By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

A few months ago I bumped into a challenge with one of my coached runners. As soon as she reached mile 3 or 4, she got a side stitch. It didn’t matter what we tried with the timing on her nutrition or her fluid intake. Come that point, boom! Stitch! We needed to attack this problem and fast. Before it became a psychological issue.

I consulted with a few coaches I know, and they gave me their suggestions and home remedies. While we found a couple of things to temporarily remedy the nagging stitch, they were not the permanent solution we were looking for.

While researching the issue I came across a book from 2013 called “Running on Air: The revolutionary Way to Run Better by Breathing Smarter”, by Bud Coats and Claire Kowalchik. This was a publication of Runner’s World Magazine, published by Rodale.

The book goes into details about many things that are not necessarily related to breathing. So, since this is not a book review, I am skipping them. But it does go into detail on the science and mechanics of breathing and breathing while running in layman terms. To my trainee, there were two specific aspects that not only made the difference, but solved the problem:

Breathing from the belly and doing in in an add-number pattern may help you improve you running. Worth giving it a try (image from pexels.com)

1-   DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

Known colloquially as “belly breathing”, involves engaging the stomach, abdominal muscles, and diaphragm, which means actively pulling the diaphragm down with each inward breath. Compared with coastal breathing, it helps the lungs fill more efficiently.

I cannot teach you diaphragmatic breathing in a few paragraphs, but I can tell you that I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, and it has worked for me beautifully. It also helps you strengthen the diaphragm, located beneath your lungs, which is the major muscle of the respiration process. It contracts and flattens when you inhale, creating a a vacuum effect that pulls air into the lungs. A stronger diaphragm means more air, more air means more oxygen for your body to burn, and less side stitches.

Regardless of your preferred type of breathing, a strong diaphragm will help you breath better, relax, meditate, improve digestion, and provide you the obvious running benefits that more oxygen in your system can offer.

If you want to learn more about diaphragmatic breathing, its benefits and strengthening exercises, click here for a YouTube video from the UCLA Integrative Digestive and Health Wellness Program, which can help you get started.

2 – RHYTHMIC BREATHING

I have been breathing on a 3/2 count (inhale for 3 steps and exhale for 2) for about 5 years, and the benefits have been tangible. I don’t even think about it anymore, it just happens. In my personal experience, it works better than the 2/2 I did for years. Once I got my hands on this book, I understood why, and it made sense.

It is because “the greatest impact stress of running occurs when the foot strikes the ground at the beginning of exhalation and also that core stability is at its lowest during exhalation”.

Based on this, it is easy to understand that by breathing on an odd count, you will be alternating sides each time you are at your weakest while hitting the ground. Think of it this way: In one mile, you will be hitting about 750 times on each side instead of 1500 on the same one. Multiply this by the number of miles you run in a week, a month, or a year, and if you are not breathing on an odd number count, my suggestion is you better start thinking about it, today.

How do you do it? Just do it. Three in, two out. It will be weird at first, but with time, it will feel more natural and within a couple of weeks you won’t even notice it anymore.

As for rhythmic breathing, there is plenty more to learn than what four paragraphs can tell you. So, if you are interested, this is a good book where to get started.

As for my trainee, she read the book, she started strengthening her diaphragm, breathing in a 3/2 pattern, and finished not one but two half marathons with a time beyond our wildest expectations. Oh! And no more side stitches.