Breath ing Sk i l l s

For DaoY in Ta i J iQuan

Spec ia l Techn ique Report

Welcome to Your Special Breathing Report

I’m very grateful to you for downloading this document because it’s my mission to share with you the beneficial things I’ve learned and practiced in my 44 years of studying and learning ancient methods of health and wellbeing.

I’m going to share something with you today that I stumbled upon 20 years ago which, if you do it, is going to have huge, even MASSIVE positive consequences in your life.

The thing I want to share with you is in my professional opinion, the keystone of sound health and will improve your body, mind and spirit in quite incredible ways.

One of the key ways you are going to change is that you are now going to find it EASY to get fit, lose excess body fat and become more energetic.

Yep, you heard me right… no matter how much you’ve struggled with fitness in the past, if you employ this ONE breathing tactic right NOW you will EASILY start to improve your health INSTANTLY.

In fact, you will find it difficult not to be fit if you practice this technique regularly!

Shall we get started?

You’ll be at your optimal health for your age if you

are willing to work at this breathing method a bit. It does require a little time and concentration but it’s well worth the effort. The more practice you put towards helping yourself, the better your results will be.

This special breathing method doesn’t depend on doing hours of gruelling cardiovascular exercise to improve your V02max (the maximum amount of oxygen you can take into your system). However, you can amplify the benefits of diet and exercise by using the TaiJiQuan breathing technique as an anchor for all your activities.

Every step you take towards improving the way you do this breathing technique will improve your overall health in ways you can’t yet imagine.

In these pages, I reveal a secret way of breathing, which was taught to me twenty years ago by my TaiJiQuan teacher Dr. Y. K. Leung PhD. Also known as Shaolin Monk Shi DeLon. This is me with him here: Doesn’t look 60 does he? I firmly believe it’s the breathing techniques that keep him looking young.

Incidentally his PhD is in Ancient Chinese Human Energy Research. Check out his facebook page by clicking on the link http://on.fb.me/1eaKQ4h

Why is The Way You Breathe Now Likely to Shorten Your Life?

Breathing the wrong way is a big medical problem in our modern society

No, you definitely didn’t turn over two pages at once – I really did say “breathing the wrong way is a medical problem”

If you can find a way to improve how you breathe, you’ll automatically improve the way your body looks and performs. Don’t you think that’s a really cool and useful skill to know?

When we breathe from the chest

Now for some science bits…          

Being in Balance Too much Carbon Dioxide… To a large extent, breathing is about maintaining the pH balance of your blood; you see… Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is acidic and too much of it causes us to get grouchy, moody, and aggressive and breathe too fast. Too much CO2 is poisonous to the human body and causes a condition called hypercapnia. The symptoms of hypercapnia are shown in the diagram on the right. You may have noticed how older people are often called grumpy old sods ;). This can be attributed quite a bit to them spending more time than most sitting down or bending over. This means they tend to have adaptively shortened abdominal muscles, which restricts their movement, inhibiting their breathing and not allowing them to get enough oxygen into their bloodstream. Another side effect of this is that the average 23,000 times a day they draw breath they make tiny abrasive movements of the spine. They

produce just enough movement to breathe and wear the spine away, but not enough to pump the cerebro-spinal fluid up towards the brain to lubricate and cushion the movement. This may be one of the reasons why old and inactive people develop osteo-arthritis of the vertebrae. No wonder we can become grumpy old so and so’s!                                              

Too  Much  Oxygen…      Meanwhile, Oxygen is alkaline and too much of it can cause a condition called Oxygen Toxicity, shown here below. Don’t be misled; Oxygen isn’t the exclusive “good guy”. Too much Oxygen can be fatal! Balance is the “good guy” here!

The pH scale measures acid and Alkali concentrations. Your body is constantly fighting to keep the pH of the blood at around 7.35 -7.45. That’s almost as neutral as pure water on the pH scale…

Where are you on The PH scale?  

