Interviewer:
Thanks for agreeing to this interview, sifu. Can you give us some of your ideas on modern supplementary training? You’ve already spoken on the old traditional methods.
Sifu Zopa:
Thanks. Yes, sure. The whole question of supplementary training in gung fu is still under debate. Some people get very excited about it in fact! Some say you only need to do the actual gung fu and there’s no need for any supplementary training. I can understand this point of view. Others say you need supplementary training. Others say supplementary training whilst not necessary speeds up your development and its beneficial for your overall health and fitness. I think I fall in the latter group. Historically there were a lot of gung fu schools that utilise supplementary training aides and taught them as part of their curriculum. Today it’s becoming rarer but we still see stone and wooden “locks” - the old weights modelled on huge versions of Chinese locks - hence the name. Heavy weapons provide supplementary training as do the various types of dummies used. Some schools use those iron or brass arm rings. I note even Chen Tai Chi relates that they have a fairly demanding supplementary training regime nowadays in the village including some decent running. Some of the more traditional Okinawan karate schools are very anxious to preserve the supplementary training methods they imported from old gung fu in China. They use both the old traditional methods and modern ones. Most people talk about internal arts not using supplementary training or lifting and hefting heavy weights but my experience tells me the opposite. A lot of the famous old internal masters tossed around some very credible stone weights!
Interviewer:
These methods obviously produced results. What do we have now in the modern world that is beneficial as supplementary training, sifu?
Sifu Zopa:
I think we have far greater knowledge of how the human body works and how to most effectively and efficiently train it. We have modern barbell and dumbbell systems that allow us to vary weight and we have lots of useful machines. These can strengthen weak or rehabilitate injured body parts as well as build bone density, tendon strength, muscular strength and speed. Of course we have a lot of machines to train our cardio-respiratory systems too. All this is beneficial in terms of my expanded view of self defence entailing you defending your health by building a strong, resilient body. Of course we still continue in our school with the older methods too - especially hei gung training. I’m reminded of the kuen kuit: tai yeuk lik sin sau (increase the strength of a weak body), ngoy lin gun gwot gay (externally train tendons, bones and muscles), loi lin yut hau hei (internally develop hei). This is the way I do things. True internal encompasses external. How could it be otherwise? Can you have half of the yum yueng and have balance?
Interviewer:
Sounds logical. If I may comment - it’s often intrigued me Sifu that if a fight is over in seconds why we need to train our cardio-vascular system.
Sifu Zoa:
Well look at Olympic 100 meter sprinters. Their event is over in about twenty seconds too! Less than that, in fact! But do you see any of them wondering about this? (Laughs) No, of course not! They train with weights too. They have to be very strong to generate explosive strength. They’re also very relaxed - that’s part of running - you can’t win by holding tension in your body, you have to flow! These superb athletes train with weights and train their technique. I think that those who argue that we don’t need to train our cardio-respiratory system and can be unfit slobs and still pretend to be gung fu practitioners ought to try to survive one of our training sessions! You need to be fit to train. The fitter you are the harder and longer you can train, ergo, you can become better!
Interviewer:
Makes sense, sifu. So you disagree with those who are unfit but say they practice gung fu?
Sifu Zopa:
Essentially, yes. Look, you can indeed practice or know or “do” gung fu and be unfit - to an extent. But, not effectively, not efficiently. It’s not optimal. Which in itself is interesting. How optimal does our gung fu have to be? Well, the obvious answer is more optimal than any attacker! We know Wing Chun is an excellent art from the point of view of being an art which we can pull off if we’re sick or old or weakened more than usual. How much better would you be if you were fit and strong? As you know I’m wiry and not what would be described as heavily built. I’m muscular and I guess slim. I’m not a body builder type. Not heavily muscled.
Very recently I was talking with a Chinese calligrapher and mentioned I did gung fu. She replied I didn’t look like a gung fu man! Interested, I asked what a gung fu man looked like and she gave me an impression of a big, strong bull. I guessed she was describing a character we’d term a thug! I chuckled and explained. As I did, I indicated we train our internal as well as external strength and don’t need to be built like bulls. As I was explaining I unthinkingly demonstrated a short force strike. I think I was telling her we needed strong joints and tendons at the time. Her eyes widened and she said that now she had seen my speed she understood I was really a good gung fu practitioner. Interesting little encounter. See, it’s not about appearance - it’s about functionality. We don’t need to be big. In fact being thick set is a liability with this art of ours - you’re better off being slimmer. I think you’re also better off being fitter and stronger in terms of joints and tendons!
Interviewer:
Yes. Interesting isn’t’ it, even Chinese people, whom we assume might know differently hold these views?
