Men Grunt, Women Make Faces

No, no, it's not the latest relationship book about men and women! It's how men and women act in the gym. Did you ever notice that men tend to grunt and women make faces? Paticularly when lifting weights? No? Well, pay attention the next time you're at the gym and see if you observe this phenomenon. Men moan and groan and make all kinds of interesting sounds. Women purse their lips, grimace, furrow their brows. What gives: why do men do the verbal thing and women the facial thing?

Is it societal conditioning-a throwback to Victorian society where women were like children-seen and not heard? Is it that women feel making noises is unlady-like? Is it that women are already intimidated by being in the gym and don't want to call further attention to themselves? Who knows? Who cares! Ladies, it's ok to make noises!

From a fitness standpoint, making noises is preferable to only making facial expressions. Why? Because grunting means that you're breathing. And breathing during weight training is extremely important. The act of lifting weights generally raises blood pressure as well as intrathoracic pressure (the pressure put on your chest cavity, including your heart, lungs, blood vessels, bones and muscles). Rhythmic breathing helps release some of this pressure.

The "proper" way to breathe during weight training: exhale upon exertion, inhale after exertion. That means exhale on the hardest part of the exercise (exertion) and inhale during the easier part. When my clients get that puzzled look on their faces which says "HUH?", I say just breathe! There are definite times when breathing properly will help you over the hump of a tough exercise, but we'll save that for another blog. The important thing to remember is to breathe.

Secondly breathing brings fresh oxygen to your lungs and your heart (and eventually to your muscles) and expels waste products like carbon dioxide. You want a continual supply of fresh oxygen and a continual dispersal of waste products so you can keep pumping that iron and tone those muscles. Otherwise you and your body fatigue very quickly.

So, ladies, grunt away and know that you're doing your body a big favor. And if grunting isn't your thing (it's not mine), that's ok, JUST BREATHE!

In health (and breathing, I swear!),

Laura