You've probably heard a lot of weird ideas on how to get stronger and build muscle. You know, things like drinking a liter of milk a day, doing ten sets of ten repetitions of each exercise, drinking BCAA water between meals, and so on. And if you have put any of these ideas into practice, you have also learned that they are more or less a sham.
If you're following a well-designed strength training routine, eating enough protein and slightly more calories than you burn every day, and getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night, there isn't much else you can do to promote muscle growth. muscle mass or strength gains.
However, if you're doing all of those things, it's worth exploring what that "little more" might entail. For example, although restricting blood flow seems like something out of the pages of Fifty Shades of Gray, it is actually a scientifically validated method of stimulating muscle growth and strength.
What is hyperventilation training?
It may sound like what happens when you have a panic attack. And yes, it can occur in response to extreme anxiety, but specifically, hyperventilation refers to a situation where fast, deep breathing causes an imbalance in the ratio of carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) in the body. blood.
When you breathe "too much" (as some people refer to hyperventilation), you exhale CO2 much faster than you inhale O2.
This causes the level of CO2 in the blood to plummet, which can lead to a variety of unpleasant side effects such as lightheadedness, dizziness, shortness of breath, and severe tingling in the fingers and face, with the effects becoming more intense the more you hyperventilate longer. And honestly, it seems like the last thing you want to experience lifting heavy weights.
However, according to a new study by scientists at Juntendo University, briefly hyperventilating – just enough to slightly lower CO2 levels in your blood but not so much that you experience negative effects – can make you temporarily stronger .
That said, this study is strong evidence that hyperventilation could offer a simple, effective, and free way to improve your training performance. Still, before you gasp at the results, there are a few things to keep in mind about this study:
- A very small number of people were involved, raising the possibility that the results were exaggerated due to the small sample size.
- The workouts involved taking each set to failure, when muscle acidity and fatigue tend to be higher, so you may not notice the same benefits when you perform your sets a few reps before failing (which is generally what you want. do).
- Despite these caveats, the results are exciting enough to see if hyperventilation is worth trying in your workouts. After all, taking a few quick, deep breaths between sets is easy and free, so there really are no downsides.
How to obtain benefits from hyperventilation in sports?
Hyperventilate for 30 seconds, no more, no less
You don't want to hyperventilate any more than this, as you may experience dizziness, blurred vision, syncopy (fainting), strange tingling sensations, and other forms of discomfort.
However, if you hyperventilate for more than 30 seconds, don't worry. You're probably just experiencing some dizziness or tingling in your hands, if at all. Generally, you must hyperventilate for several minutes to experience fainting, blurred vision, and severe discomfort (strangely, some research shows that moderate hyperventilation may even have some health benefits).
The main thing to avoid is hyperventilating so much that you experience discomfort, extreme dizziness, or fainting, which is obviously a problem when bench pressing a heavy barbell. You also don't want to hyperventilate for less than 30 seconds, because this is not enough time to significantly lower the CO2 content in your blood.
An earlier study by the same scientists found that hyperventilating for 15 seconds before cycling sprints was not enough to notice any benefit; hyperventilating for 30 seconds improved performance and did not cause any negative effects; and hyperventilating for 45 seconds was enough to cause mild discomfort, nullifying the performance benefits.
Hyperventilating for 30 seconds equates to about 15 fast, deep breaths (one full deep breath every two seconds).
Try hyperventilating at home before hitting the gym
Hyperventilation can feel strange if you've never done it before, and some people experience stronger effects than others. Therefore, it is best to test it at home before doing it with a heavy barbell on your neck.
I recommend that you try hyperventilating while lying on your couch. This way, even if you lose consciousness (very, very unlikely), you won't fall.
Once you are lying down, take a few deep breaths to familiarize yourself with what it should feel like (think about drawing the air into your abdomen instead of your chest). Then increase the rate of your breathing, so that you are taking deep breaths every two seconds, and hold for at least 15 seconds (about seven deep breaths). After the 15 seconds have elapsed, breathe normally for a few minutes.
If you don't have any tingling, blurred vision, dizziness, or other discomfort after hyperventilating for 15 seconds, try again for 30 seconds, following the same protocol.
Assuming you feel fine after 30 seconds of hyperventilation, try it for 45 seconds (just to make sure you won't have a problem with 30 seconds while working out). If you don't experience any ill effects, try hyperventilating for 30 seconds immediately before doing a series of push-ups until failure.
It's also a good idea to try hyperventilation first before exercises that have the least potential to harm you, such as the leg press, deadlift, barbell row, or chin-up / pull-up. If you start to feel any negative effects during these exercises, you can quickly raise the weight again (in the case of the leg press) or drop it (in the case of the deadlift, barbell row, or pull-ups / pull-ups) safely.
If you always feel uncomfortable hyperventilating, don't try it while exercising. The risk is not worth the reward.
Hyperventilate before compound exercises
Hyperventilation is more likely to improve your performance in compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench and military presses than in isolation exercises such as barbell curls, leg extensions, and the like.
For example, one study found that hyperventilating just before leg extensions did not improve performance as it did with the bench and leg press in this study. This is because exercises that involve the most muscle mass (compound exercises) also tend to cause the greatest increase in blood acidity levels, while isolation exercises only cause a small increase.
The reason hyperventilation improves your performance is by reducing acidity levels in the blood, so if the acidity levels in the blood are already quite low (as they are when doing isolation exercises), it is little likely to offer many benefits.
So if you want to maximize the benefits of hyperventilation, do it before your compound exercises like:
- Barbell squat
- Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells
- Leg press
- Barbell bench press
- Dumbbell bench press
- Military press
- Barbell deadlift
- Sumo deadlift
- Romanian barbell deadlift
- Barbell row
