Almost every skater who takes up the sport asks the same thing after a few weeks on the ice: how do you breathe in short track speed skating without feeling like you are suffocating by the second lap? You finish four laps with your chest heaving and your legs burning, while the skater who passed you steps off the ice looking like they have been for a walk. It is tempting to call that fitness and leave it there. Fitness is part of it, but a large part of the problem is mechanical, and it is fixable much faster than fitness is. Short track puts you in a folded position, in cold dry air, at an intensity that punishes any breathing mistake, and most skaters make three or four of those mistakes without knowing it.
Why short track leaves you gasping so quickly
Three things stack up at once. The first is the intensity. A short track race is run at or above the effort you can sustain, so your breathing is chasing a debt from the first corner rather than keeping up with demand. That is the nature of the event and it is normal.
The second is the position. You skate folded forward at the hip with the trunk almost horizontal, which physically limits how far your ribs and abdomen can expand. A tall runner has the full range of the chest available. A short track skater does not.
The third is the air. Rink air is cold and dry, and cold dry air is harsher on the airway than the warm humid air most of us breathe outdoors in India. Many skaters notice a dry throat, a cough after sessions, or a tight chest in the first hard effort of a session, simply because they have gone from thirty degrees outside to a cold hall and then straight into sprint work.
None of those three can be removed. All three can be managed, and the gap between a skater who manages them and a skater who does not is several laps of comfort.
The position problem: where your breath actually goes
The basic short track position asks your trunk to stay low and quiet while your hips and legs work hard. In that shape the front of your abdomen is compressed, your hip flexors are shortened, and the diaphragm has less room to drop than it does when you are upright. The result is that chest breathing becomes the default, and chest breathing in a folded position is shallow breathing.
The fix is not to sit up, which costs you speed. The fix is to breathe into the sides and the back of the ribcage rather than trying to push the front of the belly forward against your thighs. Lateral rib expansion is available to you even when you are folded, and it is what experienced skaters are doing even if they have never described it that way.
You can train this off the ice in five minutes. Sit on a chair and fold forward until your chest is near your thighs, which is roughly the trunk angle you hold on the ice. Put your hands on the lower sides of your ribs. Breathe so that your hands move outwards rather than your chest lifting. It feels awkward for the first few breaths, then it clicks. Repeat it in your basic position holds on dry land, and you are rehearsing the breathing pattern at the same trunk angle you will use in a race.
Folded over the thighs, the front of the abdomen has nowhere to go. The room that is left is at the sides and the back of the ribcage.
Breath holding: the habit nobody tells you about
Watch a nervous skater on the start line and then through the first corner. Very often they take one big breath at the command, hold it through the start, hold it again through the entry to the corner, and only exhale somewhere down the back straight. By lap two they are in deficit and breathing in a panicky, shallow rhythm they cannot recover from.
This happens for an understandable reason. Bracing the trunk by holding the breath feels stable, and stability is exactly what you want when you are loading an edge at full lean. The problem is that short track asks for that stability continuously for a minute or more, and you cannot hold your breath for a minute while sprinting.
The replacement is a firm trunk with a moving breath. Keep the midsection braced, but let air move through it, with a steady controlled exhale rather than a held breath. Many skaters find a light hiss on the exhale through the corner helps, because it is impossible to hiss and hold your breath at the same time. It gives you an audible check that your trunk is firm and your breath is still flowing.
Timing your breathing to the lap
A short track lap has a natural rhythm, and your breathing can follow it instead of fighting it. The corner is where your trunk is most compressed and most braced, so it is the worst place to attempt a deep inhale. The straight is shorter than it looks but it is where your trunk opens slightly and where a full breath is actually possible.
So the pattern most skaters settle into is a controlled exhale through the corner and a deliberate full inhale on the straight. You will not get many breaths per lap at racing speed, which is exactly why each one has to count. Two full breaths taken at the right moment beat five panicked half breaths taken at the wrong ones.
Practise this in training at moderate speed first, where you have the spare attention to notice what you are doing. Pick one session a week, skate ten laps at a steady pace, and do nothing except place a full inhale on each straight. It feels mechanical for the first few laps and then it becomes the thing you do.
Exhale through the compressed, braced corner. Take the full breath on the straight, where your trunk has room for it.
Cold dry rink air, and how to meet it
Going from a warm hall or a hot street straight into cold rink air and then into sprint efforts is a lot to ask of an airway. The sensible answers are simple ones.
Build your intensity gradually at the start of every session, so your first hard effort is not your first effort. Several easy laps and a few moderate accelerations give your airway time to adjust before you ask for maximum. Breathe through the nose during the easy part of a warm up, because nasal breathing warms and humidifies air better than mouth breathing, then accept that you will be mouth breathing once the work begins, because at race intensity there is no choice. Keep your layers on until you are moving, and sip water through the session, since dry air pulls more moisture out of you than the cold suggests.
