Tactical Combat and Warrior Breathing Techniques

Keeping your mind calm, your heart rate down and your focus is a key element to being an asset in the time of need. When sh!t hits the fan, the last thing your team wants to deal with is someone freaking OUT!

One of the easiest ways to control yourself in a tense or high stress situation is proper breathing.

Focusing on controlling your breathing will allow you to slow your heart rate, think and execute the task.

Breathe, Think, Execute.

Basic Combat Breathing: simple inhale/exhale practice. Inhale 3 seconds, exhale 3 seconds. Calm and smooth. Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.Focus on your breath and make it a rhythm or pattern.

Advanced Tactical Breathing: inhale/hold/exhale/hold. This is known as 4 Square Breath, Box Breathing or Pranaymas Breathing. Beginners should start with 2 second for each phase: inhale 2 seconds, hold 2 seconds, exhale…  As you get more advanced you can increase this to 5 or even 10 seconds.

Breathing and breath control is an essential component to keeping your mind clear, your heart rate in control and making the right decisions in a stressful situation.

Question: Coach Brad; I am looking to try out for Navy SEALs and want to try and improve my pull ups.

What are a few tips that you would do to increase your reps? Jim T.

Answer: Good question Jim. I would start out by doing simple pyramids.

Start with one rep and jump off the bar and rest 10 seconds then jump back up and do two reps.

Work your way up until you feel a little fatigued then work your way back down.

So a rep count will look like this 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.

As you get stronger you can add more reps or add a light weight vest.

Check out this article on SGPT pull up tips.

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