Reply With QuoteHAHAHA! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!Originally Posted by perman
Wait, you are joking, right?
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Subtleties of valsalva and other breathing techniques
When I learned about valsalva from SS, I thought that was the breathing technique for strength training in general, but various experiences have made me more confused, so figure I'll list them and hopefully someone can offer some wisdom:
- First off, valsalva is essential in my experience for low-rep heavy lifts that require spinal bracing like squats, deadlifts, bench presses and presses.
- I have found exhaling immediately before chin-ups seems to help. Wonder whether this has more to do with breath or the added weight of the air in your body.
- Exhaling before long sets in general also seems to help me. Doing hard valsalva for long sets seems to increase fatigue and limit the amount of reps I can do.
- Tried a set of 20-rep squats where I had the belt on really tight like I usually do on squats (was at around 60% of 1RM), at rep 13 I couldn't breath anymore and stopped, and it felt like the really tight belt was making it much worse..
So I am left with some questions:
1) On lifts with low demands for spinal stability, how should you breathe?
2) For high rep sets of squats, presses, bench presses and deadlifts, do you alter the valsalva in any way? Do you intentionally brace "lighter" so as to manage fatigue for the set better?
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HAHAHA! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wait, you are joking, right?
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What, you've never strapped on a few balloons for weighted pull-ups?
Pro tip: If you can't manage BW pull-ups, use helium ballons!
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Look at the source...
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I dunno, that extra oz. of weight could be a killer....
OP: take a breath and reset valsalva every time. Sounds like you're holding your breath.
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Nope, I have no clue how much weight is in a breath...
EDIT: Though I suppose stability of weight on a scale indicates it should be less than 0.1 kg, so it should be a non-factor, but those are small breaths, not total exhales like I do.
Last edited by perman; 02-05-2017 at 09:48 AM.
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A couple of google searches say:
Average adult human male can hold 6 liters of air
Air density (dry, sea level) 1.2g/L
So, on the order of about 7g
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Ok, so not that. But am I the only one who doesn't find the full valsalva universally useful for everything? It seems there's a time and a place for it (low-rep, high weight, high spinal bracing exercises), and I'd just like to have a more conscious attitude about what I should do when I shouldn't do the full valsalva. Everybody's always talking about the importance of breath, but outside weightlifting, advice is all over the place....
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No one ever said the valsalva is useful for EVERYTHING. And I don't know what you mean by "full valsalva." You either take a big breath and brace yourself, or you don't.
For barbell training, I always use the valsalva. If I'm doing seated dumbbell hammer curls, I wouldn't find it necessary.
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Well, I'd say there are degrees of valsalva, as in how big a breath you're taking, and in how hard you're bracing, my unbelted 1 plate warmup set does not feature quite as intense valsalva as my work sets, and I've felt no benefit from emulating my work sets as closely as possible on my warmup sets breathwise.
Maybe I am indeed over-analyzing this, but if I ever do something like a 20-rep squat routine for instance, I figure there are distinctly different breathing cues than for a 1RM squats that would be beneficial to know...
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