Sorry if the question isn’t clear. But, I’m curious to know why other athletes focus on breathing to bring oxygen to their muscles.
In: Biology
Just to add a cool side-note: as a competitive swimmer I can confirm that our bodies become overall better at using oxygen, as others have said, we train to hold our breath and do as much as possible with as little oxygen as possible. I was one of those swimmers who could do 100+ meters underwater on a single breathe.
If I didn’t have this training, I would have died (according to specialists and general medical staff)
I broke my leg and developed a DVT which hit my lungs and filled them with clots. I presented to the ER with deathly low oxygen. The nurse taking my obs genuinely believed she couldn’t read my blood oxygen levels as they were in the death range (I don’t know what that is, but she saw me after I was admitted and told me how scared for me she was) I was admitted instantly and after a few scans was found to have black lungs (no blood could penetrate my lung tissue due to the clotting). After 18 months clearing the clots out, and a lot of lung testing/ examinations/curious doctors – they found that swimming had improved my lung capacity to the point that training without oxygen saved my life. I was able to function normally without the use of my lungs basically. As wild as that sounds!
TLDR: swim training developed my lungs/body to survive with minimal oxygen when I was sick. Didn’t die because of training.
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