The Five Fundamental Shaolin Stances

The Five Fundamental Stances are the key to unlocking the Shaolin forms. If you can master these five stances then it will make it much easier for you to master any Shaolin Qigong and Kung Fu form. This month I focus on Mabu or Horse Stance as it is known in the West.

Ma Bu - Horse Stance
It could be argued that Mabu is the most important Shaolin stance. This stance is used in nearly every single Shaolin form. The only DVD of mine that it doesn't appear in is The Way of Qigong Volume 2, and that's because the form is a sitting one.

Benefits

Acts as a gateway between internal and external forms.

Invigorates the body.

Strengthens the legs.

Strengthens the spine.

Is the key to unlocking the Shaolin forms.

Increases willpower.

Centers and grounds the mind and body.

Step by Step

1) Step your left leg out to the side so your feet are wider than your shoulders and slowly squat into Ma Bu.

2) Grab the floor with your feet and place your hands in front of your chest in prayer position.

3) Remain here for six breaths.

Check list

It's a good idea to check your stance in the mirror.

Is your behind tucked in?

Is your neck tucked in and are your shoulders relaxed?

Are you knees slightly pushed out so they are over your knees?

Are your eyes strong?

Is your centre of gravity in the middle?

Are you gently grabbing the floor with your feet. 

Don't tip the body but keep it straight.

Cautions

If you have knee or back problems then you need to keep your stance high. If you find the stance is aggravating the problem then you need to stop. There should be no pain when you do this stance.

How to deepen your horse stance

Make your stance lower and increase the time you stay in the stance a little more every day. Don't allow yourself to rise higher. Even though you are not moving you will start to sweat. We call this static stamina. 

Overview

It's a good idea for Qigong and Kung Fu students to spend some time working on this stance in the same way that yoga students spend time working on their poses. Our body's tend to be lazy and want to find an easy way out but regular check ups will keep us on the right path. It's also easier to feel the Qi in the Dantian when we do Ma Bu which is why even a few minutes of doing this stance will help us to feel grounded and energised. 

Want to learn more?

I teach all of the Five Fundamental Shaolin Stances in my book Instant Health: The Shaolin Qigong Workout For Longevity and in my DVDs: Shaolin Workout 1 and Rou Quan.

Five Ways To Tune Up Your Metabolism

Metabolism tends to slow down as we get older but there are many health and wellness factors we can control to keep it well tuned so that we can continue to maintain a healthy weight and have optimal energy through every stage of our life. These are my five top tips from the Shaolin Temple as to how to keep your metabolism running smoothly.


1) Do Qigong

Qigong regulates the bodies energy. If a person's metabolism is too fast, it will slow down, if it's too slow, the body will shift accordingly. If you're not sure whether you believe in Qi, then take a look at the research some scientists did on my Qigong.

If you're still not convinced then think that you're oxygenating your inner organs. Getting fresh oxygen into the body can't be a bad thing. After going through The Eight Treasures form you'll feel relaxed and have more energy. Relaxation alone helps  balance the metabolism. A happy mind makes a happy body.

2) Do Shaolin Kung Fu

Studies show that interval training can increase metabolism if done at least three times a week. It not only builds endurance but interval training means muscles use more oxygen and burn more calories. Shaolin Kung Fu is the ultimate interval training workout not only for martial artists but for anyone who wants to get fighting fit and feel confident. It's cheap, effective and it means we don't need to do a separate cardio from our weight training because we use our own body as the weight. (If you are new to exercise, elderly or haven't exercised in a while then interval training may not be for you and you need to read my beginner's guide to the Shaolin Workout first, which you can find in my newsletters. )

3) Include protein at every meal

Protein takes longer for the body to break down than carbohydrates or fruit and vegetables so you burn more calories when digesting it. Protein is an important factor for Chinese medicine and can include pulses and beans, tofu, fish, poultry as well as meat.

