Written from firsthand experience with a deviated septum and checked against clinical sources. We make Ventriq Nasal Strips, so we are always upfront that a strip relieves symptoms rather than fixing the structural problem. Read our methodology or our editorial policy.
For swimmers, the best nasal strips are not something you wear mid stroke. A strip cannot survive a swim cap, goggles and a full session underwater, so the real value shows up on the pool deck, in your warm up, in your cool down, and in the congestion that chlorine and cold pool air leave behind after a hard session. A strip will not change your engine or raise your VO2 max, but it lowers the resistance your nose creates on every breath, which matters most in the minutes before you get in the water and the hours after you get out. If you have a structural issue like a deviated septum, that restriction is worse, and a strip that opens the nasal valve before or after training can make a real difference to how easy your breathing feels.
I started using nasal strips for sleep after a Consultant Otolaryngologist at a private hospital in Dublin diagnosed me with a significantly deviated septum and recommended septorhinoplasty. I played rugby for over a decade and my nose took plenty of damage along the way, broken more than once in collisions. I put the surgery off to keep playing, and I built Ventriq to give myself a way to breathe properly in the meantime. I am not a competitive swimmer, but the same restriction that made rugby training hard on my breathing is exactly what pool swimmers with a deviated septum deal with every time they surface for air or step onto the deck.
Why Nasal Breathing Matters in Swimming
Swimming has an unusual breathing pattern compared to most sports. In the water, most swimmers exhale through the nose to stop water entering the nasal passage, then inhale through the mouth when they turn their head to breathe. That means nasal breathing is doing less of the heavy lifting during the actual stroke than it does in a sport like running or football.
Where nasal breathing matters most for swimmers is everywhere around the swim itself. Warm up on deck, dryland conditioning, cool down laps, and the hours of recovery afterward all rely on normal nasal breathing, and this is where a restricted airway shows up. Nasal breathing warms and humidifies the air before it reaches your lungs and triggers a calmer autonomic response than mouth breathing. The nose also produces nitric oxide as air passes through it, which acts as a bronchodilator and a vasodilator, helping open your airways and improve oxygen uptake at a tissue level. Chlorinated pool air is also known to irritate the nasal lining, and swimmers frequently report feeling more congested after a session than before it, even without a cold or allergy involved.
For someone with a deviated septum, this irritation lands on top of an airway that is already narrower on one side. The nasal cycle, where the tissue inside your nose alternates which side is more congested on a roughly four hour rotation, can make the restricted side feel almost completely blocked right when you are trying to get a full breath in before diving into a set.
How Nasal Strips Help Swimmers
A nasal strip works on the outside of the nose. It spans the lower cartilage and uses a spring action to lift the lateral nasal wall outward, widening the internal diameter at the nasal valve, which is the narrowest point in your entire airway. You can feel this yourself by pressing gently on the side of your nose while breathing in hard.
For swimmers, that lift is most useful before you get in the water, applied during your warm up so your nasal passage is already open when you start your set, and after you get out, when chlorine irritation and residual congestion make normal breathing harder. Some swimmers also wear a strip through dryland training and gym conditioning, where nasal breathing is fully in play and a restricted airway has nowhere to hide. What a strip will not do is stay put once you are underwater and moving through a cap strap and goggles, so treat it as a deck tool rather than a race day accessory worn mid swim.
I use the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips for training sessions and dryland work. They use a firmer spring than a sleep strip and an adhesive built to grip through sweat and humid pool deck air, so they hold through a full warm up and cool down without curling at the edges.
What to Look for in a Swimming Nasal Strip
A few things matter more for pool based training than they do for everyday use:
- Adhesive strength: pool decks are humid and your skin is often still damp from the last set. You need a strip with an adhesive designed to hold on slightly wet skin, and it helps to dry your nose fully before applying it.
- Spring tension: more tension means more lift and a more open airway during hard dryland or warm up breathing.
