Myth #7: When it comes to getting oxygen in freestyle, breathing every cycle is as good as it gets.
In almost every other sport but swimming (freestyle, fly, breaststroke), we get the luxury of breathing whenever we want. Typically, with maximal exertion, that means we are inhaling at a respiratory rate of between 50 and 65 times per minute. Not so in swimming.
Most swimmers breathe every cycle and to one side only (a cycle is two arm strokes, or hand entry to hand entry). Since many swimmers turn their arms over slowly (say 35 to 55 strokes per minute), that means the respiratory rate while swimming is 18 to 28; hardly what one would do voluntarily, if one had the choice. (try running or biking with that respiratory rate and see how you do!)
But you do have a choice...sort of. First, you can learn to swim with a higher stroke rate and second, you can try a different breathing pattern. Specifically, I am referring to a 2:3 pattern rather than a 1:2 pattern of breathing. What that means in the Left Stroke Breath Right (LBR), Right Stroke Breathe Left (RBL) Left Stroke no breath (L), Right Stroke no breath (R) terminology is the following:
LBR, RBL, L, RBL, LBR, R, LBR, RBL, L etc
So, as is so common in swimming, this too presents compromise. What are the pros and cons?
Pros: You get 27% more oxygen than if you breathe every cycle, and with oxygen you'll produce 15 times more ATP than without it, and hopefully produce less lactate. You get the associated benefit of breathing more...less fatigue. You get to see the scenery on both sides of the lake or pool.
Cons: Most swimmers feel awkward breathing to their weak side. The act of breathing slows the stroke rate. Breathing often results in the arm being pulled too far under the body, creating more drag. In open water swims, if there is a nice swell on one side, breathing to that side may lead to swallowing more water.
So this begs the question, if this 2:3 pattern is so good, why aren’t world-class distance swimmers using it? A few have on occasion, like Kieren Perkins. It may be that it is yet an undiscovered technique...or, more likely, in the world of superbly conditioned, oxygen deprived distance swimmers, it may be that the cons outweigh the pros. But for this almost-60-year-old-not-so-superbly-conditioned swimmer, who enters an ocean swim once or twice a year and dislikes any pool race over 100 meters, I love the 2:3 pattern, especially on those long aerobic sets. And for those swimmers who dare to try it (and it takes some getting used to), you may not actually swim any faster than by breathing every cycle, but, barring swallowing more water, I'll bet you will feel a lot better afterward.
Gary Sr.
It would be fun* to stretch this rule to its limit by swimming illegal breaststroke in the freestyle leg of an IM or medley relay. "Didn't you see, I took two dolphin kicks during my pullout! It's not legal breaststroke so you can't DQ me! HA!"
* no it wouldn't
It would be fun* to stretch this rule to its limit by swimming illegal breaststroke in the freestyle leg of an IM or medley relay. "Didn't you see, I took two dolphin kicks during my pullout! It's not legal breaststroke so you can't DQ me! HA!"
* no it wouldn't
Except that you should get deeked because the rule says nothing about stroke, legal or otherwise, it does say 'in a medley relay or individual medley, freestyle is any style other than butterfly, backstroke or breaststroke'
So sorry, no dice :angel:
You may well be correct, my knowledge of physiology is superficial at best and certainly doesn't extend to a knowledge of the relative magnitudes of the various processes.
The wikipedia article on acidosis states:
Metabolic acidosis is compensated for in the lungs, as increased exhalation of carbon dioxide promptly shifts the buffering equation to reduce metabolic acid.
I am taking that out of the context of the article so I may be misconstruing it. I don't have Maglischo handy to check more thoroughly. Hopefully Billy or another person knowledgeable about physiology will chime in as your point about localized acidosis in muscles seems valid.
I believe this causes us to feel the imperative to breathe (and I think that is what Billy is getting at too). While CO2 increases will certainly lower pH somewhere, I don't know how that compares to lactic acid buildup in the muscles.
So I'm not sure how the CO2 factor by itself impairs muscle efficiency. I am pretty sure the pH decrease due to LA buildup is much bigger: I feel a LOT more muscle burn when I "go anaerobic" than when I do hypoxic sets, for example. I think Maglischo says something similar when dismissing hypoxic sets as a way to improve lactate tolerance.
I think you guys are trying too hard to figure out what to do. You do not have to replenish oxygen during a fifty and in a 100 you do not really need a lot more oxygen in the system. It is when you pass the one minute mark that you need to take in oxygen. In a fiifty you try to put out everything you have and it is a waste of time breathing. In the hundred there is almost no need to breath.
Once you get over the 100 race and swim a 200 you need to breathe on a regular basis.
I think you guys are trying too hard to figure out what to do. You do not have to replenish oxygen during a fifty and in a 100 you do not really need a lot more oxygen in the system. It is when you pass the one minute mark that you need to take in oxygen. In a fiifty you try to put out everything you have and it is a waste of time breathing. In the hundred there is almost no need to breath.
