Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric3237
Well you know I think everyone should be doing pretty much that anyway without a belt. That's the way you squat. Gather air into the diaphraghm, tense your abs and push outwards and downwards. In effect make yourself both tighter and wider. Damn straight it helps. It's called the valsalva maneavour I think (that's right, I'm a geek  ). This can however, give you a bigger gut appearance since it will basically promote "gut dumping". A good thing is to counter this method during squatting by sucking in your gut when doing ab strength (ONLY during ab work NEVER while squatting or deadlifting). |
yeah, the valsalva manuever , which is basically gathering air into your diapragm and holding it during the rep, is really important for core stability when squatting, deadlifting and rowing. Even Bench pressing benefits from having a tight bellyfull of air before each rep.
I recall showing a pic of Ronnie Coleman squatting 800+lbs to a friend of mine and all he said was "look at his fat belly!"
Ronnie wasnt fat, he just had a huge bellyful of air, which i think without it he wouldnt even be able to hold 800lbs on his back nevermind squat with it!
Rip goes into great detail about the VM in Starting Strength.
a lot of people seem to advise breathing during your reps, claiming that holding your breath is dangerous because of elevated blood pressure in the brain. this may well be the case but NOT breathing puts your loaded spine at risk and that is a far more common cause of injury than exploding blood vessels in the brain.