KUNG FU MEDICINE: GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YA

Happy end to the summer! Hooray. Finally. We can get back down to business. I’m sorry to burst everybody’s bubble. I love the summer just like anyone else does, but it’s the worst thing when it comes to training in the martial arts because everybody takes the big vacation, not just physically but mentally. You know how hard it is on the day after Labor Day to get organized and get your act back together. But I have a secret. That secret is Kung Fu. That is the medicine that we all need to get ourselves back on track. I’m not a party pooper. I want the warm weather and the sunny days to continue, but everybody’s got to get their head into focus. There’s no better way to do this than to get back into your training. Kung Fu is one of the best cure-alls that you’ll ever find. It’s better than eating your Wheaties, having Cheerios or going to the spa. It’s the best thing since sliced bread, or maybe even better.

Kung Fu has a powerful medicinal effect. I feel it on a daily basis. The way I see Kung Fu, it’s “good for what ails ya,” as the saying goes. Why is Kung Fu such good medicine?
It’s akin to you going to see the Chinese herbalist in your local Chinatown and him diagnosing you with your said malady and giving you a prescription. Now, if any of you have ever gone to a Chinese herbalist, he won’t give you the medicine in the form of a pill. This is very much a western concept of wanting it fast and getting it easy in a vaccination or a pill. In the old Chinese way of doing medicine, as many of you may know, the herbalist will prescribe many different herbs and roots that need to be boiled down in a very specific manner over a certain period of time with a particular level of heat and water content until you come to the right consistency. Then, you have this medicine that can help you to get over your ailment. This serves as a perfect analogy for what you can derive from your training. In the case of Kung Fu, it is your Sifu who gives you the prescription that you need.

I’m speaking right now from my own personal experience training on a regular basis, not always concerned about “being good” per se, but rather, about being good in total, as an individual with a holistic approach. This is something that many students may not be aware of, but within Kung Fu training is built a holistic approach to help realign all the different systems within the body. Now, I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t have any case studies. But, I’ve witnessed in my own training that regardless of what I’m afflicted with at that moment in time, I’m able to overcome it and surpass it from the training that I receive in the “prescription,” i.e. the specific form graciously taught to me by my teacher, Grandmaster Tak Wah Eng.

I take notice that when I train regularly and focus my movements, right away, my eyesight is better. You may say, well, I still see you using reading glasses. Yes, that’s true, but the clarity with which I see and view things feels sharper and more concise. Regular practice makes your perception more clear. Your muscular system is much more toned. We’ve all seen individuals that are “gushy.” You touch their flesh and you feel like you’re touching a mushy bowl of rice pudding. Even though you may not do the Stairmaster or jog or lift weights, the Kung Fu practice by itself is already impacting your muscles, your ligaments, your tendons and all your joints. It’s creating greater blood flow and easier conductivity of the electrical charge that runs through your body (chi). Regular practice equalizes the body’s systems. Twisting, turning, stretching like a tiger, expansion and contraction of the movement makes the body in all its facets move to the extreme so you gain that huge range of motion and physical expression of energy.

Every twist and turn of the body is realigning the skeletal system, allowing you greater mobility and range of motion. Twisting and turning contorts blood vessels, allowing them to flow more blood through the body at an easier pace. With every breath and every grunt and groan and specific sound that is uttered when you execute the movement, the tonal quality of the sound impacts the different organs in the body because your body is very sensitive to vibration. In modern medicine they use sonograms, sound waves of different frequencies to help heal. This was already known to the ancient masters and is part of why we have those types of different sounds inside the body. We don’t yell just to yell, but it’s helping you expel the bad air, i.e. chi, and tonify the different internal organs based on the frequency of the sounds that are made. You have to do it right with the proper mindset and in the proper way in order to gain the benefit. That’s why you need that one-on-one touch; you need to consult Dr. Sifu. The ancient masters understood that you require something extra above your daily routine in order to keep the body a well-oiled machine, and that’s basically what we’re doing when we practice the form. We’re working all the different systems, lymph nodes, heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidney. We bring the physical, spiritual, internal and mental all into line.

The effectiveness of Kung Fu as medicine for the entire individual requires the entire individual to be involved and goes far beyond popping a pill and hoping for the best. Just as we spend hours boiling down the medicinal tea that was prescribed to you by the herbalist, you will spend countless hours boiling down the various techniques and movements that you learn in your practice. Traditional Chinese medicine, if you’ve ever had the chance to have it, is not the cherry cough syrup that mama bought for you from the local drugstore, but is in actuality really bitter and smells pretty awful. It kind of reminds me of a scene in a Little Rascals episode where all the orphans are lined up and each one has to take a spoonful of castor oil. They viewed it as nasty and horrible, and sometimes we view the training like that. But that bitterness is a cleansing effect that the practice has on the total sum of the individual. After you get used to it, it’s not that bad; it’s kind of like brussel sprouts. You come to understand that the secret lies in a daily dosage of practice. It helps to preserve you in all aspects of your humanity.

The best gift that you can give yourself is to go and see your Sifu, your Kung Fu doctor, and get that dose, get that charge, get that medicine to bring yourself back into focus. This is especially true now at the end of the summer when everybody’s a little loopy from overindulging themselves. It’s good to have this cathartic regimen that you can return to and reenergize your body and your mind and bring everything back into proper alignment. Kung Fu is Chinese medicine. You have to know how to cook it. But if you know how to cook it and work it, this is medicine that makes you come alive.

-Sifu Paul Koh 高寶羅

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