STRETCHING

WELSH ACADEMY OF MARTIAL ARTS - BARRY YMCA

STRETCHING

Stretching is Important

Stretching (Static Stretch)

To improve flexibility, performance and prevent injuries to muscles, the static stretch is recommended for best results.

Before you begin the stretch, make sure that your muscles are warmed-up by completing a warm-up exercises routine to get blood circulating throughout the body and into the muscles.

Get into your stretch position.

Begin the stretch gradually and continually keeping your body as relaxed as possible, do not bounce because bouncing will force the muscle to contract at the same time that you are forcing it to stretch which may lead to injury.

Your breathing must be relaxed when you stretch, maintaining a relaxed breathing pattern. This will help to improve your flexibility and will increase blood flow throughout the body.

While stretching do not force your body beyond the point where the stretch becomes painful this could lead to injury.

To get the maximum benefit from the stretch hold it in a position where the stretch starts to feel tight but not painful.

Hold the stretch for 15 - 60 seconds this can be repeated 4 to 5 times.

Skipping

Skipping is a great exercise to help build endurance and coordination that can be performed in a variety of ways:

1) Skipping on the sport - while skipping try to bring your knees up as high as you can this will help with your kicking and kneeing techniques so that your knees come up automatically without you having to think about it.

2) Skipping moving forward and backwards.

3) Skipping moving side to side.

4) Skipping duration can be performed in a number of ways:

A) Skipping with rest - skip for 3 minutes, rest for 1 minute and then repeat the process up to 3 rounds or longer.

B) Skipping continuous - skip for 3 rounds or longer without a 1 minute rest for example a 3 round continuous skip will be 12 minutes in duration which includes the 1 minute rest period.