Running was the first sport I took up. I have to admit, I was never competitively good at it. I started late. I was about fourteen. The other kids in the team had been running for a while. I was chubby. My body was not naturally built as a runner. I tortured myself as I tried to get through the practices. But I did okay. I could never run below twenty eight minutes on a five K hill course. That’s not bad for a fitness buff but pretty slow for a competitive runner.
When I got into the martial arts, they taught me to breath into my dan tien. It’s an area right below your belly button. It’s your center, where all movement comes from. I was told to breath deep while in meditation but I didn’t know that internal tension prevented it. When I took voice and speech classes, the watched me closely. I could not get away with shallow breathing. They would know in an instant. They felt my ribs to see if they moved. They watched my abdominals. They told me I was tensing and made me do all kinds of funny exercises to loosen up. Then it clicked. I was blocked. When I learned to relax, I could start stretching my diaphragm. I understood what deep breath really was, and when I breathed deep, my voice would resonate.
I studied yoga and had a natural inclination to it. Many of the moves were similar to Shoa-Lin Kung fu who’s roots are in Indian hatha yoga (another story). I already had an understanding of my breath so my practice was deepened. Still the challenge of stretching muscles I never knew existed kept me motivated to continue.
Here’s the funny part of the story: I never did learn to run well. I still struggled. I love running. I love being in the open air. But something wasn’t right. I could never get any faster than a certain pace. A coach helped me for a while. He laughed at the way I leaned forward as if I was trying to get ahead of my legs. He said to stand tall. Stay centered. Don’t use up excessive energy. He told me to relax my face, to stay in the moment. Just work on my form. He told me all the things I tell my yoga students to do. Still, my breath hindered me. Why can I breath so deep in yoga class but get out of breath so easily when running, I had to ask myself. I had it in my mind that I just wasn’t a good runner. I enjoyed it, but I would always struggle with it and that is why I’m so effective at keeping the weight down when I run. I had it in my head that yoga and running were two separate things. I believed that running is hard and that being out of breath was just a part it. Yet, if you look at Olympic athletes, you hardly see them wheezing while they race. Their body is perfectly graceful and their breath is quite at ease.
At some point, you have to admit when you have been doing something wrong, even if you’ve been doing it wrong for almost twenty years. This coach made me realize that running and yoga were one in the same. I was tensing, as my students often do, when I didn’t have to. I needed to learn to find grace. Then I got this book called, “Body Mind and Sport” by John Doulliard. I read this training tip:
Go for a walk and count how many steps you can take per one full inhale and exhale through your nose. Keep trying to increase the number of steps per one complete breath. Anything over 18 steps indicates a good start toward total respiratory efficiency.
I did this. Then I started jogging, yet I kept with my deep breathing. Then I started running. I learned I was tensing as I ran. It’s funny how hard it is to get rid of these habits. Sometimes we have to go back to the basics. I had to learn to walk with proper breath before I learned to run with proper breath. I always tell my yoga students that something is not right if you cannot breath deep. Use your breath to guide you. So long as I kept that deep breath, my alignment was correct. My body could move with more efficiency and I wasn’t gasping. It’s so mind altering when you hit a break through like this.
I encourage everyone to make connections in our ever expanding world of health and fitness. Always ask yourself, how does my yoga practice help my basketball game? How does my pilates work help me in my sparring? How is tai chi similar to the Wing Chung I practice? How does my weight lifting help my tai chi? The fitness movement right now is so exciting. Compare things. A good baseball stance is really not that different from a good martial arts stance in any style. A strong stance is a strong stance. There are no more secrets. You no longer have to be Chinese to learn a Chinese martial art. This is the great age of communication so take advantage of the tips that people give, and maybe; just maybe, you’ll find a breakthrough.