Health and Fitness

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 . Thou...

In last week's post I wrote about the 3 essential ingredients, here I show how to make these ingredients work for you.  Strength People sometimes think if you want to make your shin and feet strong you need to kick hard things all the time but this is  wrong. If you want to make your leg hard then the first thing you need to do is have good stamina, if you don’t have stamina it’s not possible for your leg to be strong as you won’t have energy. It’s like a car without petrol, it simply can’t move, you won’t be able to lift your leg up or kick therefore you have lost everything. This is the reason why stamina is so important. After you have gained stamina you then work on your flexibility and then you can work on your speed and power and then you can start on the conditioning training for your leg. Iron Leg The best way to warm up is to do the Si Bi Quan form from my Workout One DVD . This form consists of two ingredients: stamp and punch, the more power you can use with the st...

In China there were originally two Shaolin Temples, one in the south and one in the north. It is said that the Southern Shaolin Temple was famous for their punches and the Northern Shaolin Temple was famous for their kicks. But hundreds of years ago the Northern Shaolin Temple was burned down and the only record of it today is in history books. The skills from both temples have now merged, and the knowledge that has been passed down through the ancient books shares with us three vital ingredients we need in order to have powerful kicks. In this article I will share with you the first two and in next week's post, the third ingredient and also how to use these ingredients effectively. 1) Flexibility - If you want to kick with power and speed then you need to train it to have as much flexibility and dexterity as your arm.  2) Speed and power -  Flexibility doesn’t lead to speed and power so the next thing you have to concentrate on is gaining speed and power. 3) Strength - ...

When you are training for a fight, it is vitally important that you build up your stamina. A marathon runner has very good stamina but they would never have the stamina to fight in the ring because a fighter’s stamina is totally different. In this article I will concentrate on the first part of a fighter’s stamina training; running. In future articles I will concentrate on bag work, pad work, sparring and body conditioning so that whatever fighting art you practice you can be totally confident that your stamina will really work for you when you go to fight in the ring. RUNNING WITH YOUR OPPONENT As a fighter you need to vary the way that you run, some days do a short thirty minute aerobic road run, other days do some hill running. Sprint running is also very important, do ten repetitions of 100 or 200 metres twice a week. Other times you should start with a five minutes slow run then one minute slightly faster then four minutes slightly faster again then back to one minute slow again. ...

 “Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.” Morihei Ueshiba Whether we are fat, thin, old, young, healthy or unhealthy, we all share a mind and body that can be trained. If we step onto the path of Shaolin with intellligence and determination, I am confident that we can bring to our life the health and wholeness that we all seek. Being healthy and whole means we take care of our minds at the same time as we take care of our bodies. Our mind plays a vital part in keeping us healthy. A happy mind makes a healthy body, and the key to happiness or unhappiness is in how we use our mind. Most of us have minds that roam about like untrained puppies. Our martial arts practice -  whether it’s Qigong, Kung Fu or both - acts as an anchor and tethers our mind.  Once you start to workout with my DVDs , let this become a  refuge from your daily activities. A time to let go of the small self and allow the big self to concentrate on the posture an...

If you want to become a good MMA fighter then you need to train with focus. You can't be the best at ground, punch, and kick. You need to choose one or two skills that you will become special at and focus on these then have the other skills as the extra things you can do. I have many MMA students that want to study with me, they say they know Juijutsu, Thai Boxing, Boxing etc but when I see them train, I ask them, “Which  is your weapon? Your kick or your punch?”  Most people don't have a lethal weapon. They are not 100% in control of their punch or their kick. They have no weapon that can enable them to win.  This means they have nothing special. I tell them, this means that every time you go to fight, you are hoping for luck. You don't know which skill will help you to win the fight:  kick or punch or ground fighting. When you become a fighter, you can’t live for luck, you need to have full confidence, believe in your punch or your kick or your knee or elbow. Know ...

This is the first blog post in a series of three about how to train in Mixed Martial Arts. Each week I'll give you one training method to do and by the end of the three weeks, you'll have three new skills which will help you in your training. Remember to send me a message and let me know how you're getting on.   How To Replicate Your Fight In Your Training  Recently I've been asked to train MMA fighters. I know some martial artists are purest but I love not only martial arts but also the fighting arts.  I like to watch MMA fights because there aren't many rules and the fighter need to be able to use many skills. But I think that MMA fighters stay on the ground too long. Everyone knows that in any fight competition, if you can knock someone out as quickly as possible then not only will you win but you will become a famous fighter. If it was a street fight and you had someone on the ground for a few minutes then you would probably be killed by someone else who is stan...

You may have a great martial art's routine but  are you in  a rut?  In order for your body to work at its optimal you need to keep surprising it.  My 15 DVDs c omplement each other and keep your body surprised as they move you through traditional kung fu, hard and soft Qigong, Shaolin Tai Qi, and the fighting arts. Once you know the moves on the DVDs, you can get creative and start mixing them up to make your own workouts.  Even if you're not working with my DVDs, your workouts still need to have elements of surprise. If you don't confuse your body, it will get lazy and reach a plateau where it's no longer burning fat as quickly as it should, and your fitness levels, flexibility and skill are no longer increasing. Here's my six top tips to how you can keep your mind and body in optimal fitness. Please note these tips are not for beginners but for those who already have a solid martial arts or workout schedule.   1) Switch Your Workouts Do bag wo...

With the exception of Rou Quan, all of my DVDs can be practiced in a space the size of a yoga mat. What can't be taught in a DVD I don't teach. I'm not interested in wasting my time or my student's time. Morihei Ueshiba was correct when he said, " Progress comes to those who train." But training incorrectly and without direction is like not training at all. My DVDs and books take you step by step through exactly what is taught in the Shaolin Temple with a focus on health and combat. These are the two aspects I'm passionate about. I give you the key to unlock the gate of the Shaolin Temple , but it's only your sweat and training which will open the gate and let you in. Transformation My DVDs are designed to transform your mind and body into a martial artist's mind and body. This means you become fighting fit, flexible, have strong will-power, inner confidence, sharp reflexes, peaceful sleep, an abundance of energy, look younger than your years, and ...