Help Breathing during sets

[Scott Stevenson]

Hi,

I'm looking for some suggestions on how one should breath during something like a back squat or deadlift during fortitude training. I have re read the book and searched but didn't find what I was looking for. Any advice is appreciated.

I know in fortitude training the reps are supposed to be continuous but coming from a powerlifting background this was hard to get used to. I am accustomed to doing a rep or 2 then taking a big breath to re brace. When should this be done using continuous reps? I tried re breathing on the eccentric for squats and felt ok but I didn't want to lose my brace when lowering a heavy dead. Also, should deadlifts be touch and go to be continuous? I have always pulled from a dead stop each rep but obviously that does not keep tension the whole set.

Hey Ben!

Generally, you'd "exhale when you exert," meaning exhale on the concentric and inhale on the eccentric. If you need the bracing of a Valsalva this would mean inhaling at the "top" of the rep as you transition from concentric to eccentric and exhaling on the concentric when it feels right (usually as you're past a sticking point).

[Valsalva's increase BP substantially, so just be aware of that...]

If you're trying to build DL strength for PL, then the pulling from a dead stop makes the most sense. Doing that for one exercise isn't going to mean you've ruined your gains, but it will tend to mean greater CNS taxation, so be aware.

Otherwise a touch and go technique to maintain tension would be the way to go, but with deads especially, if you need to reset between reps to ensure (low back) safety / good form, then don't hesitate to do that. Ideally your sets are standardized in that the reps are continuous, for the sake of logging progression, but it's not worth it if you try to maintain that, lose form and incur an injury. (So much for progression in that case... )

You could note, too, in your log book how many reps you perform before taking a pause to reset and consider that part of your progression.

If you do 495 x 6 before taking a reset pause and then grading out 3 more reps (with pausing in between), that's different than doing 495 x 8 with a final rep after a pause to reset. Whether one set is considered a progression over the other would depend on your form during touch n' go. If you find your groove includes some bouncing (not a big fan of this generally, but it works for some) then the continuous style for you might easier and mean more reps generally.

So, the breathing you'll have to find a groove on ,but inhaling at the top of the rep so you can have a bit of a valsalva brace in place during the eccentric and start of the concentric seems to work for many. You'll have to practice this maybe and you might pay closer attention to how you breath during other exercises, as you may already do something akin to this, but just haven't done so during DL's (for the reasons you state).

Hope this helps!

-S