Recovery (Patreon)

• If you’re new to LMA, start with our table of contents

In Liberation Martial Arts (LMA), recovery means movement, quieting noise, steadying our eyes, and breathing. It can also include hydration and snacks.

Returning to inertia and phase transitions, it's generally best to keep moving rather than completely stopping during breaks. This also helps keep blood and oxygen flowing. Sitting also compresses the body, adding more strain.

If the goal is to get back to training, you don't want the body to cool down too much. However, what a practitioner does during recovery is their choice. If they are overheated and their heart rate is too high, it's probably best to sit. That's the practitioner's call. Taking breaks outside of scheduled times or extending breaks is also their call. Training is meant to be fun; it's not life or death. Err on the side of caution.

If you're done with training, moving and actively cooling down will ease your body to a complete stop. If you feel too feint to stand, stop training for the day. Ideally, you want to take a break before you get to that point or begin to reduce output when you feel exhaustion onsetting but wish to continue until the break.

Conservation of energy principle

Contrary to Western colonial training models, we don't ask practitioners to push themselves to their limits. Not only is this unsafe, but exhaustion also means less game time and more recovery. We want as much game time (training time) as possible because that's how we get better. Pushing too hard requires more breaks during training and more days off. It can also mean injury, which further limits game time. Conserving energy is an LMA principle because we learn through experience, and experience needs time, and time needs energy.

We can convert energy to game time and game time into experience, or we can convert energy into recovery time and recovery time into less experience. We must use our energy wisely and recover well.

Recovering during breaks

Since LMA is about fostering better movers, we should move even during our breaks. Get back to LMA walking and kinetic linking. Restore inertia and tempo and carry that efficiency into the next round. In the LMA Learning Lab, we keep it quiet during breaks so that our minds and bodies have less to attend to.

Resting also includes our eyes. Practitioners either look down or unfocus their gaze as they walk. Recovery is also a time to grab a drink or snack.

Breathing for recovery

Depending on the level of fatigue, practitioners might put their hands on top of their heads to open up their lungs. The arms can remain there or start there before transitioning into arm swings and kinetic linking. If the practitioner isn't that out of breath, they can go straight to kinetic linking. The arms might also be too weary to be held up. However, even a few breaths with the arms up will get more oxygen into the system.

Fast two-sided breathing

Start with quick in and out breathing. You can either breathe through the mouth or inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth (I show both versions in the video). This is all about getting some initial oxygen into the system and cooling your body. Every time you exhale, release tension. Breathe out as if you were blowing out a candle. Actively ease your body. If you're especially fatigued, just opening your mouth will automatically have you panting. Start there. Panting is your body's natural fast two-sided breathing.

Skip this step if it feels unnecessary.

Three-sided breathing

You can start with three-sided breathing or transition into it. Take two inhales through the nose—one quick, one long—followed by a long exhale through the mouth. Two inhales get oxygen deeper into the lungs. A hard and long exhale blows out the waste product. Each exhalation brings relaxation to the body.

Generally, when you're working, it's more important to exhale. This gets waste products out of your system to prevent fatigue. When you're recovering, it's more important to inhale. This fuels your system.

Slow two-sided breathing

After three-sided breathing, the heart should be regulated. If you don't feel particularly escalated after a round, you can jump straight into slow two-sided breathing. Breathe slow, smooth, and deep. In and out. Get rid of any tension. Inhale through the nose and blow out through the mouth, or breathe in and out deeply through the nose. Always use the diaphragmatic muscles to breathe, not the muscles of your neck and shoulders.

Tension means fatigue. Recovery means reducing tension.

Slow two-sided breathing should naturally give way to four-sided breathing.

Four-sided breathing

Inhale, pause, exhale, pause. You're back to a ready state and natural breathing. Breathe through the nose if that feels natural.

Once you're at ease, you can adapt and play again.

One more thing

There are no strict rules. You can and should use recovery breathing during the spirited parts of your training to reduce fatigue and tension.

Preserving inertia, ignoring noise, steadying your gaze, and remaining at ease will increase game time, workload, and development.

– Sam