body hasn't used, so you want to give that air a big pipe to get out of.

Are you still breathing? Okay, take a deep breath through your nose, then push out the waste through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Notice that as you do that, you can feel your pulse in your carotid artery. Notice also that the slower you let the air out, the slower your heartbeat gets. This is a good thing to a point. You want to keep your heartbeat steady through the motion. This is for weight training. It's different for aerobic exercise.

I always recommend studied breathing as a part of the warm-up routine. It steadies the heart rate and prepares one to pay attention to breathing throughout the workout.

But I'm no trainer.

Leah, can I get an "Amen"?

There's a thin line...

I hear people saying when you exercise, it is important to breathe properly: exhale during extension and inhale during flexion. Do you know why it is important? Does it matter if you breathe through your nose or through your mouth?