MEANING:
Of course I don’t need to tell you that you are breathing from the day you are born until the day you die.
In all exercises and sports HOW you breath and WHEN you breath has a big effect on the quality and efficiency of exercises.
Correct breathing is just one small part of perfect technique.
TYPES:
With different types of exercise come different types of breathing.
Generally, heavier weights (like those often used in Squats or Bench Press) will involve heavier breathing and loud blowing noises. Lighter weights and higher reps will lead to more relaxed and easier breathing.
TIPS:
Why is Breathing Technique important?
Beginners in the gym often learn how to do exercises but completely forget about their breathing technique until a coach tells them. Beginners are often nervous, uncertain, and self-conscious. These emotions result in abnormal breathing patterns which are inefficient. If your breathing is wrong then it is harder to concentrate, harder to relax and harder to focus your mind.
Fire and Reload
This is my own way of describing the process of breathing out (the fire) on the main strain of the exercise, and breathing in (the reload) on the second and easier part of the exercise.
For example, consider the Bench Press. When you push the bar up, this is the fire. This is when you should breath out – a tiny fraction of a second before you begin the upwards push. There is then a slow and controlled lowering down of the bar back to the top of your chest – this is the reload stage and this is where you should be breathing in.
Similarly, consider the Pushup. The fire is when you push your body weight up from floor level until your arms lock out. The reload happens as you slowly return yourself to the lower position. So – breathe out on the way up and in on the way down.
Breathing through your nose
Most people do not breathe efficiently, but you can train yourself to breathe better whilst you are exercising. The techniques you learn in the gym will quickly spill over into other parts of your life and you will find that you unconsciously adjust the mechanics of every aspect of your life to utilize techniques you learn in the gym.
The mouth is designed to eat and talk. The nose is designed to breathe and to help purify the air that you breathe. I often practice breathing through my nose (both in and out) when I am jogging, but I find that when the effort becomes more intense I will naturally start to gulp air through my mouth.
In the gym, try to focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth as much as possible.
DETAIL:
The terms fire and reload are merely simple coaching terms that I use to describe the more technical terms of concentric (fire) and eccentric (reload). Please follow this link for a more in-depth study of How to breathe when working out.