Cross Training with YOGA

[The Willow Sword]

So do any of you here Take Yoga in addition to your martial training? If so have you seen an improvement in your overall flexability and health?

I have been doing the Bikram Yoga for a little while now and am starting to feel much stronger and more flexable. Oh and Bikram Yoga is a 26 posture system that is done in a heated room a few degrees above body temperature(105).

Peace,TWS

[bustr]

Yes. I've seen more improvement in strength from yoga training in my late 30s than I did with weightlifting in my 20s.

[Sifu Darkfist]

Oh and Bikram Yoga is a 26 posture system that is done in a heated room a few degrees above body temperature(105).

Peace,TWS

Is that what they tell you to prevent paying the Texas Air conditioning bill?

Just kidding I do practice Yoga in the heat as well and i find it incredible it is truly a difficult art as well as exercise

[humbleman]

that real kung fu is actually a yoga. Once I heard a man who studied the Vedic sciences refer to a style of kung-fu as a "famous yoga". N.B.

[The Willow Sword]

that real kung fu is actually a yoga. Once I heard a man who studied the Vedic sciences refer to a style of kung-fu as a "famous yoga". N.B.

Well it is interesting that you state that. i was under that impression myself,however, i have seen very few schools that have a really intensive stretching yoga'esque program. i mean you have a class warm up of about 5/10 minutes. but is that really enough to get things all loosened up? after doing the bikram classes i have to say "NO".

The muscle tendon changing excersises are yoga in nature but i rarely see those excerisises being done anywhere or correctly for that matter.

you would think that more TCMA schools would have a regimen of yoga like excersises. i mean i dont discount what stretching regimens go on at the kwoons, but i would think it is a necessity to have something intensive so that you could really do the "kung fu" well and above all correctly.
TWS.

i dont reveal too much about what i am doing now after sd. but i think its time i try to share some things that reveal what progress i have made since my exodus from where i was before.

[bodhitree]

I use yoga poses to streatch out after lifting and on off days to recover. It helps me stay loose and relaxed (a little, I think) I believe when I am considerably older Yoga will be something I carry into my old age (while fighting and heavy lifting may not be).

[ricardocameron]

Remember your Shao-lin history? Bodhidharma was an Indian Buddhist scholar(monk, teacher,whatever). He apparently taught the Chan sect of Buddhism, and some form of "Yoga", etc. (18 Lohan Hands)to the monks at Shao-lin. I do practice some, occasionally. I like Yoga Journal's videos by Rodney Yee(from the library), and Yoga Journal mag. But,I get hot and cold about things, it's not a daily practice...

From: www.shaolin-wahnam-center.org/qigong/lohan.htm

SHAOLIN 18 LOHAN HANDS

Many readers have asked me about the famous Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Hands. They were taught by the great Bodhidharma in 527 BCE to monks at the Shaolin Monastery in China when this First Patriarch of the Shaolin arts found the monks weak and often sleepy during meditaion, which is the essental path towards enlightenment.

The Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Hands are fundamental chi kung exercises that can bring tremendous benefits if they are practised as chi kung.....

...At the Shaolin Monastery, these Eighteen Lohan Hands evolved into a kungfu set called Eighteen Lohan Fist, which forms the prototype of Shaolin Kungfu today. Nevertheless, the Eighteen Lohan Hands continued to be practised as chi kung exercise.

Because of its long history, there are many versions of the Eighteen Lohan Hands being taught today. Shown below are the Eighteen Lohan Hands taught in my Shaolin Wahnam School. The illustrations are reproduced from a manual used more than 10 years ago by my chi kung students.

Shaolin-do also teaches something similar.

[humbleman]

Well it is interesting that you state that. i was under that impression myself,however, i have seen very few schools that have a really intensive stretching yoga'esque program. i mean you have a class warm up of about 5/10 minutes. but is that really enough to get things all loosened up? after doing the bikram classes i have to say "NO".

The muscle tendon changing excersises are yoga in nature but i rarely see those excerisises being done anywhere or correctly for that matter.

you would think that more TCMA schools would have a regimen of yoga like excersises. i mean i dont discount what stretching regimens go on at the kwoons, but i would think it is a necessity to have something intensive so that you could really do the "kung fu" well and above all correctly.
TWS.

i dont reveal too much about what i am doing now after sd. but i think its time i try to share some things that reveal what progress i have made since my exodus from where i was before.

made us stretch for a good 10-15 minutes before each class. He (Brian Phillips) was always open to and looking for new methods of stretching that worked. A lot of them were from hatha yoga.

[humbleman]

a sifu who has combined yoga with kung fu is Master Kumar Francsis (sp?) from Energy Arts. He studied tantric yoga in india for several years, karate in japan for several years, and the internal arts in china for something like eight. He teaches the taoist water method, as opposed to the tantric fire approach. The water method is safer, and wears through internal blockages like water through various obstacles, whereas fire attempts to blast through. This is my understanding anyway. Anyone who thinks there is no power in yoga is, in my humble opinion, a fool. I've seen differently.

[Faruq]

The Tendon Changing/Bone Marrow Washing Methods are very different in approach, as well as goals, from static stretching. But either way, who do you know that puts 2-3 hours a day into chi gong or yoga? They would be the ones to compare results with.

made us stretch for a good 10-15 minutes before each class. He (Brian Phillips) was always open to and looking for new methods of stretching that worked. A lot of them were from hatha yoga.