How to Breathe During Exercise and Strength Training

Breathing during exercise is easy to overlook until a workout becomes difficult. Then it can suddenly feel like there is a “right” way to inhale, exhale, brace, or hold your breath—and a long list of rules you are supposed to remember while also concentrating on the exercise itself.

For most workouts, breathing does not need to be complicated. Your respiratory system automatically increases ventilation as physical effort rises so that your body can take in more oxygen and remove the additional carbon dioxide produced by working muscles. Both the depth and frequency of breathing can increase substantially as exercise becomes more demanding.

The main skill is learning not to fight that natural response. During general strength training, a simple pattern such as inhaling during the easier or lowering portion of a repetition and exhaling during the harder portion is often practical. During cardio, your breathing usually becomes faster and deeper as intensity rises. Heavy strength training introduces another consideration—bracing and sometimes deliberate breath-holding—which requires more care because it can substantially affect blood pressure.

Breathing is also part of overall technique. If you want the broader context for how breathing, positioning, control, and progression work together, see the Exercise Form Guide: Why Technique Matters for Results and Injury Prevention.

Why Breathing Changes During Exercise

At rest, breathing usually happens without conscious attention. During exercise, your muscles use more oxygen and produce more carbon dioxide, so ventilation rises to meet the increased metabolic demand. The nervous system begins adjusting breathing almost immediately when exercise starts, and respiratory rate and breath volume continue to change as workload increases.

That is why breathing harder during a workout is not automatically a sign that something is wrong. In healthy adults, pulmonary ventilation can increase many times above resting levels during intense exercise.

The practical implication is important: you usually do not need to micromanage every breath.

Breathing cues are most useful when they help you maintain control, avoid unnecessary breath-holding, or coordinate breathing with a technically demanding movement.

How to Breathe During Strength Training

For most recreational resistance training, one of the easiest patterns to remember is:

Inhale during the easier or lowering phase. Exhale during the harder or lifting phase.

For example:

• Squat: inhale as you lower, exhale as you stand.
• Dumbbell bench press: inhale as the weights lower, exhale as you press.
• Lat pulldown: inhale as the bar returns upward, exhale as you pull it down.
• Biceps curl: inhale while lowering the weight, exhale while curling it upward.
• Leg press: inhale as the knees bend, exhale as you press the platform away.

This pattern can help prevent unconscious breath-holding and gives beginners a predictable rhythm to follow.

However, it should not be treated as an absolute physiological law. Research comparing inhalation and exhalation during the concentric—or lifting—phase of resistance exercise found similar blood-pressure elevations between the two patterns, whereas performing a Valsalva maneuver produced a substantially greater blood-pressure response.

So the most important distinction is often not whether you inhaled or exhaled at one exact point in the repetition.

It is whether you are breathing deliberately versus unintentionally holding your breath under strain.

What Does “Exhale on Exertion” Mean?

“Exhale on exertion” means breathing out during the portion of the movement that generally requires the most force.

In a squat, that is typically the ascent.

In a push-up, it is usually when pushing away from the floor.

In a shoulder press, it is the upward press.

In a row, it is generally the pulling phase.

The cue works well for many common exercises because it is simple. It can also discourage someone from taking a breath and then unknowingly holding it throughout an entire difficult repetition.

But not every exercise divides neatly into an easy half and a hard half.

Some movements have difficult points in the middle of the range. Others involve continuous motion. Complex lifts can require a breath and brace before movement begins.

That is why “exhale on exertion” is best viewed as a starting strategy for general resistance training, not a rule that overrides the demands of every exercise.

Do You Need to Breathe on Every Repetition?

For light and moderate strength exercises, breathing on each repetition is often comfortable and easy to coordinate.

If you are doing controlled dumbbell curls, machine exercises, bodyweight squats, or moderate-resistance presses, there is usually little reason to deliberately hold your breath for multiple repetitions.

As resistance becomes heavier, breathing may become less neatly synchronized.

A lifter might inhale before beginning a difficult repetition, create trunk tension, perform the hardest part of the movement, and then release or reset the breath. This becomes particularly relevant in heavy compound lifting.

