Your body is is always burning itself up. One way to put some of this fire out, is breathing and another is fasting. This is supposed to help slow the aging process. Another is to build strength in the joints. You can and should massage your joints this helps to bring Chi to the joint.
The first step to building muscles and tendons and increase their stamina and elasticity is to remove excess fat in these areas(Easier said than done).
Bones are the framework of your body and need to be strengthened. This is done by weight bearing exercises, and aerobic exercise that will cause the Chi to circulate and remove the poison from your body.
Know What you are doing and Why you are training. This helps to build your confidence, and eliminate confusion.
Always train from easiest to hardest. This will enable the body to adjust to the increasing load. I start weight lifting with a light weight and after 10 I increase the weight and do the next 10 and so on until failure at around 100 reps.
Equipment for Training.
Ball, start with rubber, advance to Steel. Press into the skin and rollwith your palm on the stomach, ribs, joints, legs and arms. This training toughens the skin.
Wooden to Metal bar. after a year of using the balls, then start rolling a bar, and tapping the muscles and bones with a bar.
Metal and Sand bag. The bag is used to slap the body especially in the rib area this helps to energize the muscles, this is to help the muscles learn to bounce away an attack.
Wire Whip, after training the body for another year then begin to strike the body with a whip made of a bundle of wires. This helps to bring the Chi to the skin. These were originally made of Bamboo, but we do not have that, but Steel is available. Steel wire is heavier than bamboo, and more penetrating.
Mallet, or rubber hammer used next to strengthen the body and help to bounce away attack. You must relax when pounding.
Metal Disk, These have two uses. Weight training to build up muscles and tendons, joints, and bones. Then progressing to heavier ones as you train. Second they can be used to grind and toughen the skin for Iron Shirt training. Iron Shirt training helps you withstand and bounce away attacks. These are usually the plates of weight sets.
In order to be strong and powerful your mind must be conditioned as well as the body. The mind is more important. Raising the spirit also strengthens the physical body, it can then resist the force of blows. Testing the body by striking it in sparring. When it happens to you it is surprising, you feel nothing.
What are the benefits of raising this internal power? The most obvious is the ability to resist illness. When you are up, happy, confident you do not get ill.
When you are sad or angry, you become sick soon. You need to work on Calmness, Peace, Harmony and Softness.
Herbs are important. This helps the body to speed the development. Ginseng is the first one to take. During the day, not at night.
To be healthy, your Chi (Ki in Japanese) must be in balance. Once you pass 40, your Chi starts to diminish. To develop Chi, you need to meditate. The Taoists teach that there are 4 ways to build Chi. 1. Money 2. Partner 3. Techniques and 4. Place. These then break down like this:
Money, without sufficient money you spend too much time trying to survive and do not have enough time to study and practice or get enough sleep.
Partner, without a partner to share your life, then you will not be balanced. You can not handle the stress life throws at you.
Techniques, unless you practice your techniques you will not learn them. Reading, seeing, talking about them will not help you. You must actually do them. The only way to learn is to practice, drill and do them.
Place, You should have a place to train. It does not matter where it is, it should be your special training place. If it is a corner of your room, make it sacred and your training place. Without a special place your mind will not be prepared properly.
Candles
In order to have stopping power you need speed and strength. Train at this daily. The one thing that can help you gain this the fastest is candle training.
The concept is to use the air pressure from your fist to extinguish the flame.
To do this you must be fast. Do not wear any GI top. (Otherwise the sleeves will flap and put out the flame.)
Start with a standard 1/2 inch diameter candle, work up to a 1 inch candle. Thicker than this does not help. When you can get it 10 out of 10 punches add a second behind the first and so on.
Stop 1 fist width before the candle. (About 4 inches) Your arm will flex forward another inch or two so do not get too close.
Do not strike above the flame. Strike directly at the flame using a strike not snapping but thrusting. Pause for a bit then reset the arm.
Use the first two knuckles, Knife hand, Back fist, Front kick, roundhouse kick, Spinning back-hook kick, side kick, side thrust kick.
I practice this for an hour or two at night. My wife says that it smells up the house as the flame goes out, so I need to do it out in the garage. If you don't have a garage, go somewhere where there is no wind. Always better to practice alone with no audience anyway.
One advantage of this training is that it teaches you proper technique, and relaxation. It is great aerobics, it will get your heart pumping.
Concentrate on what you are doing. Empty your mind, thoughts will slow your reactions.
Paper
The Paper cut is the most difficult thing I have tried. This develops the proper twist of the wrist.
Makiwara and other hard striking tools will work against an effective twist of the wrist in training. If you try to twist at impact it tears the skin off your knuckles. It then takes a long time to heal back and you have to rebuild the callous. Backs your training up for months, Darn! It hurts a lot too.
In order to do this technique you must be relaxed. Any tension in the muscles will not let you gain enough speed to tear the paper. Many schools teach you to start the twist at the chest and slowly twist as you move out. This is wrong.
Shadow Boxing
Shadow boxing is a very good agility exercise and helps to build speed and stamina. Keep your mind focused. I always imagine my worst enemy, you must go at him with all you have. You must use your imagination. Try to imagine his moves, work yourself into a fighting state of mind.
Practice the following:
Attack when the opponent is tired.
Attack when he is angry, make him angry, it slows his reactions.
Attack when he finishes his technique.
Attack when he inhales, he is then weakest and easily knocked down.
Attack when his attention is misdirected. (my favorite time)
Attack when he is off balance, moving forward or backward.
Attack when he is planning to move.
Attack when he is in the middle of his attack.
Use Faints.
To attack the head, faint to the head, kick the leg then attack the head.
The leading straight punch is the fastest and most powerful punch. Use it first as it causes your opponent to consider your power and become afraid. Do not just strike with the fist, you must step at the same time. Land the fist before the foot to increase the power.
The best target outside the dojo is the eyes.
Practice stepping back, in decreasing step distances, then explode forward.
Always let the opponent attack first. He is then committed, open and exposed.
Kicking
Kicks must be fast. Felt not seen.
Work on speed. Work on your candles.
You can Psyche your opponent by inflicting pain on him.
Groin snap kick.
Reverse hook kick outward snap.
Upward snap kick.
Straight forward snap kick.
Snap the kick from the knee to get more power. Snap from the hip and knee to gain more speed. Practice.
Make sure you practice the recall after the kick. This must be very fast.
The Side kick is most effective downward.
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Special Training - A little something Extra by Steve Denoo 
