How to breathe on a bike

One aspect of cycling that gets taken for granted and is often overlooked is the importance of how you breathe. You do it non stop, hopefully, but most people don’t really think about tuning into what this non stop activity can tell you and how you can improve when you pay attention to it.

The first thing that your breathing can tell you is what gear to use.

If you are climbing and you are puffing and panting like a labrador after chasing the neighbours cat, then your breathing is telling you that you are in too easy a gear. Your cadence is too high and you are gone anerobic. This can work for a short space of time to hang on to a group over the top but you will very quickly blow up. Very often your legs might feel fine at this point but it is your lungs that are gone.

Conversely when you are climbing and your breathing is relaxed but your legs feel like they are about to explode, cramp up or generally just stop moving at all leaving you to fall down in a heap on the road, then you are in too hard a gear. You need to increase your cadence by changing into an easier gear and use your aerobic fitness more rather than depending upon the strength and power in your legs.

Put simply, if your breathing is under pressure but your legs are ok change into a harder gear and if your breathing is fine but your legs are on fire change into an easier gear.

If your breathing is under pressure and your legs are also screaming at you, then as Sean Kelly once remarked to me whilst I was suffering beside him on a climb with my legs cramping up expecting some magical words of wisdom – You need to train more!

Many people and not just cyclists have a tendency to shallow breathe. What that means is that you are just using the top 1/3 of your lungs. An easy way to check how you breathe is :

Whilst sitting in a chair to place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.

Many people as they breath will just feel their chest move out and in. That is shallow breathing.

To use your full capacity you should feel your belly move out first and then your chest as you breath in and then as you exhale your chest should deflate first followed by your belly. This engages your diaphragm which acts almost like a bellows and sucks more air in with each breath and pushes out the carbon dioxide.

The benefits of working on your breathing are a lowering of your heart rate along with making the blood less acidic and as anyone who has experienced the effects of lactic acid will know the longer that can be held off the better.

I often do a 4 in 4 out exercise for 10 minutes where you breathe in for 4 seconds focusing on your belly and chest and then breath out of 4 seconds. This can also be done for 3 or 5 seconds or whatever suits you best.

Another good breathing exercise is box breathing where you breathe in for 4, hold for 4, breath out for 4 and hold for another 4, before starting all over again. I was shown this one before giving a 20 minute presentation to 400 people to calm the nerves, but have been using it as a breathing and relaxation technique ever since.

In simple terms a bit of focus on your breathing off the bike will make you feel more relaxed and less stressed, whilst on the bike it will tell you what gear to use and improve your performance by between 5 – 8 % as you reap the rewards of the work you do off the bike.

You can take your hand away from your belly now 😉

Barry

thecyclingblog.com

seankellycycling.com