David Carradine - An Introduction For Beginners To Shaolin Cardio Kick Box (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Good for the beginner and some interested strength training methods
Disadvantages:	Not very good as a cardio routine

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This DVD is presented by the martial arts actor for several decades, David Carradine.

This DVD is made up of two videos that were first release back in the 90’s and put together into one product. The two videos contained on this DVD are:
• Shaolin Cardio Kick Box
• Shaolin Strength Training

Shaolin Cardio Kick Box

This part of the DVD lasts about 45 minutes and has David Carradine showing a routine for you to follow along to with several other people in the background.

The routine starts off with stretching and a warm-up. These are just a few basic things to help loosen up your body and muscles.

The next part of the routine involves kicking practice. You have chair by your side to help you balance but once your balance has improved the chair can be removed. Before each type of kick; a set stretch is performed to loosen up your leg muscles.

The DVD then moves onto punching. You are shown several types of punching techniques which you follow along to.

The next part of the routine involves a move associated with the Shaolin animals. You perform each move several times; and each movement helps train a different muscle and technique. The animal movements are:
• Snake
• Crane
• Panther
• Tiger

The last part of this DVD contains a short cool down which contains breathing exercises similar to tai chi or qi gong. This is done to cool down the muscles and to help you relax.

Overall, this part of the DVD was quite interesting and would be good for complete beginners but it was performed very slowly and as a cardio routine I don’t think it would help all that much. The DVD does state it is for beginners so as an information tool, this is a good DVD. It would be nice if another DVD was released containing a harder and faster routine that would help with the cardio side.

Shaolin Strength Training

This part of the DVD lasts about 35 minutes and is narrated by David Carradine and performed by two people who are supposed to be teaches.

This part of the DVD starts off with a warm-up, has some strength training movements and then has an internal cool down.

The movements are performed several times slowly and then performed several times using full tension which is a technique called “Dynamic Tension”.

After performing this routine, I did have a slight sweat so it did work out my body and I also enjoyed following along to this routine. A lot of the movements I have seen before in “Iron Wire” sets but as this is just a beginners DVD, it only shows a few of the movements so that it becomes less complicated.

Overall, I enjoyed this DVD; I did think however that the strength training part was better and move enjoyable than the kick box part. It would be nice to have a follow up DVD for the intermediate that is slightly more complicated and more difficult.