This section examines breathing and bracing techniques. This can be a large, convoluted process or it can be streamlined. This video shows the 3 step process we use to streamline assessing how someone breaths and braces when they lift.

It’s important to note that bracing should match the given activity. There is no need to brace your spine aggressively during small, light weight tasks (like riding a bike for example).

In a heavy deadlift or squat, you’d want to brace harder to match the activity.

There are multiple ways to think about breathing. When untrained, many athletes will breath up into their chest (especially when they’re in a front rack as it’s a tactile cue to breathing up in the bar). This can lead to over-extension of the lumbar spine and tilting of the pelvis in the squat that can cause technique issues.

Ideally, an athlete will take a full breath in and some of that breath will extend downward into the abdomen (via action of the diaphragm) and some will expand into the chest (as is natural when taking a big breath in).

It’s unrealistic to not expect the chest to rise during a big breath during exercise. The main point is to not hollow out the stomach and breath only upward into the chest.

There are 3 bracing strategies that are typical during these lifts:

1. Extension based strategy
2. Flexion based strategy
3. Stiffening strategy with no motion (an isometric of large percentage of core muscles)

Strategy number 3 is ideal for athletes who are lifting weights, want better body composition and are performing barbell or general exercise lifts.

These strategies will differ if someone is doing a different activity (for example, you can’t immobilize the spine during a back flip).

The important concepts/skills to take away from this video:

• 3 step process for breathing / bracing evaluation (breathing test, bracing test, combo test)
• The common types of bracing strategies
• How to cue someone to work on breathing / bracing as recommended
• How to blend it into an athlete’s training to integrate it into the lifts

After you’ve gone through the videos and notes for this section, it’s time to look at the big lifts, starting with the deadlift (or any variation of lifting where you’re pulling from the floor).