Breathing for better strength: How your breath affects muscle engagement, stability and power

By Dana Santas, CNN

(CNN) — During workouts, do you think about your breathing — or does it just happen in the background? Most people understand the importance of proper exercise form, yet they often overlook the significance of breathing technique.

How and when you breathe during strength training directly affects muscle engagement, core stability and power output as well as the position of your rib cage, spine and pelvis.

This final article in our five-part series brings together everything we’ve explored in targeted strength training for pain relief and better movement.

So far, we’ve covered how strength training helps your nervous system feel safe, how your obliques stabilize your spine, how your inner thighs support your pelvis and how your shoulder blades create the foundation for healthy upper body movement. Now, we’re focusing on the thread that connects them all: your breath.

How breath and strength connect

Your diaphragm isn’t responsible only for moving air in and out of your lungs. As a core stabilizing muscle, the diaphragm works with your pelvic floor, deep abdominals and back muscles to create postural alignment and internal abdominal pressure that support your spine.

When you breathe properly during exercise, you’re not just getting oxygen to your muscles — you’re actively engaging your body’s natural stabilization system.

Poor breathing habits during strength training can create multiple problems. Holding your breath increases blood pressure and reduces oxygen delivery to working muscles. Shallow chest breathing lifts your rib cage and elevates your shoulders with every breath, causing other muscles to compensate, which causes tension in your neck and upper back. And using the wrong phase of breath at the wrong time weakens your movements and increases your risk of injury.

The exhale advantage

Throughout this series, I’ve emphasized the importance of exhaling during the effort phase of exercises — and for good reason. Research shows that coordinating breath with strengthening movements teaches your nervous system that the position is safe, reducing protective tension and allowing you to access greater strength and pain-free movement.

When you exhale purposefully while working out, several beneficial things happen simultaneously — each connecting to the stabilizing systems we’ve explored in this series. Your diaphragm rises as your obliques and deep core contract to align your rib cage over your pelvis and stabilize your spine. Your pelvic floor naturally lifts, enabling a better connection with your inner thighs. And your scapulae can settle into a stable position on your rib cage.

This coordinated activation creates internal stability and alignment that allows your larger muscle groups to generate more force. The timing matters as much as the technique. Exhaling during the effort phase of movements allows you to actively create this stabilization effect when you need it most.

Using your breath to strengthen functional movements

The following four functional movement patterns serve as the foundation of both exercise and daily activities — pushing a door open, pulling groceries from a car, squatting to pick something up or rotating to reach behind you. The key to maximizing strength and stability in all of them is exhaling during the exertion phase. Remember to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth or nose — whichever feels more comfortable for you.

Pushing: When doing pushing exercises such as push-ups, overhead presses or bench presses, inhale to prepare, then exhale as you push. The exhale stabilizes your core and engages your serratus anterior, preventing your shoulder blades from winging (or sticking out) and allowing you to generate more pressing power.

Pulling: Whether rowing, doing a pull-up, or using resistance bands, inhale as you reach or hang, then exhale as you pull. Exhaling during the pull activates your rhomboids and mid-back muscles to draw your shoulder blades together while your engaged core stabilizes your spine against the pulling force, creating a stronger, more controlled movement.

Squatting: Inhale as you lower into the squat, exhale as you rise, feeling your ribs stack over your pelvis to support the movement. The exhale engages your deep core and pelvic floor, stabilizing your spine and pelvis while your adductors help control your leg position.

Rotating: Inhale to set your starting posture, then exhale as you rotate in movements such as wood chops, golf swings or spinal twists. The exhale engages your obliques to help control and power the rotation while also protecting your spine and lower back from excessive torque.

When to hold your breath — and when not to

While coordinated breathing is ideal for most exercises, brief, intentional breath holds can serve a purpose.

The Valsalva maneuver — taking a deep breath and holding it while bearing down — can create maximum intra-abdominal pressure to cushion the spine and protect the low back for specific exercises with significant loads, such as dead lifts or squats.

Only experienced weight lifters who understand the risks should use this technique, however. Prolonged breath holding increases blood pressure significantly and isn’t appropriate for those with cardiovascular conditions. For most people and most exercises, coordinated breathing patterns — rather than breath holds — are safer and more effective.

Strengthening your breathing in daily life

Your breath is the bridge between conscious control and automatic function, between your nervous system’s need for safety and your body’s capacity for strong, functional movement. Beyond coordination in exercise, making time for intentional diaphragmatic breathing each day helps regulate your nervous system and reinforce better breathing patterns.

I recommend that everyone practice taking at least six conscious, diaphragmatic breaths daily. Sit tall with your hands on your lower ribs so you can feel them move as you breathe deeply in and out through your nose. Focus on inhales that gently expand your rib cage outward under your hands, rather than lifting your shoulders or puffing your chest. Extend your exhales just a little longer than your inhales, feeling your hands ride your ribs in toward each other as the bottom of your rib cage narrows.

We began this series with a simple premise: Strength training isn’t just about building muscle — it’s about giving your body a safe foundation for powerful, pain-free movement. Your breath is the final piece of that puzzle. Training your breathing to work with your muscles builds integrated strength that your nervous system can trust, letting you move through life with confidence and ease.

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