Why Your Shaolin Practice Benefits Others

When I was a boy studying at the Shaolin Temple, my master told me that my Shaolin Practice was not just for myself alone but for the benefit of other people. I asked him, "How could my practice benefit other people ?" He replied, "Shaolin training strengthens the heart, mind and body so that a person has more command over the actions of their body, speech and mind, and therefore it helps that person live a good life. Shaolin Practice gives the inherent goodness which is inside all of us, some breathing space."

I was about fourteen years old at the time and didn't fully understand what my master meant but I've thought about it a lot since then.

Our training is about finding the natural healthy state which lives inside all of us, and nurturing that state so it can grow into good health. We are taught that if we can just be, really be in our true natural state then all of our health and good qualities are naturally there. We don't need to force or make ourselves into something.

Through our Shaolin Qigong practice, our mind, which is usually in a whirlwind of agitation, glides naturally into the present moment, slowing down and coming to rest. This is our first taste of calmness. As we become more familiar with it, we stay in this experience longer.  Research on meditation shows that this experience increases our feelings of happiness and decreases our feelings of anxiety. Yes, we still have plenty to worry about but what help can worrying do? The worries no longer get hold of us. Our peace then permeates into our work ,family and friends and we function better in our life.

And what about Shaolin Kung Fu, how can our practice benefit others? Well, think for a moment about what happens to your body if you don't train.

Acceleration of ageing

Lack of stamina, strength and flexibility

Lack of connection between the body and the mind

Increase of potential illness such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure

Increase of falls in later life.

Less energy in day to day life

Of course, not all illnesses are preventable but for the ones that are, we need to do everything we can.

This is why Shaolin is a lifestyle choice. I know it's not easy. Some days we lack the motivation to train. I've been doing it now for nearly thirty years, and I still have days when I struggle. But this struggle is part of our path. Without struggle we can't become strong. 

Shifu Yan Lei teaches Shaolin Qigong and Kung Fu on his DVDs

How To Avoid Hitting A Martial Arts Plateau

Martial Artists are no different from other athletes and if you're not careful you can easily hit a plateau. Plateaus must be avoided because it means your martial arts skill and fitness levels aren't improving. Here's The Shaolin Temple's Five Steps to avoid hitting a plateau.

1) Change Your Martial Arts Routine

Our bodies are efficient machines which adapt to whatever we throw at it including our workout. When you first start to train you'll make gains in your training but after a few months these gains will level off because your body has learnt to adapt. To avoid hitting a plateau you need to change your martial arts workout every couple of weeks.  Combining  my Workout, Bootcamp and newly released Circuit Training DVDs will give your body the constant change  it needs so it never reaches a plateau.

2) Do High Intensity Circuit Training

If you're fit and you can run 5k without any problem then you're ready to do circuit training. Though not suitable for everyone, this is the best way to torch fat, build lean muscle and boost your metabolism. Fighting Fit is a saying which we all know means optimal fitness. Fighters need to combine circuit training with cardio runs and if you're serious about your martial arts, alongside training with my DVDs you also need to run.

3) Mind Body Connection

Shaolin is all about the mind body connection. It's the way that Shaolin Monks understand Zen. You may have no desire to understand Zen but do you have desire to be more focused? Centered? At peace with yourself? If you're following Shaolin correctly then this is what you'll gain.

4) Make A Plan

It's not enough to put the time in, you need  a plan and a destination. After you've done your martial art's workout , take a pen and write down how you did. Tracking your progress can help  keep you motivated. Plan ahead as to what DVDs  you'll be working out to on what days. Give your training the respect it deserves.

5) Train the Yin as well as the Yang

Rest is an important factor in our martial arts so you don't burn out. As well as taking one or two days of a week from your training, you also need to do Qigong to regenerate your body from the inside out. And it's important to get a good nights sleep. Research is showing just how important sleep is for the body to regenerate itself.  If you find it hard to sleep then do some of the movement from Qigong Volume 2 before you go to bed at night.

