You must breathe in a rhythm that will allow oxygen to circulate in your body and that will ensure that enough oxygen is passed through to the muscles.
Depending on the type of running exercise that you are doing, the breathing pattern will differ.
If you are doing a short sprint, it is likely that you will inhale prior to the start of the race. (This is the 100m, 200m or 400m).
Once the race begins, you will exhale over 2-4 seconds.
It is likely that you will inhale for oxygen for every 10-20m that you cover in the race.
For middle and long-distance running events, you will need to gain a breathing pattern that will follow your running cadence.
The most common is 4 steps to inhale, 4 steps to exhale. As your cardiovascular strength increases, you will be able to increase this to 8 or even 10 steps for each inhale or exhale.
Don’t try to rush your breathing.
Don’t try to hold your breath for as long as possible.
What are some ways you can improve your breathing for running?
Do interval training or fartlek training. This will help to build your cardiovascular endurance and it will force you to breathe in a way that will allow your body to circulate the oxygen effectively to the muscles that you are using in your body.
