In my time of coaching beginners to run their first 5k race, they all seem to have one thing in common. That would be trouble with their breathing. The struggle is real, gasping for air all the while, trying to move through the air on foot. Often times, we still need to remind experienced runners to focus on their breaths. If you ever experienced that tight chest feeling, that cramp in your side or your throat feels like it’s on fire, don‘t worry. This article will help you sync your breathing with your foot strike. Like sweet music has a rhythm, so should your body as it flows through the running process.

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How to Breathe While Running

Many beginners only use their chest muscles to breathe while running. Like an opera singer before belting out a musical note, we need to fill our diaphragm up with oxygen. In other words become a deep belly breather. When you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and moves downward. While muscles in your chest contract to expand your rib cage, which increases the volume in your chest cavity and draws air into your lungs. Working your diaphragm to its fullest potential allows your lungs to expand and fill with the largest amount of air. The more air you inhale, the more oxygen is available to be transferred through your circulatory system and sent to your working muscles.

The issues with breathing from your chest muscles only, is that you are taking in less oxygen which will in turn will hurt your energy production. Your chest muscles are smaller and will fatigue more quickly than your diaphragm will. Like anything else, to become good at it, you must practice. Breathing from your diaphragm is beneficial, therefore we can practice lying down, sitting or standing. Here is how you can improve your breathing in just a few minutes.

Lie down on your back.

Keep your upper chest and shoulders still.

Focus on raising your belly as you inhale.

Lower your belly as you exhale.

Inhale and exhale through both your nose and mouth.

Establish a Pattern

Introducing Rhythmic Breathing?

What Is Rhythmic Breathing? Running coach Budd Coates created this type of breathing system. After developing injuries on one side of his body, he needed to try something different to avoid injury. He realized that if he learned to breathe with a specific rhythm, it would less likely cause him injury. Rhythmic breathing can play a key role in keeping you injury-free as well. Not having your breathing under control can hurt you at the moment and create long term injuries. To understand how that can happen, first consider some of the stresses of running. When your foot hits the ground, the force of the impact equals two to three times your body weight. The impact is greatest when your foot strikes the ground at the beginning of an exhalation. When you exhale, your diaphragm and the muscles associated with the diaphragm relax. That relaxed state creates less stability in your core. Less stability at the time of greatest impact makes a perfect storm for injury.

When a person lands on the same foot at the beginning of exhalation this will compound the problem. One side of your body is continuously absorbing the greatest impact force of running. which causes it to become increasingly worn down and vulnerable to injury. Rhythmic breathing, on the other hand, coordinates footstrike with inhalation and exhalation in an odd/even pattern so that you will land alternately on your right and left foot at the beginning of every exhalation. This way, the impact stress of running will be shared equally across both sides of your body.

How To Incorporate Rhythmic Breathing

There is always more than one way to accomplish a goal. Same with breathing techniques. Many runners develop a 2:2 pattern of breathing, meaning they inhale for two foot strikes and exhale for two foot strikes. Some breathe in for three steps and exhale for three steps. According to the Coates method of rhythmic breathing however; The singular point of all rhythmic breathing patterns is this: Exhale on alternate foot strikes as you run. You would not want to continually exhale on the same foot.

The rhythmic breathing patterns call for a longer inhale than exhale. Your diaphragm and other breathing muscles contract during inhalation, which brings stability to your core. These same muscles relax during exhalation, decreasing stability. With the goal of injury prevention in mind, it's best to hit the ground more often when your body is at its most stable—during inhalation.

In this regard an 5-count or 3:2 pattern of rhythmic breathing, works best. Inhale for three steps and exhale for two. Practice this standing in front of the mirror running in place. Breathe both through your nose and mouth. Inhale to the count of 3 and exhale to the count of 2. You might count it this way: “in-2-3,” “out-2,” “in-2-3,” “out-2,” and so forth.

