All I’m suggesting is that once you’ve settled into a long endurance ride, your body knows the demand and it should not be changing much over the hours of riding if you’re keeping within your zones…hence, the need to consciously regulate your breathing should be less.
When you’re doing interval training the oxygen demand goes up and down like a yo-yo , your natural breathing is catching up when you’re already in a break, and still slowing when the next interval hits.
I don’t think your body gets “caught out” to such a degree on what should be steady state rides.
I went to an osteopath a few times who alerted me to the fact that I stop breathing – a lot! Over the last year I’ve grown more and more conscious of my breathing on and off the bike.
I can imagine that during stressful moments on the bike the body might revert to ‘flight or fight’ type breathing – shallow, fast, gasps, etc. Training to control a more beneficial type of breathing could only be, well, more beneficial.
First off, the topics heading is funny, " Breathing: does it really matter? YES, LOL, go ahead and hold your breath on your next VO2 Interval. The often misunderstood idea to begin with is that our breathing is automatic and is outside of our conscience control, it’s not. In yoga and in meditation, breathing is used for relaxing or loosening of the body and thoughts, It’s key for exploring our thoughts that are creating tension in our minds, thus producing body tightness , tension and pain,and thus, the way we perceive our states of being, and has a direct impact on the way we interact with the world. I’ve done a lot of experimenting with breathing and it’s effect on heart rate and oxygenation . I’ve notice in meditation and on the bike I can relax and increase the quality of my breathing and see that produces more power and a lower heart rate .Chad routinely reminds us to loosen our grip, to breath deeply and only to focus on the next moment ,the next interval , all these things keep us relaxed and our breathing deep.Just a quick look at Doping reveals the importance of oxygenation , the use of inhalers that increase lung capacity, and blood doping, that like altitude training is looking to increase the bloods ability to transport more oxygen to the body. While riding I pay close attention to any tension that may be causing my breathing to become more shallow, If I find my body tightening on a ride I can focus breathing more openly into my belly and this relieves tension in my obliques , back , shoulders etc. Do some test of your own with your heart rate monitor, sit upright, sit back relaxed, stand up, move around , think of something agrevating to you, then relax, notice the difference in HR and breathing.The TR podcast is always discussing the effects that life stress has on performance and that body’s ability to recover. Along with diet, and sleep, I would add a meditation routine for bike and life, health and fitness. Peace
Meditation would provide an excellent opportunity to practice belly breathing w/o the added stress of being on the bike. It can also help regulate a variety of stress related/induced functions within the body. Also a great time to practice visualization techniques.
Work on building the habits indoors on the trainer.
During a race or a hard group ride you’ll more likely think about your breathing and during a short down hill in a CX race or a corner your not pedaling in a Crit you can take those few extra deep breaths and lower your RPE and maybe heart rate during the race.
These marginal gains and short recoveries can make a big difference during a race. If you watch pros, you can see them sometimes make these deep breathes.
Even in motor sports we’re taught to breathe and relax during the straightaways(we tend to hold our breath during the corners and technical sections) I’m sure Johnathan would agree during his motocross days.
Because you can “game the system” by making your breathing a conscious, purposeful activity rather than just an unconscious, reactive activity. No different really than eating gel and drinking before the hard part of the ride versus just waiting until your body tells you it is hungry or thirsty. If you just wait until tells you to breath, you will be repeatedly missing opportunities to maximize both your oxygen uptake as well as getting rid of CO2. Your body is really good at responding to demands, but, since your brain knows what is coming next but your unconscious nervous system does not it is advantageous to get off auto pilot from time to time.
Example - you start a 2 min VO2max interval. Your body does not know what is coming or how long it will last. At some point your breathing will naturally ramp up as CO2 builds up in your blood. Or, you can start upping your breathing rate at the gun which will make the interval at least a little easier.
Now you are done and you get a 2 minute recovery. Your body has no way of knowing if you are done for the day or going again, it just takes care of the current demand then slows your breathing down on its own schedule. Conscious breathing can help you recover faster and more deeply before the next interval.
