New workout PR accomplished! I just did a single set of 100 ATG bodyweight squats at the pace of 1 breath per rep (exhale while going down, inhale while coming up).

Took 4:43 minutes. Now I know that I can get a solid mini-workout in less than 5 minutes anywhere without requiring anything extra.

And the best part of today’s workout: I didn’t break a single sweat during, or after the session. And I did it in the Sun, just wearing shorts.

And my previous single-set record was 80 reps, more than 4 months ago.
The most recent one was 70 reps a week back.

Enough about the gloating.

I’ll tell you the secret now.

It’s the “Double Inhale” breathing technique shared by Andew Huberman.

Here’s his technique:
If you are feeling stressed or anxious, the fastest way to calm down is to do deep breathing via the double inhale method.
You inhale deeply into the belly, and then when you think you’ve fully inhaled, do a second inhale on top of that first long inhale. This one will be a short inhale. But you’ll still get some air in. Now you can exhale fully. Exhale via both nose and mouth.
Do a few of these breaths, and you might notice the stress going down.

Now, how to use this to increase your bodyweight squat count:
Exhale fully while going down, and inhale big through nose while coming up, and then quickly do a second inhale while still standing.
And then exhale it all fully (via all pores possible) while going down again.

This was what got me the 100 reps today.

So what’s happening is, the limit was not muscle capability. It’s my cardio. Lack of enough oxygen to clear up the metabolites was previously causing me to quit the set at 50 or 70 reps.

But now with the double inhale, I can get more oxygen into the system and that keeps me going for 100 reps.