Breathing is crucial in weight lifting. The best routine is breath in when lower the weight and breathe out when you push. However, some people like to hold their breath during the whole set. They believe holding their breath can
1. temporarily increase your strength.
2. give your more focus because you can ignore breathing
However, holding your breath is dangerous because it can
1. increase your blood pressure right away
2. decrease blood flood to brain
3. make you dizzy
4. affect your muscle growth
5. bring you pressure undulation and nausea.
Because your blood pressure hike during the set, you heart will find hard time to pump out enough blood to your body. You will feel light headed because your brain didn’t get enough oxygen from blood. Also, the decrease of blood flow will affect your muscle growth in long term.
If you are performing superset of 1-3 rep. It is ok to hold your breath as the period is short. However, if you are doing the tradition 8 rep set, you should sync you breath with the lifting.
