Question for sprinters/ long distance runners?

Question

Ok, so I am a soccer player and I have pre-season coming up, and I have been doing a lot of sprinting/ long distance running to prepare. When I run for a long time my muscles don't wear out and my body does not feel tired, but I have to stop because my breathing gets messed up. Does anybody know of any breathing exercises that will allow me to workout longer without loosing my breath so easily and increase oxygen flow? I know its sort of a weird question but I have been doing hard-core workouts for like 4 months now and I'm still having trouble breathing. (And I'm not like over weight or anything (I'm 5 feet tall and 85 pounds, mostly muscle, so i'm not out of shape), and I do not have asthma, and I have been a big runner all my life and have not run into this problem until now) Pleasee help

Answer 1

You may be suffering from overtraining.  Overtraining can occur if you have not trained properly and your body basically starts getting in worse shape.  That is worse case scenerio.

Best case, is that you are just working to close to your maximum.  Try working out at 75-80%. This will help you increase your VO2 max.  You can still have some good anaerobic exercise, but make sure that you do proper rest ratios.  

Good Luck!

Answer 2

you have to build up your lungs. If you have been running for a long time, you should have seen some improvement from the start. If not, and it is really bad you could have asthma, but probably not. Try calming and breathing in a rhythm. You should not be taking short shallow gasping or panting breaths. Inhale deeply and exhale slowly in a in-out calm pattern. If it gets out of control try holding a breath for a second and then letting it out in a controlled fashion. Counting 1-2 (in) 3-4 (out) in your head helps me.

Answer 3

in through nose out through mouth

Answer 4

You don't give enough information to give a good answer.  But assuming that you don't have anything medically wrong, then it seems like you are saying you run out of breath on longer runs and have to stop because you are panting so hard.  What that says to me is that you are running too fast.  Your long distance running pace should not be the same as your 500 meter sprint pace.   A good rule of thumb for a long run, say 2 miles and up, is to run with someone else and keep chatting throughout the run.  If you can chat, then you are running at a pace which you can keep up for a long long time.  Once you have established that pace, then you can experiment with even longer runs and with faster pacing.

Answer 5

I have problems with the oxygen too. My lungs burn but what really helps is taking REALLY deep breaths while I'm running. If you keep that up it will make your lungs stronger.

Answer 6

for distance runs, you should sync your breathing with your steps. For example, easy runs should be run with a 2-2 breath method, as in you take 2 steps breathing in, 2 steps breathing out (left right - breathe in, left right - breathe out). For more moderately paced running, when 2-2 doesn't suffice, switch to 2-1 breathing (left - breathe in, right left - breath out or vice versa). You should be pulling 180 steps/minute as a normal runner, so these breathing techniques should be okay.

however, if you are stopping midway during your workouts because of breathing problems unrelated to medical issues, it usually can be a sign of over-training, which is not what you want. Basically, over-training will lead to burn out and fatigue, and most of all sub-par performance during your season (mainly because you worked way too hard during pre-season). The key for pre-season is to get you into shape - and by over training, you are setting yourself up to future injury and burnout.

Try the breathing techniques when you run, and see if that helps - otherwise you probably need to work out/run less and rest more often. You may feel like you're not over-training, because most athletes can't feel it until its too late.