How Do You Improve Breathing Technique When Swimming? | GTN Coach's Corner

How can I improve my breathing technique when swimming, feel nauseous from consuming too many carbohydrates, deal with aero helmets with poor ventilation and sweat, calf injuries due to training, and manage nutrition in an Ironman. All this in today’s Coach's Corner.

0:00 Welcome to #gtncoachescorner
0:52 Breathing problems in the pool
3:14 Feeling nauseous from consuming carbohydrates
4:55 Aero helmet is too hot / insufficient ventilation
7:33 Calf injuries due to heavy training
9:59 Nutrition issues in Ironman

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Remember to ask us all your questions using the hashtag #gtncoachescorner 👇

[Some-Guy-]

What helped me as an older person learning to freestyle properly was using a snorkel to focus on everything BUT breathing. Once I got my stroke, core and kick sorted, I started spending more and more time each session without the snorkel focusing on breathing.

[robohippy]

For the person who is having problems with breathing efficiently while swimming, how often do you breathe? They used to teach that you should breathe on every 3rd stroke. I was never able to do that for more than 100 yards. Virtually all men, more so in distance swimming, will breathe ever other arm stroke. In the 100 meter sprint, some will breathe on every 4th stroke. This works for 100 meters because you don't go into serious oxygen debt. If you do go into oxygen debt, it is almost impossible to catch back up. If you are not comfortable in the water, an old exercise I did as a kid was called bobbing. Being 6 foot tall, ideal water depth was about 8 foot. Think of doing jumping jacks in the water. So, going down to the bottom of the pool, arms go from your side to stream line above your head as you exhale. On the way back up, you pull your arms down, and of course, inhale as you reach the top of the water. I would come out of the water maybe 2 feet or so. This helps establish a rhythm which is crucial for swimming. Hope that makes sense. If you are anxious or tense in the water, you will burn far more oxygen. I am a swimmer only, and suggest you get at least 2 days in the pool or open water per week. Extra practice will make you more comfortable in the water.

[GDubyah]

I am only about three months into swimming (~30 year old male), and it took probably a month of 2 sessions per week before I got the breathing down. Probably another couple weeks after that before I felt fully comfortable breathing in the pool. My form is still horrendous, and I often turn my head too far while breathing still, but no longer inhaling water or struggling to breathe. I found a lot of videos online to be "too advanced" even when they were targeting beginner breathing.

[RobertPender]

Every single question and answer relevant to me 😂

It's like the video was made for all my gripes

Thank you GTN ❤

[TryTri]

I guess I should change my nickname to something more easy to pronounce. Sorry about that! 😂Thanks for answering my question! This gives me great peace of mind. I was already planning on dialing it back down towards 90 g/h on the bike for the next race and 60-75 g/h on the run. I'm already mixing gels and an energy cake (6D).

[point]

Zeiss anti-fog spray works amazingly for steaming-up glasses (and probably for your helmet visor too)

[johnalves]

I use the "GUTR" in the winter for indoor training.

[sebastianschreiber]

In the past you recommended to slap some aero bars road bikes when getting into tri more seriously. But many modern bikes have carbon aero handle bars, where nothing non-propertiary can be slapped on. For example Canyon only offers a propertiary aero setup for some aeroad models and some gravel bikes.

How to you recommend upgrading road bike setups these days?
I personally as a bike newbie I don't like the 2nd Hand Market as I cant tell which bikes are still of value.

#gtncoachescorner

[AeroComfyTri]

#askgtncoachescorner can you suggest any dry land stretches and exercises to help elbow/arm flexibility to aid getting my pull then catch right? I struggle to bend the arm during the stroke, i think its a flexibility issue

[niklaslloyd]

Hey #gtncoachescorner sorry for yet another heart rate question but I am a little bit confused about my alleged max heart rate. I actually do high intensity run sessions multiple times a week since I am prepping for sprint and olympic triathlons. However, even though I am running at my limit, my heart rate always settles in at 160 to max. 169 bpm which of course compared to what you see by other athletes is rather low for high intensity or max efforts. My Garmin tells me my max heart rate is 190 bpm but the only time I ever tracked that was right after T2 of my last sprint triathlon race and there the HR immediatly dropped after a few minutes into the run to the numbers mentioned before. As a result, in training I do not come close to my Z4 and Z5 numbers. I've done sports almost all 24 years of my life, I know what lactate or threshold or my limit feels like it just does not show in my heart rate. So who is wrong? My body/feeling or the max heart rate given by the famous "220-age" calculations and my Garmin? I would appreciate some help so much because honestly I do not have the money to do proper lab testing to get my true numbers

[inz_uzi]

Mark says 100 g of carbs per hour is more than enough. I consume 120 g per hour on every training session. Am I doing something wrong? 🤔
I rarely have any issues. I only experience any problems when it's really hot I need to drink a lot. Then my stomach can't handle a lot of water and a lot of sugar at the same time.

[Edward-bnvw]

I want Edd The Duck to appear from under that countertop.

[Mini-Me]

I'm finding It hard to actually turn my body to breathe in freestyle.

[HansRudbeckDahl]

Solving the problem: Try out different helmets, who can do that in actual life, not in the I am a GTN presenter life?

[johnalves]

I use the "GUTR" in the winter for indoor training.