From my running days: t’s my understanding that forcing nose breathing is no real benefit. The nose does act as a filter and helps moisturize the air before it hits the bronchial tubes and lungs. This may help some people in dry and dusty conditions that are prone to sore throats.
Gawd, those videos of ‘in through the nose, out through the mouth’. 
I seem to congest a little when I ride so that goes out the window. I sometimes reverse it, but have launched some indoor snot rockets doing that. (One the dog tracked down, and ate 
. Yeah, no kidding! 
)
And allergies to pine, surrounded by pine forests… 
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It also helps to “warm” the air when running in freezing conditions. When I run or ride at -20C I try to nosebreathing as much as I can, but that’s a specific condition.
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the theory I have heard is that nose breathing brings in the right amount of oxygen for your body to process most efficiently, with mouth breathing your body is not able to process the oxygen as well.
Matter of fact there is a study of two guys who did nothing but mouth breathing for such and such time and their health deteriorated, they took all kinds of tests during the study. Then they did nose breathing only for the same amount of time and recovered and went back to stellar health.two guys
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sorry I’ll butcher this but I believe that’s the point of nose breathing…is we get too much air in and out when we breathe through the mouth…when through the nose air hangs out a little more in the lungs and we can extract more oxygen per amount of air we have in there.
there’s other purported benefits but too much to list here.
I seriously resisted this for years and years but it makes sense and I like it (breathing through the nose)
check this out:
ETA: I would argue that makes you healthier (and doesn’t distract from your training) is only net positive for your cycling performance…even if you don’t see it immediately.
10 years from now if I do little things to make myself healthier off-bike, i’ll be a better cyclist than if I hadn’t done those things.
ride-to-ride…or even one season? nah…doubt it has any measurable benefit for 98% of people unless you’re really dysfunctional in some way and this is instantly game changing for you.
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As a triathlete, mostly for running. Particularly if you’re new to it, it’s a very simple way to stay in low/moderate aerobic zones.
When cycling with a power meter, not really. There’s been a few times - rainy days - when you realise cycling with your mouth open isn’t a great idea…
I recognise the benefits @SarahLaverty has identified above, but it mostly comes naturally to me now rather than something I focus on.
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Check out the book Breath others have mentioned. It is pretty mind blowing!
I’ve been working on this and now very easily do endurance rides all nasal. On good days I can maintain up to 85% HR nasal breathing. Interestingly I’ve found my breathing to be the easiest assessment of how I’m feeling on a given day (like a Whoop recovery score or something). If my breathing is labored at a lower intensity than normal it’s going to be a rough day. PRs come the days breathing feels easy/controlled/not sure of the right word.
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This will probably sound stupid, but I can’t think of a better way of explaining my experience:
Until a few months ago (can’t remember exactly) I felt like I simply couldn’t get enough air while inhaling through my nose while exercising, even at just high Z2.
When I started focusing on it, I found that where I felt the breath made a big difference. If I felt it in my nose, think similar feeling to sniffing when your nose is running, I had to move to mouth breathing quite quickly as the workout intensity ramped up.
However, at some point I did something different, and I felt the breath more in my throat? If that makes any sense? Doing that, I can maintain inhaling through my nose far longer without feeling restricted, and even when going over to mouth breathing I feel like I have better control than previously.
(not as good with exhaling through my nose yet, where I don’t feel it is restricting me)
Now, obviously this just means I learnt a bad breathing habit when I was young, and it took me stupidly long to figure it out since I simply breathed through my mouth whenever exercising.
Long way of saying, personally I found benefit in focusing on my nose breathing as long as I was comfortable, then smoothly switching over.
Really! I must admit I’m intrigued. I can’t see myself going on a climb putting a good effort and nosebreathing.
I’ll take a look and see something about this book when I finish the one I’m reading now.
I did a deep dive on this a number of years ago. I read the Oxygen Advantage and tried the exercises. I also read the associated studies. I don’t think any of applies to cycling performance or increasing one’s FTP. All the studies show performance gains in very short events.
A quick google search explains nitric oxide production and nose breathing:
Nitric oxide (NO) is released in the nasal airways in humans. During inspiration through the nose this NO will follow the airstream to the lower airways and the lungs. Nasally derived NO has been shown to increase arterial oxygen tension and reduce pulmonary vascular resistance, thereby acting as an airborne messenger.