Sifu Zopa:
Yes. Well they’ve been raised on tales of Shaolin and the feats of strong men. “Outlaws of the Marsh” stuff. Many have also seen “street gung fu” - those carnival type tricksters who break bricks and bend spears on their throats. Mind you, I once saw a gung fu master demonstrate breaking any nominated brick in a stack of nine. He did it unfailingly several times. With only a light tap on the top brick too! That was impressive! Different to someone smashing a stack of large cinder blocks or having a huge rock or stack of bricks broken on them - that sort of trickery. Is it gung fu? In the sense that it takes some training, yes, I guess we could call it a type of gung fu. It’s like the aerial leaps and cartwheels and rolls of modern wu shu. Impresses as entertainment. But, is this in any way remotely connected to realworld self defence gung fu? Give me a break!
Interviewer:
So, to modern supplementary training. What would you consider a realistic and beneficial training regime for your students, sifu?
Sifu Zopa:
I think to be genuinely good at gung fu, given you’ve chosen the right system and right sifu so you have a superior art, then at least an hour a day of gung fu training is required. It’s hard in the modern world to allocate time. However, I think we ought to be looking, for several years until you master our art, some hei gung, some gung fu technique and some supplementary training each day. Keep in mind if this is a priority to you you’ll organise the time. The youth of most of my students helps a lot in this respect. Most aren’t married and only a few of you have children to have to commit time to. Some of you are students - which is very good - you have more time if you manage it well. When I was young I’d often train when my family went to bed or arise very early before they woke. Use your youthful training time well otherwise you’ll regret letting it slip by in your mature years!
As to a training regime, I’d recommend some weight training and some cardio-respiratory training. The beauty is I train you hard enough in the gwoon to not need any other cardio-respiratory training unless you’re overweight - which any serious gung fu practitioner ought never be - it’s bad for your health, bad for your gung fu and bad for the image of gung fu. Also, we need to include a nutritional and rest plan. You need sufficient quality rest to function maximally.
I’ve done some research on this and think we now have an optimal program. In terms of weight training most people simply do too much or do exercises which are less beneficial. I recommend body part grouping. By this I mean that because we ought to spend time on different body parts to achieve balance we ought to train different sets of muscles on different days. Because the kwa is so important in gung fu and a good set of core body muscles are essential, I train that area a lot - as you know. So, I include abdominal and lower back training in all my weight workouts. I split the body into three groups for three training sessions as follows: Training Session 1 is Abs, Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. Training Session 2 is Abs, Back, Biceps and Forearms. Training Session 3 is Abs, Quads, Hamstrings and Calves. In terms of training days I’d fit this training around our gwoon training days. So we’d choose any three days with a day between, depending on commitments. The beauty of the way I split the body is you can train two or even three days in succession - but then you’d need at least one day off to recuperate. I’d do cardio-respiratory training on the alternate days - non-weight training days. It is OK to do this training on a gwoon training day but not weight training - you’d be too tired.
Interviewer:
What sort of actual training exercises and so on would you recommend, sifu?
Sifu Zopa:
I split weight training the high twitch and low twitch muscle fibres into two types of routines. Each one I do for about three weeks. There are high repetition and low repetition routines. By this I mean for high repetition routines do no more than 3 to 4 sets of 12-20 reps, for low repetition routines do no more than 4 to 5 sets of 6-12 reps. Take no more than 45 - 120 secs rest between sets. The ideal is 30 secs. Use reasonably heavy weights. You must struggle to do the last few repetitions. Alternate high and low repetition routines. Change weight, exercise, reps, sets, order of exercises regularly.
In terms of exercises I think you’re better off using dumbells as much as possible for several reasons. One obvious one is you balance the effort between both sides of the body. I’d recommend two exercises per body part per workout and change exercises and the order every month to keep the body and mind from getting into a rut. The order of body part exercise is important - you work out from the core to the periphery so as to avoid pre-fatiguing muscle groups you’ll work later. Monitor your intensity, the load, your focus, your form, and the speed of your routine. Use a ratio of eccentric to concentric movement of 2:1 so as to avoid ballistically hoisting weights. You have to be able to stop at any point. Aim for workouts not exceeding 45 minutes. No healthy person not on drugs who is really training hard can train much longer than that.
As to exercises, I’d recommend for the back, the reverse grip front pulldown, the wide grip front pulldown and one arm dumbell rows. This assumes you have access to a machine. Otherwise use bent over single handed dumbell rows, or double handed bent over rows. For biceps, I’d recommend seated or standing dumbell curls, seated incline dumbell curls or preacher curls if you have a bench. For chest I’d recommend dumbell bench press, incline dumbell press, or dumbell flyes. If you have a machine you can bench press or do chest press outs. For shoulders I’d recommend the seated dumbell press, side delt raises, seated bentover delt raises, shrugs. For triceps I’d recommend the tricep pressdown if you have a machine, lying French dumbell press, seated French dumbell press, dips, bench dips and dumbell kickbacks. For forearms I have a routine that involves wrist twists, wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, behind back wrist curls and wrist adductions and abductions I’d need to teach you. it’s very quick, quite painful and very effective. Forearms are the major bridges so are very important in gung fu. For quads, I’d recommend leg extensions and leg press if you have a machine. Otherwise dumbell squats. For hamstrings I’d recommend dumbell lunges, and deadlifts and if you have a machine, leg curls. For calves I recommend seated calf raises if you have a machine or standing calf raises with a dumbell. You know our calf routine already. For lower back I’d recommend back arches and, if you have a machine, hyperextensions. You are already familiar with a lot of ab exercises from class. Three types need to be done crunches, sit-ups and oblique crunches. We can vary the exercises a lot but these are the muscles being attacked.
