NOTE: Our articles are not designed to replace medical advice. If you do not have sufficient level of qualification, knowledge or experience to assess & treat the runner in front of you, make sure you refer them to a suitably qualified health professional.
The question of ‘how to breathe when running’ is one that many runners find themselves pondering, especially those new to running or starting to experiment with more intense sessions like sprint or hill intervals. Should we breathe through the mouth or nose? Is there a particular rhythm or technique we should be using? If you have clients or patients who are runners, the following information will help you clear up some of the confusion out there…
Mouth, Nose or Both?
The ‘mouth vs nose’ debate has been around for a long time. There is some interesting research promoting benefits of nasal breathing (see next section) and you/your client may well want to experiment with it, but it’s hard to get away from the fact that whilst running, the role of breathing is to allow your body to achieve maximum oxygen uptake every inspiration and maximum carbon dioxide expulsion every exhalation, especially at elevated intensity. The mouth by its sheer size can transfer far more air than the nostrils, so it would seem to make sense to put it to good use. There are benefits for using the nostrils as well as the mouth, i.e. ‘co-breathing’; the hairs of the nostrils can certainly help filter pollutants & pathogens, and at lower paced runs use of the nose can help ensure you are giving the body enough time to use the oxygen it has inhaled. However, once you reach a certain intensity, it makes sense that you will need the mouth to provide sufficient oxygen. It would seem therefore that for most runners co-breathing would be the best bet.
Nasal Breathing
As I said above, nasal breathing has once again become an interesting topic lately, and I recently spent a fascinating hour with David ‘Jacko’ Jackson, my guest on Runchatlive Podcast. As a former professional rugby player for Nottingham RFC, David was forced to retire in 2013 due to traumatic brain injury. He re–trained as a Strength & Conditioning Coach, co-founded the School of Calisthenics, became a Master Instructor with the Oxygen Advantage, and founded ProBreathwork.com. Jacko recently ran up & down Mount Snowdon 6 times in 24 hours. He also ran a 216km Ultra Marathon, breathing just through his nose. In the podcast episode, Jacko discusses how efficient functional breathing using the nose instead of the mouth can be key in not just recovery from brain injury, but also improving athletic performance. The theory is that by learning to breath properly through the nose, the resistance caused by using these small holes forces you to breath slower, and more quietly, which in turn affects the diaphragm and essentially improves your ‘breathing biomechanics’. It is theorised that nasal breathing allows you to exhale less carbon dioxide, which in turn improves metabolism of oxygen and improve circulation. The podcast is well worth a listen, as well as a visit to David Jackson YouTube channel and his website ProBreathwork.com which has details of his courses.
Breathing Rhythm
A quick search on Google for ‘how to breathe when running’ brings up much conversation around ‘breathing rhythms’, i.e. how many steps you should take during the inhalation compared to how many you take during the exhalation. Though this may sound like way too much focus on what at the end of day should happen naturally (more on that later on), for runners struggling with breathlessness taking a look at such rhythms can often help. Let’s take an example: if when running you take 2 steps during the inhalation and 2 steps during the exhalation, your breathing rhythm is 2:2. This is the rhythm that elite running coach Jack Daniels, best known for his 1998 book ‘Daniels’ Running Formula’ is often quoted as favouring for his runners as it provides ‘the most efficient ventilation of the lungs.’ However, Daniels also points out that for slower paced easy runs, a 3:3 or even 4:4 rhythms may be better. This makes sense as at that lower intensity your body can afford to stay in a more relaxed state with longer lasting inhalations & exhalations. Looking at the opposite end of the spectrum e.g. at the end of a race when oxygen demand is high, Daniels points out that runners may well switch to a 1:2 or a 2:1 rhythm in order to finish strong.
Rhythm Provides Consistency
The idea that maintaining consistent inhalation & exhalation can help performance is well supported by research. A study by Bernasconi & Kohl ‘Analysis of co-ordination between breathing and exercise rhythms in man’ (1993) showed that for runners with a high degree of co-ordinated breathing, the oxygen uptake for a given work load proved to be ‘slightly but significantly lower than during running with weak coordination.’ This is something that runners struggling from breathlessness should take on board: are you maintaining a regular rhythm when you run or is your breathing erratic and all over the place? Even during a hill sprint or at the end of a race, the research suggests maintaining a regular rhythm can help.
Watch Out For Magic Formulas
When it comes to suggesting the ‘optimum rhythm’, there are many ideas out there. Bill Leach, another very experienced running coach, favours a 2:3 rhythm based on the idea that runners should be exhaling for longer than the inhale. His rationale is “the atmospheric pressure is greater than the pressure in your lungs, which means you need to push the air out to let it rush back in.” Other coaches, however, propose that the inhalation should actually be longer because ‘your diaphragm contracts when you inhale and makes your core more stable’. At the end of the day, there is no evidence of one optimum rhythm for all runners. Yes, consistency is supported by the research but the actual rhythm itself will vary according to the runner.
Don’t overdo it
Checking you have a consistent breathing pattern can help you improve your ability to optimise oxygen intake and carbon dioxide expulsion. However, it is not something you should be focussing on all of the time. Studies show that mentally focusing on an internal cue like breathing rate whilst running can reduce running economy (i.e. cause you to use more oxygen). In the 2009 study ‘The Effect Of Attentional Focus On Running Economy’ (Schückera at al.) subjects who ran while focusing on internal cues (running form and breathing) showed significantly less running economy than subjects focussing on external cues (things going on outside the body). If you are hoping to acquire a consistent breathing habit, make sure you introduce it in small doses so that conscious effort can eventually happen unconsciously.
In Conclusion
Maintaining a consistent breathing rate during a run can be a great way of improving performance. The actual rhythm itself may change depending on speed & intensity, and there is no reason why the rhythm that works for you needs to be the same as what works for someone else. Also bear in mind that continuous checking of the rhythm is not a good idea as continuous conscious internal focus when running can reduce performance.
In summary:
- Try different breathing patterns during a run to see what feels comfortable and natural to maintain.
- Remember that what works best for you may not be same as what works for others.
- Be prepared that different rhythms may work better for different paces / types of run.
- If unable to find a sustainable rhythm, decrease your pace until you can do so.
- If you are new to running and want to get used to a slower pace, try a longer breathing pattern, e.g. 3:3.
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