Your Preferred Warm-Up

[Zeno]

How is it you warm up before a session?

For me, it usually involves a fair deal of stretching just about every muscle in the body, as well some striking or movement drills (like jabs, leaping, ukemi, etc) up and down the room.

What do you do for your particular style?

[exile]

Dynamic stretching à la Kurz (stretch kicks, mostly) and balance exercises (slow mo full extension side kicks, freeze in final position for 10-20 secs each leg; then slow mo turning kicks, same thing). Usually about 10-15 minutes of that. I save the static stretches for the end.

[Deaf Smith]

Zeno,

It depends on that the theme-of-the-day is.

Some days are 'hands' days. I practice pure hand techniques. Other days are 'leg' days, and kicks, kicks, and more kicks.

It it's a hands days, I simply do slow-mo techniques till I warm up some. Since hands days include footwork, some light streaching is done and I'm Gene Kelly (wish I could dance like he did.)

If it's a leg day, full streaching. Yes PNF streaching is the way I go now. I'll first warm up with some light hand techniques, then light foot techniques, then it's time to streach.

I do not use a streaching machine (at least store bought for that purpose) but instead use exercise bikes.

I place a leg on the bikes seat, say in front kick form, with the calf of the leg on the saddle, then lean into the kicking leg. Add PNF by pulling down hard like an axe kick. Then shift the rear leg out to force a larger angle, and PNF again.

Then bring the leg down and shake it some (or wiggle it.) Repeat with the other leg.

I then go back to the first leg, put it on the saddle, and then rotate to a side kick, making sure the knee is on the saddle to reduce stress on the knee. PNF again. Increase the angle again. PNF again. Swap legs and repeat.

I do the same above for a round house kick. Still with the knee on the saddle of the bike.

Then I hold onto a rail and do side kicks till I'm blue with one leg, then swap legs and repeat.

After that, I'm ready for the bags and a kick fiest!!

Deaf

[Logan]

I vary it according to what I want to achieve. If I want to kick, then I do warmup exercises that imitate the movement of kicks e.g. knee lifts hip twists etc.

[Sukerkin]

I have to confess that in my iai I don't stretch at all :o. Well, that's not true I suppose as I run throught some kata slowly and gently to get the joints loosened up.

My old Lau days tho' :eek:. Mind you, I was fit as the butchers dog back then rather than looking like something the butchers dog might like to eat as I do now :lol:.

[YoungMan]

Given a choice, I usually do light free fighting with someone to get warmed. Practicing kicks to warm up is not a good idea because your muscles are still cold until increased blood flow warms them up. You run the risk of tears. Definitely do not stretch until you have warmed up.
I usually do/did slow free fighting, emphasizing movement and steps, until I felt warmed up enought to kick more.

[Mr G]

Thanks for this discussion. I'm trying to focus on my flexibility a little every day. I've been trying to do some light warm up push ups, sit ups, or jogging in place then stretch out each morning. Even if I only get 5-10 minutes. If I actually get a chance to work out it's in the afternoons / evenings.

[CrimsonPhoenix]

I do basically the same thing both in the class and at home. I'm a TKD practitioner and we do a lot of upper and lower body stretching with emphasis on the legs since we do so many kicks. We usually end with some sets of full speed punches and stretch kicks.

We're also told to do 200 tension kicks with each leg as homework before the next class. That will warm you up quickly.

[Christina05]

lots of stretching it's important you don't want to pull anything. Then I run through a few forms sometimes a few katas. Guess it really depends though sometimes I don't stretch at all.

[Darth F.Takeda]

When I teach, I run the guys through 10-15 minutes of Yoga (and usually run a short Yoga session after class as well.

Then we do matwork and or Ukemi (Breakfalls) before getting to the meat.

Yoga has been one of the best training aids for my Jujutsu.

[meth18au]

How is it you warm up before a session?


Run then skip. The skipping is mixed with pushups, situps, squats, plyos and various other exercises Then we stretch. Then we shadowbox for 10-15 mins.

[Cirdan]

More or less anything for warmup in Wado, light Kata, sparring, running, "ninja crawl" across the floor etc

In Ju Jutsu ukemi is more likely to be used as part of the warmup.