Hook Breathing
The term is a nickname that fighter pilots have for the Valsalva Maneuver, a maneuver used to stay conscious in high G forces. A deep breath is taken and forcibly exhaled against a closed airway. You probably do it a dozen times a day without realizing it. You do it when you're taking a dump and baring down, trying to lift something heavy or performing a difficult physical feat, try and not do it when weightlifting, it's a bad form. If employed properly, it can seriously lessen the urge to flinch or jerk from a sudden pain. It works forcibly increasing the pressure in your chest cavity by inflating your lungs, holding your breath, and contracting the stomach muscles and diaphragm as if to forcibly exhale, without releasing the breath. This causes a dramatic rise in blood pressure to the outer extremities and head.
Practice
The best way to increase your pain tolerance is to get used to it. Practice by inflicting pain on yourself, while trying to keep a straight face. Do this whenever you're alone, it freaks people out. Don't cut yourself, while or prick yourself with needles, just stretch your legs. It serves two purposes, it makes you more flexible, and it inflicts a great deal of sharp pain for as long as you can bear it.
Distraction
When the body is registering pain, and a second, more urgent injury is detected, it shuts off the pain receptors for the first injury to allow you to focus on more urgent injury, so if you have a broken leg, you splint it, but still need to walk, puncturing your skin with a sharp needle will lessen the pain of the leg. Many believe this is why acupuncture works as a means to manage chronic pain.
Emotional Distress
Your anger gives you focus, makes you stronger. It helps you endure great pain if you work yourself into a rage, by thinking about things that piss you off. Compose a montage in your head, set to heavy music, with scenes involving violent deaths of the people you despise. Hightened emotional states cause your brain to release adrenaline, making you capable of powering through physical distress.
sounds interesting!
ReplyDeletevery interesting, man.
ReplyDeletegonna start practicing.
another one that works if you are actually going to do it is, walking slowly (AND CAUTIOUSLY) on things like legos. or run though snow barefoot for short periods of time, increasing the time the more you do it. start with something like 20-30 seconds. your feet are full nerve endings, and getting over pain in the feet is a huge accomplishment! as a note to help support my credibility, I have been doing this sort of thing for years and I can now run on gravel and through woods and snow barefoot without minding at all. (I do not walk on coals!) and yes this sort of training does come in very handy! once some friends and I were hiking and took a wrong turn into a marsh and we all lost our shoes. but only one of us was able to walk in the woods just fine. it also helps if you have ever smashed your thumb with a hammer, because its not as bad as the lego walking!!
DeleteGetting pain for myself to increase my pain threshold? Man that's just sick:D Interesting read anyway.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: you don't "get" pain for yourself, you protect yourself against unforeseen pain in the future by becoming accustomed to it now. trust me, it helps.
DeleteJust so you know. The Valsalva Manoeuvre is good form when lifting weights.
ReplyDeleteThat's what was said
Delete'try and NOT do it when weightlifting, it's a bad form.'
Very interesting, nice post!
ReplyDeleteMy bat cave just crummbled °____°
ReplyDeletethis is very interesting....i didnt know this info
ReplyDeleteYou forgot "think of something sexual." This works, at least with the ladies.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304395985901642
Or, think of your favorite joke.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030439599500046U
definitely gonna start doing this
ReplyDeleteNice, gonna try this out!
ReplyDeletei agree with becoming comfortable with pain as a sensation but i am not sure about using the same pain everyday. Just read an article claiming deep breathing, talking to yourself and meditation have been shown to increase pain tolerance. And overtime theres a risk some tissues could get damaged instead of repairing themselves. I would suggest rotating methods of pain every other day. Just my thoughts, thanks for the interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI've suffered from idiopathic neuropathy for over 10 years...fingers and legs/feet are numb to almost everything except constant pain. These tips actually work...to varying degrees. With long term constant pain you find that you naturally develop a higher tolerance to that particular pain. Your mind learns to ignore a constant level, but when it exceeds that point, you definitely become aware of it. The *fun* part of this is that you develop a tolerance to pain that would drop an elephant, not to mention other people.
ReplyDelete