You Literally ARE Your World…          “Long before a person becomes ill, vital capacity can predict their lifespan.”  William B. Kannel, Boston School of Medicine (1981)

We take breathing for granted. After all, we do it all day every day of our lives don’t we? How complicated can it be? You just breathe in and then breathe out again don’t you? The big thing most of us are missing is that we breathe mindlessly, without care or thought to the amazing process that’s taking place inside

our bodies. But hey, listen to this: scientific studies have shown that if you breathe in a certain way, you will lower your blood pressure, get fitter and lose weight. Now that’s amazing isn’t it? Would you believe, breathing is the biggest interaction you have with your environment. When you inhale, the air around you actually becomes part of you and when you exhale, part of you actually becomes merged with the air around you. How miraculous is that? You actually merge with your surroundings!

The Barrier to Success: Poor O2/CO2 balance in the blood can cause problems in human function. If you haven’t trained your body to breathe better, the chances are your subconscious daytime breathing pattern is, by default, set to shallow chest breathing. This is a learned stress response, which started back in your childhood when your teachers and parents conditioned you to “sit down and be quiet”. The reasons most of us have learned to breathe badly are actually 3 fold: 1. Limited lung use: Your diaphragm is the sheet of muscle underneath your lungs, which causes them to expand and contract. By sitting, you can limit the range of motion this important muscle. Over long periods of sitting down, adaptive shortening happens between your ribs and in your abdomen, pulling your torso down. Your diaphragm tightens up like a drum skin and moves less and less. The rib cage now has to take over as the main engine for expansion and contraction of your lungs. This means you aren’t effectively using the bottom two thirds of your lungs! 2. Stressed out: The 21st Century is a stressful place to live. Vehicles move around you like great predators, work deadlines and social demands are high stress factors and there is danger, noise and excitement all around you constantly. To the primitive, survival part of your brain, you live in a high-risk environment so your body releases the so-called “stress hormones” cortisol and

adrenaline to prepare you for the crisis and the “fight or flight” response. Most of the time the “crisis” is simply your busy life and so the action your body anticipates never happens. This means you now have these chemicals floating around your system causing you to breathe from the muscles in your chest because you never used them up with action when your body thought you needed them. 3. Faster but not better: Because you are only using 1/3 of your lung capacity and are stressed out, your nervous system sends messages to your chest to work faster in order to exchange more air. Studies show that gaseous exchange mostly happens when we breathe OUT! By improving the way you breathe, and synchronising it with the way you move, you will live longer, perform better and quite simply get more out of life. Don’t believe me? Consider the important facts in the following section…

9 Reasons Why You Should Learn to Breathe Better: 1. Modern science has proved that by breathing in more oxygen you can help prevent the survival of cancers in your body by subjecting them to high levels of oxygen. This prevents the fermentation of sugars taking hold, which has been shown to be the main cause of cancers. Dr. Otto Warburg received a Nobel Prize for proving this back way in 1931. 2. Shortness of breath and heart disease are directly linked – the heart goes into spasm when it’s deprived of oxygen 3. Studies show a high correlation between poor breathing and high blood pressure 4. Most emotional issues, including anxiety and depression may result from an out of balance Sympathetic/ Parasympathetic nervous system relationship, which can be governed by the way we breathe. 5. By breathing better we promote weight loss as oxygen burns fat and calories. Studies by a California University have shown that simply deep breathing can help burn up to 140% more calories than riding an Exercise bike.

6. To dispose of excess fat already stored within the body, it must be combined with oxygen to help burn it. Research shows that most of us use less than 25% of our lung capacity. Just increasing oxygen intake through proper breathing can increase our body's ability to burn fat by 100% or more. 7. Breathing well is the key to sleeping well and waking up feeling rested as the body becomes well oxygenated. 8. Breathing provides 99% of our body’s entire oxygen and energy supply. Without this critical energy supply, nothing works correctly.

9. Virtually every human health condition and activity is improved with better breathing

Which of the 3 Ways of Breathing is Best? Breathing the right way hugely impacts our overall health and fitness including how often we get ill and how energetic or lethargic we feel. There are 3 main breathing techniques in ShaoLin Healing QiGong: 1. Chest (and shoulder) breathing 2. Abdominal breathing 3. Skin breathing The pages you hold contain clear instructions on how and when to breathe effectively to improve your wellbeing, increase your energy levels and stabilize your body weight. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the skin is a breathing organ and as such is associated with the lungs and nose. Improvements in breathing have been repeatedly shown to help many skin conditions. That means if you start today you can begin to improve your health instantly.

