Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Internal Breathing for Tai Chi, Qigong, Bagua and Xingyi

internal breathing qigong reverse breathing Feb 04, 2019

There are three ways to breathe when doing the internal arts and qigong:

Normal breathing -- Expand when you inhale and contract when you exhale.
Reverse breathing -- Abdomen draws inward when you inhale and expands and drops outward when you exhale.
Internal (sometimes called Deep) breathing -- Diaphragm expands downward when you inhale but your chest and abdomen do not outwardly expand very much, and your diaphragm contracts upward when you exhale.

Normal Breathing

I have heard Chen Xiaowang being asked how you should breathe when doing a Taiji form.

"Natural is best," he always said.

But many Taiji masters say that when you reach higher levels, you may use reverse breathing or internal breathing.

I have always used reverse breathing when doing Qigong, but recently, I have been using Internal breathing.

Reverse Breathing

With reverse breathing, when you inhale, your abdomen and Dantien draw inward toward the Ming Men...

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Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Internal Breathing for Tai Chi, Qigong, Bagua and Xingyi

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