Breathing exercises

[Ivan]

Hi. I would like to write an article on breathing exercises that help improve striking (exhaling at the tip of a strike) as well as overall performance. I was hoping you could provide some of your own exercises and how to do them and how often below. Also, why do you think they are useful and how have they have personally benefitted you? Here are some of the exercises I have come across:

Shinkokyuu
Supposedly, between bouts of heavy exertion, karateka practice shinkokyuu. I have never personally come across or heard of this before, but the book I read claims it is deep abdominal breathing - breathing with your stomach instead of your chest supposedly helps recovery and is also used by karateka to keep their upper body relaxed before the moment of impact and to harden their muscles as much as possible during impact. Have any of you come across this, and what are your thoughts on it? Is it useful? A supposed way to achieve this, is to create a ratio of breaths to the amount of reps you have done in your previous set of exercise. If I have just done 50 jumping jacks, I will take 10 breaths (ratio of 5:1) and immediately begin my next set - this will quickly demonstrate the importance of extending and slowing your breathing to improve your recovery rate.

Breathing behind the shield
This is a concept that means to breathe whilst constantly tensing your core and ab muscles to protect from damage. It is used in Sanchin kata, and can be practiced whilst performing weighted exercise e.g. breathe using the stomach and focus on interabdominal pressure during your benchpress. Supposedly, it improves endurance, strength, recovery and helps to protect you if you can constantly apply it while sparring

Straw breathing
This is an exercise used by Russian dive schools in the military to teach economic use of air in a dive tank. You lay on the ground on your back with a straw in your mouth and then breathe through it, once you get comfortable, tape another straw to it to extend and extend it up to 3 straws. Practice for 10 minutes at a time to improve lung capacity and breath control.

What exercises do you have?

 

[JowGaWolf]

breathing with your stomach instead of your chest

I've only heard of this for life in general not just for sport. It's accepted that it's better to breath from one's abdomen for all things. The rest I've never heard of.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

What exercises do you have?

Section breathing method.

- Inhale full, exhale fully.
- Inhale 1/2, inhale 1/2, exhale 1/2, exhale 1/2.
- Inhale 1/3. inhale 1/3, inhale 1/3, exhale 1/3, exhale 1/3, exhale 1/3.
- ...
- Inhale 1/8, inhale 1/8, ...

 

[Damien]

Hi. I would like to write an article on breathing exercises that help improve striking (exhaling at the tip of a strike) as well as overall performance. I was hoping you could provide some of your own exercises and how to do them and how often below. Also, why do you think they are useful and how have they have personally benefitted you? Here are some of the exercises I have come across:

Shinkokyuu
Supposedly, between bouts of heavy exertion, karateka practice shinkokyuu. I have never personally come across or heard of this before, but the book I read claims it is deep abdominal breathing - breathing with your stomach instead of your chest supposedly helps recovery and is also used by karateka to keep their upper body relaxed before the moment of impact and to harden their muscles as much as possible during impact. Have any of you come across this, and what are your thoughts on it? Is it useful? A supposed way to achieve this, is to create a ratio of breaths to the amount of reps you have done in your previous set of exercise. If I have just done 50 jumping jacks, I will take 10 breaths (ratio of 5:1) and immediately begin my next set - this will quickly demonstrate the importance of extending and slowing your breathing to improve your recovery rate.

Breathing behind the shield
This is a concept that means to breathe whilst constantly tensing your core and ab muscles to protect from damage. It is used in Sanchin kata, and can be practiced whilst performing weighted exercise e.g. breathe using the stomach and focus on interabdominal pressure during your benchpress. Supposedly, it improves endurance, strength, recovery and helps to protect you if you can constantly apply it while sparring

Straw breathing
This is an exercise used by Russian dive schools in the military to teach economic use of air in a dive tank. You lay on the ground on your back with a straw in your mouth and then breathe through it, once you get comfortable, tape another straw to it to extend and extend it up to 3 straws. Practice for 10 minutes at a time to improve lung capacity and breath control.

What exercises do you have?

In Shaolin we distinguish chest breathing and stomach breathing.

Stomach breathing is great for relaxing and recovery, since you can breathe deeper. You can add an extra bit of inhalation with the chest after expanding your abdomen. We use stomach breathing mostly in meditation and qi gong.

Chest breathing we use whilst delivering power and moving quickly. This allows you to keep a tighter core, prepared for any impacts. You can still engage your core that little bit extra when you breathe out though which helps with driving force downwards and taking body shots.

Generally breathe out to deliver force, breathe in to recover. However it can be good to practice the opposite, so that you aren't habituated to doing only one way. If an opening comes, or you are hit whilst breathing in, you should be able to deal with it. Tensing whilst breathing in sounds a bit odd, but think of deadlift breathing; you breathe out hard to tense, and then keep that tension as you breathe in, creating even more tension.

