7 Facts That Will Transform Your Training

1) Skip stretching before your workout, your ligaments will thank you.

Latest research shows that stretching before a warm up has no benefit and doesn't bolster performance.  Start with a gentle warm up and when the muscles feel warm and loose do two types of stretching: static and dynamic. If you already train with my DVDs then you'll be already doing it this way.

2) Your body is smart.

Qigong and Kung Fu helps us to go beyond our small individual selves and find a connection with the very fabric of the Universe. It doesn't give us anything new; it simply connects us with the body’s internal power and automatic wisdom that already exists within us.

3) Not all workouts are created equal.

Shaolin Forms teach the many muscle groups in our body to work together. They are the only exercise I've come across where every muscle is engaged and we simultaneously build flexibility, strength, endurance, balance, and power. They then teach us how to move in our modern life, whether that's carrying our groceries home or climbing the stairs to the subway. Everything becomes part of our training: total mind-body wellness

4) Balancing Yin and Yang is the key to health and longevity.

It's vitally important for people of all ages to combine physical exercise with Qigong. This is like the two wings of a bird, The Qigong changes your internal body and the Kung Fu changes your external body. Qigong takes you to the peak of your power without fear of burn out.

5) Self-massage matters.

Massaging with the 108 bamboo rods of the Instant Health Massage brush create vibrations which relieve stress and tension in the muscles, help the Qi and blood to flow properly, detox the lymphatic system, and act as a natural battery charger for the body.

6) What you give, you receive.

Think of food as a medicine and fuel for our body rather than something which gives us pleasure. This helps us be more disciplined about what we eat. What we give to our body, we receive. We give it fast food, we receive energy slumps, sluggishness and sugar drops. We give it wholesome food, we receive high energy, vitality and stable sugar levels.

7) No Mud, no Lotus

Lotuses grow from mud. It's the same with us. All of our problems, all of the stuff we don't like about ourselves make up the mud so that our lotuses can take root and bloom. Beautiful lotuses can only grow from the unbeautiful. Everything we experience can be turned around and help us to become better people.

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For more information please visit: shifuyanlei.com

How To Train Yourself Out Of Negativity

Every martial artist trains to conquer themselves, knowing that there are no real enemies outside the mind. Whether our martial art is kung fu, karate, chanting or sitting meditation, our aim is not to control others but to be such masters of our mind and body that all we have to do is control our own mind and all of our negative emotions are banished. Anger, despondency, hatred, a lack of desire to do things are all replaced by mental strength and stability.

We give up many things in order to train but we are prepared to endure hard training, boredom and lack of time in order to perfect our art, and achieve the end goal, which is to have victory over the enemy of our mind.

Our training puts us in touch with the positive side of our mind, the mind that lets go, the mind that doesn't think in endless circles, the mind that is spacious and flows.

This plants a seed of peace. The more we train, the more it grows. As the great Indian master, Shantideva said,

How could you find enough leather

To cover all of the earth's surface?

Just enough leather to cover your feet

Is like having enough to cover the whole earth

So whenever you feel angry, upset or worried, pause for a moment, tell yourself I'm not going to give into it. As soon as you can, train yourself out of your problem, train yourself out of anger, train yourself out of worry. You are doing one of the hardest things in the world, and one of the most honourable. Keep planting the seed of peace.

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3 Essential Ingredients For Powerful Kicks - Part 1

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 - In Shaolin we have seventy-two different styles and one of these styles in called Iron leg. The purpose of training in iron leg is to literally to make the leg as hard as iron.  

If you can combine these three essential ingredients successfully then your leg will be a weapon and you can then progress to the fourth element, which is.

4) How to use your weapon.

 Flexibility

I am always advising martial artists to add running to their training. No boxer would ever go into the ring without stamina training and as everyone knows, all boxers include running as part of their stamina training. At the Shaolin Temple it’s the same, we always begin our training with a run, this not only helps us with our stamina but it also makes our body hot. Once our body is hot we then stretch our arms and our legs. Once we have stretched out our muscles we then begin to do The Five Fundamental Kicks, which are taught in Shaolin Workout One DVD. The five different angles of these kicks increases our flexibility much more than stretching ever can 

Mixing traditional with modern

Once we can do the five fundamental kicks we can then mix them, for example we can perform the inside kick with the outside kick and link them together. We can increase the number of kicks in the combination. We can use the five fundamental kicks as a warm up before our fighting kicks. 

Speed and Power

All traditions of fighters use footwork to link the link the kicks together and practice various fighting combinations. At Shaolin we link fighting kicks with traditional training. The purpose of this is to strengthen our legs. 

