How to breathe while running

My running breathing tips

Running Trainer NYC

Running and breathing – what are the best running breathing techniques for beginners? Pace, cadence, and form are all important factors in running, but without the right breathing strategy, your trek may be much shorter than you want it to be. If you’re new to endurance training, you may find that your breath is one of the most difficult things to control. Let me give you some running breathing tips that worked for me.

Newer runners who lack cardiovascular fitness will breathe very erratically, often too shallow and ineffectively, especially when the intensity builds. As runners improve their fitness, hard breathing is easier to manage and patterns become more automatic. By the time a runner reaches elite status they are more focused on the pace rather than their breathing. These patterns are just figured out.

Control your breath

You may not be at elite status, but remember that practice makes perfect. As you’re running, work on controlling your breath. Try inhaling for 3-4 steps, and then exhaling for 3-4 steps. Breathing in for a longer duration may help you breathe deeper and thus take in more oxygen. It may take some time to figure out, but keep at it.

If you find yourself running out of breath or feeling winded all the time I recommend decreasing the duration or the intensity of the exercise. Find an appropriate starting point and progressively adjust the intensity or the volume of the runs as you adapt. This will yield cardiovascular adaptations to help build your endurance and stamina.

How to deal with side stitches

Often, side stitches are caused by undue stress to the diaphragm, which is escalated by shallow breathing. If breathing is too shallow, it doesn’t provide adequate oxygen to working muscles, including the diaphragm. Inhaling and exhaling fully and deeply can help reduce the occurrence of side stitches. Especially beginners have to deal with this problem and lot. But the more you run the more your body gets used to it and the side stitches will get less.

Breathing during intervals

If you’re doing interval training, you may have to worry less about your breathing technique, because you get time to recover. Your breathing rate will just be higher during the interval. The high breathing rate should still deliver oxygen to the lungs and not be too shallow.

More: Running Tips For Beginners