OK, so I have tried HST for 6 weeks and I am real happy. I am about to go into the heavy phase. After that, I am toying with this idea. I have tried breathing squats with much benefit. Would an overall routine of breathing deadlifts, breathing push press, breathing chins (abs too) be worthwhile? I really want brief for a few weeks and want to mess around with it. I may do it and report my resuts anyway, but I am curious about the forums opinion. I am thinking two weeks, M-W-F.
Can someone explain to me what the whole “breathing” this is all about?
In a nutshell, you take a weight you can perform 10 reps with, and do 20. Squats are usually used. You take as many deep breaths as necessary to get the nads to do another rep or two, suck air, DEEP, and bang out 1 or 2 more until 20. real puker with squats. If you hit 20, add weight.
So you would just stand there (squats) with the weight still on and wait until you feel you can bang out another rep?
Yep, you put the weight on your back and keep it there until you bang out 20 reps. It is a good change of pace to throw in once and a while, but to build a whole routine on this style of lifting could be counterproductive.
Ok, another question. I remember reading about how breathing squats will expand your rib cage. Can anyone explain how this exercise accomplishes this?
The idea was that by breathing very hard under a heavy load during the squats and then supersetting with dumbell pullovers, you could expand the rib cage. Whether this occurs or not, I can’t tell you, but it makes for an incredibly tough workout 
Thanks, but i was also looking for a second answer too. How does a ribcage actually expand? Sternum stretches, or what?
Alright, I know you’re sick of my opinion, but the theory is that it stretches out the cartilage conneting the ribs to the sternum. Since it is connective tissue, it can definately stretch and this method could work as well as any. There are clearly cases where people’s rib cages expand, just look at people with emphysema. The chronic expansion of the lungs due to poor elasticity expands most of these people’s chest to look like barrels. So a combination of intense breathing plus heavy stretches from the pullovers could clearly be enough stimulus to get some expansion.
Back to the original question, do you propose doing these “breathing” sets HST style? By that I mean, would you do 1 set of deadlifts, pullups, etc. each workout 3x a week? And would you wait until you reached 20 to increase the weight, or would you bump it every two weeks? I think it would work quite well as long as you swapped lifts every 6 weeks and added enough GPP to avoid pattern wear on th ejoints.
Greg, what I was proposing is a way to bridge between HST cycles. My thoughts were that taking a weight and getting 20 reps with it. that is by hook or crook. If it takes during reps 15-20, 20 seconds rest or whatever, just get the 20 reps. Add weight each successive workout, MWF for two weeks, test for the 15 rep max on some, take a full week off as HST recommends and starting over. Why breathing exercises? Just to really jack my heart rate, test my courage, and just for the training effect.