Inhale and exhale

[rwilkes]

Good evening everyone,

Hope you are all enjoying your swimming !!

My question is about inhale and exhale while breathing, perhaps my question should be in the breathing section, but I want to relate to balance, calmness and Coach Suzanne's excellent thread on breathing.

My problem surrounds bilateral breathing. I managed 5 lengths of 25m non stop today while breathing every 3. At the end if the set I felt awful, usual out if breath and uncomfortable.

I generally tend to inhale too much and not exhale enough, and I am not sure how to correct this. I want to take that bite and relax on exhale, rotate and byte again. Maybe technique, but I am in the circle of not breathing comfortable and therefore technique goes.

Last year I was breathing every two, but a goal of mine this year is to breath easy on every 3.

Any thoughts on that all elusive exhale ???

Thanks

Russ

[dprevish]

Rw,

Just wondering, how many strokes per length and about what time / 25m are you swimming your lengths at?

[andyinnorway]

Originally Posted by rwilkes

Good evening everyone,

Hope you are all enjoying your swimming !!

My question is about inhale and exhale while breathing, perhaps my question should be in the breathing section, but I want to relate to balance, calmness and Coach Suzanne's excellent thread on breathing.

My problem surrounds bilateral breathing. I managed 5 lengths of 25m non stop today while breathing every 3. At the end if the set I felt awful, usual out if breath and uncomfortable.

I generally tend to inhale too much and not exhale enough, and I am not sure how to correct this. I want to take that bite and relax on exhale, rotate and byte again. Maybe technique, but I am in the circle of not breathing comfortable and therefore technique goes.

Last year I was breathing every two, but a goal of mine this year is to breath easy on every 3.

Any thoughts on that all elusive exhale ???

Thanks

Russ

Hi Russ, depending on your stroke rate, breathing every two may just be a better solution, you can always choose to swim alternate lengths breathing left and right.

The inhale and exhale definitely need to be balanced and I think for comfort you want to use the middle 80% of your lung capacity, so avoid filling up totally or emptying totally.

I wonder too if its something other than breathing that causes breathlessness? On the bike now, I can work at my athletic limit without getting breathless but I cannot do this yet running or swimming.

I was watching the London marathon on Sunday and the BBC interviewed Mo Farah about a minute after he had (intentionally) withdrawn at the half way point, where he was happily running with the lead pack at world record pace. A minute after finishing his breathing was controlled, relaxed and normal despite having just run 13 miles in about an hour.

I think short repeat 100m intervals at a challenging but not sprint pace are a good way to work on this relaxation, with ease of breath being the goal at the end of each 100m.

I would pick my 800m pace and try to finish the 100 repeat breathing as easy as my 1 hour (3000m) plod pace, and keep the rest interval short.

It's still a work in progress for me at least.

[wie]

I am having similar problems.
When I am swimming slow and concentrate on SPL, I have breathing problems.
When I swim fast and concentrate on speed only, I have no breathing problems.
Strange ...
Someone told me that breathing should control speed.
But I have no idea how to practice that.