Still struggling with breathing during swimming. Do i exhale through mouth, nose, hard, soft, continual, with strokes, constantly what? For some reason i get tense and at a point totally stop exhaling. I finish a lap and am out of breath even when doing a somewhat decent job of exhaling. Im in good running and biking health but I’m I’ve only been swimming a month now and am really discouraged. Any tips or pointers are greatly appreciated. I do best with bilateral breathing but for some reason just get tense and stop exhaling. Also can anyone point me in the right direction of some good workouts for someone like me. Stamina wise I have no problem doing up to 2000 yards.
Thanks in advance
I had the worst problem with that. I have been competitive surfing for 10+ years (I am 25), free diver, college diver…I was not in bad shape. I just couldn’t breath correctly yet.
First off practice. Practice. Practice. Just get more comfortable in the water. Learn to relax. The more tense you are the worse it will be. I tried bi-lateral breathing (which helps but I will get to it later). I tried breathing slowing, exhaling slowing, exhaling fast, sucking in air, every stroke, every other stroke, every 4th stroke, you name it I tried it. I was doing a 9 minute 400 (quarter mile) but I would be so winded there would be NO WAY I could do that in a triathlon.
So here is my advice…do what you feel is comfortable. I just breath whenever I feel like I have to…at first I will go 25 yards with no breath, then one breath the next 25 yards, then 3 or 4, then eventually it goes to every other stroke, then every stroke…but if I start getting too much air and feel I don’t need to breath I wont. Then if I have to breath but am in mid stroke I will breath on the other side (bilateral breathing). Pace yourself as well. If you scramble you will completely drain yourself. Learn to turn your head correctly and get in that “pocket” by your armpit. Eventually you will quit sucking water in your nose. Just trial by fire it. You can ask a coach to evaluate your technique but I never did. You will figure out what makes it easier and what makes it harder. Watch some Youtube technique videos, then go to the pool and try them and tweak them…then watch some more videos and try/tweak those…
I am now a 5:45 quarter mile (+/- 400 meter) and not winded at all…That is my sprint triathlon pace. I can maintain it for half a mile and some change and then I slow down after that simply because I don’t train volume. (I like sprints)
Now running on the other hand…that whoops my butt haha
Hope this all helps…maybe some others will post and help ya out. There are A LOT of guys on here A LOT faster and a bit older than I.
Here are a couple of quick thoughts:
- A lot of swimmers will take a breath every right stroke one length and then every left stroke the next length.
- Exhale can be continuous or in bursts … the shorter the distance and/or harder the effort, you’ll want to forcibly exhale to get ready for the next inhale. The longer the distance/intensity, the easier the exhale can be.
How much to exhale? Depends on intensity and how much air you want to inhale.
Hope this helps … good luck.
John
First, to get comfortable with inhaling and exhaling, try just slowly bobbing up and down at the end of the lane. Inhale while your head is above water and exhale while your head is under the water. In through your mouth, out through your nose, constant rhythm. Do this for a few minutes at the start of your swim sessions, and you’ll find yourself getting more comfortable exhaling consistently under the water. Also, you can do this during rest periods of your intervals and between sets.
While you’re swimming, you want to exhale as hard and as much as necessary to be ready to take in air on your next inhale. This is easiest if you use a regular breathing pattern, such as every other stroke or every third stroke. You mentioned that you do best with bilateral breathing, so try sticking with that. Do a few sets each workout where you really focus on your breathing, concentrating on exhaling continuously while your face is in the water.
A drill that you can do that helps with this is a sort of one-handed kick-board. Do one length of kick with your left hand outstretched in front of you and your right hand at your side, with your face in the water, inhaling on a regular basis by turning your head to the right. Switch to your right hand out in front and inhaling to the left on the way back. Use a pull-buoy to support your outstretched hand if you need to (I find a kick-board to be too bulky for this).
The advice I can give is never stop breathing. Don’t hold your breath. I breath ever 3rd stroke and once in a while I’ll go every other stroke. It seems when I do go every other stroke I almost get too much air. I almost breath normal exhaling and try to get as much as you can on the inhale.
since i learned to swim and to this very day swim with the same coach. he taught us to make an “mmmmmm” sounds while swimming. you’ll actually be exhaling. you’ll see the bubbles if you just stick your face in the water. try that while your doing laps and see if it helps you get into a better rhythm/breathing pattern
Still struggling with breathing during swimming. Do i exhale through mouth, nose, hard, soft, continual, with strokes, constantly what? For some reason i get tense and at a point totally stop exhaling. I finish a lap and am out of breath even when doing a somewhat decent job of exhaling. Im in good running and biking health but I’m I’ve only been swimming a month now and am really discouraged. Any tips or pointers are greatly appreciated. I do best with bilateral breathing but for some reason just get tense and stop exhaling. Also can anyone point me in the right direction of some good workouts for someone like me. Stamina wise I have no problem doing up to 2000 yards.
Thanks in advance
breathe naturally, don’t over think it.
Join a masters swim team. You’ll figure it out quickly when it’s do or die.
Breathing is weird in swimming. In any other sport when you start working hard you can breath as much as you want whenever you want. Imagine running and holding your breath for two steps then getting a short inhale. Swimming is annoying in that manner. I have coached a few kids and adults who just get claustrophobic in the water and I feel tense and nervous about having to hold your breath when you are working so hard. I actually like the idea this Olympian Gary Hall has about 2:3 breathing. It seems somewhat weird but you get more air in. But besides that having the right head placement is important too. ‘The Race Club’ website I’ve found has a lot of videos about head position and freestyle drills that are really nice. I feel that the best way to get comfortable in the water is to have the right technique. I hope your breathing comes easier to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab7SZU9iXnE
http://www.theraceclub.com/category/videos/page/8/
Imagine running and holding your breath for two steps then getting a short inhale.
I wouldn’t say that you need to “hold” your breath while swimming. Try to always be either inhaling or exhaling. The underwater exhale creates the space in your lungs so that you can inhale the whole time that your mouth is out of the water. At any stroke rate, inhaling every two strokes will give you 50% more air than breathing bilaterally and inhaling every three strokes. In other words, if you find that breathing every three strokes isn’t enough, try breathing every two. Regardless of the breathing pattern that you’re going for, if you find that you’ve “run out of air” and are holding your breath, just break the pattern and inhale on the next stroke. Once you get comfortable exhaling underwater (and if you have good aerobic fitness), inhaling every two strokes should provide enough air at any intensity up to your VO2 max.
Breathing out slowly is not how you breath normally either though. In any exercise once you start breathing hard it means you are in oxygen debt and you will continue to breath hard, trying to get more oxygen to your body, until you stop and EPOC occurs. Which is excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, this is when you stop exercising but you are still breathing hard trying to ‘catch your breath’. You body no longer need all the air you are breathing so after a minute of heavy breathing it returns to normal because the oxygen has been restored and body systems are back to normal. This happens with every exercise but in swimming you cannot breath hard like you normally would if you were running or cycling. Breathing out slowly and forcing the slow breath is unusual for the body and I would not recommend it. If you try to force yourself to always be exhaling or inhaling then you have to breath at the rate of your stroke. Your stroke rate may not be fast enough to keep that up. Your head is not out of the water the same amount of time it is in the water so if you slow your breath down you will need to take a deeper Longer breath which you do not have time for. If you exhale all at once it is a lot easier to take a quick full breath when you lift your head. Now this is unusual for the body as well but with the 2:3 breathing you can almost breath normally like in running and cycling. I do not recommend breathing out slowly but if it is comfortable to you use it. I believe in trying to make your breathing as comfortably as normal and as like any other exercise as possible.