Pumping Iron Gym Owner’s New Core Workout…?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJN_6_026a8 (Opens in a new window)https://salutis.kartra.com/page/systematic-core-training (Opens in a new window)

You ever meet or know someone who knows EVERYONE?

My friend John is like that.
In fact, he used to own the gym where the movie “Pumping Iron” with Arnold Schwarzenegger was filmed.
And he knows EVERYBODY in the bodybuilding world.
Just the other, he was telling me a story of how he had a conversation with 1983 Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout about how Joe Weider talked funny - had a high-pitched nasally whine of voice.
And then Joe walked up behind him, and asked them what they were talking about, and said in his high-pitched nasally whine of a voice, “I don’t talk like that!” John knows Arnold.
He’s great friends with Bill Kazmaier (The Kaz) - 3x World Strongest Man.
And he even trained with 5x Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates.
In fact, John was even the Director of Wellness for ISSA - the International Sports Science Association, founded by Dr. Fred Hatfield (a.k.a. “Dr. Squat” - the first man to squat over 1000 pounds in an official powerlifting meet.)
Anyway, John was telling me a couple of years ago about how he was seeing the Head Athletic Trainer at Duke University for his lower back.
But… even though this gentleman worked with lots of college athletes and pro’s, he was unable to help John.
And everything got even worse after John almost died and had emergency open heart surgery.
As a result, he had a complication where the muscles in his ribcage were partially paralyzed.
Since then, he’s been on and off using different bodybuilding inspired fitness regimens trying to rehab himself - but with practically zero success resulting in, as you can guess, a lot of frustration.
John’s son even got him one of those “O2” breath trainers to help him get breathing correctly again.

Fast forward to this morning when I got this text from John -

As you can see, John’s using my “core program” (Systematic Core Training For Kettlebells) but the key point was the breathing.
In case you aren’t aware, BREATHING is THE FOUNDATION of your core training.
Specifically, diaphragmatic breathing.
If your breathing is off, like John’s was, your core muscles aren’t going to work correctly.
And that leads to pain and injury (like John experienced in his lower back).
Research by Lewit [1] suggests that proper breathing patterns - diaphragmatic breathing - are the foundation for all other movement patterns. If your breathing is off, so is everything else.
Other research shows that diaphragmatic breathing improves spinal stabilization, decreases pain, and increases the thickness of other lumbar stabilizers like the transverse abdominis and multifidus. [2]

How do you perform diaphragmatic breathing?

1- Pick a comfortable position - for most it’s either lying on your back or on your stomach.
2- Swallow, and hold your tongue in the top of your mouth behind your front teeth.
3- Slowly inhale through your nose for a 2 to 4 count focusing on inhaling into your toes, so you feel your stomach rise / expand.
4- Slowly exhale through your nose for a 2 to 4 count.
5- Repeat for about 10 breaths or so. More if you’d like.
Already doing diaphragmatic breathing?
Do MORE.
Other research shows that the more, the better. Up to 30 reps multiple times per day.[3]
Plus, diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the vagus nerve. And vagus nerve stimulation has been shown to potentially decrease pain [4].

How do you know if diaphragmatic breathing will decrease your stiffness or tightness, or improve your ranges of motion?

Simple - Test it.
Test your range of motion (ROM) in any movement - but particularly the affected area - and make note of it.
Perform up to 30 diaphragmatic breaths in any position - lying on your back or stomach are two great positions…
Then re-test your range of motion.
If your ROM improved, the diaphragmatic breathing helped increase your reflexive core stability.
If your ROM didn’t improve, then chances are better than good you need something stronger and you need to use what John discovered inside the video, “Your Core Foundation.”
I recommend everyone with lower back pain / injuries like John start there.
In fact, the funny thing is, while I was writing about this for my email newsletter, John called me.
He was excited about how good his lower back felt - it was STILL feeling great - nice and loose - even though he’d trained hours ago and just how good he felt overall.
He couldn’t believe it!
Then I told him I was writing an email about him and his text and he said, “Please do!”