Ben Poppleton Seminar, Five Rings Grappling Academy, Sheffield Dec 18th 17

A lot more were on the mat, but the seminar went on so long some ran off
for tea!

Read Evan Burgess’ review of Ben Poppleton’s seminar and interview with the first UK BJJ Black Belt. On the road to black belt, Ben Poppleton trained in Brazil in Barra, but first prepared by training ne waza with Judo Olympian Steve Gawthorpe.


Ben Poppleton, though frequenting Tenerife, also regularly tours the UK to teach with his detailed approach. I attended the night at Five Rings not sure what to expect. How would he do things? I wondered a lot about what it meant to be a BJJ black belt. It is no longer quite invincible as it had been in the past, but you can’t just turn up and get a BJJ black belt. In something so subjective as evaluating BJJ skill, it’s hard to work out what it is that makes BJJ so unique. A part of that uniqueness is that it allows the very weak, young, old and small a way to defend and defeat a stronger opponent. It isn’t quite like other sports or activities where your age automatically makes it impossible to keep up. Alex Ferguson was a great coach but didn’t have to prove it again and again on the pitch. With BJJ, you personally are on the line. So it was fascinating to see what Ben would do. Any BJJ teacher shows their personality by the way they teach, as their understanding of BJJ is based upon how their body works. Not everyone can do the same move the same way, but they can do the same move their way.

The first thing I noticed was the high amount of purple to brown belts on the mat. It was a statement in itself that so many higher ranks had turned up to the seminar. We went straight into BJJ movement, and this was shown in a rather unique way. We had to move horizontally, scooting from one hip to another. Then a more detailed stage was added, where we had to go back onto a knee and scuttle a little further. We were told to pay attention to how far we had moved. Considering BJJ is a game of centre metres, we had covered about a foot or foot and a half in this movement. After we had got this movement, a partner was added so we could see how the movement physically locked an opponent into a snap down. The shadow movement was great, and I would be surprised if anyone cannot remember how to do this after such a clear look at it.

After we had the basic move down, we were shown how to break an opponents posture, and on a minute scale how to adjust our bodies to end up in a Sumi Gaeshi position on the ground. Everything Ben was showing would have looked at home in a Japanese gym session taught by Oda himself. Of course, there was the issue of a resisting opponent. This meant we had to learn a few permutations. In a way, the whole session was like a flow chart. We were shown the most common counters or reactions from an opponent, and how to deal with them. A really great grip break was shown that could be used in almost all encounters on the ground. Essentially if an opponent had a grip of one leg and was pushing it so the mat, we’d scoot out and peel the grip with the opposite knee. Definitely something that gets people to let go fast.

Eventually, we got to the completed sweep, with a few sweep alternatives should the opponent get feisty. One of my favourite details was if the opponent tried to take your back from the sweep, you could make an x with your shins and turn their momentum into another sweep. I was lucky enough to train with two brown belts during the evening, and though I probably slowed them down, I had driven a long way so was determined to make the most of it. Being able to pick them up with the techniques showed they had great integrity.

After what seemed like a short time we lined up (must have been 1 ½ to two hours) and a black belt was awarded, then we went back to training. It was a heavy responsibility for the recipient, and it shocked the lower grades. Now there were three black belts on the mat. In the midst of our second wind of training the final line up was called, again a black belt was

Things weren't always easy, Ben had ten minutes
with Roleta, who despite hiding his hand in his belt,
didn't let up on Ben.

awarded. It hadn’t felt a long time at all, but I looked at the clock and three hours had passed.

At the end of the seminar there were four black belts on the mat and a lot of people who’d made breakthroughs. It seems that the difference between a black belt and other ranks is not just their ability to do things, but also to fluently navigate one thing to the other. After the seminar Ben took time with a white belt to demonstrate for about ten minutes how to really make an element of the technique work. He was always keen to state you have to feel the techniques to understand them, you can’t just watch and be told.

Interview

What made you move to Brazil?

