Product Description

Let Hollywood legend and Kill Bill star David Carradine teach you the legendary benefits of the Shaolin Kick Box Workout and Strength Training, designed to thoroughly strengthen, stretch and energise the entire body, whilst also improving your general fitness. Includes: Cardio Kick Box Workout - Build Flexibility, Endurance And Power Shaolin Strength Training - Establish Balance & Fitness SPECIAL FEATURES David Carradine Biography, Photo Gallery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35799 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 75 minutes

Synopsis
David Carradine demonstrates how to improve flexibility, stamina and strength using Shaolin Cardio Kick Boxing.

Customer Reviews

Easy enough & interesting enough to stick at.
The first reviewer mentions the 360 degree neck rolls that are nowadays banned by the Sports Council, but there are so few of them and they are performed so slowly and gently that I doubt if anyone has ever incurred a neck injury warming up to this workout, but anyway I just adapt by doing quarter neck turns instead.
Also in reply to the first review about high kicks being taught, I feel must mention that Carradine states:

"kick comfortably, go for form, the height and speed needs to be developed slowly and naturally".

That aside this is two of Carradines mid nineties videos repackaged into one dvd, the first being the "Shaolin Cardio Kick box" lasting 40 minutes and the second being the "Shaolin Strength Training" lasting 35 minutes.

Personally I would have omitted the words Cardio from the title as it is not really fast paced enough to be cardio but is more of a low impact Kung Fu workout being much more intensive than Tai Chi and much less intensive than Tai Bo.

The first segment of the Kick Box workout is titled The Snake-Warm Up & Flexibility. This warm up is interesting because the stretches incorporate detailed instruction on some basic stances such as the Foreward Stance, the Cat Stance, Heel Stance and Horse Stance.

The second chapter is titled The Crane-Kicking & Balance. The kicks are demonstrated slowly and carefully enough for a beginner to be able to follow along to without tumbling into the glass cabinet or putting a foot through the TV, but too slow to be truly cardio because Carradine has you stopping to do a special leg stretch before each set of kicks.

The next chapter is titled The Leopard-Punching & Power.
This is where it again gets interesting because the animal based striking and circular blocking combinations are combined with switching to and from different foot stances and although a little tricky to learn at first and proberly impractical in a self defence or sport combat situation, they are very flowing and graceful and when you get the knack of them, and they improve the coordination no end.

The next chapter is titled The Tiger-Isometrics & Stength.
This is basically Kung Fu style movements performed very slowly whilst focusing and tensing a particular muscle group as you breath out and relaxing the same muscle group as you breath in. Then going on to a different exercise concentrating on a different muscle group etc. Dynamic tension is one word for Isometrics but one must be careful useing the D/T phrase as it is copywrited by the Charles Altas company.

The final chapter is called The Dragon-Cool Down & Internal Energy.
This is a brief Tai Chi based cool down which relaxes the mind and spirit as well as the body.

Part two of this disc is the Shaolin Strength Training workout, a 35 minute workout that is pure Isometrics or Dynamic Tension strength excercises performed to the movements of The Hung style Kung Fu. I find that to have a benificial strength & fitness workout I have to do the 40 minute Shaolin Cardio Kick Box workout and then go straight into this Shaolin Strength Training.

If you are looking for an intensive fast paced fat burning workout that will have maximum results in minimum time then I would recomend the Billy Blanks Ultimate Boot Camp, but personally I prefer these Carradine Shaolin workouts because I find I can stick at them regularly enough to see and feel bodily results, unlike the Bootcamp dvd which I tried once six months ago and havn't been able to face up to the thought of a second grueling session.
The end.

Unsafe Video with little inspiration and useful exercise
As a fitness instructor I am always looking for new inspiration and ideas. A client of mine found this video being advertised and suggested I buy it. Trying to keep this very short, all I can say is that any prospective buyer would be safer to attend a Cario Kick or similar class at the local Health Center. The video contains unsafe warm up exercises, such as rolling the head (hyper-extending the neck) kicks higher than the recommended hip height (as performed by one of the 'experts' in the video) and mulitple repetitions of the same moves, with the only obvious purpose being to make the viewing time seem longer. The credits at the end seemed almost as long as the DVD itself. Very disappointing production, but obviously a nice little earner for David Carradine. NOT to be recommended for a beginner due to the unsafe instruction/demonstration....