“Complaining about Horse Stance? Sounds like someone needs more Horse Stance!”
Search long enough on the internet and you will find numerous jokes and memes like this one. While the intention is aimed at lighthearted humor, it does describe the way many view martial art training and exercise in general. The thought process is, "If you are extremely tired or fatigued, you keep going!” According to most coaches and teachers, that's where the repetitions really begin to matter.
The phrase chi ku (吃苦) roughly translates to “eat bitterness” in Mandarin Chinese and carries the idea of enduring suffering more than it does enjoying a bitter cranberry salad. The idea is that one must be able to endure the stress of the day, the bad day at work, the fatigue settling in during training, the screaming of your newborn baby child in the middle of the night in order to truly grow. The mentality being that the key to unlocking the treasure of a new or improved skill-set is to suffer.
Suffering comes in many forms, both mental and physical, good and bad. The way many athletes and martial artists (especially those in a competitive atmosphere) view training often involves a degree of “eating bitterness.” Many will constantly train until muscle failure every day of the week, no matter whatever else they already did that day or will be doing later.
You may have heard a personal trainer barking, “No pain, no gain!” or a sports-loving dad calling out for his son to put his “blood, sweat, and tears” into the game he is playing. The idea of working hard, sometimes hard enough to nearly puke or pass out, is hardly exclusive to a single culture.
For the average person in the West, the idea of suffering harsh training carries a mixed bag of emotions. Some consider it to be the only way to seriously improve. You either “go big or go home!” For others, the idea of vigorous training seems more terrifying and senseless than positive. Some people don't want to train so hard that it is tough to walk the next day. Like many things in life and in Kung Fu, there isn't exactly a single correct answer. Both perspectives have merit to them. Whether harsh training results in positive improvement or negative setback depends largely on perspective and execution of the teaching/training.
Let's start by looking at the pros and cons found in both approaches to training – with and without “eating bitterness” – and see how we can balance them to maximize your training progress!
Stain Your Techniques
Gah! That stain is never coming out! You simply wanted to enjoy a night out but you ended up spilling chicken, wine, and all of the appetizer on your brand new shirt. You can try to wash it out, but no matter how many times you run it through the cleaners, it's just not coming out.
Training is similar in many ways. Nearly everything you put your body through stays with you. Your body has a pretty good memory, so to speak, and will keep a long stored recollection of how healthy you have eaten and how you have treated yourself.
Somebody who has smoked for the last five years and whose only exercise is lifting a heaped plate of food is going to have a vastly different body type and health level than somebody who ate healthy foods and did Qigong everyday during that same timeframe. When it's time to move, those two individuals will have very different performance capabilities as well, regardless of what they did within the last twenty-four hours. What you do matters all the time.
As for martial art techniques, repetition is the mother of greatness. If you want to improve, practice often and practice perfect. That is what begins to pave the way to mastery. In fact, as you get into the higher number of repetitions and fatigue creeps in, you may actually begin to settle into better posture, since your tiring muscles will highlight excess tension and improper mechanics. Take note that this approach to training works for certain things better than others. Caution must also be exercised.
If you don't keep mentally strong, if your mind grows lax or unfocused, you lose purpose in your technique and training. Practice with a lazy mental attitude due to fatigue and you will only be staining your technique with infectious bad habits. Stay focused to keep clean movements!
Rest plays into the equation of health as well. Training to the point that you injure yourself and can't train anymore for the week only impedes growth. Constantly practice internal awareness of how you feel, mentally and physically, to weigh whether or not you should push any further in your training. The last thing you want is to take one metaphorical step forward in your training but then follow it with five steps back!
Mind Games
That's not to say chi ku only affects you on a physical level. Chi ku can do wonders for refining your mind in many ways. Work hard and you will find yourself pushing past limits you previously thought impassable.
There is a type of mental strength that is developed in doing at least one more punch when your arms already feel like a Looney Tunes Acme anvil. It is a type of strength that can carry over into many other aspects of life as well. If you puke out your eggs Benedict breakfast and yet stay strong during a hard workout session, then you will find it that much easier to stay strong when you have a bad day that makes you want to curl back in bed and give up. Sometimes the strength to continue towards a goal is found in unexpected places.
Adopt this mentality enough and it can become habitual, a skill like any other. Hesitation often stems from conscious thoughts and unconscious fears. If you detach any extraneous thoughts and concerns, you are left with a powerhouse martial artist. This is important to keep in mind as hesitation during a fight can be the decision maker between who lives and who dies.
The other piece of mental training that chi ku provides is more in line with self defense. A self defense situation can get very emotional, with fear, anger, impatience, anxiety, etc., clouding your mind. It is important to address these emotions as a part of your harsh training.
The more stress that can be safely introduced into a training drill, the more a student can get acclimated to the feelings of a fight. Of course, there's a limit to how much one can prepare for this. Even if you introduce stressful scenarios into your training, they will lack the emotional intensity of a real-life situation, because the class environment provides an element of safety.
The teacher has a responsibility to ensure that everything has a purpose. There is a difference between doing harsh training for the students and doing it for yourself. It is easy to fall into the power-hungry bully mentality without even realizing it. The bully has his students “eating bitterness” to satisfy his own ego, to see others obeying his commands. A teacher who cares about his students does harsh training to help his students develop.
Overall
Chi ku can be instrumental in the proper development of a true martial artist, physically and mentally. Done right, chi ku helps improve the efficiency and proper relaxation in a technique as well as gain a new level of strength.
However, harsh training can be worse than no training if it is abused to the point of injury or declining health. The teacher and student are both responsible in knowing how far to take it. A master in any field knows the importance of balance. A chef knows that a seasoning can elevate or ruin a dish, depending on the amount. A photographer knows that shadow can both help and hurt a picture. Likewise, martial artists must remain balanced in recognizing the benefits of chi ku while avoiding its dangers.
Savor every moment. Work hard while staying aware of overtraining past a healthy point and you will find yourself that much better because of it. And, most importantly, have fun training!