4) Drink green tea

The village where I made my Qigong Volume 2 and 3 and Rou Quan DVDs all drink a very special tea which is known as kung fu tea. This is not because it has anything to do with kicking or punching but because there is a traditional ceremony involved in the making and serving of the tea which takes time - gung in Chinese -. This tea is the explanation the people in this village give for being slim and healthy. A recent study backs up their explanation. It has found that the antioxidants in the green tea may stimulate the body to burn calories and decrease fat. Try to drink a few cups of good quality tea a day.

5) Meditate

Cortisol is the hormone that's produced by the body when it's stressed, this hormone slows metabolism, stimulates appetite, and can increase fat. If you don't have time to meditate then use your Qigong practice as a meditation. Do the standing Qigong ( Qigong 1 or 3) in the day then the sitting Qigong ( Way of Qigong 2) for five or ten minutes in the evening to help unwind before you go to sleep.

Day 10 Gluten Free and Home Loan Approved!

Yep. It’s official. The loan has been approved and things are chugging along. Home ownership here we come! Now, it’s pretty much a waiting game as they build our house to-be. The timeline is still July or August for move-in. I’m personally routing for July, not only because it’s sooner and I’m inpatient, but because August is going to be a busy month. I have our annual convention in San Diego, Cute Man has his college trip with the kiddos. However, he does have a week off that month so that could come in handy! Either way, it will be a wonderful kind of busy.

In other news, I’m doing well with avoiding gluten. I’m not finding it all that difficult. I think I can say that the heartburn is a bit better (though not totally gone). And for the record, I have NOT given up coffee. The second day of that resulted in a near meltdown so I decided to pick my battles. I have replaced the stuff at work that they provide with my own instant from Trader Joes that I use to make iced coffee. I think it’s less oily and/or acidic so the tummy is happier, in any case.

Since I was at Trader Joes, I did decide to try out some of the GF products. So far, the pancake mix is a hit. LOVED IT. Literally the best mix I’ve used. Not kidding. I’ve also tried the brown rice spaghetti, which was good – I rinsed it well, which helps. The rice mac and cheese was good but a little unsettling to the tummy – I think it has more real dairy in it than the other kind that I seemed to be able to eat without a problem. I will try it again with Lactaid and see if that helps. I’m not worrying too much about the casein right now. After the coffee debacle, I’m trying one thing at a time. Maybe I’ll do a test taking that out later on, if it still seems like it may be a problem.

That all being said, I don’t want to become dependant on substitutes. I really do want to work towards eating more whole foods that are naturally gluten free. However, it’s nice to know these comfort foods are there when/if I want them and that they’re actually tasty.

Today happens to be tough one for me in terms of body image (I think PMS is the culprit!) but I’m trying not to draw any conclusions based on that. I have these days every now and again (roughly once a month!) so I tend to just discount them entirely and wait it out. So overall, I’m feeling good about this gluten free experiment so far and I plan to continue it indefinitely.

The Power of Desire: How To Find A Way To Love The Things You Hate

In order to shoot my book: Instant Health: The Shaolin Qigong Workout For Longevity, I had to train harder than I usually train because I knew that I had to climb mountains with heavy camera equipment and lights and when I got to the top I had to perform Shaolin movements and jumps and kicks over and over again so it would look perfect for the book.

Before I left for China, as well as my regular Shaolin training I stepped up my stamina training. At six am in the morning there I would be on the treadmill running for one and a half hours. I began to dread the treadmill and half-way through my training I really felt sick at the sight of that treadmill!

In order to continue my training, I had to find a way to replace hate with love. I did this is by setting daily challenges for myself to run faster or further and when I achieved them I felt happy. If I had kept up the "I hate the treadmill" attitude then I would have lost my physical strength and energy. From this experience I realised an important lesson. My desire to make a good book over-ruled any objections that I had to training hard and that is the reason I found ways to keep going.

We are ruled by desire. Desire is a powerful energy which we can use in our training. Whether you are a serious martial artist or you have just picked up my martial art's DVDs with a vague interest in Qigong or getting fit, the desire is the same. We all want to live long, healthy and happy life. Shaolin training helps us to achieve this.

