5th Discipline – High Diving

After much deliberation, experimentation and consternation I eventually settled on choosing high diving over rock climbing for my fifth discipline. Luckily, Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool has a fantastic set of diving boards and a great club for adults to train at.

You’re Probably Training Kung Fu Without Realising It

It has become a long standing misconception in the western world that Kung Fu is a martial art. Personally I blame David Carradine, but on the other hand the TV show was awesome so it’s hard to hold it against him!

Demystifying Qi 氣 – What is Qi Gong? 氣功

There are more cultures around the world than just the Chinese who have the concept of ‘qi’ (pronounced ‘chee’). In Hindu philosophy, the term ‘prana’ is used, which translates as ‘breath of life’. Similarly, in Japanese culture we can find the word ‘ki’ used to represent the same concepts. Even closer to home with the ancient Greeks, the word ‘pneuma’ is often translated as ‘breath’ but in some contexts can refer to a persons spirit or soul.

Aztec Pushups

I have a new favourite style of pushup!

Recovering From a Slipped Disc

Both me and my Shifu are no stranger to back injuries. Although nowadays I have very few debilitating pains that take me out of training, in my first year of training with Master Wang, I had to take significant amounts of time off from Shaolin and Sanda when I felt my disc was prolapsing again.

No Machines, No Problem

Don’t you just hate it when you go to the gym and all the machines are taken?

Chest Day? Try This As A Warm Up

It’s international push-up week this week!

Strengthening Your Wrists Pt. 2

In this part of my wrist strengthening blog I’m going to focus more on grip training. If you haven’t read the first section of wrist strengthening exercises and are interested more in forearm training, you can find it here: Part 1

Let’s get into it!

Thursday. Power Training. Sad Faces All Around.

Thursday afternoons are reserved for a special brand of torture that Shifu likes to call ‘Power Training’, bunny hops up and down mountains, weight training followed by intense Sanda regimes and all the while being belittled by our teacher. Luckily, we’ve recently discovered a new technique for dealing with such punishment!

Strengthening Your Wrists Pt. 1

After spending some time on various fitness forums, it became apparent to me that there’s not a lot of knowledge out there about strengthening wrists. Seeing as we do, I think the scientific term is; a ‘helluva’ lot of wrist training at the academy I thought I’d do a post on it. In fact, I thought I’d do two.