Hey Scott. On tomorrow I will be performing a lot of pulling exercises, and I need to know when is the best time to inhale and exhale. For example, when I do my lat pull down exercises, do I inhale when the bar touches in the middle of my sternum, and do I exhale when I raise the bar back up? Or is it the other way around? Same goes for doing pull ups? When do I inhale and exhale? Whenerver I do my pushing exercises, as I were to do compound movements (bench presses, squats) when do I inhale and exhale? If I were to perform push ups, when do I inhale and exhale? I understand knowing when to breath is as important as the exercises themselves.

Inhale on the eccentric portion of any movement, and exhale on the concentric. For example, when you are doing a push-up, that would be inhaling as you bring your chest down to the ground, then exhaling as you push back up. For a pulldown, that would be exhaling as your bring the weight down, and inhaling as you stretch your lats and return to the top position.

 

Keep in mind that for big compound movements, like squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press in particular, you should be taking in a breath before you start the movement, and then breathing out once you have finished your rep (or multiple reps if you can perform multiple reps with one breath). Check out this video!

 

Thanks Scott! I will definetly utilize this!

Sweet! Hope it helps @Co14!

Hey Scott, do you recommend holding your breath for pull-ups also? I can do a few, but want to get them more strict (no swinging, no moving my legs, etc.). I've tried a few ways of breathing, but don't feel any of them really help to keep my core nice and engaged, and end up holding my breath anyway (at least on the way up). Thanks!