Your mind is wrong.
I go through getting mostly in position, exhale, DEEP inhale, pull out bar and plate slack, lock valsalva down, pull, lockout, lower (mostly by letting gravity do the work with bar in hand) and exhaling once the bar passes my knees or on touchdown. I've tried holding breath the whole way and I still exhale when I'm on the last reps.
This is the correct way to do it. For myself, and I probably wouldn't train someone else to do this, it is easier for me to breathe at the top. I catch a large breath on top and then bring the bar down to the exact position I need to pull from. I do fully deload the bar on the bottom (stop and go), but I don't hang out there too long. This just always worked better for me, especially on hard sets, where being bent over in the bottom usually increases my chances of feeling sick. For heavy singles, of course I breathe on the bottom and then hold my breath until I put the weight back down.
Just chiming in here because I get neurotic sometimes...
Thanks for not making fun of me guys. I know everyone saw it and didn't say anything. This thing keeps topic keeps popping up on my participated feed and now, I just need to correct myself....
I didn't mean "in the floor". I meant "on the floor". Breathe when the weight is ON the floor.
Yes I have. That makes my torso even more horizontal while I am taking a breath. When I am trying to do high reps mainly, it really upsets my stomach. I almost puked a little today doing it my way. Had I taken the extra time between reps, I think I would have puked for sure. :-)