Martial Arts Tread

[Audiolog Edu]

Who likes Kung Fu? I practice because I love Martial Arts, it gives dicipline, I dont need to pay a gym membership, it teaches to feel chi (vital energy), gives you strong legs, now I dont smoke and when I do focus on my breath doing Chi Qong I feel excited because the intake of air is increased, my first experience with meditation was in a Aikido dojo with Zen meditation after the training.

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[Kepler]

The internal and external can be very skillfully coordinated and comprehensively involved together with profound coherent philosophy.
The form work treading a heavenly circle with Eight Trigrams Theory is compatible with personal development, fitness and my magical practice. Particularly as the number 8 is martial in my cabala.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

The internal and external can be very skillfully coordinated and comprehensively involved together with profound coherent philosophy.
The form work treading a heavenly circle with Eight Trigrams Theory is compatible with personal development, fitness and my magical practice. Particularly as the number 8 is martial in my cabala.

Yes, at some point I am going into their Chinese Occultism or Philosophy like Taoism, I have a book about Chakras, TBH I always tought it was some crazy hippie new age BS, but now that I practice Hermetic Qabbalah I am respectfull to the real teaching on Chakras, it sucks that in Mexico the hippie dudes kind of appropiated the Indu culture, and they love smoking cannabis, to me it was a turn off!!!

 

[Kepler]

Yes, at some point I am going into their Chinese Occultism or Philosophy like Taoism, I have a book about Chakras, TBH I always tought it was some crazy hippie new age BS, but now that I practice Hermetic Qabbalah I am respectfull to the real teaching on Chakras, it sucks that in Mexico the hippie dudes kind of appropiated the Indu culture, and they love smoking cannabis, to me it was a turn off!!!

Appropriating isn't much of a concern among the experienced with qabalah being syncretic. As long as there's an understanding that these terms reference points in a larger philosophical context. That's maybe what you mean by respectful, and it's an essential thing to recognize at the beginning. That context, if not immediately understood and replaced, by at least being acknowledged can cause intellectual discomfort with the superficial that leads to elaboration from theory and practice.

 

[HoldAll]

Appropriating isn't much of a concern among the experienced with qabalah being syncretic. As long as there's an understanding that these terms reference points in a larger philosophical context. That's maybe what you mean by respectful, and it's an essential thing to recognize at the beginning. That context, if not immediately understood and replaced, by at least being acknowledged can cause intellectual discomfort with the superficial that leads to elaboration from theory and practice.

Oh, this is a qabalah and numerology thread now? I guess you could have fun with Shotokan karate forms then, what with katas like Gojushiho Dai/Sho ("54 Steps Major/Minor") or Nijushiho ("24 Steps") or the long-ass Suparinpei ("108 Steps", Buddhist mysticism right there) in Goju Ryu.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

("108 Steps", Buddhist mysticism right there) in Goju Ryu.

Hahahaha, I was actually going to make a post about Goju Ryu as one of the site's buddhists! As fate would have it, this is my martial art. Though I haven't been doing it for long, my Sensei's are some of the world's best living practitioners of it (they proved that with world-level competition), they learned back when competition was bloody and can trace their teaching lineage back to its founder, so I'm getting a pretty authentic transmission of it as a westerner.

The philosophy of Goju-Ryu is in the name and it's actually closer to Daoism than Buddhism. "Hard-Soft" is the duality of technique, there's soft technique that flows and often reacts, then with an exhale of ibuki breath there's hard technique that disables the op. In my biased opinion, it's one of the most brutal forms of Karate, probably the most, "Ikken Hissatsu" is the central tenant in the philosophy and it means "to annihilate at one blow." A well trained blackbelt in Goju Ryu ought to end a confrontation with just a single move, otherwise their technique is faulty. Many moves involve hyper-extending limbs, breaking fingers or toes, lots of pressure-point manipulation, etc, it isn't friendly or a competition art like jiu jitsu, it's meant to be applied to the real world to end conflict as quickly and brutally as necessary against ops that outnumber you.

There is a huge focus on breath too, it reads as mystical to me, utilizing such intense breathing to enhance the power behind movements, but I haven't progressed far enough to learn the breathing kata itself. The OP of the thread mentioned the movement of chi-energy and seeing the sheer power that the black belts and sensei's are able to get out in such short movements utilizing their breath, my instinct tell me there's something of that vein happening there. Here's a video showing some applied technique of Ibuki-breath, as well as a demonstration of the brutality that comes with Goju Ryu (the guy demonstrates how effectively to break the opponent's fingers for some time).

