Take your cycling performance to the next level
With Breathing Optimisation expert Emma Farrell
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Optimising your breathing won’t just improve your performance and recovery as a cyclist, it will benefit all areas of your life. By learning how to breathe more efficiently and maximising your lung function, you can positively impact your sleep, stress and general health too!
If you are serious about improving or maximising your performance, or simply want to enjoy cycling more try a session with Emma today!
As featured in
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I teach breathing optimisation - taking what we were born with and getting the absolute most out of it. It’s a myth that we can increase our total lung capacity but we can increase our vital capacity and lung function, as well as improve how we respond physiologically as well as psychologically to physical and mental stress. I started my programme after I was invited by the ‘Marginal Gains’ team at UK sport to work with an Olympic cyclist prior to the London Games. The full-time athlete suffered with asthma, and post race recovery as well as confidence. After working with her for six weeks, she increased her lung function by up to ten percent, and her performance, recovery and confidence improved so much that she was bumped up an Olympic cycle, competing four years ahead of schedule.
My work benefits cyclists in terms of improving the breaths that they take, increasing their breathing muscle flexibility, improving CO2 tolerance, confidence, and post-race recovery time.
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My programme increases the flexibility of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles, enabling bigger and easier breaths to be taken. Increasing the body’s tolerance threshold to CO2 helps when the muscles are under the most duress, and screaming for you to slow down or stop. Learning correct breathing patterns also reduces or eliminates the risk of hyperventilation, and the confidence that comes from my programme positively impacts not only performance on the bike, but all aspects of life off it.
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There are several depending on the situation. The most important thing before all else is to ensure that a person breathes correctly when at complete rest. Up to twelve percent of the population experience chronic breathing pattern disorders, and most are not aware they are doing so. Once I can make sure a student can breathe correctly when at rest, then we move onto learning how to utilize the full capacity of the lungs, and exercises to improve CO2 tolerance.
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It’s not the optimum position, and unless you know how to use your lungs correctly, it’s easy for bad breathing patterns to occur as the cyclist focuses more on chest and upper-chest breathing, rather than abdominal breathing. When you’re working hard on the bike, you will be using your intercostal muscles, however primarily the breath should be led by the diaphragm.
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Yes, absolutely. Breathing rate will increase as the cyclist works harder. However this should be underpinned by correct technique, so that even when they’re working at max capacity, the breath is flowing freely and the body is relaxed (even when under acute stress).
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Yes.
No special equipment or clothing is needed, you just need a little space in order to be able to stretch and move comfortably. To begin with, when learning how to breathe correctly and do the exercises, it is advised to practice every day. However this can be a short practice, interspersed with a longer session two-three times per week.
The more you put in, the more you get out, and huge improvements can be made by doing two half-hour classes a week, then a shorter practice - five to fifteen minutes every day.
I’ve got lots of free videos online, including two sessions that can be done morning and evening.
https://www.breathingoptimisation.com/videos/wakeupwinddown
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I run private classes for individuals or groups. These are held at times that suit the individual.
Additionally, I run several workshops a year for extended breathing optimisation training.
About Emma
As a founding member of the AIDA Education Commission Emma has written courses that are taught internationally, as well as her own speciality freediving and breathing courses.
Her work with gold medal winning Olympic and Paralympic athletes over the last decade has resulted in her unique Breathing Optimisation programme, which has helped people across the globe improve their breathing, lung function and health, no matter what their age, physical condition or ability.
An accomplished educator and public speaker, Emma has appeared many times on television and in print media, as well as acting as a consultant on short and feature films and documentaries.
Emma’s experience with Cyclist performance and recovery training:
After giving a talk at the Royal Society of Medicine, Emma was approached by the ‘Marginal Gains’ team at UK sport to ask if she could help one of their athletes improve their breathing. The cyclist in question was a full-time athlete, but struggling to realise their potential, due to asthma and other issues.
Emma put together an intensive, six week programme for her. Sport scientists at the performance centre measured her lung function at the start and end of the programme and discovered that she’d gained a ten percent improvement in lung function after doing my exercises. This was in spite of already using lung training devices. Her training partner, who followed the same programme as she did (minus the exercises), was used as a control and did not achieve any improvements in her lung function at the end of the six weeks.
The cyclist didn’t just enhance her lung function and improve her race performance. The work she did made a staggering difference to her post-race recovery, as well as her confidence. The improvements meant that she moved up an Olympic cycle and took part in the London Games, a full four years ahead of her projected schedule.
After this success, Emma went on to adapt her programme into a series of exercises to help anyone optimise their breathing and now runs workshops and teaches private online classes with her clients.