So, it is pretty well understood that running, and training for a marathon requires you to strengthen your legs, and your cardiovascular strength (aka, your heart). What people seldom think about is strengthening your lungs. Proper breathing will allow for maximum oxygen intake, building endurance and reducing fatigue by allowing you to maintain a lower heart rate, and by removing more carbon dioxide from your body, thus reducing lactic acid build up, which is what will cause muscle soreness and leg cramps. It will also help with fat burn, which is how your body will be getting energy during the long miles of a marathon and your long training runs building up to race day.
There are a couple different approaches to maximizing the amount of oxygen you take in while running. One is belly breathing. It is usually natural to chest breath, meaning your chest will rise while you are breathing. Breathing into your belly will allow you to get a deeper breath, bringing more oxygen into your lungs. To practice this, watch your stomach as you breath. Your stomach should be rising and falling with each inhale and exhale. This is kind of awkward in the beginning, but practice it while not exercising and it will eventually transfer over to your running.
Another approach to help with breathing is rhythmic breathing. In rhythmic breathing, your inhales and exhales are timed with your steps. Many people will run a relaxed run at a 2:2 ratio, meaning they will inhale for the length of two steps, and exhale for the length of two steps. There is a theory that an unsymmetrical breathing can help prevent side stitches while running. In this 3:2 pattern, you would inhale for 3 strides, exhale for 2. Like this:
Left foot: begin inhale
Right foot: continue inhale
Left foot: continue inhale
Right foot: begin exhale
Left foot: continue exhale
Right foot: begin inhale
Left foot: continue inhale
Right foot: continue inhale
In this pattern, which is what I use, you find that when you increase to a fast pace, you will naturally switch to a 2:1 breathing pattern. If you are breathing in this faster pattern during a recovery or long run, you are going too fast, slow down! Learning this rhythmic breathing can be awkward at first. Try it out on short recovery runs first, then begin integrating it in your long runs.
It is also believed that this rhythmic breathing pattern can help prevent injuries. Your body will naturally foot-strike with more force at the beginning of exhalation. With this unsymmetrical breathing pattern, you will exhale on a different foot each time, distributing the impact equally between both feet. This can help prevent many foot, knee, and hip injuries.
Another way to support strong breathing, and the intake of more oxygen, is proper posture. It is natural to shrug your shoulders when you become fatigued in a run. Bending over makes it difficult to fill your lungs and use your diaphragm properly. This will cause you to take shorter breaths, decreasing the amount of oxygen you are taking in, causing you to increase your heart rate, build up lactic acid, get side stitches and cramps, and slow down. Proper posture while running, is the same posture your grandmother (at least my grandmother) always made you use at the dinner table. You should be running tall, with your head and chest up, your arms at your side bending 90 degrees at the elbow.
Which is better, nose or mouth? Both! In order to take in the most oxygen, you will actually breath using your mouth and nose simultaneously. Think about breathing through your mouth, and you’ll find you are also breathing slightly through your nose. The one exception to this is cold weather. In extreme colds, breathing through your nose will warm your breathe, causing less stress on your lungs.
Next week: Yasso 800s
Happy running,
Genevieve
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