Qigong · 2009-11-12 09:51
For the past 2 weeks I've been training with a guy I know only as "sifu". Sifu trains Mish's brother in Qigong and kung fu. He also trains Mish in a massage class.
I've been working up to start training with this guy, it's pretty interesting stuff so far. None of the training has been actual kung-fu, because I'm not in the right physical condition to be able to do the movements. So every time I go, it's basically an hour long torture session of sifu massaging my body, cracking my back and winding up the leg rack. So far I can manage 13 turns of the wheel, and it feels like someone is slicing my knees and inner thighs with razor blades. It's necessary to break the cells of my tendons and replace them with new onces if I'm to get any flexibility.
Massage sounds nice, but in fact it's more painful than the leg rack. The results are incredible though - I'm already much more aware of my posture (which was terrible) and my spine (which we are working to straighten up). I actually have a straight neck now which I didn't think was possible, I didn't actually think anything of it before. It's actually a bit un-nerving at times, especially when he gets close to my junk. I know he's not doing anything other than trying to inflict pain. It's a bit strange, but that's where the legs connect to the body and also the location of the "lower chakra".
Now those who know me know that I'm a huge skeptic. When it comes to new age bullshit, I'm generally outright dismissive. I'm skeptical about certain ideas of Buddhism, and I think I'll rather remain skeptical, but I'm not going to dismiss sifu's views on chakra's out of hand. I'm going to just accept it for now and try to come up with a more scientific understanding of what they mean. Normally I scoff when someone talks to me of "flowing energy", but seeing as I'm doing very physical training with someone who is already very physically strong and who happens to believe this stuff, I'm going along with it until I can form my own opinion.
I've trained with sifu in the gym and it's really amazing just how strong he is. He looks like a little chinese dude, shorter than me and probably weighs 10kg less. But with my own eyes I saw him fly 100 kilograms with perfect form. I can bench 80 kgs and I could only manage 30 kilos with decent form.
He is such a nice guy, you would never imagine he could kick your arse to china if he wanted...
Commenting is closed for this article.