Proper breathing during exercise. Correct breathing Breathing during exercises with dumbbells

The deadlift is the simplest barbell exercise. No matter what height, weight, gender, physique you are, you will learn how to deadlift effectively and safely in literally 20 minutes, even if you have never picked up a barbell before.

To demonstrate the 5 steps, I cut pieces from the video (How To Deadlift: Starting Strength 5 Step Deadlift) with Alan Thrall's channel, this is a very cool and competent dude, I strongly recommend subscribing to him. I took most of the text, mainly from the deadlift guide from stronglifts.com , there will also be a few pictures from there. Also used How to Deadlift: The Definitive Guide by Greg Nuckols from strongerbyscience.com

So, the perfect deadlift in 5 easy steps. Just follow these five steps, and all your limbs will take exactly the position in space that is optimal for deadlifting with your particular physique. You just follow five steps and the bar follows the ideal trajectory. It sounds like some kind of divorce, I know. But you try it, it works awesome.

I present these five steps with the minimum necessary explanation. This text will be enough for a beginner to perform the deadlift effectively and safely. All steps must be followed exactly as written in the text. Even if it seems to you that it is wrong, and even if everyone in your environment does otherwise. If at some point you do not understand, scroll down, after the description of the five steps there will be a detailed analysis of the most common questions.

Step 1: Barbell Over Midfoot

Place the barbell on the floor where you will be doing the deadlift. You can no longer move the bar from this place. It can only be lifted vertically upwards and lowered to its original position. When you approach the bar before doing a deadlift, you should take a position next to it yourself, and not roll it towards you.

So, the barbell lies motionless on the floor, do not touch it. Now stand up so that the bar is exactly above the middle of your foot. Don't touch the bar! Get yourself under it. If your belly makes it difficult to see your legs, lean to the side and look at them from the side or in the mirror. The bar should be above the center of the entire foot (along the sole), and not just the part you see.

Slightly turn your socks at an angle of 15ᴼ. During the exercise, the soles should not come off the floor: neither the heels, nor the socks, nor the side surfaces. Stand on the floor with the entire surface of the feet.

Step 2 Grab the bar

The bar is strictly above the middle of the feet. Now bend over to the bar. Do not bend your knees, only at the hip joint. Round your back to reach the bar, otherwise it will not work. Don't worry about your back yet, we'll take care of that later. If the legs are slightly bent at the knees - it's okay, but first of all - bend over by bending in the pelvis.

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Place both palms on the bar towards you shoulder width apart. Grasp the bar with your fingers in a ring, the thumb is opposed to the rest. Don't use the monkey grip.

Step 3. Bring your shins to the bar

You are standing, leaning over the barbell, placing it strictly above the middle of the foot, feet hip-width apart, arms shoulder-width apart, back rounded.

Now, bend your knees and lower your pelvis down, your shins will begin to lean forward, and as soon as your shins touch the bar, freeze, the bar should not budge.

This bringing the shins to the bar is necessary to set the hips at the ideal angle, and the pelvis at the optimal height for you. This is exactly their position, which takes into account the length and ratio of your limbs.

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The bar should not budge during this step. If the bar moved, start from step 1.

Step 4. Chest forward, fixing the back

At this stage, we must give the spine the correct neutral shape. It's very simple and fast if you follow steps 1-3 correctly.

So, you're still standing, leaning over the bar, it's directly over the middle of your feet, feet hip-width apart, arms shoulder-width apart, shins touching the bar, and your back is still rounded.

Now just straighten your chest, lift it, point it forward - your spine will take a neutral position. No need to reduce the shoulder blades, just lift the chest without releasing the barbell. Don't move the bar, don't lift it. When you raise your chest, make sure that the pelvis does not fall. The pelvis, and the shins, and the bar - everything remains in place, only the chest goes forward and up.

If you did everything right - the lower back will become flat, like a board, without concavities and bulges. This is the neutral safe position of the spine.

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The bar should not budge during this step. If the bar moved, start from step 1.

Step 5. Pull the bar up

After completing steps 1-4, you are ready to lift the barbell. It's very simple, you don't have to think about anything, all your limbs are already in the right position.

Now just pull the bar up. You need to pull not with your hands, your hands just hold the barbell in the hang. Most of the work is done by the legs. The back muscles primarily work to keep the spine in a neutral position.

Raise your pelvis and chest at the same time. Don't let your pelvis rise in isolation. Imagine doing a leg press on a machine as if you were pushing the floor away from you. Pull the bar up, not back.

