Stale Air
Most martial arts regard “breathing” worthy of special attention. Students are taught special exercises to develop breath control, and increase their lung capacity, and ultimately appreciate the seemingly simple act of respiration.
How much of what they teach is worthwhile?
The Good
Understanding respiration is helpful, because the oxygen/carbon-dioxide exchange is fundamental to work physiology. Any impediment to breathing has an instant effect on one’s performance. This is because the ability to get oxygen into the blood quickly is essential for the release of cellular energy: the more oxygen the respiratory system can process, the more you can do up to your natural limit.
Many people breathe inefficiently. By involving the diaphragm more than the intercostal muscles, your lungs can take in more oxygen (and output more carbon dioxide) for less effort. Athletes and singers are aware of this, and breathe “from the stomach”. You do this naturally at night when you sleep, and you can develop a habit of breathing like this during the day to maintain this efficiency.
Conditioning your body to like exercise produces increased respiratory capabilities.
The Not As Good
Some Tantric influences have resulted in the promotion of “phased” breathing: breathe in, hold, and breathe out; or, breathe in, breathe out, and hold. Usually these are timed equally apart. More exotic breathing methods exists with variations in the rhythms of these phases. These provide absolutely no benefit, and may be somewhat disruptive if they impede the normal exchange of gases.
“Taking in deep breaths allows you to pull the energy or chi out of the air deeper into your body.” Your lungs’ alveoli take in only oxygen, and output carbon dioxide. The rest of the air you breathe is mostly nitrogen. The lungs pull in no energy whatsoever; this is a misnomer because the Mandarin word for gaseous air is qì (氣), and was mistranslated to mean “energy” by the qigong community in the late 19th Century by an incorrect understanding of acupuncture theory. Qi and air are not interchangeable, mostly because air exists and can be measured, whereas qi has no proven existence of any kind (measurable or not).
A feeble proof of qi has been offered by the sometimes intense feelings of power that students of breathing exercises feel. Much of this euphoria is caused by anoxia, a form of dizziness, and is brought on by interference with the normal breathing process. Sometimes, there is a definite onset of increased but momentary speed and strength: this is produced by an increase of epinephrine in the blood as the result of increased oxygen consumption.
One pseudo-scientific study making the rounds shows that students of qigong studies have increased respiratory efficiency over the average person, often by as much as 30%. A pair of charts show the oxygen uptake in liters for their students as well as for the average person. However, the values chosen for each are incomparable: the qigong students were measured while exercising, while the value for the average person were measured while at rest. Compared to normal exercise respiration values, the qigong students show no special differences.
Breath control training is frequently tied to meditation practices, with the idea that each is inseparable. This too has little logical connection: meditation (which comes in many forms) is certainly capable while breathing normally, and breath control is inherently natural to physiology. Be careful that expensive classtime is not wasted by unproductive activities.
As always, it pays to be cautious when accepting claims physiological claims about breathing. Training the body to increase maximum respiratory efficiency, and for holding the breath for underwater applications, is clearly beneficial (Chongdo certainly promotes these studies); however, this is a discipline that takes very little time to understand. Anything beyond that might be dead air.