Breathing during exercise
When in doubt, just breathe through your nose
The best practice
Creating pressure through “belly breaths”. This means when you inhale, your belly comes out, as opposed to your shoulders rising.
When your shoulders rise. You’re breathing into your lungs. When your belly expands, you’re using your diaphragm, which is a super strong muscle.
Since your diaphragm is a muscle, it can get stronger!
Intra-Abdominal Pressure
Belly breathing creates what’s called “Intra-abdominal Pressure.” Think of this as your internal “weight belt”. The more pressure, the more stable your body is, and therefore the stronger it is.
When to breath is a better question
The trick is that exhaling (breathing out) requires no energy, so you typically want to do this during the hardest part of the exercise. Like standing up out of a squat, or picking up a bar off the ground.
Inhaling does require energy, so it’s usually done in between reps. Don’t make an exercise harder by inhaling during the hard part.
Breathing can easily make or break any exercise. With control you can learn what feels strong and stable.