What makes you a martial artist?

What's the difference between the training of someone who exercises regularly and the training of a martial artist? Body builders may look strong but be inflexible. Yoga practioners may be flexible but ask him or her to perform a martial art’s kick and they have no power or speed. This is one of the reasons why there are a variety of Shaolin exercises and forms. We train our whole body in a very focused way so every exercise we do increases power, speed, flexibility, endurance, and reaction time.

At the Shaolin Temple we build up our fitness level from our inside out, not from the outside in. Fitness is much more than good stamina. Strength is much more than being able to lift heavy weights.

Suggested Training Plan

The training plan below covers all of your Shaolin Training in one workout. This is not for beginners, you need a level of fitness to be able to do this.

1) Run, skip or cycle for twenty minutes to make your body hot.

2) Raise each knee a hundred times to loosen your muscles.

3) Stretch your legs and hips.

4) Practise the five fundamental Shaolin kicks from Shaolin Workout 1.

5) Do some push ups to train your upper body and / or some exercises from Qigong For Upper Body.

6) Do some traditional punches to stretch out the muscles from Shaolin Workout 1Repeat 2) – 6) three times.

Once you have finished this training do some traditional forms, shadow box or do a workout from one of my workout of bootcamp DVDs.   

Qigong

After you have gone through this training plan, finish your training with the most important exercise of all; Qigong. The power of your martial art's comes from the power of your Qi. Qigong enhances the power of all the external training you have done, awakening the energy matrix of your body.

The Power Of Qi

Many athletes especially long distance runners and cyclists know that it is their mind as much as their body that gets them through the race. Once their mind has given up then they too will give up and they won’t be able to continue and complete or win the race. Even though they understand the power of their mind, they don’t understand the power of Qi. This is why they end up retiring when they're in their thirties. They don’t look after their internal organs. Shaolin Monks train as hard as Olympic athletes but their training deepens as they get older.  Why? Because they do Qigong.    

      

Bone Marrow Cleansing Massage

Once you've finished your Qigong then do the Instant Health massage with the bamboo brush. If you've been using the bamboo brush for a few years and you're not feeling as much benefit then it may be time for you to progress to doing the Instant Health Massage with the Metal Massage Brush. The metal massage brush is about the price of six massages but it will give you a lifetime of massages. Many people mistakenly believe that the metal brush is only used for body conditioning but at the Shaolin Temple we use it for bone marrow cleansing.

As we age, not only do our bones and muscles shrink unless we exercise to prevent them but also the blood cells produced by our bone marrow slow down. This is because the marrow becomes dirty. Through using the metal brush we cleanse the marrow and stop this reversal.

Start off by warming up with the bamboo brush  then move on to the metal brush. This heavier brush creates vibrations in the bones and helps to cleanse them so even though you are still doing the Instant Health massage it is having a much more powerful effect. This is where the name "Bone Marrow Cleansing" comes from.  

Whether you use the bamboo brush or the metal brush, you'll find that you will suffer from less injuries and muscle aches after your training.

This combination of training which is unique to martial arts is what makes you a martial artist and only by training in this very specific way can you become a martial artist and realize your body’s true, natural potential.

 Click here for more info on The Instant Health Massage

Click here for more info on The Metal Brush

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One Small Step To Transform Your Training

 For this blog post you will need a pen and paper.

 What small step can you take to improve your health and fitness? 

Or, if you're a martial artist or fighter, what small step can you take to make your skill better?

Write it down  - writing something down increases the likelihood that you will do it.  

Don't make it ambitious - The Tao Te Ching says: "With expectation, One will always perceive the boundary" 

Make sure it's simple and doable.

If it isn't then think again.

Schedule this small step into your diary for the whole month.

Make a note of where you are now so that you will be able to see the improvement you've made.

Keep acting on this small step. (This one step is something you're going to build on later on and I'll explain how in next month's blog post. )

The famous basketball coach, John Wooden says, "When you improve a little every day, eventually big things occur. Don't look for the big quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time... and eventually a big gain is made."

The Tao Te Ching says, "A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Starts With A Single Step."

Trust in their wisdom. Trust in this small step. Don't doubt it. Just Do It. 

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The Future Of Exercise

Powerful strategies for optimzing your body and mind

I believe that practicing martial arts or going through your life without practicing Qigong is like driving a car and never topping up the air in the tyres. The air is our Qi, it gets us places. Take the air out of the tyre and the car will go nowhere, take the air out of our bodies and we die. It is as simple as that. On a basic level Qi is breath, it flows where the blood flows, but on a deeper level it is the energy matrix of the body and when we do Shaolin Training we optimize it on daily basis to get the most out of ourselves.

This is what the Shaolin Temple mean when they emphasise the importance of internal and external. The external is the kung fu, the things we can see, the internal is what is going on inside of us, and to optimize our energy we mix internal and external together.

Shaolin Steel Jacket

A good example of this is Shaolin Steel Jacket. In order for me to be able to do this, I have to have good stamina but I also I need to practice Qigong. It is the Qi that protects my body. I direct my Qi to my ribs or my back and I deflect the pain away so it acts like a mirror, when a person kicks me, their power is deflected and turned back on themselves so it hurts them instead of me. That is the amazing power of Qi.