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The bar should slide along the front surface of the legs throughout the lift, it does not come off the surface of the legs. Just pull it up. There must be no horizontal displacement in the boom path. It should not swing forward, bypassing the knees. Pull it up the front of your legs. This gives some discomfort, but nothing more.

Everything. This completes the five steps. You lifted the barbell safely and effectively. It remains to stand with it for a second and lower it to its original position. All steps together:

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The top point of the exercise

At the top of the deadlift, you need to stand up straight, legs bent at the knees, arms straight, torso vertical. Do not slouch, straighten your shoulders, chest with a “wheel”. The spine maintains its neutral state. Don't relax, don't exhale, keep your torso tense. After a second pause in this position, start moving down.

At the top point, you do not need to overextend your back, lean back, make shrugs with your shoulders (shrug them), try to bend your arms at the elbows, and so on. Just stand up straight with the barbell.

As soon as the bar is off the floor, its load is completely placed on your spine. It's perfectly safe, but only IF you keep your torso tense and your back neutral. Watch this very carefully! You can breathe out and relax ONLY when the bar is on the floor. Do not exhale either at the top of the exercise or on the descent, the barbell is still in your hands - this is dangerous. Keep the tension of the torso during the entire range of motion: inhale - rise - descend - exhale.

Downward movement

The bar moves down along the same vertical line that it went up, and drops to the same place on the floor from where it started moving. On the descent, the bar slides along the front surface of the legs, as well as when climbing up.

At the beginning of the descent, bend your knees a little, and at the same time bend at the hip joints, take your ass back. The downward movement should be carried out precisely by bending in the pelvis until the bar falls below the knees. When the bar has passed the level of the knees, and they no longer interfere with its vertical descent, bend your knees until you put the bar on the floor. Don't drop your pelvis.

Do you remember what your starting position looks like before moving up? You must return to the same position at the end of the downward movement. The bar should drop in a vertical line and land on the floor exactly above the middle of the foot.

The bar should go down faster than it goes up, but it doesn't have to be a free fall, it's a controlled descent. Do not drop, do not drop the barbell on the floor, do not let it fly freely the last centimeters. Controlled descent is an important part of strength training, don't turn it off by dropping the barbell to the floor.

Between repetitions

The position of your body between repetitions should be exactly the same as immediately before moving up. Do not take your hands off the bar, do not loosen your grip, do not lower your pelvis.

After the bar is on the floor, exhale, bring the shins to the bar (step 3), chest forward, take a deep breath, back neutral (step 4), move up (step 5). The pause between repetitions lasts about a second, this is the time for exhalation-inhalation and tension of the torso.

The bar should not bounce off the floor. Between repetitions, it is located above the center of the foot and lies motionless.

Everything. You can go to the gym and start doing the deadlift. Put on two small pancakes on the bar, for example, 5 kg each, the bar should be in the air above the center of the foot. Without pancakes, she will lie on the floor, which means that the correct deadlift will not work.

Below I give some details and explanations of why everything needs to be done this way and not otherwise.

Rod trajectory

In the starting position, the bar should be located above the center of the foot. It is from this point that the bar should be lifted off the floor. This position of the barbell is ideal at all times and for everyone. This position is dictated by the laws of physics, it is simply impossible to lift a heavy weight off the floor from any other point.

Because the vector of the attractive force is directed vertically (vertically) towards the Earth's core, the effective counteraction to this force must be directed towards its vector, that is, vertically (radially) from the Earth's core.

The bar should rise strictly vertically until the legs are straightened at the knees and hip joints. Any movement of the bar in the direction forward from you increases its path, which means it reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.

After each repetition, the barbell should return to the same place on the floor from where it started its movement. Thus, the trajectory of the bar is a vertical line above the middle of the foot. Videotape yourself from the side. If during the deadlift the bar moves along this trajectory, most likely you are doing everything right.

Foot position and midfoot

Place your feet hip-width apart. Once again, not like during a squat - to the width of the shoulders, namely to the width of the hips. This is a fundamental point. It will not work correctly to perform a deadlift with legs shoulder-width apart, the legs will interfere with the free movement of the arms.

When setting the feet shoulder-width apart, you could take it wider, you say. But no, it will not be effective, because the wider the grip, the longer the path of the bar to the top point, the more difficult it will be to complete the repetition.

Determining the midfoot is critical to properly performing the deadlift. I measured the length of the sneaker in which I work out in the gym - 28 cm. Exactly half of this distance - 14 cm - is at the level of the second white stripe. In my case, it is over this place that the bar should be located during the deadlift. Do the same with your workout shoes - find a landmark that matches the center of your foot and position the bar directly over that spot.

