Monday Masters: The Art of Breathing

swimHow Breathing Affects Your Swimming Efficiency and Mechanics
From USA Triathlon
BY BRYAN MINEO
How are you breathing? Do you notice that you tend to hold your breath during stressful moments? Does your breathing become shallow or rapid when overwhelmed at work or school? Few of us give much thought to breathing. We breathe 10 million times per year! It comes naturally. However, we’re not fish. In the water, knowing how much air you should be ventilating the lungs with can be tricky but is necessary to creating an efficient freestyle.
There are two extremely common breathing errors I find in swimmers: working with too much air and late timing to each breath. This creates a slew of negative effects in your stroke, from a dropped body position, to excessive drag, to increased heart rate and wasted energy. The breath is the foundation of your stroke and should always be considered closely first before any other element of your stroke. With discerned breathing focus in the water, you can raise the ceiling of your swimming potential.

How Much Air Do I Need?
Take notice of the natural rise and fall your breath maintains on it’s own before you push off the wall for your next lap. Because of how regular you take oxygen in, about 20 times a minute, your body isn’t demanding a great volume of air each breath. The same approach should apply during your swimming. The goal is to utilize about half of your lung capacity each breath, meaning your inhale and exhale should be equal, leaving a bit of dead air in the lungs, opposed to completely emptying the lungs each exhale. This dead air volume will allow you to maintain neutral buoyancy and body position in the water. Many swimmers take too large of inhales, causing extra buoyancy in the chest, subsequently causing a drop in the hips and legs in the water…


Sync it upKnowing how to properly and effectively ventilate your lungs is one thing, but equally important is maximizing the amount of time you have for each breath during freestyle. It’s common to feel as if you don’t have ample time for each inhale, and luckily the fix is quite simple. The problem lies within the timing of your inhale, meaning literally when you start and finish the breath.
There is a specific unilateral breathing pattern you should be employing specific to open water swimming. Breathing every stroke, but occasionally alternating sides for symmetry and balance, allows you to sync the cadence of your stroke precisely with the rhythm of your breath…


Focus on Your BreathOur brains are only able to process and focus on one thing at a time. Your breath should always be your first focal point when swimming. Once you have the effort and timing of your breath dialed in, you can then move on and focus on an additional element of your stroke. If at any point you find yourself breathing shallow and constricted or feeling especially tense, tune back into the breath to reset your stroke. Keeping close attention to your breathing while swimming open water is particularly valuable as it helps to isolate your focus, and distract your mind from any negative self-talk or pre-existing fears. Remember: Focus on your breath…

Read the full story HERE.

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