The Importance of Breathing Exercise and Chest Development for Strongmen
Breathing Exercises
Thomas Inch Was a Big Believer in Breathing Exercises
Matt Furey demonstrating one of his outstanding breathing exercises for abdominal development
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Our buddy Dan recently wrote in to ask for more information about
breathing exercises:
"You, Matt Furey, Brooks Kubik, Farmer Burns, Karl Gotch, and others
often refer to 'deep breathing' exercises and how important they are,
however, I'm not sure there is a general consensus among you about
'exactly what exercises' you are referring to and 'exactly how to do'
these exercises.
What detailed reference material would you suggest I consult on this
matter?"
Good question Dan. When many experts all agree on one thing it bears
finding out more info. I will give you a few sources to check out, but first I
want to take things way back to 1895 to fill you in on why breathing
exercises are so important.
What I like most about some of the Old Time Training courses is that
while they do focus on getting stronger, it's not just your muscles that
they are talking about.
Here's what I mean:
"Cultivation of the chest is accomplished by the use of breathing exercises
as well as posturing exercises. Using breathing exercises incredible
accomplishments can be made. Not only can respiration be dramatically
enhanced, but physical form can become dynamic and incredibly potent.
Chest cultivation through breathing exercises will make a weak man strong
and the sick man healthy.
Not only does the chest contain the lungs and heart, but the nerve centers are
also found here; and their health or weakness herein determines the sanity
of the mind and the normal action of every organ of the body.
Thus for reasons of health and life, the chest should be cultivated.
Freedom of the lungs, strength of the heart, and vitality of the nerves are
assured only by some method of training designed especially to affect these
ends. But other reasons exist for the cultivation of the chest. The human form
is not merely a machine of health. It is the image of its' maker in contemplation,
and should be so in fact." |
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Unless there is enough room in the 'box' (i.e. the rib box)
in which the lungs are enclosed, you'll still run into some problems, or
at least not reach the greatest possible potential for what you're trying to
accomplish.
Here's something that I have sent out before that bears repeating,
found on page 51 of
'Super Strength' by Alan Calvert
Old Time author George Jowett also weighs in on the subject on
Page 64 of his great training book
"The Key to Might and Muscle"
Super Strength
by
Alan Calvert, page 51:
'The chest and lungs are the storehouses of your power. A big
rib-box means plenty of room for the lungs. Big lungs are of
immense value to the super-strong man.
They enable him to
keep up for many minutes at a time of exertions which would
exhaust an ordinary individual in the course of a few seconds.
Therefore your first aim should be to increase the size of the
rib box; and even if you do not intend to try for super-strength, or if you are not interested in any other kind of exercise, I most
earnestly recommend you to practice the movement described in
the following paragraphs.
A few months daily practice will increase the girth of your
rib-box by several inches
As the rib box grows larger, the
shoulders will get proportionately broader, the lungs will get
bigger and you will find that you will have vastly endurance
as the size and power of the lungs increases.
Furthermore you will find that you arms and legs will develop
automatically A big-chested man can get arm and leg
development at a much more rapid pace than can the man who
has a small rib-box and correspondingly small lungs.'
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The Key to Might and Muscle
by George Jowett, page 64:
'... Therefore, to make the chest naturally increase, and stay so,
the muscles that surround the chest must be exercised in such a
manner that they not only spread the rib sector but accumulate the
muscular tissue to such proportion that they will retain the growth.
Exercises that simply spread or expand the chest, as is the case with
all free movements, do not mean a thing. Undoubtedly they give a
greater expansion but that means nothing as the heart and lungs do
not acquire any greater space for natural inspiration.
As this process takes place, the chest becomes deeper, higher and
more square'
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And finally, I would highly recommend Matt Fureys detailed instructions
on The Farmer Burns Stomach Flattener found in
Combat Abs.
Yes, the diaphragm is a muscle too, and can be strengthened considerably.
There are also muscles in your neck and abdominals that assist in
breathing which you have been neglecting for far too long.
Do breathing exercises work?
- Absolutely! Although many people will tell you they
don't, but the reality is likely that they simply didn't follow the
directions and just didn't do them right, or quit before the real benefits
had a chance to take place. (No surprises there.)
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Now, there's no sense in me trying to explain how it's done when
you can take a class with these masters. You can learn more about
breathing exercises and so much more when you take a spin over here to check out more information on our
Old Time Books and training courses.
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