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
Wow, I had no idea I was not alone in this problem. My main concern is I am starting to find that at the 4 mile mark while breathing only on the right side, my neck is getting a tad stiff and if I am to complete an 18 mile swim, I am concerned this could become a problem and cause me to abort the swim due to fatigued neck. I am not looking for problems, but just trying to cover as many bases as possible during this long training journey.
There are no chiropractors here, barely one doctor, so I can't go that route but I appreciate the suggestion.
When I breathe on the left people say it looks just as natural as on the right. But it sure doesn't feel very good. It seems I have to rotate close to 90 degrees from horizontal to get a good breath because my head seems so not flexible.
But I guess I'll work on this problem for yet another year to see if I can get more comfortable with it. And I do think I am fully exhaling because I take a big breath, but will, starting tomorrow, take another look at it and how it feels to make sure I am doing on the left what I normally do on the right.
And if anyone has any suggestions regardless of how unique they may sound, send them this way. I thought I would mention that I breathe every single stroke, always have on anything over a 400. If I can keep oxygen in my body, I just don't go into much body or limb failure at all. Ongoing intaking of oxygen is like gasoline in a car for me.
Donna
Wow, I had no idea I was not alone in this problem. My main concern is I am starting to find that at the 4 mile mark while breathing only on the right side, my neck is getting a tad stiff and if I am to complete an 18 mile swim, I am concerned this could become a problem and cause me to abort the swim due to fatigued neck. I am not looking for problems, but just trying to cover as many bases as possible during this long training journey.
There are no chiropractors here, barely one doctor, so I can't go that route but I appreciate the suggestion.
When I breathe on the left people say it looks just as natural as on the right. But it sure doesn't feel very good. It seems I have to rotate close to 90 degrees from horizontal to get a good breath because my head seems so not flexible.
But I guess I'll work on this problem for yet another year to see if I can get more comfortable with it. And I do think I am fully exhaling because I take a big breath, but will, starting tomorrow, take another look at it and how it feels to make sure I am doing on the left what I normally do on the right.
And if anyone has any suggestions regardless of how unique they may sound, send them this way. I thought I would mention that I breathe every single stroke, always have on anything over a 400. If I can keep oxygen in my body, I just don't go into much body or limb failure at all. Ongoing intaking of oxygen is like gasoline in a car for me.
Donna
