Achieving Ultimate Flexibility in Martial Arts

Listen to your body, stretch and condition the way that your body tells you to, yeah, yeah, I get it. But what happens if you DON’T SPEAK your body’s language? You want to be flexible but you don’t have a clue how to get there. If you want to own the secrets to ultimate flexibility you need to understand how your body works and how it responds to certain exercises and workouts. The secrets to ultimate flexibility lie within you, not with some guy hopping around on a TV screen with a really happy (or really intense) look on his face, bouncing around with at least two hot babes in the background, telling you how to get in shape and achieve the flexibility that you want.

Nope, not gonna happen.

Your body will tell you what works best for you. But let’s look a little at the concept of flexibility and stretching. First, think about what you are doing here. If you take several minutes to stretch, say, your legs to get the right height on a side kick, think about this. You are taking several minutes to prepare a weapon before you can use it. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would want to have to take several minutes to prepare a weapon if I was being threatened in some dark alley by a 400 pound ex-con named Tiny!

What I am saying here is to be flexible means to always be warmed up, flexible and ready. Flexibility is not a one shot deal to be explored at the beginning of your workout. Flexibility should be practiced regularly, throughout your workout. See, there are two types of flexibility, static and dynamic. Static flexibility is the range of motion that is in a joint when it is in a certain, stationary position. Dynamic flexibility is the range of motion that is in a joint when it is moving.

Once you find the secrets to ultimate flexibility, you will have more power, a higher fitness level, better relaxation, enhanced range of motion and a higher capacity to learn skilled movements. But it is a process to achieve this level of flexibility. Keep your muscles warm and you will have a greater range of motion. You can do static stretching exercises three times a week, but the dynamic stretching, the stretching that you do as you practice your art, is what will give you the most natural range of motion and flexibility.

When you stretch, do it slowly and there should not be any pain. If you go too far with your stretching, you will actually lose flexibility because your muscle will contract. Warm up first and do some static stretches, holding the stretch for 15 to 60 seconds but do not bounce! If you want to put yourself out of commission, you will bounce – not cool. Do some dynamic stretching like kicking and rhythmic bouncing. These are just some of the secrets to ultimate flexibility, but they will help you get flexible and get fit.