That does not mean everyone should copy advanced strength-training breathing strategies. The demands of a heavy barbell lift are different from those of a general fitness set, and deliberate breath-holding carries cardiovascular effects that deserve consideration.

What Is Bracing?

Bracing means creating muscular tension around the trunk to make the torso more stable while force is being produced.

Imagine someone is about to gently push against your abdomen and you tighten your midsection in response. That general feeling resembles abdominal bracing.

Your abdominal wall, diaphragm, spinal muscles, and other structures around the trunk contribute to stability during loaded movements. Increasing intra-abdominal pressure can help create greater trunk rigidity when lifting.

Bracing can be useful in movements such as squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, loaded carries, and many standing exercises.

But bracing does not automatically mean holding your breath for as long as possible.

You can create trunk tension while continuing to breathe, particularly during lighter and moderate exercise. As loads become very heavy, lifters may use different strategies.

Bracing vs. Holding Your Breath

The two concepts overlap, but they should not be treated as identical.

Bracing refers primarily to creating trunk stiffness.

Breath-holding means temporarily stopping airflow.

A person can brace while still allowing some breathing. A person can also brace and deliberately hold the breath.

The latter may become a Valsalva maneuver when someone attempts to exhale against a closed glottis or closed airway while straining. The maneuver can substantially increase intra-abdominal and intrathoracic pressure and may increase trunk rigidity during heavy resistance exercise.

That increased pressure is one reason experienced strength athletes sometimes use the technique during very heavy lifting.

It is also the reason the technique requires caution.

What Is the Valsalva Maneuver?

During resistance exercise, the Valsalva maneuver generally involves building pressure while the airway is closed so that air is not freely escaping during the strain.

Research has shown that the maneuver can increase intra-abdominal pressure and trunk rigidity. It also changes cardiovascular dynamics and can produce substantially larger acute blood-pressure responses during resistance exercise.

In one classic study, the blood-pressure response to heavy resistance exercise was dramatically reduced when participants lifted with an open glottis rather than using the Valsalva maneuver.

For that reason, deliberately holding your breath during difficult lifting should not be presented as a universal technique everyone needs.

The American College of Sports Medicine specifically warns people exercising with hypertension that inhaling and holding the breath during resistance exercise can produce very high blood-pressure responses, dizziness, and fainting.

For general fitness, continuous breathing is usually the simpler starting strategy.

How to Breathe During Squats

For ordinary bodyweight, goblet, or moderate-resistance squats, try this sequence:

1. Stand in your starting position and take a comfortable breath in.
2. Inhale as you begin lowering into the squat.
3. Maintain enough trunk tension to control your torso.
4. Exhale as you stand back up.
5. Reset your breathing before the next repetition if needed.

You do not need to force all of the air out as quickly as possible.

A controlled exhale can happen gradually through the ascent.

As squat loads become substantially heavier, the breathing strategy may change because greater trunk stiffness may be useful. At that point, technique becomes more dependent on the person’s experience, loading, goals, and health considerations. The fact that Valsalva-type strategies can increase trunk rigidity does not remove their substantial blood-pressure effects.

How to Breathe During Deadlifts

Deadlifts differ slightly from continuous exercises because each repetition often begins from a deliberate setup.

For moderate loads, a practical sequence is:

1. Set your position.
2. Inhale before beginning the lift.
3. Create comfortable trunk tension.
4. Lift while maintaining control.
5. Exhale during or after the hardest portion of the repetition.
6. Reset before beginning the next repetition.

Exactly when you release the breath can vary.

The important point for a recreational lifter is not to turn the setup into a prolonged maximal breath-hold unnecessarily.

Heavy deadlifting can involve more advanced breathing and bracing strategies. Those techniques are better learned in the context of the person’s lifting goals, experience, and relevant health history rather than copied automatically from competitive lifters.

How to Breathe During Push-Ups, Bench Presses, and Overhead Presses

For common pressing exercises, the basic pattern is straightforward.

Push-up: inhale as you lower toward the floor and exhale as you push away.

Bench or dumbbell press: inhale as the weight lowers and exhale as you press upward.

Overhead press: inhale before or during the lowering phase and exhale through the press.

