Is running 800 meters a nightmare? Learn this trick to run easily

Recently, many universities have conducted physical examinations, and many college students would cough continuously after running 800 meters or 1000 meters.

In fact, coughing after running is related to improper breathing method.

1

Why do we cough after running?

When we run slowly, breathing through the nose can meet the body's need for oxygen. Breathing through the nose can help filter out dust and other particles in the air. When the temperature is low, it can heat the air and reduce the irritation of cold air to the trachea and lungs.

However, when we enter the acceleration stage, the two nostrils alone cannot meet the oxygen demand, so we need to breathe through the mouth. However, due to the cold and dry weather in autumn and winter, the cold and dry air directly enters the mouth, which will irritate our oral, throat and tracheal mucosa. The brain will judge that there is a foreign body invading the respiratory tract, so we will cough to expel the foreign body, so coughing after running is a normal reaction of our body.

Smart netizens might ask: If I don’t breathe through my mouth and use my nose the whole time, won’t I not cough?

Breathing only through your nose may indeed prevent you from coughing, but when you need to speed up, your body's oxygen intake will not be enough if you only breathe through your nose, and you will feel uncomfortable and unable to persist. Otherwise, you will just have to jog all the time and cannot speed up.

Whether to use the mouth or nose actually depends on the body's demand for oxygen, and there is no absolute standard. Therefore, it is not absolutely not to breathe through the mouth when running. After all, mouth breathing can increase our oxygen supply and increase our speed. What we need to learn is to breathe through the mouth correctly, rather than opening our mouths and letting the cold wind pour in mercilessly.

2

Learn abdominal breathing

When we breathe normally, we use chest breathing, mainly using the middle and upper parts of the lungs to breathe. When we inhale, the abdomen is lifted and becomes smaller; when we exhale, the abdomen is lowered and becomes larger. This breathing method will increase the burden on our lungs and heart. The lungs and heart must work harder to ensure adequate oxygen supply.

Abdominal breathing is simply "inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth". In contrast to chest breathing, during abdominal breathing, the abdomen bulges when inhaling and sinks when exhaling. The entire process is completed by the activity of the diaphragm. When inhaling, the diaphragm contracts and moves downward, and the chest muscles contract to expand the chest cavity. These actions expand the capacity of the chest cavity and draw air into the lungs, allowing the lungs to expand to the maximum extent and inhale air to the maximum extent, thereby increasing the amount of oxygen inhaled with each breath.

Other anatomical structures connected to the diaphragm Source: Effective Breathing Training: Functional Exercises for Dance, Yoga, and Pilates, Eric Franklin

If you can't find the feeling, you can put your hands on your abdomen, feel the resistance between your abdomen and hands when you inhale, and feel your hands sinking with your abdomen when you exhale.

If you feel breath-holding or difficulty breathing, keep breathing calmly, relax, and then do abdominal breathing.

Learn to use abdominal breathing when running, inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. This way, the cold air will not enter your mouth directly, and you can effectively avoid the trouble of coughing after running.

3

Advanced breathing - rhythmic breathing

If you have learned abdominal breathing and want to run faster and more easily, you can try rhythmic breathing.

Rhythmic breathing is based on abdominal breathing, but it innovates in rhythm. It believes that an odd-numbered breathing pattern should be adopted, that is, inhale once every three steps and exhale once every two steps, or inhale once every two steps and exhale once every one step.

When running, when our feet hit the ground at the beginning of exhalation, the strongest impact force is generated, and the body's stability is the worst at this time. If you use an even-numbered breathing pattern of two steps, one inhale, two steps, one exhale, or three steps, one inhale, three steps, one exhale, you always fall on the same foot when you exhale, and the impact force of the body is completely borne by the same foot, which can easily cause damage to the foot.

The odd-numbered breathing pattern advocated by rhythmic breathing allows us to exhale alternately when our left and right feet land, allowing the left and right feet to evenly bear the impact of the body.

Whether to inhale after three steps, exhale after two steps, or inhale after two steps and exhale after one step depends on our running state.

If you are running long distances or have no requirements for speed, you can take three steps to inhale, two steps to exhale, inhale when you count to 3, and exhale when you count to 2. If you are sprinting in a competition or need to speed up, you can take two steps to inhale, one step to exhale, inhale when you count to 2, and exhale when you count to 1.

Friends who are interested may wish to try it. Once you learn how to breathe, maybe 800/100 meters will no longer be a nightmare.

END

Source: Science Popularization China, Everyone is Serious-Tencent News

How to breathe while running

Effective breathing training: functional exercises of dance, yoga and Pilates

Compiled by: Dang Min

Editor: Guru