- Fit and position: the strip needs to sit across the lower cartilage where the nasal valve narrows, not up on the bony bridge, or it does nothing.
- Skin tolerance: swimmers who train most days need a strip that does not leave the skin raw after repeated daily use.
Most strips I tried before building Ventriq were fine for one off use but started failing as soon as sweat or moisture got involved, which is exactly the environment around a pool deck. The Ventriq Sport strip was built to keep holding through that.
Does It Actually Improve Performance?
I will be honest about this. The research on nasal strips producing measurable performance gains in trained athletes is mixed, and because a strip cannot realistically be worn underwater through a cap and goggles, its effect for swimmers is on land, not in the pool itself. Some studies show small improvements in perceived breathing effort. Others show no meaningful change in VO2 max or power output under laboratory conditions. A strip is a breathing aid for your warm up, cool down and recovery, not an engine upgrade for your stroke.
What I can tell you from my own experience with a restricted airway is that the subjective difference in easier breathing before and after hard training is real. Whether that translates into a faster time in the water depends on the swimmer and how much of their session happens outside the water in dryland and conditioning work. For the deeper look at the evidence, I have covered it in Boost Your Workout: How Nasal Strips Enhance Athletic Performance, Benefits of Nasal Strips for Sport and Do Nasal Strips Improve Athletic Performance.
Nasal Strips if You Have a Deviated Septum
If you have a deviated septum and you train in the pool regularly, the chlorine and humidity swings around a pool deck can make an already restricted airway feel worse than it does day to day. A strip worn during your warm up and again once you towel off after your session gives part of that width back at the two points where nasal breathing matters most in swimming. I have written more on this in Best Nasal Strips for a Deviated Septum.
If congestion from training also disrupts your sleep on hard training nights, How to Sleep Better with a Deviated Septum covers what has worked for me overnight.
My Recommendation
For swimmers, get the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips for warm up, dryland training and the congestion that turns up after a hard session. If training leaves you struggling to breathe and recover overnight, the Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips are the better pick for bedtime, and plenty of athletes use both, sport strips around training and sleep strips overnight. If you cross train on land, the same thinking applies to running and cycling. If chlorine congestion is leaving you snoring after a heavy training day, have a look at Do Nasal Strips Stop Snoring and Best Nasal Strips for Sleeping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I wear a nasal strip while actually swimming?
Not effectively. The adhesive is not designed to hold up underwater, and a swim cap and goggle straps sit right over the area a strip needs to grip. Treat it as a pool deck tool for your warm up and after your session rather than something you wear mid swim.
Do nasal strips help with congestion from chlorine?
They can help with the airflow side of it. A strip widens the nasal valve so air moves more easily through a nose that chlorine has irritated, though it will not stop the irritation itself. Rinsing your nose with saline after a session is a common way swimmers manage the underlying congestion.
Are nasal strips allowed in swim competitions?
Nasal strips are a mechanical breathing aid with no drug action, so they are not on any prohibited list. In practice, most swimmers do not wear them for the race itself since a cap and goggles make it impractical, but there is no rule stopping you from wearing one on deck before or after.
Can I use a sleep nasal strip before a swim session instead of a sport strip?
You can for a light warm up, but a sleep strip has a softer spring and a gentler adhesive, so it may not hold as well or lift as much once you are sweating through dryland work. A sport strip is built to handle that load.
Do nasal strips help swimmers with a deviated septum specifically?
Yes, more than most. A deviated septum already narrows one side of your airway, and pool deck humidity and chlorine irritation tend to make that worse. A strip widens the nasal valve on the outside, which helps regardless of which side the deviation sits on.
Will humidity or a damp face stop a nasal strip from sticking?
It can if your skin is still wet. Dry your nose fully with a towel before applying the strip, and use one built with a stronger adhesive for sport rather than a basic sleep strip, which tends to lift faster in humid pool deck air.
