Pearls of Wisdom

By Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Training For Life February 1995

In ancient China healing arts were often reserved for martial artists. Injured people went to the martial arts sifu, calling him the dit da (tit da) doctor. Dit means falling, da translates to be beat up or struck, hence people injured from fighting or falling went to martial arts dit da doctors for treatment. From there dit da became a term for any injury, covering burns, cuts or bleeding, broken bones and even bullet wounds.

There were several levels of treatment practiced by dit da doctors. The first were minor injuries caused by falling, bruising such as hematomas and muscle injuries. The next level is joint dislocations, such as a broken nose, jammed finger or wrist joints, elbow or shoulder dislocations, and any joint hyper extensions. After that comes fractured bones. There are all injuries treated by martial arts masters. Even today, kung fu sifu in Asia treat and set injuries and broken bones.

Injuries come from sports, labor or work related injuries. In the old days small Chinese towns and villages didn’t have hospitals, so injured people went to see the local martial artist for relief. Some of these people were good doctors, who had special herbal formulas and techniques handed down from generation to generation in their families.

In China in the old days there were no such things as stitches for open wounds and cuts. Therefore, using the right herbal powder was a must for stopping bleeding. Any good dit da doctor had to have a good formula to stop bleeding. The one you buy over the counter today, yun nan bai yao, is rated the best in China for “blood stop” medicine.

Besides good herbal formulas, martial artists needed to be expert at certain healing techniques, such as how to replace a dislocated joint and how to set a broken bone without it healing crooked. Remember there were no X-rays in the old days.

Martial artists got their training from watching their own martial arts teacher in action healing others. Information was passed down from teacher to teacher. Today, in various parts of Asia, martial artist dit da doctors still practice their trade. Many people will go to no other doctor for relief from injuries.

Even those with muscular pains, such as an elbow that isn’t dislocated or fractured - possibly caused by a strained tendon or muscle - go to experienced dit da doctors. Dit da doctors should know whether to massage or not to massage soft tissue injuries, like the strained elbow. Sometimes rubbing an injury causes more damage to the original injury. On the other hand, some tendon injuries come from tendons that are slightly twisted or shortened. Good dit da doctors know massage techniques that loosen the tendons and relieve pain.

Besides massage, dit da doctors had a lotion to apply to the injured area. Now known as dit da jao, this lotion hastens healing when used with massage. Jao means alcohol or liquor and describes the base ingredient that speeds absorption into the injured area. Dit da jao has become the most popular lotion in the martial arts school.

For major injuries and deep bruises, rubbing dit da jao won’t do the job. Martial arts healers made a dough based plaster to apply to injured area for four to eight hours at a time. This means the dit da doctor has to have another remedy called dit da fun (powder). Dit da fun is made from many types of herbs, ground into powder, stored in a container and used by scooping anywhere from one half to one cup, heated and mixed with different lotions to make a dough that is not too weary nor too dry.

In the old days the dit da doctor might use a piece of leaf, like banana or lotus leaf, as backing for the dit da dough. Nowadays, they use wax paper or Saran Wrap, with the dough spread about a quarter to one half inch thick in a four to six inch rectangle, depending on the size of the injured area. For an injury caused by a hot swelling, a cool plaster is used.

If the injury is not swollen a hot plaster is used. The plaster is then wrapped with an Ace bandage. For example, a foot injury is treated by wearing a plaster for about eight hours overnight (longer than that might develop a rash because of a lack of air on the skin surface). Then the dried plaster is taken off its base and put in a bucket of hot water, where the injured foot is soaked for five to ten minutes for a second treatment at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Deep injuries or internal bleeding that disturbs circulation heal faster with dit da yuen (pill), an internal medicine that helps improve circulation. These are large, ping-pong or golf-ball sized pills. The actual herbal pill inside is about the size of a marble - the rest is wax. To make dit da yuen, a special dit da powder is mixed with honey and rolled into a marble-sized ball. Then wrapped with a piece of rice paper, bee’s wax is used to seal it into a large ball for a longer shelf life. Dit da yuen is taken once in the morning and once at night, sometimes for a week to ten days. The pill can also be dissolved in a liquor and rubbed on the skin for muscle injuries.

