No Mr Bond, I expect you to die! But before you do, I will just tell you quickly about my plan to take over the planet.What, that you plan to use your orbiting spacecraft to crash the world's stock markets and, in the ensuing melee, rob Fort Knox and use the proceeds to become the dominant super power?What! However did you know that?Bond smiled. That e-mail to [email protected] had turned out useful after all. Now if only he could remember what three times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill had said about the difference between the damper settings on the rowing machine, he might just be able to save the world after all. Barry Teal: Could you please advise me of the correct breathing technique for rowing? I do the usual exhale on the effort (drive/row), and inhale on the recovery - trouble is that as I approach the end of recovery/start of the drive, I cannot get a full inhalation, hence after 2,000m I'm falling off the Rower exhausted. Any help would be much appreciated by myself and others doing the sponsored row. Terry O'Neill: There is no recommended breathing pattern. Conventional wisdom amongst weight lifters is to breathe out as you drive the weight up but they are dealing with much greater loads than rowers. Unless you have a respiratory problem you should not be having a problem with breathing on the Rower. We breathe for two reasons: to take on oxygen and to expel carbon dioxide. A sedentary man would be able to breathe about 100 litres of air a minute (top rowers breathe 250 litres), of which 20.8% is oxygen. This gives you a potential oxygen intake of approximately 20 litres. Depending on your ability to exchange oxygen, a normal person would get somewhere around 3-5 litres of oxygen/minute, which is sufficient for an enormous amount of work. As far as the build up of carbon dioxide is concerned, this is detected by sensory glands and the breathing pattern will change subconsciously. If you don't have a respiratory problem then what you are experiencing is psychological. Just relax and forget about breathing: that will take care of itself and you can get on with your sponsored row.