In recent posts I have seen comments about taking in a less deep breath while swimming being better than taking in as deep a breath as possible. I will qualify this by saying that I am a respiratory physician who wishes he were a better IM triathlete (1:20+ swim). Today I tried taking in a less deep breath (I breathe bilaterally) and found it to be much more comfortable. As a respiratory doc I tried to make physiologic sense of this and it does make sense! In emphysema patients one of the problems is that their lungs are hyperinflated and this is a significant contributor to their “air hunger.” This is in part why surgery is sometimes done in these patients to remove the permanently inflated parts of the lung which results in less perceived shortness of breath despite no actual improvement in lung function. Also, when we breathe in to full capacity, we lose some flexibility of the arms. I thought I would share this since these recommendations helped me and they make sense as well!
That may be true, but there are also times when a nice deep breath feels really good. Like maybe every 10 breaths or so.
Hey thanks! I do this, but I just like some science and the only pulmonologist I know is a biker only. He used to run and I helped him with his problems (I’m a Podiatrist), but he eventually succumbed to the lure of Litespeed…