Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is, in short, the best book on the basics of martial arts I have ever come across. It is inspirational, well set up and the routines will work wonders for anyone, if they follow through with the books premise, which is to work with it every single day for 28 days. Continue with the program after the 28 days and the book may change your whole life.
Surprisingly, it seems quite a few people are giving this book very negative reviews - claiming that the excercises within are too basic and too simple ... that you can learn them in any martial arts class. I very much disagree with this.
I have over fifteen years of experience in the martial arts, and have taught several styles at various dojos throughout Scandinavia, Scotland, Japan and the US. During my career, I have trained with some of Japan's elite MMA fighters, British and European karate champions, fought and defeated grappling champions and have had the priviledge of studying under some of the most learned figures in martial arts today.
This of course does not mean I am automatically right about whatever I say on this topic - all it means is I have some experience to draw on and have been down a lot of roads that were dead ends. And it is from experience that I believe this is a very, very useful book.
This book teaches the reader basics and basics only. Some may find this annoying, but I cannot stress enough just how important those basics are and how well they must be perfected for a student to advance. One of the books winning points is how well this book stresses the beauty and grace of basics, instead of just treating them as some sort of initiation ritual that must be completed before the student can move on to the `real stuff'. I have seen so-called beginners, who trained their basics and basics only solidly and with utter dedication, absolutely floor much higher ranking students in contests, higher ranking students who just learnt the basics and then immediately moved on to all that stuff most of us find so cool: flashy forms, complex moves and the like.
Flashy forms are icing on the cake, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to move like a character out of a martial arts flick - do the basics slowly, properly and with utter dedication, and you will be moving in ways you never believed possible. If you can perfect the moves in this book, learning a form - any form - will be a snap for you, because you have already learnt every aspect of the body's mechanics ... and that is in essence what forms really are: a reshuffling of body mechanics you ought already know. Train with real dedication and this book will make you a more lethal martial artist than 90% of the enthusiasts I have ever met.
It is not easy and it takes a lot of work, but nothing worth having comes without a price.
So, after all the praise, why only four stars and not five? Because the stretches and moves, while wonderful, are in my opinion taught without regard to safety and may likely lead to injury if not performed with care. The author thrusts an attitude of reckless abandon on the reader, which is the only right attitude to have when learning something new, but regardless of this, safety ought always be a factor - especially for beginners, who through no fault of their own do not yet have proper knowledge of safety and the body's limits. If you are injured, you can't train and may even make the very natural mistake of thinking something worthwhile is actually not for you.
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The Shaolin Workout: 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior's WayIn his loft in New york City's Greenwich Village, Sifu Shi Yan Ming trains men and women of all ages, body types and backgrounds in the fundamentals of kung fu. A 34th generation Shaolin Warrior monk from China's Shaolin Temple--the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the mecca of all martial arts--Yan Ming teaches the students at his USA Shaolin Temple that there is no better workout program than his brand of kung fu for getting the body and mind into warrior condition.Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of four-color photographs, the warrior workout, distills a lifetime of Shaolin training and wisdom into a 28-day workout.Thiscomplete-unto-itself program of both fitness and spiritual lessons can be applied to every aspect of one's life: work, relationships, family.Kung fu gives a superb aerobic workout at the same time that it dramatically increases flexibility, power, and speed.. The ultimate promise of the book is this: readers who stick to the plan for 28 days--for as little as 15 minutes a day--will be transformed inside and out. And the enormous sense of accomplishment that results will radiate through their life, allowing them to tackle the world with a warrior's confidence, calm, and poise.
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