Let the oxygen come in of its own accord but try to control the breath out to some extent.Be conscious of breathing smoothly and with rhythm from the first beep (not just when your breathing rate starts to climb).There are only 2 points I want you to be conscious of in relation to breathing: If you attempt to slow the rate at which the breath comes in you risk ‘running out of petrol’ by not getting the oxygen to the working muscles quickly enough. You must provide the fuel or the engine will stop, end of story. Let me ask you this, how much oxygen could you get into the lungs quickly by breathing through your nose when compared with breathing through your mouth and nose? Breathing through your nose alone during intense exercise in an attempt to slow the breathing rate down will simply cause oxygen debt and you will stop. When you’re exercising at a low intensity there may be a small benefit in breathing through the nose as some may suggest, however, it is simply not practical to breathe in through your nose alone during intense activity. Stopping is your body’s way of reducing the workload which in turn reduces the demand for oxygen which in turn allows the body to return to a normal resting level. If you interfere with the process too much, oxygen debt will occur and you will have to stop. You will not be able to maintain a set time for individual breaths or any set ratio to any great degree.
Once the pace picks up so will the demand for oxygen and therefore the rate of breathing. You will only be able to maintain an even in/out ratio in the very early stages of the beep test because of the low demand for oxygen. I do not want you to get distracted by breathing. Let Me Give You A Quick Tip At This Point This is done by creating a smooth rhythmical pattern. Strategy to be efficient, you need to breathe efficiently. But, in relation to the breathing, I don’t believe there is any ‘secret technique!’Ĭontrolling your breathing during the beep test starts at the first beep. If your beep test training program is structured correctly, your body will adapt to the training and become more efficient at responding to the demands of the beep test. The body also responds by increasing the flow of oxygen to working muscles (the breathing rate increases). As the workload increases the body responds by increasing blood flow to the working muscles (the heart rate increases). It is the same as your car’s engine needing more petrol as you drive faster. Of course as the intensity of exercise increases so does the demand for fuel (blood and oxygen).
There are four stages of a full cycle of breath: What I will say on breathing though is that there is an opportunity, like every other aspect of your beep test performance, to improve efficiency and trim some ‘fat’. Increased breathing is a consequence of increased workload. Having said that, I also believe it’s an area that people focus on too much and often complicate unnecessarily.Ī regular comment I get from people is “I just have trouble breathing and get so puffed I can’t keep going”. Breathing is an important part of exercising in any format and it is an area I’m often asked about.