The breathing technique in Cycling

Most cyclists limit themselves to breathing in and out spontaneously, without any specific training or technical work in this regard.
In the first seconds of life, our central nervous system starts breathing automatically and totally unconsciously. Hence, we do not give the value or due attention to this "vital" act, nor do we consider how we can improve, develop, train this physiological aspect that is so important for our sports performance.
The fundamental objective of respiration is none other than to supply oxygen to all the corners of the body that need it, in a timely manner, that is, as demand increases, its supply will do the same. Otherwise, we would enter the oxygen “debt” phase, and the body would be anaerobic and would set off internal alarms until our activity slowed down, stopped it, and even made us lose consciousness.
Why give up your training, if with a
correct breathing technique we can obtain valuable extra oxygen levels. This great unknown can be the difference between being just in a sporting event and losing contact with those who lead the competition, or holding on for a few more seconds, which allow us to maintain the rhythm of the head of the race.
The importance of breathing is greater, the greater the level of aerobic demand that we face in our sports discipline.
We must strengthen the thoracic breathing and the abdominal call, that is, we must try to facilitate the effort that our thoracic muscles have to make by supporting us in the diaphragmatic work.
By this I am referring to taking a "full" breath.
We have to control the respiratory rhythm at all times, except of course, in maximum efforts, in which our body has to take control of it.
We must not forget that breathing, that is, both exhaling and above all inspiring, involves a high energy expenditure, and therefore, an additional means of escape of energy, in the form of pulsations. Therefore, the higher the respiratory demand, the more oxygen enters the lungs, but also the higher the consumption.

Breathing in practice.
To improve our breathing technique, I suggest you do the following exercise several times during your workouts.
We have to start the execution, the first days, in undemanding training phases, since we will have to pay greater attention to their technique. After a few weeks, we will start practicing it in somewhat more demanding training moments.
1- We will make a complete inspiration through both the nose and the mouth at first. (we feel how the volume of the ribcage increases)
2- Immediately afterwards we have to make a final inspiratory effort trying to gain space in the abdominal area, generally the whole aire enters through the mouth exclusively. (at this moment we feel how the abdominal volume increases sensibly)
3- To expel the aire, we have to focus on starting that emptying from the abdomen. (we feel the abdominal space emptying)
4- We finish, logically emptying the rib cage. (We must absolutely feel this emptiness).
This breathing technique is repeated, during training, and we will do it for 10 complete respiratory cycles. We will repeat this series every 5 minutes for an hour.
That is to say: 20 sets x 10 repetitions / 5´ rest
It is normal that the first series are not entirely satisfactory, since we are "learning" to breathe again, and we will make mistakes in concentration, in our breathing rhythm, and it is possible that we even feel bad. But it is a technique that, well executed, in the long run will provide us with a notable increase in performance, both due to the increase in respiratory capacity and the decrease in energy expenditure.
As the weeks go by, what we will do is execute this technique in moments of greater respiratory demand.
We should not do it from the beginning, in maximum or submaximal efforts.
We have to learn to feel how we breathe. We are going to rediscover this lost feeling, and we will execute it this time, consciously. It is important to hit with the necessary regularity, that is, not to make them too slow or too short due to the risk of making incomplete inspirations or exhalations.
Let's take advantage of these training moments to witness the whole process, and indirectly teach our central nervous system, to make the most of our aerobic potential.
With the passing of the weeks, if the aforementioned technique is carried out correctly, we are very possibly talking about between 5 and 10 ppm less at the same effort.

Source: Jose Manule Movellan