What would you do if you're seriously gassed? (Some Science)

[HighestHand]

Hey guys,

My cardio is the worse thing about me - Maybe - and I frequently get gassed during sparring.

What I tend to do was hyperventilate for about 10-15 seconds or so then take deep breathes to get as much oxygen in me as possible. Now I was aware that you shouldn't hyperventilate before doing something in risk of passing out (Bare with me, my understanding of the mechanism isn't too advanced), but that happens because of the change in PH of your body by exhaling too much CO2.

I was thinking that because I am already so gassed, I have so much lactic acid in me that my having a bit of CO2 washout wouldn't be that bad, as the Lactic Acid could potentially keep my blood PH from going too high and would prevent me from feeling light headed?

I couldn't find much on this besides the "don't hyperventilate prior to swimming" stuff I found on google. Also on Sherdog, I've searched but most people are referring to hyperventilating before a fight.

What are your thoughts on this? Would that lactic acid in the body keep your PH buffered so you can hyperventilate some?

What should a person do if gassed, during a fight, and in between the rounds?

 

[Kiwi Tricker]

No. Ideally, between rounds you should be getting your heart rate down as much as possible. Hyperventilating won't do anything positive for you.

 

[j123]

In between rounds, slow your breathing down (in turn, it slows the heart rate down). It will feel difficult, and instinctly you want to breathe how you want, but near the end of the break you'll thank yourself you did so.
The break is the period where you do the best you can to recover. If you're panicking, exhaling, etc. you've wasted 1min while your opponent has been recovering.

Most of the time when people gas, its because they don't breathe in enough. Exhaling on each strike, while not taking anything in, is the recipe to gas out quickly. Especially if you're not breathing in clinch fighting.

 

[facePuncher7]

McGregor, take notes

 

[Kanka]

I would try to fight more controlled and calm and calculate every strike. When my cardio is bad i like to stand against the ropes and use alot of teeps and leg kicks to the lead leg to off balance him. When he gets in close just tie him up and knee (if its muay thai)

Crazy combination and fancy foot work will make you tired faster

 

[1 2 3]

Yeah, they're right about slowing your breathing. It works.

Obvious advice: sounds like you need to improve your conditioning, which just happens over time if you practice regularly and do normal conditioning exercise. It's not rocket science. Everybody's got to put in the rounds and the miles and the abs...and everything else we all think is a slog...

Also: it takes two willing participants to have a fight. It's way easier to avoid fighting--even locked in a cage with somebody--than people think. You can just position yourself out of range, and you can slow the fight way down. Or you can feint more. Or get into useless clinches with your hips way back. Or stall against the fence. Hell, sometimes I kind of stop the fight randomly in the middle just by jabbing short and repositioning myself a lot just to screw with the guy. There's a million ways to stall.

 

[MuayThaiDude]

At 40, I get gassed easier than I used to. I tend to circle out without making it look like I am tired, otherwise the other corner will say, "He's tired!!" which is no beuno.
If you are really skilled you can continuously toss them or induce an 8 count and recompose from that.
If you are a cheater, just pretend you got hit in the balls and take your five minutes (I am kidding, don't cheat!).
Most important of course is breathing out with every strike and breathing correctly in general.

 

[HighestHand]

Slowing my breathing hmm... Never tried that... Gonna have to give it a go. I doubt a minute is enough for me though.

 

[j123]

Slowing my breathing hmm... Never tried that... Gonna have to give it a go. I doubt a minute is enough for me though.

It doesn't seem like much on paper, but near the end of the break you'll be feeling much better. Try not to look at it as a relax period, you're trying to fight yourself to slow your breathing (natural tendency is to hyperventilate).

 

[DoctorTaco]

I heard from a reliable source you should try and get your heart rate to 0 between rounds. @Sinister

 

[Zeppeling]

I have a good tank, but it seems like when pros need to catch a breath they'll labor on advancing on a sprawl or lean in on their opponent in the clinch against the cage.

 

[Fire of Youth]

Hyperventilating increases the CO2 in your body. That is why it is so hard to breath during a panic attack. Slower deeper breathing is better for getting much needed O2 to your muscles. Of course that is easier said than done when you are training at high intensity.

 

[HighestHand]

Hyperventilating increases the CO2 in your body. That is why it is so hard to breath during a panic attack. Slower deeper breathing is better for getting much needed O2 to your muscles. Of course that is easier said than done when you are training at high intensity.

I think you got it backwards there buddy, Hyperventilating decreases the CO2 in the body that's why people breath in a paper bag to re-inspire the CO2 they exhaled.

 

[Fire of Youth]

I think you got it backwards there buddy, Hyperventilating decreases the CO2 in the body that's why people breath in a paper bag to re-inspire the CO2 they exhaled.

Respectfully, I stand by what I said. It is the body's way of calming the body down in extreme stressful circumstances; an air bag for trauma, if you will. During exercise and other manageable stresses, the body takes large deep breaths at a faster speed to handle the bodies need for O2. It seems that you are asserting that this pattern continues to the bodies maximum capabilities. A pretty reasonable assertion. However, hyperventilating has a different breathing pattern to that of exercise. Hyper-ventilating involves very fast shallow breaths, usually at the fullest state of the lungs. What this means is that small amounts of O2 enters the body and only small opportunity to expel the used CO2. When combined with the bodies higher need for O2 due to the extreme stresses that induced the panic state of hypeventilation, you get a body vastly filling with CO2 and depleting the limited supply of O2 faster than the lungs can supply; which is congruent with my originally post. In summary, the heavy deep breathing of intense exercise is different to the shallow fast breathing of hyperventilation typical a panic attack. One can lead to the other but they certainly don't have to.


EDIT: I just went to double check my understanding after I posted this and I was wrong. I stand corrected.

 

[HighestHand]

EDIT: I just went to double check my understanding after I posted this and I was wrong. I stand corrected.

No worries about the CO2 stuff.

However, that does make me question, is it slow deep breaths that's better or just normal breathing that is better during the break?

 

[jimmy dakine]

Maybe slowing down the breath in a 1 minute rest between sparring is useful, and if the fight is on...it's on, so stalling tactics might help....but the only real useful thing that helped me was training at altitude and running up hills. Uphill running will accelerate cardio but of course you need to live in hill country...i lived in hawaii, all the hills you need right at your doorstep.....unfortunately, running only gets you so far cuz running is steady...fighting is fast n slow, fast n slow, fast n slow...so you need to run full speed, slow to jog, walk, run to full speed, jog, walk...rinse and repeat.

 

[j123]

No worries about the CO2 stuff.

However, that does make me question, is it slow deep breaths that's better or just normal breathing that is better during the break?

Slow deep breaths in my opinion. I find it pretty difficult to breathe normally with the increased heart rate from the round; However, slow deep breaths, near the end of the break (10-15s before starting) I'm recovered

 

[DoctorTaco]

From experience I can say that when bottomed out I will keep throwing and pray for the bell.