Why am I Out Of Breath After 100m?

0:00 the Big Challenge athletes have when they come to swimming from either cycling or running they're already very fit and they say to me why am I so out of breath the thing to bear in mind here is it's not uncommon if you've come to Triathlon from a running or recycling background to find it's really difficult to learn how to swim swimming takes a long time to get good at and it doesn't reward the Run Andro the cyclist very well at all but the thing that I often saw when I was on pool deck more than anything I think that was difficult for very fit athletes from a a running or a recycling background was they'd get to the end of 25 meters or 50 MERS they'd be absolutely exhausted totally out of breath really breathing as though they'd done an absolute top full effort and

0:47 they couldn't believe how athletes in the lanes next to them who looked a lot less fit than them and arguably aerobically were a lot less fit than them how they managed to swim so well and so relaxed so again let me put this up on the screen as I talk it's a really great example and something to bed into your mind of watching a swimmer here that's really relaxed in the wat got a fantastic Rhythm fantastic breathing and they're going to be able to swim lengths and lengths and lengths kilometers without getting themselves really out of breath so the big challenge that we seem to find with athletes who come in from a running or from a cycling background is that they don't know how to breathe properly they're holding the the breath under the water and the breathing aspect

1:32 doesn't feel natural to them but the knock on of that is carbon dioxide builds up in the blood and it makes them feel as though they're really out of breath and it's not because they're unfit that they need to breathe in and out really quickly it's because they're not breathing out they're not clearing the carbon dioxide out of the body and it's the carbon dioxide buildup that drives that feeling of needing to breathe rather than as we imagine the lack of oxygen feeling that drives the need to breathe when recycling or you running you can breathe as often as you like and so it's tempting to think I need more oxygen so I have to breathe more and actually what's happening is is the buildup of carbon dioxide in your blood is driving that feeling of needing to breathe more hence in the pool after a very short period of time after maybe don't know 25 or 50 meters if you're not

2:20 breathing out fully into the water the carbon dioxide that builds up rapidly builds up in your blood and it sends that trigger to your brain that you need to breathe faster so a couple videos to show you here of athletes where this is this is a real problem for them so first up let's watch what happens here in an Ideal World what we're going to see is an athlete breathing out all the time into the water so we've got an athlete here who's taking a breath and what we'll see as they continue to swim is there's no sign of bubbles coming up either side of the head so this athlete is holding the breath they're holding the breath still at this point after a second stroke still holding the breath at this Point as we go for third stroke and then a fast exhalation here you can see the bubbles come out a quick snatch

3:06 of the head and a quick breath and the head goes down almost certainly what's happening in this athlete's blood is that the carbon dioxide is building up they're not able to clear all of that carbon dioxide because they're holding the breath for two strokes or more under the water and so they end up feeling really really out of breath and swimming feels really uncomfortable even for an athlete like this one who's very fit in terms of biking and in terms of running what we actually want to see will bring a much better example up onto the screen for you now the thing to focus on is how we've constantly got a stream of bubbles coming out of the nose and out of the mouth and they're exhaling all the time that the face is down into the water you'll really see this the moment the head turns up soon as it comes down

3:53 massive exhalation and it's a constant stream of Bubbles from the nose and the mouth so what we've got here is a situation where the carbon dioxide is not building up in the athletes blood it's not that they're not going to be out of breath but they're going to be a propriately out of breath the carbon dioxide will only build up relative to the um intensity of the exercise whereas with our our new athlete that we talked talked about that's come from a cycling or a running background when they hold the breath after 25 meters that's 30 seconds of holding the breath while exercising it's natural that we're going to get into a situation where that carbon dioxide builds up and they have the sense that they have to breathe and that's ultimately where we get to with this the reason that the athlete feels

4:39 that they're so unfit feels that they're so out of breath and if you stand on pull de you'll see athletes usually looking very fit but they get to the end their arms are on the side of the pool their head's down resting on the forearms they're really heaving breath in and out to try and get themselves the air that they need before they start the next repetition and it's not that they're unfit it's just that they haven't learned to breathe out into the water if this sounds like you I guarantee that by changing how much you breathe out as you go along what you'll find is you'll go from perhaps not being able to swim more than 50 mters to been able to swim continually like you would ride a bike or like you would run that sensation of I have to stop because I just can't swim anymore because I'm so

5:25 out of breath it'll go away completely and you'll be able to swim multiple length You' be able to swim for 10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes straight away but it's all down to continually exhaling out into the water and I'm going to leave us today with that image of a really clear swimmer who is getting all of the air out under the water not holding on to the breath and again I'm a really really big believer in this it doesn't have to be really complex just by watching video can make you a better swimmer if it embeds the idea in your head that what you need to do is something different to what you're doing at the moment if you are a person who feels they can't swim more than 25 or 50 meters at the moment I guarantee it's

6:10 almost certainly down to at least in part holding your breath while your face is under the water and if you can just practice breathing out into the water as we're seeing here with our swimmer you will guaranteed 100% be able to increase the amount of time that you can swim for without feeling the need to stop at the end of the length all right I hope you enjoyed that episode of the show to wrap this up here are some discount codes and deals for you at Precision Fuel and hydration. comom remember you can use the code oxygen 24 for 15% off your first electrolyte and fuel order that stuff's awesome try it I guarantee you won't be disappointed you can use the free Fuel and hydration planning tool as well over at Precision Fuel and hydration. comom and you'll receive personalized strategy for your next race

6:57 the planner helps you understand your own carbohydrate electrolyte and fluid needs so you can refine your strategies during training and you can then deliver on race day and you can also book a free onetoone video consultation with pf's athlete support team and i''ll be happy to help you nail your race nutrition plan helping you perform at your best on race day and also if you're looking for help and advice with your Triathlon training please head over to team oxygen addict.com I think we've got the most comprehensive Triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers please check us out there's a link in the show notes to book a call with us we can have a chat about you find out all about your background and what you want to achieve and I'm really confident we can help you get where you want to be dead Easy Link in the show notes or under this video

7:42 here you can book straight to our calendar and we can have a chat and see how we can best help you out so remember links in the show notes so you don't have to remember them until next week have a great safe training and racing week I'm coach Rob wilby and you've been listening to the oxygen addict podcast