How Often Should I Train Kung Fu?

"How often should I train Kung Fu?"

There’s an old saying that says people need about 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. So if you didn’t sleep for nearly 14 months, and trained all day, every day, you could become a kung fu master in that time. Easy enough, right?

Okay, so maybe not that easy. But it does lead to the question: what is the best amount of time to train? Is there a “sweet spot” of dedicated time per week you should aim for?

Everyone is different, but our standard recommendation is about 2-3 hours per week of moderate to hard training. We know – it sounds like that’s hardly anything at all! But it’s important to remember that in kung fu, more training doesn’t necessarily mean better training. It’s much more about consistency than it is about total time.

Some people come in for 10 hours per week, and that works well for them and their lifestyle. And that’s great! Others can only do 2 or 3 per week, but they are very satisfied with the balance that it brings. And that’s great too. Listen to your body and work within your own personal “sweet spot” to find what’s best for you. As long as you are training and happy with what it does for you, that’s better than chasing an arbitrary time that you feel like you “should” be working.

Another good tip? It can be easy to think that training for, say, an hour straight once a week, is best. To be sure, it’s better than nothing. But instead of training once a week for 60 minutes, reframe it to 60 times a week for one minute. This way you are constantly refreshing yourself and your knowledge, and it will be quicker to recall and reuse – especially in the event that you have to use it. You don’t want to be caught in a conflict on Saturday night when the last time you even thought about training was last Sunday morning!

Our best advice is simply this: do the right amount to keep you happy with your progress. Martial arts are about learning what you’re capable of and how to harness your inner concentration, and when you do it the perfect amount, you’ll notice the positive effects coming through to the rest of your daily life too.

And if you’re the type that simply can’t get enough of the Kung Fu for Life studio, well, we’re open Mon-Fri from 1 – 9 PM, and 10 -2 on Saturdays, so there’s plenty of time for you to practice in our out of our classes. We look forward to seeing you the next time you drop in to recapture your zen!