You may have other goals: self-defence, lose weight, get fit or be a great martial artist. Shaolin can help you do this too. But these are long term goals and we need to use the energy of desire that is right here now.

Utilise this energy into small goals and achievements. Replace negative self-talk with positive attitudes. Try swapping " I hate" to "I love" and let your mind find a way to love what you hate. Let your mind be as flexible as your body. Challenge yourself. Even if you only practice a little Qigong every now and again, begin to see yourself as a true Shaolin warrior and keep in touch with the real warrior not only when you train but when you are at work or with your family or at play.

Shaolin Qigong and Kung Fu is not just for martial artists but for anyone who wants to live a long and healthy life. e>

Day 1 Gluten Free

So far so good. It hasn’t been any sort of effort at this point and my attitude is really great. My goal from both a health and financial standpoint is to not go crazy with the gluten free processed products. I really want to “clean up” my diet in the sense of focusing on whole foods. This is the direction my body is really craving – I want to feel better and clear out all the junk. That’s not to say I won’t take advantage of some of what’s out there when I want to. This is not about deprivation for me. I just don’t feel compelled to run out and buy stuff specifically because I’m trying to be gf. Most of the things I already like to cook will work out fine. I will slowly try new things as I come across them and feel the urge. I know that I’ll probably want to try some gf baking at some point – but right now I don’t even crave baked goods (which is crazy in itself!)

One thing that I am kind of stressing about is my daily caffeine intake – namely, coffee. I love the stuff but it hasn’t been loving me back. I have heartburn again today and I can’t imagine it being anything other than the numerous cups of joe I’ve been swilling. I’ve gone off of it many times in the past and always felt better. But, the Siren’s call pulls me back eventually. Maybe these cycles aren’t really a bad thing and that periodically going off of it is good. It’s not all or nothing, I guess. But just going on how I feel, I think it’s time to go off it again. It will be interesting to see if it relieves the heartburn, which I guess might not be gluten related, although just one day gf isn’t really enough to say for sure. I will be working from home tomorrow and then I’ll have a weekend – the perfect time to let the caffeine get out of my system. I plan to let myself sleep as much as I want and just be OK with being tired. I also have Tylenol at the ready!

The biggest concern regarding going off coffee is my energy level, which is LOW in any case. I think that in reality the caffeine is working at cross purposes. It works for awhile but leaves me crashing later on. I just want to even things out. And hopefully, with the elimination of gluten, the generalized fatigue that plagues me might lift a bit. To help with that, I’m working in a daily yoga practice. In addition to the two days of classes I do at work, I want to incorporate more at home time on the mat. This is not just one more “should do” thing on my list. This is something I’m viewing as a gift to myself. Yes, I *should* do strength training, but it’s just not lighting my fire right now. Trying to force it makes me resist it. Yoga has lots of strengthening components so if I did it every day, I would gain many of those benefits anyway. So the plan is to just get the mat out every day, when at all possible. Even if it’s just to do a 10 minute PM DVD like I did last night, it will be beneficial. I couldn’t believe what an impact that little bit had! I felt so relaxed when I went to bed. But again, it’s not something to beat myself over the head with – if it’s not every day, that’s OK. It's all about listening to my body. I'm the expert on how I'm feeling and what I need.

So that’s the plan going forward… The support I’ve gotten even in this short amount of time has been incredible. I have so many great online and in-person friends to count on! Thanks for making me feel a little better about trying this. Every bit helps!

Have I Discovered "What's Wrong with Me?"

I have the sinking feeling that I might have gluten sensitivity. I’ve had the nagging suspicion for some time but I’ve tried to tune it out. I am pretty severely lactose intolerant so I’ve resisted the notion that I might have to limit another major food group. While doing a little research on a site about gluten, I’ve come to see that the two might actually be related!

