A ripple of giggles greeted the news that my first New Year fitness assignment was to be a Shaolin Kung Fu class.

But even though family and friends couldn’t quite see me as Jackie Chan I was to have the last laugh...thanks to the huge number of calories you burn up – 1,300 calories in a 90 minute session. Wow that’s seven packets of Walker’s Crisps - not that I was thinking of such things...

Here in Manchester we need motivation to fulfil our fitness goals with a quarter of us feeling that it’s just too much like hard work, according to those muscle-toning people at Slendertone.

But not for me the faint-hearted approach to fitness. I was about to embark on an exercise session that is the last word in cardio-vascular and fat burning power. And class instructor Ray Wong says this kind of Kung Fu strengthens and lengthens muscles too.

Mental tests – like learning to follow instructions and adapting to change quickly – are other elements which make Kung Fu more than a workout.

“These are all transferable skills which are useful outside of Kung Fu,” Ray says. So far, so impressive.

Researching Shaolin Kung Fu ahead of my class at the Priestnall Recreation Centre in Heaton Mersey I discover this is a martial art whose roots lie with Buddhist monks who wanted to defend their temples across China and South East Asia from attack.

It’s for this reason the art is mainly defensive, incorporating a mixture of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ moves which do not rely on strength alone.

Ray explains: “It is very much based on technique, rather than sheer strength. I’m never going to be 6ft 5ins and I’m never going to be able to out-muscle someone who is. What I can do is use everything I have got – realising that my arms and legs are appendages attached to the place where the real power is, in my body.”

Elements to perfecting this ‘technique’ include working on stance, orientation, body control and balance. Right from the warm-up these principles are taken on board with a tag-team race where you’re forced to drop a coffee bean into a cup on the floor before each switch-over.

With demands to ‘only use one finger’ or ‘pick up with your toes’, it soon became clear that balance, co-ordination and precision were as important as fitness and speed.

It also included a group session practising jumps, turns and kicks – which certainly got the heart going, although my poor bare feet pounding on the cold, wooden floor hurt more.

With different numbers representing different positions, it soon became a mental work-out too, as sequences shouted out to the group sent me into a bit of a flap as I attempted to make my body follow my brain.

Then it was time to get in pairs to work on kicks and punches. Before you start the attack – which is meant to be executed with grunting to add to the effect but also to help with your breathing – you must first observe the tradition of bowing with respect towards your partner.

Ray, who has trained in Malaysia, says such traditions must be strictly observed.

“Anything else would be really disrespectful. In the olden days, lives were won and lost on the basis of these techniques.”

As I begin dishing out the punches Ray explains that only two knuckles should land on the small circle on the pad held up by my partner –  simple physics says the smaller the surface area, the bigger the force.

When I've completed a rather feeble set of moves I check my hands – and find all the knuckles are red, meaning I've got to work on my precision.

I struggled even more with the kicks, but when Ray tells me to concentrate on getting the position right and my balance steady – rather than trying to get my leg really high – my technique improves.

It is, after all, only my first lesson, and those who take up Shaolin Kung Fu must be in it for the long haul.

“You will only get out of it what you put in,” he says. “I am not interested in people who are only chasing belts.

“This class is about creating an atmosphere where people can progress, and where the finished result really means something to them.”

I finish my first class learning a sequence of traditional Shaolin moves, counting through in Chinese as we go. It's a smooth and graceful process as you move through one to the other - from attack to the defence; from stretches out to the sky to crouches down on the ground.

There was even a monkey-inspired move, a very basic introduction to how the Shaolin monks used to take inspiration from different animals in their techniques.

As the lesson ends I'm feeling more of a pussy cat than a tiger, but it was an effective work-out which touched me in many different ways - not least feeling part of something so steeped in tradition.

Visit www.learnshaolinkungfu.co.uk for more information and details of your local class.

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