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dredsovrn
Jan 6, 2004, 9:21 PM
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In order to improve my climbing and myself in general, I have been reading The Rock Warriors Way. I haven't finished it, but I am trying to practice the teachings. I thought it would be easy to focus on my breathing while climbing and in stressful situations, but I am amazed at how hard it is. Does it get easier with practice?
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dinglestyle
Jan 6, 2004, 9:28 PM
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I only think about breathing out and relaxing. Most people breath in hard and don't breath out hard which brings in a little amount of air. I find if I breath out hard my lung natrally pull air in. I start the breathing before the climbing starts getting scary.
Pat
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cloudbreak
Jan 6, 2004, 9:38 PM
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I just got the book in the mail today. :D
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md
Jan 7, 2004, 12:26 AM
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It will get easier just keep practicing. Try and keep your breathing continuous, don't hold your breath. Try not to have long pauses in between breathing in and out or out and in. Practice before you get all freaked out. Eventually you won't need to think about it so much. I like to practice my breathing when I'm doing my warm up traverses in the gym. Hope that helps.
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moabbeth
Jan 7, 2004, 12:32 AM
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Yeah, it gets easier. Breathing was always a bad point for me, I'd breathe hard and out of my mouth and get pumped. I've been reading WW for the past month....it really does help me focus when I'm out on the rock. Also, have you tried yoga? I've been going to yoga 4 mornings a week for the past couple months and that is helping A LOT with breathing. You focus so hard on breathing in yoga to maximize your stretches and range of movement and that practice has really translated well onto rock, I'm getting a lot more out of climbing with controlled breathing.
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crushingfinger
Jan 7, 2004, 8:20 AM
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Yes, breathing does get easier. I find it realy helps to breath alot when I am tence. I try to keep this to a minimum though and usualy at the bottom of the climb. when I'm climbing well all I usualy notice about my phisical self is my hart beat . :mrgreen:
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dirtineye
Jan 7, 2004, 12:19 PM
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The funniest thing about breathing is, you have to relearn it for every sport/endeavor it seems. People in martial arts forget when they spar. I know it was a problem for me. But once I learned that, it didn;t carry over. I had to learn to breathe while playing tennis. It's pretty funny to try to get through a rally of 10 shots on one breath. Once I learned that, then in climbing, I had to learn it again.
It seems that people tend to hold their breath under pressure/intense physical effort/stress, even watching an intense scene in a movie haha-- holding it or forgeting to, at any rate learning it in one endeavor does not seem to transfer too much, you do learn that you have to do it but still, not breathing creeps in there somehow.
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hroldan
Jan 7, 2004, 2:45 PM
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dirtineye, you are right, there's a learning curve about breathing but holding your breath has a purpose, here at the site somebody else explained well on another post long time ago how necesary it is (hold your breath) to keep or improve the tension of the body and let you apply more strength in certain situations.
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miuralover
Jan 7, 2004, 4:22 PM
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Breathing is an incredibly important part of pushing yourself climbing. On long routes breathing can be used to control your heart rate so you don't tire out too quickly (long slow breaths, quick breaths/holding your breath tends to increase your heart rate). When bouldering quick breaths help you control both your power (force the air out when doing a powerful move) and your body tension (breath out slowly, in quickly). And when climbing something scary it helps to concentrate on your breathing as a relaxation technique. I also find that breathing helps get me focused on a route/problem before I get on it; close my eyes, start breathing deeply and I'm ready to go.
That being said I still often forget to breathe when the going gets tough.
I haven't read the Rock Warriors Way but maybe I will now.
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dirtineye
Jan 7, 2004, 4:43 PM
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There is a medical condition that is very bad, and I can't think of the name of it DOH (starts with a "v"), but holding your breath while straining can create real problems.
I've had more than one martial arts instructor teach that you can keep every muscle in your torso tight and still breathe using your diaphram, so I don't think it is necessary to hold your breath to keep body tension, although it might be easier to do so. The best boulderers I know (average climb v9) don't seem to hold their breath much.
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jt512
Jan 7, 2004, 5:14 PM
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In reply to: I've had more than one martial arts instructor teach that you can keep every muscle in your torso tight and still breathe using your diaphram, so I don't think it is necessary to hold your breath to keep body tension, although it might be easier to do so. The best boulderers I know (average climb v9) don't seem to hold their breath much.
I can't prove this, but I think that for maximum abdominal strength, you have to hold your breath. Consider from martial arts: How do you take a hard blow to the abdomen? You tighten your abdominal muscles and hold your breath at the moment of impact.
