How should you breathe during strength training?

The standard technique

The common recommendation follows the movement itself: inhale during the eccentric phase (lowering the weight) and exhale during the concentric phase (pressing the weight up). This breathing pattern works well for moderate loads and isolation exercises like biceps curls or lateral raises.

The Valsalva maneuver under heavy loads

At high loads (from roughly 80 percent of maximal strength upward), experienced lifters typically switch to the Valsalva maneuver: inhale before the movement, hold the breath, and brace against the closed glottis during the concentric phase. Hackett & Chow (2013) describe the mechanism: the air trapped in the chest and the braced abdomen raise intra-abdominal pressure, which passively stabilizes the spine and can boost strength output by 5 to 15 percent.

Risks of the Valsalva maneuver

Holding your breath causes a brief spike in blood pressure, which can be problematic with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions (high blood pressure, coronary artery disease). For healthy adults, a controlled Valsalva maneuver held for a few seconds during heavy single reps is considered safe according to Niewiadomski et al. (2012). Keep the duration short, though — ideally only through the hardest part of a rep.

Recommendations by exercise and load

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is uncontrolled breathing under load — too shallow, restricted, or erratic. That raises injury risk through an unstable core. In his work on spinal biomechanics, Stuart McGill (2015) recommends deliberately coupling your breathing to the movement pattern and always starting compound lifts with a full chest of air.