I tried swimming with two breathing techniques and the differences were huge.
With one technique I felt heavy and desperate.
With the other one I felt light and calm.
Breathing correctly is THE main obstacle to unlocking a smooth swim.
From the outside, swimming looks simple.
A beginner looks at a swimmer and thinks, I can move my arms and legs like this.
When the beginner gets into the water and tries to swim, he discovers two things.
When trying to raise the legs, the breathing becomes more uncomfortable and the level of
discomfort increases.
Instead of finding a better way to breathe, the beginner focuses more on the legs and
arms.
This is a big mistake.
Breathing is something we don't usually think about.
We mistakenly believe that it is an automatic bodily function that should not be messed
around with.
De-nise was a beginner who only lasted one swim session before giving up.
She swam only two laps and came out of the pool with shortness of breath, sore shoulders
and hatred for the pool.
She didn't realize that all she needed was the correct breathing instructions.
One day, De-nise and A-aron were at the gym.
A-aron was doing the knee rehab exercises from a video he found on YouTube.
De-nise asked him what kind of shoes he was wearing.
A-aron told her about the knee injury, the shoes, and the swim channel that helped him
learn how to swim.
De-nise told him that she hated swimming.
A-aron said that he hated it too until he figured out the correct breathing technique.
What we usually learn in school is that we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide (CO2).
This explanation is too simple if you want to understand how to swim smoothly.
With this simple explanation we assume that CO2 is just a waste product and is bad.
While too much carbon dioxide is bad, too little is also bad for you.
But why am I telling you all this?
Because when you are swimming you will need to maintain a healthy amount of oxygen and
carbon dioxide in your body.
It sound strange but CO2 is a catalyst for delivering oxygen to your muscles and brain.
Breathing too much will increase stress, reduce oxygen to your muscles and brain, and make
it difficult to swim smoothly.
Breathing too little also lowers oxygen levels and the CO2 buildup causes stress if you're
not used to it.
The first thing A-aron asked De-nise is if she had heart problems or if she was pregnant.
When she answered no, he asked her to do bubbling.
In this case it means breathing through your nose at all times and exhaling slowly underwater.
This is not how you breathe while swimming smooth, but it helps prepare the mind for
a state of dynamic relaxation with increased blood flow.
Now that De-nise is calm, A-aron teaches her the 3 fundamental steps of breathing to swim
smooth.
1- Always keep a minimum of 60% air in your lungs, approximately.
Most of us never inhale or exhale anywhere near 100% of our lung capacity.
Many of us don't even have the strength to do so.
Yes, breathing requires strength.
It requires strength from the primary respiratory muscle, the diaphragm, but also from the auxiliary
respiratory muscles, which include the pectoralis minor, some core muscles, among others.
For swimming, it is ideal to be able to breathe at 100% of your capacity and to be able to
do it quickly.
When you inhale, the diaphragm contracts and pushes down the organs in the abdominal cavity.
This creates more space for the lungs.
The pressure difference causes air to enter.
When the lungs are full of air, it is easier to float and swim.
The contraction of the diaphragm also creates pressure in the abdominal cavity, this helps
pump blood to the heart and creates a more stable trunk.
This is very useful during exercise.
So inhale and you will bring blood to the heart, you will have a stable trunk and you
will float better.
This is why it is important to breathe fully and never exhale too much during the swim.
A-aron tells De-nise to practice contracting her diaphragm by pushing her stomach down
and out in all directions.
The chest must also expand to fill the lungs to 100% capacity.
Here comes the difficult part.
While keeping her core tight and breathing almost normally, she needs do very light punches
to her stomach for 1 minute.
This will force her to keep her diaphragm contracted and keep about 60% of the air in
her lungs.
She tries but she hits herself too hard!
She rests for a few minutes.
She tries again and succeeds.
2- Exhale quickly through the nose and mouth before the head comes out.
Here comes a big debate among coaches and swimmers.
Some of them believe that you should always exhale when your head is in the water.
They say Olympic swimmers do that.
I don't like to teach that for two reasons.
Not all olympic swimmers do that.
And The swimmers that do, have almost perfect breath control while swimming.
They can exhale about 3% of their breath.
Gary Hall Sr. says this gives them buoyancy and creates less friction with the water.
Beginners don't have that much control.
They are likely to exhale too much, sink, and run out of breath.
When you swim, you should exhale about 30% of your breath at a very specific moment.
The rest of the time I advise you to hold your breath.
The exhalation should be when the head is turning to breathe.
It must be fast.
You want to spend as little time as possible with your head out.
If you spend too much time with your head out, your hips and legs will sink.
So the inhalation should be when the mouth and nose are just outside and ready to inhale.
You shouldn't waste time exhaling when your face is out.
To get used to doing this, A-aron tells De-nise to jump off the bottom of the pool.
Before the head comes out, she needs to exhale quickly.
She practice that for 5 minutes.
3- Inhale quickly through your nose and mouth.
The last step is to inhale quickly.
The tricky part here is that the head must be close to the surface of the water.
To do this, you need to rotate your body.
Too little rotation and the neck will feel sore.
Too much rotation and the balance will be lost.
To practice try breathing while holding on to the wall.
Wait 1.5 to 4 seconds between each breath.
This is like breathing every 2 to 5 strokes.
Now that she knows the rhythm and amount of breathing, it is easier for her to try to
swim swimming smooth with less effort.
Do you remember what I said at the beginning that I tried different breathing methods?
In one method I exhaled most of the air of my lungs and tried to swim.
I felt like a beginner trying to lift my hips and legs.
My underwater dolphin kicks just got a lot harder.
I got tired immediately and couldn't swim smoothly.
If you are a bit more advanced than De-nise, the next video will be about breathing exercises
that simulate altitude training.
Click here if it is already available.
If you are interested in our swimming technique camps, we still have some spots available
for the one in Thailand.
The rest of the camps are either full or almost full.
Click here to find out more.
See you there!
SWIM fast!