Breathing Methods and Techniques “The true way is not more than two or three sentences. When spoken or revealed it is not worth more than half of one penny”

Old Chinese saying “My way is simple, easy and straightforward”

Lao Tzu Breathing techniques can go from the simple to the very complex but don’t get led astray, the simple stuff works on the highest levels when you practice and do it properly. Remember, when a magician’s performance is explained, it just becomes a ‘trick’ and the magic is lost. Do not underestimate these methods, as Confucious said “knowing is not enough” 5 minutes here and there once in a while will make you feel a bit better, but breathing is like eating; we need to do it correctly every day in order to maintain our levels of energetic sustenance. Breathing practice is a preventative measure, so we should be in the habit of doing it properly and well before any issues ever arise. However, hindsight is 20/20 so if you’re coming to these exercises with a problem to overcome, be diligent don’t stop practicing and prepare to help yourself more than you ever have before…

1. Chest Breathing This type of breathing uses the ribs like a bellows to inflate and compress the top 1/3rd of the lungs,forcing gaseous exchange to take place. Chest breathing is a function of stress on the human body. It forces more air into the lungs, for example in actions like sobbing or growling. In Ancient Chinese Medicine, the chest and lung is associated with the character of the tiger, and the emotion of sadness. Shoulder breathing is a more advanced technique described by the sage Kong Tzu. I cover shoulder breathing in more detail in my forthcoming DaoYin QiGong Guide. In our modern world we are under more or less constant stress with loud noises and large predator-like vehicles moving around us all the time. This leads us to use chest breathing as a habit because we are constantly alert for danger. Using only shallow chest breathing can often cause or worsen chest pains.

Discover if You’re Just Chest Breathing… Put your left hand on your tummy directly over your belly button and your right hand on your chest, just above your sternum. Then, take as deep a breath as you can and feel what happens. Did your rib cage lift up? Did your shoulders lift up? Did your neck tighten up? If these things are happening to you, you’re doing too much with your chest. Now sniff in quickly through the nose – did your tummy push your hand out? No? In that case you are definitely chest breathing! If think you’ve passed this test, think again! You’re probably only scoring borderline on the test. Or, if you only passed the first part, you’ll probably find that when you get stressed, your breathing and tension lifts right back up into your chest. You can then struggle to breathe and what should be an effortless and easy movement is suddenly tiring, full of tension and causing you postural distortions, muscle pain and even headaches. Chest breathing takes more energy than abdominal breathing, requires you to breathe faster and makes you anxious. You will probably find it difficult to breathe out and you’ll feel exhausted. You might even start to worry about where the next breath is coming from. You can start to feel trapped and panicky and try to control

your breathing by slowing it down which then interferes with your natural body chemistry. Panting or forced, repeated shallow chest breathing leaves a residual tidal volume of Carbon Dioxide in your lungs making your blood more acidic and making you cranky and bad tempered. Ever wondered how Victor Meldrew and the grumpy old man on the bus got so aggressive? Well now you know – too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen in his bloodstream! The same goes for what has been called “The Superman Syndrome” by Robert Kamm in his book. Superman Syndrome is the name Kamm gives to the neurotic modern day high powered, stressed out businessman who has breathes high in his chest, has tight abs an aggressive nature and susceptibility to nasty diseases and illnesses including cancer.

Picture Courtesy: frazer4eos

All this could be avoided by using a more effective way of breathing…

2. Skin Breathing It may be surprising to most people, but “skin breathing” actually, really means we are physically breathing through our skin. It’s not alluding to some other non-breathing related practice or a mystical, imagined force of any kind. Some land animals have skin so thin that gases can easily pass through it. Biologically we say that they have a ‘permeable skin’. Earthworms and amphibians have a skin permeable to gases. Amphibians also have a pair of simple lungs but they’re not good enough on their own to sustain breathing for any period of time or for more vigorous activities.

An adult bullfrog breathes 80% through its

skin Larger animals that breathe through their skin also use a fluid circulatory system containing blood to transport oxygen to their tissues and to bring carbon dioxide to the surface of the body for expiration. This means that the blood vessels must

come very close to the surface of the skin. With a microscope, you can actually see the tiny blood vessels called capillaries.

