The REAL Reason You're Out of Breath Running (Not What You Think!) 

The reason why I’m out of breath when running is because I’m out of shape. 😄

A few years back when I started running again after the Military, a buddy suggested I hold water in my mouth. It forced me to breath thru my nose. It was simple but it really worked.

I just did a 18 min run yesterday. It felt great after listening to you and slowing down my breathing!

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🏃‍♀️ If you constantly feel out of breath while running, you may be going too fast or there may be something wrong with your approach to workouts. 01:30 💨 Breathlessness is not primarily caused by a lack of oxygen but by a lack of carbon dioxide in the body. 02:55 🩸 Carbon dioxide buildup in the body triggers the release of oxygen from hemoglobin, which fuels our muscles. 04:34 🌬️ Over-breathing, or excessively inhaling, causes low carbon dioxide levels in the body, making us more sensitive to its presence and leading to breathlessness. 06:24 💯 The Body Oxygen Level Test, developed by Patrick McKeown, can measure your tolerance for carbon dioxide and determine if you are over-breathing. 09:21 🌬️ The normal adult who exercises moderately should be able to hold their breath for 20 seconds, while athletes should aim for 40 seconds. 10:31 🚩 A breath hold of less than 20 seconds indicates a significant need for improvement in breathing and endurance. 10:44 🏃‍♀️ Adjusting your breathing patterns can make you a better, stronger, and more comfortable runner and athlete. 11:10 📚 Gradually decrease breathing volume and increase carbon dioxide tolerance to improve performance. 11:37 👃Breathe less through the mouth and more through the nose to limit oxygen intake and allow for natural carbon dioxide buildup. 12:17 📲 Download the free Quick Start Program in the app to practice nose breathing for running. 12:47 👍 Check out the Oxygen Advantage resources and RU-vid channel for more information on breathing mechanics and patterns.

When I was a runner and started to lose comfortable breathing, I would slow the breath-cycle down; inhale over 4 paces, exhale over 4 paces. Very calming and part of my ' zone'.

Swimming really helped me with my awareness of this. At first I needed to breathe the whole time, but as I got more comfortable I can breathe slower and more controlled

THANK YOU!!! recently I jogged 1km and I almost puked afterwards. Following your advice I jogged 1km again without feeling breathless at all! This is absolutely life changing!! I can finally make some progress

Thank you for sharing this information. I am a survivor of three Ventalations from covid pneumonia. Was comatose and spent two months in the hospital. My doctors say they aren't aware of anyone else surviving such. Needless to say my lungs have been severely damaged. But I have had many people help me along the way. I just tried the test and lasted 20 seconds. I thought we'll I made it half way. But then I was elated to here you say the first time you tried it you lasted 20 seconds. I am extremely encouraged. 😁

Instead of breathing through my mouth or nose, I started breathing through my eyes. On cold winter days, sometimes it causes my eyes to fog up making it hard to see. I think I'll try breathing through my ears.

This video is an example of why I watch most videos at 1.5 speed or higher.

I've not come across this approach before; always thought the deeper the breaths the better the oxygen to my muscles. I'll give this a try. I'm 67 years old and went for just over 30 seconds.

I'm in tears. All my life I was told I have asthma, I was told my lungs suck and I'll never take a full breath of air due to being born 3 months premature. But following your teaching, Coach. I was able to actually breathe and realize you're right. I can run. I can hold my breath a decent while. Thank you. Thank you so much. ❤️🥺😭🏳️‍🌈💯

If you wear your hat like that you're going to get a really funny looking sun tan 😁😁

This dude makes a video while running up a mountain. I get out of breath just thinking about running

Fantastic video. Benefitted me a lot. Thanks for making this great video

I've had things backwards my entire life, and I could never understand why I was always out of breath! Thank you!

Me running in the cold: my lungs🔥🔥🔥

Using your footfall while running do a 4 count inhale through nostrils, 3 count exhale through mouth, repeat. Happy running!

Most enlightening. Flawless presentation; so easy to understand. Thank you. 😊

I'm 15 seconds. It makes so much sense! I run with my partner who never gets out of breath despite us being similar in our fitness. It holds me back SO much, every run is a battle. I'm going to try my best!

"we're gonna keep the clock going" doesn't keep the clock going.

Word of advice: Don't do the test with a Jolly Rancher in your mouth.

