Stretching
Hello all!
I've never met a teacher in any physical activity (ranging from zumba to soccer to martial arts) who thinks you can skip streching. YET everyone has vastly different ideas about streching which is understandable. Afterall, soccer uses different muscles than Aikido so why strech the same. To my understanding, ballistic streching is not very efficent and many suggest it is down right harmful. Yet that is what our main sensei does here. (Personally, I have to admit I deviate and try to hold the streches to make them static. He's never said a word to me, although I try to be as nondisruptive as I can.) We also have a yudasha who is a certified chiroprator and has flat out said ballastic streching is bad for you. All of our black belts have their own verisions of warm ups that draw from their life experience. One who boxed, for example, has us do 'on our feet' warm ups before sitting down and breathing. The chiroprator has us do static streches. This makes me curious about other dojo's warm up. What do you guys do? Also, if you can't do what the sensei is doing (for medical/ safety reasons) do you deviate or try to stick it out? Thanks! |
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Best, Chris |
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It´s important to separate ballistic and dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching, that is controlled, non static stretching (ex lunges, squats, wall slides etc) is superior to static stretching in warm-ups. Static stretching before training actually makes you weaker and increase the risk of injury.
Stumbled upon this study today: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446678 Quote:
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i used a number of elements from this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Bd8J3nTMOWk http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL...yer_detailpage http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL...&v=kuzpnJcLu0w |
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Thanks Greg |
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All current research I"m aware of says there is no benefit to static stretching before exercise and there may be risk of microtears if stretching cold muscles.
Most aikido dojos seem to do a hodgepodge of range of motion, static stretching and dynamic stretching as their "warmups." I believe that good range of motion is all that is really needed. Nobody listens to me :-) |
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I add that range of motion can and should focus on movements specific to the activity to be done. For this reason I think a little general range of motion + the "ki exercises" (udefuri waza, etc) + some low key rolling are in themselves plenty of "warm up" for aikido.
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Sorry, couldn't resist. :) --Ashley |
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Katherine |
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For my classes, I mostly do range of motion stuff. Katherine |
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Hey, Janet, I listen. No static stretches, just gentle movements at first working in to the aiki taiso ending with rolling. Then to rest! The movement is to "check in on your body" to see what's tight, what needs more movement, what hurts, etc. Get it moving!
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I'm sure your research is well-founded for sports and activities that emphasis the use of regular muscle-power. I wonder why one would want to warm up conventional muscles for use in aikido anyway. As I understand it, a lot of aikido stretching comes from the makko-ho and nishishiki undo. Then there's chinkon no gyo and other solo exercises. The way I see it, they are part of the conditioning rather than working on external muscles to prepare them for use in training. In my experience,even push-ups tend to be adapted for conditioning wrists, knuckles and so on with conventional fitness being a useful byproduct. Regards Carl |
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We have a set of stretches that are always done before taiso. I usually do other things to warm up before class and then use the stretches to stretch my body more than just my muscles. I agree with what Carl said in a lot of ways.
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As with nearly everything, the discussion tends to founder if you don't start off by defining your terms and stating your goal. What do you mean by "stretching" -- people use the term to mean vastly different things, ranging from a warm-up to exercises designed to increase flexibility -- and why do you think you should be doing it?
I believe that if the goal is injury prevention, a pre-workout warmup consisting of fairly slow movement within the normal range of motion is the way to go. But no one listens to me either ;-) |
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I'm listening Mary, and I agree. I don't stretch before training, I warm up.
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We are not power lifting but we are moving in space, rolling, falling, receiving pins, etc. Warmed muscles move through activity with less chance of microtears or overstretch injury. |
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I agree about warming up in the sense of "loosening" or raising the temperature of the body although the extent depends on the season for me. I think the preparatory exercises aren't just about that and I don't regard stretching as being for that. If you look at Chris's link, one important point is the purpose of stretching. I don't see the need to specifically warm-up the omote kinniku (outer muscles) for the purpose of doing aikido training or how stretching would do that anyway. I agree that movement exercises for "loosening up" and raising the temperature of the body generally (inside and out) are fine as needed. Quote:
I am not an advocate of Osensei did it, so it must be right. I am an advocate of Osensei was a gifted martial artist with a good understanding of how to cultivate the human body, so there is a very good chance he knew what he was doing. There is a good chance that he took things of value from Nishi-shiki and the makko-ho. Quote:
Let's disambiguate this a little more by totally separating "warming up" from "stretching" within the umbrella-term of "preparatory exercises". If we do that, I think we are in agreement regarding the "warming up" part. The value and purpose of stretching as an activity not for raising temperature/loosening within the preparatory exercises is something I would like to resolve a little more if possible. Specifically I am interested to know which muscles Osensei is in danger of micro-tearing or overstretching as a result of the specific stretching pictured above. Which muscles are endangered by the other nishi-shiki exercises and the makko-ho? Given the ongoing discussions regarding Internal Power and body structure, I think these are important issues to understand before we discard any body-conditioning that Osensei practised. Bear in mind that other martial arts that feature in these discussions also involve actions including stretching as part of their conditioning. Kind regards Carl |
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What I find interesting is that most of the traditional warm-up isn't really static stretching. It's the "ballistic stretching" that every coach I ever met criticized when I was growing up.
What I think is interesting is that the "fascial fitness" people are promoting something that looks a lot like that old ballistic stretching. Bounce, bounce against some resistance but not taking the ROM past where it's comfortable. Could it be that those old budo people knew what they were doing? Nahhh.... |
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