Today’s message is not about bad breath. It’s about what I call the “breath of death.”

It’s low-level breathing that comes from the throat, not from the diaphragm or lower belly. 

Many sleeps ago, when I was a personal trainer, I had a client who would barely breathe as she exercised. At that time I was teaching weight training, and I remember her holding onto the lat pulldown bar, keeping her bag ramrod rigid, while breathing inaudibly through slightly pursed lips. 

“Breathe,” I commanded. “I should be able to hear you breathe from ten feet away.”

She refused. Flat out dug her heels in and refused. Why? you ask. Because she thought it unfeminine, unrefined. 

At that time I referred to this type of breathing as the smoker’s breath. You inhale the smoke from your cigarella, then you gently let it out from the throat, so as not to disturb anyone. 

This feeble way of breathing ain’t gonna cut it for you when you do the exercises I teach, such as Hindu squats, Hindu pushups and bridging – the Royal Court of Combat Conditioning, as well as all the other methods I teach. It ain’t going to work for you if you’re following Farmer Burns exercises in his classic 1914 by mail course, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture. 

In fact, the Farmer wrote the following on this subject in his course:

“Breathing exercises alone, if done RIGHT, will make many a weak man strong and many a sick man well.”

Key words in the above “if done RIGHT.” 

The wrong way of breathing isn’t going to make you stronger and it’s not going to help you live longer. In fact, the wrong way of breathing is the breath of death. 

Open up your lungs the way Farmer Burns taught, and the way I teach and you’ll become a believer mighty fast. 

Kick ass – take names!

Matt Furey

Both of the products mentioned above, Combat Conditioning and the 1914 Farmer Burns Course, are now available in an enhanced format. Each book comes with a coil binding, clear cover and black back. They are way too cool.