Shi - The shaolin workout: 28 days to transforming your body and soul the warriors way

Notice

The information in this book is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editor and publisher advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this book, be sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training, and fitness. The exercise program in this book is not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine that may have been prescribed by your doctor. As with all exercise programs, you should get your doctors approval before beginning.

Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.

Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2006 by Sifu Shi Yan Ming

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Photographs by Bob Scott (www.bobscottnyc.com)

Book design by Ellen Nygaard

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shi, Yan Ming

The shaolin workout : 28 days to transforming your body and soul the warriors way / Sifu Shi Yan Ming.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13 9781594864001 hardcover

ISBN-10 1594864004 hardcover

ISBN-13 9781609616724 ebook

1. Kung fuTraining. I. Title.

GV1114.7.S53 2006

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To my parents, who gave me life
and still watch my every step from above and
whose love I feel at every moment.

Acknowledgments

This book came together as a result of the efforts of many people, to whom I would like to send thanks:

To Laurie Liss, agent extraordinaire, whose vision this book was from the start, who is my kind of person because she just does it. A superb practitioner of action meditation and a great friend as well.

To John Strausbaugh, my coauthor, who worked tirelessly and captured my voice in a way that none other has and who went way, way, way above and beyond the call of duty.

To Sophia Chang, the ultimate partner: in love, in life, in parenthood, in my temple and life journey. The temple would not be what it is without her.

To my remarkable children, Jin Long and Jian Hong, who are my heart and make life even more beautiful 8 days a week, 366 days a year.

To the RZA, my brother in this and many lifetimes, whose support, friendship, and loyalty have helped bring me and the U.S.A. Shaolin Temple to where we are today.

To Zachary Schisgal at Rodale, without whose belief in me this book would not be what it is. To his team, Ellen Nygaard, Andrew Gelman, and Courtney Conroy, whose dedication to this project is evident on every page.

To Heng Ching and Heng Zhong for making me look even more handsome! Thousands and thousands of times over!

To my stellar U.S.A. Shaolin Temple demo team, who always makes me look good.

To Heng Ji, Heng Suo, Heng Nai, Heng Zhi, Heng Xu, Heng De, Heng Fa, Heng Yi, Heng Zhou, Xiao Tian, and everyone else who gave their time and love to read through this book sentence by sentence, word by word.

To the Shaolin Temple in China and all my masters and brothers who helped push me to this place.

To Buddha, for everything.

A special thanks to Jim Jarmusch, John Leguizamo, and the city we call home, New York.

Before I was born who was I?

After I am born who am I?

Respect yourself, everybody will respect you.

Understand yourself, everybody will understand you.

There are mirrors all around you, strive to see and understand yourself.

Strive to have the heart of a Buddha.

Stop doing bad things, only do good.

Do whatever you can to help others.

In these ways you help yourself.

Help yourself, and you help the world. Amituofo!

Sifu Shi Yan Ming

In a typical loft space in Manhattans hip Greenwich Village, a not-so-typical New Yorker is warming up. He is Sifu Shi Yan Ming, a 34th-generation warrior monk hailing from Chinas Shaolin Temple, birthplace of Chan Buddhism 1,500 years ago and mecca of all martial arts. Although he is not tall by American standards, his almost impossibly trim body gives an impression of awesome physical power even when he is simply tying the laces of his white training sneakers. With his shaved head and his sternly chiseled good looks, he is the very ideal of the legendary kung fu warrior.

As he begins to move, the impression is more than confirmed. When he stretches his spine, bending forward from the hips and lowering his torso until he can grip his ankles and touch the ground with the top of his head, he makes folding himself in half like a wallet look effortless. Then he executes a series of dazzling kicks, his feet flashing as though hes about to kick a hole in the antique tin ceiling 8 feet above his head. When he punches the air, his fists explode out and back with blinding speed and what one imagines would be devastating force. Then he leaps, and his entire body corkscrews in midair, as though he had ball bearings in place of a lower spine.

Its an amazing display of strength, precision, lightning speed, and incredible agility. He might even go on to break a stack of bricks with his head, slice a stack of boards with his hand, or lean into the points of three spears with his throathis throat!and bend the spears rather than be impaled.

Sifu is a world-renowned master of the martial arts. International action movie stars like Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, and Michelle Yeoh respectfully address him as Sifutypically translated into English as Master. So have the thousands of students who have come to this loft space, the U.S.A. Shaolin Temple, to train under him.

A young woman, one of his students, enters the space. Sifu pauses, his body impeccably poised in front of a snarling-dragon mural on the Chinese-red wall. There isnt a dot of perspiration on him. Hes not even breathing heavily.

Amituofo, Sifu! she calls out.

Amituofo! he replies energetically.

Pronounced ah-mee-toh-foh