Chinese Martial Arts and Health Centre Australia

Why is the ADF interested in research into traditional martial arts?

Because modern training has a limit that ancient martial arts principles can teach us how to go past.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll introduce some of the underlying physiological principles of traditional Kung Fu, share our pioneering research, and show how these relate to enhancing strength, stability, and performance under pressure.

This isn’t about learning martial arts.
It’s about understanding how your body and mind function, and beginning to access latent capabilities that require specialised training to unlock.

📍 Toowoomba Library
📅 14 May, 6:00–7:45pm
💲 $50

👉 Scan the QR code on the flyer to book your place or visit https://www.martialartsresearchandtestinglaboratory.com.au/service-page/the-secret-sciences-of-ancient-kung-fu

We would like to wish our school family and friends a very Happy Chinese New Year. We wish you all a successful, healthy, and fulfilling year of the Fire Horse, and the discipline and perseverance to keep moving forward.

2026 is the year of the Fire Horse. What a fitting year for the Chinese Martial Arts and Health Centre Australia to be celebrating its 20th anniversary. That’s right, 20 years ago, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we made the commitment to open an Australian branch of the Chinese Martial Arts and Health Centre here in Toowoomba, teaching the venerable and powerful Chang Hong system of traditional Chinese martial arts. Over these past 20 years we have faced many hardships, setbacks and challenges. Personal challenges, injuries and setbacks aside, small-town regional Australia is not a very forgiving environment in which to open a traditional martial arts school. The people here are salt-of-the-earth and have many great qualities, but open-mindedness is not one of them. Luxury big-city perspectives are far more accepting of new things. Martial arts schools open and shut down frequently around here on the doorstep of the Outback. The bush is unforgiving. The hardships that we faced over the years have run the entire gamut. From the occasional egotistical clown walking into a class to challenge our fighting abilities (confident in the “fact” that traditional martial arts are no good) only to get themselves knocked around or sent to ground in confused disgrace, all the way up to people in positions of power who attempted to abuse their authority to discredit and malign us only to be brutally overturned and embarrassed on the battleground of open public discourse. We’ve been fighting all this time. We’ve been in the trenches. And sometimes it’s hard to see the results of your efforts when the hardships loom so large in your field of view. But this is a year to celebrate the undeniable fact that WE’RE STILL HERE! All those detractors who tried to kick us when we were down can stick that bitter w**d into their pipes and collectively smoke it, LOL. But, in a very fundamental way, we have made a difference beyond just existing. Our research is slowly making waves and changing perspectives. The relevance and hidden power of traditional Chang Hong is now a scientifically irrefutable fact. It is as irrefutable as the continued existence of the CMAHCA in the face of the nay-sayers, quiet backstabbers and smiling assassins. This screenshot shows how the scientific research that we have been conducting is slowly changing what is revealed by performing an AI search on the role of intra-abdominal pressure in martial arts. When we embarked on this research journey, the sports-science textbooks were literally at odds with what I said I could physically do. I even remember in the early days telling Sherri’s supervisor what I knew I could do and how it was at odds with the texts. I remember him responding dismissively with something like: “Well, we’ll just have to see what the results show.” To his credit, he became a true believer after seeing the results first-hand. It’s been a fight. Indeed, it has. But that’s what we do here. We fight. Time to pick up our new weapons, freshly hardened and tempered in the furnace of peer-reviewed scientific journals, and charge into the future with renewed vigour.

We’re proud to share that our Martial Arts Research and Testing Laboratory has just published a paper in the international spine research journal JOR Spine (Open Access).

The study looked at what happens to the spine under heavy load, and whether ultrasound can be used as a practical way to measure spinal compression outside of expensive lab environments.

Why does this matter to us?

Because martial arts training isn’t just about movement or fighting, it’s about posture, breath control, structural integrity, how the body manages force under load, and how to optimise that system to maximise performance under pressure.

This publication forms part of a broader PhD research project exploring whether specialised training incorporating breath control and biofeedback can reduce spinal compression while improving stability and force production in physically demanding tasks.

In other words, the principles we train aren’t just tradition. They’re measurable.

You can read the full Open Access paper here:
https://doi.org/10.1002/jsp2.70137

A very big thank you to all supervisors, collaborators, and participants who contributed to this work.

Reliability of Ultrasonography to Assess Spinal Compression During Heavy Load Carriage This study evaluated the reliability of ultrasonography to measure inter-transverse process distances in the lumbar spine during standing load carriage. Eleven healthy adults underwent ultrasound ass...

Wishing our school family and friends a happy, fulfilling, and successful 2026!

We are excited to share an excerpt from a paper which recently cited our initial study. Authored by researchers from Harvard University and other prominent universities and centres, the article, entitled 'The Science of Tai Chi for Whole Person Health: Advancing the Integration of Mind-Body Practices into Contemporary Health Care', summarises key topics from an international conference held at Harvard Medical School, in which we were cited. Here's more about our paper - https://tinyurl.com/ymdvn6dy.

Happy Birthday, Si Gung Marco!

Wishing you a fantastic day filled with strength, wisdom and joy. Your dedication and leadership continue to inspire everyone in our martial arts family. May this year bring you great health, success, and many more adventures!