First full day of training

This morning I got up at 5:15am with the first bell and had a look at the daily schedule which looks like this:



5:15 Lights on
5:45 Get up
6:00 Morning training
6:30 Breakfast
7:50 Ready
8:00 - 10:00 Morning training
10:30 - 11:30 Training (or language class)
11:40 Lunch

Rest

13:30 Ready
13:40 - 15:30 Afternoon training
17:00 Dinner
17:50 Ready
18:00 - 19:30 Evening training
19:30 - 20:30 Shower
20:30 Go to bed
22:00 Lights off

This morning I went to the training hall at about 5:50am and practiced Qi Gong with master Liu, despite having a stiff neck and painful muscles I felt really rejuvenated after the Qi Gong exercises, at 6:30am it was still dark outside but time for breakfast. At about 7:00 the started rising and despite the clear sky it was still about -30 outside. Before training I sat in my room reflecting realising that I was in so much pain after just a single training session.

 

 At 6:30 after QiGong still dark outside

 The Horizon after breakfast

For morning training warm up we had to do one legged wrestling, we had to hold one leg up and use our bodies to knock over the others, after each round the last person standing didn't need to do the 20 push ups (always on knuckles) and 20 squats. After 6 rounds I had done 100 push ups and 100 squats and my knuckles were bleeding. Right after this we had to stand on the spot and jump as high as we could with our knees up to our chest 5 times and do 8 sets with only 5 second intervals, after this my entire body was shaking. After this we had to stretch and do the basic shaolin stances, the ma bu (horse stance), gum bu and pu bu. My master was forcing me to hold all of these stretches which were all extremely painful, I couldn't quite distinguish if it was tears or sweat running down my face, perhaps both.

After training I had to change my clothes and socks, so many layers everything gets really sweaty and cold, which is really annoying. At 10:30 I decided to take a break and go to Chinese class instead of more training, because characters are too difficult to learn we learn pinyin instead, which is basically standardised spelling of the Chinese language which allows words to be written and read with letters as we know them however this is still rather difficult as each letter can be written and pronounced with up to four tones. There are also instances where words will share the same tones but have different meanings depending on the context however each different word will have a different character.

For lunch there was chicken with green peppers and carrots, tofu with spinach, carrots, eggplant and potato and some little stick things (we don't know if they are chicken, pork or fish neither does the chef). I also had some green tea, we use teapots and a chopstick to stop the tea leaves from coming out. 

Some craples (crappy half pear/apple)

Chicken with green peppers and carrots

Spinach with tofu and bean curd

Eggplant, potato, green peppers and tons of garlic and oil

Little stick things (tastes like fish and cinnamon)

Rice (3 times daily for the next year)

Afternoon training was a drag, I could barely move. I struggled doing most exercises because I can't stretch far enough and doing push ups on my knuckles is taking its toll, the skin is just hanging on little threads so subsequent sets are rather painful. Other students are helpful and motivating, my master also understands which is good.

my hands after my first day of training

In the evening I had to do some stretches mabu, gumbu and pubu but holding a 40kg weight bar until I couldn't anymore. The shower was amazing even though it is far from what I would call ideal.