Earl Weiss
Senior Master
In the goals for 2015 thread the tpic of stretching came up and there were comments like:
"There is no time to stretch before needing to use TKD in a fight, time needed for stretching etc. "
I felt the need for more discussion.
IMO strtetching can be used for a warm up but it is not a warm up and you should warm up before stretching.
Stretching is like most other exercises be it strength or cardio. Improvements are made incrementaly. These improvements will aid in improved performance by increasing the range of motion and not requiring the body to "fight itself" when trying to move through the range.
Heavy duty and prolonged stretching SHOULD NOT be done before a TKD kicking type workout. Like other exercise, intensity will fatigue the muscles. You do not want to call upon fatigued muscles to perform optimaly. The fatigue leads to instability which can lead to injury.
A 60 -90 minute TKD class does not really allow for a good stretching routine. Conventional wisdom is to hold a stetch for 30 seconds and do 3 sets of each stretch to achieve reasoneable results. 6 stretches x 2 legs x 3 sets x 30 seconds is minimum of 18 minutes for stretching - more like 24 minutes with changover time, and this would be done at the end of class.
"There is no time to stretch before needing to use TKD in a fight, time needed for stretching etc. "
I felt the need for more discussion.
IMO strtetching can be used for a warm up but it is not a warm up and you should warm up before stretching.
Stretching is like most other exercises be it strength or cardio. Improvements are made incrementaly. These improvements will aid in improved performance by increasing the range of motion and not requiring the body to "fight itself" when trying to move through the range.
Heavy duty and prolonged stretching SHOULD NOT be done before a TKD kicking type workout. Like other exercise, intensity will fatigue the muscles. You do not want to call upon fatigued muscles to perform optimaly. The fatigue leads to instability which can lead to injury.
A 60 -90 minute TKD class does not really allow for a good stretching routine. Conventional wisdom is to hold a stetch for 30 seconds and do 3 sets of each stretch to achieve reasoneable results. 6 stretches x 2 legs x 3 sets x 30 seconds is minimum of 18 minutes for stretching - more like 24 minutes with changover time, and this would be done at the end of class.