Yup! I would experiment with breathing through my nose while running and eventually I could do hard runs and some 10km workouts just breathing through my nose and I improved greatly as time went by! If you breathing very slowly in a steam room or sauna you will be able to last much longer! Thanks for this great video!👍🏻🏃‍♂️

I got here from googling how to stop breathing and left here ready to begin again. In this strange place, your energy is a breath of fresh air. I know it's been two years for you but I really appreciate sticking around to see this video to the end

nasal cavity: "allow me to introduce myself."

The dude running during these videos adds a nice touch.

Thank you for producing such a good and helpful video!

This is so true for me! And it explains why my breathing during runs have become far better, after I started taping my mouth before going to bed.

I made it 15 seconds. No wonder I have always struggled at running.

I got to 30 and was shocked. I'm not an athlete but a classically trained singer... Without the exhale before the holding I can do it to over a minute. That exhale really makes the difference.

Thank you so much for the helpful tips and the precious info! God bless and good luck!

I was able to comfortably go for 37 seconds even though I've been living a sedentary life for the past 2 years. Still, when I run, after about 400 meters, I feel a bit dizzy and my heartrate climbs all the way to 170 levels. Maybe it'll be alright after a couple of weeks!

Your results on this test can vary greatly depending upon when it is done. On a rest day, it can be very high. On a day after a workout, run, etc, it can be very low. This test is used by some to determine if overtraining is a problem. It is usually done by loading up first: a series of three max inhales and exhales, and then hold. If you determine that you can hold for 40 seconds max, and then on a particular day you can only do 20, this means that you aren’t fully metabolically recovered from previous activity.

I've always taken my breaths through my nose and have always been "criticized" for doing this, despite not having any issues with it. Usually once every couple minutes I will take a large breath in during my run and I find that I'm balanced as well as more comfortable. I tried following the "in through the nose, out through the mouth" gig and it actually caused me to collapse during a run because I got too lightheaded. Thanks for your awesome channel! I'll be back to watch more soon.

I’m taking a breathwork course but the instructor is less than detailed when it comes to the fundamentals. This video answered some important questions I had, so thank you!

I just went on my first run in years today and I am at 13 seconds so there’s definitely room for improvement.

Me walking faster than usual: My lungs: OMG STOOOOP, I CAN'T BREATHHHH

This breathing information is also very useful for everyday stress and anxiety … thank you for the awesome explanation!!

Thank you for this! I could never understand why I'm always gassed out and no one else seems to be....

I can relate to this, and found it motivating. Now I can do 22 seconds slightly uncomfortably, but when I was fit I could do 40 without particular effort. I used to do the Tibetan square or box breathing which helped a lot. You are supposed not to force how long you hold your breath or lack of breath at the beginning, simply even out the 4 phases, so if you start with a short inhale, the exhale must be kept to the same length, and you repeat the set in the same way, then when you start again you just follow whaat happens spontaneously on the inhale and so on. In time, the hold time both in and out gets longer and the breathing easier.

I'm training for a marathon and I always had troubles with my breathing after catching covid. Did the test and got 12 seconds. I guess I know what my issue is now!

Informative, thank you!

Thx so much. This was very helpful.

Really interesting thank you. I obly got 18 seconds and so I will practise. I always breathe through mouth when running because I feel like I cant get air, so this is really good advice!

Fantastic and spot-on explanation. I'm a freediving instructor and breathing (or should I say "lack of breathing) is our business. Well done. By the way, your reference to the Oxygen Advantage is very helpful. Excellent book. My running has improved tremendously.

First video of yours I've watched, excellent quality!

This video is EXACTLY what I needed. I run at every gym session and while I can run for longer now, I was still wonder why the pressure in the lungs, and seeming lack of air won't stop plaguing me. I've tried a few different breathing techniques, but I never understood why none of them really helped. I'm not the 'believe everything I hear on the internet" kind of person, but I do respect science. Now I've had the chemical exchange explained in this way, it makes sense, and the nostril-only breathing follows that logic. I am literally going off to the gym, right after writing this, to put it into practice. Thanks for the video.

Great video, especially the bit about breathing in through the nose. Back in the early 70s I remember doing Physical Education with a new supply teacher, he was so good and taught everyone to recover quicker by the in through the nose and out through the mouth technique. This stops hyper ventilating and you recover quicker.

My hold time depends on how much I exhale, so hard to calibrate the test. If I squeeze out every little bit of air I barely make 15. If I do a quick exhale like running I go mid 30s. For the exercise induced asthma folks, I had it bad and took very high VitD doses and it’s gone. Not sure I have the science to back it up, but years of hacking for days after every work out is GONE for 6 months now

Fascinating. I've never heard it the O2 / CO2 relationship explained like this before. I was awful at the test. Work needed!

