PowerliftingToday.com - Staying Tight

Getting tight and staying tight is a combination of two actions. The first involves taking in as deep a breath as possible, holding the breath, and squeezing it in your belly. The second action involves tightening every muscle in your body at Andy Bowen - Deadlift

one time. The action of holding and then squeezing your breath is known as the Valsalva maneuver. The Valsalva maneuver is a natural reaction to many situations. Imagine you are about to get a flu shot. When you see the needle about to go in, most of us will take a deep breath, hold, and squeeze it. Why? Because that action will decrease the amount of pain you feel. When you cough, you will usually draw in a deep breath and squeeze your belly with a closed glottis, then open the glottis and exhale very forcefully.

Why? Because it may take a lot of force to remove whatever is caught in your throat. You also Valsalva when you vomit and defecate; all natural actions. I would go as far as saying that anytime you sense that you are about to sustain pain or need to develop a lot of force, you will Valsalva. Try this, load a squat bar with a light weight, say, your second warm up set. Try unracking and standing with it while breathing normally. Now, do the same thing again but this time, before you unrack the weight, take in as much air as possible and squeeze that air in your belly as hard as you can. Your face should feel like it is about to explode. Next, tighten every muscle in your body as if you were bracing for an impact. If you do this correctly, the weight should feel very light on your back.

Along with decreased perceived pain and decreased perceived exertion, this technique might save your back. The increased intra-abdominal and intra-thoracic pressure aids in keeping your spine straight. Imagine a pneumatic jack placed vertically between your ribcage and your pelvis. The increased pressure in your abdomen keeps you from collapsing forward under a weight.

Getting tight and staying tight during a lift isn’t quite as simple as taking a deep breath and holding it. Before a heavy squat or bench attempt it usually takes me 3-5 seconds to build proper pressure. It takes a lot of focus to try and contract every muscle in your body at the same time and still move through the lift. Here are some points to follow when getting tight for each lift. These techniques should be practiced on virtually every set including warm-ups so that they become habit.

After situating the bar on your back and your feet on the floor, move your chest and hips forward and take a huge breath.
Move your hips back in place, move the breath to your belly and push your abs out like you are trying to bust out of the belt.
Squeeze the bar as hard as you can with your hands. Pull the bar down around your shoulders like you are trying to bend it (this will activate your lats and help you keep your arch through the lift)
Tighten every muscle in your body. I mean all of them.
Unrack the bar and descend as soon as you get the squat command. Some people have the habit of exhaling and getting another breath when the bar in unracked and on their shoulders. You must get out of this habit. When you exhale your chest will sink and you will not be able to build enough pressure with the second breath. I know you feel like you need another breath but you will be ok for the few seconds it takes to squat the weight.
As you descend, you must keep all of your muscles as tight as possible and keep truing to bend the bar. I am not suggesting that anyone would try to relax anything; I am saying that it takes a great deal of focus to keep everything 100% tight.
At the bottom of the squat you will probably feel a lot of pressure in your face. You should also start to get tunnel vision. If you do feel and see this, you are probably doing it right.
Squat the weight up and stay tight until the weight is racked.

Many conventional pullers like to descend to the bar slowly and once they have their grip, they squeeze and build tightness at the bar. This has always thrown me off. I prefer, instead, to get a large breath while standing with my arms in the air (to expand my ribcage and consequently my lungs) and pull as quickly as possible.

Until recently, I have not been much of a sumo puller. Lately, though, I have added sumo deadlift to my training. What I have learned is that I have to approach sumo like I do the squat. At the top, while I am standing, I inhale deeply and start getting tight. As I descend I keep tightening and when I grip the bar, I squeeze and contract every muscle in my body. When I feel like I am tight enough, I pull.

So, there you go. These are the methods that I feel are important for getting tight to lift a big weight. These methods have helped me go from what I felt was a mediocre total to one that I can be proud of.