Improve breathing to improve running speed?

Swimming! I quit smoking recently, and am a new runner as well, so I've been looking for ways to improve my lung health. Several people suggested swimming as the best exercise to do for lung capacity. Here's an article that explains why...

http://www.swimmingscience.net/2011/10/sucking-air-out-of-room-swimmers-lung.html

Hope this helps!

I ran hills, working hard to go a bit further and/or faster each time. I found my lung capacity increased fairly rapidly. Perhaps you just have to give it a bit more time.

Bump....I'm having some issues with this too...I'm wondering if yoga will help?

There is no secret to breathing while running. Breathe however you want to get the air in; through your mouth, through your nose, through your ears if you can.

Hard breathing and high heartrate is caused by the cardiovascular system attempting to provide the oxygen demanded by the muscles. By increasing your aerobic capacity more oxygen is delivered to and used by your muscles per unit of time. In addition to other benefits, this will also lower both your heartrate and breathing rate at any given speed.

The best way to increase aerobic capacity is to run lots of easy miles for a long time. Easy is around 75% max heartrate and below. The only way to speed up the process is to make individual runs longer and run more weekly miles. Running faster or doing other stuff will not speed up development here.

Thanks Scott! That is great advice!!!

Breathing in for four steps and exhaling for three or similar is supposed to help improve breathing, and I personally find that I works for me when I run.

There is no secret to breathing while running. Breathe however you want to get the air in; through your mouth, through your nose, through your ears if you can.

Hard breathing and high heartrate is caused by the cardiovascular system attempting to provide the oxygen demanded by the muscles. By increasing your aerobic capacity more oxygen is delivered to and used by your muscles per unit of time. In addition to other benefits, this will also lower both your heartrate and breathing rate at any given speed.

The best way to increase aerobic capacity is to run lots of easy miles for a long time. Easy is around 75% max heartrate and below. The only way to speed up the process is to make individual runs longer and run more weekly miles. Running faster or doing other stuff will not speed up development here.

Agreed that it's not the breathing so much as it is aerobic capacity. So how do you increase aerobic capacity/increase your max VO2 (the amount of oxygen your body can consume)? With very long easy runs and supplement with certain strength training (lower weight & more reps). These things will increase mitochondrial growth and capillarization in your muscles. Mitochondria = energy converters, capillaries = highways for oxygen to your muscles. Increase those and you will be able to keep up higher speeds for a longer amount of time.

Thanks for all the responses...

I did c25k last year but didn't ever achieve my desired pace. Thought their may be a more efficient method to achieve faster paces than more run time. Put in the run time and respiratory system (heart & legs) will respond...

Thanks Again...

There are things you can do as long as you keep them in the context of 80% of weekly mileage building aerobic capacity as discussed above and the remaining 20% doing something to improve your ability to run at faster speeds.

A weekly tempo run will benefit you by conditioning your body to run at a fast pace where lactate is building up rapidly. Warm up at easy pace for 20 minutes, run at a fast pace for 20 to 30 min (approx 10K pace), then cool down with 20 minutes easy pace. The pace should feel fairly uncomfortable but should be sustainable for the length of the run. If you have to slow down you are going too fast.

A weekly interval session at a track will help improve VO2max. These are repeats from 400m to 1000m at somewhat faster than 5k pace with a short recovery in between each one. The total of the faster intervals should be no more than 8% of weekly mileage. Each one should be at the same pace. If you have to slow down you are going too fast. (in this context the first one might not seem too hard. But by the 5th or 6th one you will be sucking wind and struggling to hang on.) The recovery interval between each should be no more than the time of the fast interval. A good target, if your weekly mileage supports it, is to do 2 to 3 miles worth of intervals during a single session. Do 10 to 20 minutes of warm up and cool down at easy pace also.

Depending on how much you run right now you might do a tempo run one week and an interval session the next. Unless you are running at least 5 or 6 days a week you probably shouldn't do both workouts in one week.

A weekly long run of 2 hours at easy pace will also give a great payoff.

Also, do strides after a couple of easy runs each week. accelerate to top speed over about 60 meters and then hold the top speed for about 40 more meters. Recover as long as you want and repeat. Do around 6 of them each session. This is neuromuscular training to keep your legs in touch with moving fast but is short enough that it adds minimal stress and fatigue to the body.

Breathing in for four steps and exhaling for three or similar is supposed to help improve breathing, and I personally find that I works for me when I run.

Do you have a certain technique? Like pushing the breath out as far as you can? I want to get it right..:flowerforyou:

Thanks!!

The best thing is to ensure you are doing "belly breathing" and filling your whole lungs. When you breathe in your diaphram should drop and your belly should expand. If your chest expands you are chest breathing and only filling your lungs half way. Once you get used to the technique it should feel natural and not forced.

I like swimming for that. I try to swim underwater as far as I can before coming up for air to help expand the depth of my breathing, then will do laps to try and find a breathing pattern to help maximize.

The idea for me is to improve my underwater swimming distance to learn how to improve breathing pattern for maximal efficiency.

Breathing in for four steps and exhaling for three or similar is supposed to help improve breathing, and I personally find that I works for me when I run.

Do you have a certain technique? Like pushing the breath out as far as you can? I want to get it right..:flowerforyou:

Thanks!!

The best thing is to ensure you are doing "belly breathing" and filling your whole lungs. When you breathe in your diaphram should drop and your belly should expand. If your chest expands you are chest breathing and only filling your lungs half way. Once you get used to the technique it should feel natural and not forced.

That and just learn to run relaxed. Humans are more than capable of getting all the air they need as long as they don't get in the way. Even at 100% of VO2 max, the blood is fully oxygenated and lung capacity is not reached.