Triathlon Swimming Q&A:
Hypoxic (breath holding) Training

Q: What is the purpose for hypoxic (breath holding) training for swimmers and triathletes?

A: Before I respond, I must warn that holding your breath for extended periods in the water is a dangerous activity.  Don’t do it unless you know what you are doing.  And do make sure a qualified and trained individual is watching you from the deck, like a lifeguard or coach.  Also, check with the facility as many places will not let you practice breath holding training.  Stop immediately if you feel sick, dizzy or light-headed.  Passing out in the middle of the pool is always a bad moment.

Hypoxic, or breath holding training has been practiced by swimmers for decades.  The reason is because holding your breath in a swim race is a necessity to win.  For backstrokers, up to two thirds of a race in a 25-yard pool is underwater kicking.  For the other strokes, the time spent underwater is not as prominent, but is still very important.  It is crucial for swimmers to be able to operate and maintain high intensity regardless of the ability to breathe.  It can take many years of training to transform your system to operate this way if it is used to a more consistent intake of oxygen. 

Triathletes do not have to hold their breath in an open water swim as much.  There are no flip turns, and no extended periods where you have to be underwater.  However, hypoxic training has a different purpose for elite non-swimmers trying to learn the speed game.  A common problem with elite non-swimmers is the size of their aerobic engine for general activity.  They might have the muscle memory to go deep anaerobic in familiar movements of their sporting specialty.  But a big aerobic engine tends to drown everything else out in unfamiliar movement.  Such athletes can swim forever at their maximum speed.  But that maximum speed tends to be slow.  They have a tough time trying to increase that speed, no matter how hard they try.    

You improve your speed when swimming fast, and you swim faster the more anaerobic you can go.  Elite non-swimmers usually have nowhere else to improve as they have already maxed out their fitness and endurance.  There is just no more body fat to lose in that elite wave of a typical triathlon race.  So, hypoxic training is a way to cut off the fuel of the aerobic engine (oxygen) so that elites are forced to use their anaerobic engine while learning to swim fast.  When you swim anaerobic on a regular basis, even by force, you can finally break that barrier imposed by that big aerobic engine.  And improving speed is what makes the sport fun!  Until next time, happy training.

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