A Marathon Only Nose Breathing—Why? How?

Welcome to Stretch—I’m Charlotte, a certified breathwork facilitator and nervous system explorer. My mission is to inspire you experiment with your brain and body to be more focused, resilient and energized.

⏪ Last time was all about what we can learn from Tai Chi martial arts wisdom to transform our modern workday. The four key skills to cultivate: focused mind, body sensing, breathing and releasing all resistance.

⏩ Today, I’m answering a question I’ve received many times over the last few months: running a marathon breathing only through your nose?! Why? How??

I didn’t care about speed, or hitting a certain time.

All I cared about was controlled breathing through my nose, slowly and deeply.

That’s what I trained for, and what I managed to do last week in Florence—my very first marathon!

I’m studying breath science, so of course I have a special interest in experimenting with what is possible with the breath, but still, I’d recommend every single person to start exploring nose breathing (whether you’re a runner or not!)

Let’s unpack why ↓

How we’re designed to breathe

This applies to all of us: we’re designed to breathe through our nose.

The only reason we have evolved to be able to breathe through two channels is to increase our chances of survival. Should the nose get obstructed, the mouth becomes a backup ventilation system. But that’s all the mouth was meant to be: backup.

Housed in your mouth are your teeth, tongue, hard palate, soft palate and throat. None of the above have any function or advantage whatsoever when it comes to breathing.

Our nose, on the other hand, is designed for breathing, and that’s obvious in the long list of advantages:

• Warming & humidifying: Nose breathing supports the respiratory system by warming and humidifying inhaled air, protecting the airways from irritation and dehydration.

• Filtering: Nose breathing removes a significant amount of germs and bacteria from the air you breathe in.

• Stronger airways: Nose breathing forces air against all those flabby tissues at the back of the throat, making the airways wider and breathing easier. After a while, these tissues and muscles get “toned” to stay in this open and wide position. Mouth breathing transforms airways for the worse, making breathing more difficult by causing the soft tissues in the back of the mouth to become loose and flex inward. (Inhale once through the mouth and once through the nose to compare. You can feel the difference in resistance.)

• Diaphragm breathing: Nasal breathing engages the diaphragm muscle, stabilizing the core and improving stamina. Mouth breathing relies more on upper-chest breathing and is more likely to be associated with a stress response.

• Slows down breathing: Slows the breath, giving the lungs more time to extract oxygen from inhaled air. (More here on the benefits of slow breathing)

• Nitric Oxide boost: Nasal breathing also boosts nitric oxide, a gas produced in the sinuses that helps increase circulation and deliver oxygen to cells. This has a huge impact on things like immune function, weight, mood, and physical performance.

Okay, so I hope you’re convinced:

Always breathe through your nose while at rest and while sleeping.

If you need more convincing, read Breath by James Nestor. (And prepare to have your mind blown!)

But we’re not stopping here. When it comes to exercise, there’s a whole range of additional benefits.

Nasal breathing for runners

Novak Djokovic talks about conscious breathing as his #1 tip for athletes. Adam Burgess, Olympic silver medallist, swears by nasal breathing for sleep, performance and recovery.

Making your breath a core component of exercise is clearly not a fringe idea. It’s a normal thing for elite athletes in all disciplines.

Of course, nose breathing doesn’t apply to every single sport or intensity level, but when it comes to running at an amateur level, it has a ton of benefits.

01 It will improve your performance

What we often forget is that breathing requires muscle activity and energy to occur. So the more we have to breathe, the more energy that has to go to that process.

When we breathe through the mouth, we breathe more quickly, and so we take in more breaths. When we breathe nasally, we slow down our breathing. This slower rate enables more time for oxygen to diffuse into the blood, leading to better oxygen delivery to our hard working muscles.

Nasal breathing also helps prevent hyperventilation, a common issue among runners. Hard, fast, erratic breathing expels excessive carbon dioxide from the body. This can lead to feelings of breathlessness and fatigue. When we breathe slowly through the nose, we offload less carbon dioxide.