Doing Vim Hof breathing made a huge difference in my ability to breathe through my nose and to hold my breath. It reduced allergies and inflammation so that for the first time, I could breathe comfortably through my nose and began to do so naturally.

Thanks for this video. Now I feel a bit more informed on why I’m out of breath when running. My score is 24 seconds of holding my breath after exhaling completely. I’m working on joining the military in my country, and I feel like I have the strength and perserverence needed. Just not the endurance. I’ve been running all month and constantly improving. I also bought a jump rope so I can improve my endurance. I just wanna be able to run a few KM in 12 min without stopping.

I was around 24-26 seconds, shocked. I practiced breathework often. I haven't run in a while, so this is definitely benefit me as I start running again!

Great video and channel! !

that was awesome and explained to me why i always hated running .. thank you

“The Science of Breath”... funny how long we as human beings have known this and yet don’t teach it to our young and make it part of a basic, fundamental part of life.

As soon as he started talking I was thinking Oxygen Advantage and Buteyko method. Great stuff. I swear by it.

I cycle about 45 minutes to school and back each day. It's about an 8 mile bike ride, so 16 miles a day. Endurance is really important to me. Thanks for the video :)

A good discipline for me, has been only breathing through my nose during recovery runs. Great little video.

I struggle so much with breathing when I run. Thanks for the invaluable info. Gonna work on it this evening

OMG.... Thank you so much, Im a beginner runner, and my coworker just keep telling me that I need to control my breathing, I have been really trying but it seemed impossible and I was on the verge of giving up so I started googling how to breathe properly while running and I came upon your video. So my journey has begun thanks to you

Thank you so much for the video

Great video!

This kind of content was a breath of fresh air. Forgive the pun.

Great video! Really drove home some points for me. I got 38 sec on the test btw. I'll say one thing that you got wrong, tho. In Mr James Nestor's book, Breath, he states that you actually intake 30% more oxygen thru your nose than you do the mouth even if it doesn't feel like it. I've been trying to incorporate strictly nasal breathing while running which is easier in less humid weather. Takes a lot of work but I was able to run 2 miles with uphill just with my nose working on a clear day.

Great information - Thanks alot - God bless

Greatest video I've seen that relates my breath.

Breathing thru my nose? One word: Allergies!

Hemoglōbin. It was just driving me absolutely batty.

Thanks for sharing

Oh man, 20 seconds for me! I could have kept going for sure but it was around then that I felt my diaphragm like pull down a bit like my body wanted to take a breath. So at least I’m on the threshold for normal. I’m ready to work and hit forty!! I’m starting running again tonight. Maybe I’ll come back to this video in a month and see if I’ve improved :D

This really is interesting. Thank you. Something I can work on.

This is the missing information I needed, to understand why the Wim Hof breathing technique works. Thanks.

This video improved my condition materially. After some months of monitoring this, I added 15 sec to my "hold". Tx. Really good advice.

great video! Very nicely explained :)

I just held for 20 seconds and thought i was going to die :)

I come from swimming where nose breathing is critical to keep water out, etc. Also, it has to be synchronized with breath intake in swimming. You use your nose to push out air as you inhale through your mouth in the sidemouth technique. As a result, it's actually massively difficult for me to not breathe through my nose. In order for my ENT to evaluate my mouth breathing, I have to pinch close my nose. But I am one of 2 people in the literature with damage to my nose muscle. I have velopharyngeal disfunction as a result of who knows. One of the issues I have with my diagnosis was it is such a rare issue. Your nose muscles are small and are not explicitly used to conscious control. I worry about overtraining. In fact, I would bet that some sort of overtraining led to my initial injury. Like VCD/ELIO, my velopharyngeal disfunction has specific triggers: cold definitely, altitude maybe? (still trying to analyze it), allergies or sinal congestion definitely. It's great to work on your breathing but these are all relatively small muscles that as smooth muscles are not going to "bulk up". Likewise, the tendons that connect your various respiratory tract muscles to your skeleton don't have a toughening up period. So Coach Nate, I would encourage you to bring a speech/language pathologist into your breathing work, particularly as you are training other people in the techniques. They really are experts on this muscle pathway. I would also discourage people with any pre-existing conditions from overtraining. Do not do breathing work with active sinus infection conditions. Do not overtrain on breathing if you have a physical blockage or other biological damage, in the same way we wouldn't tell you to run on a broken ankle. Get cleared by an ENT or a Speech/Lang Pathologist if you have a physical barrier to nose breathing. Having damaged my nose muscles, it has completely re-routed what I can do. My nose will collapse into my airway if I overtrain. I can't breathe in daily life. I have to sleep on my face. It eventually resolves itself but it can take up to 3 weeks to fix itself. Sprinting and other hard breathing exertions are triggers/cause failure. Cold air can cause a failure. Exercising while dehydrated can cause failure. Exercising with heavy allergy flow can cause failure. It's a rough way to live when I come from 15 years of swimming and another 15 years of team sports. It took out peak bagging for me. We are just understanding ELIO/VCD and other associated respiratory track damages. We need to move in this space carefully because there is a lot we don't know on a scientific level.

