Q on breathing technique

Pigwig

Pigwig

Barefooters
Aug 17, 2013
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#1
Hi. I've just read a very interesting post from a while back on breathing techniques. It included a video from Budd Coates featuring someone from Runners World, and advised on how to "belly breathe". Two things I've read which go against this advice; first is this post on another forum, someone who was a trumpet player says....I'm a beginner running but an experienced trumpet player. There are two type of breathing, put simply there's the upper breathing that moves your chest and shoulders and then there's the breathing from lower down, it makes your stomach go in and out. I've seen a lot written about harnessing this deeper breathing for running but I've found doing it all the time whilst running can actually be counter productive. Your breathing doesn't need to be at the same pace as your legs...

And
A member of a local running club is something to do with biology and recommended a bigger breath OUT, so perhaps 2 in, 3 out, in order to get rid of carbon monoxide???(apologies I can't remember exactly which "oxide", but someone will correct me, I'm sure). I've been using this method and it seems to work, but as with most people I'm always looking for ways to improve!
Any thoughts??
 
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#3
Pigwig said:
A member of a local running club is something to do with biology and recommended a bigger breath OUT, so perhaps 2 in, 3 out, in order to get rid of carbon monoxide???(apologies I can't remember exactly which "oxide", but someone will correct me, I'm sure). I've been using this method and it seems to work, but as with most people I'm always looking for ways to improve!
Any thoughts??
Click to expand...

My own experience is it doesn't matter how you breath you either get enough air or not...some of these breathing patterns may help in some psychological way I'm not aware of though. Generally if your not getting enough air you need to slow down but that should only show up in the faster races like a 5k or shorter.
 
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#6
I agree that the expelling of air out in larger bursts seems to be really effective during any hard workout like hills or HIIT stuff. That's been my experience anyway. As for the deeper diaphragmatic (belly) breathing I don't do that so much while I'm running but I will often use belly breathing during strength training to help stabilize my spine during heavy lifting or core workouts. My husband talks a lot about using diaphragmatic breathing during MTB races right before he's about to climb a hill. He calls it "stoking the engine." I've tried as well while cycling (which seems easier than running) and I would agree that it seems to "prime" your system with a little more oxygen before you go anaerobic which allows you to go longer in that state.

Funny. I wrote a whole blog post on my ineptness at breathing while running. Ha! Feel free to read for entertainment purposes only :happy:
http://nakedonsharppointystuff.blogspot.com/2012/10/born-to-breathe.html
 
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#7
i belly breathe while i run. i don't count breaths to my steps. seems unnecessary. i just breathe in through my nose and will exhale through it unless i push the pace really high. then i exhale through my mouth. inhaling through my mouth provokes asthma. i forced myself to do it while i learned to run/bf since i was new to both. you'll have to figure it out on your own if you want to do it.
 
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#8
Cheers everyone. My whole being just wants to say don't analyse, just get out and do it. Then I read some info about "the correct way to run" and off I go again, feeling insecure and worried i'll do myself a mischief because I'm not doing it properly! I suppose it's like childbirth...you can get all the advice you want on 'proper' technique but at the end of the day, Mother Nature sorts it out!
 
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#9
Pigwig said:
Cheers everyone. My whole being just wants to say don't analyse, just get out and do it. Then I read some info about "the correct way to run" and off I go again, feeling insecure and worried i'll do myself a mischief because I'm not doing it properly! I suppose it's like childbirth...you can get all the advice you want on 'proper' technique but at the end of the day, Mother Nature sorts it out!
Click to expand...
Pretty much. Yeah. I tend to think WAY too much about stuff too.:)
 
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#10
I'm presently working on designing a computerized mechanical pump that a person can fit over their head and it'll force more air and oxygen into the lungs, then create suction to pull out the carbon dioxide. The biggest problem is getting the chipset firmware to recognize when to pump faster or slower and we've had a few unfortunate accidents where we exploded some torsos from too much air injection and one incident of where the lungs got sucked out of the body. But it'll be awesome when we get it right. I might be willing to ship a few beta units to any willing volunteers willing to sign contractual releases absolving me of any and all responsibility for any potential injuries.
 
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#11
Use your consciousness to sort out route, effort level (pace), avoiding poop or glass or other unpleasant objects, deciding whether or not to wave to a fellow runner, making sure you didn't accidentally put on some footwear, that sort of thing. Oh, and try to adopt a good, erect yet relaxed posture.

Let your unconscious take care of the rest--breathing, cadence, heart rate, etc. That's what works for me anyhow. It's fun reading up on running technique, form, physiology, and stuff, but for the recreational runner, I doubt it matters much, unless you're having problems and are in search of a solution. Then, as Mokaman says, it's probably worthwhile. If everything's going well and you're having fun, don't fix what ain't broken.

