Breathing Through The Nose or The Mouth

Why would you want to limit your breathing through 2 straw holes?

Josh McDougal sure looked like he was breathing through his mouth during the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The guy is an aerobic monster, so he can probably breathe easier than most in racing situations. He seems to cruise through many of his races because, let's face it, there aren't that many runners who can challenge him. But when he's racing Bairu and Solinsky, I sort of think he breathes hard through his nose and mouth, just like every one else. That's just my observation, but I would love more firsthand accounts of his breathing from true racing situations.

My college biology professor once said, breathing through your nose is better for three reasons: better filtering, nasal passages heats the air, and more air to your lungs.

I thoughts about this and tried to only breathe through my nose on an easy run. It was difficult, so I asked my professor about it a few days later. He explained you can take deeper breathes through your nose, but beathing through your mouth brings air more quickly to your lungs - thus explaining the natural mouth breathing during running.

Why would you want to limit your breathing through 2 straw holes?

You college biology professor subscribes to three old myths. I can't believe they let these people teach.

You cannot take deeper breaths through your nose. The "depth" of breath is limited by the volume of your lungs. Any air that remains in your nasal cavity or mouth does absolutely nothing for you. It must reach your lungs to do any good.

Path of least resistance.

The mouth is a bigger orifice, and being closer to the lungs, the airway is shorter and less friction results.

The only real drawback is that, unlike the nose which acts as a filter, you are expiring more of your body's vital H20 into the air.

MarathonMind wrote:

Path of least resistance.

The mouth is a bigger orifice, and being closer to the lungs, the airway is shorter and less friction results.

[quote]

I never disputed that breathing through the mouth is the way to go. Yes it is the most direct path. It is also the only path that allows you to take in adequate volume. But a better indication is that that is how every elite in the world does it. It matters little what someone thinks they saw in a photo of Bekele once. They breath through their mouths, just as everyone does naturally.

[quote]

The only real drawback is that, unlike the nose which acts as a filter, you are expiring more of your body's vital H20 into the air.

No you are not.

Arkady Renko wrote:

You college biology professor subscribes to three old myths. I can't believe they let these people teach.

You cannot take deeper breaths through your nose. The "depth" of breath is limited by the volume of your lungs. Any air that remains in your nasal cavity or mouth does absolutely nothing for you. It must reach your lungs to do any good.

And, what have you added to this discussion: absolutely nothing. You comment does advocate one way or the other. In fact, it appears you may not favor breathing at all.

i can't remember who said it but they said "breath through your mouth and your nose and your ears and your eyes if you can!" lydiard perhaps? but i think the point is just because you're breathing through your mouth doesn't mean that you're not breathing through your nose as well. the whole point is to get as much O2 to the lungs as possible and you can only do that by breathing through as many orfices as you can :)

Depends on where you live. Most people south of the Mason-Dixon line prefer the mouth-breathing technique, but this practice is much less pervasive in northern climes...A-YUK-A-YUK-A-YUK-YUK!!!

I've heard that nose-breathing helps slow heart rate via parasympathetic nervous system modulation, but I'm not sure how this apples in exercise states or whether this would even be desirable.

I don't know a signel person for whom it is natural to not mouth-breate while running hard. That is an iddicator.

anti-bob wrote:

And, what have you added to this discussion: absolutely nothing. You comment does advocate one way or the other. In fact, it appears you may not favor breathing at all.

Well, I might favor YOU not breathing at all, but that's another matter...

I need not "advocate" anything. If you run and don't think about it, you are going to breathe through your MOUTH, just as every other runner has since runners have been running.

What I have "added" to this discussion is a common-sense counter to common myths about some imagined benefit of breathing through your nose while running.

Arkady Renko wrote:

Well, I might favor YOU not breathing at all, but that's another matter...

I need not "advocate" anything. If you run and don't think about it, you are going to breathe through your MOUTH, just as every other runner has since runners have been running.

What I have "added" to this discussion is a common-sense counter to common myths about some imagined benefit of breathing through your nose while running.

Well genius, you have not countered two of the "myths": better filtering and warming of the air. In order to counter something, you must provide more than something that can be taken as opinion. And, it is evident in my first post that the third myth was clarified with differences of running versus not running.

Again, you have added nothing that was not already stated by others in this thread.

anti-bob wrote:

Well genius, you have not countered two of the "myths": better filtering and warming of the air.

Better filtering of what? Are you coughing when you run? Have your lungs ever frozen over during a run? These are both complete non-issues and are backed up in this thread by.... nothing.

In order to counter something, you must provide more than something that can be taken as opinion.

Unless of course, you are countering what amounts opinion in the first place. Have you shown us any evidence of this? Nope. All they need is some simple common sense which you clearly lack.

Again, you have added nothing that was not already stated by others in this thread.

you mean what was stated by others AFTER me. The original poster threw out someone's opinion. With zippo to back it up. I thew out what should be common sense to illustrate how silly it is. And there we stand. I have contributed exactly what the original poster did.

Looks like you have contributed least of all.

Can you breathe through the mouth and nose at the same time?