Does breathing every other stroke slow you down? (Page 2)

I am actually faster. I have gone to breathing 2x to the right, then 2x to the left on every 2nd stroke. Every 3rd was leaving me a little short on O2 when I was pushing harder...Every time to one side I read was bad from a shoulder standpoint (true? don't know..What say the experts?)...I swim faster when I have more air and my rhythm is very good when I swim as I described...

An experienced endurance swimmer adviced me to learn to breathe bilaterally exactly because of these 2 reasons. I think you're right that it's better to breathe bilaterally during the training, the question is if it makes any difference on a long distance and how much this could differ between swimmers.

Edited by Maasen 2008-05-23 10:11 AM

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Also, if you're worried about having balanced muscle development when you breathe every 2, you can practice always breathing toward the same wall when you're swimming, so that you're switching from left to right every length.
Or you can breathe to the right twice, take three strokes, breathe to the left twice, take three strokes... etc.

I had trained for four months (in a pool) breathing bilaterally for my first tri which was a couple of weeks ago. During the race (1/2 mile lake) I had to breathe every second stroke as I just didn't feel comfortable breathing bilaterally. I always thought bilateral was the only way to go but now it seems that maybe it isn't. Maybe what's best is more what you are comfortable with at that specific time rather than forcing it one way or the other?

Being comfortable when you're swimmimg is one of the most important things to consider