I had trained for a few years under Gawthorpe I did 10 times more ne waza than tachi waza,. So my stand up was shit whilst my mat work was improving. I’d started training with Mauricio Motta Gomes as well in Birmingham. Then he moved back to brazil. After that I linked up with Andy Williams in Huddersfield who was under Chen Moraes but he left for Barcelona. I was left with my training partners in Doncaster, and the guidance of Gawthorpe. Steve could tell that I wasn’t that bothered about learning the full judo spectrum, he could see that I much, much preferred the mat work and he just pointed out one day that I needed to decide whether I was going to have a good go at it, or just keep pissing about. The best mat work was in Japan or Brazil. I preferred the Brazilian jiu-jitsu concept more than the Japanese judo one. so I grabbed my balls and off I went.

You’re writing a book about your experiences of training Brazillian Jiu Jitsu in Brazil, is it hard to choose what to focus on? Are there some things you have to leave out?

The book? To be honest I’m just writing everything I can remember. I’m not going to leave anything out… Maybe change names, that’s all.

How can you improve your BJJ if you live in the middle of nowhere?

Not easy. First thing you need is a good training partner. Without that, you're knackered. You also need access to correct movements to be practicing. So you would have to venture to properly qualified teachers who teach well every now and then to pick up some 'homework'. Then make sure you practice the moves, .and even more importantly, make sure you, and your training partner spar positionally. So you both get a 'go' in every position. Then finally return to the qualified teacher’s academy every now and then to check your progress. In my humble opinion, this is only option you have if you’ve absolutely no access to a good academy. There’s no substitute for being right in the thick of it in a world class academy day after day after day. But if this isn’t an option I believe the points I made above are your best methods for improving.

You run week long residential training in Tenerife, how does that work?

Tenerife only really has two seasons, spring and summer, so it’s a fantastic place for all year round training. Plus it’s not expensive like most first world paradises are. It seemed obvious right away that this all should be taken advantage of. So there are BJJ training camps in place now, where you can come alone, with mates, or family to train BJJ with me every day, and enjoy a holiday in Tenerife with the great weather and all that comes with it whilst you’re at it. Next one is in March 2018.

Do the British public know much about their own grappling heroes?

No!!! The British grappling community don’t know their own grappling heroes! I think it’s a mixture of British culture and a sign of the times. I think there’s a lot of folk in Britain that could point out in 2 seconds the favourite coloured underwear of some numpty from reality TV. Yet wouldn’t recognise Neil Adams if you bounced him on his head in front

Two British grappling legends, but do you know who they
are?

of them. Even Brian Jacks has whatever household fame he has due to TVs 'superstars' and not his Olympic judo pedigree. It’s sad really I believe. I think the newer BJJ crowd would be stuck to recognise Mauricio Motta Gomes. Even though he’s the only 8th degree black belt on our shores. I’ve also known Gawthorpe do free mat sessions where only 20 have turned up!!! Mental. It’s weird that we don’t know our own history, especially in our own field of study!!!!

You have a holistic approach to your teaching and a great attention to detail. How did that develop?

My holistic approach? Personal injuries. I’d like to say that it was due to a spiritual connection I’ve always had. But that’s bollocks! The truth is that I was forced into looking at BJJ, and my life in general from a totally different set of perspectives due to injury and pain. When it comes to my attention to detail I’ve always been weird. Always obsessive well beyond what would be deemed healthy.

To find out more about Ben and stay in touch, follow this link! https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolBJJBenPoppleton/

Train with Ben this February for a donation at this event in the South West! https://www.facebook.com/events/282630485584975/

Craig Fallon Black Dog Judo Seminar Review 12th Nov 17

Craig Fallon showed us how to make the
teachniques work for us.

Craig Fallon offered a top notch seminar coming back from Austria to blitz judoka with dominant grips. What the participants discovered was how to take the back from standing, or re-engage the sleeve lapel at their choosing.

Craig Fallon came in from Austria and taught a kids and adults session at Black Dog Judo. The cost for the adult session was only £8, too good to be missed.