If you find the middle of the foot correctly, the bar will be a couple of centimeters from the lower leg.

Slightly turn your socks at an angle of 15ᴼ. This is another difference from the position of the legs during the squat, when the toes point to the sides at an angle of about 30ᴼ. Turning to a greater angle, as in a squat, will cause the knees to diverge greatly to the sides and interfere with the arms. Parallel setting of the feet will turn off the muscles of the inner thighs, therefore, reduce the efficiency of work.

grip

Place both palms towards you. An alternative grip is also allowed, when one palm is directed towards oneself, and the other away from oneself. And you may need this method in the future, when the weight will be difficult to hold with a standard grip. At the beginning of classes, do not work in an alternative grip, this is your fallback for the future.

The thumb should be opposed to the rest, that is, the bar should be clasped, taken with the fingers in the ring. It doesn't make any sense to use the monkey grip in the deadlift, unlike the squat, for example, or the bent over row, where it can be useful.

Hand position

Hands are shoulder-width apart. When viewed from the front, the arms should be vertical. That is why the legs should be hip-width apart, if they were shoulder-width apart, it would not work to grab the barbell vertically. That is, when viewed from the front, the limbs are in line with their joints: the feet are under the hip joints, and the hands are under the shoulder joints.

The bar should move along the shortest path from the floor to the top point. When you stand straight with the barbell, it should be as close to the floor as possible, and your arms should be extended. These conditions are met if the hands are located on the neck at shoulder width.

If you look from the side, then the hands should no longer be vertical, but at a slight angle. That is, when viewed from the side, the shoulder blades should be located above the bar, and the shoulder joint is slightly in front of the bar. If you follow steps 1-3 correctly, then the hands themselves will be positioned exactly as they should.

At all stages of the deadlift, the arms should be straightened. Do not bend your elbows. Imagine that your arms and hands are just ropes with hooks from which a barbell hangs. The work of lifting the bar must be done by the muscles of the legs and back. Any attempt to contract the biceps with a barbell in hand can lead to injury when working with a large weight.

Blade position

At the bottom of the exercise, the shoulder blades should be located above the bar. Thus, the bar and shoulder blades are located on the same vertical line above the middle of the foot. This is their most advantageous and efficient position in terms of mechanics and center of gravity, regardless of your height, weight, limb length, gender, whatever. This arrangement of body parts will be the most beneficial for everyone and always.

At the top of the deadlift, do NOT bring the shoulder blades together. This will lengthen the path of the bar and make the weight "heavier". Don't do anything to the blades. At the top point, just stand up straight with your chest straightened.

Shoulder position (shoulder joints)

At the bottom of the deadlift, the shoulders should be slightly anterior to the bar, not above it. When viewed from the side, the shoulder blades are directly above the bar, and the shoulder joints, respectively, in front of it.

If you place your shoulders above the bar, this will force you to lower your pelvis lower, your knees will go forward and create an obstacle on the way of the bar up, it will have to bypass the knees in an arc, which violates the main principle of the deadlift - the verticality of the projectile, which is unsafe and inefficient. Following steps 1-3 automatically sets your shoulders in the right place.

Shrugs cannot be made at the top of the deadlift. That is, do not raise your shoulders, do not “shrug” them. This is a completely unnecessary and dangerous move. The weight of the deadlift is much greater than that of the shrugs. Raising the shoulders at the top of the deadlift can seriously damage the ligamentous apparatus of the shoulder joint. Let your hands hang passively, like ropes to which a barbell is tied.

The angle of the hips in the starting position (at the bottom point before moving up) is highly dependent on the physique. It does not make sense to try to copy the position of the limbs in the starting position from other people. Everyone's physique is different.

In people with long femurs, the hips will point upward more and the hip joints will be higher than in people with short femurs. But these features of the structure of different people do not have any fundamental significance if you follow the described steps. Yes, the hips and pelvis will be positioned differently, but the exercise pattern for all people will be the same, and its key points do not depend on how you are arranged. Unless you have three legs.

It is very important to understand that the position of the body at the bottom of the deadlift is NOT the SAME position you should be in at the bottom of the barbell squat.