You can do the same switch with weights, don't always breathe out when exerting force, sometimes breathe in too. Trains you to exert force whenever you need to.

As wacky as certain parts of Systema are, the idea of being flexible with your breathing is legitimate.

 

[Ivan]

I've only heard of this for life in general not just for sport. It's accepted that it's better to breath from one's abdomen for all things. The rest I've never heard of.

Supposedly, breathing with your stomach relaxes your upper body more (shoulders and arms), which leads to faster strikes. A relaxed limb is a fast limb, and the more relaxed your strike is during its motion, the more power you will build up when tensing at the last moment before impact - I think that's the theory behind it.

 

[Ivan]

Tensing whilst breathing in sounds a bit odd, but think of deadlift breathing; you breathe out hard to tense, and then keep that tension as you breathe in, creating even more tension.

That is the premise I was attempting to explain with "breathing behind the shield". The ability to keep your core and body tensed yet still being able to breathe.

 

[Ivan]

Section breathing method.

- Inhale full, exhale fully.
- Inhale 1/2, inhale 1/2, exhale 1/2, exhale 1/2.
- Inhale 1/3. inhale 1/3, inhale 1/3, exhale 1/3, exhale 1/3, exhale 1/3.
- ...
- Inhale 1/8, inhale 1/8, ...

What does this section breathing method help you achieve?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

What does this section breathing method help you achieve?

- You know how much air that you still have left in your lung.
- You don't need full inhale/exhale. You can do partially.

 

[JowGaWolf]

- You know how much air that you still have left in your lung.
- You don't need full inhale/exhale. You can do partially.

I do this naturally full inhale vs partial inhale vs lon inhale vs short inhale but I don't train all of these. I think I trained the short inhale when I ran track as a teen

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I do this naturally full inhale vs partial inhale vs lon inhale vs short inhale but I don't train all of these. I think I trained the short inhale when I ran track as a teen

When I jog, I do 1/2 inhale and 1/2 exhale for each and every 2 steps.

 

[Damien]

Another to thing to think about in terms of general cardio respiratory endurance is breathing rhythm. You can coordinate your breaths in and out with your actions. Also think about how you exhale more quickly than you can inhale, so you don't have to keep things even.

Running is a great way to visualise this. Breathe in with three steps pausing whilst in the air, so in, in in. Then breathe out hard for two steps, out as you land, out as you land. You can then mix up the ratios, the more energy you need (say going up hill), the more you breathe in vs out, maybe four to two or three to one. Then when you're going easy you could go to two to two.

The same can be applied to punching etc, so that you can keep breathing in and out, maintaining oxygen as you go for a big combo or an endurance round on the bag/pads.

Two other thoughts spring to mind that might seem obvious for some, but everyone needs to learn this stuff at some point. In an exchange, breathe through your nose so you can keep your jaw tight and protect your teeth. Breathe through your mouth when you have plenty of space and are safe.

I've heard some people claim that breathing through the nose is more efficient for oxygen exchange, because the nose has a smaller intake capacity than the mouth but we don't run out of oxygen breathing through it. Don't be one of these people... Even saw it promoted by an article through MyFitnessPal. The efficiency is the same, its just breathing through the mouth we take shallower breaths, or over breathe; you don't need to use the whole volume or air taken in. When you're using a lot of energy though breathing through the mouth is the only way to get enough oxygen over an extended period.

 

[_Simon_]

I've heard some people claim that breathing through the nose is more efficient for oxygen exchange, because the nose has a smaller intake capacity than the mouth but we don't run out of oxygen breathing through it. Don't be one of these people... Even saw it promoted by an article through MyFitnessPal. The efficiency is the same, its just breathing through the mouth we take shallower breaths, or over breathe; you don't need to use the whole volume or air taken in. When you're using a lot of energy though breathing through the mouth is the only way to get enough oxygen over an extended period.

Yeah I've heard multiple things... here is a quote in favour of nasal breathing from someone many years ago that I wrote down:

"Mouth breathing, as can happen with an open mouth will tire you faster. The nasal mucosa warms the air when you breathe in, and resorbs moisture from your breath when you exhale. Mouth breathing, as can happen when your mouth is open, will speed dehydration and impact your performance negatively."

 

[Flying Crane]

Yeah I've heard multiple things... here is a quote in favour of nasal breathing from someone many years ago that I wrote down:

"Mouth breathing, as can happen with an open mouth will tire you faster. The nasal mucosa warms the air when you breathe in, and resorbs moisture from your breath when you exhale. Mouth breathing, as can happen when your mouth is open, will speed dehydration and impact your performance negatively."

