And I don’t mean being in class an hour a day three days a week. I’m in class three hours a day, three days a week, plus I stay an hour after class just for extra practice. In addition,I weight train 3 days a week, stretch daily and do stance training on the days I weight train. Due to previous training in muay thai, I do bag work and shadowboxing after class. I’m curious to know how everyone else trains and what you consider serious training.
“Civilize the mind, make savage the body.”
Wow
Compared to that, I don’t train seriously.
Guns don’t kill people, I kill people
No, neither do I…
re: I train very seriously
Hi SevenStar,
I would have to say that I practice fairly seriously. Personally, I train in my Kung fu exerises consistanly 5 days a week for at least 1 hour to hour and a half outside of class. In addition, I practice Hatha yoga 3-5 times a week. When I do attend classes at my school, it is for roughly 3 hours 3-4 times a week.
Lately, I have been trying to work out smarter though. Less extreameness in physical routine and more focused practise. This after all is a Life long venture for me and I don’t want to burn my body out by the time I am 40.
My I ask you what your relaxation routine is like? The routine you described could be very hard on you body in the long term if not given proper rest to heal. I was wondering, what you did for your body to heal it.
Looking forward to your reply!
Brian
San Francisco, CA
I guess I ain’t serious on this
I wish I had time to train more than 1 hour, 3 days a week…
Good For You!!!
you know, with a lot of practice at anything you will get good at it 
peace
Kung Lek
relaxation
you know what Brian? That’s a good point, and something I never really gave a lot of thought to…I do cool down stretching after I work out, and occasionally attend the chi kung/nei gung classes, but other than that,I don’t really concentrate much on relaxation exercises. I may have to focus on that more. Do you do anything specific, or is yoga your relaxation method?
“Civilize the mind, make savage the body.”
I always like threads like this because I can compare my training with others, and find weak areas I need to focus on more as well as ways to do so. I work a full-time job, plus 3 nights a week at my master’s restaurant, plus care for 4 horses… yadda yadda yadda. I have to be both flexible and determined with my training. It’s really hard to come home and train when I know I have other obligations.
So what works for me when I don’t have a lot of time in a given day to train is fitting things in when they are convenient.
I go over my forms twice in my head before I get out of bed. That’s really hard when you keep dozing off; I’ve found it greatly improves my concentration. Sound silly? Try it.
I do horse stance, squats, push ups, sit ups and stretch intermittantly at my day office job to break up the monotony and keep my joints from freezing up. Each only takes a minute or so. Except the horse stance.
When I’m in the garage for any reason, I hit the heavy bag.
When I’m in the yard, I work on my wooden post.
When I’m watching TV, I stretch.
When I’m posting, I feel guilty. Gotta go!
“Waiting is bad.” - Musashi
I dont because i cant
I would like to train 3 hours a day.
But i’m a newbie and i’m sure my body couldnt take 3 hours since it hurts already by training just 1 hour 3 times a week.
Maybe later on, when i have a better condition i will train more.
I consider myself a die hard gnug fu man
However, just because one doesnt train hours a day doesnt mean they arent serious.
When Im not doing gung fu, Im thinking about it, or Im sleeping and usually dreaming about it. (or girls, or both…depends.)
I practice whenever I can, if other things dont take priority, and yes, in our world, you cannot put some things behind training. For example you must not have alot of work or have a family, because I doubt seriously that you would be able to train that much and not neglect those things. Just a thought that popped into my head reading this. Sure when I was a teenager I could train like that and did. Im older now and cannot train as long due to life’s obligations and monetary necessity.
I do though, take at least an hour of everyday to practice something. Optimal time would be 2 to three hours a day, taking the weekends off. Your body will need time to rest and not burn out. Even the masters had leisure time my friend. Too much yang and not enough yin is unhealthy.
From one thing know ten thousand things - Miyomato Musashi
i train pretty seriously
CARDIO:every second day i run 3 km and try to break my record (currently 12 mins)
GENERAL STRENGTH:days in between running light freeweights,sit ups,pull ups,pushups,one leg squats etc.
KUNG FU:everyday stance work,forms,sparring with my brother
COOL DOWN AND RELXATION:stretches and cool downs then i go and do chi kung to calm my mind
tyron
I do my Sil Lum Tao 10 times a day.I do my Chum Kui 10 times a day.I punch my wall bag 300+ times a day.I lift weights every other day..soon to be everyday.And i do stepping drills.That adds up 2 about 2 hours everyday not including class.I think i dont train close to enough.I will start training more as i get better…
Joe
OK, now I really feel like a slob
Guns don’t kill people, I kill people
The honest truth…
When I finally decided to make Kung Fu my way of life, I was practicing six hours a day, six days a week. No lie. I practiced in the morning with one hour of standing Chi Kung preceeded by a vigorous thirty minutes of form practice to warm up.
I didn’t have a car at the time, so I jogged the five miles to work around eleven o’clock in the AM. I had an hour long meal break, so I would put in another thirty minutes of Form or breakdown techniques for speed drills. When I got off work at eight o’clock, I’d jog to class and train for three hours. Finally an hour of standing Chi Kung before bed. Actually, I did the Chi Kung every day for about three years (morning and night).