Let me remind you that at the lowest point of a proper squat, the hip joints fall just below the knees. During the deadlift, it is exactly the opposite: at the bottom of the exercise, the pelvis will be raised much higher than the knees. Otherwise, the deadlift turns into a squat with a barbell in your hands - this is categorically wrong, inefficient and unsafe. Don't try to "squat" your deadlift. These are completely different exercises. An attempt to assess the position of the body at the bottom point of the deadlift, applying the rules of squatting to it, is a gross mistake. Once again, a deadlift is not a squat. In fact, never and nowhere.

back angle

It will depend on the structure of the body. In people with long hips and a short torso at the bottom of the deadlift, the back can be tilted significantly - almost to parallel with the floor. Conversely, the back can be nearly vertical in people with long arms and short hips.

The cool thing is that you don't have to worry about how your back should be tilted. Don't think about tilting your back at all. Instead, follow the steps of the technique: the bar and shoulder blades are located above the middle of the foot, the shins touch the bar. Under these conditions, the back is already at the optimal angle for you, taking into account the structure of your body.

Lower back

During the execution of the deadlift, the spine must be held in a neutral position, which. The fixed neutral position of the spine allows you to evenly distribute the load on the vertebrae and intervertebral discs, prevents their displacement and makes the deadlift safe.

Do not deadlift with a rounded or overly arched back. This can lead to a displacement of the intervertebral disc (herniated disc), infringement of the roots of the spinal cord, which is a serious injury. Using a belt while deadlifting does NOT prevent injury. Knowledge and adherence to the correct technique, adequate selection of weight and its progression guarantee the safety and effectiveness of the exercise.

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To set your back in the correct neutral position, stand so that the bar is directly above the middle of the foot, the shins touch the bar, grasp it with your hands shoulder-width apart. Now lift, spread your chest - your spine will take a neutral position.

Fix the spine in this neutral state - expand your chest, take a deep breath, tighten the anterior abdominal wall, hold your breath. Do not exhale at the top of the exercise - this reduces the rigidity of the torso, fixation of the spine. Keep the tension of the torso during the entire range of motion: inhale - rise - descend - exhale.

Upper back

The upper back, like the lower back, remains in a neutral position. In its thoracic region, the spine is slightly arched back, this is called thoracic kyphosis. This is a normal, neutral position of the spine, let it be maintained throughout the backbone. Do not slouch, open your chest, hold your breath, do not exhale until you put the barbell in place.

At the top of the exercise, do not make any movements with your back or shoulders - do not raise your shoulders, do not straighten them, do not overextend back, this can lead to injury. Just stand straight with the barbell, pause and move down.

Head

Like the lower and upper segments of the spine, the cervical region must remain in its neutral position, that is, somewhat concave forward (cervical lordosis).

You don't have to look up when doing a deadlift. This unevenly distributes the load on the vertebrae, and shifts the center of gravity back. Also, do not look down, under the legs, this will round the upper back, and after it the lower one. Instead, look at a dot on the floor a few meters in front of you. The head should be a continuation of the body.

Do not try to look at yourself in the mirror during the deadlift, it interferes with proper technique. Practice in front of a wall without a mirror or ignore it. To control your technique, regularly record yourself on video from the side and analyze it.

Lap

While lifting, you need to slightly spread your knees to the sides. To do this, we put the feet at an angle of 15. It is in the direction of the big toes that the knees should move. This is to get them out of the way of the bar as it moves up, and to engage the muscles in your inner thighs and pelvic floor to make the deadlift more effective.

At the top of the standing leg, the knees should be fully extended, the knees open to the block. Don't be afraid, it's completely safe, because the weight is over the middle of the foot. If at the top of the exercise you could not straighten your knees to the stop, this approach does not count.

Deadlift - shins in the blood?

At the bottom of the deadlift, the shins are at an angle to the floor, they are slightly tilted forward. The angle of inclination will depend on your structure. Follow steps 1-3 to achieve optimal calf position.

With the correct execution of the deadlift, while moving up, the bar should constantly touch the front surface of the legs, slide along them, as if on rails. At first, out of habit, this can cause discomfort and redness of the anterior surface of the lower leg. Deadlift is best done in pants, golfs, leggings, in general, with closed legs.

At the same time, the shins should not be covered with bruises and abrasions. If you're skinning your legs while deadlifting, you're obviously deadlifting the wrong way. Most likely, you made a mistake with the definition of the middle of the foot. Stand half a centimeter away from the bar. A properly performed deadlift may initially cause discomfort and reddening of the skin of the legs, but no more. We train with a barbell to be healthy and strong, and not to break limbs into blood.

