Maybe you’ve already heard of square breathing. It’s a fairly common practice in yoga, martial art, and fitness circles among other places. It has many uses, one of which is to relieve stress. And it works – every single time – because it’s based on a fundamental physiological mechanism that is hard-wired into the human body. In fact, most people can measurably, and more importantly, noticeably decrease their level of stress by merely doing one quick square breathing exercise for 48 seconds. Professional athletes, military operators, and yoga practitioners are known to use this exact technique to help them relax, control their stress levels, boost their recovery and enhance their performance – and it can work for you, too.
I’m not real big on quick fixes, except when they actually work, and are NOT used as a crutch to avoid dealing with a bigger issue. So, if you have chronic stress, then you’ll need to address that with other more appropriate solutions. But for those of us who just want to relax and de-stress and also boost recovery and performance, here is a quick square breathing exercise that takes less than a minute to complete. You can follow along with this video. Please excuse the goofy voice and New England accent.
How to Relieve Stress, Boost Recovery + Performance, and Relax Yourself With Square Breathing
Maybe you’ve heard the general recommendation that you need to get 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night, and that’s not bad advice. But what’s the TRUE amount of sleep that you really need on a daily basis? That’s a good question and fortunately, there’s a simple self-test that you can do to figure out exactly how much sleep you need – and it works every time. But before we get to the test, here’s a little bit of back story.
Wild animals don't seem to have any problem figuring out how much time to devote to sleep. Why haven't we figured this out yet?
You see, it’s true that everyone knows that sleep is “good for us” just like vegetables are good for us, but not everyone knows how much sleep is ideal to be getting daily. And when I say ideal, I mean the optimal amount of sleep based on your own individual needs – not some arbitrary standard, but a personalized standard. Knowing this number could literally change your life because sleep affects EVERYTHING and getting the optimal amount of sleep will optimize… well, you know what I mean.
Now, I’ve seen a multitude of articles, research studies, and videos among other things that all proclaim exactly how much sleep people need on a daily basis. Depending on who you ask, the general recommendation is to get between seven and nine hours of sleep every night. Some sources will lean towards the bottom of that range, and others near the top. And some sources will deliberately tell you to get more than nine hours per night if you can. But here’s the thing, there’s a pretty big difference between 7 and 9 hours. If my calculations are correct, it’s a difference of not one, but TWO hours time (or 120 minutes for you math whizzes). I don’t know about you, but I really REALLY value my time and for me personally, two hours is a lot of time – especially if we’re talking two hours every single day. That’s 730 hours a year (gulp).
Hi my name is John Sifferman, and I’m suffering from a severe case of EPDOMS. They say admitting you need help is the first step to recovery. So, now I’m here for the 12-step program.
What is EPDOMS you ask? EPDOMS stands for Extremely Painful Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness. This is like regular DOMS taken to an extreme. So, how does one provoke a bad case of EPDOMS?
Well, you see, not too long ago, I subjected myself to an act of lunacy. I decided to film a video for an article demonstrating a maximum repetition set of bodyweight squats. You’re probably asking yourself, “what’s the big deal? That’s easy, right?” Theoretically, that would be the case, but I have a knack for surprising even myself sometimes. In this particular case, I wasn’t quite aware of my capacity in this exercise, nor was I expecting to score nearly as many repetitions as I performed. I was expecting (and hoping) to top out around 80 or 100 reps, deal with some marginal soreness for a day or two, and live happily ever after. After all, I haven’t trained high rep bodyweight squats in years – fatiguing around 40-50 reps, and maxing out around twice that much sounded about right. Needless to say, that’s not exactly what happened.
When all was said and done, I had been doing squats for 12 minutes, and I have no idea how many reps I did (lost count around 82, or was it 83…). Now, I’ve heard of guys doing sets of 500 and even 1000 squats, so I didn’t set a world record by any stretch, but it was truly a maximal set and I did experience muscle failure (which was the goal).
The point I was trying to make from that video is that most fitness trainees don’t even come close to a high level of intensity in their training. Most trainees could be working much harder than they have been, and still not even come close to maximal exertion. Unfortunately for me, it took hundreds of repetitions to demonstrate a set to muscle failure, and I dealt with the resulting DOMS accordingly. It took 7 days before I was truly able to function again, and two weeks before I was back to my normal self. Yikes!
This event sparked a reminder for why I purposely do NOT seek DOMS or use muscle soreness as an indicator of progress. If nothing else, I want my training to help me reach my goals as quickly and safely as possible AND not make me sore (or otherwise weaken me) in the process. Continue reading DOMS And Why Health-First Fitness Matters
We’ve all been there. You show up to the gym more than ready to slay dragons and crush weakness. You hit it hard, every set. Every rep is your absolute best. You also nailed a new personal record ahead of schedule – you’ve never done that much work in a training session until now. By the end of your session, the only way to describe how you feel is used, and you kinda like that. Life is good.
Until the next morning anyways. As you step out of bed and begin the semi-conscious shift back to supporting your bodyweight on your own two legs, something rather sudden happens. The moment your feet acquire bodyweight load, this little voice in the back of your head yells EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
You gasp or shriek if you’ve never felt this sensation before, but most of us just grumble under our breath and accept the fact that your body feels like it’s been torn into a thousand pieces…again. You, my friend, are experiencing Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), and it’s one of life’s greatest pleasures. For all that hard work you did yesterday, your body has decided it would be best to almost immobilize you for the next day or so to allow ample time for healing. Actually, every time you move it’s as if every fiber in your body is being re-torn. Each new staircase transforms into Mt. Kilimanjaro, and getting off the couch requires a precisely calculated effort (with the help of others, of course). Don’t get comfy for too long though, since a couple hours of inactivity may enlighten you with a surprise ripping sensation upon re-initiating movement – and you might even hear it audibly (yep, with your ears).
Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness is a painful condition that is more severe than regular muscle soreness. Typical muscle soreness may start upon completion of vigorous physical activity, like lifting weights, and may last several hours to a day or two. DOMS, on the other hand, may not occur until the following day or days, and it can also last for several days. DOMS is primarily caused by the body’s inflammatory response to exercise. Its frequency and severity are determined by several factors including a trainee’s current conditioning level, age, along with the actual damage done to the muscle and connective tissues and the body’s ability to recover from that damage.
We’ve all been there. You show up to the gym more than ready to slay dragons and crush weakness. You hit it hard, every set. Every rep is your absolute best. You also nailed a new personal record ahead of schedule – you’ve never done that much work in a training session until now. By the end of your session, the only way to describe how you feel is used, and you kinda like that. Life is good.
