Increasing flexibility

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 10/21/2010 4:24pm

Originally Posted by goodlun

PNF stretching has been proven to actually increase flexibility as opposed to just get you limbered up to your natural level.
Here is a list of exercises and stretches for the hips
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/HipsWt.html

here is the PNF stretch
http://www.exrx.net/Stretches/Gluteu...PNFSeated.html

PNF means proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, you dumb fucks.

Originally Posted by CodosDePiedra

If you're trying to kick higher, I recommend kicking at progressively higher targets. The dynamics of kicking high are a little more complex than just being flexible (especially if you want to hit with power) so just stretching isn’t the best solution.

Yes. Personally I kick the heavy bag (habitually for years and years), starting low and after a while it's spinning heel hooks to the head time. And I'm a wreck.

**Res Judicata** · Posted On: 10/21/2010 4:35pm

PNF is a method of stretching. Basically, you tighten the muscle group, relax and stretch deeper into it. Seriously though, be careful if you use a partner. http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com...stretching.php

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 10/21/2010 4:36pm

I googled and found it, after a while. Thank me by giving me tons of rep.

Read all the articles (there's many) and you'll know some ****. It is real siimilar to what I do and I kick high and only stretch if I'm injured.

http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=12

Sample:
"The problem was that the body alignment that worked for a given kick when it was aimed low (as in original Okinawan karate) did not work when the kick was aimed high—did not work, that is, unless one had an extraordinary range of motion in the hips and lower back joints. (The high kicks that appeal so much to young people were introduced into karate by Yoshitaka Funakoshi, son of Gichin Funakoshi, without any attention to whether they made sense in combat [Draeger 1974, p.134].)

Luckily I met Mac Mierzejewski, the author of Power High Kicks with No Warm-Up!, a knock-down karate fighter and instructor who also studied at AWF. He was less flexible than me, but he could throw any kick higher than I could, with knockout power, and without any prestretching.

During our individual workouts he taught me how to align the body for great height and power in the kicks without having to reach the limits of one's range of motion in the hip joints. He had to show me the “little” details of kicking techniques that let you kick high and with power without warm-up! As a bonus, these same little details reduce your chance of injury."

**goodlun** · Posted On: 10/21/2010 6:15pm

Originally Posted by patfromlogan

PNF means proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, you dumb fucks.

I am well aware of what PNF means I was showing him one of them for the hips as that was what I thought he wanted to improve flexibility on. It has been proven scientifically to be one of the most effective ways to actually increase flexibility.