Proper Taiji Quan Breathing
By William C. C. Chen
William Chi-Cheng Chen is a Grandmaster of Yang-style Taiji Quan (太極拳 ) he currently lives in the US with hundreds of students world wide.
Breathing Is Life
Breathing is life. Our first breath begins when we are born: our last breath occurs when we die. Thus, breathing is essential. Without exhalation there is no inhalation. Without inhalation there is no exhalation.
When we exhale, we remove the waste products (carbon dioxide) from our lungs. When we inhale, we add oxygen for our body’s needs. We cannot live one without the other. Deep breathing in combination with the unhurried movements of Taiji Quan (太極拳) gives us time to exhale all the way to create more room in the lungs for the inhaling of oxygen. The accumulation of carbon dioxide in the lungs is a major obstacle to the oxygenation process. The full exchange of removing the carbon dioxide and replacing it with oxygen is important. It enhances the functioning of the brain, heart, liver and nervous system, as well as improving immunity to disease.
The more oxygen in our body, the stronger we are. More oxygen in the bloodstream increases the efficiency of the immune system and makes it easier for the body to detoxify. Oxygen helps raise our awareness of brain functioning and elevates the feeling in the body to enhance the energy flow. In turn, reinforcing the energy surge throughout the organs improves the circulation of blood and energy.
Removing carbon dioxide from the lungs is like removing bad air from a house and replacing it with fresh air; it then becomes a healthy house in which to live. Similarly, it is healthier for us to remove carbon dioxide from our lungs and replace it with oxygen. An effective inhalation is preceded by a full exhalation. This will enrich the cells in the body. Adequate oxygen in the body is extremely important. Our billions of cells depend on oxygen to survive.
This is especially true of the brain. An inadequate oxygen supply may result in brain damage or death within a few minutes. Oxygen entering through the lungs into lhe bloodstream arrives at the brain cells within a few seconds. However, in a full inhalation, our lungs receive 78 percent nitrogen but only 21 percent oxygen at full lung capacity. If we inhale a small amount of air, our lungs will receive only a small amount of that maximum 21 percent. But if we inhale a larger amount of air, we will obtain a greater share of that 21 percent oxygen.
The gentle, deep and full inhalations in the movements of Taiji Quan allow us to receive a greater volume of the 21 percent oxygen into the lungs. With an adequate oxygen supply in our system, we can produce more energy. Oxygen is essential to our daily activities and in fighting disease, repairing tissues, and removing cancerous cells.
People are constantly thinking or worrying; this comes from living in a disorderly, unpredictable and stressful world. It is almost inevitable that our mind will become restless. Constant mental activities interrupt our exhalations and cause our inhalations
to spike up. In our daily breathing, exhalations are always shortchanged by inhalations.
We inhale whether we are at home or in the office, when we answer the phone, or when we reach to pick up a pen or a piece of paper from the desk. While we should continue with an exhalation to clear the lungs first, the inhalation always overrides the exhalation on a daily, hourly, even moment by moment basis. Therefore, our daily inhalations and exhalations are out of balance.
Practicing the peaceful rhythm of Taiji movements puts us in the mood of meditation in motion. This helps eliminate any obstruction to the full exchange of breathing. This involves slowly moving in and out of a posture in a balanced manner. As we form each posture, we inhale; when we release a posture, we exhale.
Balanced Breathing
This leads to perfectly balanced breathing. The mind, breathing and slow motion are naturally connected. When we inhale, our awareness increases; Qi escalates the energy flow for mental
and physical action. As we say “Yes,• we inhale. And as we say “No,” we exhale. AI the moment we feel “Good” we inhale; at the moment we feel “Bad’ we exhale.
As oxygen flows into the lungs it increases mental awareness and catalyzes physical activity. When oxygen diminishes in the lungs, our awareness is decreased and our physical activity will decline.
Inhalation is inflating the energy for an action; exhalation is deflating the energy for no action. This is the natural way breathing applies to the slow soft motion of Yin and Yang.
When we raise the fingers to do something, we inhale; when we serve a cup of coffee, we inhale. I found that the motion of serving coffee is one-third (1/3) of a foot per second. The slow motion of Taiji Quan is slower than one-third of a foot per second.
This is natural slow motion breathing: We inhale toform a posture; we exhale to release the posture. This is the way of breathing in the slow motion of Taiji Quan.
This is different from the powerful quick action in sports. When a tennis player strikes the ball, or a martial artist delivers a powerful punch, we often hear a loud explosive vocalization. This noise is coming from part of an explosive force of energy pushing
through the constricted vocal chords. The more explosive the power executed, the more energy bursts through the vocal chords, and the louder the sound will be. This burst of noise is not considered to be an exhalation. The natural exhalation is to keep
the vocal chords wide open to release as much air from the lungs as possible and it is almost noiseless.
Carefully examined, during the moment of a quick, rapid and powerful action, there is no time for an inhale or exhale. But first there is an exhalation to loosen up the muscles and joints that help to wind up or prepare for an action. The action is followed by another exhalation to release the waste from the lungs; then the inhalation is able to take place.
Therefore, in a continuous action the exhalation is exceeded by the inhalation, which is caused by the lack of time to inhale oxygen. After many actions without a break the person will run out of oxygen. This is called being out of breath, which is different from the well-balanced breathing of the slow easygoing motion of Taiji Quan.
The system of breathing with the diaphragm is of great significance in the movements of Taiji Quan
In these gentle relaxing movements we keep the air passage wide open, which maximizes the airflow out and in from the throat. When the diaphragm moves up, we exhale; this pushes the carbon dioxide out from the lungs. When the diaphragm pulls down, we inhale; this helps the lungs draw in oxygen. This natural intuitive diaphragm breathing corresponds to the slow motion of Taiji Quan.
Those movements give us sufficient time to fully exhale prior to maximum inhalation. This complete cycle exchange between carbon dioxide and oxygen in our lungs keeps us in good health. The peaceful, effortless. flow of the movements in Taiji Quan coordinated with quiet and calm breathing tranquilizes our mindfulness into the state of serenity.
William Chi·Cheng Chen was born in 1933 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China. He started teaching Taijiquan in the 1950s while training as a live-in student of Cheng Man-Ching in Taiwan. His main interest was in Taiji as a martial art and he competed in many tournaments; in1958 he won second place in the Taiwan National Olympics in fighting. In 1962 he relocated to Hawaii and taught with the Honolulu Taijiquan Association. He has devoted his life to the study of body mechanics and the art of Taiji for self-defense as well as physical health. His approach is to make Taiji natural, enjoyable and productive. He is the author of Body Mechanics of Tai Chi Chuan, a widely-used practical handbook for his 50-posture form, and has written many articles for martial arts magazines. He offers workshops throughout the world and since 1965 has been teaching at the William C. C. Chen School of Tai Chi Chuan in New York City.