I have been a right side breather for over 50 years. Last year, I tried for a full year to breathe on the left but encountered a lot of problems and I am a patient person when learning something new/different.
Here are the problems:When I breathe on the left: I get a headache quickly; also, I get extremely dizzy, and finally, I start seeing spots optically. I also don't swim straight which I am famous for doing and that is because my non-breathing arm is probably traveling to the left.
I can breathe on the left for about 10 to 20 strokes before these problems start occurring. Today, after I came home from swim training, I started thinking about why all this is. The one thing I did do was, as I was sitting, was I turned my head to the right and my chin goes beyond my shoulder. I tried this to the left and it wasn't even close to my shoulder. So now I am thinking that muscles/tendons in my neck are not lengthened and flexible when turning it to the left thereby the problems I may be encountering when I try to breathe to the left.
So, if anyone has any ideas, or knows of any exercises I could implement to get my neck to turn to the left, let me know. I truly don't think that swimming 19 miles breathing only to the right is the way to go; it may even cause me to abort the swim.
Breathing to the left is almost impossible because once my vision starts to go, I get nauseaous. Ideas?
Donna
Parents
Former Member
Bilateral breathing why worry. I have done it, I use it when teaching, if you have trouble swim a couple of lengths then revert to breathing on one side. It is a great stroke balancer but I never used it in a race except to occasionally glance at the swimmers on my right side. I breathe on the left side.
I have seen a lot of triathletes who use bilateral breathing but I like my air every 2nd stroke not every three strokes.
Bilateral breathing why worry. I have done it, I use it when teaching, if you have trouble swim a couple of lengths then revert to breathing on one side. It is a great stroke balancer but I never used it in a race except to occasionally glance at the swimmers on my right side. I breathe on the left side.
I have seen a lot of triathletes who use bilateral breathing but I like my air every 2nd stroke not every three strokes.