Why quiet breathing through the nose for the bulk of your training is the key to knowing that you're at the right training intensity:
A brief #physiology thread... 👇
A brief #physiology thread... 👇
The #AerobicThreshold or first rise in the lactate curve is a key training intensity.
Primarily because it usually coincides with the highest rates of #FatBurning coupled with relatively low CHO oxidation, so the athlete can accrue a lot of work with minimal metabolic fatigue
Primarily because it usually coincides with the highest rates of #FatBurning coupled with relatively low CHO oxidation, so the athlete can accrue a lot of work with minimal metabolic fatigue
My buddy @feelthebyrn1 always said that he could feel the AeT as:
"the first deepening of the breath"
In my experience, most athletes don't do a very good job of identifying this point & mistake their AeT for a point further up the curve. So, what should you be feeling?
"the first deepening of the breath"
In my experience, most athletes don't do a very good job of identifying this point & mistake their AeT for a point further up the curve. So, what should you be feeling?
As the chart above shows, when an athlete begins a progressive metabolic test their VO2 (oxygen) requirements increase almost immediately & in fairly direct proportion to the exercise intensity. It makes sense then that we'd have to increase our breathing to match this, right?
Wrong!
Our body is pretty wasteful with O2 at rest. Our muscles don't take up most of the O2 in the blood & it just cycles around. Therefore, the first port of call when our body needs more O2 is simply for the muscles to take up more already circulating O2 from the blood...
Our body is pretty wasteful with O2 at rest. Our muscles don't take up most of the O2 in the blood & it just cycles around. Therefore, the first port of call when our body needs more O2 is simply for the muscles to take up more already circulating O2 from the blood...
This shows up as an increase in the a-VO2 difference, i.e. the *arterio* *venous* *oxygen* *difference* - the difference between the amount of O2 in the blood of our arteries going into the muscle & our veins coming out...
Because we already have this O2 'on board' our breathing doesn't need to significantly increase in depth or rate, at least initially, & we see both the VE (the amount of total air breathed per min) & respiratory rate to remain relatively steady.
At a certain point (the AeT), the muscles ability to pull ⬆️O2 from the circulating blood can no longer keep up with demand & so it sends the brain a message:
"We need more air, cap'n!!"
And so, the first significant rise in VE (the amount of air moved through the lungs) occurs
"We need more air, cap'n!!"
And so, the first significant rise in VE (the amount of air moved through the lungs) occurs
Fortunately, our body is equally lazy at rest when it comes to the lungs as it does to the blood and we have a lot of lung (tidal) volume in reserve.
Therefore, at least initially, there's no need to increase breathing *rate*, our body cues us to just take *deeper* breaths.
Therefore, at least initially, there's no need to increase breathing *rate*, our body cues us to just take *deeper* breaths.
The "deepening of the breath" or "opening of the lungs" is generally felt as a need to move more air into the lungs than is comfortable through the nose & so the athlete, intuitively, opens the mouth to help out.
And, this point, where we first kind of want to open our mouth to get enough air into the lungs is thus a good proxy for the #AerobicThreshold
Importantly, it's quiet, it's subtle & not forced. IOW, it's not a competition to see how much air you can move through your nostrils😊
Importantly, it's quiet, it's subtle & not forced. IOW, it's not a competition to see how much air you can move through your nostrils😊
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