depends.  for instance, it's really nothing like what Yang, Jwing Ming teaches as reverse breathing, (based on what i've read in his books, "the root of chinese qigong" and his "yi jin jing / xi xui jing") which i would personally consider a specific breathing method more to improve health (i.e. qigong) than anything martial.

I guess what I basically mean by reverse breathing is that the belly contracts on the in breath and expands on the out breath in contrast to natural breathing where you normally expand on the in breath.

I ask because reverse breathing seems like it fits with the yin/ absorb - yang / expand cycle and the related ILQ body mechanics as I've experienced it so far. So I kind of assumed condenced breathing might describe something basically similar to reverse breathing.

I might well be wrong about that though _ I'm a total newbie to the art. But i must say I'm really digging how it's fitting with my taiji.

Is it more like reverse breathing, natural breathing or neither ?

cheers ashe.

when you inhale, it's absorb, yin. the dantien feels full. the emphasis in the torso is on the front. when you exhale the emphasis is on the back and feels like expansion. this is the quality of the mingmen, yang. the dantien and mingmen together do not collapse or lack fullness at any time. there is simply an interplay of emphasis depending on what part of the cycle from yin to yang and yang to yin you're investigating.

in short, condensing breathing is refinement of natural breathing.

i present reverse breathing to my students as a kind of assisted stretch. it's primarily for health and quite important, but limited in its application to internal development.

our exercise, 'rolling the wrists on the saggital' when harmonized with the breath and absorb/project energies is much closer to the effects reverse breathing confers. (better too)

best regards,

just to expand on what kelley said a little;  pretty much everything in ILC is very natural.  that's why it's a Tai Chi art (although not taijiquan). 

Part of Tai Chi is "Tao"; the nature, so the breath should be very natural.  I would say that actually a better translation of Tu'Na might be "punctured breathing", and actually Sifu uses the term "punctured" more commonly. 

it's using the slight pressure before the "pop" of the outbreath to recognize the energy dropping into the dan tien after the "pop".

Thanks guys, Good stuff

regards

George

i've been thinking a bit more on the 'condensing/punctured breath' and i think some clarification might help.

most understand reverse breathing is where the belly goes in on the inhale. this is 'collapse' of the yin. if the yin collapses, there's no internal development. if we keep the fullness - no collapse - but maintain the suction/condense action, we end up with a more refined expression of the reversing breath technique.

so, while the commonly accepted version of reverse breathing is not helpful to internal development, except as a stretch to 'make room' in the abdomen, if one maintains the fullness of the yin and performs the refined
reverse breath, one gets 'condensing breath'.

my problem was with the collapse of the dantien inward.

best regards,