Start in a pushup position on your knees with your arms stretched out at about 45 degrees away from you, if you start to tip forward you have gone too far (getting on your knees is only for positioning, then its up on your toes to execute the push-ups). Push-ups in this position can mimic lifting a great amount of weight.
You may be able to do about 1/3 of your normal amount of push-ups. After that you may want to stand up and relax your arms by loosely twisting left and right. Then get back into the push up position and place your arms straight, so that when you come down, your hands are just to the sides of your ears. Then continue with as many push-ups that you can do (beginners should be able to execute 20 to 30 push-ups). When your hands are in the outside position its usually more comfortable to keep your thumb and index fingers turned outward, and when in the inside position, turn them inward.
After the push-ups comes the meditation. This is done in both positions. Come down half way and hold it for as long as you can. To keep your mind focused, imagine your lying on your back and there is a huge slab of stone on top of you and if you give up it will crush you to death. This will help you keep it for as long as physically possible.
You are probably wondering why you can’t just lift weights. You can, but you should only do so after the next 2 steps or on another day, because you could unnaturally overload your arms before the next 2 steps.
The next 2 steps are very simple and everyone here is probably familiar with them. After the push-ups and meditation comes the shoulder circles. Try keeping your circles as large as possible and as straight as possible to the side of your body. Circle as fast as possible clockwise and counter clockwise (30 in each direction is a good number to start with). Consistency is more important then speed. Don’t get to out of control. All these exercises should be followed up with some kind of cool down period like the twisting mentioned above. Next is the horse stance straight punches at chest level. This is where you can really feel the power that has been built up so far, and to help you understand where the power comes from in your punches. Switching between short hard punches and quick continuous ones. See how fast you can punch after such a workout. If you can punch hard and fast while your arms are sore, imagine how hard you can punch after your body rebuilds its muscles.
The way I do Choy Lay Fut, it’s almost like how boxers train their jabs/crosses/hooks, except with CLF techniques lol. (well, kinda. . . . . but still a quite different from a boxer’s workout).
“Conditioning” any part of the body involves two things:
Making that part stronger.
Making it able to resist “punishment”, ie: “forging”.
Best way to increase muscular strength is through progressive resistance training, WHAT method you chose is up to you but it MUST be PROGRESSIVE ( there must be a way to continually overload the muscles).
The best way to “forge” a body part that CAN be forged, is to slow, progressive LOW impact striking training AND the use of “jow” to help with the healing process.
Start off with a “softer” impact tool and gradually progress to something harder when you are able to ( not when you want to).
[QUOTE=turtlekungfu;609243]
Next is the horse stance straight punches at chest level. This is where you can really feel the power that has been built up so far, and to help you understand where the power comes from in your punches.[/QUOTE]
The workout you describe seems fine for strengthening the arms & shoulders but are you suggesting that that’s where the power comes from in your punches? I got no problem with having strong arms but it seems to me that focusing on the arms for generating power in punches is barking up the wrong tree.
To roll your arm during the contact so you won’t only get hit on a single spot. When your opponent doesn’t roll his arm but you do, he will get hit on just one point but you will get hit on a much larger area.
[QUOTE=IronFist;1144834]What do you mean by “roll” your arm?
Do you mean twist it so at the last second you’re not hitting your sensitive inner forearm?
(sorry, I’m sure this would be simple to explain in 2 seconds in real life but having to type it out makes it more difficult).[/QUOTE]
I assume we are talking about the “3 stars” here. You hit your arm with your opponent’s arm on 3 different area, outside, left edge, right edge (if you divide your forearm as outside, left edge, inside, right edge). During the contact, you "twist’ your arm a little bit. I won’t suggest to hit the inside forearm, there are not much muscle there.
