To Breath or not to Breath

[Tyciol]

Advice given for a lot of exercises is to breath out during the concentric, and breathe in during the eccentric. Breathing out apparently helps get the extra tension needed to lift a weight, which is harder than lowering it, something like that?

Other times for movements like hindu squats people say to breathe in reverse, to exhale on the way down and inhale on the way up. This is usually for more cardio-oriented calisthenics I think, because since exhaling helps you to relax, maybe it helps you flex your legs more when dropping down into a squat or something, I dunno.

From what I hear from some teachers, during heavy power lifts, you should hold your breath, to aid the simultaneous engagement of the core (back/ab/TA) muscles in increasing inter-abdominal tension to stabilize the spine and help make a belt which decreases load on the bones or something. I dunno. That makes sense during squats and deadlifts since you want to remain stiff I guess. Moreso during squats since you tend to be more upright I guess, but at the top of the deadlift you're also pretty upright too... but the centre of gravity is lower since the weight's at your thighs instead of on your shoulders so I don't think weight shifting at the top occurs as much during a deadlift.

Outside of heavy spinal-compressing powerlifts, even if it's for low reps, it probably doesn't matter so much. Less weight, less spinal compression, etc. Like during isolation exercises.

During tractioning movements like dips and chinups I don't think it matters either. Your spine isn't under compression, and gravity is pulling it straight down so it's not going to hyper flex/extend/side-flex. I think your muscles naturally engage to help bear the weight so that your ligaments don't die or whatever.

[Chococat]

I have found that breathing out on the concentric portion is the best. I can blow and take a solid breath on my way down to reset. If I didn't breath during training I'd pass out. Also your muscles need oxygen.

Don't get gimmicky with breathing. Do what comes natural to the body. There are more important things to focus on such as diet, rest and intensity levels.

[Iaskwhynot]

You should breathe when you have the weight locked out or on the floor imo. And your muscles do need oxygen, but unless your performing 20+ reps you most likely will not be using oxygen you did not have in your body to begin with. Having a chest full of air helps to stabilize yourself.

[XXX666]

A lot of people should retire thier lungs and stop breathing completely.

[Tyciol]

Originally Posted by Iaskwhynot

You should breathe when you have the weight locked out or on the floor imo. And your muscles do need oxygen, but unless your performing 20+ reps you most likely will not be using oxygen you did not have in your body to begin with. Having a chest full of air helps to stabilize yourself.

I know, that's why I think in terms of the compound pushing exercises. For isolation exercises or for compound pulling it doesn't seem like it's necessary to hold your breath though.

Like for doing chinups/dips, it makes sense to breath continually, because your spine just falls into line due to gravity. I think it's probably a good habit to do stuff like this to be able to keep aligned without effort, maybe it'll carry over to remembering good alignment during those compressive exercises.

[Avila]

From stuff I have read and personal experience...

Regarding the breathing during concentric and eccentric:
- You should breathe in/hold your breathe when you get closer to your trunk/body/center.
- You should breathe out as you move away from your body.
- Concentric and eccentric should be thrown out if we are talking about breathing, its all about where they relate to the body.

- During push exercises... you breathe in during eccentric and breath out during concentric... bench press, dips, military press, tricep exercises, pushups, etc.

- On the other hand, During pulling exercises its reverse... you breath out during eccentric and breathe in during concentric... row's, pullups, biceps, etc.

for example, leg curls and leg extensions:
(1)during leg extensions, you breathe out when your shins get away from your body (concentric), and you breathe in when they come back to the body (eccentric).
(2) In leg curls... you breathe when you flex your hamstrings (concentric) since you leg is returning to your body and breathe out when the leg goes away from the body (eccentric).

I hope I described the breathing in when getting close to the body and breathing out when going away from the body.

with squats and leg press.... it doesn't change either. You breath in when your lower limbs (lets say knees) get closer to you body and you breath out when your lower limbs go away from body.

When doing reps 1-5, holding your breath may not be problematic due to anaerobic respiration. Although at higher reps and/or longer negative or positive portions of the lift may require you to breathe in and out during the lift... it may even help too.

Just my 2 cents.