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Off-Topic breathing training and corrections

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Michael20

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I was paging through Simple and Sinister today and came across the page that talks about breathing through a straw. The pictures caught my attention and I read the method of breathing with nose pinched. While running errands today I made a point to buy some straws and try this. I found it to be quite challenging to maintain steady breathing and I actually had a bit of a panic feeling, like I couldn't breathe. I worked on it for several minutes, trying to breathe per instructions in the book and it started to become a little easier. I'm going to continue to practice this. It sounds like this is supposed to create a relaxation response or retraining of breathing? I'm curious to hear other thoughts from others who have done this before. Ironically, I was listening to Joe Rogan's podcast with TJ Dillashaw today and TJ describes a similar breathing technique he used while training for his last fight. I'm not sure if this was the same technique but it sounded similar.

I have done a small amount of breathing correctives before but with breathing in/out through the nose. One small caveat... Not to talk about myself too much but I've had an issue for a while with my left shoulder and essentially feeling like my entire left side of my torso was inhibited... Not so much weak, but just less 'neural drive' compared to my other side. Since I started breathing while pay attention to my ribs (not letting ribs flare), this has helped tremendously with feeling more stable through the shoulder and scapula area. So now every time I do a get up I place my left hand on my left ribs before the get up to make sure my ribs aren't flared, do a power breath, then have it and this seems to help.
 
I was paging through Simple and Sinister today and came across the page that talks about breathing through a straw. The pictures caught my attention and I read the method of breathing with nose pinched. While running errands today I made a point to buy some straws and try this. I found it to be quite challenging to maintain steady breathing and I actually had a bit of a panic feeling, like I couldn't breathe. I worked on it for several minutes, trying to breathe per instructions in the book and it started to become a little easier. I'm going to continue to practice this. It sounds like this is supposed to create a relaxation response or retraining of breathing? I'm curious to hear other thoughts from others who have done this before.

Good for you for actually doing one of the most overlooked features in the S&S book. Yes, sounds like you're doing it right, but stick with 1 or 2 straws until you can do that without any panicked feeling, then go to 3. From what I understand (and have experienced from doing it... a little) is that it accomplishes two things: 1) a breathing practice that relaxes you and teaches you to breathe with the diaphragm and get a full deep breath, and 2) gives you a bit of CO2 build-up from the air in the straw, which helps reset your C02 "thermostat" to tolerate slightly more, which improves your breathing the same way that Advanced Buteyko practice does. Do a search for Buteyko using the forum search feature and you'll find more on that.
 
Thanks, Anna. I started with two straws and I will continue with that. I'm going to have a goal of working on this breathing technique everyday. I've heard of Buteyko breathing from one of the strong first podcasts and will do a search as you suggested.
 
I'll relay my breathwork endeavors for you, most of which was derived from the YMAA embryonic breathing materials, anatomical & neurological reference materials, and a crap ton of troubleshooting.

Posture stuff is standard, nothing special; stack the vertebrae as if a nice pile of flat stones, this allows for the most free gut movement. But let's take a lesser utilized path here and focus on things from the neurological aspect. Incoming sensate signal is parsed by the brain and used to determine other factors, e.g. how fast the heart should pump.

So what we want to achieve is a relative consumption minima, but try to make it concurrent with a relative energetic maxima. To set about engendering a consumption minima, the best approach is the most coarse ongoing signal - the breath. Now we seek to attenuate the signal to the olfactory nerve.

Sniff the air. The rush of air that just got created by a well timed flaring of the nostrils goes into the sinuses and excites the olfactory nerve, just with that sniffing motion. If you do it too hard, then the frontal and sphenoid sinuses can both become overwhelmed and you'll get that oxygen headache - the pineal/pituitary is just behind the sphenoid!

Extend this, and it basically winds up being that you have some level of sense wherever air touches inside these passageways, and the sensitivity generally increases as you progress from bronchi to throat to sinuses to the nose. We want to attenuate these signals, ergo do not use anywhere that air touches to facilitate the movement of air through the system.

This is somewhat similar to "breathe with the diaphragm," but the shift in focus is important when you approach it trying to attain maximal efficiency.

The motion of the diaphragm, it should be like pulling a giant sail from a rope. The diaphragm is a bunch of folds of tendon that culminate into 2 bands that merge into the anterior spinal ligaments. A smooth, anchored motion helps the Aorta and Vena Cava flow smoothly with this motion.

The diaphragm's motion should be the primary mechanism of inhalation. The front of the abdomen and perineum should relax with the inhale and gently firm for the exhale; all structures should reach their minimum, maximum extent, 'maximal power range,' all concurrently in a well timed fashion.

The harmonious gut motion increases the efficiency of the power generated. A little bit at a time.

Inhale and Exhale should be rolled smoothly into one another. Once the breath is very subtle, this helps de-link the feelings of breath from the mechanics of breath.

The better you maintain the focus of your awareness, the more strongly the action is burned into muscle memory. Medulla for breathing, but this works for every sport.

Once the breath mechanics are well ingrained, then its basically an awareness game. Stabilizing the heart, then once the senses are conquered, you discover that a lot of the mental chatter appears to be a sort of bleed over from sensate input. With the senses conquered, there is a nice calm clear random through free mind that can think as intensely as it likes, and then return to quiescence. Thoughtform energy has an easy outlet via the mechanism of random throught, but by stabilizing the awareness at the midbrain, you can feel thoughtform energy manifest like a bubble of carbonation in a glass of beer, spontaneously forming on the side of the glass, then detaching and floating up and away...(cue matrix scene of the lightning going up all those pods, lol)...but then with training, you can just re absorb the energy bubble before it pops off....and then there's just a momentary stabilization of the noise floor...


The plastic straw stuff...its a sort of forced method to get there.....but it will be easier with the above fundamentals. One thing is does force a little ahead of time is attenuating the olfactory nerve signal by denying it air. Which is a sort of way to...ah, how can I put this....if you go esoteric, the left and right nostrils are linked to the spiraling channels up the center of the body, ida pingala - so this brings a focus to the shushumna central channel. Neurologically speaking, the way the olfactory nerve links up, it bypasses the hypothalamus and winds up being the only true stereo neurological component in the body, so...I guess one can make of that what one will...

Crux of the matter is, if a good amount of time is put in, then there absolutely is an above baseline energy potential that forms. Its easy enough to lose also; alcohol eats it right up, weed eats it right up, stress hormones eat it right up....there's a reason the monks went off into the mountains, away from everyone, if they wanted to get 150% serious about it.
 
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