ltc

OK, I admit it sounds a bit bizarre for a post, but let me explain.

In January, I took my son to the Florida Winter Tour www.floridawintertour.com down at Homestead FL, so he could see what it's like to run with the big dogs and get some experience from the factory team.

Anyways, his chassis tuner (who also wore the hats of driving instructor, mechanic, coach, motivator) was discussing his fatigue in getting thru 20 laps and not losing concentration.

His advice was to NEVER breathe thru your mouth, it almost immediately raises your heart rate and respiration ~20% and it's hard to ever get it back down. He instructed my son to ONLY breathe thru his nose the entire time he is on track. It worked. He was much less fatigued while on track.

Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Larry Herman

All the time. In cycling, it is the best way to recover from a hard climb. As an intermediate step, you can exhale through your mouth, but you must still inhale through your nose. You would think that it is not logical, but it does work.

jakermc

my wrestling coach taught us the same thing

smlporsche

I just got back the Rennlist membership dues!!

Thanks.

Alan G.

It is also a common technique in yoga and meditation. Deep breaths that move the diaphram, inhale through nose and slow exhale through mouth. It really can help your focus and balance out that red mist rush!
The real trick is to remember it when the adrenelin starts cranking.

ps lewis, it looks like an rsa is in my immediate future.

alan

Veloce Raptor

Yup. About the only time for mouthbreathing is when doing hard running. Unless your user name here is GhettoRicer.

Lemming

The nose strips work wonders as well, I use them when I'm racing my dirtbike.

Z-man

On a similar note: too many people will NOT breathe in the corners. They tense up and literally hold their breath while going through the section where the most concentration is required.

Breathing restores oxygen to the body - the brain needs oxygen to concentrate. So don't forget to breathe in the corners!

Oh, and yes - I have heard that breathing through the nose is better as well.

-Z

Alan G.

We know the importance of oxygen in metabolic processes. I have actually seen Z-Man attempting to stick his head out of the driver's window to get some forced induction to offset his peddeling induced low blood oxygen levels .

AG

Bull

Yep, just watch Z-man in any corner for a display of hyper-ventilating!

Larry Herman

Z, you need new friends.

cooleyjb

I've heard of it as a technique to calm you by forcing you to breathe more slowly and methodically. It's tough to breathe slowly through your mouth.

On my long bike rides I notice no difference in the recovery of my heart rate when I breath through my nose or through my mouth. The key was the slow relaxed breathing. Just like when you are SCUBA diving. The long slow methodical breathers need much less air.

Z-man

And you guys wonder why I have low self-esteem issues...and my therapist said I was doing so well...

I think I'll crawl into a dark, quiet corner now. ** sniff sniff**


-Z-man.

JimmiLew

Another very good runners trick is "belly breathing". Instead of inhaling up (either through the nose or mouth, which actually restricts the airflow to your lungs), you breathe out with your belly, actually pushing it outward away from your body. This pulls your diaphram down and away, therby increasing the volume of incoming air to your lungs. More oxygen equals better transfer to red blood cells equals lower heart rate and better endurance.

Dont ask me how I know!

Bull

That "sniff sniff" stuff is also bad breathing Z.