Dit da doctors must also have the knowledge to cook specific herbs into teas for internal treatments. These are called dit da tang (soup). Most martial artists had only three formulas: neck and above injuries, body, and one for the legs to feet. Some with more knowledge have more formulas, one for every kind of injury.

While today many people go to hospitals for serious injuries, martial arts doctors still flourish in Asia and many Chinatowns throughout the world.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu Magazine.

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A 2004 study of middle agers showed that participants in a martial arts program showed an overall higher level of fitness than those who were sedentary.  The study conducted by the New York Institute of Technology measured the effects of a martial arts program on eighteen volunteers aged 40-60.  The group made up of 14 men and 4 women had an average age of 47 years.  Nine of the participants were actively engaged in a martial arts program while the other nine remained sedentary.

After a one day battery of tests the study found that body composition (body fat %) was 18.9% for the martial arts group and 30.8% for the sedentary group.  The martial arts group was able to balance for 61.8 seconds compared to 26.2 seconds for the sedentary.  The average number of push ups performed was 47 vs 19, and the number of sit ups was 66 vs 37.  The participants also had flexibility and leg strength measured and you guessed it, the martial arts group showed higher levels of flexibility and quadriceps strength.  Perhaps the biggest difference showed that the martial arts group had a 25% higher level of aerobic capacity.

The study concluded that there were significant differences in between the two groups on all of the physical fitness tests.  The martial arts group showed better strength, flexibility, balance and aerobic capacity.  The martial arts group also had a significantly lower body fat %.  However, the study did not point out how long the participants were engaged in their martial arts program or whether diet was a consideration.

Martial arts is an excellent form of physical exercise for adults and can be a great alternative to a gym membership or expensive home equipment.  The combination of physical and mental exercise creates a perfect method of training for the baby boomer set.  Studies have shown that martial arts is not only a way to improve overall fitness levels, but it can be an effective way of maintaining cognitive function and memory as well.

White Dragon Martial Arts, Train Hard-Live Better!

THE BIOMECHANICS OF THE MEASURED, FLOWING MOVEMENTS OF TAI CHI DEMONSTRATE THAT SLOWER SPEEDS LEAD TO GREATER MUSCLE ACTIVATION IN THE LOWER BODY.

by Yun Shi | August 27, 2009

If you’re familiar with exercise, you know that speed is an important factor to control. For common exercises like running and weight lifting, volumes of research has shown that it’s generally necessary to move faster for a more intense cardio workout and to make measured, controlled movements for building muscles. Other workouts, like mind-body exercises (e.g., yoga and tai chi), are somewhat harder to pin down. They aren’t cardio exercises, nor are they strictly muscle building.

The slow, flowing movements of mind-body exercises have been around for centuries, and they have been shown to help people develop balance, flexibility, and muscle function. Consequently, they’ve been increasing in popularity, both for physical therapy and personal enjoyment. While these exercises are widely practiced around the world, the biomechanical basis for their effects is not well known. To gain further insight, Ge Wu and Xiaolin Ren, biomedical engineers from the University of Vermont, chose to study how the unhurried steps of tai chi benefit its practitioners.

Experienced tai chi instructors like Ben Stanley and Leslie Edwards often remind their students that slower is better. Stanley says that “it’s about breathing and being attuned to the muscles as you’re moving. It’s important not to rush it, or you could miss the full benefits of the exercise.” In fact, Edwards pointed out that “the slower you go, the harder it is, and you definitely feel it in your legs.”

Tai chi can certainly be a test of patience for the inexperienced, as it is normally performed about 10 times slower than an average walk (2 mph), but it has a similar intensity to a moderate aerobic workout. Much of its direct benefits have been reported in the legs. To determine if and how the deliberate, gradual transitions in tai chi were responsible for these benefits, Wu and Ren employed a combination of biomechanical force plates, a camera-based motion analysis system, and EMG (electromyography) electrodes.

The 12 subjects, grouped as young (22-34 years) and old (64-80 years), performed a fundamental tai chi movement, “part wild horse’s mane,” at various speeds. Besides marking the participant’s motion from shoulder to toe, Wu and Ren measured the duration and magnitude of activation for six muscles that are key to ankle, knee, and hip mobility.

