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Respiratory function is influenced by everything we do. What we eat, drink, how we sit, stand and how we ultimately express ourselves in movement impacts us.  Psychological factors must not be overlooked in respiratory function ( i.e the neurotic aspects of thought that are unconscious to us, which produce unconscious patterns that reflect in our habitual body alignments and thus our capability to breathe freely)

 Breathing is an unconscious process that we can consciously influence at will, but it is well to remember that all thoughts, especially unconsciously held beliefs dramatically influence the breathing process. Various breathing methods have been employed in the east and the west with the aim to either purify the body and the mind, in modern times the main reason in or for narcissistic purposes.

Breathing has two major attributes that produce two different outcomes. One fires us up to act and the other calms us down. We must not be locked into one pole or the other but smoothly glide from one reality to the other.

The para-sympathetic nervous system, slows down respiration to produce what is medically termed tidal breathing. Allowing your body tissues and systemic functions of the body to rest and recuperate and restore, leading to homeostasis. ( This can be achieved in active life through intelligent movement practice, meditation, mind-fullness and breathing exercises )

The sympathetic nervous system deals with firing you up to get things done, increasing the heart rate and is most famous for it's role in the fight or flight response. Think of the para-sympathic as the brake and the sympathetic as the accelerator.

If we drive a car aggressively the engine will lose performance. Humans systems although having an innate ability to recover and adapt to stresses do not fare well when they are stuck in the fight or flight end of the spectrum, with the proverbial foot rammed down on the pedal most of the time. The plain message is to balance life with exercise and seek rest that stimulates the nervous system to self- regulate. People in sedentary jobs become numb to their bodies often having no method to increase awareness. 

Running and breathing. Running is an over rated form of exercise that dries the tissues out, weakens joints and makes bones brittle.  The cumulative effect of the pounding and compression produce a  negative medium to long term outcome whereby the athlete needs to run to get the heart and circulation going because at rest the circulation becomes inefficient due to internal scarification. A good question to ask if you want to take up running (or any activity ) is this, "is my body fit for the purpose of the activity I want to take up". You would not dream of climbing a mountain without preparation, would you? So why would you take up pounding the pavements if your body is not fit to take the pounding. It's a mute point for me as there are alternatives to running. "If you must run do it on grass". People who run habitually have lousy joints and weak lungs and poor flexibility. Our ancestors did not chase down game on the hard shoulder of the motorway, they ran like the clappers over the grass, or ambushed prey in forests and if the were on rock the walked. Short intense bursts of activity followed by rest. Habitual running damages your capacity to breathe deeply and gives you less of a body to actually breathe into. Habitual running is not not healthy and damages you body.

One aspect of Tai Chi Chuan which is not researched well is how the system when taught to the highest level eventually can bring about an ability to make all the tissue of the ribs, and rib attachments elastic. It is the opinion of the author that deep diaphragmatic breathing can only take place when the whole of the thorax and the deep myofascia becomes elastic and complementary to the action of the diaphragm.

Only a method of omni- directional often subtle stretching can accomplish this outcome. Through often subtle internal movement one can achieve a level of breath control that produces an enhancement of the breathing process during increased physical activity. The less tension you produce during your chosen movement, sport then the more efficient will be your breathing.

There is more to cardio - vascular fitness than increasing your heart rate. increased tension decreases breathing efficiency. For example, I would argue that running up hills does not make for a better Judo player. In fact regular running is completely unnecessary for a Judo player. I believe that the over emphasis in the training of the cardio vascular system plus an emphasis on upper body strength weakens the national squad and is a major factor in a lack of medalling internationally for the UK, such weakness  implies and over dependncy on brute force leading to even more tension = poor respiratory strength and an developmental undermining of actual Judo skill.

There is a potential to develop deep rhythmical and diaphragmatic breathing which is integrated with greater degrees of physical exertion, thus producing a type of energy saving, this means that one can literally conserve energy and maintain power longer, by creating an oxygen rich environment in the blood and by the use of deeper degrees of body control. The aware use of functional  exercise with optimum alignment can create greater oxygen storage even under increased physical demand!.