Organism (%) use of skin for breathing

(%) use of lungs or gills for breathing

Plaice 28 72 Eel 29 71 Adult Bullfrog 80 20 Boa Constrictor 21 79 Large Brown Bat 12 88 Human Being 2 98 The main disadvantage of breathing through the skin is that the animal loses a lot of water in this way. The skin of these animals is always wet. To stop their bodies from drying out they must always live where the air is humid. Earthworms live in the soil where the air is humid. In the summer, when the soil dries out, they burrow deeper to find damp soil. Amphibians are also found in wet places near ponds and streams. Animals, which have lungs or tracheae, do not have to live in a humid atmosphere. Lungs and tracheae are found inside the body, so they are protected. Guess what? That’s us! With specific training, the ancient Chinese Daoist texts reveal that humans can improve the oxygen uptake and Anion exchange in the atmosphere. This training can take a lifetime but the old ancestors claimed it could be done with astounding results on longevity and health.

Modern scientific studies show this to be possible. Check out this example of many modern studies, which confirm what the sagacious ancestors were trying to tell us: http://jp.physoc.org/content/538/3/985.full 3. Abdominal Breathing The Emperor of breathing techniques, so pay attention now… When we are babies and when we are asleep, we breathe from the abdomen. When we’re engaged in this form of breathing, we use the bottom two thirds of the lungs to increase our vital capacity and absorb more oxygen. This kind of breathing massages the internal organs, keeps them nourished, healthy and strong and boosts the vital signs and levels of oxygen in the body for healing and health. There are other benefits too! • The spine is massaged and manipulated

• Cerebro-spinal fluids are circulated to nourish

the brain and spine

• The abdominal muscles become stronger and more elastic.

This abdominal way of breathing then, is the key to taking the first steps towards a life of health and vitality and I’m going to show you how it was taught to me. Now you can make a start on boosting your immune system and improving your internal processes. I’ll show you here the exact process the ancients used to stay in amazing shape and live long, healthy lives… Then I’m going to share with you the 8 keys, 6 stages and 8 components you will want to implement over time to consolidate your practice and improve your health…

WARNING! Secrets Revealed on the next page!

8 Steps to Better Breathing Step 1 Take several deep breaths into the chest through the nose and completely exhale through the mouth – this is to oxygenate your system. Step 2 Then take a huge breath in and breathe out through your mouth until your chest and abdomen are completely empty. Draw your belly button in towards your spine to squeeze out every last gasp of air. Step 3 At the same time as you are pulling in your abdomen to exhale, lift up your pelvic floor as if you’re stopping yourself from going to the toilet

Step 4 Now close your mouth and push out your abdomen whilst at the same time dropping the pelvic floor downwards. Air will rush in through your nose and into the bottom part of your lungs. Be careful not to allow the chest to kick in. Your body’s impulse will be to expand your ribs to inhale. Use your mind to control it and prevent the chest from expanding. Step 5 When you can push your tummy out no more and the bottom part of your lungs is full of air, swallow saliva and open the back of your throat. Step 6 Controlling the airway with your glottis at the back of your throat, allow the air to escape in a smooth and controlled way.

Step 7 As the air leaves your lungs, pull the abdomen in towards your spine, squeezing all of the air out. Ensure that you breathe out for twice as long as you breathed in for. This will ensure maximum exchange of gases in the lung and optimize your intake of oxygen. Step 8 At this point your chest will want to kick in. Do not allow it, but instead go back to step 1, closing your mouth and drawing the air into the vacuum of your lung by pushing out your abdomen once more.

The 8 Keys to Success The ancient sages describe in the classic texts on the subject 8 keys that you should employ whilst performing the sequence in order to ensure maximum success:

1. Your mind should be calm and your face relaxed

2. Each breath should feel like a cool, slender wisp trickling down your trachea.

3. Ensure that each breath is as deep as possible 4. Not only should your breath be deep, it should

also be long. Your lungs should expand length ways not width ways.

