Baguazhang Training. Last night in class, teaching the Two Palace work, I added some 5lb plates to my hands and worked through Bear Palm, Giant Eagle Spreads It’s Wings and Green Dragon Stretches It’s Claws. Resistance training is essential for learning structural alignment and building. The right combination of endurance, strength and ability to stabilize and move under resistance. Adding weights - letting them hand off the thumb and holding them lightly so they rest on the bones in other palm structures helps develop the kind of relaxed, structural power and strength that you need to be able to use Baguazhang properly. I have talked with and met Baguazhang players who learned the Jiang Baguazhang style as a light and fluffy and flowery, pretty exercise. I did not. My Bagua teacher Mark was big into Wing Chun before he picked up Bagua. He knew Xinyi Lui He Quan and Chen Taijiquan and he knew how to fight. I learned Bagua as a slamming, smashing whirlwind - almost like a Circular and Spinning variation of Xinyi Lui He Quan with deep spirals for throwing and breaking joints with sudden spontaneous Chin Na. He once made the comment that he practiced his Xinyi all the time - Walking the Circle. Amazing how even just 5lbs in the hands feels like 40 after a while and how it forces you to relax and find your bones. Simple and brutally effective conditioning. This is what got me hooked after being a power lifter and full contact Kenpo Karate guy for over a decade. #bagua #baguazhang #baguazhangkungfu #jiangbagua #kungfu #kungfulife #kungfutraining #fit #fitafter40 #fitness #winnipeg https://www.instagram.com/p/B8M8gfVgtVW/?igshid=12rc1r0v8c9yt
