Mouth breathing Vs nose breathing? Pros /cons?

Very important topic. Right up there with:

All that discussion about losing .01 seconds at the start of a distance race by not being in blocks.

Or, heel striker vs. forefoot striker.

Or, trying to justify 1-a-day workouts vs. 2-a-days.

Or, Breath-rite strips.

or, the signifacance of Max VO2

so many, so little time.

For endurance events, you simply cannot inhale the necessary volume of oxygen through your nose alone.

I tend to agree that you get more oxygen if you breathe through both your mouth and nose, however, the one con of mouth breathing (outside anyway) is the chance of swallowing a bug....which I've done more times than I care to. This tends to shut my run down completely for a few minutes as I hack it up and try not to vomit. So in the long run, nose breathing would have been more efficient in those situations.

breathing through your nose will keep you calm, bring the oxygen to your lower lungs (where it needs to go), as well as warm and filter the air

too much mouth breathing will engage fight or flight response which will elevate cortisol, which can be a good thing in the short term. you just better make sure you fully recover as chronically high cortisol levels are not what you want to have if you care about your performance

try to breathe through your nose as much as possible. practice on your easy runs. be persistent with it. many elites, sub 14 5K guys breathe mostly through their nose.

yung j wrote:

breathing through your nose will keep you calm, bring the oxygen to your lower lungs (where it needs to go), as well as warm and filter the air

too much mouth breathing will engage fight or flight response which will elevate cortisol, which can be a good thing in the short term. you just better make sure you fully recover as chronically high cortisol levels are not what you want to have if you care about your performance

try to breathe through your nose as much as possible. practice on your easy runs. be persistent with it. many elites, sub 14 5K guys breathe mostly through their nose.

I've heard much of this before but please tell me how your lungs know whether the O2 came in through the nose or the mouth? It all goes down the trachea to the bronchus , to the bronchioles/alveoli. Also, can you please point to research that says most sub 14 5k guys breath through their nose. Personally, if you can pull O2 in through your eyes, ears and ass you probably should. Regardless of where we get it, we don't use all of it no matter what rate we are running at.

No, it does not all get to the alveoli. Mouth breathing, or "shallow" breathing is called SHALLOW for a reason - specifically a large portion of oxygen does not get to the deeper regions of the lungs. Simple as that. Do the research. Don't worry it won't take long because outside of letsrun, this is not even debated.

No, I cannot point to research that says MOST sub 14 5K guys breath through their nose, but then again, why would I need to? I didn't say "most" I said "many"

The problem here is your reading comprehension. What I said: MANY elites...MOSTLY through their nose isn't the same as saying MOST elites breathe through their nose.

Do you understand the difference or do you need a lesson in language in addition to the cardiovascular lesson you just got?

Please tell me where the Oxygen is absorbed if not through the alveoli? Perhaps you read this in the same book that says we can drink oxygenated water and improve performance. Is there a difference between deep and shallow breathing? Yes, it has to do with full lung aeration, the use of the diaphragm, intercostal and shoulder girdle. Belly breathing etc. The nose is beneficial in warming, filtering and regulating moisture. It may act to moderate intensity by restricting the O2. The narrowness of the nasal cavity prevents maximum intake of O2. Regardless, as I previously mentioned, we don't use about 20-25% of the O2 we take in anyway. Read a basic antomy and physiology book then get back to us.

Guess you told him. It's all bullshit, but I guess you told him.

Benefits of Nose Breathing & Nitric Oxide

Did you know that breathing through the nose creates an avenue of air that is:

•moisturized,

•humidified

•and even somewhat filtered?

Furthermore, when we breathe through our nose, the air passing through the nasal airway and contacting the turbinates — shelf-like bony structures — is slowed down. This allows the proper mixing of the air with an amazing gas produced in the nasal sinuses called nitric oxide (NO).

Nitric oxide is secreted into the nasal passages and is inhaled through the nose. It is a potent vasodilator (dilatation of the blood vessels), and in the lungs it enhances the uptake of oxygen. NO is also produced in the walls of blood vessels and is critical to all organs in the body.

Dr Oz, if you give him any credit, also noted in one of his books this nitric oxide effect. He stated that marathoners breathed through their noses. First I heard of it, still don't know if any of it is true, but it is being said out there.