In terms of applying it to my practice, the focus is where it's at for me, I was already a pretty disciplined person going into the practice. In order to apply kata in bunkai, or even just to react in time to a full-on punch then disable the op before they can do a follow up attack, you have to be focused, thoughtless, and flowing, Sensei says mind-body-spirit have to be working in unity. My dojo doesn't do any kind of meditation after training, we drink, feast, and party for the rest of the day like warriors, hahaha. I have been upholding an independent meditation routine for several years, and I have found that while I practice on my own, my magical-insight is able to notice and harness the spirit and use that as the source of communication with the body, rather than the brain moving the limbs, similar to how a very good violinist is able to simply know and visualize the music they want to play, and the body simply does it intuitively, even when it's impossibly complex savant-level shit (the violin is also something I've had a modest amount of practice in.)

In LHP philosophy, many masters will strongly suggest-order you to take up some kind of discipline, whether it's music, dance, art, or martial-art. As an individual you need to express yourself, you need something to excel at, to compete in, it's necessary simply to do something beautiful. I highly recommend anyone take up any kind of form of martial art, but I recommend Goju Ryu, though Aikido sounds pretty cool too.

Post automatically merged: Jul 13, 2025

There is also a huge focus of retreating into the Spirit when the body and mind fail you, conditioning helps you overcome pain - I often finish training with many bruises. This reads as mystical to me, superseding the body from the domain of the spirit, developing a kind of grit and determination you can apply widely in all aspects of life. In short, my magical practice has been helped by Martial Arts in terms of focus as well as getting in better contact with my "spirit" and bringing much attention to how exactly it communicates with the mind and body.

 

[Taudefindi]

While I like to learn a bit of every martial art, I mostly learn Aikido(for self-discipline and to calm the mind), Muay Thai(for self-defense and conditioning) and Ba Gua(for health and meditation purposes).
And Capoeira, for cultural purposes and also conditioning.

 

[HoldAll]

Hahahaha, I was actually going to make a post about Goju Ryu as one of the site's buddhists! As fate would have it, this is my martial art. Though I haven't been doing it for long, my Sensei's are some of the world's best living practitioners of it (they proved that with world-level competition), they learned back when s in terms of focus as well as getting in better contact with my "spirit" and bringing much attention to how exactly it communicates with the mind and body.

Long-time ex-karateka here (although what I miss most is the twelve years of capoeira I practiced quite fanatically before my - not sports-related - accident and diverse serious illnesses but that would be another post).

WKF-format Shotokan is the karate style that's been most exentensively modified in modern times, first by Funakoshi, then by his son Gigo who introduced all these super-long and super-wide stances (zenkutsu dachi, kokutsu dachi, the low kiba dachi that's much more cramped than your style's more natural shiko dachi) and finally by Nakayama who set the kihon and all the katas in stone and thereby sort of ossified them. In comparison to traditional Okinawa styles, it's very pared down and streamlined, everything that was aesthetic and subtle was discarded by the founders in favour of raw power (I sometimes used to call it 'robot karate').

My first contact with Goju Ryu was in the course of an instructor's programme where the coach told us that he used to be a fanatical Shotokan karateka (he was a former student of Hirokazu Kanazawa's) until some Chinese healer told him he had too much yang in him, so he took up Tai Chi to gain more yin. He had only one and a half hour to teach us sepai but I really loved it, beautiful kata. Goju Ryu, as the name implies, shouldn't in theory produce an excess of yang in practitioners but what with modern sports karate and point-fighting… it really depends on your dojo and on the emphasis it puts on traditional Okinawan philosophy, I suppose.

In mainstream modern Shotokan, mentioning ki is rather frowned upon, and there is only ever talk about hara in connection with basic techniques like gyaku-tsuki. I used to bemoan this taboo but later thought about it as the perfect Zen teaching method: no words, just experience - if any coach would have said something like "And then you'll feel the ki rising from the ground, to your feet, legs, hara…", etc. he or she would have robbed their students of the actual impression which might be different for everyone.

