It makes it harder, not easier - especially over a protracted period. How come it's such a common thing, when lifting something really heavy, to hold your breath?

It stabilizes your torso by keeping your diaphragm motionless.

Same reason sprinters do, I think.

When you breathe you are moving your stomach back and forth. Lifting the weights you have to stabilize your torso, as previously said, you have the stomach muscles essentially maximally contracted at least at some point of the lift, which makes breathing very difficult. You don´t need to exchange air in the lungs for the short time the lift needs. You can concentrate on the lift better not having to try to adapt the breathing motion in this extreme case. Holding your breath is the best option, imo.

It allows you to activate your core for more strength...the problem is that it can lead to hernias. This is why people use a weight belt (even though doing so will lead to a weaker core). Holding your breath allows you to push against the abdominal wall = more strength in the core.

When I lift weights it's a number of repetitions and that's really what I meant. I take your point though, in that holding your breath probably works for one or two lifts, but over a long period it is definitely counterproductive (at least for me). Probably it's my stupid body not realising I've got a dozen more after the first. What I found odd about it was that it's a subconscious thing that happens. I was speculating there was therefore some advantage I couldnt think of.

Thanks to those who responded.

In this case, find out at which moments during the lifting-resting process breating is most easy. Try that out, doing it consciously at first, after a time it will become an automatism.

This is bad advice.

OP: you breathe in on the down phase and out on the up phase.

So, bicep curl: breathe in when you`re lowering, out when you`re lifting. Same goes for squat, etc. Tricep is the opposite: when you`re extending you breath out, in when you`re returning to base.

For whatever exercise, when you`re doing the maximal effort, you should be breathing out.

Agree my advice maybe was a little on the principal side. It´s probably about the same thing, though. When you do the effort, and the abdominals are at least somewhat contracted, it´s easier to breathe out than in, and when relaxing, it´s a suitable time to breathe in.

I do so light weight excercise myself, that I don´t have to worry. More on the "feel good" basis.

It would be a terrible idea to breath in while doing heavy lifting...it would invite injury.

Don't give advice if you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

(Disclaimer: I was a personal trainer for 5 years with 2 years of a kinesiology degree and a national level athlete.)

I don't hold my breath. I exhale at the point of exertion. I believe this is the correct way to lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkeN_fkXrdE

Thread should be in H&F

Congrats. Read my posts again. This is SMP. You give hands on advice, and I can see they are great. People are responsible in this thread to know where they are posting. Here you maybe should be allowed to think a little more about where the breathing principles stem from.

Caveat: Canada.

Hard! Hurry, Hard! HAAARD! Whoa! Right off! Right off! Hard! HURRY HARD!

HURRRRRRRAYYYYY...WOAAAHHHHHHHH!!.......HURRRRAY.. .WOAH!...good shot

Get it right, please.

I stand unconditionally corrected

Valsalva maneuver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

it's done because it raises your blood pressure temporarily which i figure helps with short bursts of muscle activity. imo it also helps keep your core tight but i don't guess it is required for that. if you're doing a lot of reps of an exercise for some reason i don't figure it much matters what you do with your breathing because you're just dicking around anyway, but if you're actually lifting heavy weights then it helps you. a similar effect is achieved by grunting and you can see that across a wide variety of activities that require fast bursts of energy, tennis, martial arts, bro's in the gym, etc.

I enjoyed yours...though.

"Right off" was a good touch. Had you also added "Commonbaby CURL!" then it's POTY

The first reply was correct, and then it went downhill and devolved into a brag post about being a personal trainer.

It pressurizes your abdominal cavity and this pressure is applied to the anterior part of the lumbar spine making it more stable (backwards pressure from the front due to valsalva + muscular tension from the rear = tightness/solidness). Anyways, test it out yourself, try to breathe in our out while holding a heavy weight overhead, fully locked out. You start wobbling around. The moral of the story is you cannot shoot a cannon out of a canoe.

It probably doesn't matter much though for light weights and/or isolation type exercises which I'm guessing is where the OP is coming from.

this is wrong. using a belt wont give you a weaker core. keep resting on your crap laurels like the rest of the clueless personal trainers.

Thanks for your bare assertion.

The reason that it will eventually give you a weaker core, than if you hadn't used one, is that the belt will do the job of a stronger core allowing your muscles to not have to develop. The empirical evidence of this is overwhelming.

It's like using an ankle brace for the rest of your career: sure, it will allow you to do things initially that you wouldn't have been able to because of a potentially weakened ankle (say, through injury) but the crutch of the brace will eventually lead to a less strong ankle in the long term. It's just like how your balls shrink from taking steroids: your body doesn't need to produce its own testosterone so they shrink through non-use.

Using a weight belt will reduce the need for a developed core leading to a weaker core than not using one.

You don't see regular (professional) athletes ever using a weight belt for this very reason. You only see extreme powerlifters using them in competition. They won't use one in training (unless they're nearing their periodization peak near a competition where they're simulating competition lifts).

Just to clarify (and to keep the thread here) I wasn't asking for advice on how to exercise - i have a trainer. I was just curious as to why we may have evolved the tendency to hold our breath when lifting heavy things.

lol


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