On Breathing: An Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin, Part 4

This is the fourth and final part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, in the second part he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing, while in the third part he discussed matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing. In this fourth installment he discusses the use of breath exercises in managing survival stress and enhancing sports performance.

Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Device to members of a special police unit in Novosibirsk

Dr Zinatulin, I happen to know that over the years you have consulted special units of the police in Russia on the use of breathing exercises to minimize the effects of survival stress. Is it long-term breath training you are advocating to law enforcements officers or specific techniques that should be used when one is under survival stress? 

I have a special interest in this subject since my son does his service in a special tactical assault group. I have also been invited to teach a number of seminars to various special units. In general, breathing techniques requiring the use of the Frolov Device that are being used by sportsmen can just as well be used to enhance fitness for special forces soldiers. I also teach basic methods of breathing without the device, which are extremely useful for relieving stress and the replenishing of vital resources while on the field. These techniques have been developed around Buteyko’s core ideas and my personal experience on the subject of breath-training. The main focus in my method is to perform slow diaphragmatic breathing using strict formulas of duration of inhalation, exhalation and holding the breath. 

Let’s move ahead to the relationship between breathing and athletic performance. First of all, are the breathing habits and patterns of an athlete necessarily healthy? Does physical training guarantee optimum breathing patterns for health?

Respiratory Illnesses in sportsmen are not rare. According to the available data, the rate of bronchial asthma in athletes is higher than in general population. It is actually assumed that nearly 20% of the athletes participating in the Beijing Olympic Games had symptoms of exercise-induced asthma (EIA).

There is no doubt that physical activity can increase the capacity of the respiratory system. A very interesting example is that of Australian potato farmer Cliff Young who, in 1983, at the age of 61, he won the first Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon. Young was not a professional athlete but he spent most of his life running in heavy shoes in order to round up his sheep! But in order for one to achieve elite performance, special breath-training can be used to develop the reserve capacities of the respiratory system that can translate to significant improvement, especially in certain types of sports. This includes resistance training of the respiratory muscles both in inhalation and exhalation, increasing the vital capacity of the lungs, and developing resistance to hypoxia. Most often, what athletes do is improve their ability to hyperventilate during intense effort, but they rarely learn how to regulate their breathing in order to restore the body after the effort. In order to balance performance with overall health, athletes need to learn how to breathe optimally in a normal state so that they do not develop hyperventilation syndrome by transferring the breathing patterns they use when they're performing their sport to their everyday life.

What is the difference between training the breath with and without a device? Is there an advantage in using a device?

Training with various equipment and devices is widely accepted in sports circles – athletes lift weights or use exercise machines to increase muscle strength, endurance, coordination and movement speed. For athletes, it has been proven time and again that training with equipment is more effective than using bodyweight exercises exclusively. It is the same with breath-training:  training with a device allows us to create more complex and varied training programs at each stage of sportsman physical training (preparing for competition, competition, rehabilitation).    With the help of a device we can develop and regulate additional resistance during both inhalation and exhalation, perform breathing trainings in regimes of hypoxia (low CO2) or hypercapnia (high CO2). I personally advocate the use of the Frolov device, since it allows us to manipulate all the above parameters. In addition to that, it offers added benefits such as the vibratory stimulation of the respiratory muscles and bronchi, while it can also be used for performing inhalations with essential oils.

Finally, I often like to point out another two important factors regarding breath-training that are not talked about much: breathing exercises improve adaptation to changes in climate and time zones which is important for sportsmen who compete internationally, plus breathing exercises with a device help athletes recover after injuries and surgeries faster and easier.

Can breath-training enhance athletic performance in measurable ways? For example, is there solid research indicating that training the breath can improve aerobic power or capacity or maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max)? I know for sure some of this blog’s readers would be most grateful if you could point them to that research.

There are numerous studies about it in the sports medicine literature and this link is just one of those studies: http://www.intellectbreathing.com/files/sport-device_eng.pdf.

Is there currently any particularly promising research conducted on the effects of breath-training on our health? If it depended entirely upon you, which area would you chose to conduct research in?

Nowadays, laboratories always have some research going on around breathing and its potential to affect health. This is closely connected with the need to qualify specialists that work in special conditions (lifeguards, divers, spacemen), and quite important for the development of non-pharmacological treatments and prevention of various diseases and the improvement of the quality of life for the elderly and patients with Parkinson’s, Altzheimer’s and other diseases. Rich Stacel (a natural health practitioner, and practitioner of Chinese martial arts) summed up this situation very successfully when he said that ”...science has only recently begun to open up to the idea that breathing might have more going on with it than the simple exchange of gases with each breath. Scientists are now coming to see that breathing also acts as a metabolic regulator, has immune boosting potential, increases oxygen flow to the brain and a lot more”.

