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Kiwikarateka
Kiwikarateka's picture
Supplementing Sanchin training with yoga exercises

I've been reading Sanchin Three Battles by Pervez Mistry and it in he mentions some yoga exercises that would enhance your Sanchin practice.

The exercises all seem to be a part of Hatha yoga, here they are, in order of appearance:

1. Surya Namaskar

2. Angi Sara

3. Uddiyana Bandha

4. Nauli

I was wondering if anyone has experience with these exercises and if they found them useful for their Sanchin (or Karate) practice?

Also, if anyone has any knowledge on other exercises for enhancing Sanchin practice I would be interested.

Cheers,

Mathew

Nimrod Nir
Nimrod Nir's picture

Hi Mathew, 

Kiwikarateka wrote:
I was wondering if anyone has experience with these exercises and if they found them useful for their Sanchin (or Karate) practice?
I believe I can help with some information, being both a karate instructor (Shitoryu) and a yoga instructor (Classical Hatha yoga). However, please note that although Sanchin is part of our kata repertoire, we don't practice it regularly and are probably unaware of the subtle nuances of the kata practice. For that aspect, I think it would be best to defer to a Gojuryu practitioner. There are some very knowledgeable ones on this forum who are active and maybe willing to chime in.

First, I want to mention that I find yoga practice to be very helpful to my overall physical and mental condition, and therfore also helpful for my karate practice. Specifically, yoga significantly improves your flexibility, core strength and focus, which are all important aspects also in karate practice.

Now for the specific exercises:

1. Surya Namaskar - This is the famous/infamous 'Sun Salutation'. It has many variations and is basically a flow consisting of several different asanas (poses). As this is more of a general exercise, I don't find it specifically helpful for your Sanchin practice any more than the general benefits of yoga practice I described above.

2. Angi Sara - you probably mean Agni Sara. I don't practice this specific exercise, but it is quite similar to Nauli (see below).

3. Uddiyana Bandha - this is an 'internal lock', achieved by pulling your abdomen inside and upwards (under your rib cage) while your lungs are empty. It is used in some breathing practices (Pranayama) and also as part of Nauli (see below). Sanchin uses a special breathing technique, which is a common theme in yoga practice, so you could say that practicing breathing (Pranayama) could help your Sanchin in that regard. However, Uddiyana Bandha is not a breathing technique per se. Rather, it is used while practicing some breathing techniques.  

4. Nauli - this is a practice to strengthen your abdomen, massaging your internal organs and constipation prevention. It is performed while doing Uddiyana Bandha (see above). To my understanding, one of the goals of Sanchin practice is to strengthen your abdomen and core muscles, so as both practices achieve the same goal, I guess you could say that practicing Nauli may help with your Sanchin in that regard. In addition, I also know that improper breathing techniques while practicing Sanchin may lead to hemorrhoids and possibly constipation (common among old Okinawan masters), so Nauli could also help in that regard as well (although it is probably best to breath properly in the first place).

In conclusion, I think that yoga practice generally supports and compliments your karate practice, but I don't think any yoga exercise specifically enhances your Sanchin practice, or any other karate practice for that matter.

I hope you find this answer somewhat useful.

Zach Zinn
Zach Zinn's picture

Kiwikarateka wrote:
I've been reading Sanchin Three Battles by Pervez Mistry and it in he mentions some yoga exercises that would enhance your Sanchin practice ...

... I was wondering if anyone has experience with these exercises and if they found them useful for their Sanchin (or Karate) practice?

My two cents:

The lock you do with Sanchin breathing is essentially what I know as Khumbhaka. If you can find someone to give you a little training in Khumbaka, you can get to the core of the kata a bit, if you do not subscribe to any of the esoteric stuff surrouding Khumbhaka, learning to do it correctly can help create the physical structure needed for the kata, particulary "pulling up" by tilting the pelvis in conjunction with the breath, which kind of makes you connect your upper and lower body with your diaphragm muscle. It also feels like it (like most focus breathing) has an immediate effect on mental focus.  I don't know how to describe it other than that. Not being a Yoga teacher of any sort I'm hesitant to say much more.

I think one of the other postures (If I am remember them right, my Yoga background is pretty unorthodox) would actually serve as an antagonisitic exercise to Sanchin in terms of muscles groups - especially Sun Salutation. That's actually a *good* thing because Sanchin is a kind of "martial yoga", but isn't particularly designed for overall health and wellness, it's good to have some exercises surrounding that to balance it out.

That's the best I can figure as to how those things would be helpful. I do feel my Sanchin greatly improved after studying breathing techniques and Khumbhaka in particular. It also helps to avoid the kind of over-straining, gasping approach to Sanchin that was (at least at one time) unfortunately popular.

Most of those things look like breathing exercises that center around Khumbhaka, other than the Sun Salutation.

Kiwikarateka
Kiwikarateka's picture

Thanks for your replies guys! Looks like I will need to look into Yoga at some point, will keep an eye out for nearby classes.

If I end up going I guess I'll report the results here for others to reference.