Compared to Goju Ryu, I think it's a shame that Shotokan doesn't put more emphasis on breathing. We have a single breathing kata (hangetsu) that's hardly ever practiced because it's not a competition form and frankly because the hangetsu dachi looks so ridiculous - most probably Gigo Funakoshi took the sanchin dachi from Goju Ryu and made it lower and longer in oder to make it conform to his 'brutalist' karate philosophy. I would have dearly loved to learn sanchin kata though, that one is really about ki you can feel. What gave sometimes gave me goosebumps though are the three steps near the end on empi (starting at 1:07 of the video); there is something in those movement that hints at the yin-yang principle in form of the descending/rising hands (you can also do it with fingers outstretched acccording to the WKF competition canon):

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I once did a workshop with Valdesi, not the arrogant Latin lover world champion I took him to be but a really nice guy who learned karate to defend himself on the streets of Palermo.

No conditioning/hojo undo in Shotokan sports karate, the closest you get is knuckle pushups, and of course you learn how to take a punch to the mid-section. In point-fighting though nobody performs a mae-geri anymore because they're scared of hurting their toesis, and joint manipulation and open-hand techniques (exception: haito-uchi) are illegal anyway. I'll still defend competition karate against the traditionalists though, you can learn a lot if you have to fight off unscripted attacks or have to withstand the psychological pressure your opponent brings to bear on you (top fighters can paralyse you by their sheer presence without any woo-woo being involved, that I know from personal experience). Kata competitions have degenerated into mere acrobatic show contests that puz emphasis on speed at the expense of power.

All in all, Karate is a beautiful thing if you want to develop self-discipline and the ability to be ruthlessly critical of yourself. However, if you want to have fun from the getgo, I recommend capoeira, but like I said, that's a topic for another post.

Post automatically merged: Jul 13, 2025

While I like to learn a bit of every martial art, I mostly learn Aikido(for self-discipline and to calm the mind), Muay Thai(for self-defense and conditioning) and Ba Gua(for health and meditation purposes).
And Capoeira, for cultural purposes and also conditioning.

Btw, is "Mora Iemanja´" the only song explicitloy about an orisha? I think "Santo Antonio É Protetor" is another one though, praising Ogum in this case.

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I never learned to play the berimbau but somehow managed with the pandeiro. I used to say I prefer capoeira to karate because the Brazilians had the better music

 

[Kepler]

Yes, at some point I am going into their Chinese Occultism or Philosophy like Taoism, I have a book about Chakras

Just to add a further thought to your initial investigations -
It's the immanent philosophy of aligning with the internal and external world that I like about Taoist martial arts. Gathering momentum with the natural flow of the universe, wu wei, that has what I consider favourable implications upon soul cohesion and vector. Through incorporating things like the directions to philosophical principles and the flow of energy.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

Just to add a further thought to your initial investigations -
It's the immanent philosophy of aligning with the internal and external world that I like about Taoist martial arts. Gathering momentum with the natural flow of the universe, wu wei, that has what I consider favourable implications upon soul cohesion and vector. Through incorporating things like the directions to philosophical principles and the flow of energy.

That part about the "flow of energy" I have the Ogdoadic Journal from Ordo Astrum Sophiae and in their article about "Clavis Rei Primae" they compare this ritual (which is similar to "The Middle Pillar" by Golden Dawn) to Taoist practices, for example they speak about the "Three Treasures" of Taoism or Buddhist Alchemy which are the three Worlds above Assiah and how it CRP the ritual links this Worlds, in the same article explains also about 3 channels from which energy flows, this being Functional channel which brings down energy from the front of the body, Governor channel which ascends from the spinal column and Core channel which is trascendental through the core of the body.

This information made me get deeper into Hermetic Magick because back then I was doubtfull about it, but reading about the comparison of Ogdoadic ritual and Taoism made me search deeper, here in Mexico lots of people are charlatans, they pray on ignorant people, that is why I love english forums.

 

[HoldAll]

I was going to post sanchin kata but it's kinda boring to watch, so I opted for Goju Ryu's tensho (better turn off the sound as that drumming is rather annoying):

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Note that in contrast to tai chi, most slow movements are executed with barely contained power in karate katas, or as one coach put it to me "You know when you perform a breathing kata correctly when you're sweating like a pig!". You strengthen your hara (and by exension your personal power) by inhaling and exhaling deliberately and forcefully as opposed to 'letting the breath come and go as it wills' like you would in meditation. Now I've never heard of any discussion of occult energies in karate katas but I can well imagine that there's something going on here. This curious short knock-kneed stance (sanchin dachi), for example, is usually explained as a protection against kicks or knee strikes against the groin:

However, I think it could be argued that it's also designed to contain one's energy strictly within oneself as opposed to more wider stances. Incidentally, are there any occult secrets hidden in those hand movements? Who can say, and the Okinawan sensei are certainly not telling.

