No stretching in class?

[sensei8]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

[Judodad_karateson]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

Good post. But it seems like now the question is What constitutes adequate stretching in the first place!?

[JR 137]

There's a lot of research out there on this subject matter but very little of it relates to Martial arts. The studies relate to reduced force generation of the muscle being stretched. This is regarding the agonist muscles(ie those generating the force). Because we need increased mobility our flexibility focuses on the antagonist muscles ( those resisting the movement eg hamstring in a front kick). There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest that static Stretching pre exercise can increase risk of injury by weakening the antagonist muscle.)

Most now seem to follow the pathway of using dynamic stretching in the warm up (some of the more enlightened also use myofascial release pre warm up ). Static stretching is left till after class.

However some leading S & C coaches are now suggesting Static stretching should be done cold to gain increases in mobility. My head hurts just trying to keep up.

Gotta love the world of scientific research. Something gets "proven" one week, then gets "proven" to be false then next week. The biggest thing I've found is how many people will take a study out of context. Someone will read a line or two from a study, then it'll end up in an article in a magazine or or a tv show and everyone will blindly accept the 1 line read interpretation of the story. Kind of like the target heart rate/fat burning study. That was one we analyzed in grad school ex phys. Everyone and their brother accepted the target heart rate training as the most efficient way to burn fat, yet look at all the people on treadmills for what seems like hours at a time and not losing much weight.

Ever notice how practically every study ends with "... further research is needed on the subject..."?

[hammer]

Gotta love the world of scientific research. Something gets "proven" one week, then gets "proven" to be false then next week. The biggest thing I've found is how many people will take a study out of context. Someone will read a line or two from a study, then it'll end up in an article in a magazine or or a tv show and everyone will blindly accept the 1 line read interpretation of the story. Kind of like the target heart rate/fat burning study. That was one we analyzed in grad school ex phys. Everyone and their brother accepted the target heart rate training as the most efficient way to burn fat, yet look at all the people on treadmills for what seems like hours at a time and not losing much weight.

Ever notice how practically every study ends with "... further research is needed on the subject..."?

IMO the reasons people don't lose weight after being on the treadmill for so long is because they usually either don't change their eating habits (guilty as charged) or they eat more since they exercised and feel entitled to it (sometimes guilty as well). Simple matter of input vs output...

I'm in agreement with the stretching approach we take in class, which is to make sure we do a warmup before any significant static stretching, and to also make sure we do some dynamic stretching before working on any high kicks.

I also run and I never stretch beforehand. It's possible that doing some dynamic warm up stretches would help, but I usually just go a bit slower for the first .5 - 1 mile and that ends up being my warmup.

I would like to improve my flexibility (gets harder when one is of a certain age) but fitting something structured like yoga into my schedule just isn't going to happen.

[JR 137]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

Good post. But it seems like now the question is What constitutes adequate stretching in the first place!?

That, my friend, is in fact the question.

[sensei8]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

Good post. But it seems like now the question is What constitutes adequate stretching in the first place!?

YOU/ THE PRACTITIONER constitute what is and what isn't adequate stretching; no one knows your body better than YOU/THE PRACTITIONER!!

[JR 137]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

Good post. But it seems like now the question is What constitutes adequate stretching in the first place!?

YOU/ THE PRACTITIONER constitute what is and what isn't adequate stretching; no one knows your body better than YOU/THE PRACTITIONER!!

But if a you're doing is repeating the same thing over and over without trying something new, how well do you truly know what you're capable of or if something else could be of greater benefit?

[sensei8]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

Good post. But it seems like now the question is What constitutes adequate stretching in the first place!?

YOU/ THE PRACTITIONER constitute what is and what isn't adequate stretching; no one knows your body better than YOU/THE PRACTITIONER!!

But if a you're doing is repeating the same thing over and over without trying something new, how well do you truly know what you're capable of or if something else could be of greater benefit?

Again, that's up to you, and you won't know until you try something new, but who's to say that that new thing is for you?!?! Most MAist have an instructor, and the instructor has had a stretching routine for students to do as part of the pre-class warm up. So, use those stretches...they were fine then, so they'll be fine in the future.

[hansenator]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

I've seen the opinion that, if you need to stretch before you can do a certain activity, you're not yet flexible enough for that activity. The advice was to improve your flexibility first and the go back to doing that thing. I have a feeling that won't go well in a TKD class though.

[sensei8]

It's a very dangerous game to play when inadequate stretching is performed before ANY activity; it births unnecessary injuries, some minor and some serious; all injuries can be lessened and avoided by proper stretching.

Imho.

I've seen the opinion that, if you need to stretch before you can do a certain activity, you're not yet flexible enough for that activity. The advice was to improve your flexibility first and the go back to doing that thing. I have a feeling that won't go well in a TKD class though.

While that might be true for some and not for others, the older one gets the more one might have to stretch more...I do. I'll be 58 this October, and I need to stretch more now than I use to. Is that just part of aging? I hope so, because if it's not, than I just don't know.