Sep 27 Understanding the Survival System

Having worked within the security industry my training has always been rooted heavily in the ‘reality’ end of the martial arts and my primary concern has been the body’s survival system.   It is the desire to understand this system that has really been the driving force in my martial development and was also the catalyst that led me into physical therapy and the healing arts.

Our survival system is powered by the sympathetic nervous system that is more commonly known as ‘fight or flight’.  This part of the nervous system is our body’s ‘call to arms’ and changes our physiology to allow us to perform during life threatening situations.

When the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) engages the body diverts resources away from non-essential systems into the parts that will help it survive.  For example if you need to run away from something you are going to need your big leg muscles so the body will divert blood to this area.  To do this it will increase the heart rate to pump the blood faster and shut down the blood supply to any body parts that don’t yield performance boosts.  With our muscles working hard their oxygen demands increase so we breathe deeper and harder and along with the blood supply the oxygen is diverted to the priority systems.  The non-essential systems, such as reproduction and digestion are put on hold – processing your dinner isn’t a priority when something is trying to make a meal of you!

Like many martial artists I recognised that the mastering ‘fight or flight’ was the key to combat, it was the ‘accelerator pedal’ that caused my body to leap into action.  My trouble came with becoming obsessed with this ‘accelerator pedal’ and failing to even consider that the body might have a brake pedal.  What use was the brake pedal for the practically minded martial artist?

In the very first lesson of my shiatsu studies (shiatsu is a form of Japanese physical therapy) they began discussing ‘fight or flight’.  Obviously being intrigued with ‘fight or flight’ my ears immediately pricked up.  My teacher proceeded to discuss all the elements mentioned above and then they mentioned that it had a complimentary aspect called the ‘parasympathetic nervous system’.  The tagline that is attached to the parasympathetic nervous system is ‘rest and recuperation’ and it is effectively the body’s ‘brake pedal’ – it is body system that allows ‘relaxation’.

Our parasympathetic nervous system (‘rest and recuperation’) provides our body with the ability to inhibit or turn down the sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) response.  If you think of the sympathetic response as the body’s ‘call to arms’ then the parasympathetic response is its ‘stand at ease’ component, but unless you know how to engage it you are always going to be on high alert and ‘stressed’.  You only have to look at the common ‘stress related’ diseases to see the ‘fight or flight’ response at work; irritable bowel syndrome, impotence, high blood pressure and stomach ulcers which are all linked to stress to see how the sympathetic nervous system diverts resources from the non essential systems.  Unless the resources are eventually sent back to these systems they will begin to breakdown and the common stress related disorders manifest.  With this understanding we see our ability to deal with stress has as much to do with the using the ‘brake’ as it does with pushing the accelerator.

There is a saying that ‘breath is the link between the sympathetic and parasympathetic’ and is our key to begin exploring how to interact between the two.  People who suffer from panic attacks are often given breathing exercises to help them cope with the episode.  All a panic attack is really is an extreme ‘fight or flight’ response to a perceived threat – the body simply over reacts.  By using deep and regular breaths a victim of an attack can begin to cause the body to relax and engage their parasympathetic nervous system.  As martial artists we can make use of the same technique.

Quite often a problem in the martial arts isn’t that we cannot cope with ‘fight or flight’ and its associated adrenaline release but that we are unable to handle the adrenaline ‘dump’ that results from our sympathetic nervous system over reacting – just as with the panic attack victim.  So the problem isn’t that we need to apply the accelerator any harder we just need to be able to use the brake – and use it during stressful situations.  One exercise you can do to start training this response is to practise deep and regular abdominal breathing during a pad workout or a session on the bag.  By focussing on your breath during the workout you will be able to spot when your sympathetic nervous system starts to engage – your breath will tighten and rise up into the chest and your heart rate will increase.  Naturally during a physical activity your sympathetic nervous system will engage (proving the point that we really don’t need to train how to do this) but what you want to make sure is that it doesn’t overly engage and drain you.  Keep your workout at pace whereby you can control your breath and then progressively challenge yourself to develop your brake pedal.

This technique is used by many combat athletes and will greatly increase your body’s ability to perform efficiently under duress.  Moving it into all aspects of your training including sparring and pair work will allow you to better develop your ability to avoid ‘adrenaline dumping’.  What this training builds is the ability to ‘inject’ rather than ‘dump’ adrenaline and stops the sympathetic nervous system over reacting.  This allows you to respond with clarity and precision instead of panic and stress.  In addition to helping in martial performance it also teaches you how to ‘relax’ and this is a skill that will naturally manifest in all stressful situations and with practise can actually be done independently of the breath.

If you’re constantly driving with ‘the pedal to the metal’ eventually your engine will break or you’ll crash.  Our body naturally knows how to accelerate but it needs to be trained to how to slow down.  To relax you don’t need to go to the Bahamas, simply understand how to deal with ‘stressful’ situations.  Mastering the sympathetic and parasympathetic response, the accelerator and the brake, isn’t just beneficial for martial performance it is also the key to good health and delving into the depths of martial therapy.

Gavin King

Gavin King is a Shiatsu practitioner, writer and Martial Arts instructor from Essex in the United Kingdom. He runs a full time Martial Arts centre in Hockley, Essex teaching Tai Chi and Kung Fu. You can contact him via Facebook or Twitter!

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