Valsalva Breathing

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Just wondering how many of you use the valsalva breathing method for lifting, especially for squats.

From my research the method is to take a deep breath so that your stomach sticks out(like your pretending to be pregnant) and then you close your mouth and try to breathe out which tightens your abs/core.

Am I correct?

Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?

Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?

Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?

Thanks in advance.

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2

Try to exhale as hard as you can but don’t let any air out. You should be able to block the airflow in your throat. That’s the basics of the valsava maneuver. Your abs tighten up as if you’re bracing for a punch… not really pushed out, or pulled in. Just solid.

For a less PC version: it’s a similar feeling when you’re somewhat constipated, and you’re trying to force things.

From what I understand, this, combined with the idea of squeezing your glutes together, as if you were trying to pinch a coin, help hold the core and lumbar spine very solid, stiff and safe.

As far as breathing, once you figure out how to hold your abs like that, you can breathe in and out; it’s just a little more forced. For squats, I hold my breath when going down, and exhale a bit when coming back up. That’s how I do it.

3

Didn’t know there was a name for this, but it’s exactly what I do. Kinda funny that I figured it out completely on my own.

I slowly exhale after I’m about halfway up on squats.

4

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

5

Lol Lorez you crack me up trying to pinch a quarter between your butt cheeks haha not saying its bad advice but just awesome and somewhat scary imagery.

6

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH

7

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH[/quote]

How is this? Not calling you on anything I’ve just never heard of that before and am genuinely curious.

8

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:
A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH[/quote]

How is this? Not calling you on anything I’ve just never heard of that before and am genuinely curious.[/quote]

If I remember correctly, basically hyperventilating causes less oxygenation in the blood [yes, I know that’s counterintuitive], and more carbonic acid (what carbon dioxide is made of). When you combine that with increased blood pressure from holding your breath, your body basically switches off its voluntary processes and ‘passes out’, letting the involuntary processes take over to re-regulate the oxygen supply to the brain.

I could be totally off, but that’s my understanding of it.

9

“Weight-lifters’ blackout can be attributed to the reduced cardiac output and cerebral blood-flow associated with the Valsalva man?uvre. Vascular dilatation having already been produced by hyperventilation and squatting, the cardiac output falls acutely during refilling of central vessels when the very high thoracic pressures are released at the end of the man?uvre.”

From:
WEIGHT-LIFTERS’ BLACKOUT
D. Compton , P.Mcn. Hill , J.D. Sinclair

10

[quote]Reed wrote:
Lol Lorez you crack me up trying to pinch a quarter between your butt cheeks haha not saying its bad advice but just awesome and somewhat scary imagery.[/quote]

I think I got that one from Pavel Tsatsouline. Sometimes you need a description like that to know what to do…

11

^ Huh. Okay, cool. Thanks guys, I didn’t know that.

12

If you have a copy of starting strength you should read the section on it, pretty interesting stuff. I agree with what Rippetoe wrote on this, most people kinda find out this method of breathing during heavy lifts on their own. The body kinda just takes over and you naturally implement this method. He also writes about how this method doesn’t put you at an increased danger of passing out or other health issues.

13

[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
If you have a copy of starting strength you should read the section on it, pretty interesting stuff. I agree with what Rippetoe wrote on this, most people kinda find out this method of breathing during heavy lifts on their own. The body kinda just takes over and you naturally implement this method. He also writes about how this method doesn’t put you at an increased danger of passing out or other health issues. [/quote]

Ya he does a good job of explaining it, however he doesn’t specifically talk about hyperventilating right before doing the set so I would still be concerned about blacking out.

14

Thanks for your advice friends.

So am I right to say that to do this method one must try and make their stomach as big/pregnant as possible? Or is it to brace, and just keep the stomach “neutral”?

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15

play with it.take your belt into consideration too. sometimes ill take a breath thats too big and it messes with my lift and can make me feel light headed. i take a big breath… probably 90% of what I would gulp down and then i start to exhale on the way up. sounds kind of grunty when I get fatigued

16

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH[/quote]

How is this? Not calling you on anything I’ve just never heard of that before and am genuinely curious.[/quote]

We didn’t dive too deep into it in the class I learned it in, bc we were focused on other stuff, but basically your blood likes to stay witgin a very small margin of pH, any manipulation of oxygen or carbon dioxide levels will alter your blood pH. Hyperventilating causes a very rapid change in your blood pH, basically throwing everything off track.