Interviewer:
You’re showing your NACS coaching knowledge, sifu! What of cardio-respiratory training, sifu?
Sifu Zopa:
Well, yes and no. NCAS only provides what I see as an overview. The core NCAS course is quite a good basic course. This routine derives from other research over several years to find the best ways for you to train - simplest, safest, most effective, most efficient, most direct etc. Hhmm, starting to sound like we’re employing the Wing Chun principles eh? (Laughs) OK, cardio-respiratory training. If you do this on the same day as your weights it must be done after weights. Never before! Or at the other end of the day. You’ll be too tired for weights otherwise.
Only train this three days per week. If you’re aiming for weight loss then do it six days per week. There are three options:
(i) Japanese Olympic Speed Skating routine (10 to 11 mins) - the “in a hurry” routine
(ii) High intensity aerobic workout (20 mins)
(iii) (ii) then without the warm-up (i).
The Japanese Olympic speed skating routine entails what we do in class. So, if we do I there, that’s sufficient. Your “sprint” can be running; swimming; biking; skipping; martial arts activities etc. Here’s how you do it:
warm up for 4 minutes at 50% speed. Then alternate periods of “sprint” at 100% effort with periods of going slowly for ten seconds. Do this for four minutes. You can then cool down for two to three minutes of moving slowly if you’re winding up your training. This type of burst is good for Wing Chun because actual fighting is in short bursts of speed. It simulates “rounds” of fighting. Our actual realworld fights will all be over in under twenty seconds so this is the over-training principle.
As to the high intensity aerobic workout, this takes twenty minutes. You warm up for two minutes of activity at 50% effort. The beauty of this aerobic training is you can double up by using Wing Chun techniques. Then you do four cycles of 1 minute at 60% effort, 1 minute at 70% effort, 1 minute at 80% effort, and 1 minute at 90% effort. You can conclude with 1 minute at 100% effort then cool down for 1 minute at 50% effort. Try it with saam sing choi with juen ma, pin choi or dang gerk or alternating them and you’ll immediately see the benefits!
Interviewer:
Sifu, you mentioned a nutrition plan. What’s that entail?
Sifu Zopa:
Well, as you know, my notion of self defence is it’s a lifestyle and defending your health is the first level. So, a sound knowledge of nutrition is essential. From my research I’ve found the optimal nutrition plan to entail the following: drink 6 to 8 x 8 oz glasses of water per day spaced reasonably. This ought not include tea or coffee or protein drinks! Eat five to six smaller meals per day. Take no more than three hours between meals. Eat two serves of vegetables and fruit per day. Eat no more than approximately two fist sized servings per meal. You can eat protein and carbohydrate at every meal or alternate them. Eating both at every meal is ideal can lead to flatulence. Drink one cup of green tea per day for the antioxidants. Drink a cup of coffee one hour before training to stimulate the system. Drink one cup of ginseng tea per day for its energising and anti-ageing effects. I used to ingest a daily concoction of herbs when I was young. They definitely kept me younger longer - but alas the prices have gone through the roof and they’re far too expensive these days. Ginseng is the only one I still ingest. Select simple natural foods. Avoid processed foods. Avoid fried foods, sugars, salt and fat.
Your daily caloric input formula is your bodyweight multiplied by 15. Your daily protein input formula is 1 gm per lb of target body weight per day spread across the meals. This ought to be 30-35% of your daily caloric input. After three months reduce this down to 0.75 gms per lb of bodyweight.
Your daily carbohydrate input formula is your bodyweight x 15 x 50% divided by 4. Avoid simple (jams, jellies, most breads and cereals, fruit juices etc) and limit or avoid refined carbs (cakes, soda drinks, candy, ice cream, sugar-containing foods and drinks). It is essential to mix 50-50 both high and low glycemic carbs. Look up glycemic index on the internet. I’m sure they have tables of food indices there. Carbs ought to be 50-55% of your daily caloric input.
Your daily fat input formula is your bodyweight x 15 x 15% divided by 9. Eat only the “good fats”. These are the essential fats found in flax, safflower, olive or borage oil. Eat low fat foods.
Post Work-out you ought to ingest a quality creatine supplement immediately after work-out in 8 oz water. Never use the liquid ones - they simply don’t work! Have a meal or meal-replacement drink (containing milk protein, caseinates, whey concentrate and/or isolates) with 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein within 30-45 minutes post work-out.
Interviewer:
Lots of information there, sifu! Thank you.
Sifu Zopa:
If you choose to do modern supplementary training I’m sure it’ll benefit your Wing Chun. Remember, it is supplementary training, though. Your Wing Chun training must obviously be the major focus. Such training as this will definitely benefit your health and that’s the first level of self defence.