Breathing tips for squats
violet976
Posts: 310 Member
I just finished my fourth day of SL's and am loving it so far. My form definitely feels improved and the exercises are feeling more comfortable than the first few days. The only trouble I seem to be having is controlling my breathing for squats. Although I do my best to breath slowly, I find myself out of breath at the end of each squat, resulting in a bit of hyperventilation and light-headedness (obviously not something you want to have happen while holding a bar of weights on your back).
Did anyone else have this issue in the beginning? Any tips on how to resolve it? Also, what is the breathing structure for barbell squats? Personally, I'm finding it most comfortable to breathe at the top of the squat and release it throughout the squat, but I'm not sure if that's correct. & currently, I now pause at the top of each squat and take about 5 controlled, deep breaths before the next one - to make sure I don't get light headed.
Did anyone else have this issue in the beginning? Any tips on how to resolve it? Also, what is the breathing structure for barbell squats? Personally, I'm finding it most comfortable to breathe at the top of the squat and release it throughout the squat, but I'm not sure if that's correct. & currently, I now pause at the top of each squat and take about 5 controlled, deep breaths before the next one - to make sure I don't get light headed.
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In for responses to this question. Sometimes I forget to breathe period! :blushing:0
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Breathe in at the top, hold it the entire squat. You want your abs/core to stay tight through the whole squat. If you exhale, you are releasing that pressure. I exhale only at the top or very close to the top if I need a little oomph.0
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In for responses to this question.
+me.
i'm glad this got asked. i just started to experience it as a question this week, now that i've given up just breathing any old whenever/however i want. after watching some of the form check videos from more experienced squatters, i now take in a big breath at the top, lock myself up, and go down. then, if i remember to, i breathe out coming back up. and then, yeah. i stand in the rack and just pant for a while, as the set continues :laugh: the other thing i've come to realise about it is that doing the whole rep on one breath does kind of limit how much time you can take doing it.
on an unrelated tangent: does anyone know why breathing out during the exertion phase seems to give you that small extra oomph? i've only just discovered this and it's like a big 'hey!'. you know how sometimes when you're coming back up you can get about halfway there and then you just stick, if you're tired. kind of could-go-either-way thing. that's where i found that if i have breath still in me and i start breathing out, i can unstick myself and get back up with way less trouble and no wobbling.
i'll just mention too that my resting heart rate seems to have dropped dramatically since i started lifting. i've been biking forever and before all of this, i was consciously trying to improve my cardio conditioning. but seems like i've lost at least 10 bpm, maybe much more, in only a couple of months since i took up the weights. and i'm NOT riding nearly as aggressively as i used to on the days when i ride, because tired.0 -
What suremeansyes said. Big breath at the top, lock in, go down and then back up. I have a tendency to go supersaiyan on my way back up (my grunting sounds like anime characters "charging up". I can,t help it! lol). I think the releasing the breath on the way up gives you that little oomph because you're pushing the air out, so you're "pushing" the weight up as well. Iunno, works for me too though, even if it's probably just a mental thing xD0
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Lol, yeah my grunts get pretty impressive around 145ish. I make a conscious effort not to sound overly sexual, haha, that sounds so weird but it's true! I hate when people sound like they are doing it at the gym.
Mine are like "HNG...hooo" LMFAO. I can play it in my head. When I get to feeling like HNG then I know it's time to breathe out, that's the hoooo. Lol.0 -
Well I guess I haven't been doing it all that wrong then!0
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I'm glad I asked. For the life of me I thought I was the only one out of breath at the end of each squat. Taking a breath at the top is certainly the way I was most comfortable, but I just wasn't sure if it was correct or not. & sadly, I'm only squatting 55 pounds now. I can't even imagine the weight some of you girls are managing.0
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I do every lift the same way I to T-Tapp or Pilates (at least the Pilates I do, Stott Pilates), before I start I inhale, then I exhale on exertion. So for a squat, I walk up to the bar and get in position and inhale, pick up the bar as I exhale and step back, then inhale, then exhale as I do the squat and come back up. For deadlifts, I inhale, then exhale as I pick up the weight. This way it opens your chest, as you exhale the air same principle as Pilates.0
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In my powerlifting class, I was taught to take a breath at the top, hold it throughout the whole squat and exhale at the top. This way, your core is engaged throughout the whole squat movement.0
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Thanks for posting this OP, I was thinking about this today.