Putting karate and martial arts aside for a while, it should be interesting to see whether movements in general could have a magical impact in rituals - which has already been done, mind you, for example in the GD tradition ("Sign of the Enterer", etc.) or in Donald Tyson's "Kinesic Magic":

Book – PDF - Donald Tyson - Kinesic Magic: Channeling Energy with Postures & Gestures

Discover a system of magic that you can use to create any ritual, any charm, any spell you need in your life…with no special tools required. Kinesic magic is a new approach to Western magic that uses body postures and hand gestures to channel and utilize the fundamental esoteric forces. This...

wizardforums.com

In this book, he presents 24 postures e.g. the Commanding Posture or the Warding Posture, to be combined with mudras for the five elements, seven planets, zodiacal signs etc. In a similiar way, I sometimes use the slow initial gesture of kanku dai kata for opening and closing impromptu ritual exercises (here's my hero Luca Valdesi again):

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In the beginning, the thumbs and the rest of the fingers form a downward-pointing triangle (the alchemical symbol for 'water'), and as the arms rise over the head as if by themselves (not a forced slow movement for a change!), they hands now signify 'fire'. They are then brought downwards fast in arcs, with the knife hand of one hand striking the open palm of the other. Of course all kinds of symbolisms and polarities could be read into this opening gesture but I leave that to you; the kata itself is nothing special, your stereotypical stomping-robot Shotokan kata (nice Karate Kid-style double-kick jump in the end though).

Tl;dr: esoteric meanings may be also identified in hard Japanese/Okinawan styles but they're not usually discussed.

 

[Kepler]

That part about the "flow of energy" I have the Ogdoadic Journal from Ordo Astrum Sophiae and in their article about "Clavis Rei Primae" they compare this ritual (which is similar to "The Middle Pillar" by Golden Dawn) to Taoist practices, for example they speak about the "Three Treasures" of Taoism or Buddhist Alchemy which are the three Worlds above Assiah and how it CRP the ritual links this Worlds, in the same article explains also about 3 channels from which energy flows, this being Functional channel which brings down energy from the front of the body, Governor channel which ascends from the spinal column and Core channel which is trascendental through the core of the body.

This information made me get deeper into Hermetic Magick because back then I was doubtfull about it, but reading about the comparison of Ogdoadic ritual and Taoism made me search deeper, here in Mexico lots of people are charlatans, they pray on ignorant people, that is why I love english forums.

That syncretism recognizing the connection between physical fitness and spiritual alignment is essential to holistic health. The standard Middle Pillar is physically static, but its internal visualizations could be adapted to personal external movement with that of the cosmos.

It was Tai Chi classes at dawn that got me thinking about adapting Taoist ideas to Resh, another standard physically static ritual that raises energy and aligns with celestial motion.
The dance rhythms of Gabrielle Roth to put in motion the entire being were another syncretic consideration as the creative well for the lyrical dance can be celestial motion then developing into stillness and wu wei.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

I was going to post sanchin kata but it's kinda boring to watch, so I opted for Goju Ryu's tensho (better turn off the sound as that drumming is rather annoying):

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Note that in contrast to tai chi, most slow movements are executed with barely contained power in karate katas, or as one coach put it to me "You know when you perform a breathing kata correctly when you're sweating like a pig!". You strengthen your hara (and by exension your personal power) by inhaling and exhaling deliberately and forcefully as opposed to 'letting the breath come and go as it wills' like you would in meditation. Now I've never heard of any discussion of occult energies in karate katas but I can well imagine that there's something going on here. This curious short knock-kneed stance (sanchin dachi), for example, is usually explained as a protection against kicks or knee strikes against the groin:

However, I think it could be argued that it's also designed to contain one's energy strictly within oneself as opposed to more wider stances. Incidentally, are there any occult secrets hidden in those hand movements? Who can say, and the Okinawan sensei are certainly not telling.