5. Do not hold your breath, the act of breathing from the abdomen should be a continuous flowing motion.

6. Each breath should feel smooth as silk gently brushing the inside of your throat.

7. Take your time; the breath should be slow and controlled. Take twice as long exhaling as you to inhale.

8. Keep everything as soft as possible throughout the breath, so you only use the deep internal muscles.

6 Stages of Abdominal Breathing Development When you understand and begin to practice this abdominal breathing technique, there are six stages to mastering it, which you will implement and become aware of as you progress. Stage One: Count the timing of your breaths. This will help you get focused on what you’re doing and minimise your attention down to one thing, the counting. Ensure you breathe out for twice the time you breathe in to get maximum oxygen uptake. The principle of focusing on one thing at a time is called “ShaoYi” literally translated as ‘guarding one’. It is the main principle of ancient Chinese meditation and helps us train the entire process to be subconscious. Stage Two: Follow your breath inward and outward with your mind. Try to physically experience the path of the air as it merges with your body. Stage Three: The movements become subconscious and you find yourself simply doing them, becoming part of them and them becoming part of you. Stage Four: You can analyse your breathing objectively as it works away and you notice sensations taking place in your body as you infuse it with more Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.

Stage Five: You notice you’ve made your improved breathing process a normal part of the way your body behaves. This means it’s now become part of your autonomic nervous system and is programmed into your subconscious. Stage Six: Keep training to develop your abdominal breathing over time. You’ll increase your lung capacity and purify your breath and your blood. You body’s ions align and polarize, improving the way haemoglobin bonds with oxygen in your blood. Safety First During your practice, you might feel a bit of tingling or faintness and dizziness as the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your blood change. If you do experience this, lie down on the floor with your feet higher than your head and breath big sighs from your chest to regain balance. Get medical advice before you do these breathing exercises if you are in doubt. Stick at it If it’s difficult to do standing up, just lie down in a comfortable place to switch off your transverse-abdominis muscles and kick-start the process. When you can do it lying down, start the process again standing up. By this time your diaphragm will be strong enough to resist the compression of the abdominal muscles.

When I first started doing these exercises I hardly got any results at all. My chest always kicked in and my abs were so tight from all the crunches, sit ups and press-ups I did every day that I just couldn’t seem to get it. It took me two whole weeks of training every day to crack it. Then I really started to work on it and got a bit further. As I continue to train, it continues to develop. I have to say, not one of the clients I have trained to do this has taken as long as two weeks to get it. Most of my clients get it within 5-15mins with the correct coaching. So what I’m saying is, even if it feels difficult at first, keep going, never give up and teach your body a skill that will serve you for life. If you are concerned about having a big belly or a bloated look, don’t be. This is training and your tummy won’t stick out all the time. In fact, because you are working lots of abdominal muscles and getting them to move to the end of their range of motion, they’ll come under your control even more, boost your metabolism and give you a more toned look.

Well Done on Your First Steps! Great job on achieving your first steps in abdominal breathing. If you follow the steps I outline here, you’ll find you’ll achieve better health than you have ever experienced before.

Ancient and Modern Although we have focused on information from the classics, written by the celebrated Chinese Sages, modern science suggests an extra 8 components to healthy living and breathing. These components are really just common sense…

Modern Breath Measurement Techniques Underway

Lao Tzu and Kong Tze discuss philosophy

8 Modern Breathing Components Western experts says healthy breathing should contain each of the following 8 factors to achieve optimal, deep and balanced breathing. 1. Good gaseous exchange from the lungs to the blood, the blood to the lungs and oxygen transport to all other cells in body 2. Diaphragm Contraction 3. Rib Expansion 4. A reciprocal relationship between rib expansion and diaphragm contraction 5. Proper nutrition according to your body type 6. Optimal muscle balance, dynamic load distribution and posture 7. Positive attitudes, thoughts, emotions and words 8. Healthy expressions of human movement and emotions The theory is each of these factors influences the others so ALL of them should be in balance to promote easy, natural breathing.

REAL Core Training Lots of trainers and so-called experts out there will

have you believe that you should have a tight tummy, tiny waist and ripped abdomen to be strong. THIS IS TOTALLY FALSE! The abdomen is designed in such a way that it can provide a wide base of support for the spine. Just look at the diagram below and you should understand.

The mast of a ship is more stable when the rigging is further away from the base It should be obvious that the wider the base of support, the stronger the structure is.

