brent99’s BodyBlog

We all know its those last few reps that do most of the work, or those reps you do in the latter part of your workout.  But how to get them in?  Here’s a trick I use: let your MUSCLES do the work, not your mind.  More times than not, you’ll find yourself "thinking" your reps.  But unless you have telekinesis, its your body that’s actually doing the work.

Even as your mind gets tired, your body may still be willing to push out a few extra reps.  So don’t let your mind decide "you’re done".  Take your brain out of it and just let the muscles do the work until they can’t.  You may just find your brain has decided its tired before your body has.  I’m sure it doesn’t make too much sense while reading a blog, but try it in the gym and you’ll see what I mean….

I’m a serial yawner.  Seriously, the lions in the zoo can sometimes here my yawns between workouts.  They are legendary, and quite involuntary.  And it doesn’t really matter if I’m actually tired or not.  Well, sure, its worse when I *am* tired, but I yawn between sets like a champion.  I’ve read that this isn’t terribly uncommon, although its not really understood by those who don’t do it.

Yes, I breath when I lift.  Yes, I have awesome lung capacity.  Do I just lift more intensely than other people?  What’s the deal?

Well, there is an answer!  Very recent research into the mystery that is "yawning" has uncovered some fascinating information.  Apparently, "yawning" is a cooling mechanism for the brain!  That’s right, deep in the core of our brain, we can get overheated, so the yawn is a fan for our CPU.

Looking into it more, I found that we have another way of cooling our cerebellum — breathing through our nose!!  I realized that I’m a mouth breather in the gym, to get high volume air intake between my workouts, huffing and puffing.  So last night, during my workout, I focused on nose breathing between sets.  

And you know what?  I didn’t yawn!  Now the lions at the zoo can get some peace.  

"Danielson…in through nose….out through mouth…in through nose…out through mouth"