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I’m sure everyone knows by now the need for regular breathing when you run, the question of the best way to breath while running is discussed by Heather Long in depth:
When you’re running, you start to pant. You lose the capacity to take a deep lungful of air. This is completely normal. Your body needs oxygen the same way your car needs gas. So using the automobile analogy, the faster your car goes, the more gas it uses. Your body is exactly the same. The more you run, the faster you run, your body needs a rush of oxygen. Your muscles need a steady flow of oxygen rich blood to keep pumping. This is part of the reason you’ll develop a stitch in your side if your muscles are pumping out more effort than they are receiving oxygen.You can adjust your breathing rhythm to accommodate your body’s need for oxygen versus the output of exertion. When a person is walking, they usually breathe in, walk 4 steps and breath out, and walk 4 steps. When a person is jogging, this becomes more of a 3 to 3 ratio while runners are breathing in and out every two steps.
When you’re walking, you typically breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Joggers do the same thing. Runners need to breathe in through their nose and their mouth and exhale through both. It’s more important that the oxygen get in than how it gets there.
As odd as it sounds, runners need to relax their facial muscles while they are running. It shouldn’t be hard to suck the air in. In fact, it is better that your jaw is slightly open, allowing the motion of running to push air into your mouth that you can inhale at the same time. The quick 2 to 2 ratio means the easier the oxygen gets in, the better for your body and your muscles.
Take time during the natural course of your run to focus on your breathing until you’re breathing in for two steps and breathing out for two steps. It’ll help the smooth flow of your run and you’ll be able to use these breathing ratios when you’re transitioning from walk to jog to run and cooling down from run to jog to walk.
I though I knew a lot about breathing and running but I never knew I should let the air come from both my nose and my mouth and when I payed attention I tried the breath through your nose and exhale through the mouth routine - I’ll try to go with it next time.
