Kung fu is one of the greatest exercises for anyone to practice. It has stretching, speed or slow movements, strength training and mental calmness and awareness. The biggest misconception of Kung Fu is its meaning. It’s not a fighting style, but hundreds. It’s not even a fighting practice, but rather a concept of skill. Kung Fu means “practiced skill”. It means that a person has put time, patience, lots of effort and study in anything that person wants to do. Therefore, professional basketball players have basketball kung fu. Or professional football players have football kung fu. Artists can have art kung fu. Kung fu is a way of life. Kung Fu masters take this very seriously.
People think kung fu of movies and fighting. This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many parts to learn because, kung fu as a narrow idea of martial arts, has evolved out of only being a military art and it started to incorporate self-discovery, medicine/health, spirituality, philosophy among others. Kung fu will evolve and grow to study much more as humanity evolves and discovers more to the universe.
Kung fu, as commonly understood, is Chinese martial arts. Chinese martial arts are divided into 2 parts: external (wai jia 外家) and internal (nei jia 内家). They are not exclusive to one or the other, but a general way of how a style/school/lineage train.
External styles (wai jia) are the more visibly powerful with use of muscles and strength. And are great for younger students. Many great internal martial art masters started with wai jia and wouldn’t be where they are without it. This kind of training can take one only so far. So,most practitioners move to train internally with more experience and age. These schools are generally the shaolin styles. (There are many specific lineages that associate themselves with the shaolin, but not trained at the Shaolin temples.)
Internal styles (nei jia) begin their training with learning to not use the big muscle for strength, but rather the internal muscles and qi. (Many external styles also use qi as part of their core practice, as well.) Internal styles generally take much longer to master than external styles. Much of the internal practices go against what we would logically think as power, but it isn’t necessarily true. These styles are typically tai ji quan (tai chi), ba gua zhang, and xing yi quan. There are other styles that are not one of these three that are internally focused that are not listed.
An important saying that most schools of external and internal styles us is 用意不用力 use your mind, not force. Always keep this in mind as you practice. I believe it is one of the secrets to kung fu.
Kung fu is a large and great field of study. It will improve every part of your life, if you let it. Open your mind to the possibilities that kung fu can offer you.