Should I Be Belly Breathing? | GTN Coaches Corner

Welcome back to another GTN Coaches Corner where you can send in your triathlon questions and we'll answer them for you. A question I'm quite excited to get onto this week is around breathing and should you breathe into your stomach? Well, we'll get to that one a bit later. Starting, though, with this one from Kason Hamilton. I'm currently training for my first Iron Distance race which will be Ironman Texas in April. From what I've heard and what I experienced when I did 70.3 in Texas in April last year is that I should be ready for some serious heat and humidity. However, I live in Northern Utah where, during the months leading up to the race, we can expect next to freezing temperatures and close to 0% humidity. What can I do to prepare for the humidity and heat of the race given that all my training will be in a cold and dry environment? We actually put a video out on this a few months ago with a whole protocol that you can follow for six weeks to actually get you ready for a hot, humid race. There you go. We have got your back. Link down below this video but we will answer a little bit here for people who are watching. Essentially, every time you expose your body to heat, it will adapt. Your body is very, very good at adapting to heat. Even if you think that you were born in a cold environment and you are useless in the heat, your body will adapt very quickly and it is well worth spending some time doing it. Start with small exposures to heat. Don't just jump into the heat chamber for 10, 20, for two, three hours. Start with 10 to 20 minutes and then build it up over time all the you will see massive improvements in how you perform on race day in that heat. Yes, absolutely. You could take this up another step and actually get a core device which is going to measure your core temperature. With that, it can give you your heat zones essentially and which zones you need to train in and the ones that are going to push on and be beneficial for you during training and make sure that you are not getting too hot which is actually going to have knock-on effects. You can team that with James' protocol and also use some of his protocols. You can tell when you're actually training your heat and whether you're just feeling sweaty even though it's still cool in your garage or whether you're actually training that heat load. It is worth also simulating the race environment. Don't just get into a cold garage or a cold room without the fan on and think, well, now I'm sweating. I must be heat acclimatizing. You actually need the heat and it's best if you have air movement too because you're not training to not be able to dissipate heat. You're training for your body to be good at dissipating heat. You need that fan on, you need a hot room, preferably a humid room even, so put a humidifier in there or just hang your wet laundry in there for a couple of hours before you actually do the session and you'll be training that humidity too and your body will be far better at it come race day if you've exposed yourself for four to six weeks before race day rather than just what a lot of people do is go, well, yes, I'll just be a bit tougher and I'll just tough it out on race day. It's way easier than actually training it beforehand. It's a recipe for disaster. Right, next question from Bran McFinchad. While I am primarily a road cyclist and my training is focused on that, I enjoy the occasional trail run, the more vertical the better, for bone health and explosive power. Yes, when I go do one, I end up with bad enough DOMS that my cycling training ends up reduced for about a week following suggestions. I'm surprised that. Well, let's first explain what DOMS is for anyone who doesn't know. It's DOMS stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Essentially, it comes when you strain your muscles far beyond what they used to. Generally, it happens because of eccentric loading. Eccentric loading is, think the braking effect when you're running downhill, your muscle is contracting to slow down the lengthening of your muscle and then it's creating little tears. They don't hurt immediately. It hurts thinking about it, actually. It does. Anyone who's had DOMS will know the pain we're talking about. It doesn't hurt immediately, but 24 to 48 hours when you think, well, all the stiffness and pain should be going away now, it suddenly gets way, way worse, hence the name delayed onset. It is something that you cannot really train for, but you can train for, if you know what I mean. There's nothing you can do to prevent DOMS, but if you don't overdo it in your sessions, you will slowly overcome that. The next time you run downhill, it won't be so bad. Now, the solution is pretty obvious to this question. You're going in a little bit too hard here. You just need to lessen the load until you're fully adapted or started to adapt a little bit more. Actually, the uphill parts are probably going to be less damaging. You might still be able to do a lot of that and get that explosive benefit, et cetera, from it, but it's those downhills that are really causing the damage, as James has mentioned, about the eccentric loading and the muscle damage that you're causing from it. You need to slowly build into it and get yourself adapted over time rather than you're all or nothing. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, so don't pick the really, really steep hills. Rather, do the gradual hills, run the uphills hard, and be very gentle on the downhills so you don't get that DOMS. Now, you are right that running hills does increase your bone adaptation and your bone health, especially for a cyclist who might not be getting that stimulation, that impact load, but not to the point that you're getting DOMS. That's more impact load that you need to add. Rather, run less hilly routes and get that impact more gently and gradually. I'd actually say you'd more run the risk of injury from your approach. Next question from GRM. Hi, guys. Do you have any tips on winding down after a training session in the evening? This is a good question. I generally train from 6-7 PM for 1-1.5 hours, and I've been finding it hard to fall asleep at 10-10.30. This is a really good question. I used to do a lot of track sessions in the evenings. You come back after a hard workout, absolutely buzzing, maybe still needing to have dinner and things like that, and then you're still up at 11, 12 o'clock at night, absolutely wired. If you can, try to do that high-intensity stuff earlier in the day. Do those on special days where you can do it earlier in the day and then save the lower-intensity stuff. Obviously, we understand that some of you can only train at that time in the evening, in which case, you do need to figure out how to wind down. As Mark says, one of the big problems is you don't really want to eat too much or you haven't eaten the whole afternoon. You then finally get your dinner at 9 or 10 PM. That dinner itself might be the thing that's keeping you awake, so try to reduce the size of that dinner. Now, you obviously don't want to reduce the calories you're taking, so have half of that in the early afternoon. I know it sounds weird, but you're an athlete, not a normal person, so you can do weird things like this. Have half your dinner early in the afternoon and then the other half of your dinner after your race. You don't have a big, full stomach that's going to keep