21/02/2026
The conditioning of the body in Chow Gar mantis fist is one of our very important training methods within our system. Firstly, you need to condition your weapons like your hands, forearms, feet, and shins - these are the first weapons on the Mantis when you begin, as these must be hard enough to hit a hard object (Head) without hurting your hand or need for wrapping or gloves. In a street fight there will be no protection or padding so a student should prepare their weapons and body to handle the power in their hits without damage.
Once this is completed then you can move onto conditioning the other parts of the body like the legs, back, shoulders, front body, chest, neck, testicle retraction and various bones around the body. This style of conditioning is twofold in application. First, to be able to withstand strikes from an opponent and to keep fighting and second, to allow you to defend less as you do not need to be concerned with many various kicks or punches from an opponent. If you are conditioned well, the areas you need to protect are much less, (head only) and this will allow you to attack more and to not be so concerned with most of your opponent's attacks.
The structure and training of the body develop a very strong and cohesive connection which will in turn produce more power as well. Each training method used in Chow Gar Mantis is designed to strengthen the body and to aid in fighting ability and hitting power.
Over thousands of years these training methods have been refined to a point whereas they condition the body to the upmost protection and strength but ensure that mobility and power is maintained. Also, these methods boost your health and wellbeing into older age rather than denigrate. Hard to understand but due to the nature of our conditioning methods the body's health is prolonged and strengthened and kept into old age if trained correctly.
After 40 years of Chow Gar body conditioning, I have found that there is no evidence of that conditioning shown on the surface of my body. There are no callouses on my bones, there has never been a broken bone or any sign of that conditioning that can been seen. Our conditioning is done in such a way that it becomes more internal, in which cannot be seen by another person. My organs, bones, muscular structure and white tissue strength is immensely much more dense and powerful and can handle high stress of training, sparring and also the high intensity of various ball sport rigors, as I have been an active competitive soccer player and tennis player for over 30 years.
Such is the deep understanding and passed history of correct training in Chow Gar Mantis Kung Fu, it is difficult to see and must be felt to be believed in most cases.
This is some of the reasons why correct training and instruction is required in the traditional methods, so you may avoid injuries and adverse degradation of your body into your older years.
The video below briefly discusses and explains correct structure even at a beginner's level and how to avoid incorrect posture, your spine correction is so important to your overall health and Kung Fu ability. More videos to follow into the future as a helping hand for all Chow Gar practitioners as I am always happy to help and pass on all the beautiful treasures of our system.
I wish you all the best in your own training and I am always here to help.
Steven Parrella Sifu
