hold your breath

[prana]

I am bored today, so I am posting some questions to pass some time.

How long can you hold your breath ? Have you noticed the effects of holding your breath versus the activitity of your mind ? Of course, I have an opinion on this, but I would like to know what you guys think :)

How do you train to hold your breathe longer ? Like those Japanese divers, they do some pretty amazing things.

[Xebsball]

just did 35 secs, actually thats a record for me :eek:
i remember when i used to do 13.

but im really slacking on my training for the past 1 and half months, i should try again when i get back to more training.

[prana]

Hey Xebby, nice to see ya again mate :)

Yeah 35 seconds, I cant do much longer either.... before my face turns blue

[jun_erh]

I have a really large lung capacity, but it's the mental part that takes you to the next level. free diving is the ****. the record is like 500 something feet. You can sort of train your lungs to sort of go into your windpipe so it doesn't get crushed by the pressure

[Cheese Dog]

One way to practice the Okinawan Kempo kata Naihanchi is to breath out ALL of your air at the BEGINNING of the kata and not breath in again until the end! Luckily it's a short kata, takes me 25-30 seconds to do. I can't quite get to the end yet, but i'm working on it. My instructor can do the kata at about half of the speed I do it without having to stop and gasp for breath. The thing that ticks me off about that is the fact that he smokes!--and he has more endurance that me!

It's done as a method of chi gung, increasing your chi.

[Repulsive Monkey]

Hiya buddy!
Holding the breath from a Nei Gong point oview and TCM (Naturally!) will serve to maintain an increasing substantiality in the upper body and cause qi to rush upwards to the head and stagnate. The result of that can vary due to duration and can start of with dizzyness experiencing floaters in the eyes (not the tiolet kind before anyone starts joking!!!) and buzzing sounds in the ears as the pressure develops and qi gathers even more. It will temporarily hault the microcosmic circulation causing majot stagnation around Ying Tang and Bai Hui i.e. 3rd eye and headtop (spirit exit point). Due to the stagnation it will cause heat build up to in the cerebrum nad cause both qi and blood stagnation.

[Former castleva]

Do not hold your breath. :p

I think you can hold your breath longer if you do not inhale to your full capacity (as far as I know,your lungs will never be really full though) but rather leave some "space".
This way you do not tense the muscles,causing less effort and can last longer.

I have heard bad things about these "tension" katas of karate arts btw.
Holding your breathe and doing related activities I assume,is hard for your heart and hey,respiratory system.

[Cheese Dog]

Actually you can do this kata pretty relaxed with practice. Also we don't do tension katas or breath-holding katas too often. No more than 3 times a week for no more than a few minutes.

I know an instructor who made himself ill by practicing hard tension sanchin every day for about 15-20 minutes at a time. He was feeling worse and worse as time passed. He went to an accupucturist who told him his energy was "reversed" --his yin was too yang and his yang was too yin! He immediately stopped his practice, and shortly after was healthy again. Of course, his was an extreme case.

[prana]

Thanks for all the excellent tips all.

FC, I too have experienced that not breathing in too deeply prevents the "tension" of having to burst out... hmmm how strange and yet so true.

RM, that is so interesting. One of my old qigong teachers used to teach us this technique where we concentrate our energies int he dan-tien whilst int eh semi lotus. Prior to breathing out, we are to ebdn out torso forward and breathe out, whilst concetrating the energy pushing downwards through the spine and up towards the head.

CD, I guess being relaxed and empty minded is one of the secrets to holding your breath even if its just 5 seconds longer. But doing that is so against the minds natural tendencies... ahh the mind is hard to tame :)

j_e : 500 feet is really really amazing ! That is almost insane, do they siffer from the bends ?


Xebsball : must be the air, I have been slacking off too, MUST TRAIN AGAIN!!!!!!

[PhantomFighter]

I tried holding my breath, and did so for about 70 something seconds... Around that time it felt weird that I could hold my breath for so long, almost like I didn't require it... Then I felt the familiar air depravation feeling, and stopped. I could have at least pushed myself for another 10 seconds...

I think it's true about the whole belief of the chi being drawn into the head. My headache worsened, and wasn't feeling too peppy afterwards... That, or I was just believing it to be so.

[jun_erh]

prana- I think they have to plan when they are coming up so they dn't d it too fast. The guy who wrote the article came back on deck and threw up after going down about 20 feet. that's twenty. try it in a lake smetime, it's scary. The free diver dude, who has groupies, used to dive off cliffs and go fishing like 200 feet deep to feed his family. Not unlike your iron palm, etc shalin stuff. If yu do smething everyday for years, you become accustomed to the discomfort.

[looking_up]

Wow, I just did 2 minutes. The last 20 seconds were sort of getting uncomfortable. I think it's definitely a mind thing, I don't think I could hold my breath this long before I did qigong. I did recently quit smoking cigarettes (~10 years).

[Vapour]

I think I used to be able to reach other side of pool (50m or 25m I can't remember) without taking breath. I also hear that someone can do 1 kilometer without taking a breath. And yes, those Japanese diver are famous for their ability.

In one of silat style, their neigon training has this practice where you have to do entire form without taking a breath. Is there similar training in Kung Fu?

[Starchaser107]

One minute 5 seconds ...need more practice

[TIDAL]

Just tried holding my breath and got 50 sec. Im pretty disappointed, when I used to go surfing (I wasnt that good so I spent most of my time under water) I could do 2 min.

All well.

[jun_erh]

there was another article in Sports Illusatrated a few weeks ago

[Xebsball]

aaaaaand now...

50 secs!!
:D :D :D

evolution (revised)
13 -> 20 -> 35 -> 50

[Shaolinlueb]

1 minute 10 seconds.

[Ka]

Prana
We have one of the best Women Free divers living here in Sydney.She broke some sort of record recently not sure if was assisted or neutral buoyancy event.
Recently gave a lecture at UNSW unfortunatly I didn't attend but from memory she lives on the North Shore.I will try and track down the information,it is truly an astonishing sport(or maybe just insane) where they push the body mentally and pysically.
There's also alocally published magazine called Free Diver, looks like a newpaper.

[Ka]

Free Diving Record Broken
by a British Women
neutral sled decent to 125 m or 400ft I think
Breath Held for 3min38 secs
Thats Impressive
Here's her training
www.tanyastreeter.com/?sm...d=7&aPost=