Anger disrupting strength

[Albert]

I dont know if therez a thread about this already, or where exactly this would go, but.. tonight a friend of mine came over and said let me show you something i just saw in a yoga book, i put my arm out and he said im going to push down on it and you try to keep it straight, so he pushed and it didnt move much az ive got strong armz, then he had me think of something that angered me, someone i hated, etc etc. so i did and he pushed down again while i tried to resist, but i had absolutely no strength to resist. This waz repeated on about 5 other guyz tonight and the same thing happened each time. I guess itz too show how much focus and a clear mind can play a part in your strength, i talkd with some of the guyz afterwards and they said that if they try to lift wieghtz when there angry, or try to get mad too lift more, it workz the opposite way and they cant lift much at all. what i want too know iz if anyone here knowz more about it and how it playz a part in a fight, if adrenaline negatez the effect, if youve had a experience like that, and just generally more about it, cuz when im rippin pissed off, i feel like i can bring down a house, and it seemz easier to break stuff alot of the time, but ive never been in a real fight when i waz rippin mad or when i held a personal grudge against the opponent so i dont know what would happen, it just doeznt seem like it would make you weak, but if you want to see for yourself go try this with someone rite now.

[wsdddoa012]

response

Well I'll respond:

Anger disrupting strength. Well anger does have an impact on the mind, the way we focus and can alter our preceptions of how our body reacts. For example, if your seriously made at someone, and are at that point you wanna punch him in the throat, then your mind well be set on that one view, punching him in the throat, everything else well be blocked out and our mind like a microscope well only see that one point. I've heard of adreline when someone is in trouble, or nervous taking part in increasing strength, for example if a child is trapped underneath a car then a mother well by some means lift that car off the child. I've never really heard of anger disrupting physical strength, although the mind can play a huge part in that decision, since the mind controls your entire body, I'd say it's safe to say that the mind when focused on being angry can do alot of harm not just to someone else but to the person themselves as far as decreasing strength and so forth.

but I could be wrong

[darrianation]

Has anyone tried this with explosive movement?

I find the opposite is true when you use emotions such as anger to increase power with striking/hitting, or taclikng (like in football or fighting). I often use emotions to get my students (or myself) to enage the tagrtget with more aggressiveness.

But i don't know how that relates to your observations.

[Albert]

I figure it haz too do mostly with focus of the specific task, more so than the actual emotion. Because when i did the arm thing, and i waz angry i waz focusing on thinking about something that angered me as opposed to thinking about trying too keep my arm from moving.

[kingoftheforest]

Body mechanics.

When you strike you want to be loose until the moment of impact, anger causes you to tense up which in turn makes your muscles work against each other. When you move one muscle flexes while another loosens. When you are angry your body's reaction is to tense all over causing the all the muscles to flex and drawing power away from your strikes because there is a muscles pulling that shouldn't be.

[darrianation]

I figure it haz too do mostly with focus of the specific task, more so than the actual emotion. Because when i did the arm thing, and i waz angry i waz focusing on thinking about something that angered me as opposed to thinking about trying too keep my arm from moving.

that makes sense.

[Uke]

When you strike you want to be loose until the moment of impact, anger causes you to tense up which in turn makes your muscles work against each other. When you move one muscle flexes while another loosens. When you are angry your body's reaction is to tense all over causing the all the muscles to flex and drawing power away from your strikes because there is a muscles pulling that shouldn't be.

Absolutely correct, KOTF.

What's the point of constantly flexing muscles that aren't being used? You build up lactic acid faster and exhaust your entire body more rapidly that way.

Some people are getting adrenaline mixed up with actual strength. Anger mixed with adrenaline might make people more willing to recklessly engage and rumble, but the angry fighter usually gets tunnel vision, quickly fatigued and can't sustain a pace that he usually sets.

Ever notice that when a boxer gets angry and goes all out, if he doesn't knock the opponent out within the next 60 seconds the opponent gets a window to beat on the angry boxer if he can take advantage of it?

Boxing, taiji, jujitsu, Goju and other styles all have it right when they teach that a relaxed fighter is the best fighter.

All anger does is pump adrenaline which makes you breathe harder for more oxygen and increases blood flow which is your face goes pale. You get stronger for a short burst, but if you don't take care of business in that short frame of time your out of luck.

[kingoftheforest]

Absolutely correct, KOTF.

What's the point of constantly flexing muscles that aren't being used? You build up lactic acid faster and exhaust your entire body more rapidly that way.

Some people are getting adrenaline mixed up with actual strength. Anger mixed with adrenaline might make people more willing to recklessly engage and rumble, but the angry fighter usually gets tunnel vision, quickly fatigued and can't sustain a pace that he usually sets.

