Breathing, Bracing & Strength Training

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 Breathe Motherf****r


Breathing is an essential component of, well, everything. Don’t breathe and things tend to go wrong pretty quickly. When it comes to moving heavy weights, how you breathe determines how stable the movement will be, and how much force you will be able to produce.

In the fitness industry, at least when I was going through my level 3 qualification, you are taught to,‘breathe in on the way down/in, and breathe out on the way up/out.’ At the outset, this can be a good starting point for many beginner regressions of exercises and for using resistance machines. As well as when it comes to learning compound movements with lighter weights. However, it is not the ideal way for teaching breathing mechanics when it comes to maintaining stability under the heaviest weights.

In the next section, I will highlight how to increase stability through the role of core bracing and intra-abdominal pressure. But first, I want to expand - pun intended - on how our breathing helps create the initial pressure essential to this process.

Ideally, when moving a heavy weight, particularly with the squat and deadlift, it is advisable to take a large breath and hold it for the entire rep. Try this by placing one hand on your stomach and one on your side under the rib cage. Take a large breath into your stomach and see what happens. Your stomach rises as the volume of air inside your core increases. This is intra-abdominal pressure. Breathing this way increases volume, thereby increases pressure, making the core much more stable. From here you would then complete your movement, aiming to hold this breath and maintain pressure for the whole rep.

A word of caution. Keeping this pressure and stability intact requires resisting a full exhale on the ascent part of the lift. This creates something called the Valsalva effect, where the increase in pressure can cause a momentary spike and blood pressure. This is why you should never hold your breath for more than a few seconds during a heavy lift, as this brief increase in systolic pressure - while not harmful for most - does increase the likelihood of lightheadedness and fainting. The aim should be to take a large breath at the start and brace, hold this breath for the entire rep, and then reset with another breath before the next rep. The more you practice this, the better you will get at being able to breath, while maintaining core bracing.


Brace Yourself


Correct breathing mechanics create stability in your core and lower back through a process called bracing. But what is bracing and why is it essential to ensuring stability when lifting weight?

If you step under a heavy barbell, you want to make sure that the weight is not going to bend you in two. You help achieve this positive outcome by taking a big breath into your stomach. This breath amplifies the pressure inside your abdominal cavity, and is referred to as intra-abdominal pressure. Bracing is the process of ensuring that your core maintains this pressure to increase stability. As mentioned in the previous section.

By taking a big breath, the volume of the body’s intra-abdominal cavity increases and, when coupled with bracing our core muscles, the pressure grows because the volume can no longer expand. This is where a lifting belt can come into play (covered more in the next section.) Picture a can or bottle of Coke (or other carbonated beverage). A sealed container provides a great deal of resistance when you squeeze it, and can withstand a tremendous amount of pressure. A typical can is capable of withstanding an internal pressure of nearly 100psi (6 times atmospheric pressure), before it will explode.

Impressive considering the can is as little as a tenth of a millimetre thick. Release the tab and you release the internal pressure, compromising the can’s stability under force. The same applies to our body. Bracing our core acts like the surface of a can, increasing intra-abdominal pressure, helping us withstand the force of heavy weights.

Another analogy would be to picture your abdominal cavity as a balloon. As you blow air in it expands. Putting some tape around the balloon acts like our core and resists the expansion, thereby creating greater pressure within the balloon. By breathing into your belly and bracing your core against this, you create greater pressure and greater stability.

But if your breath creates the internal pressure, and your core braces in the same way as tape on a balloon, or the walls of a can of Coke, then how can we increase this pressure further? And in the process, create even greater stability and force production?


Belt Up


If you have spent any time in the gym or strength training, then you may have come across individuals wearing a leather or heavy fabric belt around their waist or midsection? You may have even tried wearing one yourself or been recommended that you should? But what are they for, what do they do, and how should they be used?

First, weightlifting belts are great. I wear one and it helps provide support and stability on maximal lifts. Especially with my squat and deadlift. However, I can say with a great deal of certainty that the majority of men, and yes we can generalise based on gender stereotypes here, men that you see in the gym are using it incorrectly. A belt should not be worn all of the time! Outside of my top working sets, I won’t wear one. So I only really use one for 3-5 sets per week.

So what is a weightlifting belt? A belt provides additional stability for your lower back and core. And as mentioned in previous sections, creating this stability rests with intra-abdominal pressure. A belt does not replace our core, but rather acts as another restraint to improve stability. Used correctly, with a correctly braced core, research has shown that intra-abdominal pressure values can increase anywhere from 20-40% with a belt. In order to use it correctly, you must breath into the belt. If you only wear it tightly around your waist, then you miss out on all the benefits.

However, despite the many benefits from using a belt related to stability, wearing one should be done with caution. If you are wearing a belt ALL OF THE TIME on every set and lift, or you introduce one too early in learning a movement, then your body will start to rely on the support. This will end up weakening your core, as you will not learn how to brace properly and use the belt as a crutch. Learning how to brace and create stability on your own, while building up the weight, should be the first priority.

A weightlifting belt is a great tool, but it should never be used at the sacrifice of proper form!


Conclusions


The steps I take when coaching clients through any compound movement always begins with assessing their movement pattern at light or body weight variations of the movement. This allows me to gradually introduce each phase of the movement and ensure that technique and breathing is solid as we gradually increase the weight demands. Introducing every aspect of lifting and breathing at once can cause information overload, and as you attempt to remember everything, you end up remembering nothing.

In my view, only once all technical aspects of learning the skill are drilled to the point where you are not actively thinking about them, is it worth introducing aids such as a weightlifting belt. You might find it helps at maximal weights. Or you may find that by this point your core stability is strong enough on its own.


For more information on intra-abdominal pressure and bracing please see: Horschig, Aaron, The Squat Bible (2017)


If this has been of interest to you and you would like to know more, then please leave a comment.

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