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Old 12-08-2006, 08:37 AM   #14
Kevin Wilbanks
Location: Seattle/Southern Wisconsin
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 788
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Re: Controlling your respiration

Quote:
Peter Gröndahl wrote:
If this is true, how come most people (trained or untrained in MA) seems to fight the same when their stresslevels peak?
I didn't know they did. If so, it might be an argument for a human fighting instinct, but it certainly doesn't make it autonomic. Autonomic functions are governed by a specific part of the central nervous system, and are not usually subject to conscious control at all. An activity like fighting is extremely complicated and involves interpreting sensory data, making decisions, initiating movements, etc... It's like comparing digestion and playing basketball.

Breathing itself is mostly involuntary, yet also has the possibility of limited conscious control. Incidentally, so does regulation of heart rate and localized skin temperature, although no one seems to be interested in the purported martial benefits of beating one's heart in a certain way or keeping one's elbow skin at room temperature.
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