Does anyone have an advice or inpit for building up your lungs? I am trying to hold my breath for longer periods after reading an article about it but it seems like I should be doing more. I want to get better before I actually join the group in my area.
Parents
Former Member
I agree with a lot of what has been written here, but I will say that breath control training is a crucial part of my swim training. What I have found is by doing breathing patterns (one example: breathe every 7,5,3,1 and repeat this over and over) trains my body to use the existing oxygen it has and to train on less oxygen. Over time, my brain and all other components get accustomed to my swimming with less oxygen, but there is a hitch. The principle behind this is be able to do such sets and to stop before that strangulation feeling sets in; if you go too far and are oxygen deprived, it works to hinder this process. So the key is to do such sets and throw in several strokes of breathing every stroke to recover a bit before starting a breating pattern again.
What you will find is a set like above will become very easy, so you do more difficult sets like 11, 9, 7, 5, 3. This is a process, but it comes about pretty quickly; you will see much improvement in a week or two. Three weeks ago, I was doing a sprint drill, different than the above example, but basically 10 strokes ez, 10 strokes fast. and I could only do this for about 100 yards. Today I went 900 yards doing this sprint drill. Our bodies are great engines; we just have to train them and they can still be trained at all ages.
I have many other breathing patterns I use, but the one above is a good example to train your body to swim with limited oxygen.
Donna
I agree with a lot of what has been written here, but I will say that breath control training is a crucial part of my swim training. What I have found is by doing breathing patterns (one example: breathe every 7,5,3,1 and repeat this over and over) trains my body to use the existing oxygen it has and to train on less oxygen. Over time, my brain and all other components get accustomed to my swimming with less oxygen, but there is a hitch. The principle behind this is be able to do such sets and to stop before that strangulation feeling sets in; if you go too far and are oxygen deprived, it works to hinder this process. So the key is to do such sets and throw in several strokes of breathing every stroke to recover a bit before starting a breating pattern again.
What you will find is a set like above will become very easy, so you do more difficult sets like 11, 9, 7, 5, 3. This is a process, but it comes about pretty quickly; you will see much improvement in a week or two. Three weeks ago, I was doing a sprint drill, different than the above example, but basically 10 strokes ez, 10 strokes fast. and I could only do this for about 100 yards. Today I went 900 yards doing this sprint drill. Our bodies are great engines; we just have to train them and they can still be trained at all ages.
I have many other breathing patterns I use, but the one above is a good example to train your body to swim with limited oxygen.
Donna
