Breathing

Twisty

Barefooters
Jul 23, 2012
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Hey good people,
Just wondering how everyone breaths whilst running, mouth, nose or both??????
Was talking to someone at work that said nasal breathing is really good for you.
Try'd it on my run this evening and I managed it for the mile. It was at a slow pace, could I keep it up at a faster pace and longer distance??? (once I get there) I'm not so sure:/
 
I have a nose problem and can't breath through my nose, even while sitting down without getting dizzy from a lack of oxygen. I have always run open mouth and have never had a problem. That was even back when I was younger and running 5 min flat miles. If you can breath through your nose do it, if not, then don't. People who say don't breath open mouthed often seem to have this opinion that if you're breathing through your mouth you are out of breath. This is not always the case and people like me who breath with their mouths open can in fact control how hard and fast we breath. Do what feels best for you, not what others tell you is best for you.
 
I am a nose breather and it is amazing the difference, is like your heart rate stays low even when you're are running at a decent clip.
But lately I have been breathing thru my mouth because my nose is all stuffed up I must be having some kind of allergies. I noticed that I breathe a little heavier when nose breathing.
Antoher thing is that when I breathe thru my nose my throat gets irritaded. Very wierd.
 
It depends on what your goals are. I may be going out on a limb here, but I'd say that everybody can intake more air and thus more oxygen with mouth open. More oxygen means running faster. If you want to run faster right now, open your mouth. But consider this: Last year, soon after I started BF, the concept of conditioning my body to run easy rather than hard seemed appealling, plus my feet were hurting running at the pace I was doing, so I started running slower--no faster than what breathing through my nose would allow. Eventually, my slow pace increased so that now I'm nose-breath-running at almost the pace I used to mouth-breath-run.

I've had the opposite experience than Dama. My voice still gets a little irritated with nose breathing, but it got a lot worse when I was mouth breathing--especially in the cold weather.
 
I like to periodically limit to nose only, this allows me to focus on increasing speed by fine tuning form rather than increasing effort. I can get close to HM pace but not quite. Normally I exhale through the mouth at increased effort for HM pace or faster. I rarely inhale through the mouth, maybe on a tough technical ascent.
 
i can breathe through my nose for most of my running. i exhale through my mouth when i hit a hill hard and need some more air.
 
What's the correct breath cadence for nose-breathing versus mouth-breathing? Does nose-breathing provoke a higher breathe rate? Does mouth-breathing allow for longer breath intake? Do shoddies and BFRers breath at different rates?

Seriously, the only thing I think about in terms of breathing is whether I'm breathing from my diaphragm or my chest. I'm sure if I open my mouth to breathe it's because my body thinks it's a good idea--probably wants more 02, which I'm happy to supply.

But if you really want something to worry about consider that someone wrote that you should be breathing in one breathe for every two steps and breathing out for every three steps. So if your stride rate is 180 then you should be breathing 30 breathes a minute. Anything less and you're probably overstriding your breath.
 
Lee, I take a just breathe approach to my breathing. Counting breath cadence, and figuring out if I'm a pose, chi, or 'natural' breather is just too complicated. Did our ancestors need to count 'two steps in, 3 steps out' to manage their breathing while persistence hunting water buffalo? No! Get primal and just breathe people.


In all seriousness, I am a total running mouth breather. My allergies, asthma, and my chronic sinus annoyances make nose breathing a challenge unless I am at super slow warm up/coll down paces. I don't think about it beyond "am I breathing really hard and about to blow up because I went out too fast?" though. I just kind of run and breathe (For reals).
 
But if you really want something to worry about consider that someone wrote that you should be breathing in one breathe for every two steps and breathing out for every three steps. So if your stride rate is 180 then you should be breathing 30 breathes a minute. Anything less and you're probably overstriding your breathe.

Or understriding your calculation.
 
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I don't really pay attention to it when I run. When I do my cool down, I will focus on my breathing in an effort to get my HR down, but most of the time I cannot breath through my nose due to allergies and sinus problems. So I almost always breath through my mouth when running. It is not something that I really think about...just like most of my running. I might concentrate on it for a minute or two just to make sure that I'm not overexerting myself as that is a good indicator. If I am breathing heavily on mile 3 of a 10 mile run, it tells me that I should probably hold back a little. I figure if I'm "born to run" then I really shouldn't have to focus too much on those things. Do you have to focus on every detail of walking? Probably not. And we all have a different gait. I feel running is quite similar.
 
