RamboWanaBe

Anyone know of any easy to do, in-front of the TV stretch routines to increase flexibility. Mainly for nice high kicking

ChrisOX

yes i know heaps but its kinda hard to expain in writing youtube perhaps? or just search google i guess, sorry i couldnt help any more, so why do u want to kick high?

Mikasadan

Yo Rambo,

Start with HIP FLEXOR STRETCHES..

STEP 1: Kneel down with your back straight
STEP 2: Step forward with your right foot while keeping your left knee on the floor. Put your hands on top of your right thigh.
STEP 3: Slide your back leg behind you until you feel the stretch in the front of the hip. To intensify the leg stretches, push your hip forward, straighten your body, and put your hands on your front knee. Hold for 10-12 seconds and then change sides.

QUADS

STEP 1: Lie face down (on the mat or on the floor). You can place your free hand in between your forehead and the floor to be more comfortable.
STEP 2: Maintaining your hips on the floor, bring your left leg up behind you and hold your foot. Keep your head down and your neck relaxed. Hold for about 10-12 seconds then repeat on the right leg.

HAMMIES

STEP 1: Stand and straighten your left leg on a bench, a step or a coffee table. Maintain that position with your left, supporting leg bent slightly. You can hold on to a couch or wall for support.
STEP 2: Gently bend forward from the hips until you feel the stretch in the back of the thigh, top of calf, and at the back of the knee. Without bouncing, hold for about 8 seconds, and then intensify the stretch by slowly leaning in further. Repeat the stretch on the other leg. Raise the height as your stretching capability increases

CALVES

STEP 1: Lean forward with your hand at shoulder level against a wall. Bend your right leg forward and extend the other leg with a straight knee behind.
STEP 2: Keeping your lower back flat, gently move your hips forward. Make sure to keep the heel of your left leg on the ground with your toes pointed towards the wall. Don't bounce. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Repeat on the other side.

Thats a basic start, opening up your hips and stregthening your abbductor muscles will help in injury prevention and hip flexion.. the key to nice high kicks.

Also practicing your balance will go a long way in Martial arts training, my favorite is kneeling on fit ball and doing hip rotations (think hula hoop), just make sure the TV is out of range.

MD

RamboWanaBe

Thanks Mikasadan, I have not tried these.

Before I asked the question I tried doing various sitting with leg out and bending over stretches, box splits, splits (obviously not all the way down yet), bend over touch my toes and that kneeling with your feet under your bottom like they do in Karate.

I will give you stretches a try tonight

Mikasadan

Dont bend over and touch your toes!! BAD news for your back!!!. try this to stretch your hips and lower back instead..

Legs wider than shoulder width apart hands on inner thighs and bend forward at the waist looking straight ahead, until you feel a stretch in you hammies, master this one..

MD

Christian

Not if you hold your shoulders back like a sldl

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Mikasadan

Basically, dont round your back over.

MD

kingpin

Stretch 1
1. Sit on the floor with the souls of your feet facing each other
2. Move your feet in towards your crouch
3. Place pressure on your knees

This might actually take some time to achieve, eventually I would get someone to stand on my knees and hold the knees down on the ground. I don't recommend trying this until certain that a good deal of flex has been achieved.

Stretch 2
1. Sitting on the floor bring your right foot feet in and touch the left thigh so it looks like a number 4.
2. With you back straight and bending at the hip lean forward to touch your toes on your left foot.
3. Repeat with opposite leg.

Stretch 3
1. Standing lean forward with your back straight and bending at the hip only.
2. Let your upper body hang and try supporting yourself with your finger tips.
3. Once your flex improves you can support yourself on your knuckles and then palms.
4. Once your flex improves you can start to seperate your feet (do the splits) by pushing at the heels.

Stretch 4
1. Same stretch as 3 except your sitting down.
2. With some assistance get someone to push your upper body closer to the floor. Be sure to maintain a straight back and bend at the hips.

These are some of the stretching exercises that I would have to do at Taekwondo training, there are a lot more but you need a partner or a machine.

trofius

Things that helped me were wrming up first jogging on teh spot bike riding and starjumps, are all good.

A flexable mid section and hips helps heaps, more than you would expect.

my routine was :
butterfly stretch, ie soles of feet together, focus on getting teh knees on eth ground then moving the feet towards the groin, then work on leaning all teh way over on your legs..pulling your feet in with your hands and leaning on your legs / /kneed with your elbows helps.

next i would do hammy stretches, one leg out at 45deg, other foot in at groin lean into leg, also extend back arm over head towards extended toes. helps stretch you obliques, if you can touch your toes or feel flexable, try sitting on your other foot, rather than just having it bent in,

stretch your ass....oneleg strait, place other foot, beside thigh, across leg, knee up to chestpullplave opposite elbow on outside of knee andstretch,

or

lye on back bring kneed up to chest and push across your body, hips flat so that you feel your outer gluts stretching

for quads

standing and pull foot up behind you, lying on stomach and do a pushup keeping hips flat aginst grounds, yiu will feel it in your hip flexors, if you bend your knees, foot to ass, it is even better!!

hips
sit leg in front bent slightly and lean into them focusing on a bending at teh hips, you will feel it in your lower hip area not your back, if in your back you are arching up too much

do a kind of lung, back leg knee, and shin on the ground, other leg on foot in front, keep pushing the front leg forward, (ensure the foot is further forward than your knee) this will work those quads well, and hammy on front leg, eventually you will get a front back split..

I used to sit infront of the tv legs as far apart as they would go, relaxed, lean forward into it 10 seconds stretch and 5 seconds rest, pushing the legs further apart each time. remember to relaxe them and shake them around so they get some fresh blood..

I would sit on the floor doing my uni work stretching for a side split for hours at a time..

another good one for you abductors, is sitting like a hammy strecth, omne leg bent towards your groin, lean forward, other leg strait out sideways, now sit up strait, as you get more flexable lean toward theoes of theutstretched leg, firstly focus on getting your ass on teh ground then leaning sideways,. this is a good oblique stretch aswell.

I could do front back and full side splits, I could actually place my feet on besser bricks and still have my ass on the ground. Or sit up legs strait out in front , while leaning forward I could swing my legs right around throuh a split, to them being behind me, and me lying on my stomach,, can also still have sole touching in shoes, feet into groing knees on ground,

another excellant hammy stretch is to stand against a wall, and have someone pick upyour leg and push it into your chest.

as a guide, from ankle to ankle during a split, is about the same, and ankle to wrist when hand is held above your head, that is how hight you can potentially kick..

High kicks are pretty flashy, and fun to do, but if going really high like that you loose power, and it can get telegraphic, Short asses like me dont have a lot of choice but, lol, If you want to kick high, then get a bag and kick it as high as you can, to build up power and speed, at those heights the muscles are way out of their comfort zone

When stretching holding for 10 seconds will do squat, 20 secs will maintain, 30 seconds will start to improve, this is daily.... I would recomened doing each stretch 3-5 times, pushing further into it each time...

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RamboWanaBe

Really? I had been touching my toes for years.

I also do the alternative method you mentioned.