you awake after that session. Mark Threlfall If anyone asks, just tell them you're a triathlete. Simon Riddell Exactly, they'll understand straight away. Also, there are so many ways you can help yourself relax after a workout like this. Many of you may have suggestions. I've done things like just having a nice warm bath, maybe reading a book, just winding down, maybe not sitting in front of a laptop or computer. If you've got any suggestions, let us know in the comment section down below. Mark Threlfall Definitely also, avoid stimulants in that session. I know they do help you push a little bit harder in that session, but adding 1% to 2% to the intensity you can push in that session by taking a cup of coffee or a Red Bull before you do it is not going to help you anything when you can't sleep that night, so rather factor in the sleep. One other thing I would say is do a proper warm down. People often do these evening sessions and they think, well, the quicker I get off here and start getting ready for bed, the sooner I'll be asleep, but you're actually better off spending 10 minutes slowly, gradually flushing out those waste products and slowing your heart rate down. Then when you do get off, you'll actually relax that much quicker and sleep that much better than if you do the high intensity, last high intensity session, spin for one minute and then hop off and try and get into bed. You will then be buzzing for a good while after that. Okay, next question from O8021. Hi, I enjoy your videos and tips and all the input. One question about the swim part. At what point in 100-meter pace should we start strength training? I swim at 210 to 220 pace per 100 for Olympic distance and my short to mid-term goal is to go around 140 to 150 for the 1.5 kilometers, but I'm struggling now. Should I start weight training or continue to focus on technique? I am better at the bike, 10 to 15% in the age group than the run and my swim is the worst, less than 35 minutes, 70%. He's 52, medium build, male, no swimming background, obviously, he says. Okay, fair enough. I think the question is, how fast of a swimmer do you need to be before strength training is worth your time? Yes, and they're basically, they're trying to get their 100-meter time or pace from 210 to 140 per 100. Yes, so 30 seconds per 100, which is quite a big jump. Okay, I'm going to say there's no time when your time is better spent doing strength work than time in the pool at that point. Your swim is a very technique-focused sport. You need to get your technique right, otherwise, you will never get down to that 140 per 100 pace. In fact, you could get as strong as an Olympic gymnast and you will still swim at 210 per 100 if you have poor swimming technique. Interestingly, if you take a look through a lot of the pro field, a lot of the best swimmers out there aren't absolutely stacked. I thought you were going to say that I'm an Olympic gymnast. That too. I don't know, some of them might be. Yes, they're not absolutely stacked or don't have huge physiques. They've got themselves as efficient as possible in the swimming pool. I'd say at the pace that you're currently at, your biggest gains are definitely going to be through just refining your technique and making yourself as smooth and effortless through the water as possible. Yes, when you're swimming, it feels like strength would be such a good thing to help. If you could just pull a little bit more water and a little bit harder, you would go so much faster. I can tell you and I've got firsthand evidence of this because my wife swims significantly faster than me and she can't even do a pull-up. No matter how much stronger than her I am, I just can't keep up with her. Strength is not going to help you until your technique is really, really good. Now, I am going to put a little caveat on the end of this and say that if you are swimming three to four times a week and you are working on your technique, strength work, especially around your core and your shoulders, some stretch cords for your shoulders can help and make you a better swimmer. However, not at the expense of technique work. If you are deciding whether you should do strength work or time in the pool for technique, it's always going to be time in the pool for technique. I think that's an important one. There's a lot of people that spend a lot of time in the swimming pool. I'd actually say a lot of pros fall foul of this as well. Do tons of swim volume but actually, there's not enough time focused on technique. Actually, there's a lot of wasted miles there. Anyway, final question from Wahiro. Hey guys, was always advised to breathe into my stomach when running. Is it the same for swimming? Would that practice aid in buoyancy if I'm having difficulty keeping my legs up? Interesting. Okay, let's dissect this a little bit. The breathing into your stomach advice when running is not so that you fill your stomach with air. You don't fill your stomach with air. Your stomach just bulges because you're using your diaphragm. Essentially, you're putting your diaphragm down which makes your stomach bulge a little bit and it's belly breathing or breathing into your stomach. The other way you can breathe is, of course, to lift your chest, those intercostal muscles lifting up those ribs and that's also going to create an inhalation. Now, ideally, you want to do both but we all fall into the trap especially when you're sitting on desks and stuff of only doing the intercostal muscle breathing. We just lift our chest to breathe and you do these short shallow breaths which is fine to get you through the day but then when it comes to running or any exercise, you need a little bit more lung volume and your diaphragm is an incredibly efficient muscle. It doesn't take a lot of oxygen to bring the oxygen into your body. It is a very efficient muscle and you should be using it to its absolute maximum which is why they say train the belly breathing. To answer your question, you aren't actually bringing air into your stomach and so it's not going to help your buoyancy when you're swimming. When it comes to calm about your body position, essentially, it comes down to technique practice. Refer to previous question. Again, this is all about technique. It's about your head position, it's about your body position, it's about your core activation and if you can get all those things right, you will actually float better, have better balance breathing into your stomach. While it's a good practice and it will make you breathe better and more efficiently, it's not going to help with your buoyancy in the swimming pool. It's not going to help with your body position. It's not going to help stop those legs sinking. It's a good practice to do but not for the specific purpose that you've suggested. I'd actually say where some people think about trying to hold air in their lungs is more counterproductive. Actually, that is then going to actually result in your legs dropping. That's a whole other subject and we've got videos on that which if you want to check out Sinky Legs videos on GTN, we explain all of that. That's it for today's Coach's Corner. Remember, if you have any questions down below this video in the comment section, hashtag GTN Coach's Corner. We could be answering it next week. Hit that thumbs up button if you've enjoyed the video. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our next Coach's Corner. We'll see you in the next video.