Same with asthma for me, you need to exhale as much as you need to inhale otherwise you are just going to inflate without any positive changes. And surprisingly I was feeling better breathing less times per minute than average healthy person.

Need to see closer to this!💪

This video explains some things. After I worked on my breathing, my running did improve. I'm almost always doing 2 steps on inhale 3 steps on exhale, in through the nose out through the mouth. If I'm pushing the pace I might switch to 2 and 2, sometimes I switch to 3 and 3, but 2 and 3 generally seems to be the sweet spot for me. This helps me in the hot weather too, I don't need to drink as much water and if I start to feel like it is difficult getting enough air only breathing in through my nose I know my pace is a little too fast for the temperature.

I wanted to thank the Run Experience for the breathing video. After one short run nose breathing my stress levels decreased such a lot! Amazed at the difference and fantastic guidance on breathing whilst running it's an eye opener. 🙏🥳

This blows my mind, and makes total sense.

Amazing! Had no idea...

47.92s for the test, paused the video interesting as I posted the number, then listened to the rest...I do a lot of nose breathing and relaxation in my running...used to scuba dive a lot and was very efficient on the tank 👍 but now I'm going to pay a more conscious effort to this... love science 💜 (especially if I can turn it to a new running facet)...cheers 👊

right on track with you, I pushed it to 36 seconds but that was pushing it. 20 seconds was no problem; 27 started feeling it. 36 was "I NEED A BREATH!"

that's very interesting. I had this feeling in my head that something was up but i didn't knew why because whenever i played beatsaber when i ventilated slower i performed better so i tried to practice slower breathing with higher heart rate. Thank you for the explanation i did 47 second on the test.

I love the info and the explanations on the video. One thing that I suggest though is using more image and less text. I have a degree in chemistry and can tell you if it wasnt for the fact that I already learned how to visualise all that I would be lost with the (very accurate) explanation

Great info!! I’m 40 I haven’t worked out since my mid 20s 26-27 I quit smoking a year ago and I’m going to be getting in shape this video will definitely take me a long way!! Definitely a new 👍💯

I'm so happy to see this video! I am an in-experienced runner, but I'm always running with conscious breathing (because I do breathing exercise every day and I am a Certified Breath Coach). Knowing exactly what Coach Nate said about the science makes me feel so proud to be a runner :-) Thank you Coach Nate!

Thank you for this. I’m a runner in high school and the coaches never focused on how to breath they always talk about form and pace. Thank you for this

I left the military because I thought there was something wrong with my heart, but with this video I really wonder how much knowing this at the time could have saved me from leaving. There's more to the story but this comment is too public for me to feel comfortable disclosing my health details. I just may try to get back into shape knowing this in mind. This video was very encouraging to watch.

Yes I bought patrick mckeown’s book on oxygen advantage. I have exercise induced asthma and this process helped me tremendously! I had no idea that this even existed. My bolt score now is about 30. Thanks for this video and I hope it will help a lot of people

I've been doing wim hof for 1.5 yrs can do 2min 20 sec,with a wim relaxed not fully out breath during a cycle of wim hof breathing 10.24 sec is my record.

Nice video, TNX 👏👏👏

Thank you

I’m currently running, 1 mile a day for the 31 days of May and your keeping me going. Thanks for the advice and videos.

Really enjoyed this video! Nicely explained and easy to grasp!

23seconds! I don't run, walk, or do any dedicated exercises really. being a mechanic, my job is moderately active at times though. I found this video very informative!

For me, I inhale and exhale every four steps. I get into my "zone" at the 5th mile and feel my running and breathing become more easy and comfortable. Yet maintaining my heart rate at a low bpm. It does wonders for me.

That's crazy. I just barely got to 30 seconds yet I can barely run a quarter of a mile after quite some time spent runing and attempting to build my endurance. I stumbled upon this channel today after trying to find a solution to my issues and I'm excited to see if all of the tips and education throughout these videos helps. Thank you for putting these videos out into the world, you truly are an inspiration for people across the globe!!