One of my biggest pet peeves about aging martial artists.

Lets talk about aging martial artists and strength.

So relying on strength when trying to learn technique is not a good thing. Most people would say that. Now if the technique requires a level of strength(Like a high crotch) it still must be executed smoothly and with good body mechanics, the maximum levage.

The fact is the less strength you have to use to make something work, the easier it is to make something work on someone stronger or heavier than you, the less strength used also mean exhaustion overcomes a martial artist a great deal less.

So yeah, unless you’re doing strength training, it’s a good idea to try and do things with the most optimal body mechanics. That’s just smart.

Yet there is this idea even now among particularly chinese kung-fu practitioners that people should not do any strength training, they should only do pure technique work. If you’re in taiji circles you have bald white dudes saying “True kung-fu is cultivation of song,” and the guy will even trash talk hitting angles as inferior. They honestly think doing even a little bit of strength training will cause practitioners to use power accidently and screw their technique up. And then ultimately when they are old men, their kung-fu will die!

Because the only way old people can fight is good technique! Right?

There was a kung-fu teacher in my city, I won’t say who, but I argued with him about hitting bags and general physical training using western methods. He said the typical ‘lifting weights will make you bulky and ruin kung-fu’ and of course, ‘you won’t be able to fight when you’re old’

Now I don’t blame him for not listening to me. Who the fuck am I?

Thing is as a kung-fu guy who runs around in silk Pajamas, he listens to old chinese kung-fu mastres. And that’s waht happened. A kung-fu practioner that was in the chinese military told him he got it all wrong, that people should do plenty of physical training both eastern and western methods. The more someone trains consistently in their youth and continues the lifestyle into old age, the better a martial artist ages. And if they keep the routine up(within reason adjusted to age) then and only then should the kung-fu practioner focus mostly on technique and not strength training since it won’t be the same as in their youth. Doesn’t mean they don’t keep working out.

And then listening to a chinese guy with a good kung-fu reputation, he finally told his students to start using the bar and developing physically.

Now personally I think it’s kind of sad that despite one hundred years of modern sport science, the guy only listened to someone who is good at kung-fu. Not you know, actual experts and scientists that study this stuff.

Yes old people can’t rely on physical strength. But who would really win in a fight? An old man who only does martial arts? Or an old man that does martial arts and also trains his body? Activity is always good for old people, always has them age much more gracefully. This is a no brainer.


What is even more astounding is that this revelation of physical training being good for kung-fu isn’t a secret. The supposedly Hui-Muslim(students say he’s Muslim. Grand daughter says no) chinese kung-fu Legend Wang Ziping’s life is a good indicator of that.

His name is Wang. I wonder if that’s a reference to his giant muslamic shlong.

Wang studied various styles, but his Taiji/Tai chi was among one of the systems he’s best known for. And what did this guy do? He lifted up really big rocks, square stones with handles, and dug ditches of different depth to practice jumping out of them.

And this guy ended up beating people up well into his old age, using Tai Chi. His life is not a secret. His life is well known.

Yet somehow some hardcore internal martial arts people can’t put two and two together and realize physical power is a good thing?

Tim Cartmill isn’t afraid of working out, and he wrote books about his grand masters, he translated the writings of old Shiao Jiao practitioners with internal kung-fu backgrounds.

And one thing I noticed in the book is a Hsing I and Taiji old bastard lifting up heavy urns and moving them around all day to develop the ability to take balance and develop the body.

Again. None of this shit was a secret. Yet somehow internal martial arts people think it’s not good to have a powerful body.


Guys nobody is asking you to muscle your way through push hands or martial arts practice. No one says you can’t cultivate your song and you base/posture without recruiting muscles.

But don’t pretend the old man that never worked out will somehow be better off in a fight than the old man that lifted heavy rocks all day.

He’s middle aged now. Legit martial artist. Does anyone think the work he’s doing makes him worse in how he moves?

One reason Tyson still moves amazing and still is powerful because he spent his youth developing his body, and it clearly stayed until he started training again.