The Competitive Edge

The majority of people use Qi to unblock the channels and optimize the efficiency of the body. In China, top-level businessmen and women practice Qigong so that they can focus and have full energy for the day ahead. They believe it gives them a competitive edge. Martial artists use it to make their bodies into weapons or simply to give them a stronger and longer martial art's life.

The balance of yin and yang

When I first went to the Shaolin Temple to begin my training, I was fourteen years old and 90% of my training was kung fu – external - training and only 10% was Qigong – internal - training. To be honest, I used to find internal training boring and I wasn’t convinced that there was such a thing as Qi. But I wanted to learn Shaolin Steel Jacket and in order to do this I had no choice. It was only when I saw the effectiveness of the Qigong movements that I became interested in Qi.

As I get older I don't need to practice 90% kung fu, and if I did I would quickly burn myself out. The reason boxers and footballers usually retire in their thirties is not only because their stamina is not as strong but also because their body feels weaker, and this is one of the ways in which martial arts differs from sport. As martial artists, our thirties are the time when we have the maturity and experience to go deeper into the internal techniques. We change the yin and yang of our training so that we may do 60% kung fu and 40% Qi Gong but as I get older this may become as much as 90% Qi Gong and 10% kung fu.

The key to staying young isn't to work out until our endorphins make us happy but to be clever and learn how to balance our external training with our internal training.

How far can you go?

If we have a car, every now and again we check the air pressure, especially if we are about to go on a long journey. We need to do the same thing with our body. What is it telling you? How much can you do today? How much can you push yourself?

This is something, which is difficult for a martial artist to judge because we know we have to push ourselves to improve. Martial arts are about taking us beyond our limits. The training challenges us and this is one of the reasons why we love martial arts so much. It takes us away from the smallness of our self and connects us with a tradition that is thousands of years old and it also gives us unity with our fellow martial artists. There is something exhilarating about our body being able to do something that we never thought possible.

But no matter what martial arts you do, or even if you don’t do martial arts, if you want to sustain your martial art's life then you need to do internal training. If it's not part of your tradition then take it from another tradition.

Right Now

The history of the Shaolin Temple was built on monks going out to different provinces and taking the good things then bringing them back and finely tuning them. It's important that we don't stay stuck but we keep evolving. Remember the lesson of impermanence. Nothing is fixed and solid. Just as our bodies are impermanent and constantly changing so should our training change and adapt to where our bodies are right now in the present moment.

Less is more

My advice is at the end of your martial art's or workout session, finish with some Qigong. In the beginning, you may – like I did – feel bored. But if this happens remind yourself that Qigong has been around for thousands of years. If it were rubbish then it wouldn't be practiced anymore. It is a time-tested technique of putting energy back into your body but it yields nothing to an impatient bored mind. The practice needs to have quality so it's best to start off with doing less, just five minutes a day.

The Eight Treasures Qigong

The Eight Treasures Qigong is possibly the most popular Qi Gong form in China. I teach it in my book Instant Health and also my DVD The Way Of Qigong. It consists of eight sections so it's easy to break them down. Take one section from The Eight Treasures Qi Gong and practice this movement, and then build up a little bit more each day until you are working through a whole form. Try to get into a daily routine. We don't think about brushing our teeth because it's a habit. Try to make a habit of doing Qigong.

It's important to have patience. Our minds are like puppies, we know when we bring a puppy into the house it's naughty and we have to train it. This is the same with our mind. We have to give it direction and leadership and soon our body will start to enjoy the increase in energy and we will want to do Qigong.

Beginner's mind

Shaolin Qigong comes from a Ch'an or Zen tradition so we don't think about where the energy is going. The important aspect of this is to have a no thinking beginner's type mind. Practice with a heart and mind placed firmly on the practice and from this your own experience will grow. You will become aware of energy naturally; your body will direct you. Don't complicate things. The secret to a successful Qigong practice is to make sure your breathing is one with your movement. Don’t add anything more. Keep it simple.

The Shaolin Energy Massage

Just as top-level Olympic athletes have regular massages, we also finish our Qigong practice with a self-massage. And we use The Instant Health Massage Brush to do this. I use a metal one because I practice Shaolin Steel Jacket but The Instant Health Massage Brush that my students use is made from bamboo and consists of 108 bamboo rods. It is designed for a person seeking health, and for martial artists it is also the first step to body conditioning.

Not only does it relieve tight muscles but it also assists in unblocking the acupuncture channels, and helps the body to detox through the stimulation of the lymphatic system. This is a natural battery charger for the body. We do this massage when we have finished our Qi Gong training and it takes about five or ten minutes.

The future of exercise

The future of exercise is changing, just as yoga has become more mainstream, I believe Qigong will follow. New research is proving its effectiveness and I hope to see not only martial artists use it but boxers and athletes and runners and footballers.

Life is about energy. When we love something or feel passionate about something then we have a lot of energy. Our love for martial arts gives us the mental energy to keep training. The Qi in our bodies gives us the physical energy to keep training.

I like to think that even when I'm in my sixties I'll still be kicking and punching bags and running up mountains. I'll still be discovering more and more about martial arts because martial arts is like the ocean, it's never ending and I am a beginner who is always learning. It is only through the Qi that I can continue to do this.

Go for it!

If I explain to you the taste of an apple, it's not the same as you actually taking a bite from an apple. It's the same with Qigong. I believe it will help you to run faster or punch quicker and it will give you more energy not only for your martial art's training but your day-to-day life. But I ask you not to take my word for it but go and try it out for yourself.