Here are the most common mistakes that lead to abrasions on the legs:

• You are pulling the bar back, not up. You can often hear advice that the bar should be pulled back, while it will rest against the shins, which can lead to damage to them. As already said a million times, the bar should move strictly vertically, do not pull it back, pull it up. Correctly performed steps 1-3 will set your body in such a position from which it is convenient to pull the barbell up, and not back.
• You drop your pelvis a lot. This pushes the knees forward and the shins begin to interfere with the vertical movement of the bar. Raise your pelvis higher, this will bring your knees back.
• You try to get your torso upright before the bar is past your knees. Don't try to get your shoulders back behind the bar before it is above your knees. Try to keep your torso tilted longer. Pull your shoulders back as the bar rises above your knees.

A properly performed deadlift does NOT damage your skin or any other part of your body. Otherwise, I would not write about it.

How to breathe properly while doing a deadlift

At the bottom of the deadlift, just before going up, straighten your chest, take a deep breath, tighten your torso and abdominal muscles, hold your breath and pull the bar up. At the top point, standing up straight, do not exhale, keep the torso rigid, tense. After a second pause at the top, lower the bar to the floor. After setting the bar to the starting position, exhale. Immediately after this exhalation, take a deep breath and pull the bar up. Repeat the entire cycle as many times as needed.

A deep breath and holding the breath with core muscle tension () are needed for safe and secure fixation of the spine. Taking a deep breath with compressed air increases the pressure in the chest and fixes the thoracic spine. An increase in pressure in the chest, and lowering of the diaphragm, as well as tension in the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall, leads to an increase in pressure in the abdominal cavity and fixation of the spine in the lumbar and sacral regions.

The muscles of the nucleus, as it were, press the spine backwards, fix it motionless, preventing the movement of the vertebrae to the sides. The core muscles work like an athletic belt. But for this you need to hold your breath and keep your torso tense throughout the repetition.

If you exhale at the top of the exercise, or on the descent, or at any other time while the bar is still in your hands, you are in danger. As soon as you exhaled, you lost the rigidity of the frame that held your spine in place. Therefore, you can exhale only when the bar is lying motionless on the floor.

Many people (including myself) can experience dizziness and blackouts when holding their breath and holding it for the entire duration of the repetition. Not only is it unpleasant, there is a real risk of losing consciousness. To avoid this, do not take the maximum possible breath to the entire volume of the lungs, as when diving under water.

Your task is to increase the pressure in the chest and abdominal cavity to fix the spine. To do this, it is enough to inhale about a third of the maximum possible volume. Actively tighten the muscles of the torso.

If during the exercise you feel severe dizziness, weakness, nausea, blackouts, or any other unexpected things, immediately stop the exercise and sit on the floor right where you are. Put your head between your knees, breathe, sit quietly. It will pass.

No bounce between reps

Deadlift in English - deadlift. It is called so because between repetitions the weight lies dead weight.

When we squat with a barbell, for example, we try to use the stretch reflex of the thigh muscles, and at the bottom point we bounce up like a ball without stopping. The downward movement itself gives us some boost, certain conditions for the start of an upward movement. In the deadlift, the situation is fundamentally different.

Unlike the squat and most other barbell exercises, the deadlift places the weight stationary at the start of each rep. That is, the bar, before we start to pull it up, does not contain any inertial energy. Every millimeter of her way up will be covered solely thanks to the work of our muscles.

Therefore, at the bottom of the exercise, lowering the barbell to the floor, you must pause. First, you need to exhale, inhale and fix the spine in a neutral position. And secondly, this pause is needed to extinguish the inertia of the bar. It should not bounce up from the floor, you yourself must pull it.

Yes, doing a deadlift using the rebound of the bar from the floor is much easier than with a full stop of the bar. But this is cheating. Deadlift is an imitation of heavy lifting in everyday life. Lifting a 50kg barbell five times is like lifting five bags of sugar. As far as I know, a bag of sugar does not bounce off the floor even a couple of centimeters. You have to lift it entirely yourself.

Also, doing a deadlift with a rebound, you will inevitably break the technique and, sooner or later, get injured. You will not breathe correctly, which means that there will be no correct fixation of the spine, there will be no vertical movement of the bar, there will be no effective work.

Now, while you are a beginner, you have not developed a stereotype for performing the exercise, you have to think about where to put your legs and arms, how to place them in space, how to breathe, how to move. You need to bring the exercise to automatism, so that all parts of the body fall into place on their own. You can't do a deadlift like this charming girl:

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She can work without a pause at the bottom - she does this for a hundred thousand times, her body is a deadlift machine, you will get injured in the fifth minute with such a technique.

