Breathing is just breathing. It’s automatic and easy right?

Wrong.

Lots of people struggle to get their breathing balanced and feeling good whilst running.

I thought I’d give you some insight into breathing and human movement which should help you to breathe a little easier whilst running.

I’m going to base this blog on my own experience with patients as well as what I learned from an excellent research paper by Monica A. Daley, Dennis M. Bramble & David R. Carrier. I’ll reference it at the end.

Things you need to know about breathing so you can understand how to breathe better when you run:

• Animals including humans link their breathing with physical movements. This is known as Locomotor Respiratory Coupling.

• 2 rhythmical movements/activities become phase locked.

• For example two rhythmical movements - breathing and walking/running can become phase locked/coupled because of their physical and neurological interaction.

• In this context it means that the same number of steps occur with each breath.

• Locomotor respiratory coupling has been observed in dogs, birds, hares, horses, wallabies and humans (interesting but not essential fact for you)

• Locomotor respiratory coupling reduces the amount of energy we expend on breathing.

• Coupling breathing and movement in this way decreases complications and conflict in the muscles which are involved in both of the coupled actions.

• In other words it streamlines the two activities. It allows us to move our upper body around as we run and it optimises the free movement of our soft tissues to assist with pumping air in and out.

Key point: the movement of running is coupled to the movement of breathing.

But how many steps should you take per breath?

Humans have quite a range of stride to breath ratios (more than animals that walk on four legs, walking on 2 legs may give us more flexibility to vary our ratio):

• 2:1

• 2.5:1

• 3:1

• 4:1

The optimal stride to breath ratio for running is 2:1.

Why?

• If you take a step at the extreme of your lung volume i.e when your lungs are completely empty or completely full; you conflict with the mechanics of what’s happening in your breathing.

• In other words this is the opposite of the efficiency and ease which is gained by coupling the breathing and running together.

• Taking a stride at the extreme of an in breath or out breath jarrs the two movements.

• So.

• Instead if you aim for the 2:1 ratio, this happens:

  • The first foot strike assists ‘ventilatory transition’ (the shift from an in breath to an out breath or vice versa)

  • The second foot strike happens when the lungs are half full/empty which doesn’t jarr with the mechanics of breathing.

  • So the effects of your steps on breathing are either assistive or neutral and not jarring.

  • All in all a comfortable place to be!

So if you find yourself getting a stitch or in a pickle with your breathing try to take two steps for every in breath and you should start to feel more comfortable.

The content of this blog was influenced by:

Daley MA, Bramble DM, Carrier DR (2013) Impact Loading and Locomotor-Respiratory Coordination Significantly Influence Breathing Dynamics in Running Humans. PLoS ONE 8(8): e70752. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070752

The content of this blog is copyright of Holly Elliott registered osteopath trading as Helping Hands Health 15a Clayton Road, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4RP.