In my opinion, the most exciting part of this research is breathing and brain function. Our breath is a link between body and mind. The brain weighs only 2% from the body mass, but consumes 20% of oxygen coming into the body, and that is exactly why the quality of breathing directly influences the condition and function of the brain. At average, a single man takes 14 breaths per minute, a trained one 8, and one that is meditating only 6. This type of breathing is considered by scientists as deep and efficient. American scientist R. Wallis has found out that during meditation the body starts to work more efficiently, consuming 16% less oxygen, only 8% less than during sleep! Breathing exercises improve not only our emotional state, but the intellect, attention, long-term and short-term memory as well. If we think about it, these benefits are of the utmost importance for our civilization, because the progress is dependent upon the products of our intellect. Prevention of stress-related and psychosomatic diseases is also highly important. My professional experience shows that breath-training improves patients’ state even in the most severe of cases like head injury after-effects, multiple sclerosis, depression, and stroke. From a social point of view, an important field of the breathing-related research should be obstetrics, because the health of a baby – the future of our society, that is - fully depends on the quality of the mother’s breathing. I sincerely hope that medical science will soon begin extensive research on this remarkable resource and we will get to witness the health revolution of  humanity!

This fourth installment concluded the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin. I would like to thank him for offering valuable insight into this subject which is often the source of misunderstanding in martial arts circles. I would also like to thank Anna Chistyakova for translating back and forth between myself and the good doctor, as well as my student Charles Franz, Thong Guyen, Pete Jensen and Joao Furia for sending over their questions. 

For more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiration Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com 
www.vitaltkoncept.se 

On Breathing: An Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin, Part 3

This is the third part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, while in the second part, he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing. In this installment he discusses matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing and offers his opinion on some breath-training methods used in psychotherapy and sports.

Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Respiratory Training Device
to members of the Russian army special forces

Dr Zinatulin, in cancer related research, it is often claimed that hypoxic cells are more aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Do you believe that breath training can affect the oxygenation of cells and thus be relevant in cancer treatment?

When we talk about cancer treatment, we are usually referring to special methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, etc. However, we should remember that the success of cancer treatment depends not only on the treatment done, but also on the overall state of the patient’s health. Further rehabilitation of the patient is very important, since surgery does not equal recovery. While a lot is said about the importance of a proper diet on the overall health, almost nothing is mentioned on the role of breathing exercises in treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients.

Breathing exercises are a valuable tool for the successful rehabilitation of oncological patients, as part of a health-improving physical training program. Experience from oncological patients treatment shows that they need rehabilitation even after successful surgery. These people are in a state of stress, their physiological reserves are reduced, and their immunity is weakened. Properly chosen breathing exercises, combined with the oncologists’ recommendations, help restore the nervous and immune systems to their normal state and provide for effective prevention of recurrence.

My personal experience in working with cancer patients is not extensive, but my observations are the same as those of the specialists in the field. For example, Johnny Suskevitch, consultant of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, has taught breathing exercises to most of his patients since 1999 and about half of them suffer from cancer. Japanese professor Muraki Hirosama who studied different breathing methods says: “…few people know that great results can be achieved just by breathing properly. The most impressive effect of correct stomach-breathing is an increased ability of the body to heal itself. Many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, liver and stomach conditions are treated better if the patient combines treatment with breathing exercises. Moreover, medications intake decreases greatly”. Finally, my colleague doctor S. N. Paschenko reports good results on using the Buteyko method in women with breast cancer: special treatment led to increased three-year survival rate, better quality of life, including reduced fear of unfavorable outcomes of the treatment, increased work capacity, easier social adaptation and relief of edema in upper extremities.

How about the relationship of nutrition with breathing? For example, we know there are foods that can trigger allergic reactions and also some other, dairy products for example, that increase the production of mucus. What would an ‘optimum breathing diet’ be like? What should we avoid?

This topic seems to be of great interest to many people, because quality of nutrition is considered to be the main factor for health and longevity. But it is almost impossible to give specific universal nutrition guidelines, due to the fact that breathing exercises are performed by different people, with different needs, living under different conditions and circumstances, from children to seniors, from sedentary patients to professional athletes.

Various foods have different pH indexes and thus can indirectly influence the activity of the breathing center, the pH balance in blood and tissues, lung ventilation and breathing processes in tissues. K.P. Buteyko has pointed out some factors that can cause overbreathing, and those are: overeating of high-protein foods (fish, eggs, pork, fatty cheese, black caviar, or lots of vegetable protein) and consuming strong tea, coffee, cacao, chocolate and alcohol in large quantities. Also according to Buteyko, vegetarianism and intermittent fasting make your breathing lighter. 

My experience shows that when people perform respiratory training consistently, they need less food. On the whole, there is only one basic one recommendation on nutrition I can give to people who practice respiratory training: keep your diet diverse and consume everything in moderate quantities - avoid overeating and avoid eating the same foods all the time. Deep-fried and smoked foods, sweets and sugar, white flour products, alcohol and coffee should be kept to a minimum. It is also important to switch to a vegetarian diet from time to time and occasionally do short periods of fasting with fruit juices or just water. Finally, keep a log of what you eat to determine which foods are best for you.  

