I know, you’ve been breathing your whole life, what do you need to know about breathing? You usually don’t even think about it, you just breathe…all the time. Guess what? We all breath without thinking, it’s involuntary. I bet you beat your heart without thinking too. Come on. Nobody likes a show off.
While breathing may be involuntary, it is still very important to your running. Plus, if you don’t do it, you’ll die. I tried to see if this was true once, but I took a breath before I could find out. Apparently I’m not as mentally tough as I thought I was. Seriously though, poor breathing techniques can have an adverse effect on your work-outs and runs. Poor breathing leads to a quicker loss of breath and puts a great stress on your body. Remember, you are running to relieve stress, not create more.
Not everyone agrees, but most running experts suggest breathing from both your mouth and your nose, allowing your body to get the most oxygen possible. The most optimal style is to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. One reason for this is that when you inhale through your nose, you expand your lungs more than when breathing through your mouth. Another reason to breathe through your nose is because it is able to filter the impurities in the air. The more nose hair you have the better! Finally!
You know you are breathing well when you can feel it in your belly. Or in layman’s terms, your gut. Lay down on some grass and breathe deeply, you’ll see your belly expand and then retract. That’s what you want to see when you are running. If you are breathing improperly while running you will feel the strain on your shoulders and your upper body tighten. Tell the oxygen to get in your belly.
Also try to prepare yourself for your run by concentrating on your breathing during your warm-up routine. Do a slow jog, concentrating on a steady rhythm. Inhale, take a full pause, exhale, and then top it off with an empty pause. This will help increase your oxygen and get you ready for that strenuous run. Or you can just stretch before you run like everyone else. Follower.
Like usual, every runner is different so do what feels best to you. I’m a mouth breather. When I was younger I had a lot of allergies and often had a stuffy nose, so I just breathed through my mouth. Solved that problem. Now I’m a 100% mouth breather and very proud of it. Develop a breathing technique you can be proud of. Go and do some heavy breathing! Just try not to be creepy about it.