They found, as expected, that the duration of muscle activation was longer during slower motions in all six muscles. The effect was most significant for the rectus femoris (one of the quadriceps muscles) and semitendinosus (one of the hamstrings). When the participants sped up, these muscles lost this activation duration, while two muscles, the soleus (part of the calf) and semitendinosus, showed an increased activation. Thus, speeding up created an overall loss in muscle activation.

Age was also a factor in muscle activation. At slower speeds, younger subjects showed more muscle activation than older participants. This could be the result of older practitioners having a more limited range of movement. Stanley has often observed that it’s “difficult for older people to really sink down and fully extend in some of the postures compared to younger students,” but he has “seen posture, balance, and overall well being improve through time.”

Overall, Wu and Ren observed that speed had a greater impact on lower body muscles than other factors, like age or depth of movement. Their work demonstrate that slow, controlled movements can activate muscles more than rapid motion. The approach can also be used to study additional movements in tai chi and other exercises like yoga—a thorough understanding of exercise biomechanics should allow people to make more informed choices about what activities to pursue.

Wong Gong was born in 1928 and has been practicing and teaching Choy Li Fut Kung Fu for nearly 70 years.  Not only is Wong Gong an expert in traditional Southern Chinese Lion Dancing, he has also learned all of Choy Li Fut’s rare animal forms, and the founder’s special weapon the Nine Dragon Trident.  Wong Gong is also a highly respected Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist: he has practiced Chinese medicine as a full time profession since 1997.

With 6 generations underneath him and over 50,000 students worldwide, the Jiangmen Branch of Choy Li Fut under Wong Gong has become one of the most successful branches of Choy Li Fut in the world.

Here are Grandmaster Wong Gong’s principles for leading a long and productive life (with a little bit of modern science to go along with the ancient wisdom).

1.  Laugh a Lot Recent scientific studies show that laughter has the ability to increase blood supply to the brain.  Laughter also has shown to decrease the levels of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine and increase the level of immune boosting hormones beta-endorphins and human growth hormone.

2.  Practice Your Marital Arts Regularly The benefits of being engaged in a regular exercise regimen are well documented.  Exercise helps with weight management and the prevention of chronic disease like diabetes, improves cardiovascular function and even elevates mood.

3.  Avoid Alcohol and Tobacco Alcohol and tobacco abuse leads to a wide variety of chronic illness that include cancer, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis.

4.  Eat a Healthy Diet A healthy diet that includes lots of fresh vegetables reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and cancer.  A healthy diet has many, many other benefits too.

5.  Get Plenty of Rest Your body produces more protein while you sleep.  This helps to mend the body at the cellular level.  Getting plenty of sleep will also reduce stress levels and improve memory.  A good night’s rest can also help to control body weight!  That’s right, sleep helps to regulate hormones that are associated with appetite control.

Discover the benefits of Kung Fu and Tai Chi training in San Diego County: whitedragonmartialarts.com

If you started an exercise program (like martial arts) and haven’t thought about your diet, then you are missing a key ingredient for long term success. In today’s world of fad diets and nutrition gurus, it is easy to get caught up in a world of gimmicks and diet tricks.  It’s easy to get swept away in the science of “nutritionism” and miss the big picture.  The big picture should always be focused on two precepts: we should eat for health, and we should eat for pleasure.

Our society’s infatuation with weight loss has often caused more damage than good.  The modern diet fads of today are failing because Americans continue to have major health crises.  Diabetes, cancer and obesity are at all time highs.  So if you are searching for something that works, then perhaps history can be your guide.  All you have to do is look back far enough to find one of man’s original diets, the raw food diet.

When food is cooked above 118 degrees, the enzyme content is destroyed.  Enzymes are biomolecules that help us digest and assimilate food.  When we deprive our bodies of enzymes, our pancrease has to work harder to keep up with the demand.  Over time, this excessive work can lead to the impairment of other metabolic functions like the secretion of insulin.  In addition, high temperatures will cause the food to lose up to 80% of its vitamins and up to 95% of its phytonutrients.

People who have increased the amount of raw foods in their diets have seen some amazing changes in their overall health.   Eating raw foods has been shown to stop the advance of many of the “middle age diseases” like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  In addition, raw foods improve immune function, increase energy, and aid in weight loss.  People who consume a high level of raw foods claim better digestion and more radiant skin!

