Mixed Martial Arts Forum banner

Stretches To Help With Higher Kicks!

3K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  jasvll 
#1 ·
What's the best exercises for me to improve my flexibility to have higher roundhouse kicks?

Cheers Nick
 
#3 ·
What he said is mostly good.... but I would not stretch to the point where it "hurt like hell".

I spent almost two years trying to get flexible, I would stretch out for half an hour every time before I trained. Then, someone told me to stretch AFTER I trained. Bam, my flexibility went nuts. I went from round-housing rib cages to roundhousing the head of my 6'3" friend.

You should still stretch/warm up before training to prevent an injury... but the stretch AFTER you work out is where you make gains.
 
#4 · (Edited)
What he said is mostly good.... but I would not stretch to the point where it "hurt like hell".
Why not?
Me said:
Also, stretching should hurt like hell, but there's a line you don't want to cross. Never bounce into a stretch, but slowly pull/push yourself into it. Breath slowly, taking a deep breath and steadily exhaling as you go deeper into the stretch. No matter what kind of pain you're in, your breathing should be like you're sleeping/watching TV/passed out drunk.
I spent almost two years trying to get flexible, I would stretch out for half an hour every time before I trained. Then, someone told me to stretch AFTER I trained. Bam, my flexibility went nuts. I went from round-housing rib cages to roundhousing the head of my 6'3" friend.

You should still stretch/warm up before training to prevent an injury... but the stretch AFTER you work out is where you make gains.
Warming up is important, but stretching beforehand actually makes you more prone to injury.

Me said:
It's important to warm up before a deep stretch, but even more important is that you don't do major stretching before any kind of intense training, whether it's weights, kickboxing, or sprinting. Stretching temporarily (about an hour) weakens your muscles and hinders the stretch reflex, leaving you with bad technique, less power, higher susceptibility to injury, etc. The best time to stretch is after your workouts, when your muscles are already exhausted. Not only does this make them easier to stretch out, the stretching helps work out the lactic acid and toxic buildup that comes with heavy exercise.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top