As an endurance coach, I spend a lot of time helping athletes with all kinds of skill sets. We spend time improving techniques like running, swimming, cycling, weightlifting, mobility, positive thinking, & focusing. But there’s one particular skill set that needs more attention than all the others…and it surprises athletes because it seems like it should be so easy. Breathing. Yes…breathing. To be more succinct – proper breathing.
Over the years I’ve come to realize that most of us breathe improperly. We breathe…
- With our mouths rather than our noses
- We overbreathe – too fast, too shallow & too much
- Our breath controls our brains (emotions, feelings, rate of perceived exertion [RPE]) rather than our brains controlling our breath.
When working with folks who are afraid of water, I quickly began to understand the importance of breathing properly. Sitting with these anxious folks on the side of the pool & listening to how fast & hard they were breathing proved that anxiety & breath are connected. This is obvious…but which comes first…the anxiety or the breath?
I used to think that how we felt determined how we breathed (i.e., feeling anxious causes fast, hard breath whereas feeling calm causes long, slow breath). But after reading “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” by James Nestor (click to read my blog post on this book), doing a bit of yoga & meditation work, & experimenting on myself, I now believe that it’s the other way around – our breath determines how we feel. The beautiful thing about this is WE CAN CONTROL HOW WE FEEL simply by changing our breath!
Just like anything else, practicing breath techniques makes it easier to control the way you breathe. And…when you have better control of your breathing, then you can affect how you feel at any given time. Someone cuts you off in traffic & you get amped up? Breathe to calm yourself. You have a tough conversation ahead & you want to make sure you’re “on”? Breathe to amp up.
For athletes, breath control is absolutely fundamental to successful performance. Heart rates can be lowered, oxygen usage can be increased, endurance can be extended & speed can be improved…all with breathing techniques. But I will tell you. It’s not easy. As I’ve experimented with breath control, I’ve realized that it’s mighty uncomfortable…particularly to your brain. You have to train your brain to accept the feelings of discomfort that come with restricted air. You have to train your head to accept the idea that, even though you don’t feel like there’s enough air, you’ll be ok & you’ll make it to the next breath. And as with everything…you practice this enough & slowly, but surely, it gets easier & easier.
One of my swimmers recently asked me how she could improve her lung capacity to make swim breathing easier. My snarky, but truthful, answer was: “It’s all in your head. You have to work on your brain!” So, let’s get to it! Here are a few ways you can practice your breathing & train your head!
1. Breathe through your nose…as much as possible.
This is the most basic technique. Just breathe through your nose! Although that sounds easy & straightforward, I think you’ll be surprised at how often you catch yourself mouth breathing. I was a bit shocked actually!
Once you’re paying attention, nose breathing while at rest is fairly easy to do. But…it gets A LOT harder to maintain while exercising. I found road cycling & mtn biking easier to manage than running (and…yes, we can’t nose breathe during swimming…for obvious reasons!). With cycling/mtn biking I simply slowed my pace down so I could keep nose breathing. Hills were more of a challenge – I had to go quite slow & learn to get comfortable with breathing hard through my nose. Running, however, has been more difficult. I normally use a 4:1 run:walk ratio (04min run to 01min walk). But I’ve had to alter that significantly as I can’t nose breathe longer than about 02min running. I need to experiment more with pacing as I may simply be trying to run too fast. It’s all a work in progress!
2. Belly breathe.
If you’ve done any singing, yoga or meditation work, you know all about belly (or diaphragm) breathing. This breathing technique changes how you breathe in & out. When we breathe faster & shallower, the intercostal muscles of the chest do most of the work keeping the breath high in the lungs. This style of breathing, if taken to its extreme, becomes hyperventilation. You can check for chest breathing by putting your hand on your chest and/or watching yourself in a mirror. If your chest & shoulders rise & fall as you breathe…yep…you’re chest breathing. Most of us chest breathe without even knowing that we’re doing it…and any kind of stress certainly increases this tendency. This is problematic because you end up in a vicious cycle – chest breathing makes you more anxious (#3 explains why) & the more anxious you get the more you chest breathe.
