The legendary MMA fighter looks back on his life and times at the head of Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s first family in a new memoir
In Rickson Gracie’s many jiu jitsu fights, he tried to avoid thinking about either victory or defeat. What was on his mind was something far more basic and far more important: Breathing.
While training in martial arts, Gracie learned to breathe using his diaphragm. Similar to the way singers and divers breathe, it results in deeper inhalations and exhalations than the chest breaths most people take. Limiting his pulse to 60 beats per minute during a grueling fight, he found it gave him greater endurance than his opponent. Reflecting this importance, Breathe is the title of his new memoir, co-written with Peter Maguire.
