Formosa Fitness

I did most everything under the sun but my specialty was Chinese internal martial arts, which is why I came to Taiwan. The emphasis on health and balancing power with softness really appealed to me. It influences my fitness coaching in many ways. First, kettlebell and the other training I do is based on skill. It isn't just about throwing around a weight for 30 minutes. There is skill in the techniques, leading all the way up to high level competition. Check this out:

You may have heard that if you really want to study judo, you should learn from a small woman since she can't rely on strength but skill. The woman in the clip above is swinging a 24kg kettlebell over 130 times and she's thin. This takes a ton of skill. So kettlebell techniques go from basic, mildly sophisticated technique to very subtle, "black belt" level stuff if that's what you're in to.

Getting into the sport side of things really changes the program. Instead of "working out" to get fit or lose weight, the activity becomes the focus and the benefit is secondary. This is the way to go to maintain your fitness gains long term and avoid the boredom of most fitness programs.

Second, the breathing techniques that we use are very similar to MA as are many of the body movements. In fact, kettlebell training is basically MA power training. The two are practically one and the same. The Russians figured out how to use breathing techniques to improve their sport lifting and they've long specialized in taking the best from both East and West and putting them together. Check it out:

As you can see from the clip, the breathing can get quite advanced if people get into it but a low level is good for most folks. But the sophistication is there if people want it.

Third is our emphasis on joint mobility and restorative work -- yin to the usual yang. We open up and fix problem areas of the body as part of the fitness process. Here's an example:

I put this together to fix some areas in a short amount of time. It's meant to open up areas that are tight and that need prehabing before people lift. Without this kind of work, clients tend to get stiff (if they aren't already) and find movements like squat, deadlift, etc. to be a problem. This softer restorative element really makes our fitness style vastly different from everything else out there. Few fitness styles have the complete spectrum like we do. Using this template we can go from absolute strength via Olympic lifting/weightlifting all the way down to soft joint work depending on the needs of the client.

Mixing the Chinese internal martial arts approach with fitness has really paid off for me.