The Benefits of Rhythmic Breathing

Helps you find your center: In various forms of exercise such as yoga, martial arts and meditation use breath to connect mind and body. Runners need to be balanced when running on various surfaces. Focusing on your breath will help you bring mind and body together for a more balanced approach.
Quiets the mind: In today’s noisy world, it is very hard to quiet our minds. Smartphones and smartwatches, with its notifications, can distract us. This includes our favorite music. We love to multitask. How about going out for your run with a quiet mind. Don’t listen to anything but your breath. Check your running stats after the run, resist the urge to peak during, if you wore your hi-tech watch. Rhythmic breathing is calming, and awareness of breathing draws your focus toward calm. It allows you to remain relaxed. Quieting any stress in the body that could inhibit performance. So when your breathing is difficult, remember to slow down a bit, Keep Calm And Run To The Best You.
Control of your body: When you are calm and mindfully matching your breaths with your foot strikes, the rest of the body will be under control. You will flow with ease as if on autopilot. Your moderate to long distance days will be very enjoyable and bring you peace.

Incorporate Run, Walk, Run

Let’s talk to those who feel like the 2:2 breathing pattern feels more comfortable. There is a way to avoid injury in this way as well. At Keep Calm And Run To The Best You, we have adopted the strategic run, walk, run. Taking strategic walk breaks helps keep your breathing in check. Even if you were winded, the strategic walk breaks would help bring you back under control. This method helps you to avoid injury. How so?

The walk breaks allows your legs to recharge and not have the constant impact of running.
You can mindfully use the rhythmic breathing technique by alternating which leg you start your count after each walk break.

How do you know how long to walk for? Here are a few principles; If you can run a 9 min mile, then you can run for 2 minutes and walk for 30 seconds. If you run an 11 or 12 minute mile, your ratio would be 60 seconds jog with a 30 second walk break. Interval timers are great to help let you know when to jog and when to walk. Interval timers can be downloaded on your smartphone or purchase a GYMBOSS from Amazon.

Shortening Your Stride

Matching your breaths with your foot strike also could mean that you have to take shorter strides. Running is a full body exercise, involving your shoulders, arms, core, and the many muscle groups in your legs. Whether you are a beginner runner or an experienced runner, we all can benefit from taking shorter strides. Longer strides have their place, like down the stretch at a race towards the finish line. To gain control of your breathing, take shorter steps. Longer strides may cover more distance, however it uses more energy and muscle group, in turn causing you to breathe harder to maintain. Shorter strides help you to package all your muscle groups together in a controlled manner. There is a saying; “Slow down to go further faster.” Taking shorter strides and not covering as much ground may at first seem as if you are slowing down. On the contrary, being that you have your breathing under control with the shorter strides you will begin to notice that you are not staying on the ground as long. Soon as the one foot hits the ground it is ready to bounce back up to allow the next foot to hit. Before you know it, your race times will improve as well as your stamina to do longer distant runs.

Putting It All Together

Now that you have these tools to help you with breathing, it is totally up to you how you use them. You will have 5 choices;

Your natural breathing pattern.
Rhythmic Breathing
Incorporate Run, Walk, Run
Shortening your strides
Incorporate all the above.

Giving these strategies to our new members Hunter Judd and Michael Muchler helped them both complete their first 5k on February 16th, 2020, Mike’s Seafood Run/Walk For Autism 5k.

Michael Muchler

Running alongside Michael during a Tuesday practice of quarter mile repeats, I noticed him trying so hard using everything he had. I simply told him to shorten his strides. At the end of the workout he stated; “That made the world of difference.”

Hunter Judd

I got a chance to work with Hunter one on one right before his first 5k race. I practiced with him the 2 in 2 out breathing method. I noticed that Hunter was no longer saying how hard the run was. Instead, as I was giving him motivational sayings to get through the last mile of practice, his response was; “I Got This Coach.”

Michael and Hunter practiced the run, walk, run and incorporating these extra breathing tips helped them power through their first 5k. I am so proud of them both.

Running is unique to each individual. Find what works for you. Enjoy the scenery, take in the smells, as you breathe and run with purpose. If you find that it is hard to breathe at any point, remember to KEEP CALM and Run To The Best You!

Please leave any comments or questions below, we would love to hear from you.

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#38 - Breathing Techniques- How To Breathe While Running (Blog/Podcast)