Sounds silly, I mean you have been doing it your whole life but breathing can make such a difference to your training and performance. So to those getting ready to run that infamous 26.2 mile marathon, here are some breathing tips for DASHing.
We want to get as much oxygen as possible to feed our muscles. The nose alone cannot get as much oxygen as your mouth; however the mouth cannot warm up the air as the nose does. When running, we want to use both our mouth and nose to maximise oxygen uptake, even if you alternate between both. Important note, it is much easier to breathe out through your mouth; when breathing out through your nose forcefully, it creates back pressure, slowing the exhalation of air from the lungs.
Whether you breathe through your nose or mouth what is more important is gaining as much oxygen in the body as possible and the best way to do this is to breathe from the stomach and not the chest. Stay tuned for more info on stomach breathing in future blogs.
Once you have completed a session or that incredible 26.2miles, it is a good idea to breathe with control and deeply through your nose and out through your mouth. Nitrogen oxide is formed and released in human sinuses and when we breathe through our nose, a larger amount of nitrogen oxide (10-15{b5278d781e618776bb3c63e7de561c94dbf0c1480afe54d82c165cca423b5d1a} more) enters the blood, compared to the mouth, making the blood vessel walls relax, thus increasing blood flow to the starved muscles.
Hopefully you have learnt something new, a new tool added to your arsenal of fitness tips. Let us know if this makes a difference to your training or performance!
Till next time DASHees
Dash Coach Laurence
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