Many Tour de France cyclists now work with breathing coaches. And it’s a smart idea: we breathe 17,000-29,000 times a day, oxygen fuels our exercise, yet our breathing is so instinctive we rarely consider good technique and use only a small volume of our lungs’ capacity.
“Mastering one of the most powerful mechanisms in your body can have a huge impact on your cycling,” says breathing coach Thomas Hague. “If we can breathe better, we can go harder, for longer, with less perceived effort.” Read on to find out how to take in more oxygen.