You don’t have to eat 100% raw to have benefit.  People who have a diet that comprises 50-75% raw are seeing great results.  The more hardcore “raw-foodists” however will suggest 75-100%.  Regardless of the amount in your diet, simply increasing the consumption of raw foods over time will help you in your quest for optimal health.  A diet that is rich in fresh vegetables and fruits (organic preferrably) is widely accepted as cornerstone for great health.

Training For Life April 1989

By Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

One of the biggest selling points of internal Chinese martial arts are their health and longevity benefits. You know, practice Tai Chi and life becomes better for you.

Well, that’s true. However, people question why several famous Tai Chi and Hsing-I masters have died at relatively young ages. If we who teach tai chi tell the public that internal martial arts promote longevity and health, why did these well-known masters die so soon?

Those people’s early deaths resulted from the lifestyles, not their martial art. Actually, if they didn’t know Tai Chi or another internal martial art, they probably would have died much sooner.

Well-known martial arts masters around the turn of this century had far different lifestyles than the ordinary martial teacher. They often worked for rich families, who exposed them to all of the excesses available to the wealthy – opium, women, alcohol, and gambling. Before long their social habits cut into their Tai Chi practice time. They spent more time gambling, drinking and carousing, and less time practicing Tai Chi. They ate more of the wrong foods, increasing their cholesterol levels and overtaxing their digestive tracts. The best tasting food was not always the healthiest food, especially when they didn’t get enough exercise to digest their extra fat.

They slept fewer hours, stressing themselves with addictive habits. In China, before the People’s Republic, the upper-class fashion was to smoke opium. Of course, only those who could afford it smoked it. Many great masters, whom I will not name, with respect for their martial arts fame and leadership, became wealthy from teaching government officials and rich families. Unfortunately, their opulent lifestyles outweighed their internal training, and they died young.

Not all famous internal martial arts teachers fell prey to temptation. Wu Tu-Nan, a Wu and Yang style Tai Chi expert, lives in Beijing. Wu is almost 105 years old, and he still practices tai chi every day. The author of many outstanding Chinese Tai Chi books, Wu is very healthy. He emphasizes three things for a long life – good nutrition, enough rest, and daily Tai Chi practice.

A well-known Tai Chi master is San Francisco and Taiwan, Kuo Lien-Yin lived into his late 80’s. Kuo also practiced Tai Chi every day, outliving several wives.

Professor Yu Peng-Si, one of the most renown Hsing-I (I-Chuan) masters of modern times, died in 1983 at age 83. He would probably be alive today, except that he suffered from acute diabetes. His demise came from complications caused by restaurant food that triggered a diabetic attack.

Professor Yu was once quoted as saying “If you want a long life get eight hours sleep every night, don’t eat a large meal right before you go to sleep, and don’t let yourself become emotionally upset.”

Professor Yu, also a distinguished medical doctor and full professor at the University of Shanghai, practiced his I-Chuan internal martial art every day until his final illness.

My own teacher, Hu Yuen-Chou (Woo Van-Cheuk in Cantonese), is 85 years old. He is famous in Hong Kong and Taiwan, having been a direct disciple of Yang tai chi’s leader, Yang Cheng-Fu. Hu practices and teaches tai chi every day. He is also a doctor, believing that daily exercise is a must for a long healthy life. Hu refrains from eating greasy foods. They are hard to digest and raise blood cholesterol levels.

These are just a few examples. There are many Tai Chi and other internal masters who have lived well into their 90s. I have observed many external martial arts teachers, younger than them, in the Orient who must use canes to walk and can no longer practice their martial arts.

I believe that the benefits of internal practice, living a long, healthy life, means that you should practice certain principles. Practice your martial art every day, staying relaxed and calm. Don’t overdo your workouts, but do enough. Stay away from other excesses, such as drugs, alcohol, and the wrong kinds of food. Get enough rest every night. Do these things, and you too may be teaching Tai Chi, Hsing-I, or paqua well into your 90s.

