Exhale on the push

“You want to exhale as you exert the force,” says PT Tess Glynne-Jones. “You’re doing a squat, for example, you want to breathe out as you’re coming up and out of it of the movement. Breathe in and hold the breath as you lower to squat, breathe out as come back to standing”.

With a deadlift, that means breathing out as you lift the bar back up. With a chest press, you’ll breathe in to bring the bar to your chest and out as you push it sky-high.

“Whenever you’re exerting the energy, that’s what you breathe out – when you exert force,” she says.

Choose whether to breathe through the mouth or nose

If you’re worrying about whether to breathe through your nose or mouth, Glynne-Jones doesn’t think it matters that much. “You’re obviously going to get more oxygen in and out if you breathe through your mouth, but if you want a bit more control over the breath, you could breathe in through the nose and out of the mouth. It really depends on the type of exercise you’re doing.”

PT Caroline Bragg flags that exhaling on the effort is a technique usually mainly used for muscular strength and endurance training… but it’s not the only way. “The valsalva maneuver is also popular for weight lifting,” she tells Strong Women. “That’s when you keep your mouth closed and breathe out of your nose. It can create a lot of internal pressure in your torso, and that pressure helps the core to become more solid.”

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