Share what you do to warm up, whether in class or at home for your own training. This way we might be able to pick each others' brains a little bit, see what works well for others, pick up some fun new drills to try, and so on. For my Kyokushin class, we tend to do the traditional warm-up exercises and some light kata or shadowboxing before really hitting it. Often times if it's just a few of us we may do individual warm ups before starting class as well. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAMmsOIdTeY"]kyokushin karate warm! - YouTube[/ame] For my Judo class, we do some light jogging with various footwork, light calisthenics, static stretching, mat pulling, shrimping, and ukemi drills. At home on my own, I have lately been becoming a fan of the Dot Drill from Bigger Faster Stronger to warm up with then a combination of mobility drills and dynamic stretching exercises. Personally I like a more intense warm-up as I feel it's easier to go from 90 to 100 than 50 to 100. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6aXLg2YX0o"]Dot Drill Sequence - YouTube[/ame]
11W which for my body is almost flipper sized. I made my own mat using spray paint and an old yoga mat using the dimensions from the website. It works out pretty well.
Mobility movement, light stretches, strike circuit, uchekomi, ukemi and light randori. Mix of above .. Smurf
We do light jogging, knees up, heels up, stars etc for a couple of minutes, then joint rotations (ankle, knee, hip, trunk twists, shoulder, elbow), squats, then seated dynamic stretches, divebomber press ups and up for leg raises. This seems to work well and has reduced injury in the over 30/40 students as opposed to the largely running/bodyweight exercises warm up we used to do. We'll still usually fit maybe 60 press ups, sit ups and squat thrusts in somewhere. If I'm aiming to work on something that specifically works hamstrings for example, we'll do more work on them first and continue during the session. Static stretching is left for the end of class for the most part, though I sometimes do a little at the start because despite current thinking I think a short static stretch helps older students warm up. Essentially I try to have a generic warm up that is short and effective, then move into the specific stuff for that lesson, which might be conditioning, technique, stretching or whatever and which may require some extra, specific stuff in the warm up. Mitch
Jogging, Shadow Boxing, and/or Skipping is what I usually do before training or working out. I'll sometimes follow it up with some light dynamic stretching and/or joint rotations.
For lifting sessions at home I start with mobility work (from Eric Cressey's and Mike Robertson's stuff), maybe some band pull aparts and then, for the first few lifts, I start off with light weights and work up to my working weight. For conditioning work I usually just gradually increase the intensity of what I'm doing. In class it tends to be a light jog followed by some dynamic stretching and movement drills such as forward and backward rolls and shrimping. I always make sure I pay particular attention to my lower back and shoulders.
generally i do some mobility work as a warm-up. mostly joint rotations and similar movements for ankles, knees, hip joints, spine, shoulders, shoulder joints, neck, and occasionally wrists, usually in that order. throw in a few bodyweight squats and some casual kicking and that's my usual warm-up, and what i make other people do when i help them train (although i don't skip anything when i help train others, which i often do when i train myself ). other than doing a purly mobo-based warm-up, the only "new" thing i have, so to speak is one particular move i like for general shoulder/arm health, which is to first raise the hands overhead as high and as far back as possible, then to bring them behind the head while keeping the shoulders and elbows firmly shoved back (shoulder blades pinched together), and then to push out to the sides as far as possible with the hands vertical. if done right, the push should result in a stretch across the entire arm, from armpit to wrist (unless your arms are ridiculously flexible already)
Before working out at home I usually do joint rotations followed by dynamic stretches, then I do some light kicks, strikes and manipulations on the wooden dummy. In class, we do dynamic stretches, some static stretches and some light calistenthics (squats, push ups)
For home training, Dynamic and static stretching, shadow boxing, Slow kicks held out slowly, knuckle/clap push ups, Sit ups, Plank and leg raises, work through Kihon and Sanchin. Osu! Dan93
Depends which Dojo we're in, on a Monday its a little more relaxed, we use a foam football and play "Keepy Uppy" - Sensei sets a target number, usually around 20, and we have to keep the ball up that many bounces (can use any body parts, not just feet) if we fail to hit the target number we have to run 2 lengths of the hall and then do the target number of Press Ups, Sit Ups and Squats - once we hit the target number it gets raised - we usually continue this until we get to about 200 Press Ups, Sit Ups and Squats - and then do some stretching. Thursday Nights are in a smaller hall at a school so can't play keepy uppy, so its a straight warm up, similar amount of Press Ups etc, a mixture of jumping, hopping and running on the spot and then stretching. Because of the high number of Brown Belts we've also added the Shodan "30 Throws" into the warm up in a line up fashion with 2 students doing the throws at a time. So depending how many of the Brown Belts are there (and if the sensei's join in) we usually end up throwing or being thrown about 120 times each.
varies a lot. It can be simple stance changing, knee up, we carry partner back and forth, shrimping, skipping. My favorites are gladiators games: We each hold a kicking pad as shield and punching one as sword...and we go for it. A variation is to get one man in corner surrounded by 4 guys holding him with their shields...he has to escape Cisco lad
Out of interest, what's the "firing chi balls" bit around 4.15 please Kuma? What's the purpose of it? Mitch
That is typically pushing, it comes after rotating arms which is meant to entangle opponent and lock his neck and arm, or around the neck grip....then push or throw ! Cisco Lad
That move is in Sanchin and Tensho. It's called mawashi uke I think. Aside from any chi cultivation stuff (that I don't ascribe to) I see it mainly as a mini lesson in disengaging from wrist grabs. The motions are almost identical to "breakaways" I learnt in combat Hapkido. In a warm up I use it to move the shoulder joint through a range of motion as it has rotational as well as forward and back movements (plus it looks nice and martial artsy and is tricky for beginners to get right so makes me look more badass ).
It looks like a move from sanchin yes, but I'm more interested in what purpose it serves in the standard kykushin warm up? Mitch
I'm not sure if this is a tangent from this thread, if so I apologise and will ask in a separate thread: I've seen quite a few videos of other clubs training where they include loads of strengthening exercises at the start of the class. Push ups, sit ups, leg raises, squat jumps etc. Does anyone here do this? Is it really advantageous? I would have thought that the rest of your training would suffer if you're knackered before you even start doing any technique training. I would tend to think that strengthening stuff should be done at the end of the class, after your body's finished with the fine detail of performing techniques.
