PHYSIOKINETIC; SUB-PRINCIPLE: Breathing

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Breathing is a sub-principle of physiokinetics yet it is in all probability the most important of all. Breathing, like the brain for a proper mind-set and mind-state, are critical to making everything work even tho principles are meant to be implemented in an interconnected way. The brain, therefore the mind, only achieves its goals due to the fuel it gets such as that extracted through foods and liquids as well as those through study and understanding. We must breathe to control aspects of the mind, through the brains programming, such as the conscious, the unconscious, the procedural memory encoding processes and the lizard as well as the monkey minds or brains - all require oxygen. 

First, breathing means we are alive. Second, breathing is responsible for almost everything that goes on in the human body and mind. The type and way one breathes matters and that becomes critical when involved in high stress conflicts and violence. 

As the body mass moving so is breathing critical to power. How a martial artists breathes determines many things but of interest here is how it determines the quality of our applied methods in a very mechanistic/anatomical way with respect to our body structure, and also in a more esoteric way with respect to energy flow, i.e., things like ki, chi, prana, internal energy that is actually the flow of electrical and chemical type energies that make the body and mind work (blood, oxygenation, fuel, etc.). 

Breathing will produce relaxation and help with centeredness, i.e., it is about remaining in the moment - critical to survival in an attack. It provides other advantages that the other principles and sub-principles need to manifest naturally and without conscious effort (procedural memory activity, etc.). It is that one thing integral to all principles. 

Proper breathing begets physiokinetic aspects such as structure, alignment, etc., that is literally the foundation of sound karate and martial arts applied methodologies. It is also referred to when done properly as diaphragmatic breathing or abdominal breathing, embodying the natural way we should breathe, the way we do so when born and, typically, when we sleep.

Failure to breathe properly hinders good karate and marital arts. It causes unnatural tension in the upper body, restricts and stiffens our movement and violates the fundamental principles so that we shorten our lines in regards to our adversary’s. 

What is affected by breathing is balance, muscle use, inhibits speed, inhibits relaxation, decreases the amount of oxygen available for maximization of stamina in muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. and as a result causes muscle tension that takes a greater part of our mind’s attention as well as inhibits both tactile and visual perceptions (remember the adrenal flood is already causing this type of thing so improper breathing will exacerbate it.). Finally, it affects our “Reaction Time.” 

Another benefit and obstacle to proper vs. improper breathing is about how positive breathing contributes to our mental state, i.e., as to positive mental and anatomical effects of abdominal breathing. 

Bibliography (Click the link)