Shaolin life in China: Week 39 (27 September

Monday was a pain it was freezing so we ran in the training hall for our warm up. After stretching which for some reason was really painful (probably due to the cold) we did our normal warm up kicks. After wards we spent 90 minutes just doing kicking and punching variations in the air, my arms and shoulders were shaking after that.

castle at night with the lights on

Eagle left to go home, it was his second time leaving because last time he couldn't change his flight and had to stay a month longer. During the afternoon session we had to run to the T and back, the sun was out but it was extremely windy which made it pretty cold. After stretching we had to do 10 50meter sprints with no rest and right after that we had to hit the punching bags again for about 30 minutes.

After that we had to do various stomach exercises followed by some weights. In the evening we just practiced kicking and punching combos on the bags.

At 5:30 on Tuesday it was still dark and after line up only Dan and I went for a run, it had rained overnight so the roads were wet and combined with the wind it was just miserable. Just before the 8:00 line up Eagle arrived back at the academy because he had overslept in Siping and had missed his Taxi to the airport and his flight so he decided to come back to the academy. For morning training we just did weights. During the afternoon session we just spent most of the session kicking and punching the bags again which was hard work because of the previous days training.

Wednesday was another very windy and cold day, for our warm up we ran to the bridge and back which is about a 4km run luckily the sky was clear and sun rays could be felt despite the icy wind, after the run we did our usual stretches. For the entire training session we had to speed walk/run laps inside the training hall whilst carrying each other, Dan weighs just over 80kg and I could really feel it.

7x 2 laps piggyback (as fast as possible)
6x 1 laps carrying on front (luckily for this one I could carry a lighter Chinese guy weighing 70kg)
6x 2 laps carrying over the shoulder

Carrying Dan piggyback

Carrying a lighter Chinese guy

After the last set I could hear my hear and feel my heart thumping through my own ears.

In the afternoon it was very windy and we just went for walk a 2 hour walk through the local villages, the amount of corn planted everywhere is just mesmerizing.

Chinese "cars" (left) 650 cc 3 cylinder petrol, (right) 1 cylinder 8kw diesel

Corn as far as the eye can see

In the evening we just did some stretching and did some basic kicking and punching.

Thursday we did our warm up in the training hall because it was cold and windy outside. The shifu wanted us to do some sparring but my knees hurt and were a bit swollen from the previous day, so I just did some weights. Dan however sparred with the shifu and the punches got harder and harder, Dan had hit the shifu in the face about 3 or 4 times and I was expecting them to stop but next thing Dan just dropped. He had let his guard down and received a full hook to the face. I rushed over to see if he was ok, he had a little blood running out his mouth, he must have been out for about 3 seconds.

It was clearly a knockout and if you've ever wondered why this happens, it is because the brain isn't attached to the skull and when the skull rapidly accelerates and twists, the brain collides with the skull, this bruises the temporal lobe and has the same effect as pressing the restart button on a computer. I would say it was a good once off experience, the best training is the type that replicates real world elements as closely as possible. The shifu was a bit concerned so we had the afternoon off. In the evening I practised some kicks and punches, Dan just relaxed because his head was still buzzing.

sunrise at 6:00am now

Friday morning we went for our run through the local villages, we were very surprised to see that the farmers were actually harvesting the corn by hand (Chinese people are really hard workers and appreciate their work, regardless what it may be). After our run we did some power stretching for 30 minutes.

Farmers harvesting corn by hand

After lunch we went to Siping which was chaotic, we found a new supermarket that had opened and they had a sale on thermal underwear, top and bottom both for 19.99RMB I usually believe in the concept that you get what you pay for but these are very good quality.

After out shopping we headed off to the Jinlihao, after sitting in the hot bath for about 30 minutes we had a sauna and a shower. We then headed to the recliners on level 3 and unpacked our snacks and laptops. The next morning we slept in and then got another sauna and hot bath, after paying (28RMB each) we left to go and get some lunch.

Duck embrio in egg, grilled (all you can smell is burnt hair/feathers) 2RMB

We walked passed some stalls with Duck eggs again but decided not to try them, instead we had some beef noodles at mister Lee which was very good, after wards we headed back to the academy at about 3pm.