Putting karate and martial arts aside for a while, it should be interesting to see whether movements in general could have a magical impact in rituals - which has already been done, mind you, for example in the GD tradition ("Sign of the Enterer", etc.) or in Donald Tyson's "Kinesic Magic":

Book – PDF - Donald Tyson - Kinesic Magic: Channeling Energy with Postures & Gestures

Discover a system of magic that you can use to create any ritual, any charm, any spell you need in your life…with no special tools required. Kinesic magic is a new approach to Western magic that uses body postures and hand gestures to channel and utilize the fundamental esoteric forces. This...

wizardforums.com

In this book, he presents 24 postures e.g. the Commanding Posture or the Warding Posture, to be combined with mudras for the five elements, seven planets, zodiacal signs etc. In a similiar way, I sometimes use the slow initial gesture of kanku dai kata for opening and closing impromptu ritual exercises (here's my hero Luca Valdesi again):

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

In the beginning, the thumbs and the rest of the fingers form a downward-pointing triangle (the alchemical symbol for 'water'), and as the arms rise over the head as if by themselves (not a forced slow movement for a change!), they hands now signify 'fire'. They are then brought downwards fast in arcs, with the knife hand of one hand striking the open palm of the other. Of course all kinds of symbolisms and polarities could be read into this opening gesture but I leave that to you; the kata itself is nothing special, your stereotypical stomping-robot Shotokan kata (nice Karate Kid-style double-kick jump in the end though).

Tl;dr: esoteric meanings may be also identified in hard Japanese/Okinawan styles but they're not usually discussed.

This is the best I can do, I practice on my own and I dont use a lot of time into learning new stuff, I mean I do other types of chi gong, mostly martial, like the Luo Han exercises, some times I do MuayThai freestyle boxing, or other days I just train the 5 basic stances from kung fu so I can do well in my Wu Bu Quan, I invest my time on piano and music producing, learning magick, but I have not had time to advance in my Kung Fu learning.

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[HoldAll]

This is the best I can do, I practice on my own and I dont use a lot of time into learning new stuff, I mean I do other types of chi gong, mostly martial, like the Luo Han exercises, some times I do MuayThai freestyle boxing, or other days I just train the 5 basic stances from kung fu so I can do well in my Wu Bu Quan, I invest my time on piano and music producing, learning magick, but I have not had time to advance in my Kung Fu learning.

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The danger of practising on your own is that no qualified teacher is there to correct any mistakes you make that you won't even know about or notice. When doing a kick in karate, for example, it's considered a mistake to rise up from your (low) fighting stance when executing the kick because it would mean telegraphing your intent to your opponent; after all, it's only natural to fully extend your standing leg when you want to kick as high as possible, thus making it easier to sweep - I've landed flat on my ass in capoeira rodas, for example, several times while doing a roundhouse kick/mawashi-geri/martelo because the other guy pulled my standing leg froum under me with a perfectly timed rasteira, a kind of pulling sweep. Such bad habits are hard to get rid of; I've read that it takes five times more time to unlearn a defective technique than to learn a correct one, and I think that's not an exaggeration.

At least be sure to always practise in front of a mirror or take a video of yourself so you won't fall into similar bad habits.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

The danger of practising on your own is that no qualified teacher is there to correct any mistakes you make that you won't even know about or notice. When doing a kick in karate, for example, it's considered a mistake to rise up from your (low) fighting stance when executing the kick because it would mean telegraphing your intent to your opponent; after all, it's only natural to fully extend your standing leg when you want to kick as high as possible, thus making it easier to sweep - I've landed flat on my ass in capoeira rodas, for example, several times while doing a roundhouse kick/mawashi-geri/martelo because the other guy pulled my standing leg froum under me with a perfectly timed rasteira, a kind of pulling sweep. Such bad habits are hard to get rid of; I've read that it takes five times more time to unlearn a defective technique than to learn a correct one, and I think that's not an exaggeration.

At least be sure to always practise in front of a mirror or take a video of yourself so you won't fall into similar bad habits.

To be honest I practice for health issues, boost my brain faculties, I dont really do it for real life or death scenarios, I dont go out, I work from home, but yes, bad habits in martial arts can even give you back pains, or you may damage cartilage, when I started sitting on my heel as in Xie Bu stance, I did an exercise in which you rotate to one side and sit on the heel, and then stand and turn and sit on the other heel and I was so inexperienced I literally damaged my knees, and it took me a lot to recover from it.