Again, this is a practical rhythm rather than a rigid rule.

Someone using light dumbbells may breathe freely throughout the movement. Someone performing a much heavier press may take a deliberate breath before beginning each repetition.

As resistance rises, it becomes increasingly important to distinguish controlled bracing from simply forgetting to breathe.

How to Breathe During Rows, Pulldowns, and Pull-Ups

For pulling exercises, a common approach is:

• inhale as the arms return toward the starting position;
• exhale as you perform the pull.

During a seated row, that means breathing out as you pull the handle toward you.

During a pulldown, breathe out as the bar comes down.

During a pull-up, you might exhale as you pull upward and inhale as you lower.

If the exercise becomes difficult enough that you are gasping between repetitions, allow yourself time to reset rather than rushing into the next repetition before you have regained control.

What About Breathing During Core Exercises?

Core exercises vary too much for one breathing rule to cover all of them.

During movements such as crunches or controlled trunk flexion, people often find it natural to exhale during the active contraction and inhale while returning.

During planks, carries, and other sustained exercises, holding your breath for the entire set is generally not necessary. Instead, maintain trunk tension while taking controlled breaths.

This can feel difficult at first because breathing changes the shape and pressure of the abdomen. Learning to maintain useful trunk tension while still allowing the diaphragm to move is a skill.

When an exercise requires prolonged effort rather than separate repetitions, think steady breathing under tension rather than trying to assign one inhale and one exhale to a nonexistent repetition.

How to Breathe During Cardio

Cardiovascular exercise works differently from most strength sets because movement is continuous.

You usually do not need to consciously match every breath to every step, pedal stroke, or rowing stroke.

As exercise intensity increases, ventilation rises automatically through increases in breathing frequency and depth. This response helps maintain gas exchange as metabolic demand increases.

At an easy pace, breathing may feel relatively slow and relaxed.

At a moderate pace, breaths generally become deeper and more frequent.

During hard intervals, your breathing can become rapid because your body’s ventilatory demand is much greater.

The useful goal is not to suppress this response. It is to keep breathing freely enough to support the workload.

Do You Need a Specific Breathing Rhythm While Running?

Running advice sometimes recommends patterns such as inhaling for a certain number of steps and exhaling for another fixed number.

A rhythm can be useful if it helps you relax or maintain a sustainable pace, but there is no need for every runner to use one universal step-counting pattern.

Breathing is regulated in response to exercise demand, and respiratory frequency can vary substantially with intensity.

If counting your breathing helps during an easy run, you can use it.

If maintaining the count becomes a distraction during harder exercise, allow your breathing to respond naturally instead.

Your respiratory system does not require you to maintain the same cadence from a warm-up through a hard interval.

Should You Breathe Through Your Nose or Your Mouth?

Nasal breathing can feel comfortable during rest and lower-intensity exercise, and the nose helps warm and humidify inspired air.

But there is no reason for a healthy exerciser to assume that all exercise must be performed using nose-only breathing.

As ventilation rises, many people naturally shift toward combined nose-and-mouth breathing. Classic exercise research found that oral airflow commonly increased as ventilation demands rose.

More recent research also suggests that forcing exclusive nasal breathing during maximal exercise can limit peak ventilation and exercise capacity compared with unrestricted breathing.

So a practical approach is:

Use nasal breathing when it feels comfortable, and allow mouth or combined nose-and-mouth breathing when exercise intensity makes that more natural.

There is little benefit in turning breathing route into a competition.

Is Mouth Breathing During Exercise Bad?

Not automatically.

When exercise becomes strenuous, your body needs to move larger volumes of air. Using both the nose and mouth can help accommodate those increasing ventilatory demands.

That does not mean nasal breathing has no value. Nasal breathing may be comfortable and useful during low- or moderate-intensity work, and different breathing routes can have different physiological effects. But current research does not support treating exclusive nasal breathing as a requirement for effective exercise across all intensities.

The better question is whether your breathing strategy is allowing you to exercise comfortably and appropriately for the workload.

What If You Keep Forgetting to Breathe While Lifting?

This is common when someone is concentrating heavily on technique.

