How long do you stretch/warmup for class?

[koreantiger81]

I attended a tae kwon do class the other day..It was 2 hours long.

 

THis is how the class was broken up.

 

40 minutes of intense stretching and conditioning

 

1 hour of kicking

 

30 minutes of stretching and conditioning to finish the class.

 

I found that my attention span and my energy level ran out after 1 hour...I frowned that I had to pay for a class of conditioning...I believe it's the responsibility of the student to practice conditioning outside of class...I paid to learn how to do tae kwon do, not to do an aerobics class...This long session of conditioning tired me out thus compromising my form when it was time to kick and punch...Furthermore, after all that stretching I pulled my hamstring..

 

In my ideal class, students will come 10 minutes early to stretch on their own..Then we would warm up with easy/light kicking and punching...I can't remember where I heard this, but I heard that stretching for a long period of time before intense kicking and punching will actually increase the chance of injury..If you stretch for a long period of time, students actually have the chance of over-stretching their muscles, thus causing injury during intense kicking and punching....Furthermore if your warm up is too long, the efficency of learning decreases.

 

anyway, is this true? HOw long do you warm up for so that your students don't die when it's time to do kicking and punching?

[ZakariRu]

were you holding the stretches? or just doing alot of different ones?

 

in kicking stretching is phenominaly important. Bill Wallace says its one of the main resons he was so fast (he also practiced kicks incredibly slowly and told me that this builds flexibility too).

 

When your stretching its important to hold the stretch for a minimum (thats a funny word) of 17 seconds. Any less and you might as well not stretch it as the muscle wont release. any longer it doesnt make much of a difference.

 

I only stretch my inner/outer thighs and my hips. (straddle split and then lean to one side)

[KickChick]

It is very important that stretching be done daily if you're involved in the martial arts. There is not enough time (10 min) during our class to allow a complete stretching routine and the students are expected to stretch out before class and on the floor just before the start of class.

 

Stretching exercises performed during class concentrate on strengthening certain muscle groups and relaxing other groups so that maximum versatility is achieved.

 

It's important for the person stretching out the class to set up a pattern when doing exercises so that no area of the body is overlooked and no area is overworked. Normally in class, we will start at the top and work down. Usually we will begin with rising and crescent kicks to warm up the legs and hip flexors.

 

WOW that is a long TKD class! .... ours are 45-60 min

[G95champ]

Anywhere from 5 to 15 mins. Mondays we usually go a bit longer because of the weekends. It also depends on what I plan on doing. If we are going to spar I stretch more. If we are going to work SD not as much.

 

I have seen many classes that spend 90% of their time doing push ups and set ups. I really disagree with thes. People pay me to teach them MA not to do pushups.

[Bretty101]

I normally stagger the first 20 minutes with alternate stretching and exercises to gradually warm the muscles and increase the heart rate. I try and MAINTAIN this heart rate for 30-40 minutes then gradually lower the intensity warming students down with lighter exercises and further stretching.

 

I've put maintain in capital cos i think this is most important. I hate it when an instructor gets every one nice and warmed up then makes then stand around while he explains something. The intensity goes, people get bored and cold muscles increase the risks of injury.

 

Warm up, maintain and warm down.

 

ZakariRu- I really like Bill Wallace and value everything he writes, he knows his stuff and i can relate and agree with all of it. His style definately works for me (except i've got 2 legs)

[Blue]

Our classes are similar to what deby is describing. We're expected to stretch before class and do swing kicks and such to stretch during the beginning of class. For me anyway, i always stretch at home before class and then about a half and hour before the class begins at the school.

 

What i wish is that we could work on our forms more. It seems we do very little of that in the classes i attend.

 

Do you ever wonder if you spend a little too much time thinking about TKD ? Yesterday as i was taking my daughter to the doctor and went in afterwords to meet them, i caught myself doing an introduction like we do in class: Skaking hands and bowing

 

The guy must've thought i was either being very respectful or nuts.

[LeaF]

we normally do about 20 mins which includes a warm up stretching and cool down....

[BlackI]

Sometimes in my class we will do all conditioning days. running, Jumping jacks, Push ups, squat thrust, sit ups, squats, leg raises, V-ups, lunges, calf raises. Then we strecth and possibly spar. My instructor feels this is important, for several reasons, one reason is that he feels that you must change your work out to keep you body producing, secondly, he wants us to go thourgh these routines so we know the proper way to do them, third reason is to push you self past what you have ever done before.

 

This is great for Confindence and sore muscles..

[hobbitbob]

I would love to haev 30 minutes to stretch and warm up, but our University TKD club goes in after an aerobics class, and has fencing (egads...pointy things...run!) following. we have a mere 1 adn 1/2 hours two times a week, so we usually only stretch for ten minutes at the beginning. Memebers are encouraged to stretch outside the room before class.

 

At teh comercial school where I am learning Shorinjiryu, classes are two hours, so we have twenty minutes at the toip and ten at the bottom of class to stretch.

[monkeygirl]

It is very important that stretching be done daily if you're involved in the martial arts. There is not enough time (10 min) during our class to allow a complete stretching routine and the students are expected to stretch out before class and on the floor just before the start of class.

 

Stretching exercises performed during class concentrate on strengthening certain muscle groups and relaxing other groups so that maximum versatility is achieved.

 

It's important for the person stretching out the class to set up a pattern when doing exercises so that no area of the body is overlooked and no area is overworked. Normally in class, we will start at the top and work down. Usually we will begin with rising and crescent kicks to warm up the legs and hip flexors.

 

WOW that is a long TKD class! .... ours are 45-60 min

 

While I agree with KickChick about stretching every day, I do have a warning:

 

HEAVY stretching should be done no more than 3 times a week. It can overstress your muscles, just like lifting weights to the max every day can be stressful. So some light stretching (make sure you lightly warm up your muscles first with some jumping jacks or whatever) is good every day. Make sure you do each stretching motion slowly, or you could pull/tear a muscle and completely ruin the point.

 

Our class is 45 minutes long, so we do about 10-15 minutes of stretching. In the advanced class we usually grab partners and do Bill Wallace's standing and floor stretches so we can go at our own pace.