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| Qi, (气），the art of breathing |
Author: dian jen
Posted by dianjen on Nov 04, 2008
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| Well, we know that food and water are important to our health. But air is even more important. We would suffocate to death without air even for just a few minutes.
We all know that the most important content of air is oxygen. Oxygen is needed to support our lives.
Oxygen is also critically important to how well we perform in all forms of exercises. Without sufficient oxygen, our muscles would fail more easily under stress, and recovery could be very slow and difficult.
Whenever you see someone in the gym yawning, it’s usually because that person is running short of oxygen. This could be caused by sleep deprivation or simply not breathing correctly during exercise.
I have experimented and incorporated Qi as a breathing technique into my exercise routines because I believe it can help increasing the efficiency of the workout, and it can also help exercise our internal organs including those located below the belly butt.
In Chinese air is called “Kong Qi” (空气), or “space air”. The air in the body is simply called “Qi”, and the ability to maneuver the Qi in the body is called “Qi Gong’, or “Qi technique”. What I incorporated in my workout using Qi is only a very small part of Qi Gong (气功), although very effective if applied correctly. If you are interested, you could spend some time study Qi Gong in more details, to learn its principle, benefits, and associated disciplines. Books on Qi Gong are widely available in book stores. I am sure you would appreciate the benefit it can offer to improve your general health.
I will limit my discussion of Qi only to the way I have incorporated it into my workout routines.
Ok, here we go.
Breathing properly using the Qi principle can yield the following results for your workout:
1. Enhance the supply of oxygen to your blood streams that support your muscles,
2. Reduce the stress induced by your workout,
3. Slow down your heartbeat and relax your mood, and,
4. Enhance the energy level of your workout.
5. Enhance the overall results,
In reverse, during a hard workout, breathing improperly can strain your muscles and may even cause you a painful injury or hernia. It can also weaken your muscles before you can complete your full movement in a heavily weighted routine. In a chest press, for example, improper breathing can make you mistakenly think there is too much weight for your triceps to handle before you are able to fully extend your arms and complete the press. In a back extension, proper breathing can significantly increase the weight you are able to push back.
I cannot teach you all the things I do with Qi in one short section here. I will just give you a few helpful pointers that you can use when you practice Qi in your workout sessions. You should be able to master it in no time.
Now pay attention.
In workout sessions with weights, there is a positive movement and a negative movement, regardless whether you use a machine or free weights. In a bench press, for example, the positive movement is the one in which you press the weights away from your chest. The negative movement is the one in which you return the weights back to your staring position. The muscle groups, mainly, chest and triceps, are being stressed in both directions.
Following are two different scenarios you can use to practice the sequence of proper Qi breathing. It’s important for you to remember to concentrate on coordinating your arms movement and your breathing sequences during the practice, especially when you are just learning how to incorporate Qi into your workout. If necessary, close your eyes to help your concentration.
First, when using moderate weights (start with 50% of the maximum training weights you can manage):
1. Before starting your outward press, inhale deeply and fill your lung with Qi, or air, and simultaneously suck in your lower abdomen and your bowel tight, and keep them sucked in tight.
2. As you start to press your weights outward, you gradually exhale and let only part of the Qi out of your mouth, but push the remainder into your lower abdomen, while keeping your bowel and lower abdomen sucked in tight.
3. When you arms are fully extended, relax your bowel and lower abdomen for just a second while holding the weights, and then, as you begin the return movement, start to inhale, and continue to inhale gradually over the length of the return movement; this means gradually refill your lung with fresh Qi plus the Qi you send to the lower abdomen in your previous exhale movement, while, again, suck in your bowel and lower abdomen tight and keep them sucked in tight.
4. Now repeat step “2” as you start to press the weights outward again in another rep.
Follow this practice until you complete 12 reps then increase the weights by 5 % and do another set.
Keep up with this practice until you are comfortable with this breathing technique. It will take a little time before you can master it. Then you can gradually increase the weights and, in a few weeks, be back at your maximum weight.
This takes a little patience, faith, and concentration, very important characteristics in Oriental martial art training.
Want to hear a story?
Once upon a time, there was a young boy who worked in a Shaolin (少林) temple as an apprentice. Everyday he watched the young monks practicing their Gong Fu (功夫) (Shaoling brand martial art) in the court yard with amazement. One day, he got the courage to ask the elder monk, “Master” he said, “How did those brothers get so tough that they could punch through a big slab of concrete with their bare fists?”
The elder monk smiled, and then gave him an unused thick and old wall calendar and said, “Go hang it on a cement wall. Every morning and evening, punch it real hard, 50 times with each fist. Tear one page off when you are done each day. Just do that until the calendar is all gone….. ” Then he added, “be patient, concentrate, and have faith….”
The boy didn’t quite understand all that, but he did it anyway.
Half way through the calendar, he realized what it has done for his fists, and he was already able to break wood plank with them.
