Endurance Forms

[Johnlogic121]

When I was doing Kung Fu, our instructor expected that we would do at least as much work ouside of class as we did inside of class. Also, he would show different things to different people with the understanding that we would get together outside of class and share those things with each other. Two of my friends showed me two different "endurance forms" that our Sifu taught on a night when I couldn't make it to class for some reason. I no longer recall the names of these forms, but if you do them regularly, they can be very helpful for building up muscles.

Endurance form one:

Stand in a front stance, or alternatively, in a hourglass stance. Curl the wrists of each hand upwards so that you can execute palm heel strikes with each hand and hold the arms ready at the sides a little higher than the hips. Step one: Thrust the right palm heel to the point of maximum extension as though you are striking a foe in the chest, and then retract the right hand. Step two: Thrust the left hand to the point of maximum extension as though you are striking a foe in the chest, and then retract the left hand. Step three: Thrust both hands to the point of maximum extension as though you are making a double palm heel press to the opponent's chest, and then retract both hands. After this, you repeat the steps many, amny times until you are tired. These attacks are actually strikes from the Puma Animal system and you should visualize the front paws and rear paws of the "Puma" pouncing onto your target. This three step sequence is often used together to unbalance and throw somebody by pushing them off balance backwards.

Endurance form two:

You make fists and hold your two fists in a vertical position on the left side of your body so that the right arm in crossing your body horizontally and the left elbow is tucked into your side with the left forearm angled outwards. You move the arms to form the mirror image position on the right side of the body. Then, you move the arms back over to the left. You repeat this process many, many times. Doing this works muscles in your back as well as your chest. When you get advanced at this, you can stand back to back with someone and pass heavy clay jugs that have two handles on them back and forth, going around your two bodies in a circle.

Does anybody know of any other forms that are explicitly classified as endurance forms?

[bushido_man96]

It sounds like the first of these endurance forms that you mention could be done with just about any forward attacking technique, and all you have to do is perform the movements over and over again. I don't know that I would necessarily call it an "endurance form," so to speak; but just moves done for endurance purposes.

[Johnlogic121]

I think the reason why these specific exercises are utilized for the purposes of building endurance is that they focus on precisely the right muscular groups and when you do the motions at the proper speed they continuously exercise the associated muscles to give them no real rest. If you did most three step combinations over and over again, the moments of rest in between moving certain muscles would make the efficiency of the endurance exercise a little bit less, even though shadowboxing or regular forms performance can be used to test resistance to fatigue. These forms are suited to the kinds of muscle movements required for Mang Chaun Kung Fu and doing these forms for ten minutes can be a challenge for a beginner. As the muscles get tired, the precision of the movements suffers, and you can feel the burn in your body. I think doing alternate exercises might be a little easier and not provide the same kind of intensity to your endurance workout. The first routine with the Puma strikes works the shoulders and back almost as much as swimming, and the second routine really focuses even more on crucial back muscles. -JL.

[bushido_man96]

As the muscles get tired, the precision of the movements suffers, and you can feel the burn in your body.

This is true of any repetitive exercise that you do. Like I said, you can choose about any exercise, and get endurance out of it.