Concept2 Forum

Is there a 'right ' way to breathe whilst rowing. I breathe in on my catch and out on the drive but as the session gets more intense I end up all over the place. Is there some sort of technique I can practice to improve my training. Thanks

That's the fundamental pattern. At lower effort that's all you need. At higher effort you need to squeeze in another full breath on recovery, but as long as you have your lungs full and breathe out on the drive the rest is whatever works for you. It is a slightly asymmetrical pattern so takes some getting used to.

Some of us breath in on the drive - uncompressing during the drive expands my abdomen naturally (as a diaphram breather) so it's as it's max capacity at the finish.

But for most folks whenever they chose to put the breath in/out one translates from 1:1 breath per stroke to 3:2 to 2:1; and you can practice that translation.

One of the youtube rowers suggests all people should breath 2:1 at all times if that is what you do under "stress" conditions so that it is not something you have to think about - I just end up lighthead if I do it though!

I breathe out on recovery to help compression, start the drive and push out rest of the air at finish, then take a deep breath. Kind of 1 1/2 breaths per stroke, if you like. I don't think about it, but I assume it's the same pattern on hard workouts as well.

Different for me, i breath in at the end of the drive and out during the recovery.

At higher intensity 2 breaths per stroke: breathe out at catch and finish of stroke.