It was refreshing to come to a seminar where the sleeve lapel grip was almost non-existent. Of course, as a U60kg competitor Craig Fallon had speed and agility on his side, but all too often the sleeve lapel grip is where things end, not begin. This was not going to happen as Craig guided us through gripping sequences that let to taking the back from standing, or re-engaging in a snappy foot sweep or uchi mata.

A large amount of high grades and beginners mingled and I got to work with a coach, so there was little wasted time debating the techniques that sometimes goes on if you’re with another beginner. Working on movement was the first exercise, then came dummy foot sweeps and eventually the real thing. The kuzushi I learned was really helpful, and the best part was following it through to the ground and ending in a dominant position. It is very easy to lose the battle in the transition. In fact in a competion I had just done, I won two matches by osaekomi by reversing things on the ground.

Any good judoka has six people's blood on their white gi.

After working on grips for position, kuzushi and take downs we demoed ken ken uchi matas along the floor. It was great that Colin went to people and showed them how things worked. It wasn’t a case of micromanaging every step but demonstrating the alignment required to move people. Demonstrating the forearm position for ouchi gari Craig made me lose my balance quite easily and that was just from hand positioning. The congruent alignment from foot to hand was amazing, and it really goes to show kuzushi is a subject that has to be covered before throws.

Moving into ground work Craig showed us how to pass half guard and explained he had witnessed too many people stumble here in competition. He’s seen many people recently scoring waza ari, only to be held back and losing the match later. If you can pass the legs as soon as possible you will win right there by osaekomi or submission. When someone can move like a mongoose perhaps it is easier said than done, but the passing technique was good and is available on Youtube at a Gent seminar (see end for details).

After this we did a lapel strangle from when someone rolls over flat or pancakes from turtle. It can be a very stubborn position to crack. Making space and feeding the lapel through for a strangle will definitely induce people to move even if they don’t give in to the submission. It was a similar technique to a strangle Kashiwazaki demonstrated in one of his videos but instead of a kata te jime the lapel skirt takes the place of the collar grip.

What came next was both hard and very useful. Craig has great balance and we were about to learn how to develop ours. He showed us the position he wanted us to do randori in next. It was what many people know as an Asian squat. From our haunches we had to engage in tachi waza (throws and sweeps) and duck walk into the engagement. I’m not going to lie, it was incredibly hard not to stand up or put a knee down. “No, that’s not what we’re doing this isn’t ne waza” stated Craig. After a few partner changes I think most people were feeling the burn. I would recommend this to people and coaches as a great exercise for both beginners and players in a rut. Not only does it make a beginner build up endurance, balance and confidence in throws (surely it is hard to get injured from such a low height), it can also highlight anybody who may have let their fitness lag. It won’t be suitable for sufferers of certain injuries, but if it doesn’t increase balance and stamina I don’t know what will.

Video of the Gent seminar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptKDpj9AuWQ

Neil Adams Essential Judo Seminar Review

Be as stubborn as you want, Neil Adams will get your arm. This technique involved a nice neck crank with the inner thigh.

The Short Review: A four hour judo seminar with something for everyone, at a very reasonable price. To subscribe to Neil Adam’s online content or buy products you can visit here: www.neiladamsjudo.info to see a bit of Neil in action to get an idea watch this randori video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYp4sDHxm0

£35 to train for four hours with a double Olympic medallist? I was a bit confused. I wanted to improve my judo as I had seen firsthand how useful it was from 8 months of training. I had been looking into the subject of Judo seminars and found it a quagmire. Seminars on the BJA website were often belt ranked, which meant as a keen beginner I wasn’t welcome. So when I saw Neil Adams was doing a seminar open to everyone I was very curious. How was he going to reconcile absolute beginners with dan ranks? I had been doing BJJ for just over a year, and everyone had been saying how Judo was defeated by BJJ. For me it was a bit of a paradox. BJJ and Judo were essentially from the same lineage, so I felt that saying BJJ beat Judo was saying Manchester United beat Manchester United. It turned out it wasn’t that simple, as the rule sets of both sports and founding ideas emphasise certain things. There is a great deal of difference in the manner of training in both codes. In many clubs there is almost a 90-10% bias in techniques taught. This means in Judo 90% can be standing and 10% on the ground. In BJJ it may be normal to be a blue belt before you are familiar with your first take down. There are clubs that are different, but this seems quite normal.

