Improving breathing in swim
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cjhoffmn posted 41 weeks ago.
I had a very similar experience when I first started swimming. I felt incredibly frustrating, because I'm not a bad athlete, but the swimming was absolutely wiping me out.
I hired a swim coach that helped me with this in less than 2 lessons. the issue for me was that I wasn't taking nice and long breaths. I was only taking very short breaths because 1.) I wasn't starting my breath early enough - I needed to start the exhale much earlier and 2.) I was stroking with my extended arm almost immediately.
Working on the "catch-up" drill and starting to exhale much earlier helped me tremendously. the catch up drill is the one where you stroke with one arm, and leave the othe one extended. You don't start the stroke with the extended arm until the finishing arm "catches up" and meets it up front. It's kind of like being in a superman pose in the water and only stroking with one arm and a time.
It really helped me with timing which made all the difference in my breathing. Prior to this insight, I was absolutely spent after about 300 yards and usually had to take a nap after swimming.
Give something like that a try.
-C
To tri or not to tri - that's not a question at all!
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KenMierke posted 41 weeks ago.
I recommend breathing every stroke cycle or at least every 1.5 stroke cycles, for athletes of all levels (I coach a number of professionals). Triathlon is an aerobic sport and we need air.
Resricting your number of breaths causes several of problems. First, the air on our lungs provides most of our bouyancy. After a couple of strokes without breathing, you sink more. Secondly, by the time you do breathe, you need so much air that you have to essentially stop swimming to breathe.
Learn to breathe withing your normal stroke cycle and breathe more frequently. Most swimmers "climb out" to breathe, meaning they lift their heads and frequently their shoulders as well. This distorts horizontal body position - the hips and legs sink. Efficient swimmers use torso rotation and breathe to the side - in a pocket of air behind the shoulder - without lifting the upper body at all. Watching a good swimmer, it is difficult to tell which strokes they are breathing and which they aren't.
Remember that we breathe through our mouth and nose, not our foreheads. Lifting the forehead is such a strong tedency, but it will slow you down tremendously.
Exhaling earlier is excellent advice from the previous post.
Hope this helps,
Ken
Ken Mierke Ken@Fitness-Concepts.com
Fitness Concepts Fitness-Concepts.com
Author, The Triathlete's Guide to Run Training
www.EvolutionRunning.com
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jpaulson posted 40 weeks ago.
I guess I just need to keep working on it. I already start my exhale as soon as I rotate back in the water and I've been doing cath-up strokes for a while. I usually do like a 3/4 catch-up normally.
I have progressed in my breathing capacity, but still it is the weakness for me in the swim.
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tri-ac posted 40 weeks ago.
in addition to your work on the technique of the breath itself, keep your sets shorter and regiment the rest time between them. start to decrease the rest periods for a given distance until you can start to link two together without problem
say you got tired after 200yds:
wk 1: 2x200 @ 0:15rest
wk 2: 2x200 @ 0:10rest
wk 3: 2x200 @ 0:05rest
wk 4: 2x200 @ 0:00rest
wk 5: 2x300 @ 0:15rest
etc.
so conquer the rest time first then up the distance.
Hello all again,
I've got one for ya.
For the swim, I have no problem with fatigue. If I was swimming through thick air I could do it all day long. However, my limits always hit me in the breathing.
When i first started training (like two months ago) I could not swim more than two strokes per breath.
Now I can swim at about 5 strokes per breath for about 50 meters at a time and then switch to 3 strokes or 2 strokes (finally got good at the bilateral breathing!)
However, once I get to about 300-500 meters I am dying for breathe. I can't do more than 2 strokes at a time before breathing. Eventually I have to pause on the wall and catch my breath before swimming more. I don't feel the fatigue in my shoulders or legs, just loss of breath.
Am I pushing it too hard and raising my heartrate/breathing rate too high? Should I just slow down the swim (cuz i've been trying)? Are there any good breathing exercises to improve the lung capacity? Am I breathing the air out too fast?
Thanks fellow tri-junkies!