The goal of a person is not always to pump up his abs. In some cases, you can do with abdominal breathing exercises to make your stomach flatter.
Breathing plays an important role when performing abdominal exercises.
The success of the entire workout depends on how correctly you breathe.
Press and improper breathing
Before you figure out how to breathe correctly when pumping your abs, you need to consider what the consequences of improper breathing will be. In general, incorrect breathing is one of the most common mistakes when performing abdominal exercises. Many people do not pay attention to it, and in vain, because the effectiveness of the exercises suffers from this. Also, proper breathing technique helps prevent severe muscle and joint pain after exercise.
A fairly common breathing technique during sports: take a deep breath, and then hold your breath for several repetitions of the exercise. Then the person greedily gasps for air and again holds his breath for a certain time. But muscles need constant replenishment of oxygen reserves, especially during physical activity. With its deficiency, we cannot even talk about proper and complete muscle function.
Muscles can be called a kind of factory for processing calories and burning excess fat, and they need raw materials to work. It is oxygen that acts as such a raw material. If it enters the body intermittently, the work process slows down significantly, and in the end, no matter what you do, you still won’t achieve good results.
Correct breathing when pumping the press is quite simple. You need to inhale while relaxing, that is, in the starting position, and exhale when lifting, when the muscles are tense as much as possible. Maintaining this pace may be difficult at first, and you will have to constantly monitor how to breathe correctly while pumping your abs. However, after a few practices, proper breathing will become a habit, and you will automatically breathe as you should without even noticing it.
Muscle contraction
Another important factor regarding the question of how to breathe correctly when pumping the press. When we do exercises for this muscle group, they cannot contract completely due to the fact that there is a certain amount of air in our lungs.
Therefore, those people who delay doing exercises (for example, standard sit-ups) never fully work the muscles involved. The solution to this problem is very simple - having reached the end point (maximum tension) during repetition, you need to exhale completely.
The basics of proper breathing when pumping the press
We need to take a closer look at how to breathe correctly when pumping the press. Initially, you must understand that proper breathing is an integral attribute of any training, which largely determines good results.
Correct breathing when pumping the press is, in principle, quite simple. It assumes something like this sequence :
- Take your starting position, that is, lie on the floor, bench or machine, depending on the exercise you choose and your preferred method of swinging the press.
- If you are performing a standard abdominal exercise, in which you need to lie on the floor, bend your knees and lift your body towards them, then, while lifting your body, you should exhale and inhale, returning to the starting position. Exhalation is always done with effort - remember this.
You need to exhale during the entire time of your rise, just as the time of inhalation should be equal to the entire time during which you lower your torso.
In fact, how to breathe when doing abs is not that complicated. Why is this technique correct? The fact is that it helps simplify the performance of all exercises and helps the muscles get less tired after training. Of course, pain after training in them is still possible, however, proper breathing will help moderate them, reducing them to the usual post-workout discomfort, which is considered completely natural.
Speaking about how to breathe correctly while pumping up your abs, you need to take a closer look at muscle contractions. When doing abdominal exercises, the abdominal muscles cannot contract completely because we have a certain amount of air in our lungs. Therefore, people who hold their breath too much during exercise cannot fully work out the muscles involved. Dealing with this is quite simple. Exhale completely when you reach the end point, that is, the maximum repetition of the exercise.
Among athletes, the abdominal muscles are often referred to as the “exhalatory muscles.” That is, we must exhale when these muscles are tense. This principle applies to any exercise. Any lifting - legs, knees, torso, body and legs at the same time - is done while exhaling, this is a general rule. Inhalation, as is already clear, is done when we return to the starting position. At this time, the abdominal muscles are stretched to the maximum.
The principle of how to breathe correctly when pumping the abdominal press determines 90% of the success of our training. And this applies not only to working out the abdominal muscles, but also to any other strength exercises, so it is important to control your breathing technique.
https://youtu.be/4p7g19FANYY
How to breathe correctly
Now it’s time to talk about proper breathing during abdominal workouts. And I would immediately like to point out a simple and obvious truth to everyone who plays sports: proper breathing is an essential element of all activities. The successful result of training largely depends on it.
In general, the technique of proper breathing is quite simple. Here is an approximate sequence:
1) We take the starting position, that is, we lie down on the floor or on the machine, depending on your training preferences and the part of the abs that you are going to work.
2) If you perform a standard exercise for the press, that is, lie on the floor, bend your knees and raise your body towards them, then exhale throughout the entire lifting of the body, and while returning to the starting position (again, throughout all this time) inhale. That is, exhale with effort.
As you can see, everything is quite simple. Why do you need to breathe this way? This technique makes it as easy as possible to perform any abdominal exercise and contributes to less muscle fatigue after training. Of course, they will hurt after exercise, but proper breathing will relieve unnecessary pain, you will only feel natural post-workout discomfort.
Great desire and diligence during training are good factors, but they, by themselves, will not bring the desired result. Everything should be supported by proper breathing, only in this case the abdominal muscles will become truly strong and acquire a beautiful appearance.
Breathing exercises for the abs
Correct breathing is the greatest thing. It can help get rid of a number of diseases, rejuvenate, improve mental activity and willpower, and strengthen muscles, including the abdominal muscles. Strengthening your abs with breathing seems like something fantastic, but it is quite possible to strengthen your muscles through breathing exercises.
The proposed breathing exercises help tighten muscles and reduce volume, but you will not achieve six-pack abdominal muscles using only it. It’s better to complement your usual training complex with it.
