Mark's China Travelogue: Part 3 As students of mine will well know, it is important to sink your weight when practising tai chi. This becomes easier when training in China, as the deliciousness of the food ensures that there is more weight to sink! Like most places in China that I have been fortunate enough … Continue reading Eating, Training… and a bit (a lot) more Eating….
Category: Lifestyle
In the realm of qigong, a practice rooted in Chinese culture and aimed at cultivating energy and vitality, the Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic) form stands out as a potent and transformative exercise. Yi translates as change/transform, Jin refers to the muscles/tendons/sinews, and Jing means classic or sutra. Originating from the Shaolin temple, Yi … Continue reading The Transformative Power of Yi Jin Jing Qigong: A Journey to Inner Strength
Almost weekly I’m finding new articles online which outline the incredible benefits - and utmost importance - of being strong as we mature. I speak to my tai chi students in the 60+ age range about this quite a lot and the general consensus is that they would love to be stronger but either have … Continue reading Building Strength for the Older Student
My personal training clients will know well that I am an ardent fan of kettlebell training and the striking improvements to overall strength and fitness that you can attain with regular practice. Always a lover of the unconventional and slightly strange (hope my partner doesn’t read this!), when I first encountered the kettlebell almost two … Continue reading Three Reasons I Love Training with Kettlebells
套路 - tàolù Taolu is the pinyin romanisation of 套路. In this context 'tào' is a classifying word for anything regarding sets or collections of things, 'lù' is a journey, road, path. In English we speak of martial arts forms, sets, routines. The Japanese term 'kata' is often used also. Plato was of course the … Continue reading Tào Lù and the Platonic World of Forms
The school holidays are here and with the amazing weather here in the UK, the parks are full of families. This week just gone, I spent a day by the coast in Brighton and some of which was at a playground with climbing frames, slides, seesaws, etc… As soon as we entered the area, my … Continue reading New Blog Post: Learn How To Play!
Can’t make it to as many classes as you’d like to? Need some motivation to train and practice at home? Want to get into great shape in 2017? It’s not always easy to fit in training into a busy schedule and quite often days just slip by and you realise that since your last class … Continue reading Online Training Plans
The practice of meditation can often be an intimidating prospect for some people, often associated with sitting for long periods of time in a full lotus position keeping thoughts from entering the mind while trying to reach some Zen-like state of peace and enlightenment! When in reality, meditation is essentially a very simple practice, which … Continue reading Meditation, simple and effective…
As you pick up a leaflet, or see a poster or find us on Google, this may well be a (very valid) question that pops into your head! Martial arts are suitable for everyone I think one misconception is often that martial arts are only for a select few people who fit into a certain … Continue reading So, why should I make martial arts part of my new year’s resolution?