Bilateral Breathing vs Single Side Breathing - Comparison Pool Time Test

Open Water Worlds Wednesday
Clermont FL

Earlier this winter I had the opportunity to do some swim sessions without any real purpose. Instead of wasting the swims, I decided to take the opportunity to test:

(1) Bilateral breathing
(2) Single-side breathing dominate side (right)
(3) Single-side breathing non-dominate side (left).

The impetus for this test came from racing. Despite swimming to my dominate side (right) in training, I occasionally take a few strokes on the opposite side (left) during races for the sheer purpose of mixing it up and helping my right side relax for a few seconds.

What I found was that despite feeling incredibly awkward during those few strokes, I felt like I didn't slow down at all and actually made up a little ground on my competition. As a result, I thought I should finally test my breathing and learn something about it.

Test Protocol

With all my tests, I am not trying to win over any scientists. Frankly, my tests are done more to satisfy my own curiosity. For this test, I swam 200s LCM, alternating between, right-side (how I normally breath), bilateral breathing (one breath right, one breath left), and left-side breathing. I did 12x200 per day, so 4x200 of each pattern each day (ie, left, right, bilateral). I tested over 8 continuous days. In total, that is 96x 200s, and 32x 200s in each particular configuration.  I averaged the 4 reps of each configuration per day in the graph below for simplicity sake.

The pace I choose to swim was the easiest possible swim pace I could for that particular day. It would be equivalent to my all-day pace. It is a pace that is natural and one I don't have to think about.

Test Results

Analysis

I was definitely surprised by the test results. Mainly, every time I swam a 200 on my left side I felt incredibly awkward. Bilateral breathing felt awkward as well but not as awkward as breathing to my left. I totally expected that I would be significantly slower bilateral breathing and breathing to my left side. Both configurations felt so slow in the water, but every time I hit the wall at the end of the 200 I was objectively informed that I was no slower. My stroke rate was a bit higher on my left and bilateral configurations, but if it was truly less efficient I would have suspected slower times as well.

Takeaway

What I learned from this process is that it really doesn't matter how I breath, at least while swimming easy. It would be interesting to do the test again at higher level of efforts to see if the result was different.

Regardless, it is a reminder of how important athlete psychology is in sport. Just because you feel slow doesn't mean you are slow. Just because you feel fast doesn't mean you are fast. Testing things or practicing things gives you confidence. Confidence I believe leads to faster overall times as there is less thinking involved and less second guessing.

Other "testing" articles you might enjoy:

- Speed Suit Testing - TYR Torque vs Roka Viper Elite
- My Blood Test Numbers - Testosterone and all
- Wind Tunnel Testing My Shoes
- My Complete Wind Tunnel Test

Lastly if you are a triathlete or endurance athlete, I have set up a FREE Ironman Q&A group on Facebook. Feel free to ask any question you might have about Ironman Training or endurance sports.

Speed Suit Testing TYR Torque vs Roka - Triathlon Swim Skins

The Test Candidates
TYR Torque Elite - TYR Torque Pro - ROKA Viper Elite

Today I decided to do swimskin testing as my swim workout for the day. It is 4 days after Ironman Chattanooga 70.3 and I was looking for the perfect workout in my training plan to balance between recovery and continuing prep for Ironman Raleigh 70.3 and Ironman Eagleman 70.3 in the coming weeks.

The goals of the test were to come up with a quick protocol that would satisfy my own curiosity and allow me to get a pulse on whether there was any difference between the swimskins currently in my possession. To be clear, I have some form of "sponsorship" with TYR at the time of testing.

For testing I ended up deciding to do an 800 for each test. I started with a Roka suit and ended with the same Roka suit. In the middle I tested 2 different TYR Torque suits - both the elite and pro version.

The idea behind testing the Roka twice is that I know my body pretty well. I have done a ton of 4000 straight sets taking laps every 400 to 500 and I know that as I continue on I usually get faster and faster at the same perceived effort. Whatever suit I tested first I also wanted to test later on when I was fully warmed up and operating efficiently.

I chose 800s because it is too tough to tease anything out in 100s, 200s or even 400s. Anything longer than an 800 and I have the problem of having too much fatigue later on in testing. I chose to swim the 800s at a cruise effort. It should also be noted that I swam with a sleeved tri suit underneath and zipped up as well. This is exactly how I would race.

Test: 5000 LCM

Warm-up: 400 free, 200 pull, 200 free, 4x50 as build 35/15 easy

Main-set: 800s with a 100 easy after the 800, then quickly changing into the next suit, doing another 100 easy and leaving for the next test on the 2:00.

800 - Roka Viper Elite (11:47)
800 - TYR Torque Elite (11:50)
800 - TYR Torque Pro (12:03)
800 - Roka Viper Elite (11:44)

Analysis: Even though this is just a quick n+1 study, to me there is not a sliver of doubt that the TYR Torque Pro is slow on me. That is surprisingly because that TYR Torque is their top of the line suit. All of the suits felt great in the water and there was no restriction that I could perceive. What makes a suit fast or slow?That is well above my pay-grade but this is why I test this stuff out when I can.