Inhale calm, exhale tension.
We have been working for the past couple of weeks on both inhales and exhales.
In particular doing difficult work like delivering and receiving strikes, disarms or more strenuous physical movements whilst inhaling.
This is a progression. In the beginning you spend most of your time in Systema correcting the fact that you involuntarily hold your breath a lot when doing this work.
You then begin to learn to notice and correct this.
Basic work teaches you to then start to exhale on physical movements, when hit, when hitting or when pressure is applied to you in a physical or psychological form. This is because the exhale is the relaxation phase for the muscles.
A more advanced stage is to start evening this out and working on the inhale too.
This has several advantages:
- Your skill improves as your work becomes calmer and smoother. When you inhale you bring calm into your body and into your movements.
- You become softer. In order to inhale though physically intense work or fast work or psychological work such as knife work, you have to be very soft and relaxed in order to continue to move freely.
- It balances things out. There is a real sense of calm that pervades the room when we do this. I think that this is because we spend more time lengthening and softening the inhale or the ‘calm’ side of the coin.
- It gives you thinking time. When you inhale you calm the mind and allow thoughts to process.
- The concept of being able to work on inhales and exhales allows you to double the amount of work that you can do. If you can only work on exhales and recover on inhales then you reduce your output of functional work.
Warrior Endurance.
Imagine a warrior on a battlefield. They had to be able to attack, defend, parry, kill or escape on inhales and exhales, each breath becomes a functional stroke and cleans you from the last movement. This I believe is what allowed them to work constantly for hours at a time. This was one of the key eureka moments that I had with the Systema approach to breath work.
I had always puzzled over what would have allowed warriors to keep going past a few minutes of intense fighting. I knew how out of breath I felt after doing paired work, sparring or demonstrations. The focus on breath, efficiency and relaxation immediately made sense to me.
Take away.
My take away for everyone at the end of the class has been to try this in everyday life. Try to do everyday movements such as sit, stand, step off, lift etc on inhales notice the difference and start to make it feel like it does on an exhale.
This will make you more sensitive, controlled and aware as well as improving physical skills.
My very best wishes for your training and health as always,
Matt.
2020 Courses:
In the next few weeks I will be releasing course dates for 2020. These will include the staples:
- Details of the 2021 Jungle Expedition
- January breath work course
- 5 Day Summer Camp
- Canoe/Camp Trip
- 5 Day Intensive in November
Others will be added as they come in.
You can register interest for any of these by replying to this email.
Plus, whenever you ready, here are a few ways I can help with our Systema journey:
1. Complete your Systema Assessment:
The holistic assessment is designed to check your overall level of movement quality, range, tension, stress, stability, freedom of movement, coordination, strength and balance. Find out how you score across the 10 Functional Systema areas here.
2. Work with me 1on1 as your personal coach to improve aspects of your health, fitness or Systema Skills:
This is for people struggling to find the right coaching locally. Lots of people don’t have access to a regular instructor, or maybe you are an instructor and don’t have access to a regular mentor to help you improve. You may need to broaden or deepen your knowledge of Systema, get you over hurdles in your breath work, movement, tension or structure in solo or partner work.
The coaching will keep you accountable and progressing in your journey. I have space for 2 clients, so if you’d like to discuss and see if it’s a fit for both of us, reply and put ‘personal coach’ in the subject line.
3. Come and Train at the Systema Academy in Wiltshire.
We regularly have visitors from all around the world to train at the Academy and they are always made very welcome. Whether you just want to train at the regular classes, take some 1-1 sessions or a bit of both, just reply with ‘visit’ in the subject line.
4. Systema on-line breathing course –an access anytime anywhere course ideal for those wanting to deepen their understanding of Systema Breathing, Instructors who want to broaden their knowledge of drills or for those who spend time practicing on their own. You can find out more here.
5. 28 Day Systema Challenge Course –The programme is ideal for complete beginners, people who want to hit the ‘reset’ button, or those who would like to undergo a structured programme that covers the key principles and movements in Systema.
You can find out more here.