Reader Question: Hi! My name is Gilberto and i am a runner but a huge fan of BJJ and the family Gracie. As a runner I am very interested in the breath work. I know Rickson Gracie do breath of fire and stomach vacuum, but what kind of breath they do during sparring? I want replicate this kind of breathing during my run. And you do some type of breathing post workout? If you can help me i will appreciate it.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times: Some of Gracie family members are firm believers in the value of breathing for endurance during fights.
There are also a few videos on the importance of breathing for jiu-jitsu. One of them comes from Rickson Gracie and a few others are centered around the techniques of his son, Kron Gracie.
At a seminar in 2017, Rickson devoted some time to discussing and demonstrating the breathing that he uses. The segment begins around the 19-minute mark.
As Rickson points out in the video, you can go for days without food, but if you go five minutes without breathing, you’ll die.
He also specifies that there are correct and incorrect ways to breathe:
“If you don’t learn how to breathe, you’re going to spend your time breathing with only part of your lungs,” Rickson said.
He then advises his students to “pull in” while breathing, demonstrating the proper technique in the video.
Kron talked about his own philosophy and approach during his appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast.
His specific breathing exercise can be seen in the video below:
You can catch a good breakdown of it here from Rashad Almonani. Rashad instructs viewers to take a deep breath, exhale half their air, then take short and “snapping” breaths.
Check out his video below:
Hope this helped!
