Triathlon Swimming Q&A: Exhaling through Mouth/Nose

January 4 , 2010

Q: Should I use my mouth and/or nose to exhale while swimming freestyle?

A: The short answer is both, if you can. The important thing to remember is that you will be more buoyant when your lungs are full of air. So, you want those lungs to be full as long as possible. The best way to do this is to breathe out with your nose and mouth as quickly as reasonable. Using one but not the other takes more time, and this decreases your net buoyancy a little bit.    

So, what should you do then if you wear a nose plug? I suggest you keep on using it if it keeps you comfortable in the water, unless you are a pro looking for every extra edge. Fortunately, the volume of air you can exhale is much greater from the mouth, so you lose relatively little by plugging up the nose. A rough estimate is you will lose between .3% - .4% of time by plugging the nose up (about 15 seconds total in a 2.4 mile swim). So if you’re comfortable with the nose plug, use it. But breathe through both nose and mouth if you can and when every second counts.

View previous triathlon swimming tips.