The beauty of Shaolin is that we can shape it around our fitness level, energy levels and lifestyle by constantly adapting the workouts. Listen to your body and work with it.

For more information on Shifu's DVDs please click here. 

SHAOLIN TEMPLE FIGHTING SKILLS - PART ONE

EVOLUTION OF FIGHTING TECHNIQUES 

The Shaolin Temple in Henan province, China, was founded by a humble Indian Buddhist monk called Batuo around 495 BC. In 517 BC the Bodhidharma travelled from India to the Shaolin Temple, where he founded Ch’an Buddhism or what is more commonly known as Zen. The legend is that when he arrived at the temple, he discovered the monks were weak from practicing sitting meditation all day, so he conceived and taught them a series of internal and external exercises to increase their health, strength, and vitality. These later developed into what we now call Shaolin Kung Fu and Shaolin Qi (Chi) Gong.

Throughout the history of the temple, there has been a steady stream of monks bringing the best skills from the Asian world, combining them with ancient Shaolin skills, and then refining these modified skills for optimal effectiveness. The Shaolin Temple Fighting techniques are not pages from a history book but are something that are as alive and relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. Bringing Shaolin martial arts to the West is another chapter in the Shaolin book, and as a 34^th generation fighting disciple from the Shaolin Temple, I continue with this tradition today.


THE ART OF WAR

At the Shaolin Temple, as well as studying the art of meditation and Qi Gong, we also study the art of war. Long before guns, tanks, and bombs were invented, Shaolin martial arts were used in war. The monks had to find ways to change their body from vulnerable flesh, blood, and sinew into powerful invincible weapons. Not just their legs, arms, torso, and head, but also their internal organs, and most importantly their mind.

MIND = HEART = MIND = HEART

The Chinese character for mind is the same as it is for heart. In China we do not split them into two like you do in the West. Wherever your heart is so your mind will be. It is your heart or mind, which makes your world, everything comes from it. So when you train in the fighting arts, you must practice your heart at the same time as you practice your body. You need to understand yourself and be brutally honest. What are you good at? Improve this skill. What are you no good at? If you think you are good at everything then you don’t know yourself. Only when you know your own strengths and weaknesses can you control yourself. Only when you know your own strengths and weaknesses can you then go on to study your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and ultimately control them. This is the way to win a fight. This is also the way to win a war. But in war we are fighting with an enemy, in martial arts we are fighting with our own ego and our own inner enemy. We come up against this enemy continually in our training - when we feel tired, impatient, lazy, or we lose faith in ourselves or what we are learning. We especially come up against this when we are a new student.

Next week, in part 2 I show you how to become the best martial artist you can be.

Start training today at: http://www.shifuyanlei.co.uk/dvd_shaolin_offers.html

The Shaolin Way To Train Mixed Martial Arts - Part Three

Every morning, I get up and train. My students see me do the same thing, year by year by year. It’s only when they go in the ring and fight that they understand why I do the same thing every year, every day. The simple things are the most useful but they take time and effort to master.

For example, I train my left leg to be fast and sharp. It’s not very powerful but it's fast. My right leg is very heavy and I use my left leg to attack, to break my opponents plan, any time I have the opportunity. I use my right leg to do the round house kick. If I get them with this kick then I know I will knock them out. I practice many years just for this one kick. I know I can do this kick from any angle, close or long distance. I have confidence because I've done this kick so many times.

I'm not very tall but I'm quite heavy. My opponent is always taller than me so they have a longer reach than me. This is why I need good body conditioning. I don’t have as much opportunity as them to punch and kick. I practice a lot of body conditioning so I know that my body can take their kick and punch.  When I get close to them, I can use my kick to finish this fight.

The important thing is you have to know yourself and know your body. Everyone is different. My technique wouldn’t work for you. Do you know what would? What do you want to do? Build up your punch or your kick? What are you good at? What are you bad at? How do you hide the things you're no good at? How do you use your good things? No-one can teach you. You need to find this out for yourself. You have to become your own teacher and teach yourself.

