What Is Qigong (Chi Gong Ki Gong) ?

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.

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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.

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.

Seven Tips To Maximize Your Flexibility

1) Stretch am and pm

In the morning you will find that your muscles are stiff so it's important not to push too much but take the time to tune into your body. Breathe into your stretch. Stretching in the morning is harder than in the evening but its one of the best ways to increase flexibility.

2) Know the difference between a warm up and stretching

My early morning sessions at the Shaolin Temple always began with a quick warm up before we went for our mountain run. Although some stretching was involved it was not the intensive stretching that we did later on but more of a quick check to make sure our joints were working properly.

3) Always stretch after your workout

For martial artists this is the optimum time to increase your flexibility. Your joints and muscles are warm, which means you can go further with your stretch and it also helps to decrease the build up of lactic acid in your muscles. Not stretching out after a workout can lead to a feeling of stiffness the next day.

4) Do the Five Fundamental Shaolin Kicks

After stretching move on and do the Five Fundamental Kicks that are taught in Shaolin Workout Volume 1. These kicks increase flexibility to the legs and the hips. Start off in a relaxed and loose way, kicking from the hip rather than from the leg. Stretch in between the kicks to loosen the leg and kick again. When you move into the splits you'll be surprised at how much further you can go.

5) Do a little stretching everyday

Even five minutes a day counts. If you like to watch TV then find a way to stretch while you watch TV. On the escalator, place your left heel a little off the step and stretch out your calf muscle. Alternate with your right heel. Find creative ways to include stretching in your day-to-day life.

6) Alternate your stretching

Our bodies are lazy and they quickly adapt so it’s a good idea to keep it on its toes by alternating the stretching that you do and challenging your body. Yoga stretches can be mixed with kung fu stretches and vice versa. Whatever helps your body open

7) Focus on Optimal Flexibility for you

We all need to have a certain amount of flexibility but remember we are all different. It's crucial that you never push yourself too hard and you work with your own body. If you want to get your head on your knees, don't strain to get there or bend your legs in the process. Remember there never should be any pain when you stretch only patience. More details can be found on stretching in my book: Instant Health: The Shaolin Workout For Longevity.

How To Use Failure As A Pathway To Wisdom

There was a famous Ch'an teacher called Dogen Zenji who said: "Hitting the mark is the result of ninety-nine failures."

This means it's okay to fail. We need failure to lead us to success. Thinking in this way means we will never be discouraged with our practice but able to use each experience to enrich it. What makes our Qigong or Kung Fu practice go deeper is the day-by-day effort of taking time out and practicing. If we talk about it all the time then it's just a dream. It's the doing that matters.

People sometimes ask me, Why do I still do Shaolin Steel Jacket? I'm thirty-six now. I no longer fight in competitions. I don't need it for my daily survival. But I want to demonstrate to my students that we are far more than we think we are. I want my students to go beyond their limitations, the limitations people set on them or the limitations they set on themselves. Interestingly, it's usually our mind that we have to work on, more than our body. Our mind tends to act like a badly trained puppy and the training is a way to calm it down. Going through the process of training in Shaolin Steel Jacket was one of the hardest things I've done. It strengthened my mind as much as my body.

The Buddha said that enlightenment couldn't happen until the mind and body were in harmony. Ancient statues of the Buddha show his lungs and chest expanded with Qi. Before he began his journey to enlightenment, he was an excellent martial artist and archer, and I believe those arts aided him towards enlightenment.

At the Shaolin Temple we say the highest kung fu is sitting meditation. But we don't need to sit on a cushion to practice meditation. When your mind and body are completely one, that is meditation. Whatever you hear, whatever you think, that is meditation. In your everyday life you always have opportunities for meditation.

Make your Shaolin practice your meditation. And when you do it, just do it without success or failure or expectation.