Shaolin Kung Fu: Your Personal Warrior Training Program

If you don't have a Shaolin teacher near you then my DVDs give you insant access to authentic  Shaolin Teachings. What I teach in my DVDs is what you would learn if you entered The Shaolin Temple. It is possible to learn from my DVDs as long as you respect yourself and respect your teachings. Train regularly, five- six times a week and clearly define your goal.

Shaolin transformed my life, and it's my goal to help as many people transform their lives. I'm very happy that thousands of students all over the world now train with my DVDs and books. 

When I made my first DVD, Kung Fu Journey, in 2005, I had no plans to make another one. But due to constant demand from my long-term students I've now made nineteen DVDs, one Qigong book, and  my kung fu book will be available next year. 

For the beginner I know it can be a bit confusing knowing which DVD to start with so in this series of blog posts, I'm going to give a quick overview of each DVD and how to train with them and what benefit they will give you together with some suggested training programs.

If you want to learn Shaolin as a martial artist then you need to start with Shaolin Workout 1, 2, and 3.  If you're not so bothered about Shaolin martial arts but you want exceptional stamina then train with Shaolin Bootcamp and Shaolin Circuit Training.

Shaolin Workout 1 is exactly the same as if you were stepping into a class at the Shaolin Temple. Don't expect to keep up and understand everything.  As you keep studying with the DVD, you will slowly see improvements and gain an understanding. Once you've mastered the five fundamental kicks and the five fundamental stances, even if you still can't keep up, you're ready to move onto Shaolin Workout 2.

One of the reasons for moving up quickly is so that your body doesn't reach its plateau, in order for your body to keep improving, you need to keep surprising it and keep finding the edge of your training. Alternate between Workout 1 and Workout 2.

If you're only interested in fighting techniques and not traditional Shaolin then can skip Workout 1 and 2 and go straight to Workout 3, where you learn fighting kicks and fighting punches and combinations.

As a martial artist continue to come back to these three DVDs, and now to improve your strength and stamina and challenge your body even more, add in Shaolin Bootcamp 1 and 2. These DVDs use your own body for strength training and are more challenging in terms of stamina. 

You can alternate the days so now you have a complete 5 day workout:

Monday: Workout 1

Tuesday: Workout 2

Wednesday: Workout 3

Thursday: Bootcamp 1

Friday: Bootcamp 1

Saturday: Self-train without the DVDs perfecting your techniques.

If you're a fighter or you want to work more on your stamina and modern fighting techniques then alternate between the Circuit Training DVDs and the Bootcamp DVDs. Circuit Training Volume 1 focuses on punches and Circuit Training Volume 2 focuses on kicks. 

It's good to do each of the Circuit Training DVDs twice a week:

Monday: Circuit Training 1

Tuesday: Circuit Training 2

Wednesday: Bootcamp 1 or 2

Thursday: Circuit Training 1

Friday: Circuit Training 2

Saturday: Bootcamp 2

With the Bootcamp DVDs, correct form is not as important as pushing your strength and stamina. If you're working with all 7 of the DVDs then work out a program that fits with your goals.

I have two other kung fu DVDs, these are more specialist DVDs specifically for martial artists, Fighting Punches and Kicks Volume 1 is exactly what the title says Kung Fu Ch'an and Fighting Punches and Kicks Volume 2 teaches takedowns so you need a partner to practice with,  Kung Fu Ch'an demonstrates how kung fu can be a direct gateway to the teachings of Ch'an Buddhism or Zen, this is not a teaching DVD as such.

You can share your training experiences with other students by joining this Facebook page.

All of the DVDs are available on my website. www.shifuyanlei.com

In my next blog post I will give an overview of my Shaolin Qigong DVDs.