Be Breathed for Swimming/Ironman Race

[Ben Waddell]

I was wondering, a long time ago I first experienced a sensation when I was performing an oblique twisting exercise with a stick across my shoulders. The sensation was that of air being forced in and out of my lungs in time with my movement and felt wholly different to just breathing normally. While I am not sure, I suspect this is what it feels like to Be Breathed.

I notice that I can reproduce the effect by swinging my arms around in circles, the best effect is when the arms go in opposite directions but I digress. It lead me to think that if I swing my arms around and create this sensation of Being Breathed, how could be breathed be applied first to an almost labratory type setting (that of swimming bilateral, set distance time, speed etc) in a swimming pool, and second to swimming in the ocean (which requires different timing for breathing, arms, kicking etc).

OR would it be better in say an Ironman race (Swim Leg, Run Leg, Board Leg, Run Leg, Ski Leg, Run Leg) :shock: to allow the actions of paddling a board or ski to breathe you as well as say Slavyansky Byeg (not sure if that's spelt right) during the run leg and just swim as you usually would forgetting about that sensation of being breathed during the swim leg?

Can Be Breathed be used while swimming? :?

[myk hendrix]

Perhaps you could look into this ?

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

Mike Hendrikse

[James Boelter]

Also this by Ian Jackson, who was far ahead of his time with his 'BreathPlay' book and training concepts.

www.breathplay.com

Jackson actually competed in some Ironman competitions with this method and did pretty well (He didn't win, but he didn't expect to).

[Ben Waddell]

Thanks for the ideas and the links guys! :) That BreathPlay sounds similar to Be Breathed when it spoke about actively forcing the air out and passively allowing the inhale.

[Dan Chomycia]

Ben,

would it be better in say an Ironman race (Swim Leg, Run Leg, Board Leg, Run Leg, Ski Leg, Run Leg) to allow the actions of paddling a board or ski to breathe you as well as say Slavyansky Byeg (not sure if that's spelled right) during the run leg and just swim as you usually would forgetting about that sensation of being breathed during the swim leg?

:idea:
I would say that you should spend time on this separately before any such competition. The general idea that comes from these different resources it that the body is Breathed by the motion you are performing at the time this greatly enhances performance and indicates complete integration in your activity. When you compete just let this rhythm happen.

Enjoy,

[Ben Waddell]

Thanks for the advice Dan. I'm currently haven't competed in a while but am starting to rediscover my love for the competition side of Surf Life Saving. I'll definitely be thinking about how to integrate Circular Strength, Be Breathed, etc into my training and performance and I'll definitely be taking on board the advice you've given me, along with everyone else on the forum.

[bob_stra]

Perhaps you could look into this ?

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

Mike Hendrikse


Hey wait.... you stole my line ;-)


The total immersion stuff is great, very much in BodyFlow mould IMHO. If you donwload the clips and get the book from the library, you pretty much have all the resource materials. (though, IIRC, they do $500 weekend seminars)

[amilcarkabral]

Great question. In martial-arts and other land-lubber sports there is no moment where a person is litterally unable to inhale because something that isn't air will fill their lungs (excusing gas attacks or something). So for people like us with sea arms and ocean legs it is necessary that we control our active inhalations and exhalations with much more precision, depth and timing.

Btw: I swim in a pool and don't know much about oceanic swimming.

My experience in the water hath revealed a truth. Breathing matters. Really.


My swim breathing 'til now:
Though i grew up swimming, just recently i've recognized that i am dearly afraid of drowning. I noticed this because i've always had a mental-emotional barrier to breathing every 5+ strokes. Then, thankfully, a few days later i broke through that by 'busting through' the tension that i created while approaching the five-stroke former 'barrier'. So now i can swim relatively smoothly while breathing every five strokes for a couple laps in comparison to my former half-length, provided i don't push above 70 percent speed.

Freestyle:
Whilst trying to integrate be-breathed with swimming i focused on the angle at which my shoulders form around the fulcrum of my spine. As i swim regularly it kinda hovers around 180 degrees because i'm going for full shoulder extention throughout the rotation of my arms. But when we breathe we have to change this because we have to roll our heads out the water for the split second it takes to take in a full breath of air.

Freestlye Inhale:
When you turn your head to inhale focus on opening up your chest by swinging the elbow that's out of the water back behind your body (point it to the sky/roof). This makes the angle of your shoulders move off 180 degrees and be about 160 degrees on the dorsal side. This is achieved by pulling your shoulder back in addition to its normal rotational path due to the extension of your elbow toward the ceiling/stars. It will also drive your immersed arm lower in the water, which nearly compensates for the pause for a breath due to the longer arc for your pull.

Freestyle Exhale:
I tend to exhale fully and slowly throughout the count of my strokes (one in, two out for a three-stroke set and one in four out for a five-stroke set) I'll try to shorten that to include an empty-lung pause for one breath, which is what i think SSonnon is refering to with the 'performance pause' practice.

Breastroke and butterfly:
thankfully these strokes have being-breathed patterns built into them. I was taught (perhaps taught myself) to breathe smoothly throughout the time my head was under the water. While writing the previous section on the freestyle i realized that i hadn't applied be-breathed concept to these two strokes. What i will do, and please give me any feedback if you try it, is to do an active exhale on the dive&duck when my head enters the water in order to empty my lungs and get that 'performance pause'.

For my butter (its really that smooth!) i'll be finishing my exhale about when my hands hit my belly so i get a little pause for the remainder of the stroke. For my breast (circle them gals) i'll focus on the full exhalation while i tuck my head and get the performanc pause for the left-over 1/3 kick and all of the glide. If you want to get fancy, gimme a coupla weeks, for either strokes you can fully exhale and use a whole stroke for a performance pause!!!

Caveat
I would like to state that i know only of the 'be-breathed' exercises by SBarnes and not the performance breathing by SSonnon. So my usage of the term 'performance pause' isn't contextualized by experience from watching the video and following the instructions, rather its a vague recollection of reading an article i'm too lazy to go searching for again at this moment.

Amilcar

[Ben Waddell]

Excellent post. I'm definitely going to try it. As for your phobia, try this.

50m Breathing every 2 strokes
50m Breathing every 3
50m Breathing every 4
50m Breathing every 3
50m Breathing every 6
50m Breathing every 3
50m Breathing every 8
50m Breathing every 3
50m Breathing every 10
50m Breathing every 3

It's a drill called Breath Control I learnt in my younger years. The goal is to learn to relax and slow down rather than speed up. If you speed up, holding your breath becomes very hard for the 8 and 10 strokes so you need to relax. Hope it helps.