Martial Arts Stretching – The Fundamentals of an Efficient Program
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.
The quickest way to make progress in your flexibility is to have a proper martial arts stretching routine. Routines that have worked the best have a light morning stretching workout, a light evening stretching routine, and a powerful main workout during the daytime. While this routine sounds excessive, it has been proven that an aggressive schedule similar to this will increase your flexibility 2-4 times faster than a martial arts stretching schedule that is less dedicated. After having reached the level of flexibility that is sufficient, you will be able to lighten your routine quite a bit.
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.
Your expertise and experience will dictate how often you work out, how long your intense martial arts stretching routine is, and how you divide your time among the warm-up, cool-down, and intense portions of the workout. Novices should allocate more time to the warm-ups and cool-downs, and spend less time on the intense part of the workout. People with a lot of experience stretching and a greater degree of flexibility can allocate a greater amount of time to sport-specific exercises and on the intense workout. Students who are advanced generally need to spend less time working out to maintain their excellent flexibility. The flexibility routine and exercises that you develop will be determined by your level of experience and expertise and the martial art you are training in.
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.
Martial arts that utilize high kicks require more of a focus on stretching that addresses the legs and hips, where grappling practitioners need to improve the flexibility of their upper body and torso.
By designing your martial arts stretching routing according to your experience level and your sport or art and keeping to your planned schedule, you will reach your flexibility goals faster than you would have thought.
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your art or sport by learning even more cutting edge routines, effective flexibility stretches, and modern martial arts stretching techniques visit www.MartialArtsStretching.com
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