The number of times you should breathe while swimming in open water or the pool is determined by a number of factors, including the stroke you're using, your speed, and whether you're sprinting or swimming a long distance.
Many swimming styles provide triathlete swimmers the option of controlling when they breathe. In a freestyle, for example, swimmers may opt to breathe every second, third, fourth, or even more strokes.
The goal of most competitive swimmers and triathletes is to be the fastest in their wave. You can work up your muscles, perfect your stroke, and even shave your entire body, but if you ignore your breathing, you may never attain your full potential or capture your best race swim times.
Bad breathing makes swimming more difficult, adds resistance and exhausts your body. The more oxygen you provide your body, the better you will function.
This endurance training blog post is geared to educate new triathletes and even veteran swimmers on how breathing strategies can improve your swim pace and race experience.
Can the Way you Breathe Affect Your Speed?
Absolutely. Your breathing technique can significantly impact your swim pace. Your swimming technique, form, and breathing frequency can all have an impact on your speed.
Using effective breathing patterns can lead to stronger, fuller strokes and increase your distance per stroke in most cases.
Tips for Improving Your Swim Breathing Techniques
It takes time, patience, and dedication to improve your breathing technique. There are exercises, drills, strategies, and tips that will help you breathe more effectively and efficiently in the pool and in open water. You can be easily find videos of them on YouTube via Global Triathlon Network and Easy Speed Channels.
Top 3 focus areas to improve your breathing and swim speed:
Bilateral Breathing
Body Alignment
Don't hold your breath - exhale forcefully - know the bubble, bubble breathe song?
Triathlete Shoutout: Jasmin Rogers shaved 12 min off her best Olympic swim at Rev3 Williamsburg by working on her Tri Swim technique and breathing with a coach.
Become Familiar with Bilateral Breathing
When swimming freestyle, it's important to practice breathing on both sides of the body. This entails breathing in odd strokes and alternating which side you breathe on.
This is a crucial skill to master if you want to improve your performance in a swimming competition, triathlon pool swim and open water races.
A bilateral breathing pattern produces symmetrical and balanced strokes, making swimming in a straight line in open water easier.
It also teaches you to breathe comfortably on both sides, which is extremely useful if you face challenges like another triathlete splashing water in your face or the sun in your eyes during an open water competition.
How Often Should Triathletes Breathe When Swimming?
According to our coaches who are also age-group athletes, it is recommended that triathletes swimming in open water should take a full strong breath every 3 strokes or use a 2-2 pattern by alternating breathing sides every 2 strokes.
An improved swim pace is experienced by 8 out of 10 endurance swimmers and triathletes who practice bilateral breathing over time. Moreover, 10 out of 10 long distance swimmers and open water triathletes credit bilateral breathing for helping them deal with choppy waters and tired arms/shoulders.
Take Action Tip: To do a bilateral breathing pattern, make sure your inhale and exhale ratios are set to an "out-out-in" count. Regardless of the change, you should keep your breath moving and not hold it at any point.
One last thing: Some sprint triathlete athletes may choose to swim using unilateral breathing {breathing always on the same side or on even strokes}, but we strongly recommend incorporating bilateral breathing into your training to balance your strokes and avoid swimmers shoulder niggles by using the 2-2 method.