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I'm on a mission to start doing 6 miles per day but chest breathing is making it hard. Any suggestions on how to breathe with my stomach so that i can get more air into my lungs?
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Maybe the fact you have gone from a low mileage to doing 6 miles a day is the reason you are struggling. You need to build up gradually.
Also 6 miles a day every day may not be the best for you. I have found that variation has helped me. Also don't forget rest days.
The art of running, running with the alexander technique, has some good stuff on breathing. Also Greame Obree, he's a cyclist so it might be different, uses a strange breathing technique, 2 shallow breaths then a really hard breath out, I've tried it, not sure it works any better then shallow panting like a dog or any other for that matter.
Are you breathing through your mouth. www.oldmarathonrunner.co.uk You can not get enough air in breathing through your nose.
Breathe in and out on your left foot only. Breathe in slowly for two steps then out slowly for two steps.
you can't breathe like that using your chest muscles. Relax.
Hmmm - this might be interesting but might be bizarre? I've noticed in races that unless it is a flat out 5k (the shortest distance I do) that I can never hear my own breathing which seems almost silent whereas everyone around me seems either quite noisy or very noisy.
But i've never had lessons telling me how to breathe - I think this happened naturally when I was born?
However in a flat out 5k when I am at distress levels in maybe the last 1k my breathing sounds ridiculously noisy sometimes and I can't seem to 'manage' my breathing - by which I mean I can breathe but it is not under control.
Are you suggesting that I can train myself to breathe better so that in these last k distress situations I would be able to cope better? And if so, and most importantly, would I be able to run faster??
In his book ;the art of running faster' Goater says that panting and breathing heavily is a waste of energy. He claims, as Timr suggests, that you need a long deep breath in to get as much oxygen as possible and a long deep exhalation to empty the carbon dioxide. The problem starts when people don't exhale fully, they cant then inhale properly to get enough oxygen and there the issues begin.
Sounds simple, however in practice its not!
Skinny - I notice that too in races, then I start wondering if I'm trying hard enough!
I like the Julian Goater book - it gives some basic pointers to form, breathing etc without joining the preachy schools of thought. As DT19 said, expel the carbon dioxide by exhaling properly
DT/AR - thanks - I've actually already got the book and have been reading it but when I got to bit about 180 strides I went out and counted mine a few times and got 164 - so then tried getting 180 and couldn't keep it up for longer than a minute or two - anyway decided needed to try what book said properly if I was reading book so put it to one side to follow fully come the autumn.
Dipped back in this morning and I see there is a whole, but quite short, chapter on breathing so will read it tonight.
Cheers, Skinny
PS Still hard to believe that we need to train ourselves to breathe in the most beneficial way - I would have thought that breathing was about the most inate talent we have.
Take shorter strides.
Yes. We need to retrain ourselves to breathe properly because we have trained ourselves not to. A lot of people use their chest muscles instead of their diaphragm.
Tim - re strides - yes I know but it changes my form and during training I didn't want to do this so thought would try again in winter.
Re breathing - but that's just my point - I haven't trained myself to breathe at all - either in the right way or the wrong way? You would just presume, clearly from what you say incorrectly, that breathing was a natural life preserving activity and that our bodies would do it in the best way for any given situation.
We learn breathing techniques in my pilates class. Clearly I'm crap at it, though, as in races of 10k or under I sound like a dying steam train.
You haven't consciously learned to breathe wrongly but there are a whole host of reasons why we don't breathe correctly.
And that is why I died, last July. Lack of air on this run: http://www.walkjogrun.net/routes/current_route.cfm?rid=8AFB6DA8-ADF9-4CF8-C5768B3EF03D9EB4
Not my fastest ever, but that wasn't the point. I'll sacrifice a bit of speed to avoid the taste of bugs that fly up from horse droppings.
A bit of Kendal mint cake would have helped to clear the nasal passages I would have thought.
No thanyou, did I mention the horse leavings.
Anyway, nose breathing serves me adequately up to 9'/mile then in though the nose out through the mouth to about 8'30" mile. Moth breathing every four steps (ish) for 7'30"/mile. Faster than that and I'm increasing my breathing rate until I'm £%({ed.
The oxygen supplied by breating is far in excess of that needed for muscualr action. 80% is used in the production of heat.
Besides: "During maximal exercise at sea level, the respiratory system is not thought to limit VO2 max except in those subjects who have arterial desaturation during maximal exercise..."
https://class.coursera.org/exphys-001/wiki/view?page=Week3ExercisePhysiology
The need to breathe harder is triggered by excess C02 which, at high levels, causes that burning sensation in the lungs that tells me I'm about to run out of steam.
This is why for optimal endurance perforamnce, it is necessary to increase the oxygen delivery and usage capacity of the body. Increased capillarity in the muscles, more mitochondria etc. For this reason, it is essential to use endurance training techniques such as long slow runs, hill intervals and sprint intervals.
Jumping to doing 6 miles every day would be a stretch for a lot of people - and probably run too fast as well.
I've no idea how I breathe and I'm not going to overthink it.