I've run sub 14 in the 5K and most of my breathing was through my mouth, as is most(all) of the others in the race

yung j wrote:

I've heard much of this before but please tell me how your lungs know whether the O2 came in through the nose or the mouth? It all goes down the trachea to the bronchus , to the bronchioles/alveoli. Also, can you please point to research that says most sub 14 5k guys breath through their nose. Personally, if you can pull O2 in through your eyes, ears and ass you probably should. Regardless of where we get it, we don't use all of it no matter what rate we are running at.

No, it does not all get to the alveoli. Mouth breathing, or "shallow" breathing is called SHALLOW for a reason - specifically a large portion of oxygen does not get to the deeper regions of the lungs. Simple as that. Do the research. Don't worry it won't take long because outside of letsrun, this is not even debated.

No, I cannot point to research that says MOST sub 14 5K guys breath through their nose, but then again, why would I need to? I didn't say "most" I said "many"

The problem here is your reading comprehension. What I said: MANY elites...MOSTLY through their nose isn't the same as saying MOST elites breathe through their nose.

Do you understand the difference or do you need a lesson in language in addition to the cardiovascular lesson you just got?[/quote]

Oh my goodness! Talk about someone who needs a lesson in human anatomy and physiology!

I'vw also heard this crap before. "Breath through your nose" Only non-runners talk this kind of nonsense.

scottdye wrote:

Benefits of Nose Breathing & Nitric Oxide

Did you know that breathing through the nose creates an avenue of air that is:

•moisturized,

•humidified

Aren't those the same thing?

As a guy who breathes through his nose during all runs from easy to all out (it took like 3 weeks for it to become subconcious and feel normal), I feel pretty relaxed mentally and in control of my breathing and form even when my body howls in pain; however, I am not sure if it actually increased performance as much as increasing my quality and quantity of mileage and doing doubles and staying consistent has. I'd say stick to what works for you and concentrate on other things known to help you run fast?

Once again, outside of Letsrun this topic is not even debated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_breathing

What I have observed with my own breathing on easy runs is that I mouth breathe, but often realize I'm shutting off my nasal passages - when I start breathing both mouth and nose, I'm obviously getting more air. So why doesn't it happen naturally to breathe through both air passages at once? Perhaps I'm just an anomaly?

Both. Just relax.

Great reference. Did you write that up just before posting the link? Zero references cited on the page. Written in the style of opinion rather than factual, research supported information.

yung j wrote:

Once again, outside of Letsrun this topic is not even debated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_breathing

Once again, is it the preferred method of breathing? Yes. Why? Humidify the air, warm the air, some filtering ability, and serve to moderate the intensity of exertion. In other words, prevent us from over-exerting ourselves. On exhalation, the nose is designed to prevent water loss.

But, elite athletes are not sitting on a couch or walking slowly from place to place. A 12:55 5000m runner is over exerting themselves! Look at the evidence. Show me video of elite athletes running any distance events while running with their mouths closed. Why do some elites wear nasal strips? Increase size of the nasal cavity. ASk any elite how they breathe and most would have to think for a moment before telling you through a combination of mout and nose.

I can tell you that restricting exhalation, breathing out through pursed lips or better yet, puffed cheeks, has been shown to increase CO2/O2 exchange at teh alveolar level. Costill referred to this in his landmark text.

In 1985, while testing swimmers in the lab at Southern CT State University, we measured many factors including lung capacity. As an aside, I was interested in testing Cerutty's Full Lung Aeration principles. Using elite Olympic swimmers, I used a spirometer to measure air intake using "normal breathing" technique, Belly breathing, and Cerutty's full lung method. We also compared nose vs. mouth vs a combination of the two.

Full use of intercostals, pusing out of the abdomen and raising the shoulder girdle produced the best results. Nose vs mouth vs combined affected the breathing rate but not the amount of inspired air.

I will admit that I was going to pursue the study as a part of my doctoral studies but stopped that pursuit. So are the results valid? That's up to the reader. But, I would not necessarily site Wikipedia as a viable scientific source.

Summary: I would concentrate more on the breathing mechanism and try to get as much air into it as possible, in any way I could. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth back side, like a frog through the skin, etc. But, just my opinion. Experiment yourself.