How To Breathe Properly While Running

You’ve just started running, and you’re already breathless. Is that normal, or could it be your poor breathing technique?

Your VO2 max and inter-muscular oxygen efficiency will increase as you become fitter. Breathing while running will become easier with time. But if you’re serious about running, you should learn proper breathing. You’ll likely be astounded by how much more enjoyable your run becomes!

Table of Contents

Benefits of Proper Breathing When Running

Proper running breathwork improves performance and keeps you from running out of breath. The heart rate naturally elevates during exercise. The heart pumps in response to breath; when we inhale, the heart slows down, and the body registers an increased level of carbon dioxide. This causes the nervous system to call for an uptick in breath rate to clear carbon dioxide. An exhale breath occurs.⁽¹⁾

When you breathe well, you increase your VO2 max. It’s the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in at any time. It measures energy efficiency and overall fitness.⁽²⁾  You can affect our heart rate with your breath, both physically and emotionally.⁽³⁾

This blog post shares some of the most popular breathing exercises for running.

How To Breathe Properly While Running

Nose Breathing Versus Mouth Breathing

The most economical choice is to Inhale through your nose and exhale out your mouth! While you may breathe quickly through your mouth during a sprint, it’s generally advisable to try breathing with your nose and mouth because inhaling through the mouth can lead to hyperventilation. Up to 40% of runners experience exercise-induced dyspnoea (hyperventilation during running)⁽⁵⁾. 

Breathing through the nose while running carries several positives. Some great reasons to breathe through your nose are:

• Your nasal microbiome cleans the air before it reaches your lungs.
• Nasal breathing during exercise may cause reduced BR, reduced hypocapnia, and increased nitric oxide production (which reduces oxygen flow).⁽⁶⁾
• Breathing through your nose has been shown to increase diaphragmatic function.⁽⁷⁾
• Studies report favorable performance effects from nasal breath, such as decreased respiratory exchange ratio, VO2 max, and increased running economy and time to exhaustion.^{(8, 9)}

Learning to breathe with your nose takes time. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it takes ten to twelve weeks of focused nasal breathing while running for it to feel comfortable and habitual.⁽¹¹⁾ Set a goal, and stick to it!

Belly Breathing Versus Chest Breathing

The benefits of abdominal breathing are extensive and scientifically supported. See our blog post about yoga breathing for more information on belly breathing benefits. Deep belly breathing is a much more efficient technique because it uses the entire capacity of the lungs. The air you breathe in also travels down to the lower portion of your lungs and stays there longer. This increases your oxygen uptake.

However, belly breathing requires a relaxed core, which is ill-advised (and nearly impossible) to do while running. At high intensities, diaphragmatic breathing will result in less cardiac output, as the diaphragm and assisting muscles fatigue.⁽¹²⁾ Shallow chest breathing is also antithetical to increasing VO2 max. So, your job as the runner is to find a sweet spot between belly and chest breathing, where your lungs fill to their optimal capacity for the run.

We recommend practicing belly breathing as a warm-up, cool-down, or for respiratory health training. 

How to Breathe With Your Belly

1. Lie down on the floor or your sofa and place your hands or a light book on your stomach. Relax your stomach completely.
2. Breathe in and out deeply and consciously. Watch the book rise when you breathe in and fall as you breathe out.
3. Focus on trying to exhale all the air out of your lungs. Inhale very slowly and very deeply, without using your shoulders or neck. With a little practice, belly breathing will become automatic and feel completely natural.