A driver with thirty years of experience and a man who got behind the wheel last week also drive completely differently. But a beginner is taught to ride as it should be, according to a certain standard, and not as people with experience do. And if Uncle Petya from the next entrance, a retired KamAZ driver, drove all his life with his hand out the window and never had an accident, THIS DOES NOT MEAN that all driving school students need to be taught to drive with their hand out the window. Take your time and pause between repetitions.

On the other hand, some people pause too long: get up, intercept, check the price of bitcoin on their phone. Such pauses - longer than one second - are also not needed.

When you stand between reps, you release tension in your hamstrings and glutes, reducing their effectiveness, making the weight even heavier on the next rep. If you have to intercept between repetitions, then you took it wrong from the very beginning: you needed a different grip width, or you needed an alternative grip for this weight, in any case, this is a mistake in the starting position.

Work on your starting position, hone it. And in a second pause between repetitions, exhale, inhale, gather in a heap and move up.

Proper breathing- allows you to increase strength and effectiveness of the training process.
The main rule is a strength exercise for effort, we exhale!

This means that we exhale at the moment when you experience the maximum load. Accordingly, inhalation occurs in the phase of the least load. The reason is that during the exhalation phase, the skeletal muscles are more efficiently contracted. Studies conducted by physiologists have proven that the maximum muscle tension occurs during the exhalation phase or during breath holding. In addition, in the exhalation phase, the press and the whole body, including the muscles of the chest, stabilize and tighten, which creates a good strong frame, while it is much more convenient to develop effort. On the contrary, during the inhalation phase, the chest swells and stretches, the abdominal muscles (abs) relax and stretch, which makes it not the most optimal phase for turning on and tensing muscle groups.
Many people advise holding your breath for effort, especially when doing a deadlift or squat with a barbell, but I would not advise that. Holding your breath for effort, and even more so when you work with heavy weights, raises blood pressure very much, and this is very dangerous, especially if arterial hypertension is present or compromised internal organs (heart, brain, eyes, kidneys) are present, which very sensitive to high blood pressure. When fighting with a lot of weight, I advise you to exhale a little in order to slowly relieve tension in the vessels, if your power tension is explosive, then you can also exhale at a fast pace.

Professional strength athletes, when lifting heavy weights, do not hold their breath for a long time in the desired phase. For example, when bench press, as I do, I take a big breath, after which I hold my breath, after passing the dead center bar, I begin to exhale at the pace of the bench press. But still, it's better than holding your breath less, it's better for your health.

If you reorganize yourself to the correct breathing, you will immediately feel that something has been very fettering you before.
Let's look at examples of proper breathing:

How to breathe properly - bench press:
When we squeeze the bar up - exhale
When lowering the bar to the chest - inhale
And all the same with other types of bench presses (presses at angles, bench press with dumbbells, bench press ...)
Since the maximum effort passes during the straightening of the arms, which means there must be an exhalation.

How to breathe correctly - biceps:
You bend your arms, contract your biceps, then the maximum effort is exhalation.
We lower our hands - inhale.
It doesn't matter what kind of biceps you do, the analogy is the same as biceps, on a barbell or on dumbbells.

How to breathe correctly - push-ups from the floor:
When the effort itself, namely the extension of the arms, then - exhale.
When you lower your body - inhale

How to breathe correctly - pull-ups on the bar:
When bending your arms, when you pull yourself up on the crossbar - exhale
When you go down - inhale

How to breathe correctly - press exercise:
The abdominal press is an exhalation muscle, it tenses when you exhale!
So, we raise the torso, exhale, or raise the legs - exhale.
When lowering the torso or legs - inhale

How to breathe correctly - squat:
When we squat - inhale
We rise - exhale
An example of breathing during a heavy weight squat.
When a person holds a large weight on his shoulders, the body is significantly compressed from the load. Therefore, it is advisable to take a breath in a standing position and gradually exhale the air until a full squat.

How to breathe properly while running:
You need to choose the optimal breathing that will match your running pace, this provision also applies to other sports: swimming, aerobics ... The main condition for cardio is to breathe through the nose, as the air is moistened and warmed, passing through the nasal passages.

The correct mode of breathing is the key to your health, on which the optimal functioning of other organs and systems directly depends!

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Proper breathing will help you increase the effectiveness of strength training and reduce the risk of injury. A few simple rules.

