How long can you hold a horse stance?

[Wing Woo Gar]

No idea but I do know I have better things to do with my time than standing in a pointless outdated stance

You already decided it’s not worth your time. Because it’s “outdated”.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Wim Hoff did three hours barefoot in the snow apparently

The snow in your bare feet and silkies is very impressive, but that isn’t a horse stance.

 

[Flying Crane]

This is my perspective too. I do some short holds for warm up but I'm more focused on the transitioning between stances.

I've never considered doing any drill that many times. Or even near that. But I can see how this would massively increase stamina. I'd like to try some high repetition drills though and see what happens. I have noticed though that sometimes when I push past that threshold of fatigue, my body stops fighting itself and I'll get some of my best performance.

My word of caution is that when the level of fatigue causes the quality of your technique to become sloppy, it is time to take a break and do something else. If you want more, come back and do more later. Work in cycles like that. Pushing yourself is good. Fighting through the fatigue is good. Endless repetitions that have become sloppy is not good. Learn to recognize when you have crossed that line.

 

[Krisxylove]

My word of caution is that when the level of fatigue causes the quality of your technique to become sloppy, it is time to take a break and do something else. If you want more, come back and do more later. Work in cycles like that. Pushing yourself is good. Fighting through the fatigue is good. Endless repetitions that have become sloppy is not good. Learn to recognize when you have crossed that line.

 

[Buka]

I went through the desert on a Horse Stance of no name….

 

[Stuarto]

I went through the desert on a Horse Stance of no name….

Did it feel good to get out of the rain?

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

I went through the desert on a Horse Stance of no name….

All the way through? Wow. That’s a long time to hold it. Most are named Ma Bu or some such.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Did it feel good to get out of the rain?

And off we go…

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

I went through the desert on a Horse Stance of no name….

I think most people can’t remember their name out there.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Isshinryu doesn't have a deep horse stance, so it's not something I practice.

 

[Buka]

There were plants and birds and rocks and things and our legs felt like we were holding them up.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I've never considered doing any drill that many times. Or even near that. But I can see how this would massively increase stamina.

One has to be young to do that many reps.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

There were plants and birds and rocks and things and our legs felt like we were holding them up.

Did you say anything while you were there? Or nah nah nah nah?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

in judo or the judo based jiu jitsu I've trained in, horse stance is not that common.

Judo

- hip throw,
- shoulder throw,
- embracing throw,
- firemen's carry,
- ...

all use horse stance.

The lower that you can drop into horse stance, the easier that you can throw your opponent.

 

[Buka]

Did you say anything while you were there? Or nah nah nah nah?

I’ve always been a big nah nah nah guy.
Especially on the first day of the journey.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Just curious what your records are at horse stance. I'm not that good yet my pr was 1minute 54 seconds. I haven't been able to break the 2min mark yet. I've heard stories from an old instructor "the monks used to do this in the hot sun for 2 hours" that shocked me and inspired me to add this challenge at the end of my workouts. I don't know how true those claims were but they must of been some tuff dudes to do this for 2 hrs. I do it for almost 2min and my legs are like jello after for a few minutes. This is the one exercise I think is universal in all martial arts, both strikers and grapplers can get benefit from it.

I never count how long I hold the stance. I just hold it until my legs hurt then push for 10 seconds beyond that point.

Sometimes it's longer than a minute sometimes it's less.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

My word of caution is that when the level of fatigue causes the quality of your technique to become sloppy, it is time to take a break and do something else. If you want more, come back and do more later. Work in cycles like that. Pushing yourself is good. Fighting through the fatigue is good. Endless repetitions that have become sloppy is not good. Learn to recognize when you have crossed that line.

I disagree...maybe.

It's good sometimes to push until you get sloppy, and continue. It's not good to do it often, but doing it sometimes teaches you willpower, and helps you learn exactly where you're getting sloppy so you can figure out if it's physical/muscle fatigue, or something you're more lax about in general. Fatigue often just exacerbates the small mistakes you're already making. Then you can make a plan to either fix your technique, or strengthen that part of your body.

Bonus points if you film it so you can see watch later and what you're messing up.

The caveat is: if you start feeling a new pain whenever you do a move, stop doing it until you're able to do it properly. Learning your faults isn't worth hurting yourself through incorrect form.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

No idea but I do know I have better things to do with my time than standing in a pointless outdated stance

My teacher's brother was thrown into concentration camp by the communist party because they thought he was anti-communist. When he was in the concentration camp. a small jail room, he used his horse stance to maintain his MA ability.

When you

- go to jail, you will have all the time in the world to train your horse stance.
- die, you will have all the time in the world to sleep.

If you are not in jail or dead, you have other better things to do. If you can run, you should not walk. If you can walk, you should not stand. Moving is the key for long life.

 

[Flying Crane]

I disagree...maybe.

It's good sometimes to push until you get sloppy, and continue. It's not good to do it often, but doing it sometimes teaches you willpower, and helps you learn exactly where you're getting sloppy so you can figure out if it's physical/muscle fatigue, or something you're more lax about in general. Fatigue often just exacerbates the small mistakes you're already making. Then you can make a plan to either fix your technique, or strengthen that part of your body.

Bonus points if you film it so you can see watch later and what you're messing up.

The caveat is: if you start feeling a new pain whenever you do a move, stop doing it until you're able to do it properly. Learning your faults isn't worth hurting yourself through incorrect form.

As long as you don’t ingrain bad habits that make sloppy technique your new normal. It seems to me that sometimes people like to push and push for the simple sake of high numbers in their repetition. Almost like they just want bragging rights or something. Numbers for the sake of numbers doesn’t do any good if the result is sloppy technique. Quality technique is good practice. Sloppy technique as a result of too much fatigue is not good practice. It means it’s time to recover before doing more.

 

[Tigerwarrior]

- My teacher told me his teacher could stay in horse stance and finished his dinner.
- My teacher could stay in horse stance and finished watching a Beijing opera.
- I can stay in horse stance and finish a can of beer.

IMO, the dynamic horse stance training is better than the static horse stance training.

I you can repeat the following drill 250 times non-stop; your horse stance ability is good (200 is possible. 250 is difficult).



If you can use "low stance walking" to cover 1 mile distance, your horse stance ability is also good.

View attachment 31487

Thanks. Those drills look intense.