I am skeptical of that claim. Perhaps in theory, but maybe it would not be noticeable unless in an extreme environment. Like a marathon in the desert.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Yeah I've heard multiple things... here is a quote in favour of nasal breathing from someone many years ago that I wrote down:

"Mouth breathing, as can happen with an open mouth will tire you faster. The nasal mucosa warms the air when you breathe in, and resorbs moisture from your breath when you exhale. Mouth breathing, as can happen when your mouth is open, will speed dehydration and impact your performance negatively."

If you're talking about mouth breathing as a constant thing, then yes, it can contribute to mild dehydration. More likely, it'll just give you dry mouth and you'll drink more because of it. But in the short term? Like for a few minutes in a fight or whatever? No way.

 

[_Simon_]

I am skeptical of that claim. Perhaps in theory, but maybe it would not be noticeable unless in an extreme environment. Like a marathon in the desert.

If you're talking about mouth breathing as a constant thing, then yes, it can contribute to mild dehydration. More likely, it'll just give you dry mouth and you'll drink more because of it. But in the short term? Like for a few minutes in a fight or whatever? No way.

Yeah I don't 100% know or have any legit sources. I'm pretty sure the fellow was referring to just in intense martial arts training sessions that really push you for longer periods of time, rather than in a short fight.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Yeah I don't 100% know or have any legit sources. I'm pretty sure the fellow was referring to just in intense martial arts training sessions that really push you for longer periods of time, rather than in a short fight.

In that situation, you're going to lose about a million times more water from sweating than from breathing. So it's just not worth worrying about, from a hydration perspective.

 

[JowGaWolf]

My understanding of breathing is that the way that a person breathes depends on the type of activity that they are doing. There's no one size fits all. Often times people do breathing exercises separate from the activity that they are supposed to use it for and I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it.

Breathing for exercising the lungs would be like conditioning, but not application to be used within a specific physical activity like running, cycling, martial arts forms, fighting etc.

Breathing for application would be someone actually doing the application and then learning how to maximize breathing for that specific application. Mouth open or mouth closed depends on the activity being done. Unfortunately like many things in martial arts, there's a group of people who practice breathing separately from the application of breathing in the context of the activity that is being trained.

 

[Oily Dragon]

My understanding of breathing is that the way that a person breathes depends on the type of activity that they are doing. There's no one size fits all. Often times people do breathing exercises separate from the activity that they are supposed to use it for and I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it.

Breathing for exercising the lungs would be like conditioning, but not application to be used within a specific physical activity like running, cycling, martial arts forms, fighting etc.

Breathing for application would be someone actually doing the application and then learning how to maximize breathing for that specific application. Mouth open or mouth closed depends on the activity being done. Unfortunately like many things in martial arts, there's a group of people who practice breathing separately from the application of breathing in the context of the activity that is being trained.

When I swim using basic strokes, I only nose breath. In other words I swim like an alligator with my mouth below the water line. I can do this for hours.

To be able to even breathe that way, i spent years running on a treadmill, nose only.

Nasal breathing is superior to mouth breathing in just about every way. Simple reason, the mouth has many functions but the nose has just one, to turbo fuel your lungs with filtered air.

If your nose gets clogged, then you're lucky you also have backup. Those are the days I back or side stroke.

 

[Oily Dragon]

Ive heard some people claim that breathing through the nose is more efficient for oxygen exchange, because the nose has a smaller intake capacity than the mouth but we don't run out of oxygen breathing through it. Don't be one of these people... Even saw it promoted by an article through MyFitnessPal. The efficiency is the same, its just breathing through the mouth we take shallower breaths, or over breathe; you don't need to use the whole volume or air taken in. When you're using a lot of energy though breathing through the mouth is the only way to get enough oxygen over an extended period.

Nasal, diaphragm breathing is superior to mouth breathing for a number of reasons. It has nothing to do with oxygen intake, but muscle needs.

Easy test, take a deep breath with just your nose. You just used only your nose with a little help from your diaphragm, the most important breathing muscle of all, and all that air bypassed your lips, teeth, uvula, and esophagus, straight down below.

Now, take a big lungful of air with your mouth. Your whole upper body just engaged. Multiply both by 100 breaths (a few minutes for some, half an hour for others). So much wasted energy. Great if you need to gasp.

Is It Better to Breathe Through Your Mouth or Nose During Exercise?

Should you breathe through your mouth or nose when exercising? It turns out nasal breathing running—not mouth breathing—may be better.

www.triathlete.com

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

When I teach, I tell my students to let the breath ride the motion. The breath creates the motion, and the motion creates the breath. It’s a timing and rhythm that creates synergy between the two, one does not lead the other. When one can integrate this additional beat to rest of the beats and rhythm in motion it adds a level of efficiency to the whole package. Mouth breathing is fine, but will build bad habits. Don’t mouth breathe when taking a jaw shot…tongue on roof of mouth behind upper teeth is proper position without a mouth guard.