The reaction of gluten proteins in the gut creates a substance called gliadomorphin. This morphine-like compound causes you to become physically addicted to the gluten that is creating so many problems! This is the reason why you crave carbohydrates. You actually become “addicted” to them much the way an alcoholic becomes addicted to alcohol!

Specific cells lining the intestinal tract create enzymes to digest food and these, too, are damaged in this process. If you can’t secrete the enzyme lactase, lactose can no longer be digested and you become intolerant to milk as well!

And to top it off, the undigested dairy protein, called casein, reacts in your gut to make ANOTHER morphine-like substance called caseomorphin. So you become intolerant and addicted to dairy as well!!

So, at this point, if gluten sensitivity is left untreated, you will crave wheat, milk and sugar - exactly the foods that are the worst for you!!

The above basically describes me to a T. I’m pretty sure I’m intolerant of casein as well – I had a test done long ago that suggested it. I certainly crave dairy, despite my intolerance, and use lactase supplements to allow me to eat it often but do nothing about the effects of the casein in milk. I also tend to crave “comfort food”, which to me is generally carb-tastic like cereal and pasta.

While looking through a list of possible symptoms of gluten intolerance, I see that I have a few including:
- acid reflux (that was markedly better when “dieting” in the past, when I often curtailed my carbs in an effort to cut calories),
- bloating,
- psoriasis on my scalp,
- lower digestive issues (fun TMI!),
- fatigue (or general “laziness” when put through a judgmental filter in my head),
- mood swings, and
- hello! weight gain.

Sure, many of these things could be completely unrelated and attributable to other things. But I can’t ignore the fact that this is a real possibility. I owe it to myself to put my big girl pants on and try a gluten free diet for awhile to see if things improve. I’m not too fearful of trying this out, mostly because I try to eat a varied diet anyway so I’m already familiar with many of the alternatives to wheat products that are out there. I’m more hopeful that this change might actually help me feel better, which would make it worth it.

Unlock The Secret Of Longevity

Tips To Creating Your Personal Longevity Program


Breathing Is Boring

Good health is the foundation of our life. But what is the foundation of good health? The right food? Water? Living conditions? All of these are important but we can survive without food and water for a few days. But how long can we survive without the breath? There’s a famous Ch’an story about a young monk who complained to his master that "meditating on the breath was boring". His master grabbed the student, held him under water and then asked the student, "And now do you think that breathing is boring? "

Qigong Breathing Is The Key To Longevity

At the Shaolin Temple, the monks know how important the breath is. Every movement they do, every kick, every punch is done with the breath of Qi. They are famous throughout the world for increasing their martial power and the rate of their health and longevity through a series of breathing exercise called Qigong. If you are new to Qigong then you can find out more here.

Reverse Qigong Breathing

Qigong breathing is a different type of breathing to our regular breathing. When we practice Shaolin we reverse the way we breathe (Full details on how we do this can be found in my book: Instant Health: The Shaolin Qigong Workout For Longevity) Just as the heart pumps the blood, the lungs pumps the breath or Qi, which is why we don’t use our regular breath when we practice Qigong but a special breathing technique which gives us the ability to channel our breath where the body needs it most.

Martial Qigong

When I practice Shaolin Steel Jacket I channel my breath into my ribs so that I don’t get hurt when beat with bricks or metal bars. But Shaolin Qigong isn’t just about shaven headed monks and fancy kung fu moves, it’s one of the most effective ways I know to increase our health, fitness, happiness and longevity.

The Elixir Of Youth

It’s not just the Shaolin Temple that is famous for its longevity practices but also the Taoist hermits. Thousand of years ago, high up in the mountains of China, the Taoists studied Qigong and called it the elixir of youth. They wanted to see how long they could live so they could taste the secret of life. The Buddhist monks practiced Qigong so they could stay alive for as long as possible and gain enlightenment. Today, we practice Qigong to not only help us with our martial arts but also for many of the same reasons. Although many of us don’t like to think this way, we will all get old. But we can grow old gracefully. Doing regular exercise and Qigong helps to prevent illness, and keep us young.

