Improve your breathing to improve your performance.
The more control you have over your breath while swimming, the better your technique will get. Naturally, even amateur swimmers want to work to improve their breathing. Becoming a better breather takes practice--both inside and outside the water. Fortunately, as you exercise your breathing muscles, you gain control over them, and you'll find that it becomes easier to swim. Incorporate breath training into your swimming routine to see great results in your strength and swim times.
Instructions
1. Do breath-control exercises outside of the water. Breathe air in on a count of 10, then hold it for 10 seconds and exhale slowly on a count of 10. If this is easy for you, breathe in on an count of 10, hold for 20 seconds and release slowly on a count of 20. Work your way up to 30 seconds.
2. Push all air out of your lungs. If you're not exhaling with your face in the water, you're wasting precious breathing time because you have to exhale and inhale in such a short period. This means that you're not taking as deep of a breath as you could be. Instead, make sure to exhale underwater so that when you turn your face to take a breath, you are only inhaling.
3. Lift your head only as high as necessary. You may have a tendency to rotate your head too much as you try to take a breath. As you swim, you create a pocket of air around your body, where the water level is lower than the water level in the pool. Get your air from this area.
4. Practice hypoxic sets. Hypoxic training means making due with less oxygen. Athletes typically use it when working in high altitude areas, but it can also be effective when training as a swimmer. If you usually take a breath every other stroke, force yourself to wait every three, four or more strokes to take a breath. This may be difficult at first, but it becomes easier over time.
5. Learn bilateral breathing techniques. If you always breath from the same side, you run the risk of bad form. Doing this usually means that you twist your arm more to that side than the other. In bilateral breathing, you alternate the sides that you're breathing from. Start by breathing on the left side, then after three strokes, take a breath from the right side. You can also increase the numbert of strokes that are in between breaths, so you are taking breaths after every five or seven strokes.
Tags: take breath, becomes easier, bilateral breathing, breath from, hold seconds