Instead of trying to remember several breathing instructions at once, choose one simple cue:

“Breathe out as I do the hard part.”

Practice it with light resistance.

For example, during a dumbbell press, consciously exhale while pressing the weights and inhale while lowering them.

After enough repetitions, the pattern often becomes less cognitively demanding.

You can also pause briefly between repetitions and reset rather than turning an entire set into one long breath-hold.

If you notice that you repeatedly hold your breath only when the weight becomes heavy, consider whether the resistance has moved beyond what you can comfortably control with your current technique.

Why Do Some People Get Dizzy After Holding Their Breath?

Breath-holding during strenuous resistance exercise can create large swings in intrathoracic pressure and cardiovascular responses. The Valsalva maneuver can produce marked blood-pressure changes, and ACSM notes that breath-holding during resistance training can contribute to dizziness or fainting in susceptible situations.

That makes repeated dizziness during lifting something to take seriously rather than treating it as evidence that the set was effective.

If you become dizzy:

• stop the exercise;
• place yourself somewhere stable where falling is unlikely;
• allow your breathing to return toward normal;
• do not immediately attempt another heavy repetition.

If dizziness is severe, recurrent, associated with fainting, chest pain, palpitations, unusual shortness of breath, or another concerning symptom, medical evaluation is appropriate.

What If You Feel Out of Breath During Exercise?

Becoming more breathless as exercise becomes harder is an expected physiological response. Your ventilation increases as your muscles’ metabolic demands increase.

What matters is context.

Breathing hard during a challenging interval is different from experiencing unexplained breathlessness during very light activity.

Likewise, needing time to catch your breath after a demanding set is different from being unable to recover or developing additional symptoms.

Stop exercising and seek appropriate medical attention for concerning symptoms such as chest pain, fainting, severe or sudden breathing difficulty, or symptoms that are clearly unusual for you. The American Heart Association advises emergency action for chest pain because it can signal a serious cardiac problem.

People with diagnosed heart or lung conditions should follow exercise and breathing guidance appropriate to their condition rather than relying solely on general fitness advice.

How Should You Breathe Between Strength Sets?

Between sets, you do not need a complicated recovery routine.

Allow your breathing to settle naturally.

After a demanding set, you may initially take faster, deeper breaths. As recovery progresses, breathing usually becomes easier.

Rather than immediately starting another set because a timer says so, consider whether you have recovered enough to breathe comfortably and perform the next set with appropriate control.

If you are still extremely breathless from the previous set, extra recovery may help preserve exercise quality.

Should You Take Deep Breaths Before Every Lift?

Not necessarily.

A deliberate inhale before a repetition can help establish a consistent setup and may accompany bracing. But trying to take the largest breath physically possible before every light exercise is unnecessary.

Think of the breath as part of the setup rather than a performance in itself.

For a moderate squat, a comfortable inhale followed by controlled trunk tension may be enough.

For a light lateral raise, you may simply breathe continuously.

The breathing strategy should match the exercise demand.

Common Breathing Mistakes During Exercise

Holding Your Breath Without Realizing It

This often happens when people concentrate intensely or when a load becomes difficult.

If breath-holding is unintentional, reduce the complexity or resistance enough that you can regain a comfortable breathing rhythm.

Forcing a Breathing Pattern That Makes the Exercise Harder

A cue is only useful if it helps.

If trying to synchronize every breath perfectly makes you tense, rushed, or distracted, simplify the pattern.

Taking Huge Breaths When You Do Not Need Them

Exercise breathing should support the movement, not turn into repeated exaggerated gasping before every repetition.

Treating Nose-Only Breathing as Mandatory

Nasal breathing can work well at lower intensities, but ventilation requirements increase as exercise gets harder, and exclusive nasal breathing can become limiting at high intensities.

Copying Heavy-Lifting Breath-Holding Without Understanding It

A trained strength athlete deliberately using the Valsalva maneuver during a near-maximal lift is not necessarily demonstrating the best breathing strategy for a beginner performing general resistance training.

The maneuver can increase trunk rigidity, but it also produces significant hemodynamic effects.

A Simple Breathing Strategy for Beginners

If you are new to strength training, you can keep the entire process simple.

