An important but overlooked aspect of strength training is breathing. Proper breathing is important because of 1) The delivering of oxygen to muscles which allows for proper function and recovery in between sets and 2) Learning how to brace your core through the “sticking point” aka the hardest part of a lift. When it comes to strength training especially with heavy weights using compound exercises there are two main ways you can use your breath to leverage more strength.
1. Push Pull breathing – This is the simples way to breath during repetitions. During the eccentric phase you breath in followed by a breath out during the concentric phase. For example during the Bench Press as the bar is lowered to your chest (eccentric phase/pull) you breath in gently and then as you push the bar upwards away from your chest (concentric phase/push) you breath out gently in control and never overdoing it to the point you get light headed. This ensures a constant flow of air and a rhythm of bracing through the push phase/concentric phase.
2. Valsalva maneuver – This one is more efficient than the above when you really need to dog deep and muster enough strength. This maneuver requires your to hold your breath for a short time to allow your internal abdominal cavity (core) and muscles to brace. Think of it as wearing a weight belt. For example in the Squat just before you lower yourself you take a breath in, then hold your breath as you lower yourself to the bottom (eccentric phase) and keep holding your breath as you come back up until you are nearly standing tall. Then you breath out and repeat the process.
I cover these two ways of breathing with clients in person. Additionally for some clients we also do breathing/bracing drills such as learning how to brace the core while doing the dead bug exercise. The dead bug is a great way to learn how to brace your core and hold your breath for a short moment at just the right time. Another drill I use is diaphragmatic step breathing. This involves walking a number of steps breathing nasally in followed by the same number of steps breathing nasally out. As it gets easier we add more steps (6, 8, 10, etc) to lengthen both the in and the out breaths. The progression to this would be to hold the breath between in and out breaths for the same amount of steps and for even a greater challenge you can do this while jogging!