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Thanks Jae for this well thought out post which helps me to understand better what to look for in my breathing. I tend to hold in my upper abs and then wonder why I’m breathless. After reading this I’m excited to see your next post on breathing. I’m finding the downward breathing does activate the core I’m sure it is possible to forget how to just let go and breath deeply after an injury. This whole series of the Balanced Runner Keys has been invaluable. Thank you.
ReplyJae have you red the book “Running on air”? If not have a look at it, it’s very similar to your insight about breathing for runners.
ReplyThanks, Marino, I am aware of it! That’s already written into Part Two for next week.
ReplyHello. Thanks for the article. I must admit however that it challenges my own beliefs. If I understand correctly, you advocate that the good way for breathing in running is very similar to breathing in normal situation.
I would say (according to both my own experience as a runner and to purely theoretical reasoning) that in the fast runinng it is much better to breathe mostly with the chest. You have mentioned that so called “paradoxical breathing” is often associated with stress and panic, but on the other side, as M. Feldenkrais has often pointed out, it is also commonly and purposely used in the martial arts. This is because such a way of breathing gives more freedom to the movement of the limbs.
I find that such a freedom is quite important when the pace is fast. Probably it is directly related to the fact you have already mentioned, that diaphragm sits in the place where the counterrotations happens. I have a feeling that the full range of motion of the diaphragm during breathing cycle constricts the very rapid movements that are happening there.
I do not want say that diaphragm should be held stiff or not move at all, but it seems to me that in the fast running, much more emphasize should be put on breathing in the upper part of the torso (when compared to breathing in normal situation). From a purely theoretical point we may note also that the diaphragm is a very big muscle and very rapid movements of it in the full range, will probably consume a lot of oxygen – so much that it might not be efficient.
I also emphasize that I talk mostly about fast runinng. As the pace gets slower it should probably get closer to the standard way of breathe with the whole torso.
Best wishes,
Tomek
Thanks very much for your comments, Tomek! Let me begin by saying that I only write and teach about distance running and much of what I say is also applicable to middle distance, but I do not speak about sprinting. It’s too different.
That said, one of the unique characteristics of humans is that our breathing is completely independent from our gait. The movements you make in running have no direct impact on the diaphragm. If, in addition to running, you tense your upper abdomen (which interferes with the movements of the limbs!), you will have difficulty allowing your diaphragm to move down, but this is not desirable even for fast running! Martial artists do it to stiffen their trunks to create and absorb impact but that’s not how running works. In fact, the higher your oxygen needs the more essential it is that you breathe everywhere, and especially with the lower part of your lungs. When I danced professionally I moved with a greater degree of tension in my torso and more freedom in my limbs than in running — ballet is similar to martial arts in this respect — but I and every dancer I ever met breathed in every direction, including abdominally, when we were dancing hard. As for the oxygen demand of contracting the diaphragm, since it makes more oxygen available by contracting one could at least expect to break even by using it. 🙂
ReplyYeah, I talk about distance running as well. By a higher speed I mean the pace which makes some significant demand on oxygen intake like >=80% hr max on something.
I am not absolutely convinced that we can say that breathing is completely independent from our gait. If so, one could breathe in any fashion even during very fast running. If the diaphragm is connected to the ribs and the spine, and the ribs and spine are moving during walking or running, than these movements must be correlated I think. I believe that this is the reason for which we tend to coordinate our breathing frequency with our stride frequency very soon after we start running.
I think that it is really good that you have experience as a dancer, as you have a much broader point of view than people who only run (like me). Just to be clear, I don’t advocate paradoxical breathing during running (however I would not be surprised if it turn out to be appropriate for all-out efforts). I have mentioned it just for suggestion that putting some more emphasize on breathing in the chest could provide some benefit for mobilty of the lower trunk. This is also what I feel when I run. At the same time I admit that I am very prone to suggestions and theoretical concepts and I have read somewhere else about breathing in the chest (Pose Method or Gordon Pirie’s book on runinng). So it is very nice to have some other authority advocating the opposite:)
I think that the following questions should be addressed:
1. The most basic question is: should we really put our attention on how we breathe during running (I am not saying about the rhytm, but where we breath)? During most activities breathing should self-regulate itself without our interference. We can do exercises or Feldenkrais lessons on breathing but then we should leave it alone and do some other things other than thinking about our breathing:) Maybe running should be the same? Or maybe we should attend to our breathing only as an awareness exercise?
2. If we decide that putting some attention on our breathing could help, then how to do it? It is obvious that whatever we will do, we will use everything we have to some extent. Even if we would put our intention on breathing in the chest then diaphragm will be moving anyway and vice versa. I believe that here the answer will be different for each person as it depends on the habitual way of breathing.
I think that it could be very helpful to develop some breathing awareness exercises that could be done DURING running. Then everyone could try several possible options without restricting to the one he thinks is correct. If you would have some suggestions how to do it, then I believe it would be particularly interesting:)
Thank you for the discussion.
Best wishes,
Tomek