Not convinced? Read on…

The Mighty Matterhorn in Switzerland The best example is the biggest, most solid structure in nature, a mountain. Even a narrow mountain like the Matterhorn needs a wide base of support to prevent it from collapsing. Still not convinced? A Simple Prop, to Occupy Your Mind OK, I ripped the headline off from R.E.M. but it makes my point. Never mind, lets continue…

Try this simple demonstration: Have a partner stand in front of you and pull their tummy in as tightly as possible. Place one hand on their hip and one hand on he base of their neck then try to pull them forwards using your bodyweight, bending them at the hip. What happened? Could you move them? Now try the same experiment whilst pushing out the abdomen. Which is stronger? Ask them which they felt was stronger. Then have them perform the same test on you. Which did you feel was stronger? I’ve done this test with hundreds of people and always got the same results. It should be obvious to you that Physics trumps what some part-time, ten-quid-an-hour trainer down the road says about abdominals. Your big teacher is Nature, so listen to it!

True Core Training True Core training begins with breathing properly. Abdominal breathing is a technique that is very natural to us because it’s reminiscent of our own development inside the womb. We use the movements of the abdomen to draw in oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical cord before we emerge into the world. The same movements draw the first rush of air into our lungs when we’re born. Abdominal breathing uses around 70% of the lung capacity compared with the 30% of chest breathing alone and both together can use up to 100%. Then, as we grow, we are told to “sit still’’ and “be quiet” in awkward, unnatural sitting environments (man made chairs and desks) for long periods. This inhibits our breathing and as a result, we gradually lose our abdominal breathing ability.

We then begin to use the stress response of breathing from the chest for our everyday oxygen requirement. This method uses only 1/3 of the total lung capacity. The breathing becomes rapid, shallow and the blood more alkaline, predisposing us to cramps, muscle fatigue and joint disorders as we become restless and moody. Use these techniques in the right way and you will develop an internal airbag to keep you strong and protect you from bumps and impacts! Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Permanent Practice these breathing techniques whenever you can. If you train the secret abdominal breathing techniques I’ve shared with you here just 3 times a day for 10mins each time and you should achieve competence in no more than 4 weeks. If you train for a total of an hour each day you should have it in your subconscious and be able to access it for the rest of your life in that time. I think it’s a fair swap: the 1 month of training in exchange for 1 hour a day it takes to get good at this skill plus extra years of active life!

My Parting Shot Finally I’d like to leave you with a summary of a piece of research by one of the leaders in human lung health Dr. H J Schunemann... How well your lungs function may predict how long you live! Researchers at the University at Buffalo conducted a 30-year study, following up on the association between poor lung-function and ALL causes of mortality. They found that poor lung function was an accurate predictor of mortality. Results of the study appeared in ‘Chest’ magazine. “The reasons lung function may predict mortality are not clear”, Dr. Schunemann said. He went on to note that “…Increased risk is found in persons who never smoked, as well as among smokers.” Our lungs are the main defence mechanism against toxins in the environment. It may just be that poor lung function leads to lowered defences

against these pollutants in the human body, which shortens our lives and makes us ill. Researchers theorise that poor lung function could also be a factor in increases in the oxidative stress we experience from free radicals. We do know that oxidative stress plays a key role in the development of many modern diseases. Dr. Schunemann commented “the fact that a relationship exists between lung function and risk of death should motivate physicians to screen patients for pulmonary function, even if more research is needed to determine why.” “It is surprising that this simple measurement has not gained more importance as a general health assessment tool,” Schunemann noted. Schunemann HJ, Dorn J, Grant BJB, Winkelstein W, Jr., Trevisan M. Pulmonary Function Is a Long-term Predictor of Mortality in the General Population 29-Year Follow-up of the Buffalo Health Study. Chest 2000;118(3)656-664. Happy breathing! "He who breathes most air lives most life." Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Biography Jason Dean is the founder of Temple holistic fitness centre and is based at his centre near Headingley, in Leeds, UK. Jason provides a body, mind and spirit approach to fitness training and health solutions. Jason is a 32nd generation ShaoLin Layman Monk and teaches DaoYin TaiJiQuan and ShaoLin QiGong classes in Leeds UK. Jason is an accomplished presenter and presents nationally and internationally both to lay people and to well known groups of Personal Trainers and personal development groups. Jason is a specialist in resolving biomechanical dysfunction and coaches Personal Trainers and athletes how to get better results from their training without extra effort. www.templeholistic.co.uk