The Importance of an Effective Martial Arts Stretching Routine
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.
Designing a well balanced martial arts stretching routine is essential to making rapid progress in any martial art. Create programs which combine light stretching workouts in the morning, light stretching in the evening with more intense main workouts during alternate days. This type of focused, intense martial arts stretching training is not easy. But it can increase your flexibility in one half to one quarter the time of a less aggressive program. When your body reaches a certain degree of flexibility, the schedule of the routine will seem easier.
One should practice general loosening and active flexibility stretches both morning and evening. Avoid more intense passive forms of stretching like isometric, or PNF stretches during the morning and evening workouts. It is not advisable to stretch on a full stomach so begin your morning routine of flexibility stretches before breakfast. Do not try to divide your blood supply between physical activity and digestion at the same time. The evening stretching is best completed an hour or so after dinner while at least an hour before sleep. Keep the morning and evening workouts relatively brief at fifteen to thirty minutes but perform them 6 days a week.
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.
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 would like much more information on martial arts stretching methods, scientific routines and advanced flexibility stretches, visit www.MartialArtsStretching.com.
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