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The most important exercises categories

To prepare ourselves consistently in 6 Dragons Kung Fu (or any other martial art) we have to plan a daily training focused on the development and maintenance of all the basic skills that a practitioner should possess (read also All the skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu).

In our school we divide the exercises (read 6 Dragons Kung Fu exercises’ characteristics) we perform in 2 macro-categories:

Physical exercises (to develop a suitable body structure)
Technical exercises (focused on what we teach martially)

To start we will see on what to focus our training sessions in terms of basic phyisical capabilities.

The physical exercises that our martial body needs

The categories we are going to list are very common (even in other disciplines / sports) but not for this reason they are less important or avoidable (read How to use martial arts in a real fight):

Warm-up – These exercises are very simple and do not require special flexibility, strength (etc.); their purpose is to heat the body elements we are going to implement during the practice; the goal is to prevent injuries and bad performaces (read for example 5 jumping exercises ideal for beginners / warm-up)
Flexibility – We are talking about all the types of more or less advanced stretching methods (tendons transformation, preparatory, to recover, for regeneration, etc.); the goal is to prepare and extend the capabilities of our body elements (read for example 5 stretching exercises with a stick)
Mobility – These exercise develop stamina and at the same time help the body to adapt to the combat scenarios (running with / without obstacles, high / low jumps, explosive movements, ground crawling, bouncing on the walls, etc.); the goal is to build responsiveness (read for example 5 running exercises ideal for beginners / warm-up)
Weights and other tools – These practices are to build stamina, power and / or speed (weight lifting, weight throwing, wearable weights, tractions, etc.); moving away from the idea of building unnecessary body mass, the goal is to improve muscles and our cardiovascular system (read for example The weighted vest)
Regeneration – These are practices that allow us to compensate for the effort at the end of the most intese sessions; the goal is to be ready for the subsequend day of training (no pain, stiffness, etc., read for example 5 regeneration practices to recover after training)
Other – We include exercises coming from functional training, Yoga and many other systems
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Important:

This list is incomplete and alone it makes no sense (nothing related to balance, coordination, etc.); the gaps that are easily highlightable are compensated by the technical exercises we will see later
Let’s repeat it, these are very common but fundamental practices, they allow us to fortify and maintain our body at at the right level (read How to use martial arts in a real fight)
As anyone can understand, sometimes, these “groups” intersect one between each other and this allows us to recover a lot of precious time (read Optimizing the available time)
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Final notes

A few conclusive indications:

We have to establish, within our day, a certain time to be divided into sections (from a minimum of 1 minute to 120 minutes each, read Practical examples of daily training time subdivision); to start we can simply focus on 5 minutes per exercise (read How to start practicing from scratch)
Depending on our physical shape, we can start with 30-45 minutes a day and increase gradually with the improvement of our performances (the ideal for a good preparation is at least 2-3 hours, read Tips on how to stretch our training times)
No one can perform all the exercises every day (and it would be wrong); the idea is to mix and alternate as much as possible but maintaing a good monthly balance (between legs-arms, agilty-strength, what we are good at and what we cannot do, etc., read 6 Dragons Kung Fu training sessions’ structure)
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A note by Master Kongling – To conclude, 2 important tips: the first is don’t train what is in pain, train what gives you pain (this is valid both from the strictly physical point of view as for the psychological one).

In the next article we will see the specific 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s technical training categories (regarding the use of body, mind, weapons, etc., read How to train in 6DKF: specific exercises).

In-depth video courses

Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – The most complete explanation of the technical exercises of 6 Dragons Kung Fu

In-depth articles

Workout music: how, when, why – How to exploit music for motivation
The right age to start practice – How, when and why it is important to start

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Have you already had the opportunity to practice similar exercises?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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