Correct breathing
plateaued
Posts: 199 Member
My 30 year old friend, who runs 8 minute miles keeps telling her 68 year old friend (me) that I should be breathing through my nose. My body, running at 11.5, is desperate for oxygen when I follow her advice. Is she trying to kill me or giving me good running advice?
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My 30 year old friend, who runs 8 minute miles keeps telling her 68 year old friend (me) that I should be breathing through my nose. My body, running at 11.5, is desperate for oxygen when I follow her advice. Is she trying to kill me or giving me good running advice?
There is no right or wrong answer. Some people breathe through their mouth, some people breathe through their nose. You should continue to do what is most comfortable for you. Virtually everyone will breathe through BOTH their mouth and nose when running at maximum speed.
"While breathing through the nose-only, all subjects could attain a work intensity great enough to produce an aerobic training effect (based on heart rate and percentage of VO2 max)"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8599744
My guess is that you were running faster than an aerobic pace (at 11.5 min/mile)0 -
In through your nose and out through your mouth is best from what I hear. But that's only at aerobic pace. For races, tempo runs, and intervals I am always breathing through my mouth.0
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^^
What he said. (Minimalistshoeaddict)
The popular advice was to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth but more often than not now you'll find that most people say breathe however you can.
I personally cannot breathe through my nose alone. I can't get enough air and it dries out my nasal cavity which causes a lot of discomfort. It's been that way since I've been a 12 minute miler to an 8 minute miler (not quite there right now).0 -
I find that the best way to breathe is to not think about how you are breathing. Our body does a pretty good job of maximizing it's oxygen intake when it needs it. Why complicate it by trying to force it to do something that it doesn't want to do? Just breathe.0
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In his book "Eat and Run" Scott Jurek recommends breathing through your nose. He says it forces you to breath with your diaphram which allows you to get more oxygen to your lungs. It also makes it much easier to eat and run at the same time.
I have tried it a couple times and have the same experience as Plauteued.0 -
My 30 year old friend, who runs 8 minute miles keeps telling her 68 year old friend (me) that I should be breathing through my nose. My body, running at 11.5, is desperate for oxygen when I follow her advice. Is she trying to kill me or giving me good running advice?
All I know is that watching world-class runners. I notice they breathe with an open mouth. Probably to ensure they get their oxygen.
Breathing through the nose is fine if you are not out of breathe, but personally, when running it is not even an option for me.0 -
you take in oxygen through any hole you can. The more oxygen in the better.0
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you take in oxygen through any hole you can. The more oxygen in the better.
There was a similar quote by a famous running coach that said something to that effect. I couldn't find it though.0 -
Yup, when it comes to running I'm a mouth breather.......
Just do what comes naturally.0 -
I HAVE to think about how I breathe. Often, it's the difference between finishing my run or cutting it short due to an asthma attack. Cold, dry air causes bronchoconstriction in everyone, asthma or not. If you're just starting to get back into shape or you have a respiratory illness/disorder, bronchoconstriction will likely lead to shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a cough. If you find you have these symptoms on your run, you might want to slow down a bit and focus on breathing through your nose a bit more. If you can breathe through your mouth just fine, then there's no need to worry about it.
One misconception though, you're breathing faster and harder to eliminate carbon dioxide that's building up - not to pull in more oxygen. As mentioned before, we can get all of the oxygen we need for aerobic exercise by breathing through the nose. It's the build up of blood lactate levels and co2 that leads to rapid breathing and eventually exhaustion. If you find your rate of breathing has increased significantly, try dropping your jaw and breathing out as much co2 as possible. This trick, along with belly breathing, works especially well for me when hill training.0 -
Some say breathing in through your nose & out through your mouth helps but that varies by individual and depends on how cold/warm it is. Concentrating on breathing deeper helps-I catch myself short,shallow breathing sometimes when I get tired running. Here's an article by Budd Coates from Runner's World on a 3:2 breathing technique that may or may not help you. It's helped me and I have asthma, too so I have to maximize each breath for efficiency: http://runnersworld.com/running-tips/running-air-breathing-technique/0
