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Advantages of Stretching in the Martial Arts

July 22, 2015 by AskAboutKarate

Most good fitness and martial arts trainers will insist on children as well as adults doing stretches before starting a session and before finishing for the day. But there are many who do not understand why stretching is important for kids and choose to skip these few minutes of class. Not stretching can cause a lot of problems for you physically and mentally. Why is stretching so important? Read on to find out.

Advantages of stretching

Stretching is extremely important before any kind of exercise, including martial arts for kids. Stretching regularly helps to increase muscle and joint flexibility, so that you can do various postures, exercises and movements better over time. Here are a few advantages of pre and post workout stretching, which will explain why stretching is so vital for exercising.

Pre-exercise stretching

  • Helps loosen muscles to prepare you for exercising.
  • Helps minimize the risk of injury by making you more nimble.
  • Increases supply of blood to various muscles of the body, helping them cope with strenuous martial arts exercises better.
  • Helps correct posture that may be wrong due to bad sitting or walking postures.
  • Stretching before class helps you bring your focus to the class, clearing your mind of distracting thoughts and ideas.

Ideally, your class should include about 10 to 15 minutes of warming and stretching exercises before every session.

Post-exercise stretching

  • Stretching helps cool your body down after an intense martial arts session.
  • If any of your muscles have been constricted into difficult positions, stretching helps loosen these muscles so you do have muscle fatigue after class.
  • Stretching also helps calm the mind after an intense session of focusing, so that you feel relaxed and rejuvenated after each class.

Ensure that you do not overdo stretching, since that can also cause injuries. Warm up well before stretching when starting exercises, since warmth increases flexibility and further lowers the risk of injuries.

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