Ever notice that when a boxer gets angry and goes all out, if he doesn't knock the opponent out within the next 60 seconds the opponent gets a window to beat on the angry boxer if he can take advantage of it?

Boxing, taiji, jujitsu, Goju and other styles all have it right when they teach that a relaxed fighter is the best fighter.

All anger does is pump adrenaline which makes you breathe harder for more oxygen and increases blood flow which is your face goes pale. You get stronger for a short burst, but if you don't take care of business in that short frame of time your out of luck.

Nothing will drag you down faster than a massive endorphin release. Once the adrenaline and other chemicals wear off you feel twice as fatigued and run down. Its like when you get geared up and have a yelling argument with someone it makes you feel more tired than if you trained for an hour and you haven't even done anything.

[kingoftheforest]

BTW anger and adrenaline aren't the same thing and do not necessarily have to coincide with each other.

But hell I'm not cool enough to use Z's for all my s's and don't you mean zomething there Al.

[Jace]

On a related note - at a clinic I recently attended, one of the instructors had us do a similar thing except it had to do with telling the truth.

One person would try to push down the other's hand. Always on the first one they had difficulty pushing down - with strength not really being important. The next time they tried to push down, you had to tell your partner a lie while they pushed. Almost always they managed to push the arm down while the lie was being said.

So it isn't just anger. It is anything that gets your focus off your specific task that can cause these kinds of reactions - and they aren't directly related to strength either.

[Uke]

On a related note - at a clinic I recently attended, one of the instructors had us do a similar thing except it had to do with telling the truth.

One person would try to push down the other's hand. Always on the first one they had difficulty pushing down - with strength not really being important. The next time they tried to push down, you had to tell your partner a lie while they pushed. Almost always they managed to push the arm down while the lie was being said.

So it isn't just anger. It is anything that gets your focus off your specific task that can cause these kinds of reactions - and they aren't directly related to strength either.

I've done exercises like that before. At first, our findings were just like yours. What we discovered after several repetitions was that it had nothing to do with a lie or the truth. Its had nothing to do with whether you were saying something positive or negative.

It had all to do with the enthusiasm in which you said it. When the rules of this exercise are explained, the person explaining usually gives a demonstration of how to do it. Whenever they tell a lie or say something negative, they say it with no enthusiasm or energy. When they tell the truth or say something positive or empowering, they say it with enthusiasm and spirit. That sets the pace for the drill and the other participants follow the initial example and tell lies with no energy and tell the truth with spirit and vigor.

So basically its not what you say, its the spin you put on it and the energy you use when saying it. Worked every time after that once we noticed the differences.

[kingoftheforest]

Stress and tension just the facts ma'am

Also anyone who runs a lie detector will tell you part ofhow it measures the amout of truth in what you say is by control questions. The person running the lie detector will read the measurements of stress and heart rate during control questions on the polygraph and compare them to your other answers. If you are lying you will tense up thus making your muscles work against themselves.

Thats why either you take a drug that causes you to relax to beat a polygraph test so that even your lies don't cause tension and increased heart rate. Or you place a tack in your shoe or bite down on your tounge when answering questions so that the polygraph reads the same on lies and on the truth. It all comes down to controlling your natural urge to tense. Watch animals when they fight you'll notice even thought animals are in an aggressive state they are relaxed right up till the moment of impact.

[Jace]

So basically its not what you say, its the spin you put on it and the energy you use when saying it. Worked every time after that once we noticed the differences.

I can see that. It personally didn't work between myself and my partner, and at the time I wondered if there was a seperate relationship unrelated to truth and lies. I also noticed a tendency for women to be better at maintaining their hand's position than the men, but I don't even know if I want to start a discussion about why it might work better for one sex than the other.

[Jace]

Thats why either you take a drug that causes you to relax to beat a polygraph test so that even your lies don't cause tension and increased heart rate. Or you place a tack in your shoe or bite down on your tounge when answering questions so that the polygraph reads the same on lies and on the truth. It all comes down to controlling your natural urge to tense.

A friend of mine had trouble with a ploygraph test because he meditates regularly and keeps his heart rate and breathing rate down low almost always. During the test the person running the polygraph told him that no one should be alive breathing as slow as he was. I'm sure it didn't help that he was not concerned about answering the questions and wasn't nervous about it, so he wasn't even tense going into it.

[kingoftheforest]

A friend of mine had trouble with a ploygraph test because he meditates regularly and keeps his heart rate and breathing rate down low almost always. During the test the person running the polygraph told him that no one should be alive breathing as slow as he was. I'm sure it didn't help that he was not concerned about answering the questions and wasn't nervous about it, so he wasn't even tense going into it.

Exactly he was relaxed and his heart rate never fluctuated causing the polygraph to give the same read weather for truth or for a lie.