If I'm going long I try to start the first 3 or 4 miles just breathing through my nose. It gets me in a decent rhythm and sets a slower pace I'm more likely to be able to maintain for a few hours.
 
i quickly found this link here on why you should be breathing through your nose and not your mouth. i too grew up with asthma and still suffer from allergies. yesterday i woke up and couldn't breathe. i used a netti pot and a few minutes later was breathing fine. i taught myself to breathe through my nose when i learned to go bf. i thought why not? i'm going slow enough and now i can race while breathing through my nose and only occasionaly exhale through my mouth. growing up i didn't do any sports because i couldn't get in enough air. i gotta think you guys must be suffering yet pretty damn strong willed to run so hard and breathe through your mouth.

i have Dr Buteyko's manual and will send it to anyone who wants to read it and learn to breathe better through their nose.


http://www.normalbreathing.com/index-nasal.php

Each mouth breather needs to know this short summary of immediate negative biochemical effects of mouth breathing related to CO2:
- Reduced CO2 content in alveoli of the lungs (hypocapnia)
- Hypocapnic vasoconstriction (constrictions of blood vessels due to CO2 deficiency)
- Suppressed Bohr effect
- Reduced oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs of the human body
- Anxiety, stress, addictions, sleeping problems and negative emotions
- Slouching and muscular tension
- Biochemical stress due to cold, dry air entering into the lungs
- Biochemical stress due to dirty air (viruses, bacteria, toxic and harmful chemicals) entering into the lungs
- Possible infections due to absence of the autoimmunization effect
- Pathological effects due to suppressed nitric oxide utilization, including vasoconstriction, decreased destruction of parasitic organisms, viruses, and malignant cells (by inactivating their respiratory chain enzymes) in alveoli of the lungs, inflammation in blood vessels, disruption of normal neurotransmission, hormonal effects.

Normal nose breathing helps us to use our own nitric oxide that is generated in the sinuses. The main roles of NO and its effects have been discovered quite recently (in the last 20 years). Three scientists even received a Nobel Prize for their discovery that a common drug, nitroglycerin (used by heart patients for almost a century), is transformed into nitric oxide. NO dilates blood vessels of heart patients, reducing their blood pressure and heart rate. Hence, they can survive a heart attack.

This substance or gas is produced in various body tissues, including nasal passages. As a gas, it is routinely measured in exhaled air coming from nasal passages. Therefore, we can't utilize own nitric oxide, an important hormone, when we start mouth breathing.
diaphragm+respiration2.JPG
The confirmed functions of nitric oxide are:
1. Destruction of viruses, parasitic organisms, and malignant cells in the airways and lungs by inactivating their respiratory chain enzymes.
2. Regulation of binding - release of O2 to hemoglobin. This effect is similar to the CO2 function (the Bohr effect).
3. Vasodilation of arteries and arterioles (regulation of blood flow or perfusion of tissues).
4. Inhibitory effects of inflammation in blood vessels.
5. Hormonal effects. NO influences secretion of hormones from several glands (adrenaline, pancreatic enzymes, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone)
6. Neurotransmission. Memory, sleeping, learning, feeling pain, and many other processes are possible only with NO present (for transmission of neuronal signals).
Obviously, during mouth breathing it is not possible to utilize one's own nitric oxide which is produced in the sinuses. The mouth, according to Doctor Buteyko, is created by Nature for eating, drinking, and speaking. At all other times, it should be closed.
Read more research abstracts about nasal nitric oxide.
Cleaning, humidification and warming of air flow due to nose breathing

running-man-exercise.jpg
Our nasal passages are created to humidify, clean and warm the incoming flow of air due to the layers of protective mucus. This thin layer of mucus can trap about 98-99 percent of bacteria, viruses, dust particles, and other airborne objects.
If you are an endurance athlete and an asthmatic, you must train mostly, or even better, only, with nasal breathing. For really important competitions, you can use the mouth for breathing, but only if you have no current problems with your asthma. Sport training is useful due to its aerobic training effect. This is achievable while breathing only through the nose, as one Australian study confirmed (Morton et al, 1995; see the abstract in the references).
A group of US doctors from the Department of Surgery, University of Chicago even wrote an article with the title "Observations on the ability of the nose to warm and humidify inspired air". The abstract of their study is also provided in the references.
 
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