Do you ever think about or notice how you are breathing? Take a minute to stop, be quiet, and be aware of your breathing. Notice what parts of your body move when you breath and how often you breathe.
Supporting you and your family to SMILE when you ride.
Breathing
Breathing is often overlooked as something we can improve… as it is just happens automatically There are complex systems within our body that automatically determine and alter our breathing to meet the needs and demands of the body. Those needs are dependent on and affected by multiple things, most commonly they are altered by your type and level of your activity. However, we do have some control over how we breathe. We can help our bodies to breathe in a relaxed and efficient way.
Breathing & Your Riding
How do we achieve efficient breathing while on the bike? Breathing efficiently while on the bike is achieved through riding in a good body position. A position where you are relaxed and carrying minimal tension.
Riding position: The A riding position allows your diaphragm and the rib muscles to work efficiently to increase the size of your chest allowing good airflow and thus oxygen into your lungs and body. Your body struggles to achieve this efficient breathing if you are in the rounded back position, you carry tension across your upper body with your shoulders elevated. Let me prove my point with a little exercise for you to try.
Exercise:
Either sitting or standing;
- Pull your shoulders up towards your ears and slouch through your mid back (a humped shape), now try and take in a deep breath – hard nearly impossible? This is what you ask your body to do when you ride in a rounded back position.
- Relax your shoulders, sit tall, engage your core, now take a breath – so much easier and yes so much easier when on the bike in your correct “A” riding position.
Slouched, humped back
Relaxed shoulders, straight back
2. Core Control: You need to have good core control to be able to achieve and maintain the “A” riding position. Remember good core control allows us to relax our arms and legs. To achieve efficient breathing you need to have good core control to relax your arms, to have soft elbows (they should not be locked) and empty those hands. You do not want to carry tension through your arms or hands. If there is tension in your hands and arms there is tension in your chest and your breathing pattern will be compromised.
One of the key ways to determine if you are using your core well and whether you arms are loose is being aware of how heavily you lean on you arms on the handlebars. In your riding position you should be able to effectively remove your hands from the handlebars. Your arms should not be working to prop you up. If you are leaning heavily on your arms, or the palms of your hands get sore on your handlebar grips, it is a sure sign that your core muscles are not working efficiently.
Good relaxed “C” shaped elbows
Locked “V” shaped elbows
Use core strength to ensure your arms are not propping you up
Why is it important?
The importance of good efficient breathing goes well beyond the bike. There are many benefits to efficient breathing. Efficient breathing helps reduce the demands of an activity, helps centre and focus us, help reduce anxiety and engage our senses. All things that will allow us to enjoy and grow as a rider as well as positively influence other aspects of our lives.
Whether you are a beginner or experienced rider, improving your breathing on the bike has benefits for us all. Those benefits go well beyond the bike to our everyday activities.
Note: You can do some training off the bike to help teach your body and brain about how to breathe efficiently. There are many resources to help you achieve this. A few suggestions include; videos and information online, Pilates, Tai chi, Yoga. To help you in your search you may find that it is often called diaphragmatic breathing.
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