JohnBrooking

I wonder how many people are conscious of their breathing as they ride, and if so, how they breathe.

The first few weeks I started riding I was just out of breath, so there wasn't much choice but to pant. Fortunately, that soon improved. But I still didn't think much about it until I read The Art of Urban Cycling, which has a section on air pollution and its danger to cyclists. The author (Robert Hurst) recommends breathing through your nose, at least at times you are going through bad air, due to the filtering properties of the nasal passages, so I tried that. In the winter, however, my nose usually had enough problems between keeping warm and keeping clear to make this too practical.

Since it has warmed up, however, I've found that I am able to breathe in through my nose, but I still seem to want to exhale too forcefully for it all to go through there. So lately I've found a happy medium of taking in deep breaths through the nose, but exhaling through the mouth. I still mostly just do this when the air is bad, but sometimes it's relaxing to just do it for the heck of it. I'm wondering if others do the same, or something else. I suppose racers are very aware of their breathing, but I don't know how many commuters are.

lala

Not nearly enough. Usually I notice when I'm huffing and puffing...then i try to control my breathing. I think sometimes I hold my breath, as well, when I ride: if I'm concentrating, or nervous. I need to work on this.

Map tester

I read somewhere here about only concentrating on breathing out, the intake will happen automatically. I try to blow instead of pant, and in seems to work ok.

DiegoFrogs

The in through the nose, out through the mouth method is something I've been told time and time again in various sport-like activities. Martial arts, yoga, running, skating... Breathing is very important, and being a mouth-breather is no good (anyone have any good "mouth-breather" stories?:-)).

sbhikes

I hold my breath around diesel trucks or cars blowing billowing clouds of fumes. Otherwise, I don't think my nose holes are big enough, so I breathe through my teeth. (Since I'm riding a recumbent, I'm usually smiling, or so I'm told.)

lala

yup, i'm cursed with a malfunctioning nose!

jnbacon

There are meditation techniques that utilize the "inhale-nose/exhale-mouth" rhythm. There are also athletic trainers who recommend this method, I think, tho' I've only heard that from friends. The nose/mouth method was supposed to get deeper, controlled inhales, and faster exhales, to improve your control under high exertion. Definitive studies? Don't have 'em, so don't take my word for it. For the most part, though, I find myself doing this method method anyway, and I bring myself back to it when I'm pushing it.

RT

I've always been in through the nose, out through the mouth, going back to the cross country days. The only thing that bugs me is big truck exhaust and the water reclamation plant (p-u). What's helped the most though is quitting smoking. Holy cripes, that was the worst.

Marylandnewbie

I'm only now reaching the point where my breathing is not ragged gasps. For the first few weeks my ragged breathing a thundering heartbeat were the only things I heard on the commute. Actually there are times now when I do actually try to work on my breathing. I'm still a long ways from in control, but I've always heard the same thing about in through the nose out through the mouth. Its particularly good in cold weather becasue your nose acts like a warmer for the air before it hits your lungs. Maybe by wintertime I will be in sufficient shape to actually try it out.

jeff-o

For now my legs still get tired before my lungs do. Sometimes I catch myself holding my breath too...

lala

It is so strange...I don't understand it! I will keep a mind on this!

JohnBrooking

That's true, but it also makes your nostrils colder. Up here, I spend much of the coldest part of winter wearing something over my nose to keep it warm, which also tends to make it run, so breathing through it is harder as well as less desirable.

randya

It's not about whether you breath through your nose or mouth, it's about using your diaphram and not just your ribcage to inhale and exhale. And, IMO, it's best to stop breathing momentarily if possible when riding through clouds of exhaust gas....

angel

always conscience of breathing.
i try to take slow deep breaths.
it calms me down. i have more concentration.
now doing that at work when i get involved with my work is different! i am learning to do this at work too.

peripatetic

If you want to learn to breathe very well, do yoga. It's the central premise of every exercise, and once you're good enough, breath control becomes the focus. It's not only good for exercise, it's good for living and aging.

atbman

Ain't possible to breathe except thro' mouth when working hard.