Once you get over the 100 race and swim a 200 you need to breathe on a regular basis.
Actually the max. for anaerobic only is no more than 40 sec,not 1 min.
It seems to me you can mitigate the negative effects of lower pH from lactic acid by hyperventilating before a race as that causes an elevation of blood pH by blowing off CO2.I have also tried hyperventilating after a race and believe it speeds recovery.Important safety hint,if you hyperventilate before a race you should still breath as you normally would for that race.Decreasing the initial CO2 decreases the perceived need to breath,not the actual need to breath and that's how people pass out trying to swim far underwater.
The amount of breathing (to a certain point, obviously) you do does not affect the amount of oxygen that will be used.
I wonder what that point is?
For example, it is pretty common nowadays is to breathe once per stroke cycle in both free and fly. But back when I was an age-grouper, we were strongly admonished (punished, actually) if we didn't breathe once every 3rd stroke in free, and once every other stroke in fly.
But nowadays this is usually seen as too conservative, that you need more oxygen than that. I wonder if that's BS.
If I userstand all this correctly the point is not that you don't need to breath so much as that the limiting factor is the rate at which you exhale CO2 rather than the rate you inhale oxygen. If you don't exhale enough CO2 your pH gets out of whack and decreases the efficiency of your muscles.
I believe this causes us to feel the imperative to breathe (and I think that is what Billy is getting at too). While CO2 increases will certainly lower pH somewhere, I don't know how that compares to lactic acid buildup in the muscles.
So I'm not sure how the CO2 factor by itself impairs muscle efficiency. I am pretty sure the pH decrease due to LA buildup is much bigger: I feel a LOT more muscle burn when I "go anaerobic" than when I do hypoxic sets, for example. I think Maglischo says something similar when dismissing hypoxic sets as a way to improve lactate tolerance.
.Decreasing the initial CO2 decreases the perceived need to breath,not the actual need to breath and that's how people pass out trying to swim far underwater.
Allen, that is why I don't do much hyperventilating when snorkeling. I am scared it will make me go deeper than I should. When you decrease your blood content of C02 (by hyperventilating) you will be able to go longer without the urge to breathe. However, you still need that minimum amount of oxygen to avoid hypoxia. A diver goes down and is doing okay till he goes up to almost surface level, then his lung and all his gases expand and all of a sudden that amount of oxygen, the partial pressure of it, was enough down below 9 or more feet, but now there isn't enough. Same applies to sudden lack of pressurization in aircraft. The higher you are, the less time you have. Around 40,000 feet it is a matter of seconds before you pass out. So where is the oxygen? It was okay because your partial pressure was at 6,000 feet, but at 40,000 you need lots more oxygen to allow cellular penetration. The acidosis cause by C02 retention is life threatening, different from lactosis which is a physiological process. billy fanstone
GHS....I posed your question to a number of coaches I know...this was an interesting response:
"This is entitled "Myth #7" ... as if it IS a myth. I have a couple problems with this hypothesis.
This article claims "27% more Oxygen". When you inhale, you use only a small percentage of the oxygen that is taken in. You exhale most of the Oxygen you inhale. 27% more Oxygen sure seems like an incredibly high number. I also question the emphasis or importance of "Oxygen" in this exercise process. However, the by-product to burning Oxygen as a fuel is Carbon Dioxide. CO2 is an "acid" just as is Lactic Acid (the by-product of the fuel source Glycogen). Both of these acids create a low PH in the blood and muscles that REDUCE muscle performance and thereby a reduction of Lactic Acid. With better ventilation of CO2, the swimmer will be able to tolerate more Lactic Acid and thereby maintain a higher level of intensity for a longer period of time. This article claims the more oxygen you take in, the less lactic acid is produced. These seem contradictory to me."
Thoughts?
Paul, read my post on this thread a little ways back. You inhale air with oxygen at 21% and exhale it at around 16%. C02 is a gas the product of H+C03-, which is the acid from your metabolic energy reaction. The offer of oxygen far surpasses its need. The problem is not the oxygen in your lung, but the speed you can use it at the cellular level and also how to transport it from lungs to tissues. We want to breathe because of C02 buildup, period, end, finito. You need more red blood cells, not more oxygen! That is the whole purpose of doping with EPO. The amount of breathing (to a certain point, obviously) you do does not affect the amount of oxygen that will be used. You don't need more air, you need more blood, more lung area and so forth. billy fanstone
If I userstand all this correctly the point is not that you don't need to breath so much as that the limiting factor is the rate at which you exhale CO2 rather than the rate you inhale oxygen. If you don't exhale enough CO2 your pH gets out of whack and decreases the efficiency of your muscles.
I wonder what that point is?
For example, it is pretty common nowadays is to breathe once per stroke cycle in both free and fly. But back when I was an age-grouper, we were strongly admonished (punished, actually) if we didn't breathe once every 3rd stroke in free, and once every other stroke in fly.
But nowadays this is usually seen as too conservative, that you need more oxygen than that. I wonder if that's BS.
