Traditional Gong Li Power Training with barbells and large "Guan Yu Dao" (Shuai Jiao)

One evening on a trip to China, I was taken to watch some traditional martial artists practicing something called "Gong Li" power training, strangely in a car showroom parking lot.

The main instructor said, originally it was a standard requirement in China, to practice lifting heavy weights well before actually learning basic fighting techniques or forms. This first kind of training involved lifting very heavy old style dumbells and barbells, as well as heavy weapons such as Guan Dos etc. But instead of doing modern style weightlifting as seen in the Olympics today, the weights/ weapons were used in weightlifting forms (or Katas) that involved turning and using more whole body movements.

The main instructor's preferred style was Shuai Jiao, aka ancient Chinese Wrestling, but he stressed that "Gong Li" power training like this was a standard requirement, originally for all Wushu, or Chinese martial arts styles.

Unsurprisingly he said that as modern sports Wushu has become more dominant, requiring more acrobatic skill, agility and finesse, this kind of training has become increasingly rare.

** Apologies for the bad lighting, the camera struggles to focus at some points ! **

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[TheShaolinScholar]

hey im lovign the information here pls keep it comming :)

[tlock2005]

@TheShaolinScholar Make your mind up !...or did someone just hack your account and post that jibberish under your account name ?

By the way, everyone must appreciate that martial artists can be very secretive (especially in China), which is in fact the reason I wasn't able to film more than just this conditioning / strength performance.

For the record, some of the students in the background were actually complaining that a foreigner shouldn't be allowed to see or film anything !

[Mud111]

General Kwan must have been a giant. Can't imagine using that thing in battle against a few attackers like they do in the movies.

[tlock2005]

@Mud111 Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking at the time.

[TheShaolinScholar]

o fuk there tradition wahahahah they dont do kugn fu ,kugn fu is lost they do something called "nostalgia" its all for show an shui jao sucks its bad for the body slammign into the floor shui cao use to be free sparring now they did what they want with the name just like the name wushu anlast lifting a heavy weapon mean absolutly shit lol to hel with them find you of style :P