Don't worry about pollution - up to 3 times worse inside motor vehicles than outside. Also, breathing fairly hard clears lungs, whereas shallow breathing doesn't clear, for instance, carbon monoxide from bloodstream. Again. drivers and passengers have higher levels of latter in blood stream.

Regular riders (min. 4 miles/day) are 20 times more likely to live longer because of increased fitness (than to die prematurely because of accident. So pollution doesn't seem to affect cyclists so much, it would seem.

Roody

Sounds like you're mashing too hard on the gears. Ride in easier gears--you should ordinarily start breathing harder before your legs get tired. If you keep pushing in hard gears, in a few years you might not be able to ride at all. When you're in good cardio shape, you might want to start gradually working more on strength and speed with sprints, hills, intervals, etc. If you're older, you have to be really careful about this.

GeezerGeek

If you breathe through your mouth this could happen to you. Once upon a time after a steep uphill, I was winded and breathing through my mouth. I was still catching my breath on the downhill side while the bike accelerated into a fast run. Unfortunately my timing was bad and inhaled a bug. I couldn't breathe and didn't have enough air to cough. I wasn't sure if the bug was going to kill me or the fall after I passed out. After what seemed like a minute, I squeezed my stomach muscles hard and was able to grab a gasp of air. Not enough to cough but enough to move the bug into a swallowing position. Fortunately I survived but the bug was not so lucky.

max-a-mill

yeah bugs are the real casualty of mouth breathing.

i got one the other day that was bigger than any i'd swallowed in a while; EWWWWW. he went down well with a swig of water though.

remembering this post: i tried to breath through my nose for a while this morning, and it seemed to make my nose run? it kind of worked, but i really find when i am pumpin and in a rythm the easiest way to get a big breath is when i get air in form the nose and mouth.

i just open it all up and BREATH IN! watch out bugs...

JohnBrooking

max-a-mill: Maybe you breath harder than I do. I do find that I can't comfortably breathe OUT just through my nose, just IN. It seems my lungs are better at drawing air in through small passages than pushing it out through the same. Fortunately, IN is the direction we're concerned about. So that's probably no coincidence. And maybe it's the OUT that's making your nose run.

Maybe it helps too that I was a trombone player in high school, and occasionally since. I definitely notice having better breath control while singing than some others in my church choir, probably for that reason.

Jessica

I have obstruction in my nose much of the time, so bugs, beware (eecchh, cough, cough!!), but I noticed two things that are pertinent to this thread the last sunday when I took a long uphill ride...

1)when I am too tired to continue, it is better to stop altogether and rest two minutes than to walk the bike. I recover, and then can get back on with renewed strength.

2)forcing several all muscle (diagphram plus chest muscles) inhale hard breaths can clear some of the CO2 and lactic acid, allowing me a few more strokes before I have to quit. I can ignore the exhale, it is sufficient, but forcing a deep inhale invigorates me.

I totally agree that yoga helps develop a better breathing pattern for biking.. and living.

lala

If you can manage nose breathing (which I am working on) another benefit is slower dehydration. It's so dry here that mouthbreathing can dry you out faster!

Longhorn

I completely agree. When I went on my first long ride, 28 miles, I felt so exhausted after the first seven and wasn't sure I'd be able to do the whole 28. But just a few minutes rest at the first SAG station and I was ready for more. That happened each leg of the trip. I'll definitely remember that in the future!

SpokesInMyPoop

The thing I normally do is adjust my speed a little so I'll go through exhaust on my exhale. Then I proceed with breathe in w/nose, breathe out w/mouth. My breathing has a rhythm that usually goes with my cadence.

Roody

That is so Zen, Mr. Poop! I am going to try that. About the bugs--I don't think it will hurt you to swallow a bunch or breathe them in. I do it all the time. It's just part of being outdoors. They are probably just as clean as we are.