The Breathing Exercise


The postural stability of the horse stance takes away the need for a lot of the upper body adaptations that can affect the neck and shoulders. Combined with an efficient breathing pattern that doesn’t load your secondary respiratory muscles it’ll allow you to lose a lot of the myofascial tension in your upper body.
In horse stance your lower body is stable and it’s easier to bring your breath down into your lower abdomen:

  • Get into horse stance and put your hands together over your lower abdomen.
  • Check that your knees are unlocked and you’re solid and comfortable in the pelvic girdle.
  • Relax your upper body and allow the breath to fall into your belly.
  • Don’t try to pull it down: just relax, put your awareness on your lower abdomen and allow it to fall.

Another breathing exercise

The advantage of modelling our relaxation program on tai chi training is that it teaches us to be at the same time, relaxed and keenly focused, ready to strike. This exercise, sometimes used as a warm up in tai chi class, begins the process of incorporating movement with our breathing/relaxation exercises.

  • Stand in horse stance.
  • As you breathe in, slowly raise your arms to your side with your palms facing down. Keep your arms straight and bring them up to a level just above your shoulders.
  • As you breathe out, let your arms fall to the level of your shoulders as you relax your arms, shoulders and upper body.
  • Breathe in again and turn your hands palm up as you lift your arms directly above your head until your palms face each other about 30 cm (12 inches) apart.
  • Breathe out and bring your hands directly down the midline of your body about 30 cm in front of you, again allowing your arms, shoulders and upper body to relax.
  • Bring your arms back to your sides and repeat a few more times.

Your lower body needs to be solid but not stiff, allow it to move slightly up and down with your breath as well. In this exercise you are localising the relaxed sensation to your shoulders and upper chest, which is where you want it when you’re playing.
The key to this exercise is the out breath. Rather than actively bringing your arms down, simply allow them to fall. If you can tune in to the sensation of falling as your arms come down you’ll have got what you need from this exercise. You need to recall this sensation of letting go every time you see the word ‘relax’.

 

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