A Contextual Snapshot of modern BJJ and Judo (skip to seminar breakdown to find out what happened)
The attitudes to training involved at the recreational level can be strange. In one judo club I said that in BJJ the fight would continue even after a big throw. The person I was talking to seemed perplexed, perhaps believing people were dead after a throw. Throws can be very dangerous, but most of the time there is a lot of fight in someone even after a takedown. The concepts of sparring are quite different too. In Judo sparring there can be a lot of talk about “you can’t do this, you can’t do that” and it ends up being a case of focusing on the negative. After one session I was thinking to myself “What can I do?” because it didn’t seem any legal grips were explained. In BJJ sparring is a fundamental step that cannot be avoided, but it nearly always starts on the knees. That is safe, but not how most interactions begin. It is becoming a blind spot for some pure sporting BJJ players. This is similar to the blind spot judo has in believing a throw wins a fight.  In fact, in the beginning BJJ sparring is designed to completely dominate and destroy a person’s preconceptions about fighting. You can go full out and almost never injure someone badly. When you experience this, you get a sense of how helpless you are. It gives a sense BJJ is unbeatable. Whether BJJ is really unbeatable or not isn’t necessarily the issue. BJJ gives a smaller person some tools to really sap and demoralise a stronger opponent. The sport of Judo however was very much intended for different purposes. It would be impossible to find a technique in BJJ or Judo which didn’t exist at some point in the other canon. But the implementation of these techniques is determined by the end user purpose. I so far haven’t met a judo player who can pull off a good triangle in sparring, or a BJJ player who can tap you from a crushing pin alone. These abilities are developed by the necessity of the sport.

As BJJ has become more popular, it has really emphasised a way of fighting that is very potent and can’t be understood without experiencing. However, some things do seem to be relegated in importance. Throws, take downs and break falls just aren’t that necessary. In Judo, the rule set has meant a lot of techniques just aren’t worth the effort. When competing in BJJ I managed to get an uchi mata. In response the next opponent sat down in the first 6 seconds. This was probably a good idea in a competition, but it possibly didn’t have a martial use. In a way, “pulling guard” or sitting down has become a way to negate certain techniques when you know an opponent will dominate you in one plain. But when anything becomes a dogma, there could be negative consequences.

Dogma wasn’t a part of this seminar. In the Essential Judo session, there was time taken in passing the guard from standing by grabbing the legs. You couldn’t do this in modern competition judo, but everyone who has studied judo for a long time would have practised it a lot. What it did was show Neil’s intent not to be stuck in a rut by current Judo doctrine. This skill set was introduced as a concept after an opponent had either been knocked down or failed in a sacrifice technique. In BJJ the concept of passing the legs is so core sometimes it is easy to forget most people won’t want to go on the ground!

Seminar Breakdown
Here is a brief rundown of the  seminar: Okuri Ashi Harai (double foot sweep), Seoi Nage, Tai Otoshi. passing the open guard, Turtle turnover from an opponents failed throw, juji gatame from the back (cross body armlock), okuri eri jime (sliding collar choke) from the back, Hadaka jime (rear naked choke), ne waza (ground fighting) sparring and standing randori (standing sparring). This was over four hours and people could work at their own pace.

Before we had been taught anything, grip fighting was introduced. Defence and attack was focused on. It wasn’t so much competitive as it was cooperative. This was an important framework for the seminar. You can stuff any move when you know it’s coming!

