1.4. Two Reasons why I’m Suffocating while Breathing and how to Fix It

And now let’s look at the reasons why we might feel like we’re suffocating while breathing.
There can be two, and both are related to an imbalance between inhaling and exhaling. Many people don’t even realize that this might be the issue because breathing is supposed to be automatic. But it’s not.
The first cause of suffocation is usually insufficient exhalation, in other words, not exhaling everything from the lungs—so the used air stays in and accumulates.
If we don’t exhale that stale, oxygen-depleted air, we don’t have space for a fresh breath full of oxygen, and sooner or later we’ll feel like we’re suffocating.
When I teach beginners, they often think they’re exhaling, but when I watch them, I see two or three bubbles come out, and when they push from the lungs, maybe five bubbles emerge.
But we need thousands. Let’s look at that in more detail.
Each exhale needs to create a vortex of bubbles in the water and expel as much air as possible.
You don’t need to overthink this; you might think you’re exhaling, but in reality, it’s often not enough.
I often see beginner swimmers who exhale too slowly and gently, which is okay when you’re just trying things out at the pool’s edge. But later during actual swimming, this kind of slow puffing out doesn’t work because the breathing rhythm during crawl is much faster. You’ll run into the same problem—you won’t manage to exhale everything, which is necessary.
On the other hand, the second reason for the feeling of suffocation is the exact opposite: even though the exhalation is sufficient, the inhale is too small.
This usually happens when the swimmer has poor body position or bad timing for the breath—and when turning the head for an inhale, they fail to breathe in at all. In the worst case, their mouth doesn’t even reach the surface of the water 🙂 However, this issue isn’t as common, even though most swimmers think it applies to them.
It’s important to try out various exercises for both causes, figure out which one affects you, and focus on that.
Solving the issue of not getting enough air due to insufficient exhalation is easy – you need to exaggerate the amount of air you exhale, press from the lungs with full force, and patiently search for your own balance.
Try exhaling as much air as possible in the water, as fast as you can – forcefully – and repeat it 10 times in a row, without taking a breath in between, like I do, at a faster pace.
Then try it for a minute or more.
If you’re still out of breath and gasping for air, then it’s not possible to move forward yet.
This exercise is the foundation, the absolute minimum, so work on it until it becomes effortless.
Solving the second issue – insufficient inhalation – may take more effort and a deeper search for the causes, especially if you’re teaching yourself. But we’ll talk through everything and learn it in the upcoming chapters.
The goal will be to improve your body position during rotation, because it often happens that the moment you turn your head to breathe, your whole body sinks down and the water surface disappears from sight.
We’ll talk about body position in the water in Chapter 3 – it has a huge impact on comfort while breathing.
If you’re learning to swim on your own, I recommend asking someone to film you, and then try to evaluate what your specific problem is.