Greetings,
I'm 53, been doing Crossfit for about 9 months. I decided to row on my days off (every 4th day). I've got my 5K time down to 19:42.8. I'm having trouble with breathing right. What's the key? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks, Dan
Breathing
Partly depends on stroke rate, and what you find natural.
At low rates, I take one breathe per stroke, very rhythmic. A relaxed, full inhale on the slide forward, and exhale during the drive.
At higher rates, I don't breathe as deep, but get a small breathe right at the finish, and take another deeper one moving to the catch.
With a more powerful drive, you buy a bit more time to breathe more deeply on the recovery.
At low rates, I take one breathe per stroke, very rhythmic. A relaxed, full inhale on the slide forward, and exhale during the drive.
At higher rates, I don't breathe as deep, but get a small breathe right at the finish, and take another deeper one moving to the catch.
With a more powerful drive, you buy a bit more time to breathe more deeply on the recovery.
Do your warm-ups, and cooldown, its not for you, its for your heart ! Live long, and row forever !
( C2 model A 1986 )
( C2 model A 1986 )
There have been a number of threads on breathing (I'll leave it for you to search them out), and the intro materials on the FAQ board digest some of them, but there are basically three general approaches when the pace is slow.
1. Ignore breathing and let your body breathe whenever it wants. There are those who seem to swear by that approach and can't understand why the rest of us even seem to want to think or talk about it. Since you're asking, you don't seem to be in that group. See #s 2 & 3.
2. Inhale on the drive (when you're pushing with your legs) and out on the recovery (when you're moving back up the slide to the catch). This one is taught by Xeno Muller, who notes that (a) this is not weightlifting, (b) you need to be able to compress your chest as you move into the catch, and you can't expand and compress your chest at the same time, and (c) you need to support your back/torso as you swing your back at the end of the drive, and an inflated chest helps you do that.
3. Exhale on the drive and inhale on the recovery. The pitch here seems to be that (a) an expanded chest at the catch will help you stabilize your core against the pressure of the drive, (b) this will also feel "natural" to weightlifters who have been taught to exhale on exertion. Paul Smith seems to be the most vocal proponent of this one.
When you are working harder, everyone seems to agree that the breathing "doubles up" at some point, but again there is some disagreement about exactly what that means:
Remembering that you should be aspiring to a time ratio of 1:2 (drive:recovery), one group describes doubling up as begin inhale as you begin the drive, then exhale, inhale, and then exhale into the catch on the recovery. The other group seems to focus on a complete inhale/exhale (or exhale/inhale) on the drive and then on the recovery.
Lots to think about and a lot of discussion has been had on same.
Let me know if you have trouble finding the threads.
Alissa
1. Ignore breathing and let your body breathe whenever it wants. There are those who seem to swear by that approach and can't understand why the rest of us even seem to want to think or talk about it. Since you're asking, you don't seem to be in that group. See #s 2 & 3.
2. Inhale on the drive (when you're pushing with your legs) and out on the recovery (when you're moving back up the slide to the catch). This one is taught by Xeno Muller, who notes that (a) this is not weightlifting, (b) you need to be able to compress your chest as you move into the catch, and you can't expand and compress your chest at the same time, and (c) you need to support your back/torso as you swing your back at the end of the drive, and an inflated chest helps you do that.
3. Exhale on the drive and inhale on the recovery. The pitch here seems to be that (a) an expanded chest at the catch will help you stabilize your core against the pressure of the drive, (b) this will also feel "natural" to weightlifters who have been taught to exhale on exertion. Paul Smith seems to be the most vocal proponent of this one.
When you are working harder, everyone seems to agree that the breathing "doubles up" at some point, but again there is some disagreement about exactly what that means:
Remembering that you should be aspiring to a time ratio of 1:2 (drive:recovery), one group describes doubling up as begin inhale as you begin the drive, then exhale, inhale, and then exhale into the catch on the recovery. The other group seems to focus on a complete inhale/exhale (or exhale/inhale) on the drive and then on the recovery.
Lots to think about and a lot of discussion has been had on same.
Let me know if you have trouble finding the threads.
Alissa