Breathing

Let the breath breathe 

There is nothing more reactive to our emotional and physical status than how we breath. We breathe fast and shallow when excited, fast and deep when panicked, shallow when sad, and almost not at all when depressed. 

Fear, anguish, and anxiety suppress our breathing and reinforce a vicious cycle of less and less breathing. The outside world constantly bombards us with stimuli that influence how we breathe. Often we react to these stimuli rather than preemptively taking control. As a result, our instinctive response to extreme emotions and postural choices are strangulating our breath. We don’t let breathing happen, instead constricting and obstructing it. We don’t let it be.

The thing is, we have control over our breathing. Breathing, in fact, is the only autonomic function of our body that can be consciously controlled. We can change its intensity and frequency by adjusting physical exertion. Just as the intensity of exertion influences breathing, breathing also influences physical performance. 

Breathing in judo/jiu jitsu

Due to complex its involvement of complex muscular efforts, judo/jiu jitsu demands high cardio performance to sustain control in sparring. Thus, a controlled, deep breathing pattern is essential.

The variety of positions in judo/jiu jitsu have different effects on our breathing pattern. For example, a flexed trunk considerably limits the movement of the rib cage as its expansion range decreases, which limits a practitioner’s oxygen intake and leads to premature fatigue. The body fatigues faster with less oxygen. Most of the time, a practitioner encounters the give up moment in their mind not when the muscles are fatigued but when their breathing is negatively altered.   

Good posture, frames, and leverage will keep the respiratory system free of self-restrictions and keep outside pressure under relative control. How we breath influences not only the performance of our body but also the performance of our mind and our will to fight.  Uncomfortable positions translate to uncomfortable breathing. Once uncomfortable breathing becomes comfortable, one knows how to breath. 

Lede art by Sophie Bray