Stretching for us older guys

Posted by: sfq88

Stretching for us older guys - 10/25/08 11:53 PM

Hello all,

I've studied and trained in martial arts for a good portion of my life, but fell off the wagon for the past few years and hadn't trained: life catches up with you, you move cities, marry, etc and you realize it's been a while since you did any training. Bad on my part I know, but I'm back. I found a great JKD sifu and am psyched to be training again.

Unfortunately, I've found that my legs just do not want to do what they used to. I've never stopped working out (cardio, weights, etc) and doing general stretching, and am in very good shape overall, but my legs just do not like to kick high (and by high I mean kicks to an opponents stomach are about it). I can still easily touch my head to my knee when I'm stretching on the floor (and other similar stretches), but it's really tough when I'm kicking. I'm in my early to mid 30's and I used to be able to take someone's head off with my foot (tkd in my youth helped with that) but it's just not easy now. I've been an athlete all my life, so I know the general stretching routines, but I'd like to know if anyone out there has any advice on how to get back to fighting shape once you get, gasp, old.

Other than that, I really like the JKD philosophy and training.

Thanks!