Coaching Tips: Breathing (and not Breathing) in Weightlifting

Efficient Breathing in Weightlifting

Hey everyone, Coach Justin here with another tip on one of my favorite subjects: weightlifting. While I sadly will not be bombarding you with a bunch of technical jargon involving lifting technique specifically in this blog post, I would like to comment on one of the mistreated step-children of the weightlifting family. Breathing is something that often either goes completely unnoticed, is misunderstood, or is performed entirely incorrectly under false pretenses and outdated methods handed down by high school football coaches everywhere. While it may be unappreciated, breathing (and more importantly NOT breathing) is one of the most important foundations of proper lifting technique. Breathing is the main factor in whether or not your midline stays tight, and if you have been regularly attending classes with me you will probably have noticed that one of my primary coaching cues involves yelling at you to stay tight.

"Stay tight," "set the core," and "squeeze" are all common cues that we use here at Reebok CrossFit Back Bay when we are trying to force you to maintain proper tension through the midline. All power in our body is generated in a "core to extremity" fashion meaning that, among other things, we are strongest at our center of gravity (near our hips and core) and weaker as we move out on our limbs towards the fingers and toes. Any and all power should be generated, therefore, from our midline and radiate out to the extremities. This is the exact reason we force you to keep arms straight while pulling on the clean and snatch until the hips are fully (not partially, or kinda sorta) open. What this also means is that you can transfer a lot of power and energy through your midline assuming, of course, that you are keeping it tight. I am going to embrace my inner artist with the following analogy: lifting while not squeezing your core is much like a piece of pottery before it has been fired in the kiln. The clay is still pliable and easily loses its shape when any type of force is applied. Stick that bad boy in a fire and it becomes rigid. Unless you shatter it against the ground (quite a nasty fate for your spine if you are feeling this analogy) the clay will not deform under pressure, and many high quality pieces of pottery have endured for many years. Now imagine that instead of clay and that one guy in the senior year pottery class hell-bent on ruining your chef d'oeuvre (French for "masterpiece," how's that for sophistication?) we are instead talking about your spine and a 500 pound bar resting on your back while you are attempting a new PR back squat. You can imagine that tightness through the midline becomes even more tantamount here. How exactly does breathing help you achieve this rigidity you ask? Enter the Valsalva maneuver.

What is the Valsalva maneuver, and why does it matter?

I would like to open our discussion of the Valsalva maneuver by providing an example. For those of you who have perused the pictures of Team Reebok CrossFit Back Bay from this year's NorthEast Regional competition, you may have seen quite a number of hilarious mug shots from the snatch ladder event. For me in particular, as the snatches got heavier, a giant vein appeared on my forehead and my face looked contorted and bloated as if I had stuffed a pack of delicious chocolate-covered almonds in each of my cheeks. While often confused with an "angry vein," the one that appeared on your dad's forehead when he found your report card, the appearance of this vascular oddity is actually caused by the Valsalva maneuver. In short, this technique involves taking a deep breath, squeezing the abs and back, and closing off the throat while attempting to push the air you just breathed in outward. Due to the squeezing in your body and the closed position of the throat, this air cannot actually escape, effectively turning your midline into a rigid, high-volume cylinder. Much like the game of Billiards on a brand new, felt table, transferring energy through this Valsalvafied midline is very efficient. If, however, you do not hold your breath and instead let your core go loose, you have turned that felt table into a tub of jelly (try transferring any type of energy through that, I dare you).

Unfortunately, conventional wisdom and many pot-bellied, angry football coaches have caused high school athletes to breathe in during the eccentric, lowering phase of many lifts, and breathe out during the explosive portion of the lift. This is extremely inefficient given our previous discussion because breathing out while performing any type of explosive power transfer causes us to lose that crucial midline stability and waste a large chunk of the power we just generated to internal friction in our bodies. So instead I leave you with this piece of newfound wisdom: take a long, deep breath PRIOR to beginning the eccentric phase of your lifts (i.e. lowering down in the squat). Once you have filled your lungs with air, squeeze your abs like that time you walked down the beach two months after starting CrossFit, and hold your breath through the entire range of motion of the lift. While often performed for no reason at all, the grunting noises heard from meatheads in the gym have some merit. Grunting is caused by our closed throats attempting to prevent air flow out of our bodies, effectively maintaining that pressure we built up with our deep breath. This is why many Olympic weightlifters grunt while driving out of the bottom of their cleans and snatches, where rigidity is crucial to prevent 400 plus pounds from crashing down on their heads. Practice this with your air squat first if you are having difficulty, and then translate the technique into all of your lifts. You will soon find that you feel much more stable under an external load and that maintaining those difficult positions in the front squat and overhead squat becomes much easier. You will also generate much more power in your cleans, snatches, push presses, and jerks.

If you have extreme difficulty in maintaing adequate core pressure, consider investing in a weightlifting belt. Aim for a belt of equal diameter across the entire surface and strap it on tight enough to maintain pressure on the abs and back without strangling you or restricting your range of motion. Wearing a belt allows you to contract your abs TIGHTER than without one (contrary to popular belief it does not weaken your core or your supporting back muscles).

I hope that this guide on breathing technique has been useful and informative. As always, if you have any questions on specifics feel free to send me an email. Also, much of the information in this post was inspired by strength coach Mark Rippetoe. If this subject interests you and you would like an extensive description of why we do certain things in weightlifting, his book Starting Strength is one of the most informative and interesting reads on the subject I have encountered. Remember how to breathe when you lift and you will find yourself setting new PR's in no time.

Happy lifting,

Coach Justin