Should I breathe on both sides?

tunguska

I only breathe on one side at the moment and I breathe on every second stroke. Should I teach myself how to breathe on both sides? If so, why?
Cheers

crosbie

tunguska wrote: »

I only breathe on one side at the moment and I breathe on every second stroke. Should I teach myself how to breathe on both sides? If so, why?
Cheers

There is nothing 'wrong' with breathing on one side only. Generally however it is suggested that you breathe on opposite sides say every 3/5 strokes. This will help you to stay even and balanced in the water. You may find that with just breathing on one side (say right) your left outstretched arm will drop and your position in the water will suffer. Also breathing every 2 strokes seems a bit too often you will spend most of your energy turning to breathe rather than in the power phase of the stroke. Have a look at this site some good basic tips http://ruthkazez.com/AdultLearner.html

Highway_To_Hell

For open water swimming (especially sea swims) it is better to be able to breath on both sides so you can breath on the opposite side to the wave and not get a mouth full of water. It can help with sighting as well so you know what course you are on.

Gael23

I got one to one lessons and was told to breathe on both sides.

Stark

I find I pick up on technique problems sooner if I breathe on both sides

crosbie

Sometimes for triathlons it is better to breathe on on side - the clear side. If there are others beside you in the group breathe on the vacant side it may upset your rhythm slightly but it is better than missing a breath and depriving yourself of oxygen. But for training purposes it is better to breathe on both sides. http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Swimming/Open_water_as_art_242.html

Fluffybums

If you swim a lot try to breath on both sides, you exercise both sides of your neck. Also it makes for a more even stroke as a previous poster has already indicated.
If you reach into your stroke and relax it should come eventually, how long and how easy will depend on age, flexibility, fitness and stress (if you crry it in your shoulders, speak from personal experience). If you haven't been doing bilateral breathing up to now you will find it easier on one side than the other even if all of the other factors are in your favour.

TunaSaladBB

Definitely bilateral breathing. Breathing to one side is equivalent to going to a gym and doing one set of exercises with the right side of your body and another set of exercises with the left!

tunguska

Ok Bi-lateral breathing it is!! Thanks for the help lads.

Baluka

It is not necessary to Bilateral breath at all. There is a lot of misconception out there that breathing on alternate strokes keeps you balanced in the water. This simply is not true. Balance comes from the swimmers core and timing is more important in swimming than anything else. Holding your breath for 3-5 strokes will cause the body to go into oxygen debt during strenuous swims, thus building up lactic acid, causing the muscle to become fatigued. You will notice that very few if any competitive swimmers breath bilateraly. Work on your technique with a combination of strong rotation and a high elbow catch and you will find your swimming will come a long way. Best of luck.

crosbie

Baluka wrote: »

It is not necessary to Bilateral breath at all. There is a lot of misconception out there that breathing on alternate strokes keeps you balanced in the water. This simply is not true. Balance comes from the swimmers core and timing is more important in swimming than anything else. Holding your breath for 3-5 strokes will cause the body to go into oxygen debt during strenuous swims, thus building up lactic acid, causing the muscle to become fatigued. You will notice that very few if any competitive swimmers breath bilateraly. Work on your technique with a combination of strong rotation and a high elbow catch and you will find your swimming will come a long way. Best of luck.

Generally one sided breathing is used when racing, Phelps et al. But in general it is recommended to breath bi-laterally when training - but have to admit sometimes when I'm finishing a long set I do resort to single sided breathing. Usually it is easier to get a good body position/roll by breathing on both sides rather than on one side - when you are racing then you can breath every two strokes and reap the benefits!! Also some times breathing every 2 strokes will mean that all the breath is not exhaled before turning to breathe which means more time in the breathing position - as you have to breath out and in - which is not that hydrodynamic. In the end of the day it matters most that you are comfortable in the water so each to their own- but this is my 2 cents worth. :)

AngryHippie

main reason for bilateral breathing is to avoid an RSI in your neck, it doesn't change speed or balance much, but if your swimming big distances in training then you will end up with a cricky neck from it. Plus if you are open water swimming it can be useful to be able to breathe both sides to avoid getting swamped by waves if its on your usual side.

Rented Mule

crosbie wrote: »

Generally one sided breathing is used when racing, Phelps et al.

That's not necessarily true. It can be depending on the preference of each individual swimmer, but not by any means a hard, fast rule.

I was a competitive swimmer for nearly 20 years and never did like alternate breathing (when training or competing). It just didn't feel natural to me.

crosbie

Rented Mule wrote: »

That's not necessarily true. It can be depending on the preference of each individual swimmer, but not by any means a hard, fast rule.

I was a competitive swimmer for nearly 20 years and never did like alternate breathing (when training or competing). It just didn't feel natural to me.

Thats why I said ""GENERALLY"" as in usually but NOT always!!!

rebel girl 15

when i was doing my swim teacher training, we were told that it was more a matter of comfort for the swimmer, which ever they felt more comfortable doing. I take the points regarding open water swimming, that bilateral breathing is better.

daemon1

My technique suffers when I breath to one side and on every second but I do find it is easier to get out more lengths. So technique breath every third(changing sides) endurance perhaps speed every second.

