We were having a discussion on breathing techniques at school the other day and some guy said this, "The most eficient way of breathing is to breathe in through the nose, hold for 7 seconds and then exhale through the mouth." I tried this out yesterday while I was mountain biking and all that happened was that I became even more puffed and had to start taking short breathes through the mouth (inhale and exhale). That is what I normally do anyway.
So, the question is, what is the most efficient way to get the CO2 out and the O2 in (during exercise.)

your mouth you dong.
Which one is the bigger hole? sheesh think about it!

Well considering that while you are riding you are hardly going to have your mouth gaping wide open, it ends up intaking about the same ammount of air as your nose.

I dont know about the best way, but I've found that for myself, it is good to breath in through my nose, and out through the mouth, while holding my breath for about 2-5 seconds. I genreally find I can do the most amount of work before getting too puffed doing it that way.

I find that if I breath in and out of my mouth I'll start to take shallow quick breaths, while if I use my nose, I generally take deeper breaths.

Maybe during weights training, perhaps. It's not really something you can generalize, swimmers might not be so happy about trying that particular technique for instance :) I know when i'm tired at the end of a hard rep at the track i don't stand there (buckled over gasping for air) with some silly sounding scheme - it's all mouth :P

Why would u copy someone else's name Sandman? Check my profile i've had this for a very long time as u can tell by my ID# (3484)

While I'm training (for a tri at the end of the year), this is my technique.

DONT THINK ABOUT IT. Whenever you think about it you try to adjust it, which your body does fine when you don't think about it :P

Shottys technique works, just do what comes naturally.

no time to read everything ... BUT

thru nose out mouth ... cant say ive timed it though :D

i think u do it that way cause your nose hair filters otu the dirt, and you just breathe cleaner air, so less s*** in your lugs to choke you

Go read about about Postnatal breathing and stuff. What the guy said is based around fact, but that is only for healthy breathing practise when the focus is on breathing itself. When doing sport, why the f*** would you want to hold you breath when the body needs oxygen to perform? Let the body breath naturally when you are doing sport, cos the brain you have will work much better by itself as a controlling system than it will if you try to screw around with it. Postnatal breathing etc is good however to increase general health and lung capacity and control. Your sport will benefit from from you doing it but not while you are actually doing the sport - that makes no sense at all.

if you don't breathe right when you excercise you'll fart lots

Exercise?

Why would u copy someone else's name Sandman? Check my profile i've had this for a very long time as u can tell by my ID# (3484)

oh dear, check his post count dude, he's been a much more active member of this forum than you, you have like 10 posts .. what was the chance he'd actually seen your nick before he chose his?

Its not like its a way out original nick anyway, sheesh.

Fat pimply geeks?

:P

The best way to breathe is in through nose, hold for a few seconds, and exhale through mouth. Its hard to start off with i know, and you'll prob end up doing those short gasps. But the best way is to work on it and make sure that when you exhale you get all the air out of your lungs. If not, you leave 'stale air' in your lungs which makes recovery time longer. The time between inhale and exhale varies.. the more experience and better your lung capacity the longer the pause.
Hope it helps :)

Yeah but you can't do that DURING the sport and exercise - that is ridiculous. The only thing out of that that you should do is try to expell all the air from your lungs before breathing in again. The idea I guess is to not really take "bigger" breaths but deeper breaths. Using more forceful exhaling will also strengthen your diaphram and abdominal muscles, which is always good.

