Do you exhale from mouth or nose?

by Terry Laughlin

Last week I received an email question about whether I exhale from my nose or mouth. That choice now comes so naturally to me that it’s no longer something I do consciously while swimming. However I’m sure there are enough swimmers who still aren’t sure about this choice that it will make a worthwhile blog post.

Twenty years ago I’d never thought about nose-breathing. But then I read the book Body, Mind, and Sport by Dr John Douillard. In it he endorsed training for aerobic sports (walking, hiking, running, and cycling) with nose breathing. In ayurvedic practice, nose breathing encourages deeper breathing and fuller relaxation. I tried it and enjoyed it.

In running and cycling, you can both inhale and exhale from the nose. I did experience the deeper breathing and relaxation that occurred when I tried it while walking, running or cycling. (Changing terrain—i.e. going uphill—made it very challenging.)

But while swimming, you must inhale through the mouth. While exhaling however, you have a choice. When I inhaled though my mouth and exhaled exclusively from my nose, I noticed the same effects I’d felt while nose breathing on land.

So I began to make a regular practice of exhaling through my nose during warmup/tuneup and technique-intensive practice, and while swimming at tempos slower than 1.2 sec/stroke.

These days, I exhale from both mouth and nose, depending on circumstances. When I’m super-relaxed, I exhale all or mostly through my nose, which helps both mental and physical relaxation. As I increase speed, effort and/or tempo, and need to clear a greater volume of air exchange more quickly, I still use both, but the mouth exhale predominates.

(I inhale through my mouth, exhale primarily through the nose, while doing technique-intensive practice.)

September 9th, 2017 Terry Laughlin. 14

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Les Rubenovitch

I’ve often wondered if exhaling while under water should be during the entire time under water, or just prior to when your mouth comes above the water surface. Comments?
- Swim Ottawa Masters
  
  Lee, swimmers either tend to be ‘blasters’ or ‘continuous’ exhalers. Long distance swimmers tend to regulate their rhythm and tend to do continuous while sprinters tend to blast due to their explosive tempo. Experiment with both at your next practice to see which you prefer…and what speed tempo.
- KearneyHimself
  
  Les,
  I think it is important to do what you find comfortable. But there are several good reasons to hold on to the air in your lungs as long as possible.
  1./ It helps maintain buoyancy – especially important if you are a “sinker.”
  2./ The breathing reflex is triggered by the build up of CO2, so when your lungs are fully inflated there is more air there to dilute the CO2 and you will feel less breathless.
  3./ You can’t accidentally inhale water when your lungs are full of air.
  4./ Exhaling as your mouth comes out of the water tends to clear away the water running down your face – especially noticeable when swimming breaststroke.
  5./ Fully inflated lungs help maintain a rigid upper body structure, against which your “levers” can operate with greatest efficiency. Ask any weightlifter.
  Most important is to get as near to a complete air exchange as possible with every breath. You can’t swim comfortably with an oxygen debt.
Sal Minty-Gravett

that is what I have taught and coached for so many years
Michael Marshall

I actually am a nose breather on land by nature, and therefore when (still) learning how to swim, I am having to re-train my brain how to use my mouth to breathe. I now use a nose clip to re-inforce breathing with my mouth. Sometimes just those little gadgets make all the difference when it comes to getting the right volume of air to breathe efficiently.
Sami Said

Thank you sir for this beneficial post. I am guessing that this should also apply to other strokes ( breast and butterfly strokes).
Cleo Truffle

Hello, when I attempt to roll to breathe or enter sweet spot position, while trying to keep my head low, I get water up my nose. If I roll my head to breathe but I raise my head, which I know I am not supposed to do, I do not have that problem. I have trouble using front snorkels, because my instinct is to inhale though my nose. Any tricks to help me change this? Thanks
- KearneyHimself
  
  It’s all about confidence. If you open your mouth wider, you are less likely to inhale water.
http://arinathomsenphotography.com/ Arina Thomsen

Exhaling through the nose also helps with equalizing pressure and not letting chlorinated water to get into the sinuses. Thank you for this article.
Jörg Erdmann

THX for this article
Peter Hendriks

Topical subject… I have always exhaled from the nose and breathed in through the mouth.
Having coached over 1000 swimmers TI a few people return saying they still have problems with their breathing. In nearly all these cases they breathe out through their mouth and breathe in through heir mouth. The problem I believe comes in the fact that the mouth in these cases is overworked and a perfectly good tool (the nose) is doing nothing.
As the saying goes “Many hands make light work.”
Give a task to the nose and a task to the mouth (seems to work well for millions of swimmers)
The problem when breathing in and out through the mouth is that the mind needs to work out exactly when the mouth is above and below the water… Breathing out must not be done above the water line, as this will prolong the period of time the face is out of the water and will cause the hips to drop regardless of how well you rotate.
The mouth should breathe in as soon as it clears the water and the face should be back in the water before the recovery arm re-enters the water and spears to target.
Try it out… you will find that your hips remain higher in the water.
jetlife2

Maybe a niche answer, but: I am a scuba diver. We are taught to exhale through the mouth, and especially when we don’t have the regulator in, we blow a stream of bubbles slowly and steadily through the mouth. Exhaling constantly is important when diving. So I have a learned behavior that when I am underwater I know how to exhale. Works fine for me swimming and it would be unnecessarily complicated to do something different.
Rajnin1

I’m a scuba diver who recently bought a full face mask. Question is do you get more air into your lungs by mouth breathing or Nasal????
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