The best way to breathe while running is to inhale and exhale using both your nose and mouth combined. Breathing through both the mouth and the nose will keep your breathing steady and engage your diaphragm for maximum oxygen intake. It also allows you to expel carbon dioxide quickly.
Most runners breathe through a combination of nose and mouth breathing, but research suggests that nose breathing—inhaling through your nose and out through your mouth—can bring more oxygen to your brain and your muscles. Your nostrils also filter allergens and add moisture to that inhaled air.
This is called "exercise-induced bronchoconstriction" or EIB—also known as exercise-induced asthma. Trying to exercise can feel almost hopeless when you're struggling to breathe. However, with proper management, prevention and modifications, even people with EIB should be able to exercise their way to better health.
When you are running and witness shortness of breath adjust your pace, to catch your breath. Slow down between your running sessions for 1 or 2 minutes till your breathing goes back to normal. If you have just started running do not get over-excited and increase your pace.
2. While running, you should be breathing through your nose and mouth. “Inhaling through your mouth is key because it brings in more oxygen than your nose,” McCann says. “Forcing breath in through your nose can also create tightness in your jaw and facial muscles, and tension is never good for running.
Run with your mouth closed as much as you can. When the air hunger is too strong, switch to mouth breathing. In six to ten weeks, air hunger diminishes the more you exercise with your mouth closed. This translates into reduced ventilation for a given intensity and for the duration of physical exercise.
If you are like most exercisers, you breathe through your mouth, especially as the intensity of the exercise mounts. But experts are learning that breathing through the mouth may not be as efficient or effective as breathing through the nose.
EIB is caused by the loss of heat, water or both from the airways during exercise when quickly breathing in air that is drier than what is already in the body. Symptoms typically appear within a few minutes after you start exercising and may continue for 10 to 15 minutes after you finish your workout.
It can take 4 to 6 weeks to notice changes in your aerobic ability and for the actual training effect being felt.
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth is usually the best approach for cardio and strength activities, and it can drastically improve your overall performance. Your body needs oxygen to perform, but it's also working harder during these movements, so exhaling through the mouth is advised.
But rest assured, for beginner runners, breathing while exercising will naturally get easier. As you keep improving as a runner, your muscles will become more efficient in using oxygen, which in turn will mean your lungs won't need to work as hard.
This is called exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, or EIB. Symptoms of EIB—shortness of breath, tight chest, coughing, decreased endurance, or sore throat—typically appear within a few minutes after exercise begins, and continue for a short period after the workout concludes.
Daily Training
A daily breath training practice will help you not only enhance awareness of your breathing patterns, but also train your breath so that it will eventually, naturally be through your nose for the rest of the day.
With that said, most new runners can expect running to feel easier after about three months or once they have built up to 30 minutes of continuous running.
When you are physically active, your heart and lungs work harder to supply the additional oxygen your muscles demand. Just like regular exercise makes your muscles stronger, it also makes your lungs and heart stronger.
You will have stronger legs from running
If you are new to running, you might be surprised by how quickly you start to develop lean muscle in your legs and the speed at which you build endurance.
When you exercise, your sympathetic nervous system kicks in. The flow of saliva may increase but it also increases in thickness and stickiness. This is what can make it hard to swallow and drives runners to spit it out.
When exercising, the effort exerted on top of the existing irritation might cause the mucous membranes to “bleed just ever so slightly,” Miller said. “That blood can leak down into the back of your throat, eventually touching your taste buds on your tongue,” he said.
Breathing through your mouth can dry out your gums and the tissue that lines your mouth. This can change the natural bacteria in your mouth, leading to gum disease or tooth decay. Over long periods of time, mouth breathing can also lead to physical changes in children, such as: An elongated face.
Long term mouth breathing can lead to a myriad of oral issues including crowded teeth, cracked lips, caries (or cavities), gum disease and more. But the issues don't stop at the mouth. Mouth breathers are also more likely to experience digestive issues, chronic fatigue, morning headaches and sore throat.
While holding your breath the brain continues to signal your breathing muscles to contract, meaning that you are performing an isometric contraction during the breath hold. This increases the strength of these muscles, making them able to work harder with less effort.