bengquan.net

This is my training methodology - this is how I train and how I decide what to train. It’s what I’ve drawn from what I’ve absorbed from my different teachers. From a certain perspective this is kind of a mongrel approach and in some ways it is a jumble of different ideas - but they are ideas of the highest quality drawn from the various excellent teachers I’ve had.

I’m really interested in what other people do too so feel free to comment, make suggestions, laugh helplessly at my cluelessness as you feel appropriate. I’m under no illusions as to my skill level - I’m terrible - but despite that I’m getting better which is all I can really hope for.

Training Duration

One of old teachers said to train each technique for at least 10 minutes at a time. Less than this is not long enough to wire it into your brain. I find 10 minutes works well for me:

• Enough time to build muscle memory
• Allows you to improve more than one technique at a time
• 10mn is not so long that you get bored (usually)

I do sometimes take longer than this - depending on what I need to accomplish. Sometimes I feel that I need one technique to get a lot better and I might do just that for 45 minutes. There are no rules here.

I like to train for at least an hour (preferably 2) but sometimes it just isn’t possible. I fit in what I can each day. That said if you’re training for shorter periods you need to prioritise (even more than usually) the high value exercises that get you more results.

Training Focus

Additionally, I find it works well to give each session a theme that ties everything you do together. For example I usually choose at least one from the below list:

• a particular set of techniques (e.g. striking, throwing etc).
• a type of exercise: strength, fitness, relaxation, endurance
• body connection, mindfulness
• speed, power, etc

So from here you can start to structure a session. I tend not to plan in advance too much - I try to feel what my body needs on a particular day. This keeps it interesting and helps it feel more natural too as you’re not trying to force your body to follow an arbitrary training scheme you thought up weeks (months?) before hand. So once I’ve chosen a focus I usually pick something like 6 techniques or exercises to focus on.

Warmup and Cooldown

You should do warmups but you shouldn’t do static stretches (as far as I know stretching to cool down is a good idea).

My warmups focus on trying to loosen my body as much as possible. As I work at a desk the main issues tend to be back, shoulders and neck but I try to include wrists, knees, hips and ankles too. I take one of my 10 minute slots for warm ups. If you’re already sore from previous sessions then you might need to take longer but less intense. My warm ups are usually something like this:

• Wrist rotations
• Shoulder rotations
• Neck: forward, back, side to side and in circles
• Hips: stand on one leg and move the other in circles (outwards, inwards)
• Knees and ankles: circular squat things
• Pushups: usually hindu, just one set (say 6-10)
• Optionally: Pistols 5/side

I skip the last two if I’ll be focusing on strength in the session or if I’m already tired/sore from previous training (in which case I’ll substitute for other exercises to loosen the joints and get blood flowing).

Cooldown - I usually do some zhan zhuang and stretching to cool down.