We may stay in Ma Bu (horse stance) for five minutes and then we will do the fighting kicks as quickly as we can for one - three minutes. This combination of stance and kick links power with speed. Or we may run up a hill and when we come back we kick bags as quickly as we can. We will make a goal to kick one hundred or two hundred times. Our legs will feel so tired that it’s hard to lift them off the ground but we will not stop until we’ve completed our target. 

Optimize The Power 

If you want to kick with speed then you need to make your leg tired, once your leg is tired, you have to train your body to relax. Once you are relaxed you have to learn how to get maximum power from your kicks. When you kick, ask yourself, which part of my body am I using? Once you know the answer then you will save energy, as you will only be using the parts of your body that you really need. 

This dramatically optimizes your power and energy. This is the reason if you want a powerful swift kick then the only way to achieve this is through kicking a lot. Through kicking a lot your body will understand. In martial arts we can never understand with our head, we always have to be led by our body’s inherent wisdom.

Want to find out more? Train with my DVDs: Fighting Punches & Kicks Volume 1 & Shaolin Workout Volume 1,2, 3

A Beginner's Guide To Transforming Yourself Into A Shaolin Warrior

I've had many enquiries from people who haven't done any fitness or martial art's training for many years and have asked me how they can use the Shaolin Workout DVDs to get back into shape. This month I share with you a programme based on Shaolin Workout Volume 1. If you're in okay shape or you want to move up a volume then you can use the same principles for Volume 2 and 3. Please note, that these are guidelines only and you shouldn't undertake a new workout regime without checking with your doctor first. 

The Shaolin Workout - A physical and spiritual overhaul

The Shaolin Workout is designed for the martial artist but it can also be used as an exciting fitness regime. The beauty of Shaolin Kung Fu is that it carries us through each phase of our life, boosting our metabolism, helping our heart and increasing our flexibility and coordination.

Welcome To The Class

The DVD is designed exactly the same as the beginner's class so it's perfectly normal if you struggle to follow it. If you come to my class, you wouldn't be able to follow it either and neither would I expect you to. I also don't slow the class down for you. I advise you to do what you can and do a little bit more each time until you can follow the whole class in one go.

If you're seriously unfit then before you undertake the Workout I advise you to do Qigong and combine this with walking then jogging. Only when you can jog for a full twenty minutes would I say it's okay for you to join my class. And remember, you should always check with your doctor first before beginning any workout programme to make sure that it is suitable for you. These instructions are for guidance only. If you experience any pain or dizziness then stop immediately and seek professional advice. 

The instructions below are meant to be used with the Shaolin Workout Volume 1 DVD so press play and let's get started.

Stamina Training

Your class with me begins with Shaolin Circuit Training. This anaerobic training consists of short bursts of intense exercise. It's very demanding but research has shown that it's one of the most effective ways to build fitness levels and lose weight. 

We begin with press ups. The quality of the press up is more important than the amount of press ups. In the time it takes us to do 10 press ups you do 3. It's the same with the horse stance squats. Keep your back straight and make sure your alignment is correct ( see p128 of my book Instant Health for details of alignment). As we do ten, you do five. Same applies for running. Keep your stomach muscles engaged and instead of doing 100 do 10 or 25. You will get out of breath, you will sweat, your face may get a little red but keep your body relaxed. One of the things we tend to do when the going gets tough is tense up. But this uses more energy. Think of yourself as relaxed as a great boxer or an Olympic runner. 

Stance Training

If you're totally new to martial arts then I recommend you go through the stances in my Instant Health book first. Correct alignment is crucial. If you are older, have back problems or you haven't exercised in a while then keep the stances much much higher than myself and my students. You will still gain the benefit of the stance. These stances build strength, flexibility and coordination. Getting the stances correct is the secret to getting the Shaolin forms perfect so follow them at your own pace. Speed is not important. Getting them right is.


Combination Training

If you are totally new to training then skip this chapter and move onto stretching. As you begin to find the class easier and easier then you can factor in the combination training later on. 

Stretching

Pause the DVD for each section and take more time for each part of the stretching. This is a time to listen to your body rather than my instruction. Breathe into your stretch and tune into your body to see how far you can go. Please don't be put off by the splits. The splits not only stretches the legs but it also opens the hips too so it's good to aim for the splits and not to worry if you are miles away from the floor. 

