Systema - Breathe Deeply and Under Control

I don't know anything about Systema, other than that it is a Russian Martial Art. At tonight's TKD class we did some breathing drills which were from our teacher's studying of Systema. The basic idea is that you don't let your body decide when to breathe; rather, you control your body, including controlling when it is to breathe. Some good drills.

In thinking about this workout, it occurred to me what I like so much about running. When I run, the exercise is intense, yet so regular, that I have breathing on my mind and I really pay a lot of attention to the rhythm of my breathing. It is under my control, and I vary my breathing patterns at times, depending on the intensity of my running.

Other exercises, like walking, don't tax my breathing so much, so I don't have the degree of mindfulness of my breathing that I do with running. Mountain biking is, at least where and how I ride, a series of anaerobic fits and starts, so I spend a lot of time breathing, but it's a mostly a matter of breathing as much as possible.

In martial arts, I pretty much exhale on every technique when I do drills or patterns. However, my understanding of Systema is that it is not a pattern-based system. It's more fighting-based, so breathing under rapidly changing circumstances can be a challenge, and is definitely something that is an opportunity for development.

Tonight's workout was very enlightening. I'm going to pay a lot more attention to my breathing in my various activities.