3 Quick Fitness Hacks for Injuries, Sleep, and Breathing
In this episode, learn three quick fitness hacks that will help you overcome hamstring injuries, sleep better, and enhance your breathing.
Ben Greenfield
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3 Quick Fitness Hacks for Injuries, Sleep, and Breathing
In the recent Get-Fit-Guy episode, “Does Biohacking Your Body Really Work?” I introduced you to some fitness shortcuts that actually do work, like electrical muscle stimulation and hypoxia. Since then, I’ve come across several other interesting practices that could probably fall into the category of fitness hacks, so I thought I’d share them. Specifically, you’re going to learn a useful injury-prevention tip, a quick tip for sleeping better, and a way to enhance you breathing.
1. Heal Your Hamstrings
I recently discovered this infographic about a hamstring strengthening and lengthening technique, which is based on the concept that most hamstring injuries happen as your hamstrings are lengthening and stretching beyond their normal limit, which may happen if you are sprinting or kicking a soccer ball very hard.
The trick is to train your hamstrings to become stronger when lengthening (the lengthening phase is also known as the “eccentric” phase, something I’ve written about in detail here).
So, how do you do this?
Simple: it’s call the Nordic Hamstring Exercise. According to studies, almost two-thirds of hamstring injuries might be prevented with this move. Here’s how to do it:
Kneel on the ground, with a partner behind you holding your ankles. Then, slowly and smoothly lean forward so that your chest gets closer to the ground. Use your hamstrings to “put the brakes” on your forward momentum until you can no longer resist gravity, and at that point, put out your arms to stop your fall. Finally, allow your chest to touch the ground, then push yourself upright to repeat the exercise. If you don’t have a partner to support you on this exercise, you could use a heavy barbell, or a couch or table you can get your feet under. If you’re a fitness newbie, try just five reps. If you’re a Get-Fit-Guy veteran, then shoot for as many as 30 reps, at least once a week (and more frequently than that if you’re prone to hamstring injuries).
2. Cool Your Feet
This video about a sleep hack got me thinking about this trick.
Here’s how it works: keep one foot, or both feet, outside of your blanket. It could help you both sleep better and fall asleep faster. A recent New York Magazine article interviewed Natalie Dautovitch, who is a spokesperson for the National Sleep Foundation and a psychology professor at the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on chronopsychology, which is the study of how our routines and biological rhythms fluctuate throughout the day and night. This includes studying the connection between sleep and temperature.
Right before you fall asleep, your body temperature starts to drop, and in the deepest stages of sleep, your body is at its coolest. A few of the things you can do to help this cooling along are to sleep in a cold room, take a cool shower before bed, and in the case of this particular sleep hack, stick your sockless feet or foot out from underneath the covers.
This works because the hairless surface of the foot contains special blood vessels called the arteriovenous anastomoses structures, which help with heat loss and dissipation of body heat. Therefore, sticking your toe out or your foot out from underneath your covers while sleeping could help you get deeper, more restorative sleep.
3. Breathe While You Walk
This last hack may seem a bit silly—after all, doesn’t everybody breathe while they walk? Sure, but it’s an entirely different thing to practice something called box breathing while you walk.
I was first introduced to box breathing in my SEALFit academy experience, and I even introduce the practice in my new work of fiction, in which one of the characters uses box breathing to calm their heart rate and stress levels.
It works like this: for four steps, breathe in. For the next four steps, hold your breath. For the next four steps, breathe out. And finally, for the final four steps in the cycle, hold your breath again. It’s as though you’re breathing up the side of a box, holding across the top of the box, down the side of the box, then hold across the bottom of the box. Box breathing is something used by everyone from the U.S. military to free divers to yogi masters, and has been shown to increase heart rate variability (which is one of the best ways to lower stress), and to also lower your cortisol levels. So, why not kill two birds with one stone and do it while you’re walking?
While I often use simple box breathing while sitting in a cross legged position before a workout, or while lying in bed before getting up in the morning, I also find box breathing to be especially helpful for decreasing stress and increasing focus if I’m walking in a stressful situation, such as through a large crowd or at an airport. Try it out and let me know what you think!
If you have questions about these three quick fitness hacks for injuries, sleep and breathing then leave your thoughts over at the Facebook.com/GetFitGuy page!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.