Lung Endurance?
littlemissXsunshine
Posts: 27 Member
My lungs are very weak and I get short of breath after a very short amount of (any) exercise. As I'm sure you all know, breathing is incredibly important in swimming, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for increasing lung endurance and capacity? Aside from just.....keep running and swimming....lol.
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Some people swim with a snorkel to increase their lung capacity. I don't know how effective it is, I tried it out but I couldn't use it because I'm so accustomed to blowing air out of my nose as soon as my face enters the water.
Yeah, just keeping with it will definitely help.0 -
I would say just keep swimming and over time your abilities in breath management will improve greatly!
Also swimming (depending on the type of training you do) increases the unaerobic abilities, so the muscles learn to use less of your breath. However, this effect is more pronounced with swim sprinters and if you do lots of fast sets, as opposed to long distance workouts.
Correct breathing technique in swimming is important too. You are never ever really supposed to be holding your breath during the swim. On top of messing with stuff, it also increases buoyancy of upper body, thereby interfering with correct body position, as you end up tilted feet down chest up during the swim, rather than straight horizontal!
So you should breathe in as you take your head out for air then breathe out evenly as you do the 2 or 3 strokes before the next breath, making sure you you have breathed out all the air as you raise the head to breathe in again.
So essentially you continue breathing throughout, the only difference being the breath in is short and quick/ explosive, while the breath out is long and evenly distributed (if that makes any sense)!0 -
Hi, little miss x sunshine.littlemissXsunshine wrote: »My lungs are very weak and I get short of breath after a very short amount of (any) exercise. As I'm sure you all know, breathing is incredibly important in swimming, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for increasing lung endurance and capacity? Aside from just.....keep running and swimming....lol.
How many lengths can you swim without stopping? If it's one, that's fine. If it's less, that's fine too. Whatever amount it is, that's your current benchmark.
Make sure you do that distance three or more times every time you swim for at least 1-2 weeks. Keep doing this distance until you can do it six times in a workout. Catch your breath and rest as much as you need to in between swimming this benchmark distance.
Once you are comfortable doing this distance six times, then add a length to the first of the six sets. Then add it to the first and second set, etc. Keep going like that, until you're able to swim six times six lengths. In a 25-yard pool that's a half-mile. A very respectable work-out.
Don't worry about swimming fast. In fact, it will help a great deal to purposefully swim slower to find a easy, consistent pace that you can sustain. There's no timetable for how quickly you increase your endurance or how far you end up swimming in your workouts. You will find your own pace and challenge yourself as you are able. Swimming is a great exercise and is easily tailored to exactly meet your current ability and goals.0 -
I get short of breath too, mainly because I was so aerobically unfit until I started swimming a couple of weeks back. I now use a nose clip so breathe only with my mouth. I find I expel much more air through my mouth so am able to take more in when I lift my head out the water to breathe in. Perhaps try that?0
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One thing I was surprised to found helped my a lot was Spinning class.
You can push your self in increments as your capacity improves.
One of my favorite Saturday workouts at my old Y was swimming 5KM at 6am and hitting the 8:15 spin class right after. I called it 2 thirds of a triathlon.0 -
fishguty, next time I would run to the car & consider it a triathlon ;-)0
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Robertus, I appreciate your advice to littlemissxsunshine, as I'm in a similar circumstance. I will try your tactic beginning with tomorrow's workout. Thanks!0
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I think also part of it is mental. With swimming you cannot breathe anytime you want like you would in any other exercise. You are forced to breathe at specific intervals and a certain time frame. Much like a panic attack it can cause you to hyperventilate. Or feel as though you aren't getting enough air, even if you actually are.
That being said I still have to remind myself to breathe out underwater slowly since I find myself holding it for too long.0 -
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Good luck! Let us know how it works out.turtle0022 wrote: »Robertus, I appreciate your advice to littlemissxsunshine, as I'm in a similar circumstance. I will try your tactic beginning with tomorrow's workout. Thanks!
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ashenriver wrote: »I think also part of it is mental. With swimming you cannot breathe anytime you want like you would in any other exercise. You are forced to breathe at specific intervals and a certain time frame. Much like a panic attack it can cause you to hyperventilate. Or feel as though you aren't getting enough air, even if you actually are.
That being said I still have to remind myself to breathe out underwater slowly since I find myself holding it for too long.
This is so true. I have been trying to do this more too. If I find that I'm starting to panic I just try to breathe out more rather than jumping up to gasp.0 -
Thank you so much Robertus! I will definitely try that. I am trying to build confidence which is definitely helping a lot.0
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Chiming in here with another "I'm going to try that" voice. I guess I didn't find my real baseline on my first go at it, because I swam 2 laps (4 lengths), rested, and already managed all six sets last night. So that leads me to believe that I could/should have pushed myself harder on that first set. In any event, I'll use it as a starting point as I had no real plan in place to work from.
Good luck! Let us know how it works out.turtle0022 wrote: »Robertus, I appreciate your advice to littlemissxsunshine, as I'm in a similar circumstance. I will try your tactic beginning with tomorrow's workout. Thanks!
Thanks, Robertus, for the advice. At least there is a framework now, so that when I get to the pool, I know what my goal is before I get out of the water. I have to say, even going in wondering what my baseline was gave me some motivation to get in the water. As a newbie, it's hard to know how, when, and how much to add in.0
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