One to One Lesson
The private was tiring but provided me with lots of new information, training exercises to build me up and answered some questions I often have about my training.
We went straight into the gungs and with each one Sifu would explain where the tension was in particular, the breathing, the proper movement / technique and how the gung works with regard to strengthening tendons, joints etc while we both were training them.
Gungs
We did 6-7 gungs on alternate stances up and down the class slowly. As I have said, the gungs are tiring and really build all over and can really ache and burn (in a good way) on where its meant to be working the most. The gungs trained were:-
Iron Neck Gung – building the muscles and tendons in the neck, jaw, temples, head.
Iron Step Gung – which incorporates alternate steps – as you step, you lock the stance, grip the feet, claw the toes, tense the waist / stomach and turn it and also twist and claw the hands while pressing down to compress the ribs.
2 Back Gungs – as mentioned in previous posts with the second building on the waist and opening the ribs against tension.
Rib Gung – I’ve talked about this too
A new dip gwut gung exercise – this uses more motion of the arm and really really concentrates on the rib area – opening and closing of the rib with tension and compression.
The last gung really burned and worked on my traps, claws, ribs and shoulders. It uses a rolling of the shoulders up and down whilst simultaneously really clawing the hands and fingers with a twisting motion and compressing the ribs. We ran a lot of these and it didn’t take long for my traps to feel it and my arms and hands. After all that I was feeling the training big time and had to mentally push on.
Sifu than asked me to do swimming dragons to balance the hard qi gong type exercises and to loosen up. As I did the form and techniques he corrected me. He than explained further about the workings on joints, muscles and how the gungs work and help.
Chy Sau – Variations
Next we worked on Chy Sau we did about 9 different variations of this. My arms were already tired so I felt weak and burned out quickly doing all the variations on one arm continuously and than doing the same on the other. But it was good as some of the different ways build different muscles / joints / tendons so when you go from one to the other you don’t completely burn out – if that makes sense. It still kills though.
I remember posting a list of some of the different chy saus and a brief explanation of them on a forum somewhere but I cant find it! So a brief list of the ones we did include:-
The usual and probably most important box chy sau (clip linked to in previous post)
straight line chy sau
chum kui chy sau (downwards motion – like sawing wood almost) – really hitsr ribs this one
upwards / over chy sau
inside and outside circle mut sao chy sau can also be done with a dao sau arm and hand formation
grabbing arm chy sau
stepping / moving chy sau - hard to explain but it was tiring
yui kui chy sau (seen in the clip from Sifu’s instructional tape)
And the last was like the box chy sau but there is an extra movement where you partner uses his palm to resist as you push your hand back to the original position. Again easier to see than explain.
I was than shown some chi gung postures which help you stretch and allow for the energy / blood to flow. Nice to know on top of the other softer exercises as the gungs, chy sau, doy chong etc can be quite hard sometimes. Have to strike a balance and train right.
Kalari Training
After all that it was time for kalari part of my lesson. We did a very good form which uses a lot of waist movement, kicks, hand attacks, multi-direction facing, chops, grabs. This form was done on both left and right stances. We than did crocodile press ups and snake press ups – these proved very hard as always for me at this time when my arms are dead. I tried my best and did what I could.
The crocodile press ups kill as you are jumping on your hands and toes and going up and down. The snake press ups (im not sure if this is the correct name or term) are also just as hard as it feels like you weight is centered on one side / shoulder as you move from left to right.
Sifu than taught me a new 2 man drill using attack and defense – it’s a nice drill that uses upper cut, chops, stepping back, around the opponent. A good drill which I will work on so I can do it with speed and power and get it right.
Lastly we went over kalari yoga type breathing exercises which massage the internal organs, build the vital energy (pranaya I think this is called), can help vitalise the chakras / energy points, and build the strength in the lungs and stomach area. It wasn’t easy as it requires the pulling of the stomach in (so its trying to touch the spine almost) whilst you have exhaled all of your breath.
Great session that as always has given me tonnes of things to train and remember.
Train hard and train smart my friends.
Powered by MightyAdsense