How does having big nostrils help you when you are running?

Question

How does having big nostrils help you when you are running?

Answer 1

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Having big nostrils, or more specifically, wide-open breathing pathways to your lungs, makes it easier for you to draw oxygen into your lungs and expel carbon dioxide.

Consider what happens when you breathe in:  your diaphragm, the muscle right under your lungs, contracts and "pulls" your lungs down, quickly decreasing the air pressure in your lungs, so air is drawn through your mouth and nose and trachea and through your bronchial tubes down to the bronchioles that comprise your lungs.  (The site and picture below can help you understand this a bit.)

If you have large nostrils, or a large breathing pathway, it's like having a huge pipe for pumping water out of a swimming pool.  More water flows through a huge pipe with less pressure than it does through a small pipe.

Similarly, with large nostrils and a wide-open breathing pathway, more oxygen can flow faster into your lungs with less effort than it takes for someone who has small nostrils, or a small breathing pathway, or a blocked breathing pathway.

Someone who doesn't have a wide open pathway has a harder time breathing!   Fortunately, there are 'breath strips' available which if they don't actually open nostrils do open the pathway through the nose and down the trachea into the bronchial tubes.

So, if you do have large nostrils, consider it to your advantage when you run!

Regards,

Running_Dad

Answer 2

you get more air

Answer 3

By letting more air in?