 

[HoldAll]

To be honest I practice for health issues, boost my brain faculties, I dont really do it for real life or death scenarios, I dont go out, I work from home, but yes, bad habits in martial arts can even give you back pains, or you may damage cartilage, when I started sitting on my heel as in Xie Bu stance, I did an exercise in which you rotate to one side and sit on the heel, and then stand and turn and sit on the other heel and I was so inexperienced I literally damaged my knees, and it took me a lot to recover from it.

I've googled the Xie Bu stance and I can see how it could lead to knee problems. It is a bit like the first movement of empi kata (the bended right knee does not touch the ground!):

It's a little safer than the Xie Bu stance because both feet point in the same direction which should be easier on the knees. However, it's not always useful to consider a stance in isolation because it's always followed by another movement, it's what you do next that counts. For example, people will hurt themselves when executing a turn and failing to pivot the back foot. Weight distribution is another concern - here is the negativa from capoeira, an evasive movement:

Here almost the entire weight is on the back foot so it's rather unlikely that you'll ever hurt your front knee - weight distribution again: the back leg is stable (and thus relatively safe from injury) because it carries all the weight.

The danger I see with the Xie Bu stance (or any other one, for that matter) is when you subsequently move into another direction and relax the back leg too soon, let it sag inwards or outwards, or allow the foot 'stick' in place when turning. The way to correct this is to perform the whole sequence of movements together, not just that isolated stance, very slowly and see where you experience discomfort (which may turn into actual pain once you execute it rapidly). I think you should also watch your back leg when you don't turn, e.g. when executing a lunge forward (= into the direction where the toes of you back foot are currently pointing, not the direction of your gaze).

It's a bit like performing a roundhouse kick - if you fail to pivot your standing foot backwards when kicking, you are be in trouble because in such a case your hips will turn while your standing leg remains in place with the foot pointing forwards, a surefire recipe for knee injury. Turns in general tend give beginners trouble, they lean forwards or backwards, land in an unstable position after turning, etc.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

I've googled the Xie Bu stance and I can see how it could lead to knee problems. It is a bit like the first movement of empi kata (the bended right knee does not touch the ground!):

It's a little safer than the Xie Bu stance because both feet point in the same direction which should be easier on the knees. However, it's not always useful to consider a stance in isolation because it's always followed by another movement, it's what you do next that counts. For example, people will hurt themselves when executing a turn and failing to pivot the back foot. Weight distribution is another concern - here is the negativa from capoeira, an evasive movement:

Here almost the entire weight is on the back foot so it's rather unlikely that you'll ever hurt your front knee - weight distribution again: the back leg is stable (and thus relatively safe from injury) because it carries all the weight.

The danger I see with the Xie Bu stance (or any other one, for that matter) is when you subsequently move into another direction and relax the back leg too soon, let it sag inwards or outwards, or allow the foot 'stick' in place when turning. The way to correct this is to perform the whole sequence of movements together, not just that isolated stance, very slowly and see where you experience discomfort (which may turn into actual pain once you execute it rapidly). I think you should also watch your back leg when you don't turn, e.g. when executing a lunge forward (= into the direction where the toes of you back foot are currently pointing, not the direction of your gaze).

It's a bit like performing a roundhouse kick - if you fail to pivot your standing foot backwards when kicking, you are be in trouble because in such a case your hips will turn while your standing leg remains in place with the foot pointing forwards, a surefire recipe for knee injury. Turns in general tend give beginners trouble, they lean forwards or backwards, land in an unstable position after turning, etc.

The Xie Bu stance is used a lot in for example Snake Kung Fu, is a stance I dont do a lot of time of because is difficult and I am fat, so I try to do other basic stances like Ma Bu or Pu Bu, I have heard this stances dont really work for fighting, but I remember I told you Ive practiced Muay Thai with a master, so now I do have the Muay Thai technique, but I love doing Chi Gong and Kung Fu because it really gives me strenght, and my Muay Thai technique gets improved by my chinese martial arts, so I am happy with the benefits, if I want to do more of a cardio training I do free style Muay Thai boxing, or if I want to work on technique I work chinese martial arts.