I try to inhale at the top, do the whole squat, and exhale when I get back up from the squat. But... as the weights get heavier, my squats are getting slower (focusing on form, not letting my hips come up too fast, heavy *kitten* weights and my legs hurt, etc.). So by the time I'm back up and let my breath out, I feel like I've just sprinted around a football field and in between reps (yes, reps! not sets!), I have to pause at the top for a moment to catch my breath before I can do another one. Surely this can't be normal?0 -
Lol, yeah my grunts get pretty impressive around 145ish. I make a conscious effort not to sound overly sexual, haha, that sounds so weird but it's true! I hate when people sound like they are doing it at the gym.
Mine are like "HNG...hooo" LMFAO. I can play it in my head. When I get to feeling like HNG then I know it's time to breathe out, that's the hoooo. Lol.
haha you should have heard me tonight ....totally sexual..if my husband had been home I am sure he would have come in to check things out...
But yes OP exactly what sure said...breath in at the top...hold it...keep core tight...and on the way up breath out....
@will the key is to let it out on the way up...all the way...push it out slowly...
I often find I am pushing my "belly" out to ensure it's getting all the way out...
*note I don't always follow my own advice and found this evening @170 it was mid way up which helps get me to the top.0 -
there was this young buck in the gym yesterday where i was. can't take too much away from him i guess, because he was actually lifting like crazy and not just doing an act. i eventually saw him do a couple of squat reps at 500lb and i didn't even try to count the plates he had piled up when he went to leg-press.
but oh lordy, the noises he made. it wasn't just the breathing during the reps, it was this sort of 5-minute verbal windup he gave himself first. i don't know enough to know if i can make fun of him for it or not, but he sure wasn't selfconscious about it. if i hadn't seen him come in like a perfectly normal person to start with i would have just thought 'poor guy, must have tourettes' and moved on. lots of little one-syllable barks and word-bursts, with muttering, and then some more barks, and special breathing . . . sheesh. seemed like some kind of psych-up thing, and what do i know? maybe it's legit. but it looked and sounded ridiculous.
@willrun4bagels and @violet976 . . . it isn't just you. i can do the first few reps on pretty much the next breath, but i usually give it a breath or two in between anyway just to make sure i'm getting fully set when i start the next one. by the 4th and 5th i have to pant for a while, otherwise i can't get a deep enough breath to feel like i'm solidly set for the following rep and i wouldn't be able to hold it all the way through. and maybe my gym is just muggy, but believe me - i *sweat*.0 -
Drives me nuts when the guys do all that grunting and groaning. And swearing.0
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Ok so is it breathe out as you are coming up (or starting halfway up) or breath out at the top once the squat has been completed? Unless I'm reading incorrectly, which I might be, it seems like there are two different recommendations throughout this thread. Which one is "proper?"0
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They are both proper. Sometimes you just need to exhale before you're at the top to give you a little more push. Sometimes you can hold it to the top.
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They are both proper. Sometimes you just need to exhale before you're at the top to give you a little more push. Sometimes you can hold it to the top.
Thank you! 0 -
Thanks for posting this OP, I was thinking about this today.
I try to inhale at the top, do the whole squat, and exhale when I get back up from the squat. But... as the weights get heavier, my squats are getting slower (focusing on form, not letting my hips come up too fast, heavy *kitten* weights and my legs hurt, etc.). So by the time I'm back up and let my breath out, I feel like I've just sprinted around a football field and in between reps (yes, reps! not sets!), I have to pause at the top for a moment to catch my breath before I can do another one. Surely this can't be normal?
Eventually this will improve in 2 ways- 1. Your work capacity will increase. 2. you will have worked on form enough that it will become 2nd nature, and can focus on being explosive. I've read it takes ~1000 reps to learn a motor pattern.0
