How the Heck Should You Breathe in a Lift? (Part 2)

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Breathing may seem like a simple and instinctive process, but did you know that it plays a critical role in optimizing your performance during resistance training?

In the first part of this two-part series of the Embrace Your Real podcast, we’ve delved into the reasons why we should breathe properly and its benefits. Now in our second part, we are going to discuss how to ACTUALLY breathe properly. Tune in to this episode to get the most out of your training through the help of breathing.

What I discuss:

Step 1: Before lifting

Step 2: Lifting the dumbbells

Step 3: Exhale during the effort

If you loved this episode, you will also love…

Episode 364 - How the Heck Should You Breathe in a Lift? (Part 1)

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Transcript:

[00:00:00] Hey. Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal 5 minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with Me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go. [00:00:22]

[00:00:31] Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode. Welcome to part two of the two part series. How the Heck should You Breathe? While lifting breathing may seem simple and may seem intuitive, but it does play a crucial role in really optimizing your performance during resistance training. And when you breathe properly, it will allow you to not only lift heavier and knock out more reps, but it also will help you to see better results from your workouts and just optimize your time in your lifting sessions. And so that's why in today's bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, we're going to be chatting all about breathing again. Part two. [00:01:06][34.4]

[00:01:06] In part one, I discuss four reasons why you should breathe properly. And in today's episode, I'm going to dive into how to actually breathe. I will link part one in the show notes that you can easily go tune in to that if you haven't yet. [00:01:18][12.0]

[00:01:19] But before I dive into the episode, I wanted to share. This review comes from Fuel My Body. She gave a five star review and said Julie's podcast are packed with uplifting, knowledgeable and helpful information to help me learn something new to live my best life. I love these podcasts and love her positive approach. Hands down my favorite podcast. Thank you Julie. I love this. [00:01:38][19.3]

[00:01:38] First of all, love your username, fuel my body. I'm all about optimally fueling your body. I talk about it all the time in the podcast. And secondly, thank you so much for the words and just tuning in to the podcast. I'm grateful that it's helping you. That is my hope and pray for every single episode is that you walk away feeling encouraged, empowered, lifted up in some way, shape or form. And so that is my goal. And so thank you for your also taking time out of your day to do that. If you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and type in, embrace your real first, make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode completely free. They download to your phone automatically on Monday and Thursdays. And then also if you could leave a rating interview, that would help us out tremendously. [00:02:16][38.3]

[00:02:18] All right. So let's dive into part two of the two part series. How the heck should you breathe any left? Now, I first want to kind of start off by explaining some common mistakes. One breathing number one I hear and see all the time is shallow breathing. So this is when we take the quick shallow breaths using only our chest instead of our full lung capacity. The problem with this is that our lungs can't fully expand and we don't get enough oxygen with every breath. Shallow breathing limits the amount of air reaching to the lower parts of our lungs, where most of the oxygen exchange actually occurs, which just essentially means that less oxygen enters the bloodstream, potentially leading to feelings of fatigue and stress. [00:02:56][38.6]

[00:02:57] Number two, I see this all the time, mouth breathing. So only breathing through your mouth instead of your nose is very, very common. Our noses are designed to filter, warm and moisturize the air that we breathe. But mouth breathing bypasses this essential process, which essentially just means when we breathe just through our mouth, we make it more difficult for our body to extract oxygen efficiently from the air. Plus, when you do that, you actually increase your heart rate more than needed and you become more dehydrated, leading to you having to take or because you are taking two quick of breaths. And this is probably the most common that I see. And not only just in lifting, but just in general as well as sleeping. I see this a lot with mouth breathers, but it's just again, it's going to make it more difficult for your body to just extract that oxygen efficiently. [00:03:45][48.5]