There are also psychological benefits from conscious breathing, particularly in terms of alleviating pain and stress.
I think when you’re breathing hard in a tough interval, your brain has no trouble inhaling to feed your screaming muscles. I think it has a tougher time fully exhaling to clear your lungs properly.
I think there are a couple of key things going on. I think there is a real physiological benefit to deeply exhaling and clearing your lungs to let fresh oxygen in. As @mcneese.chad points out, the simple act of taking deeper breaths also lowers your BPM. When you’re bumping up on your ceiling, this makes a big difference. Lastly as @trswem suggests, there is an RPE impact. I don’t think it’s placebo, but there is a non-physiological benefit to having something else to focus on other than your legs that just want you to stop.
I rode Monadnock +4 this morning and I was thinking about this thread. Check out that workout, it’s 3 mins repeats at 122% of FTP. First minute is okay, second minute hurts and the last minute you’re just holding on counting down the seconds. You want to give up, knowing that all you have to do is stop pedaling and the hurt will go away. But you still have 45 seconds left of the interval, how can you possibly ride it out. Relax your hands, your shoulders, take a couple of deep clearing breaths, imagining that all the toxic air right at the bottom of your lungs is getting pushed out to make room for some magic beans. 30 seconds left. I can do this! I just have to hold on for another 10 seconds, deep breath, 10 more seconds, 9, 8, 7, … 3, 2, 1. Nice one @chad, you really pushed me there. This interval is going to get me in the break next week.
It’s good to hear that focusing on breathing helps so many of you. I guess I have always tried to focus on something other than myself as a way to cope with the pain in a interval.
In a rare bit of downtime at work I thought I would try to pubmed this. I found a lot about respiratory muscle training, tons of studies out there on this. Mixed results in individual trials but it looks like the trend suggests this would help. Though as I understand it RMT has more to do with focused exercises off the bike to make muscles of respiration stronger.
Recently found out just how important breathing is - not only for athletic performance but also for overall health.
I started going to Physical Therapy recently for knee pain and a few other imbalances. My PT is FANTASTIC and takes a more involved, holistic approach to his work than the other PT’s I’ve seen in the past. For right knee pain, his diagnosis was simple: all my pain and trouble is a direct result of belly breathing rather than “back breathing”.
Most people breathe through their belly because they’ve never thoughtfully trained their bodies and minds to do any differently. This means that your organs, intestines, stomach, etc all move a significant amount when you’re breathing heavily. Because your body is asymmetrical, this can lead to the body trying to self-correct - in my case, my right leg is turning slightly outward to compensate for the fact that my internal organs are pushing slightly to the left through all my belly breathing.
I’m currently working through a series of breathing and core exercises all designed to help me learn how to “breathe through my back”. If I see improvements as anticipated, I will post a full summary/post-mortem of my journey in case any of you are interested in reading.
No, that guy is mostly right. The key is really the exhale phase. CO2 is the only factor when it comes to feeling the need to breath, Levels rise and make you panic for a breath. If it were low O2, we wouldn’t lose consciousness/asphyxiate in low pressures or low-oxygen environments you without being aware of it. Controlling the exhale, forcibly breathing under pressure, optimizes the output. If it was really about O2, you’d find your O2 sat plummet, but that’s not really the limiter. More O2 is good, but your blood can only hold so much (see also, EPO).
And there are benefits to not blowing off CO2 too quickly (aka, hyperventilating). First, you waste a lot of energy breathing quickly, Second, CO2 causes vasodillation, which helps blood perfuse into your tissues, like your muscles. Third, you can improve your tolerance of high CO2 levels through practice, pushing back respiration as a limiter in your performance. I also think I’ve read the higher the CO2 level of the blood in the lungs, the better it exchanges O2 into the blood. The body’s mechanism are wildly clever.
Don’t forget sometimes in short hard efforts it’s easy to hold your breath without realising to power through. These exercises make you more mindful. Holding your breath will no doubt be detrimental