After the grip fighting, either Neil’s celebrity or the exertion of judo caused a lady to swoon. It was resolved quickly and safely. Nevertheless it struck me what seemed quite light exercise to someone used to contact sports could be a challenge to others. It’s interesting to note that a lot of people from various martial arts were in attendance. I am not familiar with how each club or code trains, but in some martial arts there is never a genuine active element in it. This seminar may have come as a shock to the system to some, where physical contact was mandatory.

The next step was break falling. I am not great at break falling, but I realised how important the simple actions of side break falls were. Just tucking the chin in and keeping the arm at the right angle can stop breaks, concussion and death (hitting a pavement with the back of your head is very hard if you break fall properly).

After that, we went into throws. It’s one thing to know intellectually how a throw works. But to be given feedback by one of the best practitioners cut through a lot of wasted time. The foot angles and the slight modulations on entry were made apparent. I felt I made genuine progress. Foot sweeps were covered first and drills like following the opponents head helped time sweeps.

Next came bigger throws, Seoi Nage and Tai Otoshi. The chap I was training with felt I was resisting his throws, which was confusing to me because I thought I was making myself available. Standing with my hands out like a scarecrow or a zombie, I thought I was his puppet. It is a very important aspect of judo to work together, but there is a point where you can help someone delude themselves by “jumping” for a throw. I don’t believe it helps anyone when all they have to do is adjust their hips. To make things easier I added a bit of my own energy to the techniques which seemed to help my partner make things work. I don’t know if it was in reality helpful because it seemed I was aiding the technique too much. I am not the best judge but after I started to aid the throw he said “Much better”.

It is really critical to note that throws are very complex. Differences of centre metres can make it work or not work, a bit like having a plug near a socket, but not in it! In my opinion if I can’t throw someone I am doing something wrong. For someone like Neil it must be hard to look at a beginner and see the thousands of things they are doing wrong and decide what to mention. Because of this I was very impressed by the way the moves were broken down. It allowed everyone to make things work when they followed the instructions. In fact I would imagine the people without so much power benefitted from the technique more than a lump like myself. They have to use technique, but I could lean on strength to overcome my flaws.

After the throws, we went into groundwork. I was really impressed. The techniques were very simple and yet this made them more effective. Since learning them I have implemented them a lot in sparring and had positive results. The armbar Neil taught this day was one of the many he has in his arsenal. If I am honest, I’m not quite sure it sunk in because there was a point where he torqued the opponents neck and I couldn’t find the right angle. Regardless, the positional control was very obvious. It’s tempting when something isn’t coming together to say “I don’t think that works” but it was clear I was just doing it wrong. Chokes and some other ground techniques were covered, but it relied on a specific and achievable entry for a novice. I thought that was very well chosen.

There was a bit of sparring on the ground and it was good fun, but it showed how complicated grappling was. With a year of grappling behind me it was so easy against other martial artists who focused on other things. It is very hard to intimate this to someone taking part in another martial art for years, that essentially they’re helpless whatever grade they are, if they don’t have a fundamental grappling knowledge. This cross pollination was the best aspect of the seminar. It boiled down something so complex as grappling and people took part and learned a great deal, especially what they didn’t know! What is a harder pill to swallow for some is that grappling isn’t something you can take a seminar on and become proficient. With any luck, it will have encouraged people to take up Judo or another grappling art consistently.

After the seminar, questions came. The responses were candid and not filtered, which I believe was really useful. It’s easy to be dodge a question but nothing was. I eventually had a chance to ask something and instead of just telling me the answer, Neil demonstrated. Essentially I wanted to know how to stop opponents taking a sleeve lapel or 50/50 grip. “I’ll show you.” Was Neil’s response. “Take a grip!” I tried, it wasn’t going to happen.

A sense of perspective. Neil is taller in real life! He also
showed me my grip fighting need a lot of work.