[00:03:46] Number three, holding your breath. Now, some people might not even realize that they're doing this until they take some time to actually recognize their breathing patterns in lifting. But some people tend to hold their breath unconsciously while doing like, let's say, a hard dumbbell exercises. So especially this happens during moments of stress or concentration. However, this can lead to oxygen deprivation and build up the carbon dioxide, which is not good because essentially holding your breath can reduce oxygen levels in the blood stream in the bloodstream and increase carbon dioxide levels, which is going to make you feel weaker during movement as opposed to stronger. [00:04:21][34.7]

[00:04:22] This, along with mouth breathing, is probably the two most common mistakes that I see. So really start to pay attention to your breathing. And this is something that I probably learned. I want to say in year three of lifting like it wasn't definitely not something that I learned right away. And I had heard about it in, you know, end of year one, year two, but I really didn't was not aware of my breathing patterns until I just you know, one day I remember reading this book specifically about breathing in terms of lifting. I think it was an article, it was in a book. I was reading an article on a blog, and I was like, Oh, you know, I'm just going to like, be more aware of my breathing. And I wasn't even realizing that I'm a mouth breather like that just is default, like mouth breathing for me, and then also holding my breath. And especially like I mentioned during like hard exercises, I didn't even realize this until I actually took some time to recognize it. [00:05:12][50.7]

[00:05:12] So if you have never taken notice or taken note of your breathing patterns in your lifting, I want to encourage you to start doing that. And the fourth common mistake that I see people make is over breathing, which is essentially hyper. Dilation. So breathing too fast and taking too many breaths can really throw off the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. And this leads to feeling weaker and also experiencing dizziness, tingling sensations and feeling of panic. You want to avoid hitting this point because then your workout is completely over. [00:05:42][29.3]

[00:05:42] So now that we kind of discuss the common mistakes of what breathing patterns we could be making, how the heck do we actually breathe correctly? This is likely what you came to tune into this series. Voice We're finally getting to the point, but I kind of want to break it down for you, walking you through an exercise as to how you should breathe at each point in the exercise. [00:06:02][19.9]

[00:06:03] So step one, before you're lifting, you're going to want to take a deep breath in three or nos before you start the lifting motion. So really filling your lungs with air. But don't overthink it. Just take a good deep breath in to fill your body with oxygen. Oxygen, remember, is going to help fuel the movement. [00:06:19][16.7]

[00:06:20] Step number two, lifting the dumbbells. And what I mean by this is the action of actually raising the dumbbells off the ground or bringing the dumbbells to the starting position. For example, if you're in a chess press, this is the point where you're picking the demos off and you're really setting yourself up for the lift. During this point of the lift is where most injury actually happens, where people will pull a muscle or throw out their back. And this is why in this part of lift, we would hold our breath so we can properly engage our core. And when we hold our breath, you automatically engage your core muscles. You then can utilize your core strength to get yourself in a starting position safely,. [00:06:56][35.8]

[00:06:57] Then leading into step three, exhale during the effort. So this is the most important part of the lift. So as you lift the dumbbells and reach the most challenging part of the exercise, that's when you're going to want to start exhaling as you push or exert the effort. Breathe out as much as you can, which is going to help to release the pressure in your chest and abdominals, making it easier for you to lift the weight. This is really where the point where you press up in the dumbbells and or stand up in the squat or curl your legs in a leg curl or whatever part of the exercise is the hardest. That's the point where you want to forcefully exhale and you'll notice the more forceful you are in the exhale, the more strength you'll actually muster in the movement. And this is why, if you have ever worked out in the gym, you likely have heard, especially I don't know, this is just my experience. [00:07:49][52.3]

[00:07:50] But, you know, these big bodybuilders, like they're breathing really heavy and it's kind of intimidating, especially if you've really not learned about the breathing process or if you're just, you know, new to the gym or coming back after a while. It can be intimidating. But I remember when I was working out in the gym and now that I work out at home in my basement, like you guys, I am the loudest Breather is actually working out with a friend a few weeks ago and they were like, Holy cow, you breathe so loud. And I'm like, Yeah, because breathing actually creates the momentum. And breathing really is a part of the lift. [00:08:22][32.3]

