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
Jeff,
I, as of tomorrow, will spend more time realizing what actually happens when I breathe on the left. I know my right arm, non-breathing arm, is probably traveling across my centerline so I will be more focused on it. I normally swim in a completely straight line, even in ocean current/tide, when breathing on my right side.
I've just spent so much time on this, a year so far, but obviously not enough focused time. But I sure am starting to think that a lot of it is because my head won't turn left far enough yet.
I know when I do breath control sets, I always make sure they are odd-numbered which forces me to left side breathe. I guess I have a lot more work to do on this problem; I want it fixed!!!!! The seeing spots and dizziness really needs to go away.
Donna
Jeff,
I, as of tomorrow, will spend more time realizing what actually happens when I breathe on the left. I know my right arm, non-breathing arm, is probably traveling across my centerline so I will be more focused on it. I normally swim in a completely straight line, even in ocean current/tide, when breathing on my right side.
I've just spent so much time on this, a year so far, but obviously not enough focused time. But I sure am starting to think that a lot of it is because my head won't turn left far enough yet.
I know when I do breath control sets, I always make sure they are odd-numbered which forces me to left side breathe. I guess I have a lot more work to do on this problem; I want it fixed!!!!! The seeing spots and dizziness really needs to go away.
Donna
