Harness the Power of Your Breath

This week, we’re diving into a critical yet often overlooked aspect of lifting: breathing. Understanding how to breathe properly during your lifts not only maximizes efficiency but also enhances safety through proper breathing and bracing techniques. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Regulation of Breathing - Nervous System

The nervous system is the primary regulator of our breathing. To understand this more deeply, it helps to explore some key aspects of the nervous system. The peripheral nervous system, which consists of all the the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, has two main divisions:

• Autonomic Nervous System (involuntary control)
• Somatic Nervous System (voluntary control)

Normal breathing is primarily regulated by the autonomic nervous system, which functions automatically without conscious effort. Within this system are two branches:

• Sympathetic (“fight or flight”) – Dominant during high stress or intense effort.
• Parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) – Dominant during recovery, digestion, and other low-stress activities.

Under normal conditions, the autonomic nervous system controls our breathing automatically, mainly via the parasympathetic branch. However, during high-intensity or stressful situations, such as lifting, the sympathetic branch and the somatic nervous system become more active. This shift can result in more voluntary control, producing shorter, shallower, or more forceful breaths.

This heightened conscious control lets us intentionally manage our breathing. When used correctly, it becomes a powerful tool to enhance stability, protect tissues, and improve efficiency during lifting. But before we explore this fully, it’s important to understand what happens during the two phases of breathing.

Breathe To Perform: Understand The Phases

Breathing consists of two phases: inhalation and exhalation.

• Inhalation: During inhalation, the diaphragm, one of our most important breathing muscles, contracts and moves downward, creating more space in the thoracic cavity. This allows the lungs to expand and fill with air. Oxygen from this air then diffuses into the bloodstream, where it is transported throughout the body to support energy production.
• Exhalation: During exhalation, muscles such as the intercostals (between the ribs) and the abdominals become increasingly engaged. The abdominals play a larger role during forced exhalation, helping push air out of the thoracic cavity. This expels carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, and maintains proper lung homeostasis, ensuring oxygen continues to diffuse efficiently into the blood with each breath.

Maintaining the right balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide is essential for proper lung pressure and efficient oxygen diffusion. Now that we understand how breathing is controlled and its purpose, let’s explore how this relates to lifting.

Brace Your Core: The Power Of Breath

When we inhale, pressure builds within the thoracic and abdominal cavities, pushing outward against the trunk. This naturally braces the core, providing extra protection and stability for the spine and surrounding tissues. After inhalation, we can further enhance this bracing voluntarily (squeeze the core) to amplify the natural support created by the breath.  One way to achieve this is through a technique called Irradiation, which in simple terms means if surrounding muscles are already braced or contracted, any movement from a target muscle will be stronger and more efficient. Think of this as a way of creating a solid foundation and increasing potential energy. 

 A more technical description of Irradiation would be, "A muscle working hard recruits the neighboring muscles, and if they are already part of the action, it amplifies their strength. The neural impulses emitted by the contracting muscle reach other muscles and 'turn them on' as an electric current starts a motor".

The Cost of Improper Breathing: Failing to inhale and brace properly can reduce stability and leave your tissues less protected. It can also create “energy leaks,” where force is lost as it dissipates through weaker, unbraced areas of the body, resulting in a less efficient and weaker contraction when moving the weight.

For example, a baseball pitcher generates most of their throwing power from the legs. Without proper bracing and breathing, energy from the legs can dissipate through an unbraced core, sending some force to surrounding tissues instead of efficiently transferring it to the shoulder and ball. This reduces both the speed and control of the throw. For lifters, the same principle applies: less force reaches the weight, decreasing overall performance. 

Exhale To Lift: Maximizing Force Production

If inhalation builds a solid foundation and stores potential energy, exhalation is how we release and transmit that force to the weight.

Exhalation and Force Transmission: When you exhale during a lift, you release the energy stored from inhalation and bracing—similar to letting a stretched rubber band snap back. When executed correctly, this release efficiently transfers force to the area you are pushing or lifting, enhancing the power of your contraction. That’s why exhaling at the moment of effort—such as during a press or lift—is usually optimal.

The Cost of Holding Your Breath: Holding your breath may increase stability temporarily, but it comes at a cost. Force production decreases, oxygen delivery to tissues drops, and prolonged breath-holding (like during tempo lifts) can raise blood pressure and limit energy production. To get the most out of your lifts, brace properly when needed, then exhale and transmit force efficiently at the moment of effort.

Now that we understand the importance of breathing during lifts, how do we know when to inhale and when to exhale?

Breathing Made Simple For Every Lift To Lift

In our previous insight, “What Is With All The Tempo In Our Exercises?”, we broke down the different phases of a lift during tempo.

• Eccentric – lowering the weight
• Concentric – lifting or ascending the weight
• Amortization (isometric) – the pause or transition phase

Rule of Thumb for Breathing During Lifts:

• Inhale during the eccentric phase (lowering the weight)
• Exhale during the concentric phase (lifting the weight)

Example – Squat:

• Inhale as you lower down into the squat
• Exhale as you drive upward from the bottom position

Mastering The Breath

Failing to focus on proper breathing during lifts, or holding your breath, can not only increase the risk of injury when lifting heavier loads without proper bracing, but it can also reduce the force applied to the weight, ultimately affecting your gains.

We’re all busy, and the time we spend in the gym is valuable. Proper breathing is a key element to focus on, ensuring that every set maximizes force production and supports your progress.