evilcyber.com
  • Home
  • Workouts
    • Home Workout Plans
    • How To Build Muscle
    • How To Get Toned
    • Home Workout Equipment
    • Advanced Workout Topics
    • Other Workout Programs
    • Important Workout Lingo
    • Recommendable Books
  • Cardio
    • What Is Cardio?
    • How To Start Cardio
    • Home Cardio Exercises
    • Cardio Or Weights First?
    • Best Time For Cardio
    • Does Cardio Burn Muscle?
    • Cardio On Empty Stomach?
    • HIIT – Doing It Right
    • Cross-Training
  • Weight Loss
    • The Secret To Weight Loss
    • Gain Muscle And Lose Fat?
    • Exercise And Weight Loss
    • Diet Reviews
    • Weight Loss Myths
    • Weight Loss Supplements
  • Nutrition
    • Healthy Nutrition Explained
    • Bodybuilding Nutrition
    • What Are Carbohydrates?
    • What Is Fat?
    • What Is Protein?
    • Nutrition For Cardio
    • Marathon Nutrition
    • Exercise On Low Carb
  • Supplements
    • 3 Supplements That Work
    • BCAA Supplements
    • Beta-Alanine
    • Creatine
    • Dextrose Supplements
    • Energy Shots
    • Make Your Own Weight Gainer
    • Multivitamins
    • NAC
    • Testosterone-Boosters
  • The Rest

Fitness, Videos, Workout

How To Breathe When Working Out

The topic of how to breathe when working out is a bit controversial: inhale or exhale when you lift the weight? Should you actually hold your breath? Or take short puffs? Here are the most important pointers about breathing and exercising.

Any Breathing Is Better Than None

As long as you breathe, you are doing far better than if you stopped breathing. Holding your breath causes a lack of oxygen in your brain and has your blood pressure go through the roof. Neither is a good idea, especially when weightlifting:

Valsalva Manoeuvre

The technique of holding your breath under pressure that we talked about in the video actually has a name: it’s the Valsalva manoeuvre.

Named after a 17th century Italian doctor, it has you attempt to exhale while keeping your mouth shut and pinching the nose closed. Valsalva discovered this as a method to ease the pain in the middle ears that comes from closed Eustachian tubes. This is what you experience, for example, when you are aboard a plane or go diving. In the last decades its usage for this purpose has almost entirely stopped, as it can damage the middle ear. Now people are told to simply yawn or swallow, which usually has the same effect.

Another usage for the Valsalva manoeuvre directly shows why holding your breath under pressure is stress for the heart: Doctors sometimes use it to detect anomalies in heart rhythm, as it puts the heart under a lot of tension and makes heart problems more apparent.

If just doing this sitting in a chair’s in your doctor’s office is this much stress for your heart, imagine what happens when you do it during strenuous activity like weightlifting. In the study we talked about in the video, the highest recorded blood pressure under held breath was 370/360 – it doesn’t seem a good idea to subject yourself to that on a regular basis.

Picture courtesy of William Warby.

Help me spread knowledge and share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Search

Subscribe to EC

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Latest Comments

  • No comments

2 Comments

  1. dmitry says:
    February 23, 2012 at 3:40 am

    hi evil,

    hmm… does it sound odd… for example, while doing my last rep, holding my breath will actually helps me achieve it. Or I was just wrong?

    any thoughts?

    Reply
    • evilcyber says:
      February 23, 2012 at 5:03 pm

      No, you aren’t wrong. Some people tell me it helps them concentrate and I very well believe them.

      Reply

    What do you think?

    Click here to cancel reply.


    • About
    • Contact
    • Copyright
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
    © Copyright 2025 — evilcyber.com. All Rights Reserved.

    Evilcyber.com uses cookies

    More info about these little buggers in the Privacy Policy.

    Close
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.