The grip Neil took above my left elbow stranded me. He used it to block my right hand and angle off constantly. If I managed to move my right hand in, he caught the sleeve under my wrist and levered me like a marionette. His ability to remove any grip I had on him in a split second made me gain perspective. Some people have physical capabilities beyond normal imagination, I don’t believe I have felt a grip so strong before and despite outweighing Neil I felt like a baby. Whilst I am not an expert at any martial art, the sheer domination informs my belief he could do that to almost anyone.

It seemed pretty clear to me that the Essential Judo seminar format was one both accessible to complete beginners and advanced players from any martial art. I remembered a story a 5^th Dan Judoka told me about trying to get to Neil’s lapel. “I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t even touch him.” If you do get a chance to train at a seminar like this you’ll learn something, and hopefully experience even more.

Should Gi Sports Work Together More? Skip if you don’t want to read idol speculation.
The BJJ and Judo community in England seem to have a somewhat stand offish relationship, which is interesting but they have an awful lot to learn from each other. Maybe some of the popularity has come from the Gracie challenge, the idea that no one could beat a Gracie black belt in no holds barred. Indeed, on a recreational level most BJJ players can defeat an equivalent Judo grade on the ground. Then most BJJ blue to purple belts really outshine the majority of judo black belts on the ground. But be careful to note, most! There are some Judo black belts who melt through BJJ black belts and the BJJ community doesn’t take note of this. It was very interesting to note when Royce Gracie was looking for a judoka to fight, he picked his enemy well. Yoshida was an Olympic gold medallist, but ground work was not his biggest interest. In both fights Yoshida dominated standing, and in reality there wasn’t much Royce could do to him. In the second fight after kicking him in the balls, Yoshida did seem to lose momentum, but he couldn’t be submitted. That’s not bad for someone who never specialised in groundwork.

There has been much talk of Royce attending a Neil Adams seminar in the USA, with some claiming there was sparring and Neil tapped him. This was not true, but it was an arm bar seminar and it did seem plausible they were checking Neil out to see if they could issue a challenge at some point. It’s always fun to ask what ifs. I would have been quite surprised if Royce could easily have won that fight should it have occurred. Watching old footage of Neil in action you can see he is very familiar with sweeps and the guard position, with some great flower sweeps as BJJ now calls them. It would indeed have been an interesting proposition. I don’t think Neil would have been as well versed on the ground as Royce, but his strength and ability in all areas seems to give him the edge in my book. Royce had an interesting interview once, and he said “Don’t play the other man’s game.” I think whoever managed to implement their game first would have won, and the power of Neil’s grips in my opinion would have given him the edge.

But why can’t every Judo black belt do well on the ground? Neil was aware of the way Judo’s rule set had affected the average player’s skills. He was welcoming and interested in what it was about BJJ that seemed to create such buzz, when from Neil’s perspective, it could be considered half judo.

 I wasn’t quick enough to formulate a reply, but I think BJJ is a bit like computer hacking. You can learn it yourself with minimum supervision, and it’s very informal. Judo can be a bit stuffy. For BJJ, you don’t need expensive hardware (i.e. a muscular powerful body) but instead an understanding of code (leverage and how to scramble someone else’s hardware). It’s almost a secret super power no one can guess if you have by looking at you. BJJ has a mystique and massive complexity. You can take part in it without being massively fit or risking a big slam. That being said great BJJ players like Roger Gracie enjoy judo, having trained extensively with Neil. Royler and Renzo Gracie represented Brazil in Judo. According to Renzo, Royler was an alternate for the Olympics but the place was taken by a Brazilian phenomenon. When you get to the very top levels, players do seem to have overlapping abilities, but BJJ will always emphasise the ground. It doesn’t negate the fact some judoka are unbelievable in ne waza. It’s hard for me to believe Kashiwazaki or Craig Fallon couldn’t have done well in BJJ competitions at most levels with their judo skills alone. I was tempted to invite Neil to come down to a BJJ tournament the week after, entering as a blue belt (all judo black belts can compete first at blue belt). It would have been fun to watch.