Before the Set

Take one or two normal breaths and establish your starting position.

You do not need to hyperventilate or take repeated maximal breaths.

During Each Repetition

For most basic resistance exercises:

Inhale during the easier phase.

Exhale during the harder phase.

Keep the exhale controlled rather than blasting all of your air out immediately.

Between Repetitions

Take an extra breath if you need one.

There is no prize for completing a set without resetting.

Between Sets

Let your breathing settle enough that you feel ready to perform the next set with control.

As your exercise experience develops, your breathing can become more specific to the movements you perform.

When Breathing Technique Needs to Be More Individualized

General breathing advice is not appropriate for every situation.

More individualized guidance may be needed if you:

• have hypertension;
• have a diagnosed cardiovascular condition;
• have a respiratory condition;
• frequently become dizzy or faint during exercise;
• are returning to training after illness or a medical event;
• perform very heavy competitive strength training; or
• have been given specific exercise restrictions by a healthcare professional.

For people with hypertension in particular, ACSM advises avoiding breath-holding during resistance exercise because of the potentially extreme blood-pressure response.

The correct strategy in these situations depends on the person’s condition, medication, exercise intensity, and clinical guidance.

You Do Not Need to Make Breathing Complicated

Breathing is important, but that does not mean you should spend an entire workout analyzing every inhale.

For most people, a few principles cover the majority of exercise situations:

Keep breathing.

Use a simple inhale-and-exhale rhythm during ordinary strength exercises.

Create enough trunk tension for the movement without unnecessarily turning every repetition into a prolonged breath-hold.

Allow breathing to become faster and deeper when cardio gets harder.

Do not force nose-only breathing when the workload makes combined nose-and-mouth breathing more comfortable.

Treat unusual symptoms as information rather than something to overpower.

Once breathing becomes familiar, it should support your exercise technique rather than compete for all of your attention.

The Bottom Line

For general strength training, a useful starting point is to inhale during the easier or lowering part of a movement and exhale during the harder part.

That rule does not need to be followed rigidly. Research suggests that the larger cardiovascular concern during resistance exercise is often forceful breath-holding and the Valsalva maneuver rather than whether inhalation or exhalation happens during one particular phase of a repetition.

Bracing can help stabilize your trunk, but bracing and prolonged breath-holding are not the same thing. Heavy lifters may intentionally use breathing strategies that increase internal pressure and trunk rigidity, but those techniques also increase cardiovascular demands and are not necessary for every exerciser.

During cardio, let your breathing respond to the workload. It should generally become deeper and faster as exercise intensity rises, and at higher intensities it is normal for combined nose-and-mouth breathing to become more practical.

The goal is not to achieve a perfect breathing pattern.

It is to breathe in a way that supports the movement, the intensity, and your ability to stay controlled throughout the workout.

References

1. Forster HV, Haouzi P, Dempsey JA (2012). Control of Breathing During Exercise. Review of the physiological mechanisms that increase ventilation as metabolic demand rises during exercise.
2. Linsenbardt ST et al. (1992). Effect of Breathing Techniques on Blood Pressure Response to Resistance Exercise. Study comparing breathing patterns during resistance exercise and reporting a greater blood-pressure response with the Valsalva maneuver.
3. Narloch JA, Brandstater ME (1995). Influence of Breathing Technique on Arterial Blood Pressure During Heavy Weight Lifting. Study examining the substantial blood-pressure effects of Valsalva breathing during heavy resistance exercise.
4. Hackett DA, Chow C-M (2013). The Valsalva Maneuver: Its Effect on Intra-Abdominal Pressure and Safety Issues During Resistance Exercise. Review examining trunk rigidity, intra-abdominal pressure, and cardiovascular responses associated with the Valsalva maneuver.
5. American College of Sports Medicine. Exercise for the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension. Clinical exercise guidance addressing resistance training, breath-holding, and blood-pressure responses.
6. Mapelli M et al. (2025). Nasal vs. Oral BREATHing WIn Strategies in Healthy Subjects During Exercise. Experimental study comparing unrestricted, nasal, and oral breathing during progressive maximal exercise.