Breathing and sore throats.

Conor20

I've been swimming a lot for the last year or so.

I started doing around 750m-1km for Sprint triathlons and I've been getting up to around 2-2.25km's in the last few months building towards an Ironman.

The problem is that I breath every three strokes, holding my breath in between. As time goes on (2.25km takes me just under an hour), my throat gets really sore from the pressure of holding in breaths. As I settle into a rhythm, I naturally breath in as much as I possibly can when I do breath, s there's a lot of pressure to "hold" the breath in.
I've tried exhaling during the 3 strokes but this causes two problems. 1: I sink enough to substantially increase the effort required and 2: I go out of breath very quickly.

What is the generally thought way of breath control in the water? Hold the breath or exhale all the time under water? If it's to hold the breath until the last second, has anyone found their throat getting sore during long swims?

Thanks,
Conor.

Killgore Trout

Holding your breath till the last second is referred to as explosive breathing - it maximises buoyancy and would generally be used competitively. The gradual approach is trickle breathing. Both are perfectly cromulent techniques.

Never heard of explosive breathing causing sore throat problems like this tbh... But i don't use it that much. And while explosive can provide a bouyancy advantage I have never heard of trickle breathing causing appreciable buoyancy problems you describe... Id be interested in other swimmer's opinions on this

BendiBus

I find I'm half way between the two. I breathe in for most of the first stroke, hold for a full stroke, and breathe over the final stroke. You could try breathing out over the last stroke before breathing in?

But can you explain further? Why would your throat hurt from holding your breath? I don't think the throat is involved in breath holding?

Is it possible you're getting water in your mouth, or simply by breathing at water level you're inhaling vapour from the pool. Maybe this is causing irritation?

And thanks to KT for introducing a new word to my vocabulary. I'll try dropping it into conversation at work tomorrow and see how cromulent my colleagues find it

hunnymonster

I have also not heard of explosive breathing causing throat problems before. I wonder if it is something else? Could you be sensitive to the chemicals? For example, I find if I do a long set (say 3km) without stopping for a drink, I get a very dry (almost itchy) throat. If I stop for liquids every 500, I don't get this.

For the bigger question of explosive versus gradual (humming, I call it with kids) breathing, I would look at your goals. If you're training for Ironman, you're probably going to be wearing a wetsuit for your race swims, bouancy should not be an issue with the neoprene so I would go for comfort over the slight competitive advantage of explosive. You also need to remember that you are going to get knocked about in an ironman swim and gradual breathing is calmer and you might feel more in control when you take a whack.

Martin_F

I'd also suggest the sore throat is unlikely to be down to the breathing technique - unless you really are exhaling very hard/fast - which would take it's toll over a long swim.

I'd also say that the calmer breathing is more sustainable for a distance swim (and long training swim) - than say for a shorter sprint. If you are swimming 50 - 100 meters you might hold your breath if you are taking only a few breaths per length (exhaling right before you breath again). If you are simming over 200 meters - breathing comfort is the priority - since you don't want to exhaust yourself just on your breathing.
Personally I usually breath every 2nd stroke - and I'd do 4 in preference to 3 - and I just relax and breath naturally in/out in rythem with the stroke - except when sprinting.

You might find a happy medium - holding you breath for a stoke or stroke and a half, and then exhaling slightly less explosively - fine tune it until you find a balance around your sinking point that you are comfortable with.

AngryHippie

Lung capacity might be an issue if you are of a small build, in which case I'd stick with explosive breathing, But bear in mind that your exhaled breath still contains about 15% O2, even after your lungs are done with it, so don't be afraid to try some expansion excercises, do a 200m swim, starting on a breath every 3 strokes, then 5 then 7 then 9 (In a 50m pool). The Tri-club here(brisbane) is pretty hardcore, and they do a 200 straight after warm-up and a 200 before swim down on that breathing regime, and it seems to make a big difference to air intake. Worth a tri ha ha (No pun intended)

Conor20

Thanks for the replies.

To answer some of the questions: I'm not sure why holding my breath gives me a sore throat because the mechanics of holding one's breath doesn't really put much force on the throat. I suspect it's with the exhale, because I do breath out very fast as I'm turning my head for the next breath.

I don't believe it's down to irratation from the chlorine because I was swimming shorter distances for 8 or 9 months and I didn't encounter this problem at all.

I'll work on exhaling gradually during the last stroke and maybe on the lung capacity excercises for good measure.

Conor.