Bilateral breathing, is it really necessary?

Although many people only breathe to one side for various reasons, bilateral breathing has many benefits and I'm going to talk about them to try to help you unblock some beliefs/excuses/arguments.

Of the many arguments I've heard, here are some, let's say, more common ones: “I only breathe to one side because it's more useful”, “because it makes me confused”, “because I lose coordination and forget to breathe”, “because when taking 3 strokes feels like I run out of air”, “when breathing both ways I feel slower” and so on…

Well, here I will mention some reasons/benefits of breathing on both sides.

(It is worth remembering that adapting the way you breathe to the situation you find yourself in is the most recommended and that if you are in a short race with a lot of speed or in a situation where it is favorable to breathe only to one side, of course you will do this way, but it is worth highlighting that to know how to adapt you need to be comfortable breathing on both sides).

In open water:

• Orientation: by breathing to the sides, you can better understand whether you are close to the coast or not.

• Sun: if the sun is rising or setting, that is, when it is closer to the horizon, and you only breathe towards that side, it will be uncomfortable to carry the sun with each breath, even if your glasses are appropriate for the environment external.

• Waves, wind: if you have the misfortune of breathing only on the side of the waves or on the side where the wind is blowing, you will probably swallow some water along the way. And if you only breathe towards the other side, you will have no idea if there are waves or how big they are approaching you.

• People, boats, animals: when you breathe only to one side you cannot see if there are people, boats or animals approaching.

• Races: in addition to the situations mentioned above, in races you need to have control of your competitors, the route and the buoys, being able to breathe on both sides is essential, even if it is strategic to breathe on one side.

Swimming pool or open water:

• Symmetry: with regular and frequent practice with unilateral breathing, the swimmer ends up developing more muscles on one side than the other, which can naturally be seen in postural misalignment even outside the water.

• Injuries: because you are always demanding on the same side, as with all repetitive movements, breathing only on one side can cause injuries due to overexertion on only one side.

• Balance: it is very common for people who breathe only to one side to have more strength in one of the strokes and if this happens, you end up deviating or leaning to one side, forcing the swimmer to make a greater effort to compensate for the balance under the water and maintain alignment on the route.

Breathing on both sides, like everything else, is a matter of practice. Obviously if you've been swimming for a long time and have always breathed to just one side, you'll have difficulty at first, but remember the short and long term benefits.

A good exercise to identify whether you swim in a straight line or not is to swim with your eyes closed for 10 or 20 strokes, either in the pool or in open water. Try taking the test.

To change the pattern of unilateral breathing movement, start by interspersing 25 meters with bilateral breathing and 25 meters from your normal workouts and increase the swimming distance with bilateral breathing over the weeks. Using a breathing tube can help break the movement pattern. Don't expect something that you've been practicing in the same way for a long time to be natural at first, but with patience and work, it's possible.

Practice, practice and practice.

And don't forget to always swim4fun ;)

(Do you have any other reason to breathe on one side that I didn't mention above or do you know more benefits of breathing on both sides? Comment on the post!)