Belly or diaphragm breathing, by contrast, switches the work of breathing to the diaphragm & abdominal muscles. By engaging these more efficient breathing muscles we breathe deeper, slower & with longer exhales. Belly breathing technique is a bit counterintuitive to start (Elmo has a fun way of teaching this – watch video below!). Place your hand on your belly &, as you breathe in, push your belly OUT. That process allows the diaphragm to drop down which makes room for the lungs to expand downwards as they fully fill with air. As you start to exhale, pull your belly IN. By doing this your abs will slowly contract thereby pushing the air out of your lungs more completely. As you do this belly breathing notice that your chest & shoulders stay pretty still – they don’t move up, down, out or in. Also notice that your breaths are deeper & slower which should feel a bit more relaxing (#3 explains why)!
3. Breathe slower.
This is an excellent skill to practice. It’s easiest to do at rest & obviously harder in exercise. Apparently the “ideal breath” is roughly 05-06sec inhale to 06sec exhale – also called coherent breathing. This breath pattern is used in many forms of prayer & meditation – the Ava Maria prayer cycle, Buddhist mantras, the Latin version of the rosary, the yogic practice of pranayama breathing.
Slower breathing is the primary way to relax the body. Our parasympathetic nerves are located at the bottom of the lungs whereas the sympathetic nerves are at the top of the lungs. Remember that parasympathetic nerves activate the “rest & digest”. In contrast the sympathetic nerves ramp up the “fight or flight” response.
Parasympathetic nerves – bottom of lungs – rest & digest
Sympathetic nerves – top of lungs – fight or flight
So, the more softly we breathe in & the longer we exhale, the more parasympathetic nerves get activated…and the more we relax. If I think back on my anxious swimming clients, they breathe fast & shallow. Their chests expand & contract like balloons indicating upper lung breathing…all sympathetic nerve activation. To calm them down we focus on deeper, slower belly breathing (see #2). This works for two main reasons:
- Focusing on breathing technique means they’re not focusing on what they fear might happen in the water.
- Those deeper, slower breaths activate more parasympathetic nerves…which encourages relaxation.
To breathe slower, start when you are at rest. Inhale & exhale with the same count for both – 3:3 or 4:4. Once that feels good, then work to extend the exhale – 3:4 or 3:5 or 3:6. When that feels comfortable, then work to extend the inhale: 4:4 or 4:5. In exercise, work towards an exhale that is twice as long as the inhale – 2:4 or 3:6 or 4:8. I have found this VERY difficult to do…and mighty uncomfortable! But it is getting a bit easier now that I’ve been diligently working on breathing techniques for the last 5 months.
4. Hold your breath.
This technique seems completely counterintuitive…just like belly breathing & many other skill sets that are actually more efficient! Many of us hold our breaths without even knowing it. Stress, anxiety & tension all encourage us to hold our breath. That type of breath holding is really not good for the body at all because anxiety is increased. This technique, however, is purposefully holding your breath.
Why would we do something so uncomfortable? Well, firstly holding your breath trains your mind to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And secondly breath holding increases our CO2 levels…which we often consider a negative. But the truth is that increasing CO2 levels is actually a positive! Increased CO2 levels encourages our body to absorb more O2 from each breath.
Once again, we have it backwards. We think that taking a bigger breath in will help our body absorb more O2. But, in reality, exhaling longer & holding your breath at the end of the exhale will increase CO2 levels thereby causing more O2 to be absorbed. Voila! Improved lung capacity! Start by exhaling twice as long your inhale & then holding your breath for 1-3sec at the end of the exhale – 3:6:2 (inhale 3, exhale 6, hold 2). It’s tough…but it’s worth it!
So, there you go, folks! Something new for you to work on! I’ll be curious to hear your journeys with this & to hear how it affects your physical performance. Breathe on!