Introduction to stretching

To kick effectively you must have a certain degree of flexibility therefore stretching is an important part of your training program and all martial arts classes have some sort of stretching routine incorporated in their class structure.

When you stretch it is important to do so correctly or you can do yourself more damage than good. When you stretch you should slowly stretch the muscle to its maximum length at this point the muscle should be contracted strongly and held for 12 to 15 seconds. Staying in the stretch position relax for 12 to 15 seconds increase the stretch then repeat the process until just below the pain threshold at which point you should hold the stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. The following paragraph is a brief description of why we stretch this way.

When a sudden and involuntary stretch occurs the muscle spindles trigger a signal which causes the muscle to contract preventing the injury from occurring, this is called the inhibitory stretch reflex. This can be overridden to a certain extent in carefully controlled exercises. If a muscle is first contracted and then relaxed it can be stretched to a point beyond which this inhibitory response would have been triggered.

Before any stretching exercises are even attempted the body must be thoroughly warmed up as injury can occur if the body is cold.