Le Maosheng Grunting: Image Credit: dehwang

Holding your breath while lifting increases blood pressure. Some will therefore tell you to exhale on the way up. Wrong. Weight lifting increases cardiovascular fitness. Your heart learns to deal with the increased pressure.

A variation of holding your breath is grunting or yelling. Tennis players are best known for yelling when hitting the ball. Kib started a thread in the Forum called “Anyone a grunter?“. It inspired this post.

Benefits of Grunting. The valsalva maneuver increases abdominal pressure. Grunting, without exhaling, spikes this pressure. Benefits:

• Lower Back Safety. Your abs support your spine from the front, your back muscles from the back. Grunting increases abdominal pressure, increasing the support of your spine.
• More Weight. Increased stability at your torso is not only safer on your lower back, it also allows you to lift more weight.
• Increased Muscle Mass. More weight is more strength. More strength is more muscle mass. Grunting increases muscle mass indirectly.

If your not grunting your not lifting enough weight. – johnnyo

The Correct Way to Grunt. Unrack the weight for Squats. Take a big breath. Hold it. Squat down. Squat up while exhaling against your closed glotis. Grunt your way up for increased pressure if needed.

Start light. Add weight progressively. When the weight gets challenging, you’ll know what to do and how. Some grunt, some yell. Do whatever works for you. Sharapova’s yell technique might inspire you.

What If Your Gym Doesn’t Allow Grunting? Albert Argibay was kicked out of Planet Fitness for grunting while Squatting 500lbs. Watch this video and read the thread on Sherdog “Planet Fitness Screwed Me“.

Planet Fitness is a gym version of Wal-Mart: killing competition using low prices. They also force you to sign up for 1 year. So if you quit because you don’t get results, you’ll have to continue paying for a service you don’t use.

Gyms like Planet Fitness don’t care about you. They exist to make money, not to help you achieve your goals. If your gym has the same no grunting/no Deadlifts rules as Planet Fitness, find another gym or build a home gym.

What About You? Do you grunt at the gym? Or do you train in a Planet Fitness like gym that doesn’t allow grunting? Share in the comments.