When I got a family however, this all changed. I had to cut down to about two and a half hours a day, seven days a week. I still do the Chi Kung, I do about a half hour of form. Do I have as much muscle or stamina? No way, but I am MUCH better than I used to be. Luckily, I never injured myself with that regime, but I had NO social life and about ZERO happiness.
I’ll never go back to “Rambo” style training. I recommend quality over quantity any day. Do your very best for three hours a day, practice as often as you can, make improvements in small increments. People who overtrain do so because they want shortcuts (at least I did). I thought I’d be a Master in five years tops! Now I know just how stupid that was.
“The essence of life is struggle and it’s goal is domination. There are higher goals and deeper meanings, but they exist only within the minds of men. The reality of life is war.”
Vankuen…
I’m not saying anyone who doesn’t train like me doesn’t train seriously. Different people train different ways, which is why i asked a question - how many of you train seriously, and what do you consider serious? as far as age and all, I am 24, have a two year old, work as a web developer for fedex.com and am engaged - there’s not too much anyone can tell me about time management, so that doesn’t get in the way. My friends apartment complex has an awesome gym, and I lift weights there. my fiance works out also, and we take our son, as he likes to kick around in there, and he mimics me doing my forms. During the time I am in class, my fiance hasthe baby, so I have time to train. My stretching I do at home, as I have a stretch machine and I do other stretches. weekends are our family days, which includes working out, and we work during the day. All of that training does not cause much conflict at all with my family life. As meltdawn said in her post, you fit things in when you can.
“Civilize the mind, make savage the body.”
tyron, joe and scarlet mantis
Tyron and Joe - Awesome programs! That’s what I like. I think we may be kindred spirits
A question for you, Scarlet Mantis…I prefer quality over quantity also, but what’s wrong with having them both? Stretching, stance training and bag work is by no means a route to a shortcut, it’s merely what I do to develop flexibility and power. Our normal class is three hours long, and the hour or so that I stay after, my sifu will make corrections on nights that I am practicing forms and technique drills. I’m not looking for any shortcuts (and no, I’m not saying you accused me of that) I merely like to work hard. Admittedly though, I need to watch the ‘hard chi’- like I said in my reply to brian. I now plan to add more relaxation exercises to my regimen.
“Civilize the mind, make savage the body.”
Time does not equal “seriousness”
Spending a lot of time training is not necessarily training “seriously”. The serious part comes through your psychological outlook, not just exclusively your physical exertion.
I don’t regard martial arts as a game or a sport. I’m very serious about it. But,since I don’t train 3 hours a day, does that mean I’m still training “seriously”?
You’d better believe it.
K. Mark Hoover
Relaxation
Hey sevenstar,
Actually, there are two types of relaxtion. The feeling a peace one feels after a yoga class or mediation and rest. What I would suggest is 2 days in a row away from any kind of physical activity. Let your body rest and heal, go have a beer (if you are of legal age), sit in the sun and kick back on your butt. Whatever you like to do to lounge around. Something that I found through Yoga is that Hard exertion and extreame relaxtion are the keys to the Kingdom of health. Martial artists are athletes so we should train accordingly to insure long life and good health.
I would however recommend adding Hatha Yoga to you routine. Find a good teacher, question them, find out how long they have been teaching, are the certified, how long was their education. If you here anything less then 1 year walk away and go to the next school.
Hope this helps
Brian
San Francisco, CA
my experience…
…is that too much training can be counterproductive. Having started wushu (traditional styles, modern and sanda) at age 10, by age 13 I was trainin 5-6 days week, some 4+ hours a day. This included basic drills, forms, sparring, bag work and conditioning. As I continued with this routine until age 21, including also weights since age 18, I made great progress but was often feeling a stressed physically and mentally, and at times drained of energy. Furthermore, as I was getting older (20-21-22…) I was becoming gradually more and more injury prone.
Since age 22 and especially in the past few years (27-28) I have adopted, due also to work constraints, the following routine:
Mon: 1h forms and drills, 12h weights, 12h stretch
Tue: rest
Wed: 1h sparring and bag, 12h weights, 12h stretch
Thu: rest
Fri: 1h conditioning (running, jumps, sprints), 12h stretch
Sat: 12h weights, 12h stretch
Sun: rest
I have found that this regime keeps my conditioning and flexibility at just as good a level, allows me to increase muscle mass and power by giving the body growth-producing rest, and allows progress in my techniques. But most importantly eliminates any physical and mental stress (not too many hours and sufficient of rest time for in between), and has not only allowed my body to heal any nagging old injuries, but has not produced any new ones. This is very important as I intend to be in just as good condition at 40-50-60…? and not have to stop at 30 with chronic knee or back or shoulder problems.
Rest is just as important as hard training for a strong body, strong technique and strong mind.
wall
I train 5 days a week. I train at my class during my lunchhour. During this time, I do chikung for 30 minutes, than do for forms for 30 minutes. After work I go directly to my class, do an hour of beginner class, than do heavy bagwork for 30 minutes. Than after that I go one and a half hours of intermediate class. After that I do another 30 minutes of heavy bagwork, than another 30 minutes of forms. Than go home, sleep, and do it all over again the next day. After a few weeks of this, I totally burn myself out, go party like crazy for a week, than do it again.. hehe 
But on this party week I still go for an hour during my lunchtime regardless! Prob is..my kungfu still sucks hard!!! argh!