This swimming workout helped me get over the hump and start breathing to both sides efficiently. I am not a professional swimming coach, but I spent a lot of time researching the various drills, and trying them out. This is the result of my trials and errors. Hopefully this can help someone to start breathing to their weak side, too.
The Why
Breathing to one side when swimming freestyle (front crawl) results in uneven stroke and bad technique habits. It can, eventually, lead to injury (such as shoulder issues, “swimmer’s rib”, neck pain, etc.). Additionally, it’s very useful to be able to switch breathing on any side when swimming in the open water, depending on where the wind and waves are coming from.
My Struggle
As an adult learning to swim properly, it was very difficult for me to breathe to the weak side. So I ignored it, because it always seemed like there was bigger fish to fry, working on my technique. Eventually I developed the “swimmer’s rib” syndrome: the serratus anterior muscle’s attachment point to the rib on my strong side became irritated; it felt I the rib was constantly bruised. This forced me to (among other things) finally start working on bilateral breathing.
Why is it harder to breathe on the weak side?
Experts lists a variety of reasons, including:
- Not enough rotation. Your body may have got accustomed to rotating enough on your strong arm recovery (because you are used to breathing to that side), but there was no strong impetus for it to rotate enough for recovering the weak arm. This breakdown in technique is what can cause Repetitive Strain Injury to your shoulder or rib, because the strong arm is working without enough rotation. It does not help that the strong arm is also usually pulling stronger than the weak arm, so the problem can be exacerbated.
- You learned that there is a breathing air pocket on your strong side, but you have not trained your body to trust that there can be a similar air pocket on the weak side. Finding the air pocket on the weak side needs to become second nature to you, just like you learned to find it on your strong side. If you don’t trust it to be there, then you compensate by lifting the head out of the water while breathing to your weak side. You need to train for the body to know when and where to find air in the air pocket, on the weak side.
- There may be shoulder and neck mobility issues.
The Workout
I came up with the workout below after spending hours reading posts, watching videos. I could find a bunch of “silver bullet” style recommendations, here and there, but I could not find a proper workout to put those things together.
I swim this workout 2 out of 3 times per week that I swim. The third time is focused on power and speed (a lot of all-out sprinting intervals).
I found that, for me, it’s a lot easier to breathe on the weak side while pulling a buoy an using small paddles. I’m building on this fact in this workout, but I have no idea how universal this is. Try it for yourself: if this does not work for you, then try adding fins into the mix. You want to be able to help your body enough to maintain breathing to the non-dominant side for 100.
It takes me just under an hour to swim this workout, in a 25 yard pool.
Warm Up
- 100 Freestyle Pull, with buoy and paddles, breathing on 2 to the weak side.
Relaxed pace. Focus on:
Extending the forward arm and keeping it extended until after the breath is done, and your face is facing down.
Keeping the bottom goggle in the water.
- 3 x 50 Fingertip Drag Drill, with snorkel.
Relaxed pace. Focus on:
Rotating evenly to both sides. Especially the weak side!
Exposing your armpit above water on hand recovery.
Main Set
- 4 x 50 Broken Arrow Drill, with fins.
Use fins to gain speed comparable to your normal swimming speed, but not faster. This will ensure that your head creates enough of a wave and a breathing pocket. Focus on:
Swimming with the head rotated with the body, when your arm is extended up, in the breathing position, with one goggle below water, and one goggle above.
Take one stroke, take a breath, lift the recovering arm up and hold for 2-3 seconds. Finish recovery, take another stroke, repeat. You’ll be breathing on both sides this way, once per each stroke. - 4 x 50 Freestyle, with fins, breathing on 3.
Use fins to maintain relatively fast speed. Breathe alternating the sides every 3 strokes. Focus on:
Proper head position, especially on your weak side, keeping one goggle in the water.
Keeping the front arm fully extended until after the breath is done. Resist the urge to press down during the breath. - 4 x 100 Freestyle pull, with buoy and paddles, breathing on 2 to the weak side.
Aim for relaxed pace, but with firm, strong pulls, to create enough speed to maintain a good breathing air pocket. Focus on:
Finding the air pocket.
Timing the breath with body rotation.
Keeping your neck straight.
Keeping lower goggle in the water while breathing. - 200 Choice.
This is where you can customize the workout with some other things that you are working on. I swim 200 dolphin kick on back here, but you can do whatever you want. - 6 x 50 Flutter kick on the side with fins (25 one side, 25 other side).
Start with your weak side up, while you are the freshest. Extend the lower arm forward and keep it streamlined. Use fins to accelerate to your normal swimming speed. Keep the face down, but rotate the head for a breath every 6 kicks. Switch sides after 25. Focus on:
Keeping your neck straight.
Rotating the head just enough to reach the air pocket. Take a quick breath, and rotate the head to face down. - 200 Choice.
Customize here. I swim 200 front dolphin kick here.
- 6 x 50 Single arm freestyle, with fins, breathing to the OTHER side.
Use fins to pick up enough speed, but don’t go too fast. You want to maintain as much control as possible. Keep one arm by the hip, use the other arm as the only one doing the strokes. Breathe to the OTHER side, i.e. if your right arm is working, then you’ll be breathing to the left side. Swim breathing to your weak side for the first 25, while you are your freshest, then switch to breathing on the strong side. Focus on:
Rotate the entire body normally. Rotate to the non-working side for a high quality breath (neck straight, one goggle under water). Then rotate fully to the other side for a high quality stroke.
Keep the working arm extended forward until after the breath is finished.
This drill helps you discover if your stroke on one side is weaker than on the other. If so, work on this disbalance. Feel the connection of the stroke to the hips rotation.
Cool Down
- 100 Choice.
I usually swim breaststroke here.
Progression
Progressively, work towards replacing the 4×100 section of pull with paddles, breathing to the weak side, with swimming with no equipment and breathing on 2 to the weak side. Once you can comfortably swim 4×100 breathing only to the weak side, you won’t need this workout anymore. After that, frequently include bilateral breathing in your normal workouts, to maintain the skill.
Wrap UP
Let me know how it goes if you try this workout. Also let me know if you have other drills that are helping you with the task of developing bilateral breathing.
