Breathe or brace first?

[Sandisk]

What should be done first? Taking a breath or bracing the core? I've seen it being done in both ways, so what is the right way?

[poser]

Breathe.

[GCorbett]

I believe Rip advocates breathe and then brace in the book. Kelley starrett advocates for the opposite. The important thing is to breathe into the belly, not the chest, and to get a big enough breath to actually offer support.

Those of us sensitive to excessive vagal stimulation need to be a bit careful with this, but again belly not chest helps. I found I'd get tunnel vision on heavy lifts with Starrett's method because it was too chest centric if your abs are totally locked in too early. With Rips method, too big a breath doesnt feel right, but it seems to work better for me in general, although I probably end up with a slight hybrid method where I have mild abdominal contraction on breathing, and more after the breath is in.

Best advice I ever heard on the issue was to "breathe into your balls". ...just make sure to also pull your pelvic floor muscles into contraction on the brace.

[Charlocity2]

OP, did you also start that thread about how to get your head out of the way on the descent of the Press?

[Royce Nichols]

I believe Rip advocates breathe and then brace in the book. Kelley starrett advocates for the opposite. The important thing is to breathe into the belly, not the chest, and to get a big enough breath to actually offer .

I didn't know we actually had control of where the air goes? I thought they only went one place and one place only:the lungs?

[Michael Grantham]

If you can breathe in after you brace, you're not bracing.

[Sandisk]

I believe Rip advocates breathe and then brace in the book. Kelley starrett advocates for the opposite. The important thing is to breathe into the belly, not the chest, and to get a big enough breath to actually offer support.

Those of us sensitive to excessive vagal stimulation need to be a bit careful with this, but again belly not chest helps. I found I'd get tunnel vision on heavy lifts with Starrett's method because it was too chest centric if your abs are totally locked in too early. With Rips method, too big a breath doesnt feel right, but it seems to work better for me in general, although I probably end up with a slight hybrid method where I have mild abdominal contraction on breathing, and more after the breath is in.

Best advice I ever heard on the issue was to "breathe into your balls". ...just make sure to also pull your pelvic floor muscles into contraction on the brace.

Yeah, I am breathing to my diaphragm too, and have been doing it Rip's way, but I've begun to realize that maybe only during the bench press you actually need to breathe into your chest instead of your diaphragm, because you require more intra-thoracic pressure rather than intra-abdominal pressure during the bench press. What do you think?

[Satch12879]

I believe Rip advocates breathe and then brace in the book. Kelley starrett advocates for the opposite. The important thing is to breathe into the belly, not the chest, and to get a big enough breath to actually offer support.

Those of us sensitive to excessive vagal stimulation need to be a bit careful with this, but again belly not chest helps. I found I'd get tunnel vision on heavy lifts with Starrett's method because it was too chest centric if your abs are totally locked in too early. With Rips method, too big a breath doesnt feel right, but it seems to work better for me in general, although I probably end up with a slight hybrid method where I have mild abdominal contraction on breathing, and more after the breath is in.

Best advice I ever heard on the issue was to "breathe into your balls". ...just make sure to also pull your pelvic floor muscles into contraction on the brace.

You cannot physically "breathe into your belly."

[GCorbett]

You cannot physically "breathe into your belly."

To be fair, its more of a coaching cue, but diaphragmatic breathing is a very real thing. See Diaphragmatic breathing - Wikipedia.

The diaphragm is a muscle which lies at the separation from abdominal to thoracic cavities. You can contract the diaphragm with equal force with or without significant abdominal contraction. What then will happen with equal contractile force of the diaphragm, but with and without that strong abdominal contraction? With it, the lungs will have less room to expand and push against the membrane into the abdominal cavity.

After you close your glottis, there will end up being a difference in final thoracic pressure. Imagine a piston with a spring attached to it. As you pull back and contract the spring, it will draw air into the cylinder. When you then close the cylinder and then let the spring push back, you'll find theres a difference betwhen the pressures on each side based on the spring tension, and this difference will depend on the nature of how the spring is compressed before the cylinder closes.

Belly breathing is a silly name, but the effect is real and important. Without it, I'd pass out on heavy lifts.