You’re here because you are a martial arts fanatic like we all are and you workout like crazy to pummel your opponent. You take supplements to get bigger and you practice your moves over and over until it’s second nature but are you working on getting your flexibility improved so you can really throw that round house to some ones jugular?
Stretching and flexibility is a crucial part of martial arts because it is something that only dedicated martial artists really work at. How many times have you seen someone doing martial arts in front of you and they are kicking and it looks so unnatural because their flexibility is terrible? That is because most people just want to be able to kick straight but they really don’t take into account that if they are going to kick anyone in the torso or even in the head then they are going to have to get down to business and start stretching. Here are some tricks and tips on stretching.
Start out easy. You really need to start to stretch easily because if those muscle fibers and tendons get overstretched or pulled too much then you can go farther and stretch to greater lengths. You will want to warm your body’s core temperature by going for a small run or do some jumping jacks or maybe even run in place. Only when your body is warmed up enough should you start to stretch and you can do that by doing some static warm-up stretches and alls that means is that your muscles are warmed up enough that you can stretch them much easier than you would be able to if you just rolled out of bed.
After you do some static stretching you can really stretch how a martial artist is suppose to stretch and do some dynamic stretching by doing leg swings and kicking a little bit. Leg swings are a really good stretching technique. Then you could stretch your legs by putting them up on a banister and really stretch out that ham string. Next you’re going to want to stretch out that calf muscle because you will be jumping around and moving around defensively against those sparring attackers.
One thing that not a lot of people do is stretch out their back and your back is a core muscle group that supports just about everything you do whether it’s a punch or a kick your back is involved so stretch it out really well. When your done stretching out your back you should drop down and do some pushups to not only get more blood flowing but it also stretches out your chest, triceps, and shoulders. These muscles are the major groups that are involved when you attack with your fists or any other hand tactic. Also don’t forget to do arm swings after you do the pushups. Moving upward move your neck around and stretch it from side to side and rock it slowly forward to backward because you want to feel your neck muscles becoming loose and not tightening. You are going to need those muscles so you can move your head to see exactly what your attacker is doing and take the proper counter measures to pummel them.
Stretching is not for wimps because it is a preventative type of exercise and it will help you get better at being fine tuned martial artists. Take it from me, as I write this I didn’t stretch enough and after sparring a younger person than I and my muscles are sore so to get the advantage stretch.
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