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Martial Arts Stretching – Building A Quality Routine
November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
You need a lot of flexibility if you are going to easily be able to effectively and powerfully perform the moves in any type of martial arts that require extended range of motion. If you want to be skillful in any martial arts style, you need to have flexibility, focus, and strength.
An effectively structured martial arts stretching regimen will be an essential component of your training in order for you to quickly progress. For a program that is effective, your day should begin with a light stretching routine in the morning, a strenuous general workout on certain days, and another light stretching routine in the evening. This may seem to be excessive, but staying with an aggressive martial arts stretching and workout program such as this will improve your flexibility in less than half the time of an easier regimen. When your flexibility has improved sufficiently, your workout regimen will become less time consuming.
The regimen of flexibility stretches that you follow in the mornings and evenings should consist of general exercises to keep your muscles loose and active stretching. Strenuous passive stretches, PNF, or isometric stretches have no place here. You do not want your stomach to be full when you are stretching, so your morning regimen of flexibility stretches should take place before eating breakfast. You want the blood flow to focus on the muscles you are stretching, not on digestive activity. You also want to make sure that your evening regimen takes place at least an hour after you have eaten dinner, but more than an hour before you go to bed. Your stretching regimens, both morning and evening, should be done six times per week and consist of no more than fifteen to thirty minutes of activity apiece.
Your intense main martial arts stretching workout should only be done 2-4 times a week. You do not want to do this workout more often than this because your body needs time to recover fully after each of these workouts. Make sure each of your intense workouts include a general warm-up. Your warm-up should consist of both cardiovascular elements and generic dynamic flexibility stretches. The intensity of these exercises need to be increased gradually so that your entire body gets loose and warm. After a general warm-up, you need to include a more specific warm-up. This warm-up needs to include movements that are similar to the movements of the particular martial art techniques you are trying to develop. Once you have completed both warm-ups, you need to move on to the main part of your martial arts stretching routine. This part needs to use modern stretching methods like isometric stretches, PNF stretches, and relaxed stretching techniques. Make sure that you end each of your intense stretching routines with a cool down period. During this time you should focus on static type flexibility stretches.
How often you do you main martial arts stretching workout, how long each workout is, and how much time you need to spend on each part of the workout (warm-up, main routine, and cool down) depends on how experienced you are and what your proficiency level is. If you are a beginner, you should have longer warm-up and cool down periods, accompanied by a shorter main routine. If you already have a fair level of flexibility, you can spend more time on the specific exercises and flexibility stretches in the main routine. If you have a high level of flexibility, you are able to have a shorter workout all together. Your main focus is to maintain your level of flexibility. The type of flexibility exercises you want to have in your program will depend on your experience level and the type of sport or martial art you are practicing for.
Concentrate on more generic moves while you are a beginner. More advanced and intermediate students may focus on more accelerated flexibility stretches and techniques including isometrics, PNF and relaxed stretching methods which target specific muscle groups relied upon by their particular style of art.
Those who specialize in martial arts forms which utilize high kicks should be careful to stretch their hips and legs; grapplers more on back, shoulders and arms. Careful attention in creating your martial arts stretching routine which takes into consideration your experience level and your art will provide better and faster gains in your flexibility and improvements in your overall performance.
Devotion to your plan will help you achieve your goals.
If you would like much more information on martial arts stretching methods, scientific routines and advanced flexibility stretches, visit www.MartialArtsStretching.com.
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