You see, in the beginning, it was nothing to punch a thick calendar with his bare fists, but towards the end, he was practically punching the concrete wall without any cushion, yet still felt nothing. His firsts were now well conditioned and they are as hard as the concrete. With a little more strength, he could now break the wall.
So, that is what patience, concentration, and faith can do for you.
Now, let’s get back to Qi.
When you reach 80% to 90% of your maximum weights, you will feel some difficulties in maintaining your rhythm of breathing the Qi as described above, you may need to change to the following heavy load alternative:
1. The starting step is the same as for moderate weight, meaning, before starting your press, inhale deeply and fill your lung with Qi and simultaneously suck in your lower abdomen and your bowel tight, and keep them sucked in tight.
2. Start to press your weights outward while, instead of gradually exhale, you would hold your breath and keeping your bowel and lower abdomen sucked in tight. Take a full second to extend your arms fully.
3. The moment your arms are fully extended and the holding is stable, exhale completely and quickly, and, simultaneously, relaxes your bowel and lower abdomen.
4. Then before starting your return movement, inhale deeply and quickly to fill your lung with Qi and simultaneously suck in your lower abdomen and your bowel tight, and keep them sucked in tight.
5. Now take a whole second to lower the weights down while holding your breath and keeping your bowel and lower abdomen sucked in tight.
6. The moment the weights are lowered to the starting position, exhale completely and quickly, and, simultaneously, relax your bawl and lower abdomen.
7. Now inhale and do another rep.
The Qi comes into play when you are breathing-in or breathing-out. During breathing-in, squeeze and suck in your bowel and lower stomach muscles. This action is the same as if you were to stop the flow of urine before you have emptied your bladder, except that as an integral part of an exercise, you would squeeze those muscles extra hard together with the stomach and pelvis muscles while inhaling as much air as you can into your lungs.
Again, for this to work, you must practice power of concentration. This can do wonders in making your workout more relaxed, which is especially important for people of advanced age. It should also be helpful in getting better and faster results from your workout.
You will find out that this is more easily performed when the weights are light and becomes more difficult when the weights are heavy. You should by all means start your Qi practice at the lowest weight level that you can manage comfortably, and work your way up gradually.
In fact you could start practice the Qi breathing technique without any weights first. You can be more relaxed and have better control of your movements, and pay better attention to the timing and rhythm. To do it, simply lay on top of a mat with your knees bent and feet flat on the mate. Breathe in deeply while sucking in and squeezing hard your bowel and lower stomach muscles, hold the Qi in your lung for two to three seconds, then slowly breathe out but let only half of the Qi escape through the mouth, the rest is pushed into your lower abdomen. Hold it there for a few seconds before relaxing all your muscles, and repeat. Do 15 times in the morning, and 15 times at night. Master this exercise with rhythm before trying it with weights, then try to master it with small increment of weights until you reach your maximum weights.
This exercise can benefit you in more than one ways.
In your workout, Qi is used as a form of energy. The oxygen it carries is supplied to your blood streams which then feed the muscles you are training under load. Breathing with the Qi rhythm can get your muscles the energy it needs to deliver good performance. It can bring better results quicker for your workout. Besides, your lower abdominal muscles and intestines will get a good workout too.
Now hear this.
Aside from benefiting your workouts, there is also some real interesting side benefits too; it can also help you to become a better lover.
Did you hear me?
This is mainly because the lower abdominal muscles and the pelvis muscles, those that surround the base of the penis and anus, also called pubococcygeal, or PC, are being trained to perform tighter contractions which is important for lovemaking. Stronger lower abdominal and PC muscles can power your thrust and withdraw movements and give you better rhythmic control that can enhance the performance and art of lovemaking.
For men, with proper form of practice, these movements can lead to firmer erection and better controlled ejaculation. Squeezing the PC muscles when you feel you are losing the control can delay the ejaculation.
For women folks, on the other hand, it has been said that when a woman masters this movement, she is blessed with a “secret”, or a “trick” that no man, once made love by her, would want to leave her for other women. In fact, it has been said that in the olden days all the Emperor’ ladies in China’s Forbidden City were trained to master these techniques. Man, on the other hand, can become a stud of a lover after developing stronger lower abdominal and PC muscles.
The bottom line is, besides helping you with your workout, it can also be a lot of fun for you and your mate to practice this Qi enhanced exercise together. First you would do it side by side each on a separate mate, then together in a simulated or even real lovemaking session. If you happen to be partners in bridge game, you are probably deep into mental communication and how stimulating it can be. Practicing rhythm of muscle movement in love-making, can take you to another completely new level of ecstasy you cannot even imagine.
Stronger muscles around the pelvis can also benefit aging males with prostate problems or to avoid them completely. So, if you are a man who is approaching 45 or 50, you cannot afford not to practice and try to master this technique.
Now get started and have fun! |
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