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
Hi Dorothy,
I sure wish that when I was 10 I had naturally learned to bilateral breathe. If I weren't going to try to do such a long swim, there would be no issue at all. The problem is I live on Roatan. Not only is there not a doctor who ever went to school, a massage therapist they have never heard of; this is Honduras island. Most of us fly to Tampa or Miami just to go to the dentist!!! I see black island girls saying they are massage therapists and all they do is slap on some oil and rub away on tourists; they have no clue!!
So what do you think about me doing stretching exercises and including some neck turn (slightly only) to length those tightened muscles/tendons? Sadly, I will say that the doctor on the island is also the vet and he has never been to any school. This is very typical of islands outside of the continental USA especially Central America!! This is why I go home for one month each year to shop and see doctors/dentists!!!
Any thoughts except to keep working on breathing on the left as much as I can?:dunno:
Hi Dorothy,
I sure wish that when I was 10 I had naturally learned to bilateral breathe. If I weren't going to try to do such a long swim, there would be no issue at all. The problem is I live on Roatan. Not only is there not a doctor who ever went to school, a massage therapist they have never heard of; this is Honduras island. Most of us fly to Tampa or Miami just to go to the dentist!!! I see black island girls saying they are massage therapists and all they do is slap on some oil and rub away on tourists; they have no clue!!
So what do you think about me doing stretching exercises and including some neck turn (slightly only) to length those tightened muscles/tendons? Sadly, I will say that the doctor on the island is also the vet and he has never been to any school. This is very typical of islands outside of the continental USA especially Central America!! This is why I go home for one month each year to shop and see doctors/dentists!!!
Any thoughts except to keep working on breathing on the left as much as I can?:dunno:
