Training & Nutrition - Breathing technique -> lower HR(?)

My friend claims that he can get on one of those electronic trainers, and set a resistance and maintain a certain cadence. After his HR has stabilised he says that, while maintaining the resistance and cadence, by practicing certain breathing techniques, he can lower his heart rate 5-10 bpm.

Anyone know anything about this? Is this plausible?

Yes. Try doing the yoga breathing, and remember.... you want to breathe from the belly (diaphragmatic breathing), not from the throat (shallow breathing). There are a couple of types of yoga breathing I've used, and it definitely does work. Try Pranayama yoga breathing and Ujjayi yoga breathing. There are great books out there at Barnes and Noble and at Borders that talk about how to do this type of breathing.

Koffee

Sure...I do the same thing. I used the same technique over the weekend doing climb repeats and fast pedal descents.

From a previous post;

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I surprised that there's no discussion of breathing. I use two different breathing techniques on the climbs. For short, intense climbs I pre-breath prior to hitting the incline. By this I mean that I accelerate the rate and depth of my breaths before I reach the hill. Depending upon the length of the hill, this technique will usually help me get half way up at full throttle without even feeling like I'm climbing.

The other technique I employ is for long hills and pertains to rhythm. I usually get into a breathing rhythm that takes my mind off of the difficulty of the climb itself. On occasion I will even mentally count my breaths in an effort to reach a certain number and then start again. Finally, I will increase the rate with which I'm breathing in an attempt to be "proactive" about clearing CO2.

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Both techniques effectively lower heart rate by lessening the effort.

Mark

Definitely, breathing can affect HR. I note this (albeit unscientifically) in my experiences. Particularly on long, difficult climbs, I find that making a concious effort to slow down and even out the breathing, relax, and remain calm can really keep it down. Not drastically, usually only a few beats, but noticeable. Plus it gives you something else to distract your attention from the anguish of a hard climb :)

Drink cold liquid, burp, or splash cool water on your face and your heart rate will decrease as well.

I agree. Just did hill 55 miler this Saturday and found that when I "Zoned out" and focused on deep breathing, my hr remained in zone and pedal effort was minimized. It also made a seemingly unbearable portion of climb endurable. Try it out on your next ride. More air is always better than less air. (unless you hyper-ventilate, that is)

Yeah, it's plausible. The effect is probably from relaxation, not from the breathing itself. Any relaxation technique would probably reduce heart rate, since a relaxed muscle needs less fuel and oxygen.

Drink cold liquid, burp, or splash cool water on your face and your heart rate will decrease as well.

I knew about the other ones, but burping? I'll have to try that.

don't even need to do the fancy breathing techniques. just breath more deeply than naturally and HR will drop. I rode a recumbent in BTC (colorado mountains). Focused on forcing myself to breath deeply and more rapidly than natural breathing. helped get up the hills, no altitude head ache etc......

Anybody that has asthma tried these techniques? Thoughts? Considerations?