Training Starts With Your Breath: Breathwork for Runners and Hybrid Athletes at Any Level

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There is no required pace to become a runner or a trainee.

Whether you're part of the growing “slow runner” community, preparing for your first 5K, chasing a personal record, running trails, training for an ultramarathon, or preparing for a hybrid competition, there is one thing every athlete brings to the starting line: Their breath.

We spend plenty of time talking about running shoes, pace, heart rate, mileage, strength training, and recovery. Breathing often receives attention only after it becomes difficult. But breathing is movement, too.

Breathing Is Part of the Work

As running intensity increases, the body's demand for ventilation rises. The respiratory muscles, including the diaphragm, have work to do. Many of us have heard the phrase, “one band, one sound.” Well, that’s how the body works too.

“It is important to connect the breath with the body’s effort. Our respiratory rate (how quickly or slowly we breathe) naturally adjusts in response to physical and emotional stress.

Anxiety typically activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing breathing to become faster. By learning to regulate our breathing, we may be able to calm that response, reduce our respiratory rate, and ease some of the physical sensations associated with anxiety.

There is also a chemical component. Carbon dioxide plays an important role in regulating our drive to breathe. On a basic physiological level, running and other high-intensity activities can produce sensations that overlap with anxiety, including a faster heart rate and breathing rate. Learning to recognize and calmly respond to those sensations can be useful during both training and stressful moments.”

— Dr. Victoria Cohen, DO, MPH, CPT

Research on respiratory muscle training suggests that training these muscles can improve respiratory muscle strength and endurance, and some research has demonstrated improvements in endurance exercise performance. Rather than getting consumed by the technicalities and data, let’s get back to the basics: breathing as a component of body awareness and training.

For the Beginner or “Slow Runner”

If you're a new runner, forget the idea that you have to reach a particular pace before you deserve to think like an athlete. You are already training.

Breath awareness can be one more tool for learning your body.

During an easy run, notice whether your breathing feels relaxed or strained. Notice when your breathing changes as your pace or incline changes. Pay attention to whether your shoulders rise, your jaw tightens or your upper body becomes tense as fatigue develops.

You don't have to fix what you notice immediately. Awareness comes first.

For the Experienced Runner

More experience doesn't eliminate the need for awareness. It may make it even more useful.

A runner moving between easy runs, tempo work, intervals, and race efforts experiences very different physiological demands. Learning how your breathing responds to those changes adds another layer of information beyond pace and heart rate alone.

Trail and Ultra Runners

What are Trail Runners and Ultra Runners?

Trail runners run primarily on natural terrain, such as wooded paths, hills, hills, and mountains.

Ultrarunners participate in races longer than a marathon’s 26.2-mile distance, often on roads or trails.

Trail running adds terrain, elevation, and constantly changing effort. Ultramarathon training adds something else: time.

Staying aware of breathing, unnecessary muscular tension, and perceived effort may help athletes recognize how their bodies respond as conditions and fatigue change.

The goal isn't perfect breathing. The goal, at least in the beginning, is knowing your body. Controlling your breath comes with practice.

What About Hybrid Athletes?

What is a Hybrid Athlete?

A hybrid athlete trains across multiple fitness disciplines, typically combining endurance activities, such as running, with strength and functional training.

Hybrid competition makes the relationship between breathing and performance particularly interesting. A HYROX race includes eight 1-kilometer runs, with a functional workout station after each kilometer. That means athletes repeatedly transition between running and strength-based work. You're not simply asking, “Can I run?” You're asking: Can I run after the work?

That makes the ability to recognize effort, recover between demands, and regain control particularly relevant during training.

Try This on Your Next Run or Training Session

Instead of changing your breathing right away, do a simple breath check.

During your warm-up, notice your natural breathing pattern.

During an easy segment, ask yourself: Does this feel controlled?

As effort increases, notice when breathing becomes more pronounced.

After a hill or harder interval, notice how your breathing changes as you recover.

Finally, notice whether your breathing settles along with the rest of your body.

That's it.

No complicated formula.

Just awareness.

Breathwork Isn't a Replacement for Training

Breathwork should complement, not replace, appropriate running, strength, mobility, recovery, and medical care.

At Midnight Phoenix Wellness, we approach breathwork as another way to develop awareness of your body, practice intentional breathing, and explore nervous-system patterns/integration. And you don't need to be an elite athlete to start.

Start where you are. Breathe there. Then keep moving.

Explore virtual breathwork sessions with Midnight Phoenix Wellness.