P90X Reviews: A Complete Review on the P90X Workout System

When you’re doing a workout as challenging as P90X is, every little thing that you can do to give yourself an advantage or optimize your workout can have exponential results. This can range from something as extreme as switching from floor push-ups with an improper form to perfectly corrected push-ups using the P90X Powerstands to something as simple as learning to breathe correctly when you’re working out. Yes, breathing! Something that we all do every minute of every day and most likely think that we do naturally perfectly. However, there are specific breathing techniques that you should use when working out that will optimize your P90X results (or those of any other workout plan).

How NOT to Breathe

There are two big no-no’s in breathing and exercising. The first seems so obvious, yet so many of us do it. It’s to hold your breath while working out. It seems logical that you would want to breathe and suck in as much needed oxygen as possible, but if you look around a gym, you’ll see plenty of people working out and forgetting to breathe. It’s just a natural reaction to exertion for many. The second “no-no” is to breathe out of rhythm with your exercise. It sounds trivial, but the more that every part of your body is in sync with the rest of your body, the more that you’ll see improved results (and be less fatigued).

How TO Breathe

When doing strength exercises, you want to breathe out (exhale) when you are exerting force. So, for example, if you’re doing a push-up, you exhale as you push yourself up. If you’ve got out your P90X Chin Up Bar and are doing chin-ups, you exhale as you pull yourself up. Wherever you feel the “burn” or the pain, that’s where you exhale. Then, when your body is in the rest phase between movements or doing the recovery motion, you inhale. For cardio exercises, you simply want to keep your breathing even and as steady with your target heart rate as possible.

Surprisingly, given that we all breathe all of the time, you’ll need to concentrate at first in order to get used to this. Letting out a small (We said small, not Serena Williams style!) grunt when you exhale can help you find a rhythm and get used to the correct breathing pattern. Breathing correctly is as important as any other workout factor: hydration, rest, stretching and nutrition!