If you love martial arts then you need to be humble and lonely and simple. Try to make simple things not simple . Try to make lonely life not lonely. Try to make hard training easy. Once you have this kind of thinking you can become a good fighter because you have truly  conquered yourself.

Related DVDs:
Fighting Punches and Kicks Volume 1 & 2
Shaolin Bootcamp Volume 1 & 2
Shaolin Workout Volume 1, 2, 3
Kung Fu Ch'an 
If you like this blog please share by clicking on the links below.

Ten Tips From A Shaolin Monk On How To Stay Young Forever

People always say health is the most important thing but how many people live by this belief? We need to start today. In order to help us stay on the path to health I have translated an extract from one of the Shaolin Classics. Written by a monk who was a great martial artist and scholar, here he gives advice to lay people as to how to stay young and healthy.

 
Ten Tips From A Shaolin Monk On How To Stay Young 

1) Don't think too much. Thinking takes energy. Thinking can make you look old.

2)  Don't talk too much. Most people either talk or do. Better to do.

3) When you work, work for 40 minutes then stop for 10 minutes. When you look at something all the time, it can damage your eyes and also your internal organs and peace.

4) When you are happy, you need to control your happiness, if you lose control then you damage your lung energy.

5) Don't worry too much or get angry because this damages your liver and your intestines.

6) When you eat food don't eat too much, always make sure you are not quite full as this can damage your spleen. When you feel a bit hungry then eat a little.

7) When you do things, take your time, don't hurry too much. Remember the saying "Hasten slowly you will soon arrive"

8)If you only do physical exercise all the time and you never do Qigong this makes you lose your balance and you will become impatient. You lose the Yin of your body. Exercise balances the Yin and the Yang.

9)If you never exercise, just peace, meditation, soft training, Qigong, then this doesn't give you Yang energy so you use up your Yang energy.

10) Shaolin Gong Fu gives you everything. The purpose of our training is to balance our Yin and Yang.  How many hours is not important. It's down to knowing what your body needs.


If you like this blog post you can sign up to my newsletter. As well as my monthly training tips direct into your inbox, you get access to more than a year's worth of archive newsletters. As well as DVDs, meditation aids are available so that not only your workout is a meditation but your life.

http://www.shifuyanlei.co.uk/

The Seven Laws Of Success - How Your Daily Workout Can Help You Achieve Your Dreams

Working Out The Mind & Body

Before I came to the West I only knew what was taught in the four walls of the Shaolin Temple. I knew there were other martial arts outside of Kung Fu and Qigong but I had never seen them before. When I came to the London I was curious and went to many classes to study. I wasn't so much interested in the different techniques. I was interested in how the mind worked. Would the mind of a Muay Thai fighter work differently to a Sanda fighter?

But the most important mind that we need to get to know is our own. It saddens me to think of the many people who workout without using their mind. At the temple, our training is always seen as a meditation. The mind and body work in a unique way and by using our workout as a meditation we infuse our self with a deep sense of spaciousness and peace. So next time you are running, swimming, weight lifting, practicing Qigong or doing a kung fu class either through a DVD or in a class, use my  seven laws to help you achieve success not just in your workout but in your life.

Now Is All We Have

Our mind is a muddy glass of water. It's only when we allow our mind to be still that the mud can settle to the bottom and we can have clarity. The present moment is changing fast and our mind is constantly darting between the past, present and future. To calm it down, we give our mind an object to settle on. The object is our breath and our movement. Once our mind is calm it can then gain the powerful focus of a laser.

Star In Your Own Movie

There are some places in this world that give us great peace. For some people, it may be a Buddhist Temple, others a church, others may find peace in nature. Before you begin your martial arts session, take a few moments to close your eyes. Approach your workout as if you are about to enter that place that gives you peace. Then, begin to imagine yourself at your best, in peak health, flexible, and relaxed. If you're doing bag training, picture your self kicking the bag with power and speed. If you're going through my Qigong DVD then you're staying completely focused on the movement. Runners imagine yourself running effortlessly, your body as light as a feather.

 Believe You Can

" Believing in something beyond the self can have a hugely psychological impact, even if the belief is fallacious." Bounce by Matthew Syed.

