Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Can You Lift Weights and Do Tai Chi, Xingyi or Bagua?

chen tai chi training chen taiji training internal arts training tai chi and weights weight training Jul 01, 2019

The photo shows a practice tip that is on my Bagua Basic Skills DVD and in the Bagua section of my website. It shows me walking the circle with dumbbells in my hands.

One of the traditional training methods for old school Bagua students was to do this with a brick or a stone in each hand. Now, we have dumbbells, so we can use those.

This not only helps develop circle-walking, but it is a weight-training exercise to help build your arm and shoulder strength, not to mention leg strength from circle-walking with the extra weight.

A Huge Fallacy in the Internal Arts

I have heard many people in the internal arts say that weight-training is a violation of internal principles. Even doing push-ups is a violation. They believe you should only do Taijiquan, for instance, and nothing more.

If you practice an internal art like Taiji, the argument goes, it is all the fitness training that you need.

One guy who claims to be a "master" instructor of Tai Chi told me that he wen...

Bruce Lee and Cultivating Chi

bruce le4e cultivating chi weight training Jan 13, 2007

A young man sent me an email and asked if Bruce Lee knew anything about cultivating chi. The young man didn't think so, because Bruce Lee did weight training as part of his workouts.

I believe some people have a very narrow view of what "cultivating chi" means. They think that if you aren't doing standing meditation or chi kung or tai chi or something similar, you aren't cultivating chi.

I would suggest a broader definition of what "cultivating chi" means. In my view, it means getting healthy and strong. Anything that helps you get healthy and strong helps you cultivate chi.

That would include eating right, getting enough sleep, weight training, aerobics, running, rope-jumping, sparring, working the heavybag, doing forms, doing chi kung, meditating -- all the things that make the muscles and bones stronger, the mind more calm, and the body's aerobic conditioning better.

I would urge anyone to avoid restricting themselves to such narrow views. If you buy into the concept of chi, yo...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Can You Lift Weights and Do Tai Chi, Xingyi or Bagua?

Bruce Lee and Cultivating Chi

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