This is not to say that you should be holding your breath while climbing, except momentarily when executing a move requiring maximum core strength.
-Jay
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dirtineye
Jan 7, 2004, 5:57 PM
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http://www.aboutbreathing.com/articles/valsalvas-maneuver.htm
There, found it. Not as many cobwebs in the brain as I thought.
JT, apparently some martial artists feel one way and some fell the other way about holding your breath.
I recall that in weight lifting, you are taught not to hold your breath, and in fact breathe out on the lift and in on the lower. I'll have to ask my free weight lifting pal about it.
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hosh
Jan 7, 2004, 6:41 PM
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I think it's funny that one of the most important things about climbing is to keep your blood oxygenated but so often I find myself holding my breath when I'm trying to work through a difficult move. Man, the stupidity! I really have to make a conscious effort to breathe when I'm on the wall. I guess it's one of those things that with practice will be easier in time, but for now, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out...
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dirtineye
Jan 7, 2004, 7:33 PM
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If you make some noise while breathing, it keeps you aware that you are in fact breathing so that you don't forget to do it hahha. This sounds stupid, but it works.
here's another link about danger of staining and holding your breath:
http://www.superslow.com/articles/wallstreet_journal.html
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crushingfinger
Jan 8, 2004, 2:15 AM
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I don't think that it's wrong not to breath some times. During crux sections some times I don't breath. Its like a power lifter I guess and after words I'm like Fewwwww. :oops:
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jt512
Jan 8, 2004, 6:54 PM
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In reply to: If you make some noise while breathing, it keeps you aware that you are in fact breathing so that you don't forget to do it hahha. This sounds stupid, but it works. here's another link about danger of staining and holding your breath: http://www.superslow.com/articles/wallstreet_journal.html
I was almost ready to concede this point, but after my experience in the gym last night I'm sticking by my guns. I was working out on the campus board and found that during the "negatives" (ie, campusing down the rungs) I could not breath at all. In order to stick the moves I had to hold my breath from top to bottom. So, I stand by my assertion that for moves involving extreme body tension, core tension, abdominal strength, or something like that, you have to hold your breath.
-Jay
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miuralover
Jan 8, 2004, 6:58 PM
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Jay,
When doing the negatives you can still maintain the breathing but it might take practice. Just breath out as you do the lower down, when both hands are on breath in and repeat.
And I agree with making noise, on routes I tend to breathe very deep and bouldering I try to exhale super quickly. Gives you weird try hard faces as well.
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dirtineye
Jan 9, 2004, 5:37 AM
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What a coincidence.
last night I went to the climbing gym (I almost never do that) and ran into one of my v9 bouldering friends and some other darned good bouldlerers.. . I asked em all what they thought about holding your breath for body tension and they said they didin't think it was needed. THe best of the three absolutely said he didn't think holding his breath helped. Now this guy, I've seen him climb v10, upside down, on a climb where body tension is everythign, you are constantly tensioned just to stay on the roof of this cave, And it takes several minutes to climb out of the cave and around the lip to exit.
Hold your breath if you think it helps, but apparently to climb seriously hard stuff, you dont have to hold your breath to maintain body tension, at least according to guys that climb stuff that totally depends on body tension sustained over a fairly long period of time.
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jt512
Jan 9, 2004, 7:30 PM
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In reply to: Hold your breath if you think it helps, but apparently to climb seriously hard stuff, you dont have to hold your breath to maintain body tension, at least according to guys that climb stuff that totally depends on body tension sustained over a fairly long period of time.
I'm still not convinced. Everybody "knows" you shouldn't hold your breath while you climb, so I can't help but wonder whether, when asked, if people reflexively give the answer they "know" to be correct.
-Jay
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miuralover
Jan 9, 2004, 7:39 PM
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Jay, try the breathing and see if you can campus for a longer period of time. I have no opinion on holding your breath for single moves (I've done moves where it is required to breath out, and moves where I feel I have to hold my breath), but for any more than 2-3 moves you need to have a breathing rhythm that helps you as you climb. I think with proper breathing you can do more body tension moves than holding your breath, even at great difficulty (whatever that may be for you).
Mike
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skiclimb
Jan 11, 2004, 9:17 AM
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breathing is a critical tool for any athletic endeavor...for power moves esp invloving precising...such as a dyno ..holding is good...otherwise it is important not to hold your breath and to make a habit of good breathing technique.
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