{"id":164055,"date":"2018-03-29T07:40:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T07:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=164055"},"modified":"2018-04-04T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T10:51:08","slug":"3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies featuring cyclists, rowers and runners show that small but signi\ufb01cant improvements are possible. Let\u2019s check out three exercises that will help you get there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about belly breathing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The secret weapon in breathing efficiency is belly breathing, the ability to recruit your diaphragm to push as much air in and out of your lungs as possible. A lot of time spent sitting hunched in front of a TV or computer can make your diaphragm weaker and promotes shallow chest breathing. That\u2019s why you will have to practice sending your breath to your belly to expand the abdomen and exercise the diaphragm muscle.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/use><\/svg>\"catching-breath-himalayan-race-will-literally-take-breath-away\"\/<\/a><\/div>
\n Outdoor\/Mountain<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n

Catching Breath: A Himalayan Race That Will Literally Take Your Breath Away<\/span><\/h3>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>\n<\/div>\n

#1 Three in, three out<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You should do this basic exercise off the bike, to get used to how proper belly breathing feels before you try it while riding. Research shows that if you\u2019re able to get your breathing down to about 10 breaths a minute, you will notice the benefits. Doing this exercise for a couple of minutes every day will help you get there. You can practice anywhere, at home, on the bus, or at work.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The goal is to exhale for three seconds and then inhale for three seconds.
\n\u2022 Lay your hands on your sternum, the top of your abdomen, to feel your stomach as you try to push it out with each inhale, and suck it in with each exhale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

#2 Pedal stroke breath counting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Being able to control your breathing on the bike, especially in rough terrain or while climbing, can be challenging. Counting your breaths to the rhythm of your pedal strokes can help bring your focus back to breathing. It\u2019s best to try it first on a home trainer or a flat familiar course. Settle into a cadence of 90-95 rpms in a moderate gear and breathe like this:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Inhale for 3 down-strokes, letting the air in naturally without force.
\n\u2022 Exhale for 6 down-strokes, forcing the air out with an audible \u201csss\u201d. Focus on pressing your belly muscles towards your spine on each exhale.
\n\u2022 Change the number of pedal strokes based on terrain and your lung capacity, but always assign more strokes to the exhale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

#3 Altitude breathing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first two exercises are aimed at helping you learn belly breathing on and off the bike. This third one is great for going beyond. This exercise simulates training at an altitude of 2,000 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Walk at a normal pace. Exhale, hold the breath and walk 10 steps.
\n\u2022 Breathe normally for 2-3 steps.
\n\u2022 Exhale, hold the breath and walk 15 steps. Repeat and increase the steps by 5 until you reach 50.<\/p>\n

You can do a similar exercise on a bike, counting to your pedal strokes.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ride at a moderate pace with a cadence of about 90 rpms.
\n\u2022 Inhale for 2 strokes, hold your breath for 2 strokes, and exhale for 4 strokes.
\n\u2022 If this results in shallow breathing, adjust the \u201c2,2,4\u201d pattern to \u201c4,4,8\u201d or even higher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":164058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[1845,1846],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-164055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-training","tag-breathing","tag-breathing-techniques"],"yoast_head":"\n3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-29T07:40:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-04T10:51:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WeLoveCycling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-29T07:40:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-04T10:51:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling","og_description":"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2018-03-29T07:40:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-04-04T10:51:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"WeLoveCycling","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/","name":"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp","datePublished":"2018-03-29T07:40:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-04T10:51:08+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"To most athletes, learning to breathe sounds like a waste of time. But what if training the breathing muscles could improve your performance? Studies","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/03\/profimedia-0147339966-1.webp","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/03\/29\/3-breathing-techniques-learn-cycling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"3 Breathing Techniques You Should Learn for Cycling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164055"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164128,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164055\/revisions\/164128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164055"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=164055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}