In cases of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, is seems quite obvious that breath training can offer great benefits. But, what if the patient is at a very young age? I know that the main focus of your practice is treatment and health improvement in children, so in your expert opinion, how easily can we teach breathing exercises to a five year old, for example? Do you have any specific suggestions for such cases?

Indeed, respiratory exercises are mandatory in cases of lung diseases (asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, after pneumonia or lung surgery) and just as important in cases of children suffering from lung diseases. It is fairly easy to teach breath-training to school children, because they understand those exercises better, but I have also worked with pre-school children of age 3 to 5. In such cases, I have found that the most effective approach is to introduce the simplest exercise – slow diaphragmatic breathing through the nose – in the form of play. It is most important for a child to breathe with the diaphragm. You can also teach a child to exhale slowly by having her make bubbles with a straw in a glass of water. It is more complicated to teach a child how to use a respiratory training device, such as the Frolov device, but these basic exercises we mentioned can be quite effective. It is also important to teach a child to breathe only through the nose during the whole day.

Let’s talk a little about the connection between breathing and our psychological state: we know that psychological stress can alter our breathing patterns. How does this happen? Can it work the other way around, and by this I mean, can we alter our breathing patterns to minimize the effects of psychological stress on our body?

Breathing, brain function and the nervous system are closely connected. Psychiatrists, psychotherapists and physiologists know that all emotions (happiness and sorrow, anxiety and depression, fear and calmness, strain and relaxation) have a direct and immediate influence on the breathing function. To simplify things, think of it this way: when we are crying or laughing, the rhythm of our breathing is offset, we are ‘missing a beat’. It is mainly stress that throws the system that regulates breathing off balance and in turn deregulates the function of organs (heart, intestine, etc.) and systems (endocrine, immune). In this sense, it is of great importance that we perform respiratory training regularly, so that we can prevent possible ‘breakdowns’. After periods of great stress, I suggest daily breath-training sessions combined with relaxation for 7-10 days in order for one to recover mentally and physically. 

There are some methods of self-exploration and therapy (for example, Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathing), advocating the use of hyperventilation in order to achieve non-ordinary states of consciousness for the purpose of self-exploration. Such methods claim to be successful in treating psychological problems, but what do you think about possible side-effects in the physical health? Are there cases where consciously practicing hyperventilation can actually be good for us?

It’s true that the experience from using Grof’s method shows how deeply and strongly one can influence the mind through breathing. I personally view this and other similar techniques as ways of affecting consciousness by way of breathing, but not as breath-training, and that is why such methods should only be performed under the supervision of a specialist, as opposed to respiratory training, which we can practice without supervision. A Holotropic Breathing session can take up to 2 or 3 hours depending on the level of participants. A much less extreme alternative that I suggest, in order to effectively relieve stress or anxiety, is to lie on your back, inhale slowly for about 10 seconds, exhale in a relaxed manner for 10-15 seconds, and repeat for 5-10 minutes. 

How about practicing breath holding? I believe there is a specific practice in a Russian martial art system where practitioners hold their breath while performing physical exercise (for example, push-ups) in order to gradually induce a feeling similar to that of panic and then recover by breathing fast and sharply. Is it possible to build ‘mental toughness’ through breathing practices such as this one? How about the effects such practices might have on our health?

Yuri Bulanov, doctor of sports medicine, who has been working a lot with strength training and bodybuilding, has developed his own patented system of breathing training, which is based on breath holding. He calls it hypoxic breathing training, since when you are holding your breath, the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is increased and the oxygen saturation is decreased.  Bulanov thinks that breath holding in a calm state has a strong effect on the body, but he adds that it should be practiced with great caution. 

Breath holding is an extreme type of training that places significant stress on the body. It can be used as a method of physical training for different sports, but it is extensively used in free diving. If you are interested in that, you can find detailed descriptions of specific methods in the book «Breatheology» by Stig Avall Severinsen, a four time World Champion freediver. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that the experience of both sports medicine and martial arts tells us that it’s more important to be aware of your breathing and learn how to control it during physical activity, rather than to be able to hold it for long periods of time.

This third part concludes the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey ZinatulinFor more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiratory Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com 
www.vitaltkoncept.se          
 

On Breathing, Part 2: Find out how well you are breathing

This is the second part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general. In this installment he describes a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing and provide a reference point to determine the effectiveness of our breath training. 

 

Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching his 'ABCs of breathing' program 

to the students of a school in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Dr Zinatulin, is there a simple way or a test we can easily perform to find out how well we are breathing?

 

We can assess our breathing at home by using a number of simple tests. Your readers can go ahead and try any of the following tests or all of them.  

 

First we can determine our type of breathing, which can be thoracic, mixed or diaphragmatic.  Sit comfortably, preferably with you back and neck supported, and note what happens to your torso when breathing in. In thoracic breathing, the chest goes upwards and ribs expand, during the inhalation. In mixed breathing, both the chest and the frontal abdominal expand while breathing in. In abdominal, or diaphragmatic, breathing, the frontal abdominal wall comes forward and the stomach swells, still the chest does not expand during the inhalation. As we mentioned earlier, when in a calm state, only diaphragmatic breathing is recommended. In healthy persons, diaphragm expansion during the inhalation act is 6-8 cm, while in physically trained people it can be up to 10 cm. 