One thing to be careful about: do not pull a scarf or a buff up over your face in a way that interferes with a correctly fitted neck guard or restricts your vision. Warming the air is useful, but not at the cost of the safety kit short track requires.
The kit that quietly restricts your breathing
This is the part skaters rarely consider, and it is worth a genuine look at your own setup. Short track asks you to wear several layers at once, and if any of them sits wrong, you are racing with a smaller breath available to you.
A neck guard is the most common culprit. It has to sit snugly around the neck to do its job, but it should sit on the neck rather than pressing into the front of the throat, and it should not ride up when you fold into position. The LiveLica Level 3 cut resistant neck guard is designed to sit close without choking, and the test is simple: fold into your basic position on dry land, breathe hard for twenty seconds, and notice whether you can feel it on your windpipe. If you can, adjust the fit rather than putting up with it, and never race without one.
The undersuit is the next thing to check. A cut resistant layer that is a size too small compresses the ribs exactly where you need them to expand sideways, which is a quiet tax on every breath. The LiveLica Level 3 Kevlar undersuit should be close fitting, not constricting, and you should be able to take a full lateral rib breath in it while folded over.
The race suit on top should be aerodynamic but not a corset. A well cut suit such as the LiveLica Pro Short Track Suit is shaped for the low position, which means it does not pull across the chest when you fold. Finally, check your helmet strap. A strap set too far forward under the jaw can press on the throat in the low position, so set it under the chin and clear of the airway. The StayBent short track helmet uses a straightforward strap you can position properly, and it is worth two minutes to get right. If you are assembling the whole kit, the LiveLica short track accessories collection keeps the protective layers together.
Training that improves how you breathe in short track speed skating
Breathing mechanics give you quick wins. Capacity takes longer and comes from ordinary good training rather than from gadgets.
- Aerobic base work. A larger aerobic engine means less of each race is spent in deficit, which is the real cure for gasping. Build it off the ice as well as on it.
- Race pace intervals. Repeats at the effort of your event, with controlled recovery, teach your body to handle the specific demand of four to thirteen laps.
- Position holds with breathing. Hold your basic position on dry land for thirty to sixty seconds while breathing laterally into the ribs. This trains the mechanics and the hip endurance together.
- Mobility for the hips and the thoracic spine. The more freely you can fold without rounding the upper back, the more rib movement you keep in position.
- Rehearsed breathing patterns. Practise your corner exhale and straight inhale in training so it is automatic at a meet.
Avoid the temptation of breath restriction masks and deliberate breath holding sets. They are popular online, they are not necessary, and in a sport already short of air they are a poor way to spend training attention.
The breathing problem changes with the event. A 500m punishes a held breath, a 1500m punishes an impatient first half.
When breathlessness is a question for a doctor
Being out of breath during and after hard skating is normal, and it should settle within a few minutes of stopping. Some things are not in that category. A wheeze, a cough that lingers long after the session, breathlessness that arrives at easy efforts, chest pain or tightness, or a feeling that your breathing is far worse in the rink than it ever is outdoors are all worth getting checked by a doctor rather than training through. Cold air sports are well known for provoking airway symptoms in some athletes, and that is a medical question with proper answers, not a sign that you need to try harder.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I get out of breath so fast in short track?
Usually a combination of racing above your sustainable effort, a folded position that limits rib expansion, holding your breath through the start and the corners, and cold dry rink air. The position and breath holding parts can be improved within a few sessions.
Should I breathe through my nose or my mouth while skating?
Nose breathing is useful during the easy parts of a warm up because it warms and humidifies the air. At race intensity you will breathe through your mouth, and that is fine and unavoidable.
How many breaths should I take per lap?
There is no fixed number and it changes with your speed and the distance. Aim for at least one deliberate full inhale on each straight and a steady exhale through each corner, rather than counting breaths.
Is it normal to feel like I cannot breathe in the low position?
It is common when you are new to it, because the position compresses the front of the abdomen. Learn to breathe into the sides and back of the ribcage instead, and work on hip and thoracic mobility so you can fold without collapsing your chest.
Can my neck guard make it harder to breathe?
A badly fitted one can. It must be snug to protect you, but it should sit on the neck rather than pressing into the windpipe and should not ride up when you fold forward. Adjust the fit, and never skip the neck guard.
Do breathing exercises actually help on the ice?
Yes, if they are specific and rehearsed. Lateral rib breathing in a folded position, and practising the corner exhale and straight inhale during training, both transfer directly. Restriction masks and breath holding sets are not necessary.
The short version
If you run out of breath in short track, start with the mechanics before you blame your fitness. Breathe into the sides and back of your ribs rather than fighting your thighs, keep your trunk braced without holding your breath, exhale through the corner and take your full inhale on the straight, build intensity gradually so cold air does not catch you cold, and check that your neck guard, undersuit, race suit and helmet strap are not quietly stealing part of every breath. Then do the training that grows the engine underneath it all, and the gasping turns into rhythm.
