Open stuck glass jars with ease when using method ‘backed by science

Opening a tightly sealed glass jar isn’t always easy.

We’ve all felt the struggle of hurting our hands trying to wrestle with the metal lid that’s tightly wrapped around jars of pickles and pasta sauces, as it sometimes feels like glass jars are impossible to open.

There are a number of hacks out there designed to help you open jars when the lids just won’t budge. People swear by running the lid under hot water, sliding a spoon underneath the seal to pop it open, or even investing in special plastic and rubber tools that give you extra grip around the lid.

But what if there was a scientific way you could give your own body enough muscle to open any jar with ease – without having to go to the gym to build your biceps?

According to one mathematician and science buff on social media, there is actually a simple trick you can do that guarantees you’ll be able to open any jars. All you have to do is control your breathing.

Professor Hannah Fry shared a video on Instagram in which she said that when people try to open jars, their instinct is to breathe in and hold their breath while they tense their muscles.

But if you do the opposite and forcefully breathe out while you twist the lid of the jar, you’ll actually have much more success.

She said: “There is actually a scientifically legitimate trick you can use here that means you’ll never have to struggle again. All you’ve got to do is, the moment you’re ready to give it some welly, just forcibly breathe out.

“The reason this works is that your arm is this floppy little noodle. It’s attached to your torso, which is also extremely floppy. It has to put a lot of effort into stabilising itself, and you want all of that energy to go into opening the jar. One thing that you can do is take a deep breath in and hold it, filling your lungs with air and increasing the pressure in your internal cavity. This is what people instinctively do when they’re trying to perform anything strenuous.

“But you can go further than this. Specifically when you’re opening a jar, you are creating this twisting motion which has to be countered by your shoulder and your spine, and the muscles you need to counter that twist are your internal obliques and your transverse abdominis. And you know what muscles get engaged when you happen to do a big, forced exhale? It’s exactly the same ones.

“So what you are doing when you make this forced exhale is you are priming your body. You are locking your base of support. You’re allowing all of your energy to go into that jar. Like magic.”

Hannah titled her clip: “Brains over brawn, breath over biceps.”

Viewers responding to the footage also highlighted this method is widely applied across numerous other disciplines, particularly in certain sports where athletes release their breath to generate greater power behind their physical movements.

One person commented: “Lots of technical gestures in sports benefit from this, too. The exhalation phase of breathing brings more strength and finer precision to it. Think of the famous tennis players’ vocalisation and martial arts kiai, among several other examples!”

Others revealed they were keen to give the technique a go themselves, having previously relied on more complex – and occasionally risky – methods to tackle stubborn jars.

Someone else admitted: “I must try this. I’ve been breaking the deal with a knife under the lip.”

While another added: “The back of a spoon under the lid until it pops works wonders, but now I kinda wanna try the Magic Force Breath.”