Breathing
 

Does it matter how you breath when you work out? Like exhaling and inhaling? I have seen workout videos before where they tell you when to breath. Do I need to follow a rule of thumb?

The general rule of thumb is to exhale at the execution of the lift. When you squat, take a breath and hold it, go down, and on your way back up exhale towards the top.

Strength Training Breathing Quick Tips :

For Squat: Hold breath on walk out, breath out and take a deeper breath and squat. Repeat taking breaths for each 1-3 reps depending on conditioning levels.

For Bench Press: Hold breath from start to finish 3reps at a time before re-catching your breath.

For Deadlifts: whatever is comfortable, Bob People's used to deadlift with all his air exhaled. For me I like to scream out all my hair and quickly huff it back in when I pull.

The above posts are very useful to body building. It does help if you know how to breath correctly to get the best results.

What Bodybygamma said execpt on deadlifts I will take very short quick breaths leading up to it then right before the lift I do what he said.

You will actually notice, if you don't give it much thought, that the body will automatically breath and brace itself correctly in readiness of heavy loads.

All of us have picked up heavy boxes, prior to weightlifting, and we hold our breath and brace our abs/core thereby increasing the intra-abdominal pressure which helps to protect the lower back; the body makes us do this, automatically, it's a natural thing...BUT, start overthinking and outthinking the body and you'll just end up with problems.

The body knows how to protect itself, let it do its job!

Honestly, I don't think about it. I'm sure at one point I did, but at this point I just do what I do.

Thanks to all who have answered. That really clears it up for me.:)

I've recently really been focusing on my breathing technique, for bench and squats at least. At the top of the lift I take a massive breath of air into my belly, pusing out against my belt (for squats) and start the descent. I used to breathe out as soon as the press or ascent began, but that takes away a certain amount of pressure so I keep my breath help until I'm approximately two thirds of the way up, usually at the point of the bench where the triceps are engaged and failing can occur, and then use the breathing out to drive the weight up.

the weights you're working with compared to your bodyweight would definitely have an impact on the importance of breathing technique.

bodybuilders, or any lifter, using 50%-80% intensities for many reps could probably get away with "freestyle" breathing much more than a lifter using 80%-95% intensities. at that point it becomes a safety issue.

that being said, i agree with 5kg that 99% of the time you will find yourself breathing properly according to those intensities instinctively.