What is Anatomical Breathing and Why is it Important?
I’ve often been amazed when people who work on movies describe the way in which they create sounds. I’m also amazed at the difference those sounds make to a scene. Sounds can take an apparently dry, lifeless scene, and make it emotive and powerful. Or it can take a fight scene and make it significantly more dynamic (and painful!). Why is that?
Our brains and bodies are incredibly tuned to identify threats and opportunities from a variety of stimuli, and as it turns out, sounds are a huge source of stimuli.
If you hear a whistle in the air, you’ll instinctively duck, to avoid the ball that was flying towards your head.
If you hear a crack, you’ll turn towards the source and raise your hand, to protect your retreating head.
If you hear someone’s tone of voice change, you’ll change your stance, to prepare your body to respond.
In other words, sounds trigger a response because often they correspond with important events..
What has this got do with a kettlebell swing?
When we swing at Strongfirst, we’ll typically use what is called power breathing. This style of breathing is important because it helps support our spine against load, and makes our kettlebell swing (and snatch, clean, even push press!) more powerful. By using power breathing, we weld our frame into a single, solid structure that can smoothly and efficiently transfer force. The importance of breathing is not new: ancient movement systems, some still with us, have always used them. Power breathing is just a modern expression of ancient practice.
What does this look like?
What does it mean to power breathe? In general, it will involve the tongue being pressed against the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth, with breath being forced out and making a ‘tss’ sound. It sounds a lot like using a compressed air hose, because, in some ways, that’s exactly what it is. You’re using the powerful musculature around your midsection to force air past the just-yielding tongue to create a massive jump in pressure inside your body (also known as intra-abdominal pressure or IAP), ultimately creating a ‘tss’ sound.
As a coach, once you’ve learned to recognise this sound, it will give you a good idea of when a student is swinging efficiently or not, but beware of counterfeit sounds. Often, a student will make a ‘shh’ or a ‘chh’ sound, which almost sounds right, but produces a tiny fraction of the IAP and consequently significantly diminishes support for the spine and efficient power transfer.
So how do I power breathe?
Here is a simple process to try and get a feel for it:
What should it feel like?
Sniff sharply in through your nose - get a sense of the reaction in your belly (note: this reaction is what you should feel as your hips shift back in the loading phase of the swing)
Cover one nostril and take a long drag - feel the gradual build-up and stability growing in your midsection
Cover 1.5 nostrils and take another drag - feel the increased pressure in your midsection. This is IAP.
How do I get this on the exhale?
Breathe out sharply like you’re blowing something away - feel the reaction in your belly
Breathe out sharply through your nose in a similar fashion - feel an increased belly response
Swallow and feel where your tongue lies on the roof of your mouth
Leave the tongue resting (not forced) there, and blow an ’sss’ sound out. Now let the sound out but leave the tongue lying against the roof of your mouth. You should hear an obvious ‘tss’ sound and feel air rush against your teeth.
Extra credit: Once you’re good at the exhalation, start to drive the centre of your tongue harder into the roof of your mouth, but leave the tip resting so that the air can still escape.
I still can’t get this, but now I’m worried about hurting myself from a lack of IAP when I swing?
I’ll often advocate that beginners breathe in and out sharply through their nose as they’re learning. It is slightly less powerful (about 15%, based on some testing we’ve done) but it allows them to achieve good IAP while they’re still learning the timing.
I get the breathing okay, but my timing seems a ‘bit funky’ - and not in a James Brown kinda way…
There are two different styles of breathing that we typically talk about in strength and movement circles, and I’ve stolen an excerpt from an article by Brett Jones that describes it better than I would’ve:
From a practical standpoint, the actions of breathing in movement can be addressed in two concepts, anatomical breathing match and biomechanical breathing match.
Anatomical breathing match refers to the natural matching of the inhalation and exhalation with extension and flexion of the spine/body. Extension facilitates inhalation and flexion facilitates exhalation. As the body gets compressed (flexion) exhalation dissipates the pressure and extension assists in opening the thoracic area to assist in inhalation. In addition, anatomical breathing can be used in stretching where the exhale is used to enhance the relaxation into a stretch.
Whereas, in the biomechanical breathing match we flip those actions. Inhaling to increase the intra-abdominal pressure during flexion and exhaling to improve muscular action and stability during extension. A biomechanical breathing match is key to being able to handle loads through the body during performance. During a deadlift, kettlebell swing or a kettlebell military press the biomechanical breathing match allows us to amp up our strength and stability.
Brett Jones, https://www.functionalmovement.com/articles/769/how_your_breathing_relates_to_your_movement
Practically, in the kettlebell swing, this is achieved by using your breath as ‘the soundtrack’ for your hips. In other words if your hips aren’t moving, your breath shouldn’t be doing a lot either. On the other hand, when your hips hinge back, you should sharply inhale through your nose; and as your body snaps tall, you should tss through your mouth. This is what I mean when I refer to your breath providing the sound for your hips movement. The most common issue that coaches will typically see, aside from people completely holding their breath, is people exhaling way too late. It’s like a boxer throwing punches, and then exhaling after his fist lands. The horse has bolted.
For your practice:
Familiarise yourself with the inhalation and exhalation drills above
Practice the movements concurrent with a ‘chop and pop’ hinge
Practice with ‘power swings’ (also known as ‘dead stop swings’).
Practice in full sets
Enjoy a safer, more powerful, significantly more beneficial kettlebell swing!
If you’re interested in refining your kettlebell training, register for our next beginner kettlebell workshop and start your journey to an in-depth knowledge of kettlebell exercises. Here at Queensland Kettlebells, we focus on technique to get strong and feel better. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we train, contact us today!