[00:08:23] Like when you're talking about like lifting in the mechanics of lifting. It's not just the dumbbells, it is everything working in harmony to make sure that you are pushing with all of your effort, which is so cool the way that God designed our bodies, right? Like the fact that your breath actually can feel your movement is is something that I really again, for the first 2 to 3 years of my journey, I didn't even put any effort into. So but again, like I said, you'll notice the more forceful you are with the exhale, the more strength you'll ever you will be able to muster up. And then step four, lowering the dumbbell. So once you've reached the top or the most challenging part of the lift, you're on your way back down. You can take another breath in through your nose to prepare for the next repetition. And this is the point where the lift is the easiest. [00:09:08][45.5]

[00:09:09] So when you are lowering down from a pull up, you would breathe out. Or when you're lowering back down from a bicep curl, you would breathe out. When setting your dumbbells back down, you can hold your breath and embrace your core and ensure that you stay safe throughout the movement and putting them back down. Remember, the key is to save the exhale for the toughest part of the lift the movement. When you need the most power, the most force, the most effort. [00:09:33][23.8]

[00:09:33] Exhaling during this phase is going to help to prevent from holding your breath for too long, which could negatively impact your bloodstream. It can, you know, hold any. It can really just cut off any oxygen levels and it can ensure that you are getting enough oxygen to power your muscles through the most challenging part of the exercise. [00:09:51][17.8]

[00:09:52] So to recap, hold your breath as you set up for the lift. Inhale during the easiest part of the lift and then exhale during the hardest part of the lift. It might take some practice to get used to really coordinating with your breath, with your movement. So if this is something that, you know, maybe you are watching a show or you're listening to music or podcasts while you are lifting, take a pause on that and really just focus on your breath. In fact, I would encourage you to do this a few sessions a week. I actually lift in silence. I've been doing this for the past couple of months to really just make sure that I'm getting that mind muscles in action and really focusing on my breath. [00:10:26][34.0]

[00:10:26] And when I say mind muscle connection, that absolutely 110% means that my breathing needs to be on point. And so I've been lifting in silence. You know, sometimes it's the whole lift, some to other times, you know, it's the first ten, 15 minutes to really get into the groove and make sure that I'm setting myself up for success. But I have found, especially with the go at your own pace style, sometimes we can just get so caught up in the movement and like, getting through the workout that we're really not putting an emphasis on that mind muscle connection. We're not putting an emphasis on our breathing patterns. And I'm telling you, when you do put an emphasis on those two things, it's just only going to allow you to have a more effective and efficient workout. And also, it's going to allow you eventually, over time to lift heavier, which is likely what a lot of us want. We want to get stronger. We want to feel like we're actually working it to our fullest potential in our workout. So really mastering that breath, really mastering that mind muscle connection. [00:11:24][58.0]

[00:11:25] Again, if you haven't tuned in to part one, I will link it in the show notes because that is really going to get you all the information in terms of breathing correctly during your workouts and why it's so beneficial. I don't know about you, but whenever I learn something new, I kind of like to know the why behind it. And so that is exactly what part one is going to do for you. I will link that in the show notes, but that is all that I have for today's bonus episode. I hope that you found this helpful. I would love to hear if this was a new concept for you or if this is something that maybe you're revisiting or it's just a great reminder, again, you know, adding it to the toolbox or taking it out of the toolbox and saying, Oh yeah, I had that in there. Know, at one point I was really focusing on it. But over the last few months or four years, I haven't really focused on that. [00:12:06][41.1]

[00:12:06] So I hope that this was helpful for you. If you have a friend or coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode or this podcast in general, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can always copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can also post this up on your Instagram story, link it for all of your friends and community to check out. I would greatly, greatly appreciate that. I love you so much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:12:29][22.7]

[22.7]All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, It's with an A the middle for that daily post work out real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and sexy. Here in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace Israel because you're worth it. [00:04:47][0.0]

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