Catching Your Breath – Walking Uphill

I am often gob-smacked by just how bright Willis Eschenbach is, but this observation was astonishing. Could breathing out more combat the breathlessness you get by strenuous walking uphill. I tried this out on my recent hunting trip, and it’s true. I was able to walk in one go to the top of hills I normally have to pause several times to ascend and arrive completely not out of breath. Try it yourself: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/09/23/catching-my-breath/

The ‘Road’ to Lobuche.

‘He said “You’re not breathing out enough.”

He explained that particularly when we’re swimming, but also with any exercise, people usually end up panting, taking very rapid, shallow breaths. We focus on breathing in, on forcing more air into our lungs. He said that the way to break that habit was simple—when you start running short of air, don’t mess with the in-breath, just breathe out for one count longer.

He pointed out that when we swim or run, we usually fall into a pattern. With me, when I swam I breathed out and then took an in-breath with every alternate stroke of my arms. He said when I ran short of air, there was no need to mess with the in-breath—what I had to do was just add one more beat to the out-breath. So for example, if I was running, I was in the habit of breathing in for two steps and out for two steps. When I started running out of breath, I needed to lengthen my out-breath to three steps … and then if that wasn’t enough, lengthen the out-breath to four steps, and so on.

And that was it. There’s no need to make any alteration to the in-breath, we’re all really good at that part. Filling up the lungs isn’t the problem, it’s emptying the lungs.’

Another useful breathing technique: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/breathing-trick-that-puts-you-to-sleep-in-seconds/

First Published on: Sep 29, 2013