Two ways to address breathing problems is to deal either separately or together with physical restriction within the various layers of the human form, commencing from the investing layers of fascia all the way down to the periosteum of the bone. ( the so called bone breathing in Taoist body work ) is literally a function of a deep experience of the bone matrix and being able to move in truly balanced way that stimulates the fascia that penetrates the bone which in turn stimulates the osteo-blasts in the bone, advanced and regular practice of authentic Tai Chi - Nei Gong can lead to some restructuring of deep connective tissue and the unwinding of fascia investing to the bone which has been formed through poor posture and misuse. This leads to extremely strong bones even into old age. A lot of the twisting in Ta Chi etc. increases bone density. It was reputed that the late Grandmaster Yang Chen Fu's arms were 10 times heavier than that of a normal person. Scientists would do well to research the body of a living advanced level Tai Chi master !

At this time I think that the middle ground of intelligent exercise is the base from which a person can take control of his/ her internal rhythm and experience. The use of external modalities of intervention are a great starting point in the quest of personal liberation from negative physiological habits and physiological habituation, but the main message to anyone who wants to embark on a rehabilitation is to take full responsibility and to unlearn the unconscious habits laid down through years of neglect. So get out and try something that challenges your body perception.

In severe cases of restriction it may preferable to start with breathing exercises that give you an experiential understanding of slow diaphragmatic breathing.  Then one can sit in a chair, then stand then walk and finally fully engage in exercise whilst maintaining deep breathing.

You cannot separate the act of breathing from the physical reality. You must use a gradual moving strategy if you have a body that is wracked with pain and restriction, if you have pain, lack of mobility and restriction then it is usual to have a large dose of unawareness operating to blind you to internal restriction. We become quickly habituated to such restriction.

I do not advocate the holding of extreme postures, headstands and shoulder stands which may produce more injury than health. If you choose this approach to exercise then listen very carefully to your body. I have met with people who ignored clear warning signs and literally ruptured spinal tissue.

Facts about breathing.

Physical tension does effect your ability to breathe

We lose 27% of of breathing capacity for every decade on living !!

No part of us is missing in the act of breathing. The whole body is employed in the free body concept.

One can get as precise as one likes and one can focus on breathing alone at times, but the reality is that even restriction of feet, ankle and toes will have the effect of throwing out the whole body above and also impact to greater or lesser degrees on respiratory function. It is impossible to breathe body into realigning itself by accident. One has to move and realign through repetition. You must have a multi-dimensional approach through movement and correct breathing. You can not take one part of the human organism and separate it from any other part. 

A note on chest breathing, any method that encourages a person to breathe into and or raise the sternum either upwards or outwards must be avoided at all costs. Breathing like this will produce compression of the whole of the thoracic spine. This will have no benefit whatsoever on breathing capacity, and can lead to complications. Chest breathing weakens the lungs.

Therefore as a whole body method of self cultivation one must not bind oneself to a particular holding pattern or by maintaining of contraction. ( sucking in the lower abdomen as in the case of Pilates is a method of image creation not health producing and leads to unhealthy breathing patterns that disturb the mind) Structure can be strengthened through the aware use of exercise that creates length and tone ( bio-tensegrity), tensegrity is a contraction of the words tension and integrity. Holding in the lower abdomen in tension is incorrect and harmful for health.

And in summing up on breathing, the best way to approach dysfunctional breathing or a dysfunctional  form-body is through a syntony of movement and breathing. Truly Intelligent systems of body control increase breathing through the use of natural movement and intention without re-course to specialized breathing gymnastics. Some less intelligent methods can increase dysfunction. If it feels wrong for you then its likely that it is wrong.

A call to all Yoga and Tai Chi teachers ( to the potentially over stretched,over compressed or flacid) go deep into the fascial anatomy of your art and realise that there was a reason that one to one training with a master was essential. Keep learning and questioning. Living body arts are not a one shoe fits all strategy. We need to be aware of the collective hype of our art forms. Stand well, breathe well, think and move well. Good luck.

Resolutions aside,  I think that daily a resolve and a sense of doing what you can little by little is the best way forward. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step and so the first step is usually the tricky part. The act of just placing one foot in front of you and shifting your weight can be enough to change your point of view.  It may only take that first step to achieve the act of what R.D Liang called re-framing.

When we have an event that is shocking or emotively charged it is maybe best at times to be still and maybe take one step back so we have an opportunity to reframe the situation and loosen the bonds of instant attachment.

Instant Attachment is the flip side of Instant Presence.

Then again maybe once we have taken a step the rest of our journey can continue. We certainly are on some life journey, so dwelling on where we have been or where we may end up is of no consequence and is meaningless. Only the here and now choices we make are relevant, as it is those that determine the next step.

