If a Masters swimmer were to study Eastern cultures, they may discover there is an ancient art that could provide a new approach to swimming training.

Legends abound in China of Shaolin priests and warriors who were able to perform amazing feats. Even today, there are many local movies in Asia with legendary Chinese stories where priests are characterised as magicians in a similiar vein as Merlin in Arthurian legend. Amazingly, the feats that can be performed were not paranormal and the powers they possessed were attained by practicing the ancient Chinese art of Qigong. In the southern Chinese dialect known as Cantonese (spoken in Hong Kong), Qi is pronounced chee which means breath or life force whilst gong is pronounced kung - as in Kung Fu, the martial art.

Qigong is actually a form of exercise that combines breathing and slow movements. These actions are not really what we might define as exercise since there are no forceful movements or laboured breathing.

It was reported at the Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Qigong held during the last millennium (90's), that runners improved their lung capacity by 30% within three months by just spending a few minutes each day with gentle qigong movements. It therefore goes to reason that a Masters swimmer who has occasionally found themselves short of breath during training could benefit by practicing Qigong movements.

As lung capacity can be improved, then other tangible health benefits could also be achieved. As with all exercise however, there are different Qiqongs for different purposes but it only needs to be practiced for 10 minutes per day. Whilst longer periods are not beneficial, they must be performed every day. Qigong is already on the web that you can search to learn more.