Blogs from Muping, Shandong, China, Asia - page 2

So yesterday afternoon we had power training, which consists of an unrelenting series of weight lifting, frog jumps and punching and kicking the pads for an hour and forty minutes. There was something serious in Wong Shifu's eyes when we came in, and he didn't disappoint. Even though he took it easy on myself and the other Catherine, we were still pushed hard. Frog jumps are particularly tough - we jumped what consists of maybe half a football pitch 6 times. This seems to have destroyed my quadriceps completely. So much so that when I was doing Tai Chi later than afternoon I was completely incapable of the graceful movements I'd managed a few days ago - I was barely able to stiffly lift my leg and swing it around to drop it heavily. Eventually Sarah ... read more

Started training yesterday at 6 am when I went out for Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Tai Chi was a lovely introduction. It's very restful and requires more grace and balance than power. Qi Gong is a different matter. In Qi Gong you spend your time cultivating your Qi or life force, and there are 4 major points to do this - the palms of each hand, the top of your head and your belly button. In Qi Gong we had to get into horse-riding stance (which puts a lot of pressure on the Quadriceps and calves), put our hand in front of us with the palms facing each other, close our eyes, and move the hands out as we breathed in and in as we breathed out. We do this for about 15-20 minutes. This ... read more