Proper Breathing While Swimming In An Olympic Pool

Swimming is a good aerobic form of exercise and it tones your body without stressing your joints. Longer swims sessions burn more calories and improve your heart and lung health, but you need good technique to keep from exhausting yourself in the first few laps you attempt. Learning how to breathe properly is as important as mastering stroke mechanics.

Olympic Pool Swimming

Competition or Olympic pools measure 50 m in length. Long-course setups align the swimming lanes along the length of the pool. You swim two 50 m lengths to complete one full lap, or 100 m. To swim a mile, you complete 32 lengths, 16 laps or 1,600 m. Competition pools usually are equally deep at both ends of the pool, and feature gutters and lane lines designed to minimize water turbulence.

Breathing for Endurance

When you first swim in an Olympic pool, you might feel like you will not make it to the far end. Swimming freestyle for 50 m, without breathing regularly, tires you out and interrupts your stroke. Lap swimming differs in intensity depending on whether you want to swim fast or at a moderate pace. Any pace workout depends on getting oxygen into your system to fuel muscle and heart function.

Mechanics

Breathing on both sides of a freestyle stroke keeps you balanced, so practicing it from the start is important, says Terry Laughlin, head coach of Total Immersion Swimming, in a Speedo Tip-of-the-week article, appearing on the USA Swimming website. In another article titled titled "Freestyle Breathing Mechanics," Laughlin explains that you blow out air through your mouth and nose while your head is underwater, starting as soon as you finish inhaling a breath. Holding your breath is a bad idea at any time during the stroke, advises Laughlin. When you breathe every third stroke, simply blow out the air gradually, timing the last forceful exhale just before you take a breath of fresh air above the surface of the water.

Body And Head Position

Rather than turning your head to lift it above the surface of the water, roll your entire body in the direction you breathe, so that your neck and head remains aligned with your torso. Laughlin advises swimmers to keep their head from bobbing around in the water during the stroke cycle. Lifting your head higher to take a breath causes drag and makes your hips sink deeper in the water, interfering with your streamlined position and slowing you down.

Considerations

Hypoxic training originated in the early 1980s, and though studies disproved its benefits, swim teams still engage in the practice today, says Terry Laughlin. Hypoxic training deliberately deprives you of oxygen while you engage in strenuous swimming. Coaches might instruct swimmers to complete laps breathing every three, then five and then seven strokes, to train for race conditions. High-intensity breath control leads to dangerous situations for mature swimmers who might already have high blood pressure, though. Masters swimmer Dr. Paul Hutinger, recounts his hemorrhagic stroke following a high-intensity breath control set and advices swimmers to keep their blood pressure under control.