 

[HoldAll]

The horse staunce (ma bu in kung fu / kiba dachi or shiko dachi in karate) is excellent for building thigh muscles! It's also great for improving stability, and once again it's advantageous to practice in front of a mirror when practising punches in those stance. The knees absolutely must not buckle when you perform a punch in that stance, this could be another knee injury risk and is bad technique anyway because part of your punching energy gets dissipated if not supported by a rock-solid stance. I dont know about pu bu though, it seems to be more about flexibily but then again, it all depends what you do next. Rising from a such low stance can be extremely demanding for the muscles so I wouldn't overdo it in the beginning; maybe you'd like to take a look at Shotokan's kokutsu dachi (I'll let you Google yourself for a change ) which is also a backward defensive stance but not as 'exaggerated' as the pu bu.

 

[Audiolog Edu]

The horse staunce (ma bu in kung fu / kiba dachi or shiko dachi in karate) is excellent for building thigh muscles! It's also great for improving stability, and once again it's advantageous to practice in front of a mirror when practising punches in those stance. The knees absolutely must not buckle when you perform a punch in that stance, this could be another knee injury risk and is bad technique anyway because part of your punching energy gets dissipated if not supported by a rock-solid stance. I dont know about pu bu though, it seems to be more about flexibily but then again, it all depends what you do next. Rising from a such low stance can be extremely demanding for the muscles so I wouldn't overdo it in the beginning; maybe you'd like to take a look at Shotokan's kokutsu dachi (I'll let you Google yourself for a change ) which is also a backward defensive stance but not as 'exaggerated' as the pu bu

Take in mind I dont practice with a Sifu (Chinese martial arts teacher) , I learn on my own, but for example from Pu Bu you can go into Gong Bu and strike with fist and then conect a kick and move onto Ma Bu, like you can move to other stances doing diferent sorts of attacks, also it helps Pu Bu as you mentioned to stretch wide and low, giving you the Shaolin flexibility which I aim as well to develope because I am going to be 40 soon and Ive been a lazy fuck for a long time, I dont want to be 40 and not able to move properly, I also perform from time to time Kyu Kamae from bujinkan, and from this I learned that Ichimonji No Kamae looks very similar to Pu Bu, Ive seen from some masters that there is a link between Chinese Martial Arts and Japanese Martial Arts, and it goes back to Indian Martial Arts, I love those stories.

 

[HoldAll]

Take in mind I dont practice with a Sifu (Chinese martial arts teacher) , I learn on my own, but for example from Pu Bu you can go into Gong Bu and strike with fist and then conect a kick and move onto Ma Bu, like you can move to other stances doing diferent sorts of attacks, also it helps Pu Bu as you mentioned to stretch wide and low, giving you the Shaolin flexibility which I aim as well to develope because I am going to be 40 soon and Ive been a lazy fuck for a long time, I dont want to be 40 and not able to move properly, I also perform from time to time Kyu Kamae from bujinkan, and from this I learned that Ichimonji No Kamae looks very similar to Pu Bu, Ive seen from some masters that there is a link between Chinese Martial Arts and Japanese Martial Arts, and it goes back to Indian Martial Arts, I love those stories.

Always take care and respect your limitations when practising, no matter how cool the technique or sequence of movements looks in the videos. From what I saw (we once shared a dojo with a kungfu club for some time), the Chinese sifu taught entire sequences while karate senseis always isolate single techniques and tend to be pretty anal about the minutest details, how to make a proper fist, for example. As a result, the kungfu guys' techniques looked rather poor to my jaundiced karate eye… which doesn't really matter if you have no intention of joining a martial arts dojo anyway and practice mainly for health reasons but in any case be very careful as to avoid doing yourself damage. I admire your inquisitiveness though, it certainly is fascinating to discover both the differences and commonalities of all these martial arts!

Always limber up thorougly, at a bare minimum by carefully rotating your arms, shoulders, hips, and knees - it gets your synovial fluid (= the liquid in your joints that prevents friction between bones) flowing. You don't have to work up a great big sweat before working out but if you want to improve your cardio, I suggest running in place while lifting your knees as high as possible. Really pay attention to what your pelvis/hara is doing; when performing a horse stance, for, example beginners' pelvisses tend to stick out behind (we used to call it the 'duck's arse mistake'), thus robbing them of a good deal of power when punching; try to thrust your pelvis forward a bit instead and firmly lock it tightly in place whenever you perform your punches. Before attempting any high kicks, be sure to do some good leg stretches as to avoid pulling a muscle.

Remember, time spent recovering from injuries is lost practise time.