gongfu

 It has been argued that pushups aren’t a traditional gong fu training method. If not, who cares? They are a great way to strengthen the whole body and improve punching power. Of course there is old saying which might disagree, but most schools train the pushup. The thing is, while pushups are great, pull ups and dips are also important to balance the muscular development. You can’t think of only punching and kicking. There is blocking, parrying, locking… even wrestling, and short distance body stiking. It is important that all of the muscles are strong. This way, the entire body can be used to issue force, and when force is issued, there is a strong physical body doing it. Don’t get me wrong, internal practice can only improve your body’s ability to issue that “force”.

 I think it is a good idea to talk about the various methods of pushups that gong fu usually trains. If your style doesn’t use the pushup, pick it up as a side practice. Different pushups train different muscles, and some even train them in different ways. There is slow, fast, jumping and even stationary pushups. Stationary pushups, which are quite unconventional, are painful and train the mind’s endurance, while turning the entire body into a rock. It is sort of like deep stancework, how your whole legs eventually get very muscular and then very very hard, and dense. The stationary pushup does this to the upper body, including the flank. Some people say this will harm your gong fu. Which just isn’t true. In fact, the harder your body is, the more damage it can take externally. If my floating ribs got punched today, it probably wouldn’t hurt at all. If you punched a fat coach potato in the ribs, they would fall like a sack of grain, usually, even from a relatively soft hit.

 Anyway, these are the common pushup variations:

 Standard. This is the U.S military pushup, used in all branches of the service. You get in position, with the upper arms straight out to the sides, and the hands right under the elbows.

 Wide. This pushup simply spaces the hands out farther from the elbow, and targets the outer pectoral muscles of the chest.

 Inside, narrow. These pushups require the elbows in, and the hands under the armpits. This is the most important one for martial arts since it trains the muscles of the perfect jab.

 Diamond. Also called triangle, for these pushups, you form a diamond shape with the thumb and forefinger directly in front of the chest. This targets the inner chest muscles, as well as the triceps.

 One handed pushup. For this one, you simply spread the feet apart to shoulder width and do a diamond pushup with one hand. The armless shoulder dips towards the ground and then thrusts towards the air.

 The judo pushup. For this one you start with your feet at shoulder width and you butt in the air, with your arms a little wider than the shoulders. You dip down towards the hands, almost brushing your nose on the ground and then snake your head up as if going under a fence. Your track back the same way. This is a great shoulder exercise.

 Fingertip pushups. There are several variations, and they train the grip of the hand and the forearm.

 Expolosive pushups. This is when any variety of pushup is done very quickly as if punching. The highest form of this pushup is to thrust yourself off of the ground to standing, but the more commonly done high level form is simpley to thrust of the ground a short distance and clap the hands to repeat.

 Practice hard and get strong.

 Peace.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS