DON’T WASTE YOUR BREATH!
After two pandemicstricken years of maskwearing, ventilating and protecting our respiratory systems from a lethal threat in the air, it seems an appropriate time to focus on how breathing affects the way we ride. The coaching community is divided over the claims surrounding ‘belly breathing’ and ‘nasal breathing’. So what’s the truth? Can you train yourself to breathe better?
Advocates of breathing drills insist that they yield clear advantages, while sceptics question the value of focusing on techniques that they suspect offer only the most marginal of gains. At the University of Kent’s exercise respiratory clinic, Professor John Dickinson points to consistent evidence that cyclists who improve their breathing efficiency can and do see their efforts translate into an improvement in performance. “An efficient breathing pattern reduces the work of the respiratory muscles,” explains Dickinson.
