Breathing during lifting

[DNL]

Hopefully this is not a dumb question, but as a newbie, could some one explain the breathing technique when say doing bench presses, squats or even dead lifts.

cheers
Dave

 

[Koncept]

The more experienced guys can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the best thing to do is

• Breathe in before the lift
• Hold during the concentric phase
• Release during the eccentric phase

 

[NPR]

Tense abs
Breath in a big breath and hold agaist abs so your core is like a rock
hold this through the entire rep
release when you have completed the rep, not before.

 

[lucku]

Tense abs
Breath in a big breath and hold agaist abs so your core is like a rock
hold this through the entire rep
release when you have completed the rep, not before.

i always feel that i'm short of breath when i hold it when doing squats...
is there something wrong with me?

 

[-LJ-]

In the book Starting Strength it advises you can take a deep breath and hold it while doing the 5 reps.

 

[tonyharrison]

i always feel that i'm short of breath when i hold it when doing squats...
is there something wrong with me?

try taking 5 full deep breaths before the set to oxyginate ur blood, then take 1 or 2 deep breaths in between reps. that should work for all squat sets involving between 1 - 10 reps. much more than that and ur approaching breathing squat territory which can involve alot more breaths. a normal set of squats should affect you like a sprint. lots of power and strength and grunt. how much do you breath in a short all out sprint? not much during, but alot after i think

 

[minihulk64]

I'm a fitness student, and we're constantly being told to teach our future clients how to breathe correctly during resistance exercises. So here it is:
Breathe IN on eccentric, hold it through the 1st half of the concentric movement, and slowly breathe out on the second half of the concentric movement (granted that your concentric movement is slow and longer than 1 second)

And you should NEVER hold your breathe due to the blood flow stopping leading to strokes.

Hope this helps you.

 

[Goosey]

Just breath normally, as it's been said do not hold your breath in the forced part of an exercise.
Let the breathing happen naturally, there is enough to think about, for me anyway.

 

[CaT_SPeW]

but it feels natural for me to hold my breath during the forced part in exercises like squats and deads. bench, military etc i breath in and out ok

 

[Bluey]

I suck in and hold when exerting and breathe when im locked out.

 

[tonyharrison]

I'm a fitness student, and we're constantly being told to teach our future clients how to breathe correctly during resistance exercises. So here it is:
Breathe IN on eccentric, hold it through the 1st half of the concentric movement, and slowly breathe out on the second half of the concentric movement (granted that your concentric movement is slow and longer than 1 second)

And you should NEVER hold your breathe due to the blood flow stopping leading to strokes.

Hope this helps you.

thats not right, you need to hold your breath on the major lifts, deads, squats, bench, press etc in particular. its prob not necessary dong cable curls tho. holding your breath supports your spine and keeps it in allignment, and prevents more problems with correct technique than the miniscule chance of elevating blood pressure causing a stroke. I don't know why they would teach you that. probably because they dont teach you to do the major lifts.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Dave, holding your breath can help when lifting heavy. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease or something like that, holding your breath is not a good idea. But then, weightlifting in general isn't a good idea for such a person; when a healthy person lifts heavy, their blood pressure leaps up, so if someone with naturally high blood pressure lifts heavy... pop! So the hypertension (etc) patient must get their blood pressure under control first, with medication, and a slow start to exercise, building up cautiously over months.

If you are generally healthy, then holding your breath can help on exercises like squat, etc. The most important thing is to follow your instincts. If you have to push a car or lift a box when moving, you instinctively hold your breath. If you have to push something over your head or lift yourself over a wall, you usually don't.

Breathe or hold your breath on each exercise as you find most comfortable.

I'm a fitness student, and we're constantly being told to teach our future clients how to breathe correctly during resistance exercises.

I'm a fitness student, too (see sig). We're taught a lot of things. Some of them are right, some are wrong, some are debatable. It's important to do your own research, speaking to people who are qualified, people who have experience, and medical professionals. In this way you can get the most information and a sensible and balanced view of things.

And you should NEVER hold your breathe due to the blood flow stopping leading to strokes.

Please ask your teachers to tell you exactly how many people suffer strokes each year while lifting weights. Then ask them how many people apart from elderly hypertension or heart disease patients suffer strokes while lifting weights.

A healthy young adult is at low risk of strokes due to any cause. A person with a history of high blood pressure, heart disease and the like will want to consider carefully before holding their breath before lifting something heavy.

However, someone with high blood pressure and similar issues is most likely deconditioned - weak and unfit - and cannot lift anything heavy anyway; by the time they can lift heavy enough that holding their breath or not will make a difference to how much they can lift, their blood pressure will probably have dropped from those months of exercise.

 

[Shrek]

I'm with Silverback, don't even think about it, it just comes naturally.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Not necessarily, Shrek. It certainly didn't feel natural to me when I started holding my breath during squats and deadlifts. But I tried it for a bit and it felt better.

So I say, do think about it, try different ways of breathing or holding your breath (not on 1RMs, obviously), see how it feels, then do what's most comfortable for you.

 

[kindred]

When i hold my breath I get a headache. I prefer to breath more naturally usually your body tells you when it wants to breath or not breath.

 

[Goosey]

That's about it kindred.
Into a set of heavy squatting your taking in as much air as possible.
On the decent I fill my lungs with as much as possible, I find this also helps maintaining the natural curveture of the spine, that and sticking out the chest.

 

[CaT_SPeW]

That's about it kindred.
Into a set of heavy squatting your taking in as much air as possible.
On the decent I fill my lungs with as much as possible, I find this also helps maintaining the natural curveture of the spine, that and sticking out the chest.

this seems to be a common train of thought ive heard from some heavy squatters recently, ive been trying it myself and have found it suits me well.