Five Basic Kicks

The kicks are another way of increasing flexibility and opening the hips. The Shaolin Way To Flexibility is to use stretching first then power afterwards. This gives a different quality to our stretch. A person who practices yoga may be flexible and able to kick high but their kick will have no speed or power. If you are a martial artist then speed and power are vital. The muscles enjoy being used in different ways. It is good for them.  Do five of each kick rather than ten of each. Take your time and keep your kicks low but straight rather than high with a bent leg.

Maximize Your Power

One of the secrets to retaining energy and having powerful kicks and punches is to stay relaxed and only use power at the end of the kick or the end of the punch. Another trick is to imagine that there's an opponent in the room with you. You don't want to show them how tired or out of breath you are so you need to find ways to control yourself. 

Mixed Level Training

This is another chapter you can leave out until you are able to do the rest of the DVD. Go straight to Qigong. If you have time then run through the whole Eight Treasures Form from Instant Health or The Way Of Qigong Volume 1 then finish with the Instant Health self-massage. This will calm your body down, help your Qi to flow properly, oxygenate your internal organs and you make you feel energized and relaxed. 

Track Your Progress

It's a good idea to make a note of how many press ups, squats and runs you do each time so that you can see how much progress you made.  You'll be surprised at how quickly you progress. And it's not all about the external, it's about the changes that you are making internally. Alongside your growing fitness, you'll find your confidence growing too. I've had many students who have made changes in their life that they've always wanted and their regular Shaolin Workout has helped them to make them.

How Many Times A Week?


If you're training as a martial artist then you need to train 6 days a week, for health and fitness, four times a week is fine. Make sure you keep surprising your body, read my blog post: Are You In A Workout Rut to find out more, and add in some kung fu running from my  youtube video.

When are you ready to move up a class?

Don't get too comfortable. It's good to vary your routine. Once you know the moves and can go through the DVD then you can start to work with Volume 2 and alternate the workouts.

The key to stay motivated is to keep a regular routine.  There has to be a very good reason for you not to do it. Tiredness and not enough time are excuses not valid reasons. Track your progress, stay relaxed and enjoy your training. This is time for you. Forget life and family pressures. By taking time out, you will be able to handle the stress in your life in a much calmer way. You are transforming yourself into a Shaolin Warrior. And rememeber, Shaolin Warriors come in all shapes and sizes.


The Shaolin Workout Bundle: Volume, 1,2 & 3 

SHAOLIN TEMPLE FIGHTING SKILLS - PART TWO

INVEST IN YOURSELF

At the Shaolin Temple, we get up every morning at five-thirty, and go for a run up the mountain. This is like putting money into a saving’s account. If we do not have the stamina then we will not be able to practice the skill. When we come back from the mountain, we practice five basic stances, five basic kicks and stretching.

Learning martial arts is no different from learning maths or English, if we cannot add two plus two then we cannot progress to algebra, if we cannot read the alphabet then we can never read Shakespeare. This is the reason we study these very basic skills. Only when our body is getting stronger do we then start to learn some internal and external forms, and only when our master feels we are ready do we progress to studying fighting punches and kicks and then start to fight in the ring.

THE IMPORTANCE OF QI

We also practice body conditioning. I specialise in Shaolin Steel Jacket. The reason I specialise in Shaolin Steel Jacket is because I am small – not much taller than 5ft 6 – so when I fight, I have to go into my opponent, and they are nearly always taller and heavier than me, which - without my body conditioning skill - would give them an advantage over me.

 I know it is difficult for many Western people to believe in Qi. Science still has not found a way to prove or disprove it. Excluding the Western understanding of the bodies anatomical system such as the nervous and respiratory system, within the human body there are a network of pathways which we call meridians, they carry Qi through out the body. They are like small rivers which when the body becomes stressed or ill become blocked. The Chinese believe in preventing illness rather than waiting for it to happen so we practice Qi Gong to keep a healthy flow of Qi running through our bodies. Sometimes I think we look after our cars, better than we look after ourselves. We don’t wait for it to break down before we give it gasoline, water, oil, or take it to the garage for a check up, so why do so many of us do that with our bodies?

BODY CONDITIONING

If we only want to keep healthy, then we will continue to practice healthy forms of Qi Gong all our lives, but if we want to be fighters then we learn to master the Qi and direct it into different parts of our body. The analogy I use is to compare it with the wheels on a car, they are useless without Qi – air – but by pumping simple air into its tyres the car is transformed from a vehicle with a powerful engine that can go nowhere to a vehicle with a powerful engine that can go everywhere.

Body conditioning gives us the confidence to come up against our opponent even if he looks bigger or stronger than us. With the Shaolin Steel jacket technique I put my Qi into my back and my torso and then I am confident that I will be protected from blows. My back and torso is like steel. It is my armour.

