Turtle breathing

Is anyone here familiar with or have any knowledge of what is called "turtle breathing" ? If so, please let us hear from you.


Andy

Turtle breathing is an ancient natural breathing technique favored by Northern schools of Kung Fu of the "Shadow Boxing" genre.

Hsing Yi, Yi Quan and Da Cheng Dao are the only schools I know personally who expound on it but I have read of Wu Tang lineages, as well as Tai Chi and Ba Gua, that claim it as their own.

It is an excruciatingly slow deep breath, easy to learn but hard to master. It is dissimilar from circular breathing by its long pauses. Unlike some structured breathing patterns which lead you to a hypnotic state, it leads to an extreme state of heightened awareness and sensitivity.

It is said to be one of the keys to both good health and longevity. It is more associated with mud stepping, San Ti and standing post meditation practices than actual combat exercises.

It gets it's name because turtles live a long time.

SFF,

Thank you for your informative response to my post. You mentioned that turtle breathing was easy to learn but hard to master.

My next question of course is: Is it simply a matter of slowing the breathing process down? Do you have any "how to's" on this method of breathing?

Breathing into the body and tissues is hard, It depends on the individual and inherent talents to really make the practice take off.
The 8-Brocade is a good starting point for goos breathing and Chi-Gung.

Bai He

Thanks for your response. I'm not looking for just any chi gung, I'm trying to find out more about the very unique method of turtle breathing.

Andy

Andy,

The stage of turtle breathing is considered to have been achieved when your breathing cycle has slowed down to no more than 3 breaths a minute.

There are some methods that help in the development of this ability and the further stages of breathing, but it can also be achieved by just practicing taoist breathing and gradually lengthening and deepening the breathing cycle over a long period of time.