Breathing, Oxygen and Exhaustion

For the past two weeks I have been talking about breathing, concentrating on unusual situations, like hyperventilation and the Valsalva Maneuver. I should probably have started out by talking about something that is a bit more universally applicable.

Let’s talk about this: no breathing equals no oxygen equals total exhaustion.

It's storytime: a few months ago I was talking with a very frustrated and discouraged grappler. For the sake of this story, let’s call the grappler ‘Fred’. Anyway, ‘Fred’ was a fit guy who did lots of cardiovascular conditioning to help him with his endurance, but had an unusual problem with his grappling. In his own words:

“The situation seems to occur when I train against new people who are very aggressive, usually wrestlers. I try to relax, but it doesn't seem to be working. I still seem to tense up and gas out. But when I fight guys who are so much better than me I can train for a long time and even roll for 30-40 minutes at a time with minimal breaks.”

In other words he had MORE endurance when he was sparring advanced people who kicked his butt than he did when he was grappling aggressive beginners.

It took some experimentation and discussion, but what we finally discovered was that he was holding his breath while fighting certain types of opponents. When he grappled beginners he tensed up and held his breath because he did not want to tap, or get schooled, by a beginner.

Against advanced grapplers he knew he was going to tap: he could accept that they were more skilled than he was, could concentrate on putting up a good fight and doing his best on the mat.

His anxiety was causing him to hold his breath. No breathing equals no oxygen equals total exhaustion.

The solution was fairly simple: he had to concentrate on his breathing before all else. He started to focus on inhalation and exhalation while doing pushups, while doing Yoga and especially while grappling.

If you find your endurance fading unexpectedly, be it when fighting certain types of opponents or in certain situations (competition at tournaments, sparring at other clubs, etc.) the FIRST thing you could do is to ensure that you aren’t holding your breath. Ask someone to watch you, and/or do an internal breathing check every 5 or 10 seconds. Think a little bit less about technique and constantly remind yourself “breathe, breathe and breathe!” You may be pleasantly surprised.