Want to get the most out of it and reduce the chance of injury? These five tips will help you safely lift more weight with maximum efficiency.

Unless you are a swimmer or freediver, you are unlikely to focus on your breathing. And when doing a strength exercise, you are likely to make unforgivable mistakes.

When performing each rep, people either inhale and exhale powerfully, or take in as much air as they can physically before sinking to the bottom during the squat or lowering the barbell to the chest during the bench press.

But there is a much better way.

The thing is that breathing plays an important role not only with aerobic exercise, but also with anaerobic exercise.

It is important to remember that cardio loads are different from strength exercises, so breathing should be different. Strength training requires more control.

Of course, breathing alone will not save you when doing squats with a barbell - technique is still needed here. Before focusing on breathing, you need to concentrate on the main features of the exercise - correct positioning of the legs, grip, location of the neck, amplitude, starting position, movement down and up. If you start with breathing, then this will distract you, and you risk injury, as the technique of the exercise itself will be lame. As soon as you work to the automaticity of the movements that are the foundation of each exercise, proper breathing will come by itself. The main thing is to follow a few simple rules.

Here are some important tips to help you improve your breathing while doing strength exercises.

1. Take control of your breathing before exercising.

30 seconds before the approach, normalize your breathing. If it's too frequent, give yourself some more time. Calm down, relax your body, tune in to the approach. To saturate the muscles with oxygen, it is necessary to slow down the heart rate. Some try to fire up their nervous system with sharp and rapid breathing, as if they are preparing to set a dislocated shoulder.

If you deplete your oxygen supply and get your heart racing even before lifting a lot of weight, you won't be able to reach your full potential in the exercise.

Before the approach, this type of breathing is unproductive.

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2. Any exercise consists of two phases: eccentric and concentric. In the first phase, the muscles are stretched, and in the second phase they are contracted.

Let's take the barbell squat as an example. To train breathing techniques, it is enough to use an empty bar. After you figure out the breathing, you can already proceed to the warm-up, and then to the working weights.

Grab the bar and return to the starting position. Before starting the eccentric phase, take a calm breath in and out to fill the body with oxygen. Avoid too sharp and strong breaths.

Inhale and, holding your breath, begin to descend down to the lowest point. Returning to the starting position, exhale in the most difficult phase of the lift.

Many athletes make the big mistake of exhaling too early. Meanwhile, early exhalation not only depletes the reserve of strength, but also has a negative effect on the spine and lower back, because after exhalation you can no longer maintain the necessary intramuscular tension. Consequently, the load will fall on the spine and lower back, which are very easy to injure.

Imagine that you are holding your breath underwater: there you will only be able to breathe when you reach the surface and emerge. In our case, the water surface is the moment when you exit the most difficult phase of the squat.

3. Change Your Breathing Technique When Performing Deadlifts.

The deadlift has a different nature of movement, and therefore requires a different approach.

You will immediately experience tension as soon as you start lifting the barbell off the floor. Therefore, before starting the concentric part of the movement, concentrate, strain your whole body, pulling the bar slightly towards you, take a breath and, holding your breath, begin lifting the bar up. After the end of the concentric phase, begin to exhale as you lower the barbell.

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4. Thinking that during strength training you need to inhale deeply and exhale sharply, you are mistaken. You don't have to imagine that you are blowing out the candles on the cake. You are not at a birthday party, but at a training session!

Do not swallow air, but take short breaths and exhalations.

Large breaths reduce your intramuscular tension, which can increase your chance of injury.

5.If you feel like you need more air, breathe in the eccentric phase.

There is nothing wrong with doing a multi-rep set when you feel like taking an extra breath. Just do not inhale in the concentric phase, it is better to take the desired portion of air in the eccentric.

By following these simple tips, you will increase your efficiency in training and reduce the risk of injury.

As you know, proper breathing allows you to develop more effort and train more efficiently.

Breathing while exercising

Remember the basic rule: in strength exercises, exhalation is done for effort, that is, at the moment when you overcome the maximum load. This is logical, because on the exhale you can tighten the muscles much better. Studies by physiologists show that proper breathing reflexively affects muscle tension. Maximum strength is best experienced on exhalation and while holding the breath, in addition, when you inhale, the chest expands and the muscles of the chest are stretched. The abdominal muscles are also stretched and relaxed, and this is not very convenient for working and tensioning large muscle groups. It is hard to strain with a relaxed stomach. Conversely, during exhalation, the abdominal muscles tighten and tighten, thereby stabilizing the entire body. Chest muscles - grouped during exhalation, thereby obtaining a very comfortable position for developing maximum strength.

