Warm up or no warm up?

Rob Broad

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Alright do you have a big warm up for each class, or do you see this as a waste of time that your students are paying for.
 
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OC Kid

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For adults yes. For kids no. I dont think they need it. The adults do because there muscles definately need warminh up , Kids mabe 10 JJ and straight leg risers and some other things but very fast and quick. Now when I teach a sparring/fighting class yea I work there little buttsoff mainly to build strength and endurance.
 

jfarnsworth

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I show up at least a half an hour early & I hope that the other people show up early as well to warm up on their own. I like to have the full hour to bang on each other.
 

Kenpo Mama

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Warm-ups and stretching for 10 mins in all my classes. I too arrive early and do some pre-class warm-ups. An hour goes by pretty quickly, i think the class itself is a great work-out.

Donna :asian:
 
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Rob Broad

Rob Broad

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Too many instructors spend more than half of their class time in the warm up phase, this is a waste of teh students time and money. There are places better suited to whip you in shape, I feel that after you do some basics to get the blood pumpin that the rest fo teh time should be spend learning or practicing.
 
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Gary Crawford

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I believe that the lower ranks(adults) need the warm ups to get them into the habit,after that,it should be the students responsibility to arrive early enough to stretch and warm up on their own.Most kids won't warm up on their own unless you make them.
 

don bohrer

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Normally I would arrive about 30 minutes early. That's enough time for me. We begin classes with a combination of calisthenics and then basics. Kids and adults participate in the same warm up period. I think adults benifit the most from warm ups, and helps prevent injury. For the kids we just like to find more ways to send the little guys home tired.


Don (El Paso)
 

loki09789

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Warm ups are to increase the internal 'heat' of the body and prepare the body for more intense work. There are no 'warm up specific' exercises that work better than others.

Using basics like footwork, stances/kata, striking patterns and such at a lower intensity level and lower kicking level is a good way to get more bang for your buck. You can reinforce basic skills through repetition, build that 'heat' and elasticity by using 'sport/performance specific' motions to prepare the whole body (nervous system, circulatory, musculatory, skeletol....) gradually.
 

Kempojujutsu

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We do about 5 minutes of warm ups. Which consist of body & limb rotations, with some leg streches. Other then that, I feel warm ups is a waste of time, and is a way to milk from the students time and money.
 

jukado1

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For a beginners general class i would incorporate a physical training workout,
The primary goal of a martial arts/self-defense class is to teach the subject matter, BUT some students have different goals from their training. the ideal method would be to have the student do all their physical training on their own, but some of the students are using this time for multi purposes, including physical fitness, hobby or sport, to interact with people. with that in mind my system of class training starts with a few minutes of warm-up to raise the hart rate, warm up the muscle's etc, i try to vary the exercises from class to class. you can jump rope, run in place, do jumping jacks, shadowkickbox, or my favorite, bob says, (also known as Strength and Endurance) you start running in place, knees at lest waist high, and on my command they switch to sit ups, push ups, burpies, mountain climbers, leg lifts, jumps with knees to chest, and any other exercises that are appropriate, but just for a few minutes, this is only done as a warm up, not physical conditioning, then you stretch for a few minutes, again for safety not flexibility. then do your m.a./s.d. training while your students are still fresh, unless your training a competition team, then you try to kill them so they can train while tired. then after the training session you go to the physical w/o , again i use strength & endurance or bob says, by the way this makes a good training tool for kids, and can be used as a game, (ala Simon says). then the last thing we do in class is stretch for flexibility. this type of training is geared to beginners, as more serious/advanced students should be on a supplemental training program. one last thing, as an instructor each class must have the three E's, entertainment, if the class is not fun no matter how effective the student probably won't stay with it, the 2nd E is exercise since most people don't have the time to do martial arts, and then exercise, the third E is education, by which i mean they should walk away with real self-defense/martial arts skill, otherwise were just doing taebo. sorry about rambling on but I'm not a writer, I'm a fighter, and the only ones who don't agree are those I've fought with
 

terryl965

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I agree that all adults should warm up for a 15 to 20 minutes each day and the chidern should warm up as well to get them use to it. GOD BLESS AMERICA
 

KenpoTess

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We tend to be lax in the summertime.. or is that wintertime ;) Having a school full of College students we noticed that Not doing warmups, injury was more prevalent, people grew 'soft', the kicks were not as strong, punches not as intense.. Since MA's are physical, I think warmups should be according to what is on the agenda for that particular class. If we are sparring, we do some aerobics then stretching.. if Tecs are on the menu, we do drills of punching, kicking, stretches (arms, back, legs etc). When we are in FMA class, we use all our strikes, Triangle stepping, etc as our warmups, as well as 'shake your bon-bon, as Stickdummy calls it *G* to loosen the hips so needed in that art.
I don't think taking half the class to warmup is necessary.

~Tess
 
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OC Kid

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Bob
My sparring class warm ups are very simular to your except I begin with 100 J/J and then begin running on place and add switching drills w/ punches they do the running in place with the sit ups push ups ect thrown in at my command I have a interval timer so they speed up and slow the running down by the timer and Then Ill command left theyll jump knees to chest land in a left fwd stance (neutral bow) and throw a right reverse body and back to running,

After that I add some switching drills were they switch leg forward throw a body, and I add cover which means they change their direction and throw a punch, its fun and keeps them on their tows.

But in a very basic class its hard to get them to do anything but punch and kick and check stances , so I will crack some jokes with the students give them pet names "sponge bob" for example for a kid who wont punch hard "thumbs" for a kids who dont make a correct fist ect.

Thats how I do it. For the very basic class Ill have them do maybe 10 J/J light stretches and into the work out.

How do you get the very basic ones going?
 
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auxprix

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In my class, we do about 30 minutes of warm up, and I couldn't be happier with it. We probably spend about 1/3 of this time on stretches and falling, and the rest is endurance and tecnique based. It's a great opportunity to touch on stuff that you haven't visited in a while.
 
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Rob Broad

Rob Broad

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auxprix said:
In my class, we do about 30 minutes of warm up, and I couldn't be happier with it. We probably spend about 1/3 of this time on stretches and falling, and the rest is endurance and tecnique based. It's a great opportunity to touch on stuff that you haven't visited in a while.


What art do you study and how long are your classes?
 

Nightingale

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I'm not a huge fan of warmups, for a couple of reasons:

I figure that I pay them to teach me martial arts, not stand and shout while I do pushups. I pay my personal trainer to stand there and shout while I do pushups (among other gym stuff).

also, from what I've seen, some martial arts teachers don't do warmups correctly, and forget that muscles should be warm before stretching them. Stretcing a muscle cold is a good way to tear something.

when I train, I walk into the studio warmed up, or get there early to allow warmup time.
 

Zujitsuka

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Warm up whenever possible. Like others have said, arrive to class little early and warm up.

A lot of people do not know how and when to stretch (i.e. which TYPE of stretching to use and when to engage in such stretching). I learned a lot from Thomas Kurz's book entitled STRETCHING SCIENTIFICALLY. I strongly encourage you guys to go to your local library and borrow it, or see if you and and few of your dojo buddies can pick up a copy and share it. Or if you're not cheap like me, just buy your own copy. :)

One of the main things that I learned was to work out in this sequence: warm-up; rope skipping; dynamic stretching; martial arts class; cool-down; isometric stretches (sometimes); relaxed stretches; and rope skipping.

I have above average flexibility and I am less prone to injuries than I used to be.

Oh, Tom Kurz's website is www.stretching.info.

Peace & health,
 

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