Stitches & Breathing

VonTinka

Hey guys,

I have asthma but it's not bad. I can run and pretty much stay in the gym for a hour. My only trouble is breathing on the treadmil it always feels like a struggle but it's not my asthma it seems i don't breath right. I also getting stitches pretty bad along my ribs and sides latley which i never used to have. Any advice?

Jarice12

Try to be more conscious of your breathing when walking or running. Sometimes you may hold your breath without knowing it. Get a rhythm with your steps and breath. After a while it'll become natural and you won't have to think about it. Also, try drinking a small amount of water before exercising.

darkguardian419

Try to focus on your breathing and control it.

An example: breathe in for 2 steps, breathe out for 2 steps, repeat.

As for the stitches... I used to get them, now that I exercise more I never get them. IDK what caused/cured it, but more exercise seems to have helped.

Capt_Apollo

warm up better. your warm up should be some walking on a heavy incline if you are using the treadmill. do about half a mile before you start lowering the incline and picking up the pace. do that slowly as well.

in my opinion, a good warm up for an hour work out should take about 10 minutes.

eat more bananas, for potassium.

i can't stand running on the treadmill. i also have asthma, and allergies. i prefer to run outside.

askeates

Are you breathing correctly?

So here is what I learned a long time ago... we as woman often times to not breath correctly because we want to have that appearance (as best possible) of a smaller stomach and larger breasts. To breath correctly and not get the stitches in the sides you need to (often times) re-learn how to breath correctly. You breath through the diaphram which inflates your stomach... a good solid breath you will feel not only in your stomach but also through your back and sides.

Give it a shot a few times, think about your breathing... see what happens. Hope this helps, best of luck!

VonTinka

Thanks guys. I always warm up on treadmil with a incline. I think it's holding my breath I sometimes think on how to breath but then it gets all confusing as is it through nose or not haha

Capt_Apollo

i try and do that "in through the nose out through the mouth" thing. doesn't work for me.

Camper_Bob

Totally agree with the breathing thing. You have to meter your breathing and concentrate on it. I'm a life-long asthmatic and I just started running recently. I also used to get debilitating stitches, but as mentioned above, that has gone away as I've gotten in better shape, and have learned to breathe. I like to use the "step count method"; breathe in for three steps, breathe out for three, repeat. But like I said, I have to really concentrate on it. If I lose focus on my breathing, I'm hyperventilating pretty quick. In the nose, out the mouth doesn't work for me either, at least not yet... I'm still trying

Also, concentrate on keeping your core tight. One of the theories I found about the cause of stitches (apparently it is not known for sure what causes them) was that your organs are being jounced around and thus the tissues holding them in place start to hurt; that's the "stitch" you feel. One solution for that is to keep your core tight while running and use your knees to lessen the impact a little so you're not getting all bounced around inside. Is that scientific fact? I dunno, I'm not a doc, but it seems to be working for me. YMMV