Without my regular practice of Qigong I could not continue with the hard training that I do. I am thirty-six years old, if you look at most of the Shaolin masters, they look much younger than their years. And this is because we practice Qigong.

Instant Health

One of the motivations for writing my book: Instant Health: The Shaolin Qigong Workout For Longevity was to give people an accessible step by step guide to Shaolin Qigong, free from the secrets and myths that have accumulated in the West. It’s understandable that so much misinformation has amassed because Qigong was only allowed to be practiced in China from 1989, before that time it had to be passed secretly from generation to generation. I am very grateful to my master at the Shaolin Temple for transmitting such precious teachings to me.

The Longevity Workout

The Longevity Workout consists of warm up, stretching, Qigong and self-massage. It works on the same principles as acupuncture. Just as we have veins that run through our body, we also have an energy matrix that runs through our body. In China, we call this matrix, channels. And we liken them to a river. Throughout the day as we get tired or stressed, these channels get blocked, if the channels continue to be blocked, overtime the blockage becomes more serious and this is when we get ill.

Qigong For Liver

An example of this is when we are stressed our liver channel becomes blocked; we do Qigong for liver to unblock the channel. The Eight Treasures Qigong that I teach in my DVD and book works on opening up all the major channels including the liver channel. If we deal with these blockages on a daily basis then we are constantly unblocking the channels so that the Qi can flow smoothly. This is why a Qigong practioner experiences a much greater degree of energy, their skin glows, their immune system is strong because they are preventing illness before it occurs. This is the best form of medicine. To optimize our Qigong Workout we finish off with a self-massage.

Self-Massage

If you are seeking health, then you use a bamboo brush, and if you are a martial artist and you want to progress to body conditioning such as Shaolin Steel Jacket then you use a metal brush. But the massage technique is the same.

The self-massage takes less than ten minutes and is done after Qigong. It acts as a natural battery charger for the body. As your practice deepens, you can then massage yourself with more force, and the vibrations begin to clean the very marrow of the bone. This is where the term Bone Marrow Cleansing comes from. I demonstrate this massage in The Way of Qigong Volume 2 & 3 and also my Qigong book.

Jade Stone And Green Tea

Alongside Qigong and self-massage, Chinese people have always used Jade as a longevity tool. We often have a Jade Buddha around our wrist or neck or a Jade energy stone in our car or home. We believe that everything contains energy or Qi. And because Jade is from the earth, it contains a life force of its own. But you don’t need to have a blind belief. If you stand by a waterfall or on top of a mountain, you will feel very different than if you sit at your computer. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that a computer does not give us any longevity energy! Chinese people use Jade to cleanse and balance the body. In China, many women use Jade to prevent ageing of the face.

The other thing that we do is drink green tea. This has very high levels of antioxidant, which help to prevent ageing of the body.

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 the longevity program. I believe it will increase your success at work and help you to feel more at ease with life, it will help you to run faster or punch quicker. It will give you more energy not only for your martial art's training but your day-to-day life. But don’t take my word for it, go and try it out for yourself today.

Start Your Personal Shaolin Longevity Program Today

Alongside my book and/ or DVD, make a personal longevity training program with a weekly plan as to how many times you will train together with the times and dates and a note of how you’re feeling right now then check your progress as the weeks go by.

Protect Yourself From Negativity

Wearing the jade reminds you that you are taking positive steps towards health. It reminds you not to stop or give up. It's easy for us to forget or slip and go back to old ways. Wearing the Jade can protect us from our own negative thoughts. I wear a Jade Guan Yin amulet that my sister bought for me when I came to the UK. It reminds me to stay connected to my heart and to honour the teachings that I have been given as a great gift from the temple. More information about Jade can be found here.

I think you’ll be surprised at the increase in your focus, confidence, peace and energy levels. You’ll also find that your sleep is deep and restful, so that when you wake in the morning, you feel ready for the day. I get many emails from students all over the world, sharing their experiences and I read them with great interest. I hope that one day, you will share your own personal story with me.