NOTE: If you haven’t read any of my other articles about nose breathing, you really should go back and read them first for context:

Heart Rate

I’ve been reading articles about what nose breathing is supposed to do regarding heart rate, and it seems that they are contradictory. Some have said that it helps lower heart rate, while others indicate it increases heart rate. I previously wrote that nose breathing is supposed to naturally reduce heart rate, but I’m not fully convinced of that anymore. Heart rate seems to mostly track with my effort. Using my nose helps reduce pace, reducing overall effort, which in turn reduces heart rate.

I’d argue that if you are trying to maintain a slower pace, nose breathing is definitely going to help. If you are trying to maintain a certain heart rate, nose breathing may help to a certain degree, but effort doesn’t always track 1-to-1 with pace. The area that nose breathing can help with effort is by forcing the body to be more efficient with oxygen use, but that is a longer term change.

I am in no way a doctor or even a coach, so these are my unscientific observations. What I do know is that not everything I’ve read agrees with each other. What I’ve experienced seems to show that differing theories might actually be correct depending on how you look at the data. For example, over long periods of time nose breathing could help overall oxygen efficiency and therefore heart rate. Conversely, nose breathing might not affect heart rate significantly when looking at a single run.

If you have your thoughts slap them into the comments below ✍️👇