So, let's look at effective breathing exercises for the abs:
- You need to stand up straight, put your feet together. Look at one point in front of you. Exhaling sharply through your nose, pull your stomach in as much as possible, then while inhaling sharply (through your nose again), push your stomach out as much as possible. The exercise must be performed quickly, making sure that the abdominal movements and breathing are synchronous. Shoulders should remain motionless. Results will be visible after the first month of regular exercise. During the first ten days, you can repeat the steps about five times, and then increase the number daily, bringing it to 25.
- The starting position is the same as in the previous exercise. First you need to bend your upper body so that an angle with the vertical is formed that is approximately 45 degrees. Your hands should be on your lower back, place your thumbs forward, fold the rest and point down. Look straight ahead at one point, keep your back straight, turn your shoulders, turn your elbows back. The technique is similar to the previous exercise, that is, exhaling sharply through the nose, draw in the stomach as much as possible, and inhaling through the nose, stick out the stomach.
- You need to stand straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your upper body forward, keep your back straight, bend your legs slightly at the knees, and place your straight arms slightly above your knee joints. The thumb should wrap around the hips. Your head should be held vertically, your eyes should look at one point in front of you. The technique is similar: inhaling sharply through your nose, draw in your stomach, exhaling, stick it out as much as possible.
- The last exercise assumes the same starting position and technique as the previous one. But the difference is that, after exhaling, you must hold your breath and continue to move your stomach, that is, draw it in until holding your breath begins to provoke discomfort. Then take a calm breath through your nose.
It is recommended to perform these exercises once a day . In addition to helping to reduce waist size and tighten abdominal muscles, they have a beneficial effect on the condition of the internal organs located in the abdominal cavity. By combining them with the main training complex, you will improve its effectiveness.
Now you know how to breathe while pumping your abs, and you won’t be able to ruin the effectiveness of your exercises with the wrong breathing technique. It is important to remember a couple of basic rules and stick to them when you are going to pump up your abs - breathing plays an important role in this process, so watch it.
https://youtu.be/QlA03UjhQeA
What experienced athletes say
To consolidate the result, it is worth familiarizing yourself with what experienced athletes say about proper breathing when pumping the press.
Athletes say one rather interesting thing about the abdominal muscles; many of them call this group the “exhalatory muscles.” That is, every time these muscles are tense, you need to exhale.
This principle applies during any type of exercise. When lifting your torso, exhale; when lifting your legs or knees, do the same. The same principle applies everywhere.
Naturally, inhalation is done while lowering the torso or legs, that is, when returning to the starting position. At this very moment, our abdominal muscles are stretched to their maximum.
So, 90% of the success of your ab workouts depends on proper breathing. However, the same rule applies to any other strength exercises. Take care of yourself and enjoy proper training! I wish you success!
Hello, I can’t wait for you to answer my question. What if you don’t come here at all, who knows. So let's start, I'm an athlete, not an outstanding one of course. I was involved in boxing, so a little bit of a lot of things. Not in this case. Now I want to go to the gym, but I haven’t gone yet. So))) damn, I really wanted to get an answer to my question and went to your site, haha, well, here again I came across a riddle... Do you know what it is?) Are you an athlete? (this is not a riddle, just a question). I have no intention of reproaching you for anything, and I don’t intend to, and I have no right to do so. Well done for creating this topic, I appreciate and respect those people who help others. Thank you very much for this. But the main nuance is that after reading your article I still did not come to a “conclusion”. I'll explain why. In general, I pump up my abs, my legs are bent, I lift my torso. When I raise my torso, I tense my abs and exhale because the muscles are tense, and when I lower myself, I inhale, but I lower myself quickly. It’s the same thing when you suddenly throw out jabs and exhale. You’ve probably watched boxing more than once and seen that before the blow the shoulders are relaxed and the fists are not very tense, but when they hit sharply they “exhale” sharply. But now look, you can lower yourself slowly, thereby again straining your abs, that is, you need to exhale again. To do this, you can take in air at the top point, BUT that’s not what we’re talking about. Look, I’ll now explain to you what you “confused” me with. While reading your article, you write that exhalation is done when lowering, and inhaling when raising the body. Look carefully at the top you wrote =), but I did the opposite. So I think that means I did it wrong. But then I started laughing, because then you write there what experienced bodybuilders recommend, etc. And you write absolutely the opposite, contradicting yourself, I am extremely surprised by this outcome))))) Write that when When raising the body, exhale and when lowering, inhale. Here it is:
Exhale for effort, inhale for relaxation
This is the most popular breathing advice you hear in and out of the gym: inhale when you do the easy part of the exercise, exhale when you push it.
Strong and safe movement is only possible with a rigid spine, which transmits force from large muscle groups. The spine is strengthened by tensing the core muscles - the rectus and oblique abdominal muscles, the pelvic floor muscles, and the back. During inhalation, it is impossible to tense other core muscles well, which means it is difficult to provide the spine with the necessary rigidity.
When exhaling, on the contrary, it is quite easy to tense your core muscles. Breathing affects them reflexively, through the nervous system. The muscles tighten, fixing the spine and helping to develop maximum strength. That is why the effort must be performed while exhaling.
If you pay attention to your breathing during heavy exercise, you may notice a brief cessation of breathing at the point of maximum effort. This is quite natural. Brief breath-holding is used by experienced powerlifters and weightlifters to lift heavy weights. This breathing technique is called the Valsalva maneuver, but it should be used very carefully.
