Graham Player has six decades of martial arts under his belt. The silver-haired Australian – who declines to give his precise age – practices the Hung Gar form of kung fu, and is a walking advertisement for how beneficial this has been to his fitness.

A congenital disability resulting in a poorly functioning right hip meant the Australian was wheelchair-bound as early as he can recall.

Over years of his childhood, he worked with a neighbor who was a Chinese medicine practitioner and martial artist, steadily strengthening his body.

Through Hung Gar, was finally able to walk independently at 16. When he was 18, just before his mentor passed away, Player pledged to continue practicing martial arts and pass it on to others.

He has been teaching the martial art style in Hong Kong since the ’90s.

Here he lays out his “Five Habits of Wellness” for a healthy life:

1. Activity

“Do different types of exercises to protect the vehicle in which you exist so it can be functioning properly,” Player says.

Encourage regular participation in physical fitness exercises, and the setting of objectives for your body so that you push to attain them.

Practicing kung fu for years makes one mindful of one’s body and health too. “All this activity leads to the mind-body relationship: as you age, you think you can’t do this as well as before … you look at what’s going on in your body, what’s changing, and that leads you to health,” he said.

2. Diet

“Whatever you eat, be mindful of what it is going to do in your body and what your body may need at that particular time,” the vegetarian advises.

Instead of just focusing on the Western approach of food’s nutritional or chemical compositions, incorporate other aspects, he says, such as the Chinese medicine approach that food is medicine.

3. Social interaction and intimacy

Player says that as social animals, we need interaction and intimacy to survive. But be mindful of the people you engage with.

“Do I want to interact with a 70-year-old who does not have a very balanced outlook on life and keeps telling me about the good old days and does not agree with [the ubiquity of] mobile phones and Facebook?” he asks.

He urges people to safeguard intimacy. “We depend on other people for our existence so that’s an important part. You need to protect it as you get older.”

4. Mental state

Have the right outlook, or otherwise life is not satisfying.

Spirituality can help. “You need to have some belief system that may or may not involve going to church or worshipping.”

5. Rest and relaxation

Overall, prioritize wellness and fitness as everyday practices.

“You think of ‘kung fu’ as Bruce Lee and fighting. Kung fu is actually a Buddhist term meaning ‘any dedicated activity towards achieving mindfulness’; that was the original meaning of the word – not fighting,” says Player.

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