Q How should I breathe when I run? I always think about this when I am running and it stops me relaxing into it. I just can't stop thinking about whether I am breathing correctly. It is so annoying. I am quite new to running; I took it up in the new year and I can now run 5km comfortably. Anxious Panter
AI was initially – forgive me – struck by the insanity of your question: how do I breathe when I run? Err, in and out. Much like asking ourselves how we should run. Kind of crazy isn’t it, when both activities ought to be entirely instinctive.
It is the first thing a newborn does – breathe. And what does a toddler do once she has mastered the art of putting one foot in front of the other? She runs.
Yet, both running and breathing are endlessly researched, investigated and tested; we will improve our performance, heart rates, weight loss, speed, stamina, endurance, and so on, if only we did these things “properly”.
My instinctive response to all this information is to stop thinking about it and get on with the act of running. This is because of the anxiety it can provoke, especially for a new runner like yourself.
Don’t worry about how you are breathing; if you aren’t doing it right, you will soon know about it and when you are not doing it at all, it will no longer matter. Though this was my dismissive initial reaction, I then found myself pondering your question further during my run this morning.
I became acutely conscious of my own breathing, which ruined any sense of peace; destroyed any chance of entering the hallowed “zone”; and disrupted the ordinary rhythm of my run completely – so cheers for that.
This got me thinking that you have a point, because, of course, once we become conscious of our breathing, we fixate upon it and everything starts to feel unnatural, off kilter, too shallow, too deep.
Should I use my nose? Am I taking in enough air? Am I out of breath? All sorts of questions started to invade my headspace. I hope it won’t happen again. Maybe once I’ve filed this column I can file “Am I breathing right?” away as well and get on with running and breathing as I have always done – without thinking at all.
Once I’d settled into a rhythm during the run, I monitored my breathing (all for you, Anxious Panter) and it consisted of: breathing in through my mouth and nose for two steps and out through my mouth and nose for two-three steps. I then perused the internet to see if my breathing-when-jogging technique was up to scratch. Thank God it seemed to be on the mark.
The most important breathing pointers I discovered, that I thought you’d find most useful, are these:
1You will struggle to get enough breath if you are using only your nose; it is essential that you breathe through your mouth to get enough air in fast enough to feed those busy lungs and heart with sufficient oxygen, so make sure you are predominantly using your mouth. There is no harm done however if, like me, you allow your nose to join the party.
2Try to breathe from your core rather than just your chest, so breathe using your whole body or as much of it as you can. It’s called diaphragmatic breathing, in case you are interested. If that’s thrown you, just remember to breathe as deeply as you can.
3Operate on a roughly two steps in, two steps out policy to coincide with your inhale and exhale. If you are going very slowly – which may well be the case being a beginner – three steps in to three out coinciding with your breath may work better, or somewhere in the middle, like me. Two or three: three works for most of us ordinary joggers.
Obviously this will shift if you change your speed dramatically . . . shorter breaths if you are sprinting, for example. If you are taking on a hill, sticking to the same rhythm you had on the flat may help you get to the top, because your pace will automatically slow down to keep to that rhythm and accommodate the extra effort for your heart.
4If you are catching your breath and struggling to get enough air, despite observing the above points, take it as read that you are not fit enough to be running at whatever pace you currently are, so slow right down until your breathing becomes comfortable again. If necessary, go back to basics, and get your breathing right while walking fast around your circuit.
As a rough guide to how comfortable your breathing should feel when running, use this: if you can hold a conversation with a running buddy (imaginary or real), you are jogging at a comfortable pace for your fitness. It has become way too comfortable if you can sing the national anthem with gusto. If you can do the latter, you need to speed up because you cannot call this proper exercise.
Your heart rate must increase for the run to count as proper exercise. The fact that you are having issues with your breathing tells me that you are probably trying hard enough, possibly too hard, but I say this so you don’t swing too far the other way in trying to rectify the problem.
So, with those two extremes in mind, find a comfortable rhythm, using point number three as your guide, and then try not to think about it any more.
The Grit Doctor says . . . Breathe, Anxious Panter, breathe. And then run, fat bitch, run.
Ruth Field is author of Run Fat B!tch Run, Get Your Sh!t Together and Cut the Crap.
