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Side to Sides
This is a my favourite exercise for dropping tension out of your shoulders and neck. It’s simple to do. Just remember to do it slowly and smoothly and let gravity do the work. Side to Sides To view this post in full you’ll need a Basic Level membership. This will give you access to a wide range of skills aimed…
Forwards Clock
This is another good exercise for restoring mobility. I often do this after doing the sideways clock. This exercise focuses on opening the front and back of the body. Here are the teaching points for this sideways clock exercise. Notes To view this post in full you’ll need a Basic Level membership. This will give you access to a wide…
Expand Outwards
Whenever you feel any kind of fear, stress, anxiety or anything of the kind your body instinctively contracts inwards. This is a natural reaction that tenses your muscles ready for fight or flight. It’s like a tortoise withdrawing into its shell at the first hint of danger. The trouble is that, unlike the tortoise, you rarely get a chance to…
Nose Breathing
Although it is possible to use either your nose or your mouth for breathing the nose should always be your first choice. The air that we breathe is full of pollutants which can be very damaging. Your nose has small hairs which filter the air before it reaches your lungs. When you breathe through your mouth the polluted air goes…
Stretch Daily
Stretching is an important part of conditioning to be fitter and healthier. Do you really need more reasons than that to stretch regularly? If the answer is yes, consider this. Imagine if you could have a bath in WD40. It would seep into all your joints, restoring them to their full range of motion, lubricating every part until it was…
Increase your stamina quickly and naturally
Train hard, breathe easy I teach several kung fu classes per week. At the beginning of each is a warm-up and series of conditioning exercises which I lead. The students then follow me and listen to my instructions. Therefore it’s essential that I am not only able to perform these exercises – which can be hard and fast – but…
Find balance and be yourself
The world is full of competing forces – work pressures, family life, desires to conform yet stand out – yins and yangs that pull us this way and that. These create energy, and often turmoil in our lives. Taoists have spent many centuries exploring the interplay of forces, the yin and yang throughout human life and nature and they always strive…
The 2 types of fear and how to deal with them
Virtually all negative emotions are based on fear. Fear is our most primal emotion and one that a great many people feel, to a greater or lesser extent, every single day. We have around 30 names for different types of fear, and many more slang words: anxiety, dread, panic, alarm, terror, dismay and so on. Two types of fear However…
Pressure Points – do they work?
The effectiveness of pressure points in the martial arts is a hotly contested topic. Many books and films show very unrealistic scenarios where the master touches a few points on his opponent who is then paralysed or dies soon thereafter. At the other end of the scale are the martial arts who say this is pure bunkum and that pressure…