Why do coaches/personal trainers always teach to exhale when contracting a muscle and inhale when relaxing it?

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ie, when doing bicep curls, why do they always instruct us to breath in when bringing the dumbbell up, and out when extending our arm out straight? Is there a scientific reason for this? Does it have any benefit? What would happen if I do it the other way round, or if I don’t maintain any fixed rhythm/sequence at all?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

two things i thought of, having trained w weights for many years:

1. it forces you to breath rhythmically. holding your breath while lifting weights would be a bad idea.

2. breathing out, especially forcefully like when youre lifting, forces the contraction of your core muscles. this helps stabilize your body when you move against the weight. maybe not as important for something like bicep curls, but for more complex movements it helps protect your spine.

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