Pre and Post-Exercise Stretching

[Nhylus]

So quick background:
I used to take Taekwondo when I was younger. I believe I started at 12 and stopped right before turning 16, just shy of earning my black belt. Anyway, I remember that in those days I was able to pull some crazy kicks and was pretty flexible. Of course now I cant because I never kept up with working out or exercising. But I remember we always used to do a combination of dynamic and static stretching. And recently, I have been reading how static stretching is actually bad for pre-exercise regimens and lowers your limitations. It is being said that dynamic stretching is the only good stretching for quick and fast movements and injury reduction. So my questions are, 1.) What is static stretching good/productive for? What does it do that dynamic doesn't? 2.) What are some good recommended stretching exercises before doing some weapon training (saber or otherwise) or even something like parkour/acrobatic training?

[Darth Nonymous]

So quick background:
I used to take Taekwondo when I was younger. I believe I started at 12 and stopped right before turning 16, just shy of earning my black belt. Anyway, I remember that in those days I was able to pull some crazy kicks and was pretty flexible. Of course now I cant because I never kept up with working out or exercising. But I remember we always used to do a combination of dynamic and static stretching. And recently, I have been reading how static stretching is actually bad for pre-exercise regimens and lowers your limitations. It is being said that dynamic stretching is the only good stretching for quick and fast movements and injury reduction. So my questions are, 1.) What is static stretching good/productive for? What does it do that dynamic doesn't? 2.) What are some good recommended stretching exercises before doing some weapon training (saber or otherwise) or even something like parkour/acrobatic training?

First off, do not stretch at all before exercise. Simply run through the ranges of motions that you are going to be using nice and easy and build up speed to performance level. And warm ups should be short. Too many people fatigue themselves warming up for 10 or 20 min and actually increase their risk of injury.

The term dynamic stretching is kind of general term. Depending on what goals you have, the type is going to differ. There are no magic bullets for this stuff. You have to just get your body used to doing the movements you want. I can get anyone in to the splits given enough time and their willingness to go through enough pain. These are techniques (like PNF) that you need training for. Warm up and ROM training are very different.

I very rarely do any static stretching. If I do it is as a little cool down or movement just get the body in a different position. It is my professional opinion that Static stretching has little value to flexibility training. If you wish to build your range of motion you have to work on both strength and flexibility to make lasting gains.

To warm up for swordplay I usually take some swings in stances, run through the orbits, and do a bit of a dulon form if there is time. I never warm up for more than 5 minutes and my average warm up is about 1-3 minutes long.

[eerockk]

I hammed my left leg two weeks ago, and it's still a sore during footwork practice. I do a 3-5min easy warm up as you described above, but I'm thinking that the missed warm-down might have been to blame. This might be a good question to ask on the show this eve where a small demo of best practice could be briefly demonstrated.

[Volund Starfire]

Warmups should be about a minute of heart-rate, two minutes of movement, three minutes of stretching, and four minutes of rotation.  This is the general basis for most martial arts programs I have taught and the few times I have taught saber choreography.

Heart rate is jumping jacks, running in place, jumping rope, or any other activity that you can use to get your heart rate sped up into the training zone to get plenty of blood pumping to the muscles.

Movement would be a run through the what you will be doing.  Spinning, kata, attacks, blocks, etc.  Just run through the movements you will be performing without the saber to prepare your muscles for the elastic and spastic movements to come.

Stretching is a light flexing and lengthening of the muscles.  Nothing too in depth, just pulling a stretch and holding it for ten seconds.  Work all of the major muscle groups you plan to use.  This gets them opened up and some blood into them for the later work.

Finally, the big deal is rotations.  Make sure to rotate your wrists, shoulders, neck, upper torso, waist, hips, knees, and ankles in both directions.  Spend some time on this and work through all possible movements of each joint.

After a workout, you only need to do rotations and stretching.  The rotations are the same as before, but extend each stretch out to about fifteen to thirty seconds.  This will help improve your flexibility and will help to work the lactic acid out of the muscle to reduce the soreness you may feel.

[Darth Nonymous]

I hammed my left leg two weeks ago, and it's still a sore during footwork practice. I do a 3-5min easy warm up as you described above, but I'm thinking that the missed warm-down might have been to blame. This might be a good question to ask on the show this eve where a small demo of best practice could be briefly demonstrated.

Good idea. We will show a good way to warm up for sabering tonight on the show.