I guess the healthy option implies simply being here right now, making the best with the circumstances we have. Making the best of now may indeed mitigate the need for any self reproach because we are failed in our New years resolution.

And so I resolve now to simply get on with this newsletter.

Research. Snake Style ( Yang family Tai Chi )

Master Bob Boyd

I made a trip in late November 2010, to meet the second disciple of Grandmaster Ip Tai Tak, Robert Boyd in Burlington, Vermont ( the birthplace of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, the first store is a stone"s throw from master Bob's impressive studio, yummy ! )

My research was on the practice of the Snake Style Tai Chi Chuan. The Snake Style is an advanced internal method of body control and movement ( previously held privately within the Yang family ) which is vastly different from the commonly accepted structural, bio-mechanical realities of Tai Chi Chuan in general.

There are striking similarities to the Middle Frame I learned within the Tian Zhou Lin disciple lineage in Shanghai. The middle frame however was not practiced by Yang Chen Fu, but he most certainly knew the family Nei (internal) Gong, the power mechanics that made the family art so famous throughout China. The Snake Style is Yang Chen Fu's finest work and to appreciate the fullness of the art then any serious practitioner would not be dissapointed to receive the unabridged bio mechanical zenith.

In direct compliment to the Snake Style (method) of Yang Chen Fu, is the Yang Family middle frame which was a transitional form taught only to inner door disciples, (not to the public) that acted as a bridge to higher levels of body control and movement and to the mastery of spinal mechanics and the ability to make circular and spiral motion internalized to the point where the movement skills become externally invisible to the observer. The middle frame form was the bridge to the zenith of the Yang family teachings, i,e the original small frame practice. I believe through extensive research and in particular through direct practice that the Snake Style and the Original Small Frame are synonymous.

Should any one wish to take up the practice of The Snake Style, then please let me know via email preferably, or maybe you know of people who would like to upgrade their Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. If so then please forward the newsletter and information to people who you think may be interested then please follow the link by clicking on Bob’s name for more information on the system.

Master Bob is a very personable man with a wealth of experience in the internal arts. He is one of the few men to get to the source material of the Yang family. In this case it was Grandmaster Ip's disciple form. This was no easy route for a westerner to take, prejudice being what it is, there can be many obstacles to getting access to authentic teachings. Bob is an superb teacher, as well as a bit of a dancer. Indeed I felt at times I was revisiting in some respects the Internal elements of Contemporary Ballet.

I must add that it is rare indeed to meet teachers of the Internal Arts in general who teach without prejudice, who do not partake in what I call carrot dangling to keep students hooked into them and allowing students to implicitly fail whilst avoiding crucial elements of the teachings. Having been around the block many times I can add Master Robert Boyd to the A list of great teachers who put the art before business and favoritism. Others worth seeking out by serious practitioners are Master Ma Bao Guo ( my discipleship is with him and he is a true master of combat) and also Master Frank Allen my Ba Gua Zhang mentor and a man who punches his weight and is relentlessly an inspiration.

The Snake Style is infused with a transmission that originally was part of the Yang family art and only passed on to a chosen disciple. This policy has now historically changed forever and now you can be part of the authentic Yang teaching. How lucky we are!! .

There will be a future workshop in The UK with Bob, hopefully later this year. You would obviously need to need to know the Snake Form to attend this or maybe depending on the workshop format at least the Yang form of Master John Ding or Master Chu King Hung. For Frank it would would be necessary to have some knowledge of Ba Gua Zhang.

Events: Easter Retreat Hun Yuan Qi Gong and Snake Style Tai Chi Chuan16^th -23^rd April 2011

Click on link for full details http://events.realtaoism.com/2011/04/easter-qi-gong.html  

The most pressing event at this time is our upcoming annual Easter Retreat (pre - Easter) at The Purelands Retreat Centre at Samye Ling Tibetan monastery in Scotland. This is our 12th year and we are pretty much a part of the place now. We are always sure of a warm welcome and our patronage helps the Monastery. The Hun Yuan Qi Gong, all levels catered for, and Yang ( Snake  Style ) first section will be taught to new people or second section to people that know the first section. Having two subjects means that we have a better chance of getting numbers to justify the trip! ( actually we need 10 people minimum. Everyone has their own modest room, food is vegetarian and of good quality, Cheers CRC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12170441

click on link for BBC article. This evidence of the effectiveness of Tai Chi practice has been around for about at least 12 years in the West. It's good that some of the benefits are now gaining recognition.