Thread: Side stich coming back to haunt

Kevin, sorry for your ills. Interestingly enough, to date there is no real scientific proof of any theory on what causes stitches. I used to suffer terribly and it seemed to get worse with effort.

One theory who's remedy seemed to help me was related to breathing. It's believed by some that when the frequency of foot strikes equals the rhythm of breathing, the muscles of the diaphragm stretch disproportionately. To avoid this, you must be conscious of your inhale/exhale cycle and avoid matching your breathing to your foot strike cadence. I was taught to do this by taking a "cleansing breath" every 60 seconds or so. This is a long slow inhale/exhale that breaks up the breathing rhythm and makes you conscious of the breathing pattern.

I can't say this fixed my stitches but I can say that they went away about the same time I started this technique.

Good luck!

It works the other way for me. I need to get into rhythm with stepping and breathing in and out. When i get side stitches, by the way i get them less and less as i train, i start breathing more with my stomach. Breath in all the way expanding your stomach and breath out all the way tensing your abs. A few breaths like that while running and it goes away. It seems like it's a regular cramp and you just need to stretch it.
Works for me.