Some advise to hold the breath during the effort, holding the breath during the maximum effort too much and shock increases the pressure, and this can be very harmful to some organs. For example: for the eyes, for the heart and for the vessels of the brain. Therefore, it is better to gradually, but exhale. If you have to fight with a huge weight, then you can exhale gradually with tension. And if you are doing a sharp, explosive strength exercise, then it is better to exhale just as sharply, in accordance with the pace of the exercise.

In professional strength sports, when lifting heavy weights, some athletes hold their breath in certain phases of the movement. For example, when passing the "dead center" or at the very beginning of the effort "at the start", it depends on the individual technique of the athlete. However, in any case, it is better to minimize breath holding, because it is not very healthy.

Let's take a look at some examples of proper breathing:

• During push-ups from the floor: when you lower yourself - take a breath, when you straighten your arms and push yourself off the floor - exhale, for an effort.
• During pull-ups or upper pulls: for effort, when you bend your arms and overcome the load - exhale, straighten your arms - inhale.
• During or: when you push the bar away from you, develop an effort - exhale, lower - inhale.
• In other cases, during the effort, exhale.

And let's talk separately about: when squatting with a lot of weight, we inhale in a standing position, and gradually exhale both during squats down and during lifting. Because the tension is always high. With light or medium weights, it is better to breathe more dynamically down - inhale, exhale up.

Some people are used to breathing incorrectly, so it seems to them that it is much more convenient and better to take an effort to breathe in, but this is just a wrong habit. Start breathing correctly, in training there should be proper breathing, exhale with effort, and your body will very quickly adjust to this correct mode. You will feel that it is more organic, and that much more effort can be developed on the exhalation.

There are opinions that in exercises such as pulling the upper block or pulling up and pulling the stomach in the machine for effort, you need to inhale, because in these exercises it is very important to bend the back. It follows from this that you stretch and open the chest and therefore you need to inhale for the effort during the thrust. In fact, this is another wrong opinion of the modern. Of course, arching your back in these exercises is very important. But this does not prevent at all from making an effort to exhale.

Remember, in exercises of traction of the upper block, pull-ups, traction to the stomach and in all other exercises, exhalation is done during the effort.

The chest, in addition to the front surface, also has lateral and back surfaces, and during the traction, a very large number of muscles tense significantly, squeezing the chest. Proper breathing during training is very important. And also exhaling for effort is more physiological, exhalation reflexively helps the muscles to tighten. In addition, the abdominal muscles also tense up - they tone up and help stabilize the body, and it is very difficult to perform the exercise while inhaling with a relaxed abs.

Proper breathing during exercise

How to breathe properly during strength training?

The basic principle of breathing when working with weights- exhalation should coincide with muscle contraction. But there are many subtleties. For example, when you work with a heavy projectile in a basic heavy exercise, you may simply not be able to cope with the desired weight on the exhalation. This is where you need to hold your breath. It creates the necessary intra-abdominal pressure and, together with the tense muscles of the torso, provides the necessary strength base to overcome heavy weights. I think that you yourself have noticed how, when working with a large barbell, you involuntarily hold your breath with the greatest effort, our body is not just a bag of bones and meat, it knows a lot and can do it automatically, you just need to help it. All this applies to such exercises as deadlift, bent-over row, squats, various presses, both standing and lying, but consider the breathing pattern for the bench press.

Barbell light or medium. We remove the projectile from the rack, lower it down to the chest, while inhaling. Projectile on the chest - the breath is finished. We begin to move the weight up, while exhaling air through the narrowed glottis and clenched teeth. Such an exhalation serves the same purpose - to create some internal pressure to overcome gravity, but since the weight is small and the pressure is not high, you do not hold your breath or strain, but simply hold the exhalation slightly, lengthening it. The exhalation ends when the bar reaches the top point with the arms fully extended.

Barbell heavy or with maximum weight. We set our hands on the bar, took a comfortable position on the bench, our legs should be firmly planted on the floor, slightly arched our back, fixed ourselves, and mentally tuned in. Inhale, removed the projectile from the rack, exhale, barbell on straightened arms. Now we lower the weight onto the chest, at the same time inhaling, but not freely and easily, but strainingly, through the teeth, without relaxing. At the bottom point, we briefly hold our breath and change the direction of movement of the bar. As soon as the bar is dead center and goes up, we begin to slowly, strain, exhale through the narrowed glottis, again without relaxing, so as not to lose the created power base.

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