I got an email today about bilateral breathing and the more I read it, the more it got me thinking. I do 99% of my breathing on the right side. In fact at last weekend's OW swim, the bouys were all left turns and the only time I made a concious effort to breathe to that side was around the turns (mainly to stretch my neck a bit at a point that made sense.)
After reading this blog as well as some other stuff, I might be convinced to make an efffort to breathe left for longer periods. Has anyone else trained themselves to breathe on their "bad" side and did you see any unexpected improvments like this guy did in his blog? www.feelforthewater.com/.../joel-uses-his-bad-side-to-come-good.html I realze that breathing every 3 strokes makes sense to keep balanced, but what about completely switching sides?
I am a dominant left-side breather. The first open water 10k I did, I started getting pain in my neck from always turning to the left, so I started breathing a bit to my right. I was drafting someone and I noticed when I'd breath to my right for a few strokes (mostly to relive the pain in my neck), I would unexpectedly get up closer on them, so perhaps I was moving faster.
I try to breath bilaterally as often as I can, and I'm fairly comfortable doing so over short distances, but as soon as I start to fatigue, it's always back to breathing only on my left.
I haven't really ever timed myself by doing repeats breathing to one side then to the other to see if one way is faster. This post just inspired me to do so though! Thanks for posting it!
I'm Interested in hearing what others have to say about the subject.
I am a dominant left-side breather. The first open water 10k I did, I started getting pain in my neck from always turning to the left, so I started breathing a bit to my right. I was drafting someone and I noticed when I'd breath to my right for a few strokes (mostly to relive the pain in my neck), I would unexpectedly get up closer on them, so perhaps I was moving faster.
I try to breath bilaterally as often as I can, and I'm fairly comfortable doing so over short distances, but as soon as I start to fatigue, it's always back to breathing only on my left.
I haven't really ever timed myself by doing repeats breathing to one side then to the other to see if one way is faster. This post just inspired me to do so though! Thanks for posting it!
I'm Interested in hearing what others have to say about the subject.