 

The second assessment test you can perform is to determine the frequency of your breathing. Count the number of breathing cycles you perform in a minute in a state of rest. One breathing cycle consists of one inhalation and one exhalation. If you count 15 breathing motions and one inhalation, this would be 15.5 motions per minute. According to the Buteyko Table of Health zones, a healthy person should be performing somewhere around 8 breathing cycles per minute.

Another thing you can check is your breathing rhythm. Healthy people usually have a very rhythmical breathing in a calm state, but each with their own special characteristics. All you have to do is pay attention to your breathing, and follow the peaks and valleys of each cycle from inhalation to exhalation, paying attention to the points at which one phase changes into the other. Also note whether or not you make pauses during the two phases and if yes, before which part of breathing cycle.

These three parameters (type, frequency and rhythm) are what we could call ‘external characteristics’ of breathing, they give us a basic idea about its external, visible aspects. But breathing, just like an iceberg, has an invisible and actually more important part – it is the part of breathing that is happening inside the body, in our cells. This determines the quality of our breathing and state of our health.

There are three tests that are commonly used to evaluate the quality of our breathing. The first one is known as the Control Pause test, in which you measure the amount of time you can comfortably hold your breath after a calm exhalation. This is a rather sensitive test: you shut your nostrils with your fingers after you calmly exhale and then you hold until you feel the very first signs of air shortage. You should not hold your breath until you feel discomfort! At the end of the test you should be able to resume your breathing exactly like before, without taking a deep breath – if you do, it means that you held your breath longer than the test requires, so the measurement you will get will be inaccurate. Do not be surprised if your control pause is very short. Even athletes rarely do better than 30-40 seconds. According to KP Buteiko, the control pause for healthy adults is somewhere around 60 seconds. If a person has CP of 60 seconds, this person is considered to have a normal CO2 content.

The second test is known as Stange’s Test or breath-holding at the stage of a calm inhalation. Breathe in and out normally, then take another inhalation at about 80% of your maximum capacity and then hold your breath. Once again, do not hold your breath until you feel extreme discomfort. A good result for this test, indicating good health, would be 75±5,5 seconds for men, and 54±5,2 seconds for women.

The third test you can perform is Hench’s Test, or breath-holding at the stage of a calm exhalation. This is similar to the Control Pause test, but the difference is that, after a calm exhalation, you want to hold your breath for as long as you can, without of course going to extreme levels of discomfort. In general, a good result for this test would be 46,0±3,3 seconds for men,  and 32±4,0 seconds for women.

These tests show how tolerant our body is to hypercapnia (high level of CO2) and hypoxia (low level of O2). If a person suffers from disease, these parameters decrease. On the other side, through regular breath-training, these parameters can increase by 10-20 seconds, and that is why I believe that breathing exercises are essential to maintain excellent health. 

In the third part of this interview Dr Zinatulin will address the effect of breathing on brain performance and the immune function of our body and he will also discuss the possible benefits of breath training in cases of serious diseases, such as cancer.

For more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiration Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com 
www.vitaltkoncept.se 

On Breathing: an Interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin - Part 1

Today, I am really happy to post the first part of my interview with Dr Sergey Nakifovich Zinatulin, on the subjects of breathing and breath-training. Now, judging from the variety of breathing-related suggestions, aphorisms, truisms, and 'facts' that I have heard over the past 25 years that I have been into martial arts, my conclusion is that, although the importance of breathing is almost universally accepted in circles of martial artists, its function is barely understood. In this sense, I thought Dr Zinatulin might be able to offer valuable insight, so it was about two months ago that I announced that this interview would happen and asked the readers of this blog to send me the questions they would like to ask the doctor. I have to admit though that what I originally conceived as an interview, ended up being closer to a small scientific textbook. I hope the contents are as insightful to you as they have been to me. A great big thanks to my friends who contributed their questions for this interview!

Dr Zinatulin, could you please introduce yourself to the readers of this blog, and could you provide some information about your background?

 
I was born in 1959. In 1982 I graduated from medical University of Arkhangelsk, Russia with a major in therapy and specialization in psychiatry, neurology and narcology.  I worked in this field for about 4 years, and then in 1987-1988 I took courses in the Buteyko Breathing Technique under Konstantin Buteyko himself. 

From 1997 on, I have been studying and researching the use of different breathing training devices, respiratory kinesiotherapy, and developed various methods of respiratory training both with and without special devices. My main focus is treatment and health improvement in children: I’ve been worked in a clinic for children, created a special program to teach the Buteyko method to children and have overseen its application in kindergartens and primary schools. I have authored several books on respiratory training and I have lectured extensively on the subject.For the results of my work in the field of healthcare and clinical rehabilitation, I was awarded the A.P. Chizhevsky gold medal “For Professionalism and Business Reputation” by the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Science.

