Basic Breath Technique

This breath technique is used both in Body Flex and Life Lift (www.lifelift.com), and I have found it effective, and somehow oddly satisfying. Learn the breathing first, and then you can add stretches and isometrics to it. Warning: You will feel like a big old doofus doing this breathing at first. Ignore that feeling. Do it for fifteen minutes a day for a week, and see if your clothes get looser!

* Bend forward slightly - I put my hands on the back of a chair or the kitchen table. In the original Body Flex videos Greer Childers suggested putting your hands on your knees, like a shortstop, but I find using furniture more comfortable.

* Purse your lips and blow out all the air in your lungs. I mean all of it!

* Breath in sharply through your nose, as if you're trying to take in all the air in the room in one breath. Fill your lungs as full as they can get!

* Fold your lips, then explode the air out through them, making a sound like "PAH!"

* With your lungs empty, close the back of your throat. Now use the vacuum you've created in your torso to suck your stomach up and in, hard. Contract your abdominal muscles as hard as you can. Hold for about 8 seconds.

* Now open your throat and let the air flow in on its own.

* Purse your lips and blow out all the air in your lungs... Repeat, repeat, repeat.

This form of breathing gave me a headache the first few times I did it. I found that keeping my chin down and the back of my neck straight really helped, and the problem vanished entirely within a week of doing this daily. I'm really, really glad I persisted.

Once you have the breath technique down, you can add stretches and isometrics during the 8 second "stomach lift." This helps make sure that each area of your body gets a good, strong flow of the oxygenated blood. But learn the breathing first!