Abdominal Breathing in Strong Physical Exercises

[sanjuro_ronin]

A few articles in regards to "power breathing":

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/397/

http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2008/09/bre...e-bench-press/

http://www.muscleandworkouts.com/Toptips.htm
( Breathing: Breathing is very important when performing lifts especially for the beginner and when lifting heavy weights. It fills you with oxygen at the right moment and helps you to complete the exercise using proper form.

The general "rule" to follow when it comes to breathing and weightlifting is to breath in when in the negative phase of the lift , and breath out when extending the most effort in lifting the weight.

This is especially important when performing heavy compound movements such as the squat, breathing out at the right moment when you are attempting to bring the weight "up" again can in fact help you to complete the rep. )

http://www.bigmusclesbuilding.com/br...exercises.html

http://mkonen.com/bblog/people/breathing/

[SteveLau]

Gentlemen, I really do not understand and agree with all the points of your posts. But thanks for your input in general.

Breathing at the top of the lung is nothing more than shallow breathing

by Lee Chiang Po. This is what comes closest to the answer to my original question.

My current view on chest breathing is that it is good to exercise the whole lungs and all chest rib muscles, instead of part of them. Shallow breathing to the upper lung does not help much during exercise. Besides, we athelete want to develop our potential lung capacity to the fullest. In application, we can use chest breathing when energy saving is not important. Strength training is an example, because the whole exercise volume is not much as will exhaust us.

Any more input on application instance of chest breathing?


Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

There are many cases where 'upper breathing' is natural and healthy, in fighting and other activities.

when benching i hold my air in the chest. to do it any other way wouldnt make a lot of sense.

squats and deads air in the belly. vasalva accross the board during during the concentric phase of most lifts, but the breathing between reps or during less taxing reps happens in the chest or belly naturally.

[franco1688]

The more oxygen you have in your blood the better your going to perform. Not only that when your breathing is full and natural your heart rate will be lower regardless of the activity. I have had this proven to me personally when I was in college. I was a participant in a biorythm exercise and the person giving the exercise would have me breath fast and short and my heart rate would raise significantly. When I would take deep abdominal breaths my heart rate would lower by anywhere from 20-30 beats per minute. So, in my opinion full controlled breathing is the way to go regardless of the activity, whether it would be lifting, long distance running, or martial arts. Notice I said controlled (ie. exhaling on strikes, muscular contraction, etc.). The shorter and more rapid that your breathing is the quicker you're going to run out of gas. That's just my two cents.

[SteveLau]

So, in my opinion full controlled breathing is the way to go regardless of the activity, whether it would be lifting, long distance running, or martial arts.

by franco1688

In TCMA, agitated mind and rapid breathing usually go hand in hand. And they are symptoms exhibited by not well trained person.

Last night, I paid attention to the way I breathed while I jogged. During the run, I also had a 80m sprint, and I used deep abdominal breathing all the way. My arm swing, body trunk posture, and leg stride are all good. All under full control so to speak. And I landed on the front of my foot all the time during the sprint. I ran pretty way, and I felt the sprint being easy to me. So in conclusion, deep abdominal breathing is the way to go for physical and emotional pressing activities.


Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[Raipizo]

well of course if you use your stomach you can hold alot more air too.

[eomonroe00]

stomach breathing only should be used,
when tired or winded, breaking deep threw the nose into the belly will produce a quicker stronger recovery, than other types

[SteveLau]

well of course if you use your stomach you can hold alot more air too.

by Raipizo


This is probably the key reason to use abdominal breathing during demanding physical activities. Yes, if we look at the shape of our lung, the upper part is smaller in size than the lower part. I am not sure why do humans get evolved so. It is not likely because we will develop a belly in the later part of our life, ha ha. To get the answer, we need to ask the biologist or anthrologist.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[Mr Punch]

To get the answer, we need to ask the biologist or anthrologist.

Looks like you can just ask eomonroe who obviously has all the answers in his single blanket statements.

Just off the top of my head as it's 4 in the morning and I'm working, here are a couple of ways where using the upper portion of your lung too can help in health and MA...

1) You're winded. You can't breath deep into your abdomen. You have no practice in bringing your breathing back down from the upper-lung, high-stressed way. You die. You can test this by getting a high level kyokushin guy to roundhouse kick you in the solar plexus.

2) You have asthma. You can't breathe out properly. Your abdominal breathing is forcing more and more oxygen into your system, causing excessive viscosity of your blood, intense stress on your heart, a rise in blood pressure, and an enormous asthma attack. You don't have adequate control of upper chest breathing to bring your breath back down to your abdomen and breathe out safely. You die.

3) Some guy flattens you. Neither of you have any ground skills because you're traditionalists who believe stupid groundless **** like 'only use abdominal breathing' because your sifu who learnt half his sifu's art in a changing world (including the half about whole lung breathing techniques). He's lying on you at 300 lbs. Fortunately, you know you can bench 325 with the appropriate tension in the upper chest breathing method and push him off, stand up and dance the dance of the steel-toes on his cranium. Oh no, you don't, cos... never mind.

4) Some guy flattens you. He lies on your abdomen. One breath in into your abdomen, and wait... that's it. You don't have any experience in breathing in strange positions or into different parts of your lungs... you die.

5) You fight someone with a lot of experience of MA. He subconciously predicts your every move by watching your tension in your chest and your abdominal movements.
You die.

Blah blah blah. There's enough **** on this thread already. I don't know how many examples you ab breathing only people want.

It's not about just breathing with the upper part of the lungs, though that is sometimes useful, but it's about how to breathe using your whole lungs or sections of them at will. Why would you only want to breathe with a part of your lungs, when basic anatomy tells us that humans regularly underuse at least a third of their lungs? You think having exclusively developed diaphragms, to the detriment of intercostals is somehow useful?

Your intercostals are essential for all of the 'correct' upright postures you find in TC / TJMA.

And while yoga doesn't predate the Buddhist origins of many of the MA, many of the basic breathing and meditational techs do. These techs contain sectional breathing. These were designed for and by the warrior castes.

And a brief look at top TKD guys, kenjutsu/do guys, boxers, some wing chun lines and many more (those are just a few examples from my experiences) will tell you telegraphed techs come a lot from breathing patterns, and even as far as that upper-chest breathing can disguise this, whilst adding to your ab breathing techs' capacity.

To all those who are saying 'only breathe with ab methods' and 'I tried running/sparring/f arting with only the ab method and it worked really well' it's because all of your evidence is from people who haven't been taught how to breathe naturally with their whole lungs or necessary parts.

[SteveLau]

Mr. Punch,

Your long winding, but not too long post really means something good to me. Yep, we probably have enough discussion on the topic. Thanks for you gentlemen once more. To amend what I have in mind of the topic, let me say that both chest and abdominal breathing will help us in demanding physical activities. And mainly we should use the later type.



Enlightened

KC
Hong Kong

[Raipizo]

Thanks for the credit SteveLau.