I’m currently working as the head of the scientific department of the Russian company Dinamika; I am offering consultations to patients from all over the world on the use of the Frolov device. From February 2012 I also started giving classes of my program for children “ABC of Breathing” in one of the best schools in Novosibirsk. 

Who or what was it that prompted you to devote your life and career to the study and research of breath training, respiratory therapy of various diseases, and the use of breathing devices?
 
During the period I was studying under Konstantin Buteyko, I became convinced of the health benefits that we can reap from breath-training - I completely restored my nose breathing and managed to cure myself of my stomach ulcers, gastritis and cholecystitis. My personal experience and numerous successful cases of other Buteyko practitioners lead me to the decision to further develop these ideas scientifically and in practice. Down the road, I got to understand that learning the Buteyko method can be quite difficult, and that is why I became interested in breath-training devices that help learn correct breathing in a much simpler way. 

From 1987 until today I have witnessed many cases of patients that recovered ‘miraculously’ thanks to the benefits of breath-training, with help from our specialized knowledge, after putting in a lot of effort themselves, of course.

Everybody seems to know (or claims to know) that “Breathing is Living”. Would you like to explain in the simplest way possible why this is true, and perhaps provide an analogy so that we better understand the role breathing plays in our body?
 
I have developed a special program where children from the age of 5 years old get to learn about the benefits of controlled breathing.  I use a very simple test to help them understand how important breathing is and you can try it too with your children: put some food and a glass of water on a table. Have them sit by the table, then hold their breath and wait to see what is the first thing they desire; air, water of food? It is air, of course!

Medical research shows us that a human being is a single whole. It is a proven fact that breathing is part and parcel of blood circulation, metabolism, energy exchange, acid-alkaline balance, and water-salt metabolism. The interconnection of breathing with sleep, memory, emotional tone, ability to work, physiological and adaptive capacity, etc. is also widely known. Between all those, we exist due to the energy of breathing. At my lectures and workshops, I often call breathing “an invisible thread of life” - if it is cut, we die.

Each and every one of us breathes, but is there a correct or an incorrect way to breathe? How could we define ‘correct breathing’ and what are its benefits?
 
The first rule of correct breathing entails nasal breathing (both during inhalation and exhalation) at rest and during light physical activity. When we are speaking, singing, or we are engaged in a moderate physical activity, we should inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.

Second rule: diaphragmatic breathing is the only normal type of breathing in a state of rest. During rest or light physical activity (quiet walking, slow race, speaking, singing), we must learn to breathe diaphragmatically, expanding the stomach during the inhalation. During intense physical activity, if necessary, diaphragmatic breathing can be augmented through work performed by the auxiliary respiratory muscles (intercostals and thoracic). Once intense physical activity is completed we should once again return to diaphragmatic breathing.

Correct breathing improves lung ventilation and prevents hyperventilation. It has a positive effect on the circulation of blood and lymph, our metabolism, the function of intestinal organs and our nervous system.

How does our breathing become disturbed in the first place? How do we ‘learn’ to breathe wrong?
 
Generally, the brain respiratory center controls the whole process of breathing. The neurons of the respiratory center receive information about the composition of inhaled air (temperature, humidity and various impurities), gaseous composition of air mixture in the alveoli of the lungs, gaseous composition of the blood, the lungs ventilation parameters (inspiratory and expiratory volume, respiration rate and frequency), pulmonic tissue stretching, ventilation apparatus performance, and respiratory muscles tension. The respiratory center receives this information non-stop; it analyzes, processes, and compares it with data on body temperature, metabolism, acid-alkaline balance, pulse and blood pressure indexes, etc. Therefore our breathing reacts to pretty much all the processes happening inside our body and in the environment. K.P. Buteyko, for example, pointed out that overeating (especially too much protein), allergens, hypodynamia, sleeping on one’s back, stress, smoking, and alcohol consumption have a bad influence on our breathing. 
I personally think that the main reason of disturbed breathing in people today is the lack of a “breathing culture”. Now that I am working with school children I see proof of it all the time: children at the age of 7-8 know about food supplements and vitamins, but know nothing about controlled breathing and correct posture. Gay Hendriks has made a similar observation in his book, Conscious Breathing; he writes that he has rarely seen newborns who couldn’t breathe using their diaphragm, but among 6-graders it was almost impossible to find one who could. 

If we fail to understand the way to breathe properly, all other factors lead to dysfunctional breathing, chronic hyperventilation and other disorders. And this, in turn, leads to development of different diseases (lung, heart, vessels, metabolism, and nervous system pathologies). 

How about oxygen and carbon dioxide? Could you explain how each one affects the acid-alkaline balance in our body in the process of breathing, and subsequently how does each of them affect our health?
 
