Increase your strength, endurance and martial arts effectiveness by Kung Fu Animal Styles

People are always looking for ways to improve health and get in better shape. They need to look no further than martial arts for the answer. Looking better and feeling stronger and healthier are the major byproducts of adopting a martial arts discipline. There are as many debates about the best way to build strength and increase fitness as there are styles available to the practitioner.





I began my martial arts training in 1990 when I was drafted by the San Diego Chargers. Shortly after my second season in the NFL, I began looking for ways to improve my football skills and overall health. Since I was a huge Bruce Lee fan growing up, I thought a great way to get in shape was learning kung-fu. After all, despite his smallish stature, Lee was a physical marvel. If I could incorporate some of the training techniques that made him pound-for-pound the fastest and most powerful martial artist of his generation, those skills might help me become a better, more effective football player.


I sought the help of a kung-fu instructor in my area and settled on the fantastic, diverse world of shaolin five animal kung-fu, which incorporates the best of both the internal and external disciplines of Chinese martial arts.



Health Benefits


Shaolin five animal kung-fu teaches many fighting techniques, but more importantly it gives the martial artist a great foundation through stance training, breathing applications and a mixture of internal and external energy training. All these attributes help build strength, power and overall health.


Many factors make the five animal form optimal for health and martial arts cultivation: the practitioner will develop physical strength, libido, chi development, bone development and internal spirit. Since these are a mixture of both internal and external training techniques, it is said that when these five things are combined the result is a far superior martial artist.



History


Chan (Zen) Buddhism was introduced to China around A.D. 550. During the North-South dynasty, a monk named Bodhidharma traveled from India to Songshan Mountain in the Henan province, the site of the Shaolin Temple. There he meditated for nine years. At the age of 76, he began teaching healing arts to the monks of the temple. Since the monks spent much of their time in meditation, they were in poor physical condition. Bodhidharma gave them a set of exercises that would develop the physical strength necessary to maintain the monastery and protect them in the event of an attack. He gave them three exercises: lohan shi ba (18 hands of arhats); yi ji jing (book of changing tendons); and xi shui jing (book of washing bone morrow). At the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Zhue Yuen, Li Sou and Bai Yu Feng developed the five animal form, which helped to complete the new shaolin system and had a major impact on the state of shaolin kung-fu.


The Five Animals


The shaolin five animals consist of dragon, tiger, snake, crane and leopard. Each animal has characteristics that provide the practitioner with an array of offensive and defensive techniques. Only through a mastery of each of these animals can one hope to become a complete kung-fu stylist.


Click Here to learn Dragon (Long Xing) Style


Click Here to learn Tiger (Hu Xing) Style


Click Here to learn Snake (She Xing) Style


Click Here to learn Crane (He Xing) Style


Click Here to learn Leopard (Bao Xing) Style