A significant study by Health Science and Human Movement professor, George Dallam, showed that after 6 months of nasal breathing training, runners achieved 22% more efficient breathing compared to mouth breathing. The research demonstrated that runners could maintain their VO2 max and peak performance while using only nasal breathing, though adaptation time was necessary.

If you want to learn more, this Oxygen Advantage article goes deep into the physiology and research behind nasal breathing for runners.

02 It will slow you down

The most commonly recommended training method is the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your running should be at an easy pace, and only 20% at a higher intensity. This isn’t just for us amateur runners. This applies to elite runners as well. When you commit to only nose breathing, you’re forced to reduce the intensity of your runs.

03 It will reduce risk of injury and overtraining

Injuries are the biggest reason why people stop running or say running is bad for your body.

Running isn’t bad for us. We’re designed to run. It’s because we run too much and too fast, leaving our bodies no time to adapt or recover.

I used to struggle with shin splints for years, to the point I just thought my body wasn’t fit for long distances. Now I know it was just because I didn’t pay enough attention to my posture, and I was running too fast and too much.

Again, committing to nose breathing means you can’t push harder than your body can manage. You build your strength steadily and organically.

04 It will make running more enjoyable

Last but absolutely not least… because isn’t that the whole point after all, for us amateur runners?

I love how it’s described in this article:

“New runners typically have this experience:

You resolve to start running. The first session, you take off at a fast pace. After a minute or two, your heart and lungs are struggling to keep up, and soon your entire body is in pain. This is terrible. You don’t have the willpower to run through that suffering day after day, so you quit after a few sessions.”

When you use your nose as your pacer, you don’t get breathless and you remain in control of your breath. Over time, it means that running becomes as comfortable as walking. Instead of this “horrible, painful thing I have to do”, it becomes this “incredible thing I get to do.”

My top tips

Alright, enough of the why. Let’s talk about how.

Start extremely slow

The initial transition period will be challenging, and you'll need to significantly reduce your running pace at first. The cool thing is that you will notice your body adapt with every run, and you’ll gradually be able to increase your pace and duration while maintaining nasal breathing.

So start extremely slow. If you’re already a runner, start with short intervals of 30-60 seconds of nasal breathing. Increase this with every run.

If you’re new to running, start with nose breathing while walking and build up to running.

It took me over a little bit over a year to go from 0 to being able to run a marathon with only nose breathing, so this is definitely not a quick thing. But it’s worth it.

Use your nose as your pacer

“If I need to open my mouth, I’m running too fast.” — Ihor Verys, ultrarunner

Let your nose guide you. The second you notice you can no longer breathe in a controlled way through the nose, slow down or start walking. Then start again.

Manage your ego

You’ll have to go much slower than you’re used to, and that can be pretty hard on the ego. On training runs, I felt embarrassed sometimes, wanting to yell at any random person on the street, “Just so you know, I run faster, I’m just training nose breathing only!!” 

Also during the marathon, I had to keep reminding myself (as a 70 yo badass runner was passing me by) that this is my race. I’m not competing with anyone but myself. All that matters is that with every step, with every breath through the nose, I’m doing something I haven’t done before.

Bring tissues

Lots of tissues. Try this exercise if you have a blocked nose.

Leave the headphones at home

This is a practice of focused attention. So no podcasts, no music, no audiobooks. These only distract you from the focus on your breath and your body. (Running in silence is also such a great way to give your brain a break.)

Phew, that was everything I have in my head about nose breathing. What do you think? Intrigued to give nose breathing a try?

To wrap it up, I’ll paraphrase running coach Steve Sisson when I spoke to him about my nasal running plans:

“Nasal breathing is the fastest way to get you where you want to go. There’s no way you’ll overtrain. You won’t get injured. You won’t get hurt. You’ll string more days together. You’ll have more positive experiences and positive feedback loops, and these are vital to everything in life we want to enjoy. We get so messed up by more. Faster. Harder. Nose breathing isn’t just for people who are starting, but also for experienced advanced level runners. They overtrain, and don’t make their easy days easy enough.”

What else I’m up to…