Through the process of breathing, oxygen is brought to the lungs, where it gets absorbed into the bloodstream and then delivered to all the body’s tissues for the important energy-creating function of metabolism. The part of the breathing process that takes place on the cellular level is the oxidation of food molecules that releases energy and has carbon dioxide and water molecules as by-products. In our cells, breathing and nutrition come together in metabolism, which is a constant process of substances and energy exchange.
Regarding oxygen, our body uses approximately 600 liters per day, in a calm state.  About 90% of that oxygen is used in the cells for oxidation of nutrients, to provide energy for the various functions of the organism. The thing is that part of this oxygen creates active forms of oxygen with high oxidation activity. These are known as free radicals.  These are are very active chemical substances that circulate in the body and are ready to react with other molecules of vital importance to the living cell. If oxidation stress develops in the body, it may be the cause for a number of serious diseases, including heart disease, cancer, cataract, atherosclerosis, and many others. The contradiction here is that a certain amount of free radicals is actually necessary – for example, our immune cells use free radicals to kill bacteria. In this sense, it is important to maintain balance between the role of oxygen as oxidant of nutrients, required to produce utilizable energy, and the damaging role of oxygen as oxidant of DNA molecules and cell membranes. Interestingly, this balance can be maintained with the help of carbon dioxide that is a universal inhibitor of active oxygen forms generation in cells: it noticeably slows down the reactions where active oxygen forms are generated. Thus, it protects our cells from destruction.

Carbon dioxide develops in our cells as a result of chemical reactions. For a long time it was assumed that it is a waste product of cellular respiration and must be removed from the body. That is why it was considered important to breathe a lot and deeply to get more of the “good” oxygen and remove more of the “bad” carbon dioxide. Nowadays, after long-term research, it has been established how significant the biological role of carbon dioxide is. It is now common knowledge that carbon dioxide plays an active part in the regulation of breath, blood circulation, metabolism, acid-base balance, electrolytic balance, permeability of cell membranes, nerve cells excitability, bronchial motor tone, and the tone of blood vessels, digestive organs, and urinary tracts. Through specific breath-training practices we can ‘harness’ the healing properties of carbon dioxide and use them to prevent a great number of diseases or assist in their treatment.

In the second part of this interview, Dr Zinatulin will present a number of simple tests we can use to assess how well we are breathing.

With a little help from my friends - Luis Preto: an interview

After the reviews section that was introduced in my previous post, today I am proud to present one more new feature of the Göteborg Dynamo blog, namely that of interviews. The title I gave to this series of interviews is 'With a little help from my friends', for a very simple reason: since the training methodology we use at the Dynamo Club is, more or less, an 'open source' system, that has incorporated elements from the work of various instructors I have had the privilege to meet and train with through the years, I thought I might try and pay back all these generous friends for their help, by presenting them in the Dynamo blog and promoting their work.

The first friend I chose to interview is Luis Preto, instructor of Jogo do Pau (the Portuguese staff fencing art), a sports science geek, and writer of a series of most insightful books on training for technical and tactical martial arts skills. I have had the opportunity to personally meet and partner-train with Luis about eight months ago, during a training seminar in Norway and I was impressed by the depth of his knowledge on biomechanics and also his politeness and humbleness. Later, I got to read his book 'Fencing Martial Arts: How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics' and his approach to designing an effective training curriculum influenced quite a lot the way we organized the contents of the section of teaching throws and takedowns at the Dynamo.

Here's how our online conversation turned out:

Luis, could you please introduce yourself to the readers of this blog and could you provide some information about your background?

Hello fellow martial artists! My name is Luis Preto, I’m 33, I was born in the UK and later raised in Portugal. I started practicing martial arts at the age of 9, with karate. Fifteen years ago I opted to dedicate myself to the exclusive practice and study of Jogo do Pau, the Portuguese fencing combat system.

I have always been at the opposite end of the so called ‘naturally gifted performers’, so I always felt the need to analyze my shortcomings and come up with specific drills to correct them. However, I came to understand later that my shortcomings were pretty common for a lot of practitioners, which in turn led me to conclude that the most commonly used training methods needed improvement. Initially this turned into an obsession but, as I underwent an undergraduate and master’s degree in Sport Sciences, it transformed into a passion.

Although as an active teacher I’ve researched basically every single training factor there is, I would have to say that my main field has been skill development, namely the application of the ecological perspective of human movement to martial arts so that students learn techniques by understanding the natural contextual logic of affordances and constraints that gave birth to the techniques in the first place.   

How about Jogo do Pau? Could you briefly share a few historical details about this art and your personal course in it?
Jogo do Pau is commonly known as the Portuguese staff fencing art. However, according to the information that I’ve had access to that is not entirely the case. First of all, it is actually a European rather than Portuguese fencing art, since the same art has also been practiced and used by the French. The thing is, it became extinct everywhere else except in Portugal. Secondly, it is an art which focused on techniques that can be applied both to staffs and bladed weapons, such as long double hand and short single hand swords.

However, its main characteristics are that:
•    It is an art with its origins in skills development for combat in outnumbered scenarios, with applications to both battle-field and self defense contexts.
•    It was preserved through the use of the staff, since this weapon was being used by civilians until far later than the swords. Nowadays, its practice is still mostly done with staffs because, although swords look cooler, staffs are way more exciting since the level of skill required for parrying techniques is much more complex and demanding.
As for me, I’m just an instructor - perhaps an instructor who benefited from access to unique sources such as Masters Russo, Mota & Saramago as well as Soviet sports science researchers such as Yuri Verkoshansky, but still, I’m just an instructor looking to improve each day and help my students the way I would like to have been helped as a youngster.    

