It's called Iron Board Bridge Qigong, used to train torso strength in tradition Chinese Kung-Fu (Gongfu). Training methods about it in this book http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Shaolin-White-Crane-Martial-Qigong/dp/1886969353 Totally hardcore.

I wrote something related to this topic back in February, more from the point of view of a solution framework rather than the cultural root of problem (which I agree with). I think prevailing attitudes are stagnating any movement forward to a digital economy... from a developer point of view I abhor the idea of any else touching my code, but I publicly acknowledge the necessity of it :) http://langhornewollamshram.blogspot.com/2009/02/information-age-bottleneck-part-ii.html

There should be a system in place that allows for innovation regarding previous intellectual property, while still giving credit (and profit) to the original owner. Information Age Bottleneck: http://bit.ly/CL7KM