PLANTING THE FIGHTING SEED

All of this training is the planting of the seed. You plant an apple seed you get an apple tree. We plant a fighter’s seed, this means we set our motivation; we want to become an excellent fighter. We train hard - this is the cultivation - and then, after years of training, we start to become the fighter we always wanted to be.

THE FIRST FIGHT

But usually when we first go to fight, we are disappointed in ourselves. Training and fighting are very different. We may be good at training but that doesn’t make us good fighters. As Bruce Lee said, if you can’t hit your target, then what does it mean? And in the beginning, you may find it hard to hit this target who is no longer a pad, a bag or a fellow sparring partner but a determined fighter who wants to win as much as you

Nothing can prepare you for your first fight. But if you have trained consistently then you will know you are strong. You know you did everything to be the best. Doesn’t mean you will win but you will have the confidence to win. If you don’t have confidence then you can never win.

ARE THE SHAOLIN FIGHTING SKILLS FOR YOU

We all want to win. It feels good. But we must remember it is just a stopping point on the way, it is not our ultimate destination. And the Shaolin fighting skills are not a dream, and they are not a film, they are a life. So ask yourself, do you love the Shaolin Martial Arts? If you do then you must continue to train. Through hard training you will begin to understand that you are much more than you thought, through Qi Gong you will have health and energy, through meditation you will develop control over your mind. You will ultimately win the war over your ego. This is the highest martial arts of all, and one, which may take you many lifetimes to achieve.

Shifu Yan Lei offers a graded path of Shaolin Training for health, martial art, self-defence and fighting. For more details visit: 

www.shifuyanlei.co.uk

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Zen And The Art Of Training - You Already Are What You Want To Become

As most of you know, The Shaolin Temple is considered the birthplace of martial arts and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism. This doesn’t mean that in order to practice Shaolin we need to be Buddhists but the Ch’an philosophy can help us to see our world with fresh eyes. This was the Bodhidharma's ambition when he came to China, he wanted to get away from the books and learning and enter the pure raw experience.

One of the Ch’an teachings that we can apply to our training is aimlessness. This means: You already are what you want to become. Does a tree have to do something? The purpose of a tree is to be itself, and your purpose is to be yourself.

We have everything. There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it. So, whatever it is that you believe you want – good health, more energy, an increased sense of wellbeing or to be an exceptional martial artist – you already have.

Bring this energy into your practice and you will find that it will enrich whatever you are doing – running, kung fu , qigong, meditation, and also your work and family life. It helps us to stop putting our life on hold or waiting for the future when we think we will have more time or be less stressed.

There is no future time there is only now. And now is the most important time we have. Now is the building block for the future. Instead of drifting into the future of “if” and “when”, we focus on the single point of now.

For this month, check yourself and train from that perspective rather than constantly trying to improve yourself or thinking there is something wrong with you.

Remind yourself that right now you have all the elements for your health, you just have to apply the Shaolin techniques you are learning.

Shaolin Martial Arts helps us to reach the potential in ourselves that we only dreamt of before. Using the powerful life energy that exists inside our body we can make ourselves healthy and balanced. If you approach these Shaolin teachings with intelligence and determination, you can bring to your life the wholeness, health and inner satisfaction that you seek.

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The Shaolin Way To Train Mixed Martial Arts - Part One

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 standing. A few minutes is a few minutes too long. When we train in Shaolin, in some ways it's similar to MMA because we practice punch, kick, and take-down. The only difference is that in Shaolin we don't train in ground fighting because Chinese culture doesn't allow us to fight on the ground. We don't see it as equal if someone is on the ground and we are standing. It's not wrong to fight on the ground, it's just different culture.

At the Shaolin Temple, we train our arms in many different ways to make our punch and arm become our weapon. When you do MMA, you need to train your arm to punch and wrestle. Wrestling takes a lot of energy and makes your arm tired more quickly than a punch. This means in your training, you need to replicate the different ways that you use your muscles.

In my Shaolin Bootcamp Training DVDs, we use our body weight to train our arms. The training doesn't look difficult but when you train like this, is the toughest workout you can do because we are constantly using our muscles in different ways. It gives you the strength to shift from punching to wrestling and back again. This week, I want you to challenge your muscles in every way, this will help you keep your training alive so it's similar to a fight.


Next week: How To Find Your Special Skill And Turn It Into A Weapon


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Related DVDs
Shaolin Bootcamp 1 & 2
Fighting Punches and Kicks - volume 1
Fighting Punches and Kicks - take downs
Kung Fu Ch'an - fighting combinations, blocks and pad work.