Faith is vitally important. Give me a fighter with faith and a fighter with good skill and the fighter with faith will win. We need to believe in our self and in a bigger wisdom than our self. Belief is the first step of our training. A belief that we can do this.

Shaolin Kung Fu Training is hard. It challenges us. This is why we gain in confidence. We are now doing something we never thought possible. We look back and see how far we've come. Our workout has taken us out of comfort zone. It didn't just challenge our body, it challenged our mind. We are taking part in a tradition that is thousands of years old. We are keeping it alive and applying it in our life so that we can become an urban warrior.

Let Go

Shaolin Training is an effective tool to deal with worries and problems. But how do we apply this? Using our workout as a meditation gives us a mini holiday from the circle of our thoughts. It allows us to let go of our worries and problems. This crucial mini holiday helps us to get a bigger perspective so we can deal with our problems more effectively because we no longer feel swamped by them.

Focus

It takes many hours to become a master of something. Once the sport is mastered, a different part of the brain is being used and this is when the workout begins to feel like an instinct. But this only happens with very purposeful practice. Doing the thing that you're bad at makes you into a champion. Failing over and over again makes you into a champion. If there's a certain kung fu kick you struggle with then keep practicing it. Spar against people who are better than you, this is the only way you will learn. Struggling with stamina? Do interval training and hill running.  

Challenge

When you can easily get through your workout, it means it's time to move on. Never stop believing in yourself and never stop challenging yourself. If you are lazy in your workout, are you being lazy in your life? If you're limiting yourself in your workout, in what ways are you limiting yourself in your life?

Blueprint

Your Shaolin Kung Fu Workout is a blueprint for your life. From success in your workout, you can go and achieve success in your life. And remember it's not about winning or losing. It's about doing everything with passion and mindfulness so it has meaning for you. You can't control the outcome but what you can control is having fun in the process.

If you like my blog posts then please sign up to my newsletters to receive more tips and exclusive offers.

Shaolin Body Conditioning Tincture

At the Shaolin Temple, once a disciple begins to study one of the seventy-two styles, they are given a specific Qigong and a specific recipe to make a body conditioning tincture. In the past, the monks used to lie in baths of these tinctures but today we apply this tincture to our body. After making up this tincture, the disciples then adapt it slightly and each disciple has his own recipe.  Mine is made from twenty-five natural herbs, roots and barks. Some of the herbs help the blood to flow, some help to strengthen the bones, others help the muscles to relax.

This medicine can also be used for injuries, bruising, and some people say that it can be effective for repetitive strain injury though I have no experience of this so I don’t know if this is true. My own experience is in body conditioning. I used it when I was learning Shaolin Steel Jacket and I could never have endured this hard training without the aid of this special medicine.

The first thing we do when we do body conditioning is warm up our body then we rub the medicine into the part of our body that we want to condition. You need to rub the medicine in hard so it really gets inside the skin. The medicine works in three ways: protects the skin, reduces the risk of injury, and strengthens the bone.

I get asked many times about the difference between my Body Conditioning Tincture and the oil that some fighters use especially Muay Thai fighters. This is oil and not a tincture and the main ingredient is camphor, which has a warming effect on the muscles, but doesn’t penetrate the bones or help to prevent injury.

Another misconception is that Shaolin tincture is the same as  “Dit Da Jow”. Dit Da Jow uses alcohol as the base for their medicine where as we use a very high quality vinegar. Why do we use vinegar and not alcohol? Vinegar can take the varnish off a table; it strips the medicine of all of its good things and preserves it.

We also use a secret blend of herbs, roots and bark which is individual and unique to each master. Just as there are varying qualities of olive oil or wine, so it’s the same with this medicine. I take great care in finding the best quality herbs and then I brew my medicine for four years before filtering it. This makes it very potent.

If you don’t do body conditioning but you do martial arts or fighting then I would recommend you use this oil before you train to strengthen your bones and reduce injury. But remember to warm the body up first so that the tincture can penetrate through your skin and into your bone.

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.