Can Tai Chi Improve Your CrossFit? Part 3: Tai Chi Breathing Principles

This is the last installment in a series of posts where I suggest trying to incorporate some basic Tai Chi principles into CrossFit WODs. In Tai Chi practice, close attention is paid to breathing. Of course, in the heat of the WOD, it may seem like the last thing you can pay attention to is your breathing. In fact, it may be just about the only thing that you should be paying attention to. There are many WODs where, if you can maintain your breathing, you will be able to keep going without stopping. Time spent stooped over sucking wind is time when you are not accumulating reps. So keeping your breathing under control can be vitally important to performing well.

Although breathing can become a complicated (and in my view unnecessarily esoteric) subject in Tai Chi, the basic breathing principles are fairy straight-forward and easy to implement in a broad range of settings. As I see it, the basic principles are these:

Keep breathing, don’t hold your breath

Breathe deeply into the belly in order to fully engage the diaphragm

Keep the breath smooth, avoiding ragged inhalations and exhalations

Coordinate inhalation and exhalation with movement

So how do these principles translate into control of your breathing during a WOD? First and foremost is simply awareness of the breath. Breathing is a truly remarkable human activity in that we do it autonomically, that is without conscious effort, but we can also intervene to direct the breath consciously. So awareness is the key to control. Once there is awareness, we can make sure that we keep breathing, even in those moments of stress when the body seems naturally to want to hold the breath. We can also direct ourselves to breathe deeply by expanding the belly, even when the unthinking impulse is to breathe rapidly and shallowly. Obviously, deep breathing gets more oxygen into to body than shallow breaths which only engage the upper portions of the lungs. Establishing a breathing pattern in coordination with movement helps to ensure that you keep breathing steadily and smoothly. A lot of movements can be easily divided into an inhalation/exhalation pattern, such as the kettlebell swing (exhale as the bell swings up/inhale as it comes down) or pushups (inhale down/exhale up). Other movements might work best with an inhalation on one repetition followed by an exhalation on the next repetition (e.g. lunges, and strides in running or weighted carries). Experiment.

Of course, during a WOD, there may be times when stopping to catch your breath is a necessity or even just good strategy. In those moments, however, it is critical to be able to stabilize your breathing as quickly as possible. Understanding how to breathe fully into the belly is especially key for this. Sometimes a long, slow, deep inhalation serves best to bring the breath back under control. At other times, especially if you feel like to you beginning to hyperventilate, a quick sharp exhalation may help to override the feeling of gasping for breath.

To be clear, I am not saying that breathing shouldn’t become fast or labored during a WOD. After all you are doing CrossFit. So, if you are not breathing hard, you are probably not putting forth your best effort. Still, to the extent you can control the breath while moving full-throttle performance will benefit. Also, focusing on your breathing can be a welcome distraction from screaming muscles and that voice inside wondering “can I really make it through this WOD?” Take a deep breath and answer “yes, I can make it through.”