Use what is natural: Kiyap

Kiyap.  It's that yell that Martial Arts people do when they strike.  Why do they do it?  What purpose does it fulfill? The kiyap has multiple interpretations and in this article I'll explain my reasoning for the kiyap.


Some people say that it is so you hit harder.
Some people say that it is to intimidate your opponent.
Some will say it has to do with the release of chi starting from the depths of the Dan Tien and fires from your hands from the channels of chi.

A Kiyap can appear make you hit harder and it can appear to scare people.  But in all honesty, you kiyap to remind yourself to breathe.

Your endurance will die if you don't breathe.  Breathing is a basic that everyone knows unless they are dead.  But under intense situations, people for get to breathe.  When you punch kick or throw someone, it is a very explosive movement.  These type of movements consume your oxygen quickly and if you don't supply as much as you consume, you muscles take plan B.

What is plan B?  Well, its rather simple.  You know that burn?  that burning sensation you get when your muscles fatigue?  Your muscles quiver and start to feel like jelly?  In english, we call that anaerobic which means without oxygen.

Your body can not sustain plan B for very long and at some point your muscles will refuse to go on.  However, if you breathe in such a way that puts your oxygen levels in abundance, your muscles will last much much longer.

The kiyap  reminds you to breathe and to breathe out hard.  And when you breathe out all that stale air, your endurance increases considerably.

Breathing out hard contracts the diaphragm.  As an added bonus, you abs tend to contract with it.  If you abs are flexed, you become prepared to take a hit.  You are suppose to kiyap to dissipate the blow.

With your abs flex, your hips become connected to your shoulders.  The energy that it took to turn your hips transitions to your shoulders without any loss in power.  That power translates out of your limbs and ends at your target.

The kiyap has plenty of byproducts, but I'm mainly concerned with using it to breathe.  Don't be shy when your kiyap.  You need to do it to breath and you need to do it to get the most out of your work out.