Cincinnati Post
By George Diaz
Welcome to the House of pain. Your tour guide today is Dr. Ping, a man who has a college degree in “Asian treatment.”
He has a unique way of treating customers. We start with a traditional workout with free weights, then jump over for a two-hour session of martial arts. Then, he will school you in the ways of “hydraulic machines for muscular endurance.” And let’s not forget our afternoon run. Our two-hour run. Short warmup, followed by 24 consecutive sprints.
Hurts so good, don’t you think?
For this, you pay $1,500.
This paid-four-pain philosophy is not for everyone. Those who lack discipline may prefer to invest the money in six – packs and pepperoni pizzas. But for athletes who find a direct correlation between the size of their paychecks and the size of their triceps, Dr. Ping is your man.
He is in the business of building athletes at his studio on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The place is called “Sunami” meaning tidal wave, presumably for what you can expect at one of his sessions.
Bangles Rodney Holman and Skip McClendon train there. So does Lionel Washington of the Los Angeles Raiders, Brent Williams of the New England Patriots and Robert Lyles of the Houston Oilers.
Lyles liked this House of Pain concept so much, he took it with him when he left Ping’s studio one summer for the Oilers’ training camp. His teammates, thriving on their reputation as big, boisterous bullies, stuck the label on the Astrodome.
Sorry, Houston. Painful as it may be, your house is a fraud.
“Originally, the athletes called it the House of Ping,” said Dr. Da-I Shudo Ping on Tuesday.” Then the athletes started calling it the House of Pain about six years ago. This is a gentle place, but when you come out of here, you know you’ve had a workout.”
Dr. Ping preaches a form of martial arts called “Jishu Kan-Ryu Ju Jitsu.” The first three words mean “ultimately the mind.” The second two mean “encompasses all.” It is a form of counterattack, 90 percent of which is self-defense.
Dr. Ping has a cult following among National Football League and Canadian Football League players. About “20 – plus” NFL players spend a month, beginning at the end of May, combining martial arts training with weightlifting and running six days of the week.
“What you put into it is what you get out of it,” said Holman, the Bangles’ tight end whos completed his seventh summer with Dr. Ping. “He will never fail you. You have to fail yourself. This is a tremendous help, both mentally and physically. After the grueling workouts, you can ease into training camp.”
Regular customers can sign up for similar training, which is only slightly less intensified.
Dr. Ping, 42, has been in business since 1975, and gradually has gained popularity through unsolicited testimonials in locker rooms across the NFL. He also doubles as an agent for many of his customers, including Holman and McClendon.