Many people have difficulty in breathing while holding the abs stable during workout. Either stop breathing while moving. Breathing but slow down uncoordinated the movement. If you are training yourself with planks and feeling neck tight and red face may have the same issue, not breathing deep. Hold the plank longer does not necessarily see the gains in coordination and strength unless you restore deep and controlled breathing pattern.
Before any core training, this is what you have to do in core test, checking how you breath shallow or deep. Are deep trunk muscles engaged? It determines how much conditioning work to do in next phase. In the phase of Core Conditioning, re-establish deep breathing and conscious abdominal control.
Poor breathing is a sign of unstable core which is susceptible to back pain. Since diaphragm acts as part of spinal stabilizers, breathing becomes shallow and loss of stability caused by inactivity of diaphragm. Diaphragmatic breathing is deep and controlled pattern. The breath supports you moving in neutral spinal alignment. Some muscles will work harder to compensate for poor breathing resulting in muscle tightness. Using self-myofascial release and stretching for relaxation and reduce tension facilitate the programming of normal breathing.
Learning abs control in breathing exercises will increase the body awareness to hold neutral spine in any circumstance, from lying to upright positions. Variation of planks exercises with arms and leg movement will strengthen the coordination of breathing and abs control.
In the next phase, the trunk grows stronger in more dynamic and load exercises, from basic movement patterns to integrated movements, from body weight to external loads such as pulleys, kettlebell, ViPR, TRX RIP Trainer, etc. Changing the position of the supporting legs, shifting weight between legs are designed to provoke an appropriate core reaction and reinforce core stabilization. The bigger the movement of the exercises, the greater the challenge to the core stability and strength.