Gael23

Maybe its to evenly stretch your neck muscles? If you only breathe on one side, you are only flexing your neck one way.

tunguska

daemon1 wrote: »

My technique suffers when I breath to one side and on every second but I do find it is easier to get out more lengths. So technique breath every third(changing sides) endurance perhaps speed every second.

Yeah this is spot on. I can breath on both sides if Im just plodding along in the pool but if I was racing I find it next to impossible to breath on both sides and take a breath every 3 strokes.
Doing a tri-athlon at the end of may and Im a little concerned about the open water swimming. A lot of people are saying you need to be able to breath on both sides in open water races. I dont think I could pull that off and race so will it be ok to just breath on one side, will I get away with that?

Killgore Trout

tunguska wrote: »

A lot of people are saying you need to be able to breath on both sides in open water races. I dont think I could pull that off and race so will it be ok to just breath on one side, will I get away with that?

Those people are talking rubbish!

I breathe to one side and have competed in loads of open water swims and a few tris and train in OW regularly. it's not like i'm wishing 50% of the time i could breathe on the other side. At least half of the OW swimmers i know only breathe to one side.

Yes - depending on the course you can either be at an advantage or disadvantage depending on which way you breathe - or this can change on sections of a swim.

urban cowboy

Started back swimming 3 years ago and was taught at first to breath to one side only. I found that I was getting a creak in my neck and so decided to breath on both sides. It took a bit of getting used to, with the obvious drop in performance, but with perseverance I now believe I am a better swimmer for this change. I have seen other swimmers who have a far stronger stroke on one side were the majority of the work is done on one side. This pulls your body out of the straight line that you would like to be swimming. It also distorts your kicking because you are trying to correct your alignment. I have found that since I have started breathing on both sides that these issues have self corrected. Previously in training I had done different exercises such as kicking with a float or only swimming using one arm. The purpose of our coach getting us to do these exercises was to get us to focus on both sides of our bodies to do the work, which I know sounds obvious, but it wasn't until seeing others swim that I noticed.

Those points mentioned above are just my two cent on what worked best for me. I have seen plenty of other excellent swimmers who breath on one side only.
Depending on how well you can swim will depend on the effectiveness of breathing on both sides. Perhaps, if you are only learning to swim it may be difficult to breath on both sides and that once you have some level of competency it may be difficult to start and learn to breath on both sides.
I don't know, only that breathing on both sides works best for me.

tunguska

urban cowboy wrote: »

Started back swimming 3 years ago and was taught at first to breath to one side only. I found that I was getting a creak in my neck and so decided to breath on both sides. It took a bit of getting used to, with the obvious drop in performance, but with perseverance I now believe I am a better swimmer for this change. I have seen other swimmers who have a far stronger stroke on one side were the majority of the work is done on one side. This pulls your body out of the straight line that you would like to be swimming. It also distorts your kicking because you are trying to correct your alignment.


I did notice some stiffness in my neck recently..........I think I will try and breathe on both sides, but not until after this triathlon. Its at the end of may so I dont think I have time to change things around before then.

urban cowboy

Probably best to leave making any changes until after. Its good to be able and have it as a goal for then. At least then you can try it and see if it works for you. You'll have to stick at it though because it will fill strange for the first while. When you think of the amount of times that you have breathe to one side it can take some time before breathing on both sides will come at ease.


Hoping to do a triathlon myself this summer. Was meant to do one last year but it didn't come off. I did however do a few OW swims. The spotting aspect of it is a bit of a challenge. I found that if I didn't look up often enough I would be way off course which can be pretty annoying. Will be going for my first OW swim this weekend so its going to be the first thing that I concentrate on. Kinda looking forward to it...

AngryHippie

It'll take 5-6 weeks to get comfortable with bi-lateral breathing, and another 4-5 weeks to get efficient at it, so make your changes in the off season would be my advice on that one, Its of most benefit in training, so do it there, not before a competition though. You'll get slower before it is of any benefit.

Clseeper

As can be seen from the number of posts in this thread, this is and will always be a hot topic.

My thoughts on this are that when teach beginners, teach them to breath bi-laterally. It's easier for a swimmer to develop the habit early on rather than trying to change their habit later. As AngryHippie pointed out: it takes, on average, up to 6 weeks of concious effort to change a persons habit. If the swimmer has difficultly breathing to one side, I let them continue with uni-lateral breathing.

You have to be able to adapt your teaching and points to the individual swimmer. A coach/teacher won tbe half as effective if they just force everyone to conform to their idea of a perfect swim. You must be able to adapt to the swimmers eccentricities in their strokes. For example there are numerous swimmers on the world stage who still recover with straight arm on frontcrawl.

If you warm up correctly and supplement your swimming with a well designed land program, you should be ok from an injury.