Hermit's Training (History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi)

Hermit, Tanimoto Natsu, is one of Kenichi's rivals, former enemies, and uncertain friends. His style is kung fu, although he specifically uses Piquazhang, a style utilizing broad and sweeping movements and is more long range in nature. It is likely that he also knows Bajiquan since he's familiar with Kenichi's use of it during their second encounter and since he's practiced Iron Palm skills. Bajiquan is ultimately a close-quarters combat system that is linear and very forceful. The two arts are complementary toward one another and are referenced as being quite unstoppable when added together.

Although my knowledge of these two arts is cursory at best, I will attempt to relay, through the anime and what research I have done, a decent workout based on the arts and their principles. This workout is based on Piquazhang and Bajiquan. So... here we go.

Hermit's Training

LEVEL ONE

1. Small Arm Circles- 25 Each Direction
2. Arm Swinging (Shoulder Height)- 25 Reps
3. Arm Swinging (High-Low)- 25 Reps
4. Arm Swinging (Low-High)- 25 Reps
5. Large Arm Circles- 25 Each Direction
6. Bajiquan Horse Stance- 2 Minutes
7. Alternating Low Stance- 25 Reps
8. Pushing- 25 Reps
9. False-Grip Monkey Bar Walk- 25 "Steps"
10. Iron Palm Training (Slap, Back Slap, Knife Hand, Ridge Hand)- 30 Minutes
11. Sweeping Three Star Training- 10 Minutes

LEVEL TWO

1. Small Arm Circles- 50 Each Direction
2. Arm Swinging (Shoulder Height)- 50 Reps
3. Arm Swinging (High-Low)- 50 Reps
4. Arm Swinging (Low-High)- 50 Reps
5. Large Arm Circles- 50 Each Direction
6. Bajiquan Horse Stance- 2 Minutes, Holding 5lbs in each hand
7. Alternating Low Stance- 50 Reps
8. Pushing- 50 Reps
9. False-Grip Monkey Bar Walk- 50 "Steps"
10. Iron Palm Training (Slap, Back Slap, Knife Hand, Ridge Hand)- 30 Minutes
11. Sweeping Three Star Training- 10 Minutes

LEVEL THREE

1. Small Arm Circles- 100 Each Direction
2. Arm Swinging (Shoulder Height)- 100 Reps
3. Arm Swinging (High-Low)- 100 Reps 
4. Arm Swinging (Low-High)- 100 Reps
5. Large Arm Circles- 100 Each Direction
6. Bajiquan Horse Stance- 2 Minutes, Holding 10lbs in each hand
7. Alternating Low Stance- 100 Reps
8. Pushing- 100 Reps 
9. False-Grip Monkey Bar Walk- 50 "Steps" w/25lbs on body or ankles
10. Iron Palm Training (Slap, Back Slap, Knife Hand, Ridge Hand)- 30 Minutes
11. Sweeping Three Star Training- 10 Minutes

LEVEL FOUR

1. Small Arm Circles- 100 Each Direction, w/2lbs each hand
2. Arm Swinging (Shoulder Height)- 100 Reps, w/2lbs each hand
3. Arm Swinging (High-Low)- 100 Reps, w/2lbs each hand
4. Arm Swinging (Low-High)- 100 Reps, w/2lbs each hand
5. Large Arm Circles- 100 Each Direction, w/2lbs each hand
6. Bajiquan Horse Stance- 2 Minutes, Holding 15lbs in each hand
7. Alternating Low Stance- 150 Reps
8. Pushing- 150 Reps
9. False-Grip Monkey Bar Walk- 50 "Steps" w/50lbs on body or ankles
10. Iron Palm Training (Slap, Back Slap, Knife Hand, Ridge Hand)- 30 Minutes
11. Sweeping Three Star Training- 10 Minutes  

Notes:

• The Small and Large Arm Circles are the same type of Arm Circles found in the Real Anime Training Warm-up.
• Shoulder Height Arm Swinging means that your arms are at shoulder height at the sides of your body, palms up. You should feel relatively stretched out across your ribcage. Then, you'll swing your arms to the inside of your body, having them cross very tightly in front of your chest. They will be slightly bent at this point, but then you will swing them back out to the sides of your body.
• High-Low Arm Swinging is done in a kind of forward stance. Your lead hand will be high, palm facing toward your center line and your rear hand will be low, palm facing your center line. You will swing your arms in front in a similar manner to the Arm Swinging mentioned prior and then back to High-Low. 
• Low-High just means do the opposite side.
• Will post a site with a picture of the bajiquan horse stance. There will be other reference pictures as well.
• For alternating low stances, your feet will be about two shoulder widths apart. You will squat down to one side, raising an outward turned palm to the side of your face with the elbow pointed up on the side being squatted on and an open hand along the same path as the straightened leg. This will make more sense when you see the picture. It's on the first page I'm going to post. One on each side is one rep.
• Pushing starts with your feet together, hands at your hips. You will jump out to a horse stance, thrust your hands out straight, the fingers rotating to face one another while your palms face away from you. It's like you're trying to push someone away. The rhythm is kind of like jumping jacks and is kind of cardio in nature. Think of the move Kenichi used to defeat Hermit in their second fight.
• The False Grip Monkey Bar Walk is taken straight from the anime. You'll go across the monkey bars utilizing a variation of the False Grip. Essentially, you are going to hold yourself up using the bottom part of your palm and the strength of your wrist. Truthfully, it's turned a little bit, with the palm facing inward, so you are pretty much using the side of the hand as well. You can find an example of this in History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Chapter 133. If you have monkey bars, go on every other bar. If you don't have monkey bars, you can use a pull-up bar, just alternate your hands on the bar.  If this ever gets easy, you can add weight through a weighted vest or ankle weights.
• For your Iron Palm Training, if you are not already trained in this skill, please go easy and start only using sand. If you want to make any real progress you have to do it on a daily basis. I'm not saying destroy your hands every day, but you need to train them in some form or fashion every day. I'll make a post outlining some daily hand conditioning I would recommend. It doesn't always have to be the same thing, but I'll get into that for that post.
• We've covered Three Star Training before, but do it with a much more sweeping motion, like you'd see Hermit do.
• http://www.wutangcenter.com/wt/bajipigua.htm
• http://www.wutangcenter.com/wt/bajipigua2.htm

I know this workout is a little different, but it seems like all the kung fu workouts I've done have been that way. But, this should be good for a change of pace and to make your body move in new ways. Really use those two pages I posted, because they will give you a better understanding of bajiquan and piquazhang (I've found a few different ways to spell that, so I'm not sure if that's right).

Hope you have fun. Until next time, good luck and train hard!