With this seminar, I believe Neil Adams showed Judo’s cutting edge, an edge that may have been lost in public consciousness over the years. If you do BJJ, a Judoka like Neil is definitely one who will understand things from your perspective and be able to guide you into throws. Neil believes his game is well rounded and his throws are as good as his groundwork, so that is some serious ability. If you own a dojo or wish to attend a seminar, make sure you do your best to set up or attend one. It is well worth the money and time.

Bas Ruttan O2 Trainer - The Mouthpiece That Could Change Your Lungs for Good?

The latest fashion ancil to your country
excursion?

The O2 Trainer is available online. This small piece of kit could help people train whilst on the road, find out more.

I have always wondered what it is about Sherpas and people from high altitudes that allows them to sustain their energy with lower oxygen. People struggle going up and seem to perform better if they have come down from altitude. Some have said it is to do with the amount of red blood cells produced. Once a Gurkha told me “Our blood doesn’t get thick, we can carry more oxygen.” Whatever the reason, people have tried to capture this effect with different techniques. These can be expensive, such as altitude training, or depleted oxygen housing (crazy, but apparently some people want to sleep like that!)

The Bas Ruttan O2 trainer is not like hypoxic masks that claim to be set to altitudes. Whilst I have read some research that these masks can increase stamina in some conditions, and may well be worth training in for Fireman and Soldiers, they don’t seem to increase the efficiency of oxygen use. When people are tested in hypoxic chambers rather than with the mask on, they don’t seem to have any advantage over people who don’t train with hypoxic masks. This implies the use of hypoxic masks won’t allow you to drop into Nepal anytime soon and skip acclimatising!

Bas Ruttan believes this is because they limit the exhalation, which causes not only a laboured in breathe, but a downward spiral caused by adding resistance to the out breath. The end result is shallow breathing. He has claimed he was inspired by his Asthma. His lungs were only ever constricted on the intake, but he could always breathe out fully. This is a little bit similar to some yogic breathing exercises, or inhaling through the nose, and exhaling through the mouth. He noticed very starkly after a period of asthma suffering his track times got quicker. “How was it possible?” he wondered.

It may have something to do with the fact the lungs are forced to suck harder, strengthening the supportive muscles in the back and the diaphragm. If that was the case, what if he made something that only limited the intake of breathe, but allowed people to breathe out all the way?

The result of this is the O2 trainer. After having run with it a few times, I have experienced this concept in action. It is written in the online description “you might feel some ache in your back, this is your lungs breathing to a fuller capacity.” At first this seemed hard to imagine, but in fact I have felt this. This is possibly the fact my lower traps and rib cartilage have not been forced to extend so far before. The mouth piece really forces me to breathe with the bottom of my lungs, slowly and steadily. The whoosh on the way out tells me exactly how full my lungs have been. If there isn’t much sound, my lungs were empty by the time I made the out breath, thus I know I need to breathe in deeper next time!

It is very interesting, my shoulders have dropped since I have been using the trainer. I think this is somewhat down to the way it massages my lower trapezius and lats from the inside, as my lungs fill deeper like bellows. Like many people after most runs I have felt tight in my shoulders, contrarily after running with the mouthpiece my shoulders actually feel looser.

The mouthpiece itself is a small rubber mould that has two chambers. One chamber is the inlet, where one of 14 filters can be attached, with each numbered filter adding resistance to the in breathe. On the other side, a tiny cat flap like fold stops air coming in, but allows it to go out freely. The sound on the exhale really lets you know if you have been using the device properly. If it doesn’t open fully and sharply as you breathe out, you probably need to reduce the filter to a bigger hole and use less resistance.

I would recommend this device to people wishing to improve their stamina. There are some user issues that may make some feel uncomfortable, which include a build up of saliva and perhaps the feeling of being “exposed” when running around with a mouth piece. However, there are at home exercises that just focus on breathing. This may suit some people more than others.

SUGGESTED EXERCISES WITH O2 TRAINER:
Hill sprints
Kettle bell swings
Breathing exercises
Tabatas
Skipping
Boxing bagwork