Our next guest on The Athlete’s Compass is none other than Dr. Stephen Seiler, the pioneer of polarized training who’s now turning his scientific spotlight on breathing for performance.
Your job:
Comment ONE (yes, just one!) burning question you want Dr. Seiler to answer about breathing—think breathing rate, nasal vs. mouth, breathing-rate wearables, hyperventilation tricks, or anything else that helps everyday athletes train smarter.
One question per listener. Read the thread first; if someone already nailed your question, smash that “like” instead of posting a duplicate.
Deadline: Friday, July 18 @ 12 PM CT .
Ready? Inhale creativity, exhale your best question, and drop it below!
How much can breath training (using a device or other method) impact endurance performance and perceived exertion during a long event such as a marathon or Ironman…
How do the manufactures of wearables detect the breath depth and calculate the different Lung volume types (IV, TV, EV=VC) of an athlete without spirometry??
Or does the volume not matter at all?
Awesome! My ALL-TIME favorite podcast guest in endurance sports by far. He’s just always the one person who can explain really scientific topics in a really easy to follow plain-spoken way. Actually, a podcast he was on as a guest with Paul (that played clips of an even EARLIER podcast of them together) is what initially led me to Athletica. I’ve also been looking into the breathing wearable company he’s been working with but haven’t fully jumped it… yet! I’ll try to think up a good one question this week.
Great!
My question is:
Can the greatest performance gains through breathing be achieved through a specific workout like Airofit or Power Breathe (what do you think of these devices?)
Or during a relaxation session with methods to strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system? What should an amateur athlete invest in?
Thanks!
How does the type of workout you do on a given day (e.g., 30/30 intervals, base, strength endurance) affect the type of breathing training you should do on the same day? Or should breathing training be done independently of the other training?
I’ve noticed during unsupported ultra distances (think 2,000km cycling events or so) that later on my breathing rate and depth does not remain consistent with HR. So I’ll be breathing faster and deeper than my indicated HR would be for a steady effort than when I’m fresh / on a single day ride at same steady effort. There’s a certain amount of HR suppression later on during ultra distance cycling, and there’s a negative efficiency factor going on. But what’s going on with the increased oxygen intake relative to heart rate?
As a former asthmatic (now well controlled with one daily puff of Inuvair, a corticosteroid/LABA inhaler) and still an active endurance athlete in my seventies, is there any evidence that specific breathing techniques (like nasal breathing, slower breathing cadence, or pre-exercise hyperventilation) can further optimize oxygen uptake and performance beyond what regular training already provides?
Beyond just nasal breathing -Is there a correlation between true easy pace (below LT1) and the number of steps per inhale and exhale? E.g. 3 steps per inhale, 5 steps per exhale? And similarly for LT2/threshold pace - does this correspond with something like 2 steps per inhale, 2 steps per exhale?
Your job:
One question per listener. Read the thread first; if someone already nailed your question, smash that “like” instead of posting a duplicate.
Deadline: Friday, July 18 @ 12 PM CT .
