Five top tips from a kung fu master for a healthy life – and, after 60 years of martial arts, he’s living proof
- Kung fu taught Graham Player to walk as a boy in Australia. He’s devoted his life to to the martial art and still leads classes five days a week
- He practises a philosophy that combines Western and Chinese medicine
Graham Player has six decades of martial arts under his belt. His muscular build, mental acuity, and ability to lead three-hour classes set him apart from most other senior citizens.
The silver-haired Player practises the Hung Gar form of kung fu, and is a walking advertisement for how beneficial this has been to his fitness.
He readily admits he does not connect with most elderly people. “I don’t identify with people my age, they look like they are from another generation to me both physically and mentally,” Player says. He refrains from giving his exact age.
Not many people of his advanced years lead gruelling three-hour classes that begin with a warm-up followed by high-intensity interval training, in which attendees alternate between heart-pumping exercises and seven seconds of rest. Next is sit-ups – 200 of them sometimes, followed by kung fu stances. The kicker? He does this five times a week.
Player founded his Hung Kuen Academy Hong Kong in the 1990s, based in a community centre in Tai Kok Tsui, West Kowloon, where he teaches this style of martial arts to young and old, and Bruce Lee wannabes. Only recently has he begun teaching one-hour sessions to foreigners in Mui Wo on Lantau Island.