  

In your website, you are referring to your How to Sequence the Teaching of Technique and Tactics as a book that will allow one “to overcome the standard training of learning an art, by developing functional combat skill”. Which is the standard way of learning a martial art? Why do we need to overcome it?
Regardless of the techniques of each martial art, most striking styles have two common mistakes in their teaching methodologies:

The first mistake has to do with teaching technique and it simply boils down to the unproductive distinction that is usually made between the movements of an art and the environment in which they must be applied. As Humans, we do not elaborate our movements by thinking of activating muscles in sequence a, b or c; and we do not build our movement skills by thinking of placing our limbs in certain positions in space. Techniques develop as a result of the task that needs to be performed, in combination with the constraints and affordances of the environment and the person performing the task. There is a logic behind each movement and, if this logic is communicated through training, it allows the students to learn techniques from a perspective of performing tasks (such as parrying a strike with certain characteristics), thus becoming combatants rather than merely performers of ‘empty’ movements. The instructors who understand this are able to grasp the overall combat logic which connects every single factor, from offensive and defensive techniques to context specific tactics, which therefore allows them to properly structure teaching sequences that successfully build upon previous ones.

The second main mistake has to do with the inability of martial arts’ most common training methods to develop tactical skill. Both the commands method, with the practitioners behaving like puppets, executing techniques at the instructor’s cue, as well as the instructional teaching method, with the instructors making all the tactical decisions and providing the practitioners with all the information that they are supposed to merely implement in combat, utterly fails in developing tactically competent practitioners.  Since combat requires that participants interpret their opponent’s behavior and make instant decisions on how to respond, training methods must be reformulated so as to promote active thinking from students in the sense of evaluating their opponents’ traits and finding an adequate solution. This will promote the development of tactically competent combatants and, may even help develop some true martial artists, those people who are able to think outside the box and present us with technical or tactical innovations.

I feel that the drawbacks of these training methodologies must be overcome because students who are investing money and effort in pursuing their goal of developing effective combat skill deserve to have access to the most effective methods available. Additionally, improving the training methods used by previous generations does not constitute an insult to them. These previous generations simply had to start from scratch and couldn’t possibly cover everything before time caught up with them. Were they alive today, I am of the opinion they would be their most fierce critics and would constantly look to improve their own ideas to new heights.

To my understanding, your three recently published books and one training DVD are part of your answer to the need there is today for improved training methodologies in martial arts. Could you shortly describe which specific problems in training methodologies each of the books and the DVD is addressing?
First I would have to say that the common trait between them is that I tried to approach combat techniques not as movements, as seen from an outside observer, but as tasks being performed by a person who is submitted to a specific context (combat) that elicits also specific tasks (injuring the opponent while avoiding being injured) in order to be successful. 

Therefore, in the book on parrying skill I present partner drills that enable practitioners to naturally develop parrying motions according to the constraints that influence their practice. This allows understanding of the combat applications for each of the different parrying options, namely by transmitting the pros and cons of different parries available to intercept the same strike. Additionally, I also explain and present training drills on the topic of defensive timing and distance management.

 

The book on footwork follows the same line of thought, explaining how to develop footwork under a combat utility perspective, which is attained by focusing on distance management, speed and adaptability to opponents of different characteristics. I also included an additional section in which I look to breakdown footwork’s biomechanical issues so that practitioners are able to optimize this combat variable once their distance management skills are well developed. Again, I look to use exercises with a partner so that practitioners are presented with problems and tasks to solve, which enables them to develop the footwork movements by understanding the environment’s constraints the make it logical and natural to move in a given way. 

The book on combat in outnumbered scenarios is mostly on technique and tactical skills to fight against multiple opponents when using a long two handed weapon or a short single hand one (staffs and batons). Once again, both techniques and tactical options are explained within their natural combat context and practiced in such a way. Hence, the contents presented focus on free fighting instead of establishing rules or principles that the group of combatants has to go by.

The DVD looks to present the fundamental topics for any martial artist who does weapons sparring, such as, distance management in striking, perceptual strategies in parrying, tactical application of different parries, the relationship between defensive parrying footwork and parries and, finally, principles for the development of tactical skill. 

