How do you breathe?

[Matthew / BPL]

I’ve started dayhiking with a friend I enjoy spending time with. They are interested in trying backpacking, too.

We were talking about breathing while hiking last weekend. They spend a lot of time in Pilates classes where you tighten your core and breathe slowly. They haven’t spent much time doing aerobic exercise before. I don’t remember exactly how my friend put it but they said they’re not used to moving a lot of air.

I do not tighten my core as a breathe. My perception is that I breathe using my diaphragm. A vocalist friend of my showed me some technique related to diaphragmatic breathing when I first started teaching ~20 years ago and was suffering from sore throats from all of the loud speaking. This has become second nature to me and it’s how I breathe when hiking too. I move my upper abdomen (just below my rib cage) forwards when breathing. I believe this creates space for the diaphragm to move downwards and fills the lungs deeply with air. I’m pretty sure this is the opposite of Pilates breathing (I did attend several dozen Pilates classes four or five years ago with my spouse). I found breathing with an “engaged core” to be quite awkward.

I’m curious if anyone else has thoughts about breathing technique or maybe even the difference between Pilates breathing and hiking breathing?

[Bonzo]

Just yesterday, I went hiking with a friend that’s been a dancer for years; she found herself getting unexpectedly short of breath on uphill sections, and couldn’t understand why.  I asked her if she was breathing more with her chest, or lower down with her abdomen; her response was “Uh, in my chest; how are you supposed to breath with your abdomen and still keep your core engaged?” When I told her that she didn’t have to keep a lockdown on her core to hike with a small daypack (she’s pretty new to this) she found that she was having trouble not engaging her core at all times; it had become second-nature to her to do so, and it was very awkward to breath via the diaphragm with an engaged core.  I tried it myself; awkward is exactly the word for it…unless you’re very good at engaging your pelvic floor and lower core while allowing the upper part of the core and diaphragm to remain looser.  I’ve had to learn to do exactly that due to a back injury; it’s helped me immensely.  But to answer your question directly; I breathe deeply and slowly, in and out through the nose, and I try to get as much air exchanged in my lungs as is possible with every breath.

[Mark Verber]

I tend to breath using my core which isn’t good. diaphragmatic breathing is much more effective. In the last couple of weeks I have been working to shift my breathing. It’s made a big difference in the intro to tia chi I am doing and I have been seeming my vo2max go up.  Some of the science behind it

https://www.o2trainer.com/pages/o2-trainer-science

 

[BlackHatGuy]

I’d recommend the book “Breath” by James Nestor. Fascinating look at breathing, including breathing exercises and such.

[Matthew / BPL]

Thank you for the responses. It’s particularly interesting to hear such a similar story about Bonzo’s friend.

[Kevin Babione]

One of the things I love about this website is looking at threads that, at first glance, I don’t think would interest me…

I’m one who has been known to, while climbing uphill, blame the guy in front of me for sucking up all of the oxygen and not leaving any for me.  My daughters are competitive figure skaters who, like Bonzo’s dancer, have a hard time not engaging their core in everyday life.  They learned early in their skating career that if they simply use their core muscles in every movement every day that it’s one less thing to think about when doing jumps on the ice.

[DWR D]

I have never put much thought into it. To me it seems the body has enough wisdom built in that when you stress it for oxygen, it knows how to get the most oxygen when needed. I just know that after decades of backpacking in the high mountains where oxygen is a big scarce, I have developed very efficient oxygen processing. But, basically, when hiking up hill at 12,000 feet with a full backpack, I breathe very deeply and automatically adjust my pace to the slope such that breathing is not excessively labored at a pace that I can maintain for over an hour without stopping. I don’t give any thought as to what muscles or what parts of my body I am using to get that oxygen in and out of my lungs. Sometimes, I think that we overthink things.

[Steve Thompson]

I’ve been focusing on breathing exclusively through my nose, in and out, for all but my hiit workouts (then it is in nose, out mouth).  I haven’t paid much attention to diaphragm or what not, but I am quite conscious of how deep i need to breathe to sustain aerobic activity, much deeper than when I huffed and puffed through my mouth.

My first runs this spring, I slowed to a crawl, but fully recovered my pace after about 3 months.  And a good test was this summer’s backpack in the Sierra.  I live at 200’ yet was able to ascend Bishop Pass then Knapsack Pass nose breathing after just one night of acclimation, and completed the entire week’s journey just nose breathing.

I’m amazed how quickly my body adapted to this breathing change, and overall “feel” it has improved my endurance. (quotes because there is no science or rigorous eval).

[Matthew / BPL]

I remember how hard it was for me to breathe with a locked core when I was going to Pilates class a couple times a week. I’m guessing it would feel equally weird for my friend (or the dancer and figure skater mentioned above) to unlock the core and breathe more deeply like most of us hikers do.

[David Thomas]

There are just two cases in which I consciously breath in any different way.

One is if my throat is getting raw from cold air or I’m trying to preserve moisture – then I’ll consciously breath through my nose.

The other is “pressure breathing” at altitude to more fully purge my lungs of stale air.  At the end of each breath, give a little push through pursed lips to expel more air.  It’s especially handy when peak-bagging and you haven’t acclimatized to the elevation yet (or, I’m told, at extreme elevations that you never acclimatize to).

[Paul Wagner]

I first thought this thread was going to be a little more amusing–generally focusing on “in and out.”

But like David, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the mechanics of my breathing. As someone who did a lot of sports quite seriously when I was younger, I was always focusing on getting as much air in and out as quickly as possible–no worries about cores or anything else.

Meanwhile, back out on the trail, I do use my breathing rhythm as a way to judge exertion levels.  On the flat at sea level, I just walk and breathe.  But as I start going up, both in slope and altitude, I find myself falling into a two-step inhale, two-step exhale rhythm.  And as things get harder, I move to shorter steps (still in the same cadence–can you tell I’ve done a bunch of cycling?) and two-step inhale, one-step exhale.  The max I reach is usually one-step inhale, one-step exhale, and that got me over 15,000 feet in the Andes…albeit at a sedate cadence and speed.

Of course, going higher, I assume that I would get to the point of one inhalation and exhalation per step…or even numerous breaths per step, but I ain’t going that high or hard anymore.

[DWR D]

At nearly 23,000 feet on Aconcagua, we were taking 4 (count them FOUR) very deep breaths per each step!!! And not a thought of breathing style or Pilates or breathing through my nose  :)))   We just wanted as much air as possible as fast as possible !!!

[Josh J]

a better book is oxygen advantage by Patrick McKeown

Breath book is based on him o believe

[Author]

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