How important is breathing?
Monday 02 September 2024
Bit of a daft question when worded like that. Obviously, breathing is essential to life. If you don't breathe, you die. But how you breathe can influence your health and wellbeing.
Most of the time we're not conscious of our breathing. We don't pay it much attention. It happens automatically in a normal person. When we're asleep, for example, we continue to breathe. Have you ever asked yourself how that happens? The answer is that the brain continuously issues instructions. We have breathing nerves, part of our 'circuit diagram', which carry electrical instructions to our lungs. When we have a general anaesthetic in hospital, this circuit is broken, which is why a breathing tube is inserted in our lungs, and we are inflated mechanically
In contact sports, it's common knowledge that we exhale sharply when we make contact. Some fighters actually shout as they make contact, but this is not an affectation. It tightens the core, as well as transferring your energy to the target. It also concentrates focus. Importantly, it helps avoid straining your lower back and abdomen, by releasing pent-up energy at the right time. The chances of muscle tears and hernias are reduced. It expels carbon dioxide from the lungs abruptly, stimulating the subsequent gulp of incoming oxygen supply to the muscles and the brain. The sudden, sharp sound can also give you a psychological advantage. Japanese & Chinese fighters especially deliberately develop their own individual sound, sometimes referred to as a war cry - it emboldens the fighter, increases confidence, and can even momentarily freeze the opponent
Thus, you can see how breathing is associated with movement and action, in the above case staccato movement, to stabilise, control and focus the energy of a punch or kick, while protecting the body. But there is also another type of harmony between breathing and movement. Not all exercise is cardio, where you're rapidly inhaling and exhaling staccato, similar to when you're fighting. There is the smoother harmony of breathing with slow movement. Tai chi is one example, but it benefits all slower forms of exercise, especially as we get older. Take press-ups, for example. Cardio does them fast. But consider the much slower version, where you inhale as slowly and deeply as you can on the downward movement, and exhale slowly and deeply on the push upwards. This is a completely different type of harmony, and many come to it late for the first time. Or take the simple exercise of holding the arms out sideways and twisting from left to right. Instead of jerk twisting from left to right, try a slow twist to the left while you inhale, and a slow twist to the right while you exhale. Then after, say, five, reverse the procedure - slow twist to the right while you inhale, slow twist to the left while you exhale. This type of harmony is truly symbiotic - the breathing dictates the speed of movement, and the speed of movement dictates the breathing. The slower you can do it, the greater the benefit. Fill your lungs fully and slowly on the inhalation, expel fully and slowly on exhalation. This gets the oxygen flowing without effort or strain to every organ of your body.