Hi everyone, I’m after a little advice for a problem I am having with getting my legs warmed up. I am having problems with kicks that stretch my leg out sideways (side kick, turning kick, hooking kick etc) while cold. This is not the normal slight stiffness when cold thing, I can really feel the tension in my groin even when kicking below belt height and it can be quite painful if I push too far. It takes an extraordinary amount of warming up to loosen up my groin muscles. Even if I am exhausted and very hot from running and jumping exercises I still need a lot of side leg raises and 'half' turning kicks to slowly build my kicks up to full height. Once I am warm, say after a few rounds of sparring or pad work and some leg raises I have no problems and can perform just about all of my kicks well above my head height. I never used to have this problem but it has come about and worsened as I have increased the intensity and frequency of my training over probably the last 18 months. For a while I was stretching every night after warming up, both statically and dynamically and that was no help, I then switched to a lot more dynamic stretching both at home and at club training and still have not noticed a difference. Something which may or may not be related is that I do get cramps every now and then, not severe and not every day, but once every week or so I notice them. I’m not looking for specific stretching exercises but more for advice on when and how I should stretch. Also if anyone thinks that I may be lacking something in my diet (I think responsible for cramping) then suggestions on food or supplements would be appreciated. Thanks Ty
I'm no expert but perhaps you are stretching too much, perhaps you should give it a rest for a week or a couple of days and see if that helps
You may be overtaining and causing chronic and/or local fatigue in the msucles associated with the exercises you perform. I would advise that you rest completely (not even a single static stretch) for a week to 10 days, reduce your workload and see what happens. A lot of the discoveries you will make will be through trial and error. Otherwise you may have an injury. In this case I would advise you to consult a physician. Regards, Dan
Thanks for the input guys, maybe I have been overdoing it a bit. It's unfortunate that there may not be anything I can do to actively improve the situation. I'm going to have a quite 10 or so days, but I can't stop training completely yet. I'm heading to the ITF World Cup on the 15th and this weekend I have the NZ National Champs. Nationals will be prety low key, I'm only entered for patterns because I didn't want any sparring injuries comming into the world cup. Once I get back I will take a week or two off to try and sort out a few other little aches and pains and hopefully relax those legs a bit : )
Ty-00, It certainly seems like you're in the right frame of mind to improve on your current situation and I wish you all the best at the World Cup. Please let us know how you get on, and if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask. Kind regards, Dan
Thanks Dan, I wan't to get a taste of International competition before (maybe) the World Champs next year, and definately the 2011 ones which are in New Zealand !!! Of course I am aiming for no less than two gold's, but I wont be disappointed as long as I make a dent in the competition. As for my stretching issues, I think I will just have to deal with them for now and spend the extra time warming up well. When things are quieter in a month or so I can hopefully resolve them, unless of course someone has a brilliant suggestion to fix me up sooner hehe.
Haha yea thats me, how you going man? I saw you the other morning on the pak highway. Good to know you're around these boards.
Yeah i work around pakurnga bro, i dont post often i just read majority of the time. But in regards to your problem, i had the same thing about a year ago. It came down to stretching to hard/to often. put the muscles in use into nervous system fatigue, like the guy mentioned about chronic/local fatigue earlier. Just stretch less i guess
I've backed off a lot for the last week. Noticed a difference at training last night, felt a fair bit looser while I was warming up. I guess that's the answer.
