Okay, so apparently…and don’t quote me on this, but *apparently*, breathing is good for you. Pro tip, you didn’t hear it from me, doctors HATE me for revealing this one weird trick.

I know. But I’m new to weight-lifting, and the whole point of the exercise is to lift heavy things that people shouldn’t usually be messing with. And that just leads to…stuff happening, without the proper technique. Breathing, as it turns out, is part of the proper technique. Fortunately there was a portable oxygen chamber being trialled at our gym, so I was able to get that sweet oxygen I needed in my lungs. You sure do see a lot of those around Melbourne. Portable oxygen chambers, the new big gym equipment? I guess when you have leighweights like me trying to pump iron and accidentally holding their breath at the same time, you need that sort of thing. It beats mouth-to-mouth, anyway…

And I’ve learned my lesson. Breathe in when lifting the weight, breath out when lowering it. You might be able to get away with fluffing that when you’re using a machine and only going 75% in, but if I want to do this at the Olympics, then proper form is key. I’ve seen those people. Everything they do is calculated, even though to the uninitiated it just looks like they step up to a weight and lift it. And then they throw it down like it’s caught fire, because those things are HEAVY, funnily enough.

Maybe everyone starts out with a bit of a breathing problem. They lift something a little bit too heavy for them to start with, and then see ya, it’s off to Melbourne’s professional hyperbaric chambers to think about what you did wrong. And those chambers ARE a great place to think. I can get a lot done in there, with the oxygen flowing. But mostly, I’m just going over my form, and wondering if my physique is better suited to something else. Like cross-country skiing, or…bobsledding.

-Nic