Yesterday my Muay thai teacher pulled me from my usual jump rope warm up and "helped" me with some stretches which included.... -Putting my leg on the mat (making sure my knee is bent, as well as the supporting legs knee) and holding it there for everal seconds. -sitting down against the turnbuckle and spreading my legs as wide as I can. This was followed by my Muay Thai teacher doing the same, only he would spread his legs in between mine in order to make me stretch them out farther. these two exercises hurt like hell (I kept imagining that scene in "kickboxer" where Van dam was forced to do the stretch) but I have to admit, my Thai roundhouses came out much better afterwards. i kicked higher and smoother than before. Anyways, you guys got some suggestions on what kind of stretching techniques I should do at home? My teacher told me to stop being a lazy America and sit on the floor . He said I should do stretches while watching TV etc. Do you guys have any other ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks !
Yes, I am very familiar with that type of stretch..... and that "quote" from your teacher. My instructor always recalls the story of his Korean teacher telling him what a lazy American he was.... ! Although I train in Tae Kwon do.... stretching is also important for us to achieve max flexibility with our kicking techinques. I would just make sure that you aren't pulled away too soon from your jump roping as that is a good exercise to start warming up the muscles. You do not want to stretch (especially that type of partner assisted stretch or PNF strtching) while muscles are cold. Maximum gains are reached in your stretch when tissue temp is elevated and long duration stretches are done.... Raising the temp of tendons increases the amount of permanent length changes. For this reason warm up fully before you stretch... it is safer and far more productive. Move in and out of stretch slowly hold for up to 60 sec.s and "feel" the stretch at the center of the muscle. If you follow a consistent routine of stretching .... 7 days a week you will notice significant gains. As far as what types of stretches .... a simple v-stretch while watching TV ... legs out to side... point toes up then stretch then and gradually keepi inching legs further and further apart. You can then point toes down and forward opening up groin area to stretch.... I used to place a plate of pop corn in between legs and try to pick up with mouth as I bent down each time moving plate away gradually.... alot of fun! ...and it works!! I will email you my stretch routine if you pm me!
and here's a site with a good read on stretching formats www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rep/stretching/
KickChic...have you read the book of Pavel Tsatsouline, Max flexibilty through relaxation?? crovax: A very important thing is to make that the heels, knees,hips and ankels are in a straight line. Then.....relax when you stretch, don't "overrun" your muscles Build strenght in the streched position...that's important
Thanks for all the tips guys! I was in class today and they seemed to help. Hopefully I'll get to the point where stretching won't hurt so damn much . Well, I'll keep at it. Maybe someday I'll get to the point where I can roundhouse kick someone's head off (if I have to, of course).
Go Joint rotations, Dynamic, Isometric then relaxed stretching. Make an early morning stretch part of your routine - Dynamic and fit in some relaxed if you can. ...SETS YOU UP FOR THE DAY... I recommend Stretching scientifically Thomas Kurz M.Sc. ISBN 0-940149-30-3 Determines how flexible you are How to test your potential flexibility How to choose your stretching method How to arrange your stretching routine How results in the book were achieved How to have your full flexiblity(normally available only after a warm -up) even without a warm-up. Cost £20-30 Pricey there's a video as well. It's really good get's you into full splits Front and side. Hard work though.
in fact Kurz (Kurzewski) never used his stretching routine... guys on the cover did full splits much before the book... and they were stretching the hard way...kyokushinkai way...