The idea of it is to work on it so that you can do it during exercise without even consciously thinking about it. I gotta admit though, after years of trying i still havent mastered it, so to anyone that can.. well done

hihi
I have seen some athletes wearing clips on their nose.
Wouldn't that be to stop airflow through the nose ?

i would think that whatever breathing pattern your body naturally adopts during exercise is pretty close to the most efficient... i mean you cant beat 10 gazillion years of evolution.

you can however increase ur lung capacity etc

i dont think about breathing when i play sport
i just do it

To the other Sandman: I didn't even know you existed until about 5 mintues ago.
Also, thanks for the advice people :)

if you don't breathe right when you excercise you'll fart lots

If you're right there, then I'm f***ed :P

Fat pimply geeks? :P

hahahaha, fat = no, pimply = well...kinda, geek = yeah..
nah, seriously, I'm pretty skinny so I'm trying to build muscle rather then lose weight :P I do weight training, (well, a bit) for strength, along with boxing. The mountain biking is for endurance :D

It depends on what you are doing.

If i am running I normally breath slowly through my nose at first then when I am nearly finish my run and i am in the sprinting stage, i normally breath through my mouth.

When I am doing taekwondo and doing lots of double kicks and lots different type of exercise through my mouth.

To work out timing the best way is what feels good for you. if you are fit the 4-7 is good but if you are not fit, then you have to take quicker breaths!

THE AIM IS TO KEEP THE RYTHM.

When doing sport, why the f*** would you want to hold you breath when the body needs oxygen to perform

It uses CO2 as well

Running/walking etc - Breath in for two steps, breath out for two steps. Repeat.
Swimming - Five-strokes per breath

well u gugs can try the tantra book it has a good read on breathing

actually the nose clips are to hold your nose open (they splay apart from each other) to allow a better flow.

used for snoring too

FFS it doesn't matter what way you breath after a few minutes of aerobic exercise, as the body is using more oxygen then breathing can supply, thats why it is aerobic, and you burn calories to help compensate. Or something like that, but after a few minutes you just suck in as much air as possible, if you wish to burn those calories breath through the nose and out ya mounth (control the flow to your lungs more, making you burn more cals), holding your breath sounds dumb as your muscles will build lactic acid quicker.

When doing sport, why the f*** would you want to hold you breath when the body needs oxygen to perform


It uses CO2 as well

Maybe but only a tiny amount. When doing sport, your body needs oxygen to every part of the body quickly and to do that you need to take deep breaths and expell as much used air as possible to make room for more oxygen.

Like I said, the brain is a pretty damn useful management system. If you feel like you are not breathing properly when doing sport, try postnatal breathing while not doin sport and do MORE sport so the body and brain can get used to it and adjust your breathing naturally. Stop looking for miracle cures!

Its called adrenaline!!!!

DONT THINK ABOUT IT!!!! sheeesh

Like I said, the brain is a pretty damn useful management system

Our brains are awsome as learning tools but it comes with a price. Because of the way we learn by experince, we can pick up and learn bad habits that go against our natural way, that includes breathing.

So by just letting your sub-noggin do all the work you could just be growing further into bad habits. By asking and finding better ways of breathing, then practise them you can reprogram bad habits into better ones. All of us have bad habits that we have picked up over time and would be better off without, the only way to find and eliminate these problems is by learning, not just letting ourselves do whatever our brains picked up over time.

Yep im with Golden Ass...mostly cus we do the same excercise :P

eww just read that and that sounded gross....no not like that you freaks!?!? ;)

But we are not learning to breath ffs.... we have been breathing since we were born and before (in a way) so I don't think you can really learn the wrong way to breath. There are 'better' ways though, but they are not meant to be used whilst doin sport, they are meant to cultivate the lungs and their ability to take in more air, faster. Yes, this will improve the way you breath when you do sport, but for most sportsmen who don't think about it, all they do is do tonnes of sport and the body learns to breath the most efficient way possible. Ask most top sportsmen if they think about the way they breath when they do sport and they will probably laugh, unless they are a weightlifter or someing, but I was meaning more the aerobic sports, involving mass movement.

I sometimes forget to breathe for a while... Freaks people out. Constantly thinking about breathing... it's a bit of a drag. I do mostly a military style work out with a bit of weights training and boxing. Get your heart rate up and BREATHE. I am surprised at how many people hold their breath when they use the puching bag. Man that just exhausts you.