Breathing when running

[MistyTrains2]

Sorry for seemingly bizarre or obvious question, how do you breathe when running? I have been listening to Denise Lewis on Couch to 5km and she says to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. I've always just breathed in and out through my mouth. I can do nose but it's harder if it's cold or signs of hayfever (nasal congestion).

My preferred method is to stick my tongue against the corner of my mouth and breathe hard 🤣

Does it make any difference?

It's not easy until you're fit. Once you're got having to breathe through your mouth generally means you're going too fast.

The other important thing is which muscles are controlling you breathing. Ideally it should be your abdominal muscles. That means, bizarrely, that when you breathe in, your stomach goes out, then you use your stomach muscles to control how fast you breathe out. You'll need to practice sitting on the sofa! It's really good practice for meditation, yoga, posture, core muscles, calming yourself down etc too so an all round good thing to learn

I would not worry until you're a comfortable runner. I was a lapsed runner and as I've started to get back I've noticed my breathing feels a bit out of control. I think it will improve with fitness. No point over thinking. No breathing is not possible when you're out of breath - just get the air you need however you need it.

If u do need to calm my breathing for a bit I need to a biiiig nose breath once and immediately after. And big slow exhale. And repeat that once or twice. It helps reset and get lots more oxygen in I think, and slows heart rate slightly..

Agh I was hoping that wouldn't be the answer! I'll get back to doing some breath work. The best exercise I found from a book on breathing disorders was to put a large bag of rice under the belly button while horiztonal and breathe with aim of making it rise. Done regularly it works. I have a condition similar to COPD so I massively overuse my neck muscles to breathe and under use my ab muscles.

I have asthma and I always just breathed through my mouth when I used to run. However I could still do a half in under 2 hours. Agree don't overthink, don't let it stop you running, but carry on with the breathing exercises at home too. Do you need to slow your running a bit too?

@BlueChampagne thanks good to hear from someone who has similar and encouraging that you could do a half in under two hours!

I just don't run so fast that my heart rate feels excessive, like as in it's getting out of control. I'm 43 and been getting to about 140-150bpm comfortably at pace of 9-9.5km per hour on the treadmill, no idea if that is terrible. I find slower paces very hard for the first ten minutes then my airways relax. I have a ventolin inhaler to take before exercise, I usually take it 5 mins before but maybe I need to take it 15 mins before.

I breathe through my mouth. I can't do nose breathing. I've tried. My nose get stuffy as soon as I do exercise.

Mouth breathing all the way for me 😁

I'd take it with a pinch of salt. I've run halves, marathons and ultras, train at the track every week, got a good for age time for London Marathon. I breathe in and out through my mouth. This is the first time I've heard I 'shouldn't'

I wouldn’t worry, I’m a mouth breather when running and I do try and remember to practise breathing through my nose on easy runs but I often forget! I think unless you’re aiming for some BIG PBs, like low 1:20s for a half, you’ll probably be fine as you are

Never done treadmill running so can't comment. I much preferred running outdoors, off road. Glad to have given encouragement :-)

My nose goes really snotty and dribbly when running, so I breathe through my mouth. I'm fine through my nose the rest of the time!

I always breathe through my mouth when running. I only run outdoors, in the summer I'm snotty from hayfever, in the winter I'm snotty from colds!
I don't actually think I could run if I had to breathe through my nose, and I do regular 10k's.

The main thing is to get the breath in! Although apparently breathing in through you nose actually delivers more oxygen/a deeper breath even though it doesn't feel that way...