Is It Really Bad to Hold Your Breath While Lifting Weights?
You can live most of your life without worrying about whether or how you breathe, but as soon as someone mentions that you have to breathe a certain way in the gym, it’s easy to get confused. When? When? Oops, I held my breath instead – is that bad?
As with everything else in the exercise world, there are different guidelines for different people doing different things . If you’ve heard conflicting advice, don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.
Should you hold your breath while lifting weights?
So the first big gap on this issue is the people who breathe while lifting weights and the people who don’t.
I don’t breathe during most of the exercises. I spend most of my time in the gym doing complex, complex exercises: squats, deadlifts, snatches, lifts. Most of them I wear a belt . And I strain the core a lot while doing them.
For these lifts, the Valsalva maneuver is a powerful tool. It’s a fancy name for creating pressure in your torso while holding your breath. You’ve probably done this once in the toilet.
Thanks to the harness, the hardened body and the air pressure in my lungs, I do a lot to stabilize my torso and protect my spine from injury. I can also lift more weight in this way than if I hadn’t been holding my breath. Watch any competing powerlifter’s face turn red while squatting, and you’ll know he does it too.
While it is safe for most people, in most cases some people should not hold their breath while lifting for safety reasons. Valsalva can temporarily raise blood pressure, which can lead to dizziness and even fainting, especially if you hold the pressure for more than a few seconds. The American Heart Association recommends that beginners and people with cardiovascular disease do not hold their breath while lifting weights. Valsalva is also not recommended during pregnancy because high blood pressure is dangerous for the placenta. (If you have any questions about whether you should personally hold your breath while lifting weights, talk to your doctor.)
If you do use valsalva, you hold your breath during each rep and stop to exhale and inhale between repetitions (for example, when you get up in between squats).
If I breathe while lifting weights, how do I do it?
First, there is really no wrong answer to the question of how to breathe, but there is a rule of thumb that will help in most cases.
You will want to exhale during the hardest part of the exercise and inhale when the exercise is easier. This usually means exhaling during a concentric contraction (lifting the weight) and inhaling during an eccentric (lowering it down). If you’ve forgotten, just ask yourself which part of the exercise is the hardest.
Let’s say you squat. You can inhale as you descend and then exhale as you ascend. The hardest part of the squat is the stumbling block, as it is often called, right after you start lifting.
How about deadlifts? The hardest part of the movement is when you lift the bar up, so exhale in this position. You can inhale by lowering the barbell down.