My understanding of gung lik is that it is a kind of internal strength, and similar to endurance. I think this is one of those terms that defies a clear definition. I know how one can develop gung lik, and that is by doing the first form, siu lim tao, and by doing chi sau. A few times my sifu has ‘pushed’ us. This ‘pushing’ occurs in a chi sau position where we meet and equal the other’s push with our own. It’s a gently increasing pressure that is maintained for what feels like an eternity. It feels like an eternity for me because it makes my shoulders ache so much. Not so for my sifu, obviously, as his gung lik is so much greater than mine.

I asked one of the seniors at the last class if there was any additional exercise I could do to develop my gung lik. He surprised me when he said no. I was imagining an exercise similar to pressips, but instead of the constant up-down movement I would just hold the position, say half way down. When I mentioned this, he said that doing that would simply increase the strength I usually use, and this is something we should be trying to minimise in Wing Chun.

As the ‘pushing’ exercise is only done rarely in class, I’m now wondering if it isn’t so much an exercise to increase gung lik as a measure of it. That is, while my shoulders ache after a push, I know I still have work to do!

One of my friends at class (I hesitate at the use of ‘kung fu brother’, sounds a bit cliched!) , was thinking about doing siu lim tau whilst wearing some wrist weights to get some additional gung lik training. I’m not sure about this now. I think it might somehow distort the development of gung lik. I certainly remember that when I used to do siu lim tau (without weights!) for 40 minutes, my shoulders did ache so I know they were being exercised properly. At the moment I’m doing a 12 minute siu lim tau in the morning, and though my shoulders and arms don’t feel it, my thighs really do.

I’m going to ask my sifu what the nature of the oushing exercise is, and what its purpose is – whether it’s for developing gung lik or just assessing it. Often you get different points of view, depending on who you ask. This doesn’t bother me too much. If I know I need to do a certain thing to improve, it’s not as important to know
why (although it’s desirable).