In this week’s new drop Jeff and Mac discuss “Techniques to improve breathing efficiency”.
Does breathing really come naturally? Mac and Jeff explore the science of breathing and share techniques to improve your efficiency. Mac and Jeff look at how breathing works, why kids and animals are the only ones who really breathe properly, and why you’re probably not breathing as efficiently as you could be. After taking you through a breathing exercise to help you get a better sense of how you breathe, they share some thoughts and tools that can help you improve your breathing efficiency.
Good show two areas I would like as extension: training for altitude which is I think another use of restricted flow and asthma. I have a bit of cold and exercise induced asthma. It is something I think breath training has helped me with (well moving to az helped with cold too…but is bad for other air quality issues). I use an airofit and like using systm it is good for putting me on a program, using a variety of patterns, etc. I do altitude by going to s Utah 2k meters and climbing but would like to get a better head start at times.
I just listened to this podcast over the past week, and while I’m aware of the various Yoga videos that practice specific breathing techniques, I think it may be cool to have an Elements of Style video but geared towards practicing breathing techniques during different kinds of cycling efforts - sprints, map efforts, threshold, etc…
@Devries Some of this tutorial is already in the revised Tapers video along with tips on avoiding pain face but overall that is a good idea and it probably bears mentioning in some of the other Sufferfest videos as they get remastered.
Just relistened to it. Excellent advice from Sir Mac Cassin.
Thanks for pulling it up!
I wonder how we can tell if we are indeed pushing out that “dead air” that usually remains as we breathe and Doesn’t usually get exchanged. Hmmmm.
The part about kids and animals breathing properly really clicked. I first noticed it in swimming training, where you can literally feel how bad habits creep in with age. A quick way I fixed it was recording my inhale/exhale timing during intervals so just seeing the ratio on a chart forced me to correct patterns I didn’t realize I had
Just gave it a listen — really interesting take on something we usually don’t even think about. I liked how they broke down why kids and animals seem to breathe more naturally than adults, makes you wonder at what point we all “unlearn” proper breathing. The exercise they guided through was simple but surprisingly effective — I actually caught myself noticing tension in my shoulders right away.
Curious if anyone here has tried incorporating breathing techniques into workouts or even daily routines? Would be cool to hear if it’s made a noticeable difference for you.
My chiropractor years ago encouraged belly breathing. Somehow as we age we begin to breathe with our shoulders which creates or exacerbates stress and tension. If we do shoulder circles and practice belly breathing it can help improve breathing and relieve tension.