Discover the many health benefits of Kung Fu & Tai Chi: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Monosodium Glutamate, more commonly referred to as MSG, is a food additive and flavor enhancer that that has widespread use across the world.  Sold as “Accent” or “Ajinomoto” in the United States, MSG is a common seasoning which is found in many Chinese Food restaurants and in many canned foods like soups, meats and salad dressings.  It’s found in many commercially produced foods like Doritos, Cheetos and other snack foods.  It is also used by fast food companies McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell, just to name a few.

The dangers of monosodium glutamate are well documented.  MSG is an excitotoxin which means that it over excites your cells to the point of damage or death.  MSG and has has been linked to a wide variety of health issues which include: obesity, fatigue, depression, rapid heartbeat, and headaches.  It is the culprit in dreaded Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.  Even though MSG has received a lot of bad press, Food companies continue to use it, but under different names.

Here is a list of ingedients that always contain free glutamate: MSG, monosodium glutamate, monopotassium glutamate, glutamic acid, vegetable protein extract, gelatin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP), autolyzed plant protein, sodium caseinate, senomyx, textured protein, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, yeast nutrient, autolyzed yeast.

Here is a list of a few ingredients that often contain glutamate: malted barley, barley malt, maltodextrin, dextrose, stock, broth, bullion, carageenen, whey protein, pectin, soy protein, natural chicken, beef, or pork flavoring, modified food starch, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, citric acid.

The best way to avoid or limit your MSG consumption is to stick to a healthy diet that contains lots of natural and raw foods.  Avoiding processed foods has many other health benefits as well.  Skip the fast food lunch and elect to cook more often at home where you can control the ingredients in your foods more consistently.  By engaging in a wholistic lifesyle that includes exercise and a healthy diet, you can become a better you!

White Dragon Martial Arts, Train Hard-Live Better!

Whether you do kung fu, tai chi, kickboxing or grappling, flexibility plays a key role in helping you to maximize your martial arts potential.  A good stretching program should have two primary goals.  The first is to help prevent injuries and the second should be to increase range of motion.  By having a foundational understanding of the different kinds of stretching methods and their correct order of performance, you will be able to achieve both goals.  Here is the breakdown.

1.  Dynamic Stretching: Dynamic stretches are stretches that involve movements like joint rotations and leg lifts.  These exercises are particularly important because they help your body gradually reach the limits of your range of motion while at the same time increasing core body temperature.  Dynamic stretches should be performed as part of you warm up routine before fatigue sets in.  As fatigue sets in, muscles become less pliable and more susceptible to injury.  Dynamic stretches also reset the stretch reflex or the muscle contraction that occurs as a result of stretching.  Dynamic stretches should be performed first.

2.  Isometric Stretching: Isometric stretches (sometimes called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation or PNF) are types of static stretches that involve the contraction (tensing) of muscle groups that are being stretched.  An example would be stretching your calf muscle then contracting the same muscle while it is being stretched. This type of stretching has shown involve a higher amount of muscle fiber than any other kind of stretching technique.  This type of stretching is also very effective because it will develop strength as well as flexibility.  Because of this, Isometric stretching should be performed after the technical part of your workout and should be used similar to other strength building exercises.  Perform isometric stretches toward the end of your training session.

3. Relaxed Stretching: Relaxed stretching is the most common type of stretching and involves stretching a body part to its maximum and holding it for a set amount of time.  This type of stretching has proven to be a very effective and safe method of stretching, but should be performed as part of your cool down.  Relaxed stretching can impair muscular performance because it reduces muscular strength temporarily.  It is for this reason that relaxed stretching should be avoided as part of your warm up routine.  Most studies have found that relaxed stretching does little to prepare the body for active movement because it does not elevate core body temperature or heart rate.

So here’s a breakdown on how a typical workout might look.  First start with a warm up that includes different kinds of dynamic stretching.  The goal of the warm up is to elevate core body temperature and increase the heart rate.  After a thorough warm up, move into the technical or skill building portion of your workout.  This part of your workout will involve movements that require fine motor skills.  After the skill building portion of the workout is complete, the next step will be to move into the conditioning phase which will include endurance and strength building movements like combat conditioning or functional fitness exercises.  It is here that you want to perform your isometric stretching movements.  After completing your warm up, fine motor skill building, and conditioning move into a proper cool down which will include relaxed stretches.

White Dragon Martial Arts, Train Hard-Live Better!