Product Description

In a loft space in Manhattan, Sifu (Master) Shi Yan Ming trains men and women of all ages and body types in the fundamentals of kung fu. Yan Ming is a fighting monk hailing from China's Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Ch'an Buddhism and a Mecca for all martial arts. A world-renowned master of the martial arts, he has developed a kung fu-based workout programme that is unsurpassed for getting the body and mind into 'fighting trim' shape. Now, Sifu Shi Yan Ming shares the secrets of the Shaolin in "The Shaolin Workout". It features a four-week programme of physical and mental training that offers the reader the chance to transform their body, mind and spirit. As well as providing a step-by-step beginner's course in Kung-Fu, Yan Ming shares his philosophy in daily lessons that are pertinent to other areas of life, such as work, relationships and family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12174 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Shi Yan Ming is a 34th generation Shaolin fighting monk from China. His work has featured in numerous publications, including the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic exercises and very inspiring.
This is a superb book. The moves are all demonstrated step by step by colour photographs of the Sifu. Its split into 28 lessons, the first 9 being pure stretching exercises which even by themselves are excellent. The remainder cover basic kung fu movements. There is no doubt the physical and mental benefits of the exercises are fantastic. I always look forward to exercising using this book. I also like the writing style of the Sifu who peppers the exercise descriptions with lots of inspiring comments. A massive bonus is the meditation pages. There is one after each lesson and it is basically a page of bhuddist wisdom on how to "polish" yourself and your life. I find these particularly inspiring and uplifting.

The best 30 minutes of your day
To complete all of the exercises in this book takes @30-35 minutes a day.The sifu calls them active meditations, as while you are training your body, you are training the mind.They are best done (in my opinion)first thing in the morning, leaving you nice and loose to face the day.There are also daily meditations in the book to help you focus mentally. One of my favourites is translated as "Stay loose in everything I do", which is meant to help you focus on not letting external factors influence your feelings, moods etc.Good, detailed instructions and quality photographs, mean that you can see exactly how to do each movement.I judge books by the quality of information in them, and how much enjoyment I get out of them.This book scores top marks in both those catagories

Life Changing
Absolutely life changing, the exercises are so simple and when completed on a daily basis are transforming even for some one who has practiced martial arts for twenty years.