Breathing habits

[justin4pack]

I'm new to running and I notice that I am out of breath very quickly. I know its because I'm out of shape/overweight, but how can I condition my breathing to last longer before having to slow down?

 

[devenchis]

What I've always been taught/told by professional runners is a 3/3 rotation. It might be extremely new/hard at first, but in my experience in the long run it helps. The 3/3 rotations is exhale for 3 steps and inhale for 3 steps. Start the inhale on your right foot, start the exhale on your left foot. It also helps if you have trouble with boredom running. If you keep track of your stepping you forget how far you're running. I've always hated running, and it helped me. Just a thought.

 

[Phanuel]

Run more.

 

[QueBert]

A few years ago I started to run, for the 2st few week I was depressed at how quickly I was out of breath. I stuck with it and things started to turn around quickly after that. I never specifically targeted my breathing. I did at times try breathing differently, but I just kept running and shit got a lot easier. While I'm sure there are breathing techniques you can practice that can help you progress faster, just keep exercising and you'll get better regardless.

And not to discourage you, but at least for me after I got less winded and could run farther I then had to deal with shin splints. I will say my honest opinion's that the initial phase of getting into shape sucks. But the bad shit passes and before I knew it I was able to run 3 miles without stopping. That was my goal so I never pushed any farther than that. It's pretty remarkable how the human body adjusts and grows from exercise.

For reference I'm 5'11 and was about 240lbs when I started jogging. And as far as physical activity level prior to that, there was non. What helped me the most was my music to be honest, I have the Nike+ and my iPod and when I was ready to start walking I'd press the power song button and get a boost to keep me going.

 

[jaedaliu]

Run more.

Breathing is the easiest part of your workout. Your lung capacity (as long as you aren't a heavy smoker or have emphysema) is not holding you back.

You have to stick with it.

If you find yourself tiring out too quickly, consider lowering your pace so that you can go further. After some practice and adjustments, you'll find a pace that you can jog "forever" and you can decide if you want to speed it up for more intense workouts, or lengthen the runs out so that you're covering more distance and burning more calories.