Not Stretching Before Martial Arts..

[June1]

Stretch. Not doing it (not my fault, Sensei made us run laps and jump over stacks of pads before we were, in my opinion, properly warmed up) led to me pulling my groin.

[AngryMatt]

You can look up any number of articles, but last year the CDC concluded that stretching does not prevent any injuries whatsoever.

 

However, WARMING UP does have benefits because it increases blood flow. While stretching doesn't do that, doing some light work before hitting the heavier stuff.

[Kempohands]

You can look up any number of articles, but last year the CDC concluded that stretching does not prevent any injuries whatsoever.

 

Could you possibly post a link to one of these articles, I'd appriciate it. I've never heard of someone making that argument before, granted I'm only 14 years old, but still, I've never heard that before.

[IcemanSK]

Is static stretching (ie. holding your chest to your legduring hurdle stretches) or boucing a better way to stretch?

[DarkDragon]

Stretching and Flexibility is Very important to a martial artist, None of my workouts start with out warming up and stretching, if your instructor continues in this manner i recommend you take 15 minutes or how ever mutch time you need before the class starts to warm your self up And stretch.

[DarkDragon]

Is static stretching (ie. holding your chest to your legduring hurdle stretches) or boucing a better way to stretch?

Never Bounce in a stretch Just hold and Relax!!!

[Aodhan]

You can look up any number of articles, but last year the CDC concluded that stretching does not prevent any injuries whatsoever.

However, WARMING UP does have benefits because it increases blood flow. While stretching doesn't do that, doing some light work before hitting the heavier stuff.

CDC? Center for Disease Control?

Do you have a link?

Aodhan

[Ben Martin]

the more you stretch in training the less you are likely to pull a muscle in a real fight as you become more flexable. before i started kboxing i couldnt only ckick to my chest with out stretching and now i can kick head hight with no problem if my muscles are still cold. in my class we never stretch our arms just legs and hips and spleen and sometimes our lower back which i do not like

[hank]

as someone else mentioned, do NOT do STATIC stretching before physical activity. It has been found to be ineffective in preventing injuries. I'll look for the reference later. It DOES reduce strength and speed immediately afterwards. Not what you want before training.

AFTER training (and while thoroughly warmed up) then do static stretching.

WARMUP thoroughly and do DYNAMIC stretching BEFORE training.

Do NOT do ballistic or bouncing type stretching.

[Meguro]

I've read similar things regarding the ineffectiveness of stretching (static)to prevent injury. Personally, it's part of my routine and I'd do the stretches anyway. What has been effective is dynamic stretching. According to some proponents of dynamic stretching, 15 minutes of dynamic stretching 2x/day should give you the flexibility to do head-height kicks with no warm-up. I don't have the links handy but you can read more on this stuff if you google dynamic stretching.