About Us
What is Kung Fit?
At Kung Fit we believe in the importance of staying Fit for Life. To help you do just that we use a combination of traditional kung fu, and modern training techniques.
For hundreds of years kung fu has demonstrated its effectiveness for delivering lasting fitness, but many of the training methods haven’t changed in all that time. Meanwhile our knowledge of the human body and fitness has increased dramatically. Combining traditional kung fu with modern training techniques and relevant sports research we can ensure that you get the maximum benefit out of your training. This approach will help you achieve your goals of getting, and staying, fit, strong, flexible and mobile.
At Kung Fit you will get well informed, tried and tested techniques that go beyond the catchy headlines and trends. I won’t recommend anything I haven’t tried or researched first.
Damien helped me lose even more weight than I expected. I wouldn’t change anything about his programme- Will W
Damien, your Kung Fit Coach
Hi, I’m Damien, I’ve been teaching fitness and kung fu for over a decade, to people with a wide range of backgrounds and training experience. I’ve trained complete beginners and full contact kickboxers with years of martial arts experience. During that time I’ve honed my understanding of how to teach, and how to push people towards their goals. I’m also a Level 4 Personal Trainer and I continue to teach regular kung fu and fitness classes to this day.
I’ve been into sports and fitness since I was young, taking part in athletics, and playing rugby for my school. My rugby playing days were ended during college by a knee injury which wouldn’t heal properly. After a while though, I found kung fu, which helped me to rebuild my strength and mobility, leaving me pain free.
I’d always been interested in martial arts, but had never had the opportunity to train regularly. As soon as I started learning I was fascinated, and set out to learn as much as I could about kung fu, training hard to improve myself. As my knowledge grew, I developed a passion for understanding physical training in general, gathering information from wherever I could.
Somewhere along the line I also managed to complete a PhD in archaeology and visual perception, do some teaching at my university, and build the Geomatics department in the UKs largest heritage company. Another interest of mine is science, and the critical skills I gained during my doctorate have helped me to assess sports science studies and improve my approach to training. I even found time in my busy schedule to keep playing games, watching movies and reading books, all whilst convincing my now wife that marrying a massive Star Wars nerd, and getting two cats was a good idea.
I want to share my passion for fitness and kung fu, helping as many people as I can along the way to stay Fit for Life. That is why I founded Kung Fit.
Thanks for doing what you do! The world needs more people that can help empower them and help them manage the most fundamental aspect of their existence, their health
- Kyle Wooten
More About My Kung Fu
For those of you specifically interested in learning kung fu, I practice Shaolin Kung Fu, as taught at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China, and the surrounding Songshan area. This includes both traditional kung fu and Sanda (Chinese kickboxing). I’m a big believer in the value of taolu/forms (predefined sequences of movements) as a way to develop the body whilst doing something interesting, but also as a source of fighting application. We each may have different interests and goals in training, but I think that it is important to at least understand what these movements are intended for, and this forms part of the one-on-one training I deliver.
My first teacher was Shifu Yan Xin, a former Shaolin disciple who was team leader of the Shaolin Wheel of Life Tour. I now work work with him on his online learning platform KungFu.Life teaching group classes. I also learnt much from another of Shifu Yan Xin’s former students, Josh Viney of Shaolin Yuzhai, who spent many years travelling around Songshan, learning from Shaolin folk masters, gathering insights into traditional Shaolin Kung Fu not often shared these days.
I also train Muay Thai at a gym in Sydney as a way to keep my skills sharp and keep progressing as a martial artist.
Damien has a great teaching style. He’s very knowledgeable and able to explain things really clearly
- Calum Macdonald
