BREATHING IN RUNNING - HOW TO...

This must be a very important question for everyone who is running, if we are returning to this topic again.

The question of how to breath is not new at all and appeared in works of Plato and Galen, Avicenna and later E. Kant. They emphasized the importance of breathing for human health and particularly the way of breathing. The act of breathing was an object of intense attention in philosophy of yoga, in religions of ancient Egypt and in Buddhism.

We have grasped something from the past; modern science has tried to understand the essence of breathing for our sport performance and everyday life. However, modern science is still far away from answering all the questions we have.

At the present time we dissect breathing on voluntary and involuntary. Under the first term we understand breathing, which we execute by our conscious commands and desires regarding its depth and frequency. Under the second term we mean breathing which happens without any control on our side.

The depth and frequency, in their turn, define the volume of a single breath (exhale/inhale) and the frequency of these acts.

The next characteristic is the manner of breathing: through the nose or the mouth or using the combination of them.

Therefore the question of how we are supposed to breath in running should discuss the following parameters. Should our breath be:

• Voluntary or involuntary?
• Deep or shallow?
• Fast or slow?
• Through the nose or mouth?
• Combining all of the above?

I can tell you in advance that the exact answer is still missing. But using some logic, experience and science data I can think of some acceptable way of executing a simple breathing act in running.

The first logic comes from a general philosophy of life – nothing is free. Every event of our life can be viewed as happening in a pendulum manner moving from one side to the other and back. So it’s always good not to overdo anything to the extreme. There should always be some good proportion. What is good proportion is another good question.

When does breathing through the nose become not sufficient? For everyday life activity and for slow running breathing through the nose could serve well our needs in air and oxygen, but for moderate speed to maximum in endurance running it may not be enough to supply sufficient oxygen for the body. So there are some boundaries for using breathing through the nose, which are individual, and you have to discover them yourself.

When we come to depth and frequency of breathing we have to accept a science fact that at a certain point of the depth of breathing the organism starts involving so many additional muscles for breathing that they reflect negatively on coordination, and increase consumption of oxygen for their own needs. At this point the depth of breathing has no longer any physiological sense for the given activity.

Most endurant animals are using shallow breathing during their strenuous activity. The same behavior could be observed among elite athletes, as well. When our involuntary breathing becomes deep, it is a signal of strong fatigue, which we couldn’t overcome, and it also shows your current ability level. I wouldn’t advise to neglect this sign.

What are we supposed to do with voluntary-involuntary breathing? I think we have to voluntarily develop every side and characteristic of breathing and let our organism involuntarily chose the best of their proportions at any given time.

One more important aspect of breathing related with our psycho-emotional and mental conditions was left out from our discussion today, and I hope to return to it some day if the need arises.

Dr.Romanov