Nasal breathing increases red blood cell production?!?

the 72 hour rule wrote:

I'm currently building a base and my runs are now super relaxed and easy with heart rate around 135. I breath through my nose as an indicator of my exertion (if I have to open my mouth, I know I'm running too hard).

So that is the reason I avoid breathing through my mouth, but additionally I have also heard from various people that:

Nasal breathing during exercise creates a lower oxygen environment partially mimicking exercise at high altitudes with adaptive changes such as improved mitochondrial function and increased red blood cell production.

That that pure mooseshit or what?

From what I know most altitude benefits are chronic, from living there. They don't accrue from training at altitude, hence the whole "live high, train low".

Nasal breathing is healthier for you, and for your face, but I doubt it's good specifically for training. The keeping runs chyll, at like 65% or so of HRmax though is excellent.

One of my favorite LR threads was this kid whose dad was coaching them and the dad was convinced that breathing through your nose was better for you. It was a super long thread. Eventually we got the dad's explanation, which was that horses breathe through their nose so it must be best. Then someone told them that horses aren't really capable of breathing through their mouth so it's a terrible explanation. I think the kids stopped training that way eventually.

My high school coach used to tell us to breathe through our nose once per lap every race to "clear out our respiratory system" or something like that, and I always hated it and stopped doing it eventually.

Now I'm an adult so I breathe how I like and I can even eat dessert for breakfast if I want to.

I think it's hogwash but who knows.

I've tried this recently, just to test it out and I think it does, but it's a much weaker version of altitude training. I breathed solely through my nose from July through October except for workouts. Some of these runs were around 6:50, but most were 7:30 or so. The week I started breathing through my mouth again I ran all my runs easily at 6:30 pace, including a 17 miler and my weekly tempo dropped from 5:35 pace to 5:25 pace, feeling like the only limiter was turnover (I was doing strides the whole time). The next week? A terrible race. The next? A great race. I feel like some of it is mental and some of it is just your lungs being used to less oxygen while running and when all of a sudden, they have as much as they want, they function better until they're used to it again.

This is an experiment of n = 1. Take it with a grain of salt. This season I'm trying it again, but I'm gonna plan that one week of mouth breathing with an important race to "peak" with mouth breathing.

If none of the above is true, at the very least, breathing through your nose is proven to have a relaxing affect on you.

If anything, nasal breathing will help you keep your easy paces honest. You cannot breathe as much air as you can through your mouth, so you're forced to run at a very economical pace without going anywhere near anaerobic. So that's a great way to run your recovery, easy, and long runs, etc.

Also, your nose hairs act as a filter that the mouth lacks. I currently live in a metropolitan area that has much more air pollution than the rural countryside where I used to run, and breathing through my nose has helped filter a lot of the junk during my runs.

Small particulate matter in the air can make its way down into the lungs, which will pretty much stay there until you die. With the aid of nasal breathing, you can eliminate a fraction of it which will help you run better for a longer time.

There's a lot of benefits for nasal breathing, but for hard efforts you're best results will come from mouth breathing.

the 72 hour rule wrote:

I'm currently building a base and my runs are now super relaxed and easy with heart rate around 135. I breath through my nose as an indicator of my exertion (if I have to open my mouth, I know I'm running too hard).

So that is the reason I avoid breathing through my mouth, but additionally I have also heard from various people that:

Nasal breathing during exercise creates a lower oxygen environment partially mimicking exercise at high altitudes with adaptive changes such as improved mitochondrial function and increased red blood cell production.

That that pure mooseshit or what?

The former...

What is your evidence that breathing through the nose is healthier?

Luv2Run wrote:

LM wrote:

From what I know most altitude benefits are chronic, from living there. They don't accrue from training at altitude, hence the whole "live high, train low".

Nasal breathing is healthier for you, and for your face, but I doubt it's good specifically for training. The keeping runs chyll, at like 65% or so of HRmax though is excellent.

What is your evidence that breathing through the nose is healthier?

Why are you so against this? Everytime it comes up, you shut it down. Is it worse than mouth breathing?

Yes it is a fact. I do the same since I’ve read that book as it explains it quite well.

https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-scientifically-breathing-revolutionise/dp/0349406693/ref=asc_df_0349406693/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312734685832&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15986060624028080953&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012544&hvtargid=pla-491892972942&psc=1

Sure. And while we are at it, the most efficient training is doing 40x200 while holding your breath. This creates the type of hypoxia available only under water or in space. Your body starts pumping out red blood cells like crazy.

Healthier for..."your face"? Wtf? Dude, please stop handing out black pearls.

Luv2Run wrote:

the 72 hour rule wrote:

I'm currently building a base and my runs are now super relaxed and easy with heart rate around 135. I breath through my nose as an indicator of my exertion (if I have to open my mouth, I know I'm running too hard).

So that is the reason I avoid breathing through my mouth, but additionally I have also heard from various people that:

Nasal breathing during exercise creates a lower oxygen environment partially mimicking exercise at high altitudes with adaptive changes such as improved mitochondrial function and increased red blood cell production.

That that pure mooseshit or what?

The former...

The latter

Any updates to your experiments with nostril breathing?

Any updates to your experiments with nostril breathing?

Kipchoge breathes through his mouth, so if ya wanna be better than him, breathe through yer nose.

I breathe through my a$$hole while i'm typing on letsrun. I consider it cross training.