"My Gung-Fu may not be Your Gung-Fu.
Gwok-Si, Gwok-Faht"
"I will not be part of the generation
that killed Kung-Fu."
....step.
Most athletes will do a combination of tensing the musculature while doing a forcible exhalation if they are aware of a hit coming. Boxers often learn to do body shots while the opponent is inhaling vs. exhaling and also learn to exhale as part of taking and delivering a punch.
My personal experience is that this combination of contracting the muscles while forcibly exhaling seems to work the best.
Last edited by faxiapreta; 06-18-2011 at 02:22 PM.
Honorary African American
grandmaster instructor of Wombat Combat The Lost Art of Anal Destruction™®LLC .
Senior Business Director at TEAM ASSHAMMER consulting services ™®LLC
My bet is, that, although I'm not aware of any research involving this, that the valsalva maneuver is better for strength activities, while the forcible exhalation is better for power activities (i.e. delivering a punch or kick) as well as for shock absorption.
You body adapts, it adapts to the stress that it is put through.
That is why the body changes and the degree of change is dependent on the degree of stress.
Having done "internal" body work like the IW and "external" one like Sanchin and the typical "hard contact" that goes on in full contact MA systems, I can say that BOTH methods have merit, but that the "hands on direct" one done in FC gyms is quicker, though it can have some adverse side effects which are obvious because of the training.
Both methods are preferred for a "well developed and complete" system.
Strength building wise, the most effective and efficient methods is the typical ST protocols that we have with weights.
RE: The Valsava maneuver-
It is pretty natural to do when we, even the untrained, try to move or lift any heavy object.
It is crucial for squats and DL's and even heavy overhead lifting.
It is used in some forms of "iron body", but there are some dangers in using it that way - Holding breath and getting hit is never a good thing, but then again the valsava is NOT done to get hit that way, but to develop the "internals" so that if you do get hit, you have the added benefits of strong core along with the attributes of the typical "exhale when hit" training.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
I recently did a blog post on this
http://www.freefitnessguru.com/blog/...-training/.php
Basically most people either train body parts...
Chest
arms
legs
Or they train exercises...
Bench press
squat
running
MA
But your body then has a weakness as it is designed to respond best to functional training.
Anaerobic and aerobic are physiological fitness that the two types of training can provide.
What the do not provide is anatomical fitness - joint development
Really we should build a foundation of fascia training as well as anaerobic & aerobic.
Then there is longevity of athleticism, less injury and greater development.
I call it "Joint Centric Training"