“When we head out for a run, there are plenty of things to think about: how our feet land, how we bend our arms, and how quick our stride rate is. But the one thing most runners don’t think about is how to breathe.”
Kelly O’Mara from Competitor.com tells us about how to breathe while running
There are different patterns to breathing that most beginners don’t think about and so breathe irregularly. Runners use breathing patterns to help with stride efficiency and pacing. The most common pattern is a 2-2 pattern, breathing in for 2 steps and out for 2 steps – this pattern is believed to maximize oxygen intake.
Butt Coates, a long time running coach and author of Running on Air, says that a 2-2 pattern means you always exhale when the same foot lands and that this is more likely to cause injury as you put constant stress on one side of the body. Coates recommends a 3-2 pattern (in and then out).
A breathing pattern can be used to gauge how hard you’re working. As you speed up your pattern becomes difficult to maintain and so you either need to adjust your pattern or slow down.
Bill Leach, the head coach at the University of Montana, says you should have a 2-3 pattern rather as the atmospheric pressure is greater than the pressure in your lungs, which means you need to push air out to let it rush back in.
How to breathe:
Something they all agree on is that you should breathe from your diaphragm, instead of your chest. To practice breathing from your abdomen, lie on your back and breathe deeply. Start counting your breathes in your head and then progress to walking, jogging and running.
To read the full article written by Kelly O’Mara for Competitor.com click here.