Since I’m generally a nose breather I interpret a lot of this to mean that focusing on nose breathing will do nothing for me. I’m already breathing through my nose like 99% of the day. Now, if one is the type to have their mouth open all the time, even at rest, then there may be some benefit from focusing on nose breathing.
Breathing through your nose to stay in zone 1/2 is just a simple hack to control intensity. One could do it with a HR monitor as well. The first uptick in breath rate is generally identified as VT1 (or aerobic threshold). The idea is that doing low intensity training below VT1 results in less fatigue.
Personally, I didn’t find anything magical about the Oxygen Advantage for cycling performance which was my primary interest.
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you don’t. that’s one of the first things they say. when you are doing a hard atheltic thing (climbs, heavy weights, etc,) you mouth breathe
part of the reason is it activates your sympathetic (this is what they say and I believe them) nervous system. so that’s also why you don’t wanna mouth breathe all day. you wanna be calm calm calm - then when you gotta sprint and hunt something or defend your tribe, open your mouth and breathe and activate sympathetic.
like it’s not a switch or something you need to consciously think about when I’m nose breathing and I just decide “ok i will breathe through my mouth now”. when you’re unable to get enough O2 you’ll just naturally open your mouth and start breathing.
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i mean. the entire book is basically just explaining why nose breathing is beneficial. if you’re already doing it of course you find no benefit.
dunno the numbers but I bet >50% of people are mouth breathers
Sometimes these things tell you to do things that you already do… This was one of them for me. I always ride around at low intensity with my mouth shut. I can definitely feel the uptick in breath rate when I get to high zone 2 and feel the need to open my mouth.
It was the same with Robert Lustig. I enjoyed his books but the primary premise is to avoid sugar. I already cut out soda, sugar cereals, and the like decades ago.
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We are talking about exercising here right? Not like zen breathing for relaxation or anything. I don’t know why this triggers me so much, maybe because I see it all the time as a running coach, but it is wild to me anyone would actually try to breath through their nose when doing any form of intensity.
Just yesterday we had a cross country race. Kid had his head back, suffering, looking like he was going to pass out, mouth shut trying to breath through his nose while running up a hill in the middle of a 5k race. To think that evolution somehow got it wrong is just crazy to me.
As @kurt.braeckel said, “just breath.”
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I think the message gets lost in pop-culture YouTube world. Nose breathing in daily life - very beneficial, in fact how we are designed. Forced nose breathing during athletic performance - color me skeptical at the easiest intensities, at best, and certainly not at any higher intensity.
Like some others here, I don’t really think about how I breathe, but then again, I’ve been doing this for 30+ years. I certainly don’t force nose breathing, but I do breathe primarily through my nose until I feel like I need more. I never once actively thought about keeping my mouth shut to force nose-breathing while riding, running or whatever. I guess I forced all my exhalation through my nose while swimming though! 
I think the point I’d anchor on is unless you’re dysfunctional this probably isn’t something to spend much time or effort worrying about, again my opinion only.
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Just tonight I had a workout that urged riders to do the nose breathing, on Zwift! Yeah, no, too stuffy tonight, and too much neuromuscular for that.
I have worked extensively on nose breathing while cycling.
Overall, there is no performance loss to nose breathing provided you transition from nose breathing to mouth breathing when nose breathing provides insufficient oxygen for your effort.
I did not find an obvious performance advantage, but I did find:
- assists to calm heart rate vs mouth breathing - say 2-4 beats reduction;
- supports calmer more measured and consistent breathing through being mindful of how you breath and learning new breathing habits;
- is generally calming (mouth breathing associated with fight or flight and while I think that’s not really applicable in this exercising scenario I definitely find it helpful);
- is a useful way to cap your effort but not a useful way to keep you in a particular zone (I can nose breath into the start of threshold efforts);
- I can shut my mouth while eating and drinking on the bike and breath through my nose. Very useful in highly demanding exercise where missing a breath can be compromising on performance.
Overall, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing to lose with it and overall it provides benefits I find materially helpful.
Like others I have read the Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown and highly recommend it. While he may over sell the benefits, the benefits are real and extend both primarily and well beyond exercise benefits.
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Interesting because the Headspace meditation/mindfulness app starts all their sessions breathing in through the nose and out of the mouth.
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How, got it. It makes sense.
Like Yoga. The first 10 and last 5 min is essentially dedicated to breath. Inhale… Exhale…
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