POWER BREATHING
‘Power breathing using your diaphragm will make you stronger and your back better protected.
Attempt inhaling into the stomach through an open mouth; once you have failed, attempt it through the nose. Ok now pinch off one nostril and “inhale into the groin and into the obliques”.
Tighten your glutes simultaneously and notice the tight, safe feeling in the midsection.
Try this: Squeeze a plastic water bottle (Poland Springs, Dasani, etc.) with the cap on, whether it is filled or not,–not happening. Loosen the cap, and voila, you are able to crush it instantly.
Now I want you to pretend your body is the bottle; the cap is your head; and your spine is running down the center of it. Power breathing instantly makes you stronger and safer because of the intra-abdominal pressure you are creating. This translates into a stiffer torso (read the section on the plank) thus generating more power. I mean after all, that IS our objective isn’t it?

Practice ‘inhaling into the groin’ with these simple tips:
1. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Inhale through the nose and visualize the air passing through your nose into your lungs, then into your stomach and deep into your groin. Your shoulders should not ‘shrug’ up but rather your stomach should ‘fill up’ like a balloon instead. Exhale through the mouth and ‘deflate’ the balloon
(your stomach) and repeat.
2. Lie face down with your arms folded so that your forehead is resting on the backside of your hands. Inhale through your nose so that your stomach fills up with air so your lower back rises. Don’t let your shoulders shrug up. This is known as the crocodile breath.
(P.S. you are trying to accomplish the exact same feeling as in tip #1)
3. Breathe through a straw, eventually 2 and even 3 straws taped lengthwise, with the nose pinched off.
4. Paradox breathing crunches (inhale as you are crunching up), especially with an almost pinched off nose or through a straw.
5. Stick your fingers into your obliques and push them out with an aggressive and forceful inhalation through the nose.

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POWER BREATHING
Power exhalation is just as important! Exhaling aggressively is key to generating power, so take this seriously. No sissy breaths here –you want to make sure it is powerful.
The ‘hissing’ technique is used in the RKC system because it prevents you from letting out too much air (we are trying to create intra-abdominal pressure so if we let too much air out on a given exhalation, we are decreasing that