Conscious Breathing

How to breathe while lifting Kettlebells is critical to success. I went to the Ivan Denisov/ Valery Fedorenko training camp at the Ice Chamber last month... Here is what I learned about breathing... The most important thing first... Breathing is the foundation of kettlebell lifting.. getting it right takes a lot of practice and diligence.... It is counter to how we are all taught to breath while lifting weights for shorter sets of 3 to 15 reps. What happens when you hold your breath is that your heart rate SPIKES looking for oxygen giving you a shot of adrenaline.. this is helpful for short efforts...But this type of "help" is too short lived.. When training for time and maximum efficiency, we need to keep the body as smooth relaxed as possible... the first and best way to do this is to keep the breath deep and rhythmic... You wouldn't think of restricting your air when running a race... same thing applies here... Deep abdominal breathing, not chest breathing. Chest breathing is shallow and it requires that you speed up when under stress, rapid breathing starts to insight panic, which... (you guessed it) spikes your heart rate, which sends you into anaerobic land where Lactic acid is produced so that WILL stop...
The point of Kettlebellsport is to continue for 10 minutes, so getting the breathing part correct is not only smart, it is imperative to improving your results..
Lets take the jerk for instance, it is pretty common knowledge that in order to minimize power leakages and mechanical disconnects, as you slide into your first dip, you exhale... this does a few things.. it empties your lungs and allows your elbows and upper arms to be closer to your torso during the launch phase, it also signals your arms and upper body to relax and effectively releasing tension, or taking the brakes off, which maximizes the power generated by your legs... The part that I was missing and have been practicing now is taking an immediate breath in when the bells leave by body... effectively replacing the air I expelled leading into the first dip... this sets me up to exhale on the lockout, inhale and drop the bells back down into the rack position... This immediate deliberate breath is a small thing that is making a big difference in staying relaxed during this exercise... Check it out...