Of all the functions of the body, breathing is the most immediate. You can go for weeks without eating, but no more than just a few minutes without breathing. Breathing is at the very heart of many Oriental health and martial arts disciplines, from yoga to qigong. Many schools of Tai Chi regulate the breath while they are doing the exercise. This is done by generally breathing out as the hands go out and breathing in as the hands come in. In our school we do not follow this particular method, but allow the breathing to move naturally in and out as the exercise dictates. We do, however, practice a lot of qigong where breathing is regulated as part of the exercise.
Why we don’t try to control the breathing in the Tai Chi exercise.
There are several reasons for not having regulated breathing while you’re doing the Tai Chi exercise.
1) When you first start doing Tai Chi your breathing tends to be quite shallow and the regulation of the breath allows it to deepen naturally. However, once you have been doing the Tai Chi form for approximately a year, your breathing will have slowed markedly. By so doing it requires you to perform the Tai Chi exercise more slowly too. This is a problem as the speed at which Tai Chi is done is of great importance. If performed too fast your mind can become agitated, defeating the point of doing it in the first place. If the Tai Chi exercises are done to slowly it tends to make you feel sluggish and slow after you’ve completed. This obviously runs against the idea of balance needed, neither too slow nor too fast. For instance when I was studying Tai Chi we were taught that the optimum time for doing the long form was 14 min, with 12 min being the fastest and 15 min being slowest.
2) When my grand master was asked whether we needed to regulate the breathing while doing the form he categorically said no.
3) There is a third reason, which I think is just as important, and that is that if you control the breathing too much to fit in with the Tai Chi exercise, you can overheat your body. What, in Chinese medicine, is called a yang excess.
Tai Chi form teaches you how to breathe correctly.
Once you have learned the form and are using the correct posture your breathing will automatically be slow and smooth.
This automatic response by the body is an indication that the body is very smart and will always tend to do what’s best for it. That is, of course, if our egos allow it to do so. The desire to interfere with how the body does things seems to be endemic in human beings; we always think we know best. By focusing your mind on doing your Tai Chi exercise as perfectly as possible allows your conscious mind to take a break and just let it happen. Once you get to this point your body relaxes and your breathing deepens naturally.
This natural breathing rhythm quietens the mind and relaxes the body.
The benefits of deep natural breathing
Good breathing is closely related to your immune system. From research it was demonstrated that T-killer cells increased before and after doing Tai Chi. T- killer cells are an integral part of the immune system. They protect us from invading organisms. However, when the same measurements were taking from people doing long-distance running, T-killer cells were markedly lower in this group. The runners may be fitter physically, but not necessarily more healthy than the Tai Chi group.
Deep breathing is one of the few things that can actually move the lymph in your lymphatic system. The lymphatic system carries away harmful debris from the body and it is an integral part of the immune system.
Conclusion
By allowing your Tai Chi exercise to slowly, but surely, regulate your breathing you’re helping build your immune system and protecting yourself against common infections that most of us are prone to. If all that Tai Chi could do for us was this one thing then it would still be wise to practice every day, but Tai Chi benefits us so much more.
Look after yourself guys, speak later in the week.
Best
John Hine
