Running with one of my friends I notice that he does the little “Steam Train” breathing ever so often. Never thought much of it. Then I got rather nastily injured and had to sit around for two months waiting for recovery.
When I started running again my breathing was all over the place. Sometimes felt like I was about to pass out from hyper ventilating and sometimes like I was about to pass out from under ventilating. So I started researching breathing techniques, just to get myself into a rhythm again.
It was then that I came across some interesting articles on rhythmic breathing. There is an especially informative one on Runnersworld.com by Budd Coates and Claire Kowalchik. I will put a link to the article below. In summary, however, it deals with Rhythmic Breathing and how it can be used to prevent injuries while running.
In essence:When you start to exhale, more impact stress it put on that side of the body.
If your exhale coincides with the footstrike on a certain side of the body, that side will be subject to more stress than the other, and will therefore be more prone to injury.
Rhythmic Breathing can be used as a trick to alternate the footstrikes on an exhale.
The principle is as follows;
You inhale for a certain amount of steps and exhale for one less. Typically inhale for three steps and exhale for two. This will cause the footstrike for each exhale to alternate for each set, thereby ensuring equal stress on the body.
Is it easy? Well, no. Not to start off with anyway.
I started off, as suggested in the article, by walking. Breath in 2, 3. Breath out, 2. After a while it seems to take post and I decided to take the new technique to the road.
MAJOR DISASTER!!
When you have run “untrained” for such a long time it is extremely difficult to teach yourself a completely new way of breathing. Especially on the trot, so to speak.
So I slowed down (WAAAYYYY down) and started by mimicking taking in three short breaths and exhaling two large ones. After about three kilometers it felt natural. So I stopped thinking about it and tried for it to come naturally.
No way!!
Not 300m later I was back to my old habits. I checked myself and started with the pattern again. Kept it going till the end.
Next run, I almost forgot to do the Rhythmic Breathing altogether! Only caught up about 500m into the run. Same struggle.
Towards the end of this run I however seem to come to a conclusion;
I was following directions as detailed in the article. Inhale for three strides and exhale for two. I, however, have a rather large lung capacity. The three stride inhale felt more like hyperventilating than breathing. So I upped the inhale to Four strides and the exhale to three strides. BINGO!
Seems that because I was not breathing in fully, as I am used to, the rhythm just never caught on. Did not feel natural. Once I increased the inhale to a complete “lungs full of air” inhale, the rhythm came more naturally.
Make no mistake, the pattern is still flexible. Last mile dash? Pattern quickly turns into an Inhale for Two, Exhale for One pattern. More effort up a hill? No problem. Inhale for Three, Exhale for Two.
Has it become second nature? Not yet. But it is coming more natural now. And what has become almost second nature is me just checking in on my breathing every kilometer or so. If I have lost the plot, I just bring it back in line, monitor it for a 100m or so and then let it be for the rest of the kilometer.
I also find myself doing a quick “this is how it needs to be” breathing regime when I hit the road. Helps me to settle into the Rhythm. And while doing that, sucking and blowing loudly, I all of a sudden realized why my friend sounded like a steam train chugging out of the station. Goes to show you.
For the Runnersworld article click here
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