Restricted Breathing

Forum guidelines BT super discount
General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Restricted Breathing Rss Feed  
Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller Reply
2008-03-26 6:12 PM

User image

Veteran
214
100100
Subject: Restricted Breathing
OK, I have a question for some of you great athletes. My Master's swim coach occassionaly has us do 'restricted breathing' drills. Typically this involves swimming 25 yards without breathing. His feeling is that it helps to increase lactate threshold. Well, today he made us do 50 yards without breathing, even during the flipturns. I couldn't do it. However, many of the gifted swimmers and triathletes could do it easily (all males). Some could even make it 75 yards without a breath! Does this mean I have a poor VO2 max (never been tested), poor lactate threshold, poor physical fitness, or are these other exceptional athletes gifted by genetics and not determination? Any input or past experience would be helpful. Thanks.

2008-03-26 6:27 PM
in reply to: #1296113

User image

Champion
8936
50002000100050010010010010025
Subject: RE: Restricted Breathing

slowone - 2008-03-26 6:12 PM OK, I have a question for some of you great athletes. My Master's swim coach occassionaly has us do 'restricted breathing' drills. Typically this involves swimming 25 yards without breathing. His feeling is that it helps to increase lactate threshold. Well, today he made us do 50 yards without breathing, even during the flipturns. I couldn't do it. However, many of the gifted swimmers and triathletes could do it easily (all males). Some could even make it 75 yards without a breath! Does this mean I have a poor VO2 max (never been tested), poor lactate threshold, poor physical fitness, or are these other exceptional athletes gifted by genetics and not determination? Any input or past experience would be helpful. Thanks.

It only means that you don't tolerate a buildup of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream very well.  Your coach is a bit off on the physiology. 

2008-03-26 6:40 PM
in reply to: #1296113

User image

Master
1790
1000500100100252525
Tyler, TX
Subject: RE: Restricted Breathing

Lots of swim teams do these hypoxic sets regularly (at least they did when I was a serious swimmer many years ago....)  I was always bad a them back then relative to others, and still am bad a them when our master's team does them on occasion now.  Triathletes (and some swimmers) believe that they useless.  I just kind of figured I was bad at them due to bad genetics or lack of will to swim without oxygen.  Who knows, but I wouldn't spend much time contemplating the reasons.

FWIW, I saw a guy once swim 100m underwater, but fainted at the end.  Kind of freaky.

 Brian

2008-03-26 6:48 PM
in reply to: #1296172

User image

Champion
8936
50002000100050010010010010025
Subject: RE: Restricted Breathing
famelec - 2008-03-26 6:40 PM

 Triathletes (and some swimmers) believe that they useless.

And potentially dangerous.  People do them because they've been passed down from coach to student to coach and on and on for years. 

2008-03-27 9:19 AM
in reply to: #1296113

User image

Expert
1022
1000
Subject: RE: Restricted Breathing
Well... one thing that sprinters are taught is to keep the number of breaths to a minimum, because they are losing time when they take a breath. The difference in a 50 yard sprint between 1st and 30th, in high school meets, is 1.5 seconds, so, every little thing counts. Even in the distance events, the difference between first and last is generally 1-2 seconds per 50.

Looking it up on the internet, there actually has been a study about controlled breathing:
http://swimming.about.com/od/swimworkouts/a/breath_control.htm

Their findings:

  • High intensity workloads can be simulated at moderate intensity swimming efforts by using controlled breathing patterns.

  • Controlled breathing does not simulate altitude training or its resulting metabolic adaptations.

  • Controlled breathing may result in a lower than expected heart rate response, meaning that if heart rate is used to measure level of effort, then the swimmer may appear to be working at a lower level of effort when they are actually performing at a higher effort level.

New Thread
General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Restricted Breathing Rss Feed