Breathing During Exercise:
Don’t Wait to Exhale

When it comes to exercising, holding your breath can have a negative impact on your performance and strength. Learn to breathe properly and reap the rewards.

When exercising, it is not just the movement that makes or breaks the workout, it is also the breathing technique you employ when executing the move.

By ensuring that you breathe correctly, you can increase the flow of oxygen to the body and the muscles and ultimately have a more productive workout. Here’s how:

With most exercises, the rule of breathing is to breathe out during the exertion phase of the move. This has been known to ‘activate the core’, which is responsible for your ‘power’.

The American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength Conditioning Association recommend that you exhale when lifting the weight and inhale when returning with the weight to the starting position.

For example, lets say you are doing dumbbell curls. You would inhale, and exhale as you bring the weight towards your chest. As you return the dumbbell to the starting position, you would once again inhale and continue to work in that sequence.

Technique aside, the absolute worst thing you can do is to hold your breath while you are lifting weights. The reason for this is that added pressure is put on your chest and abs, which results in your heart having to unnecessarily work harder.

Copyright 2007: Remedium. This article may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Remedium.