Nonetheless, it is fun thinking about this stuff and although diaphragmatic breathing helps for singing or playing a musical instrument, and for certain lifts, as zapmamak says, to increase support, I wonder if it really applies to running, where the abdomen gets stretched out a bit with each stride. I have no idea, but seems like it might actually be counterproductive to tense up one's diaphragm while the glutes and quads are tugging on and then releasing that area of the body. Clearly, more poorly conducted studies with statistically meaningless sample sizes are in order, with the attendant internet gurus hastily interpreting these shaky conclusions in absolute terms, in hopes of increasing traffic to their site by the gullible and impressionable in search of easy, pat answers.
 
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#12
A little conscious diaphragmatic breathing helps me relax when I get a little intense when running. Sometimes the mental effort of what I'm doing translates unnecessarily to fast, tense breathing. Just a moment to address this helps me, then I go back to not thinking about it.
 
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#13
Not to throw a whole 'nother thinking bomb into the middle of this discussion, but I have also experimented with breathing rhythms and foot strike and was pretty amazed at how effective it was. I would make sure my long breath in was with my left foot and my short breath out occurred on my right foot The only problem was that I could only do it on road where my foot rhythm is somewhat regular. It would never work on trail (and I run mostly on trail) because my foot strike is so irregular and it would be really hard to time that. I'm pretty uncoordinated anyway, so even doing it on road was a challenge, but I managed to do it for about a quarter of a mile before I was all "SQUIRREL!" and lost track. Ha!
 
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#14
i say kids, babies, do everything naturally. adults muck it up too much with our thinking. i believe our age hinders us and therefore we have to work on basic, natural movements until they become natural.
 
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#15
zapmamak said:
Not to throw a whole 'nother thinking bomb into the middle of this discussion, ...
Click to expand...
As long as we keep you distracted enough not to post any more offensive photos on the female athlete's thread.

This same discussion on another breathing thread (are we into summer repeats, or are these topics cyclical in fashion like fashion?), spurred me to go out and see what my breath-to-stride time signature is. I found that at around 9mm pace I have a nice 5/4 time signature (three steps inhale, two steps exhale), and either Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" or Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" immediately enters my head, or, more rarely, when conditions are bad, the theme song from "Mission Impossible" offers succor. Not sure how 'effective' it is though, since it's subconscious and so there's no other way of running to compare it to. I haven't bothered to check what my breath-to-stride time signature is when I run faster or slower. That said, I suspect there's a really fast waltz in there somewhere when doing intervals, and possibly an odd time signature from Ravi Shankar's "My Music, My Life" may rule my running rhythm when running sub-aerobically, slow, and ploddingly.
 
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#17
Bare Lee said:
As long as we keep you distracted enough not to post any more offensive photos on the female athlete's thread.

This same discussion on another breathing thread (are we into summer repeats, or are these topics cyclical in fashion like fashion?), spurred me to go out and see what my breath-to-stride time signature is. I found that at around 9mm pace I have a nice 5/4 time signature (three steps inhale, two steps exhale), and either Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" or Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" immediately enters my head, or, more rarely, when conditions are bad, the theme song from "Mission Impossible" offers succor. Not sure how 'effective' it is though, since it's subconscious and so there's no other way of running to compare it to. I haven't bothered to check what my breath-to-stride time signature is when I run faster or slower. That said, I suspect there's a really fast waltz in there somewhere when doing intervals, and possibly an odd time signature from Ravi Shankar's "My Music, My Life" may rule my running rhythm when running sub-aerobically, slow, and ploddingly.
Click to expand...

Wha? I don't post offensive photos. ;) I think I've contributed (and other's have contributed "on my behalf") a fair amount of photos for the guys to gawk at so I thought I would just be fair to the ladies. Anyway... I've been pretty much MIA on here for the last couple years so all these threads are new to me. Its like Christmas!
 
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#19
Before I start my runs, I spend several breaths focusing on EXHALING, as if I were punched in the diaphragm -and keeping it held out as long as possible. This makes an incredible difference in my breathing for the rest of my run!
 
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#20
Bare Lee said:
As long as we keep you distracted enough not to post any more offensive photos on the female athlete's thread.

This same discussion on another breathing thread (are we into summer repeats, or are these topics cyclical in fashion like fashion?), spurred me to go out and see what my breath-to-stride time signature is. I found that at around 9mm pace I have a nice 5/4 time signature (three steps inhale, two steps exhale), and either Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" or Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" immediately enters my head, or, more rarely, when conditions are bad, the theme song from "Mission Impossible" offers succor. Not sure how 'effective' it is though, since it's subconscious and so there's no other way of running to compare it to. I haven't bothered to check what my breath-to-stride time signature is when I run faster or slower. That said, I suspect there's a really fast waltz in there somewhere when doing intervals, and possibly an odd time signature from Ravi Shankar's "My Music, My Life" may rule my running rhythm when running sub-aerobically, slow, and ploddingly.
Click to expand...
Just don't try to run to the "Apocalypse In 9/8" section of "Supper's Ready" by Genesis or you'll trip yourself on the accents.
 
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