Your body’s last resort to reestablish the normal blood pH levels is just to pass out, then it can adjust your breathing yo get the pH levels back without you interfering.

17

[quote]orourkei wrote:
play with it.take your belt into consideration too. sometimes ill take a breath thats too big and it messes with my lift and can make me feel light headed. i take a big breath… probably 90% of what I would gulp down and then i start to exhale on the way up. sounds kind of grunty when I get fatigued [/quote]

Thanks mate.

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18

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH[/quote]

How is this? Not calling you on anything I’ve just never heard of that before and am genuinely curious.[/quote]

We didn’t dive too deep into it in the class I learned it in, bc we were focused on other stuff, but basically your blood likes to stay witgin a very small margin of pH, any manipulation of oxygen or carbon dioxide levels will alter your blood pH. Hyperventilating causes a very rapid change in your blood pH, basically throwing everything off track.

Your body’s last resort to reestablish the normal blood pH levels is just to pass out, then it can adjust your breathing yo get the pH levels back without you interfering. [/quote]

Thank you! That’s what I really wanted to know so thank you for explaining that in layman terms for me. How very cool is that that your body will render itself unconscious to fix your incorrect blood ph and breathing? In hindsight, maybe I should have spent more time in science classes than business and accounting.

So, I guess that would be why, say, someone having an anxiety attack would begin to breathe rapidly and then complain of feeling dizzy or light headed or like they wanted to pass out? Maybe I’m simplifying things too much. lol Sorry for getting off-topic but I found that really fascinating.

19

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:
So, I guess that would be why, say, someone having an anxiety attack would begin to breathe rapidly and then complain of feeling dizzy or light headed or like they wanted to pass out? Maybe I’m simplifying things too much. lol Sorry for getting off-topic but I found that really fascinating.[/quote]

Yep, that’s exactly why they get light-headed.

Very random and tangential:
There was some russian research by a guy named Buteyko and another guy Frolov into manipulating breathing patterns for health reasons. They researched Indian Yogic techniques and found ways to reproduce the same effects quicker.

Anyway, their research was into manipulating the blood ph over time to a more alkaline state, which has tons of reputed health benefits. The two of them did it by training people to breathe differently. However, that fits right in line with a lot of the more “modern” hippie-ish diets talking about “alkalinizing vs acidifying foods” and trying to make the body more alkaline to fight off all sorts of disease.

20

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
Do you gold your breathe for a whole set(for example if your doing a set of reps)?[/quote]
Usually I take a breath and reset between each rep; however, if the weight is heavy and the set is short, I will hold the tension for the entire set.

[quote]theBird wrote:
Is it ok to exhale for example half way up on the ascend of your lift?[/quote]
Yes, but reset before starting the next rep

[quote]theBird wrote:
Does this have any impact on keeping the lumbar curvature correct?[/quote]
It will certainly help to brace your abdominals and support your lower back.

For what it is worth, this is what I do. I think there are good explanations from Dave Tate and Luie Simmons on youtube, but I am too lazy to look them up for you.

A warning, do not hyperventalate before you start your set; for some strange reason this can cause you to black out after or during the set. There is some complicated physiological reason for this, but again I am too lazy to look it up.

[/quote]

The fast intake of oxygen screws up your blood pH[/quote]

How is this? Not calling you on anything I’ve just never heard of that before and am genuinely curious.[/quote]

We didn’t dive too deep into it in the class I learned it in, bc we were focused on other stuff, but basically your blood likes to stay witgin a very small margin of pH, any manipulation of oxygen or carbon dioxide levels will alter your blood pH. Hyperventilating causes a very rapid change in your blood pH, basically throwing everything off track.

Your body’s last resort to reestablish the normal blood pH levels is just to pass out, then it can adjust your breathing yo get the pH levels back without you interfering. [/quote]

Thank you! That’s what I really wanted to know so thank you for explaining that in layman terms for me. How very cool is that that your body will render itself unconscious to fix your incorrect blood ph and breathing? In hindsight, maybe I should have spent more time in science classes than business and accounting.

So, I guess that would be why, say, someone having an anxiety attack would begin to breathe rapidly and then complain of feeling dizzy or light headed or like they wanted to pass out? Maybe I’m simplifying things too much. lol Sorry for getting off-topic but I found that really fascinating.[/quote]

No problem.

Yep, that’s exactly why. That’s also why you can feel like you’re about to pass out when you’re doing some hard conditioning.