Haway man Judderman, man...You're giving away some of our best kept secrets, you big soft southern jessy!!!"!

And Lou, I don't think any of us would ever think what you talk is rubbish...

LOL

Owen, to answer your question. First if you lift weights you should be a good degree flexable due to the range of motion you use in lifting. Try this. Stand feet together and bend at the waist with the legs straight as possible and touch your toes. You can do this sitting and standing. Also you can put your leg out in front of you on a chair or couch and reach out and touch it. This also works if you do it from the side. You can do splits. Front and horizontal. You should start each stretch slowly so you do not trigger your muscles to flex. At first hold each stretch about thirty seconds and work up until you can ddo them for 2-3 minutes a peice. This will also serve well as a warm up/ warm down. Good luck to you.

One of the things you can do is watch how a track team stretches(please no perversion in this) because many of there stretches are ones you can use. My main cool down exercise is a light form of shadowboxing as it stretches what you used and allows for further practice

Tom Kurz's method of stretching is excellent and if you click on 'reading room' and 'Stretching' it will take you straight to a lot of good articles.

Basically:
Pre-workout: Warm up the body with a CV type exercise for a few minutes.
Do joint rotations starting at the neck working down to the toes.
Then do dynamic stretching which is swinging (with control) the arms (up/down/side) and legs (forward/backwards/side). This type of stretching prepares your body for the dynamic movements you are about to perform, especially kicking etc.

Then you are ready for you workout.

Cool down:
Bring your heart rate down to a nice pace (Marching on the spot is usually sufficient), then do relaxed stretches, and I mean relaxed, try and breath deeply, pausing when breathing in and stretching a little furthur when breathing out.

If you want to pre cool down you can do isometric stretches (this will increase your flexibility the fastest), and you can also do these at the end of your strength workouts.

There is plenty of evidence that this works and I am a part of it, I can kick cold above my head at any time of the day and can do front splits (toes up and down) and side splits.

If someone is showing you how to stretch and they can't do the splits (and have been training for a while), they are normally doing something wrong as it is unusual for a person to be mechanically unable to do the splits.

Again you are probably best looking at Tom Kurz's books for more detail.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by senseilou:
...stretch with a partner, then gound stretch with a partner,[/QUOTE]

Mark the date, senseilou actual put something in a post that I don't think is right!!

I would advise people to never use a partner for stretches.

Sorry senseilou, I have been looking for faults in your posts since I came on this board [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UKfightfreak:
Mark the date, senseilou actual put something in a post that I don't think is right!!

I would advise people to never use a partner for stretches.

Sorry senseilou, I have been looking for faults in your posts since I came on this board [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

[/QUOTE]


I read somewhere recently about a guy that was ijnured by his partner doing partner stretches and years later and after all sorts of treatment he is still in pain. Can't remember the source but it sure made me think.

When you can achieve maximal range of motion in a stretch without a partner, I don't see any need to use a partner that doesn't have the instant feedback from the muscles that the person stretching does, e.g. a muscle tearing.

If you train your self into exhaustion, does the last ten minutes of motion count as a warm down? Seriously?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by joesixpack:
If you train your self into exhaustion, does the last ten minutes of motion count as a warm down? Seriously?[/QUOTE]


You shouldn't train to exhaustion, that is overtraining and will not improve your performance. Also when exhausted you are more suceptable to colds because your immune system is not at full speed, so you become ill so all your hard work is lost as you can't train because you are recovering.

If you do train to exhaustion, or may be exhausted because of a competition, the cool down is MORE important.

If you take ten minutes for a cool down, 5 of which is a light jog and say another 5 brisk walking slowing down to a slow pace this should be adequate to bring your heart rate down (the idea of the cool down) from the high pace it was during the workout to resting pace.

At this point you should not feel out of breath and your heartrate should be back to around normal (it will be slightly above because your body is starting to recover).

Then do relaxed stretches to finish, taking time, with deep breaths.

This should prevent lactic acid build up which can cause cramps and other aches and pains, as well as dizzyness from stopping workouts abrubtly.

Tom Kurtz definately!

Cato, or maybe UKfighter, could you explain to me the licensing you are talking about? the licensing for grading?