MindBodyCentre.com

Last night during martial arts training, I was watching one of the students. The student appeared to be enjoying the technique, focused and sincerely interested in learning, but there was something about his movement that didn’t seem right.

He was keeping his hands and the technique in his center (tanden). He was keeping his partner off balance (kazushi), and he was maintaining focus on his partner during and after the technique was finished (zanshin).

As the student made his final turn (tenkan) and threw his training partner once again to the mat and settled into his stance (kamae), he let out a long, slow exhale.

And then it dawned on me. His breathing wasn’t coordinated with his movement during the technique.

From my observations, 99.99% of people are completely unaware of their breathing. They become aware of their breathing only when they’re struggling to breathe, like when they are stopped up with a cold or have an asthma attack.

When the breath is not coordinated with mental intention and body movement, even the way a person walks is affected. His walk appears to be stiff and without rhythm. The person looks off balance and as if he might lose his balance and fall over at any moment.

What is happening is the various muscle groups in the body are not working together in a coordinated manner.

For example, the arm swing during walking is very important for balance and forward momentum. The arms are swinging in opposite directions from each other and as one arm swings forward, the leg on the opposite side of the body is stepping forward. Also, as the forward foot lands on the floor on the outside of the heel, the foot rolls forward onto the front pad of the foot, then toward the ball of the foot, and finally to the big toe. As one foot is leaving the floor off the big toe, the other foot is landing on the outside of the heel.

This is only a very small part of what is going on while walking. No doubt walking is a very complicated movement program. And there are too many muscles groups involved in walking to focus on and keep coordinated.

In fact, when we let our minds interfere with the muscle memory program of walking or any other muscle memory program, we mess it up.

But, one very important way in which we can allow our muscle memory programs to coordinate with our mental intention is through proper breathing, which means coordinated breathing.

The mind moves the body. And the breath is the bridge between the two.

There is a very simple way to look at how coordinated breathing works by looking at a very simple movement program. When you stand, extend your arms above your head and open your fingers, you naturally inhale. When you bend over and touch your toes, you naturally exhale. This is a simple example of correct mind-body connection. Try to exhale when you stand and extend upward and inhale when you bend over. It doesn’t feel right and your movement is impaired.

Whenever a human being tries to learn new physical skills, she needs to use mind-body strategies in order to push her performance toward mastery. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about doing push ups, running a marathon, Yoga or flexibility exercises.

Coordinated breathing is the secret behind powerful and balanced movement in the martial arts, just as it is for endurance and for flexibility. Usually, martial arts teachers teach the secrets of coordinated breathing only after the student has shown some evidence of mastery and trust.

More on this later …

Dan Cardona, M.D.

[http://www.danielcardona.com]

About the author: Dr. Cardona has been a student of the martial arts for more than 18 years. He teaches Functional Flexibility and the Art of Falling. He is also a board-certified pediatric psychiatrist.

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