Martial Arts and Breathing Exercises.

A quick introduction to breathing exercises in the martial arts, including the "hows" and "whys" of breathing exercises and an example of a simple breathing exercise.

Breathing exercises can increase the power of strikes/blocks in martial arts as well as torso conditioning and cardiovascular fittness.

In the video I say that I will find a video on youtube describing how to tense your pelvic floor muscles, but I have been able to find no such thing.

In order to tense your pelvic floor muscles, imagine that your tensing to stop yourself passing water once you've already started. The muscles you would use to stop yourself from passing water mid-flow are the pelvic floor muscles. You need to tense the pelvic floor muscles during exhaling in the exercise provided in the video.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Martial
• Arts
• Conditioning
• Power
• Breathing
• Exercises
• Cardio
• Cardiovascular
• Fitness

[boydy83]

how many reps etc? should i do this daily?

[BlackDice572]

Like any exercise program you'd be best doing it daily, so long as you give yourself a rest every week. Maybe two days of rest a week would do it.

The amount of reps you do is something that really needs to be determined by you. If you are breathing out and in as much as physically possible for yourself, then the exercise should really be tiring like any other exercise.

Really, you need to be doing enough reps that your respiritory muscles begin to tire or ache from the exertion.

[BlackGaiden02]

could this help my asthma or not

[BlackDice572]

Oh, definately. In fact, I often recommend breathing exercises simmilar to this to asthmatic patients.

[grdnfg]

Cheers!

Do you have more to say on 'chi?' You've probably come across claims that 'chi' is electrical charge transmitted through the fascia. I know its a minefield but you mention you do Tai Chi, maybe you have a take on this - breathing exercise as a way to nourish chi.

[BlackDice572]

My Tai Chi teacher was strictly traditional, which is to say that he didn't suffer from the delusions most westerns have about Chi.

My views on Chi, are dissapointing at best, for most people, and probably offensive to others. So I'll not go into it here.

If your still interested, send me a message directly and I'll explain.

[michaelsalamey]

Yes, what an excellent and informative video. Not only provides an actual beneficial breathing exercise to practice, but explains how breathing works and what benefits you can obtain from it. Highly recommend for martial artists. Thanks!

[david102994]

its very rare to come across a video such as this. very good job. thumbs up. only positive things to say. #FTW

[BlackDice572]

@WAWAWAWAWWAWAWAWAWAW - Well, this exercise will certainly help to one degree or another. But I am afraid that the best way to increase your cardiovascular fitness whilst sparring is to spar as often as you can. You may also find that you are using too much muscular strength over technique, and that your wearing yourself out whilst you fight. Try and keep relaxed, concentrate on technique, and spar as often as you can. That should about do it.