It is my feeling that the majority of people perceive martial arts or combat systems not simply as a set of tasks that arise out of a set of strategic imperatives, but as crystallized and closed systems of knowledge comprising of techniques AND teaching methods. Why do you think this happens? What would you reply to someone who ‘accused’ you that your art is not Jogo do Pau anymore?
I have had the enormous privilege of teaching alongside Mr. Robert Liles, who was by the words of Mr. Ed Parker (the founder of American Kenpo) his Kenpo adoptive son. I know for a fact that Mr. Liles has been praised that his Kenpo is better than the founder’s, but mind you that he has also been criticized, since he had the “nerve” to make adjustments on Mr. Parker’s technique. When confronted by such compliments he simply claims that his Kenpo isn’t better, in his words his Kenpo is just Kenpo from “year two thousand and something”, while his instructor’s was kenpo from the twentieth century. To that he adds that the reason he managed to progress further was because he benefitted from his instructor’s initial work. Today’s medical science is the result of the enormous improvements made ever since the time of witch doctors and such. People can’t wait for medicine to progress even more so the cure for diseases such as AIDS and cancer can be found. In a similar way, when combat systems are subjected to objective evaluation in the form of combat, be it in the street or in the competitive arena, the mentality of questioning knowledge is maintained and the systems continue evolving. However, questioning things and trying to make progress is hard work and, therefore, those who happen to practice martial arts under the comfort of not being pressed to show results in a combat situation, find it easier to merely keep everything the same and ultimately criticize those who look to continue their instructor’s unfinished work as a sin, when it really is the higher tribute that can be paid to them.

Should someone state that the JdP that I teach is no longer the traditional JdP, I would start by reflecting on the criticism - should I conclude that changes had been indeed introduced, changes that actually led to enhanced combat performance, either by improved technical contents or by better teaching / training methods, I would embrace this comment as a complement. I would hate to end up stagnating, especially since during the fifteen years I was lucky to be in contact with Master Russo, there was never a single season in which the technical program didn’t require at least one minor adjustment.   

It is very often claimed that the ‘old martial art masters’ knew everything and modern day science actually has nothing new to add in martial training methodologies. Where do you think this notion comes from?
I would have to say that two factors contribute to this. The first has to do with the fact that martial arts are mostly practiced by people whose professional commitments forces them to study subjects such as, for example, law and engineering. This means that most people have insufficient knowledge about human movement sciences to analyze technical skills and teaching methods, just as I am not knowledgeable to comment on the construction of a bridge, a doctor’s surgery technique, etc. Hence, sometimes practitioners place their previous instructors on a pedestal and due to lack of knowledge fail to detect components that can be improved. Think about it this way: when kids are ill, their parents take them to doctors, because they naturally acknowledge that they need help on a field that they don’t know much about. Unfortunately, when it comes to training, very few people show the same attitude, as if admitting one’s lack of knowledge on human movement analysis and skills acquisition should be a cause of shame and ridicule. In addition to that, there is this quite popular sports myth according to which, a talented performer can also teach and analyze his activity from a theoretical standpoint – well, this is a quite silly myth. I can easily transform someone who does not even know how to read or write – let alone be knowledgeable about biomechanics and physiology - into a formidable fighter. However, I can also guarantee that this formidable fighter won’t even realize how he actually performs many of his skills, much less be able to teach them. Nevertheless in the world of martial arts he would be considered a master and proficient teacher solely on the basis of his fighting performance skill. 

Secondly, in general we, human beings, like to feel safe. In this regard, quite a lot of people would rather believe in a fair governing entity such as God, or be convinced that Nature will always find a way to mend our mistakes, than face the possibility that we might be here on this planet by ourselves and that the planet might be on the verge of collapsing. The belief that the system we train at emanates from a superior entity who knew everything allows us to feel safe that we won’t get lost in the search for martial skill, thus being destined to succeed.

What are you currently working on?
Currently I am working on three new writing projects. The first one is about functional physical conditioning for elite sports performance. However, when I say elite I don’t refer to professional international level athletes. I’m referring to getting all enthusiast competitors to learn how to get the most out of their training by laying the physical foundations that enable them to optimize their technique and stamina. Additionally, this won’t just be one more book on physical conditioning - it is meant to work as a teaching course that will get readers to apply the contents covered to practical training scenarios and therefore develop real and useful training management skills regarding the topic of physical conditioning. The second document I’m working on is about the prescription and practice of the squat for sports and, last but not least, the third one is about understanding how to merge all biomechanical, physiological and contextual variables in one complete and coherent way, in order to diagnose what makes effective offensive and defensive techniques in striking martial arts. 

Would you like to close this interview with some advice for aspiring martial arts instructors, whether that would be books to read, subjects to study or habits to acquire?
From a scientific perspective I would advise the following reading:
•    To develop a more critical view on sports training in general: “Sports: Is it all BS?” By Dr. Michael Yessis
•    On performance psychology: “Fear: The friend of exceptional people” by Geoff Thompson
•    Regarding physical conditioning I would only advise “Supertraining” by Dr Mell Siff and Dr Yuri Verkoshanski, but it is a quite complex hardcore scientific reading. Hopefully, my document on physical conditioning, which will be available at the start of 2012, will be a cheaper option as well as an easier read for those interested on this subject
From a personal perspective, I would like to ask people to start acknowledging the fact that performing is different than teaching and, secondly, to be open minded to the point of constantly looking for ways to improve their teaching methods so as to help their students the same way they would like to be helped, as opposed to merely teaching so as to use the students for their own personal training. By doing this, everyone will benefit: the arts, the students and the instructors, in the satisfaction they derive from teaching.  
 

To find more about Luis Preto, visit his website at www.pretomartialarts.com. His books can be purchased from Amazon.