Flexibility is crucial in taekwondo for great kicks and for injury prevention. Balanced muscle and joint flexibility, from front to back and right to left is especially important. A traditional warm up may be heavy on the split stretches (hamstrings and inner thigh muscles) and possibly light on stretches for the muscles in the front of the hip and thigh, the hip flexors and the quadriceps. You might also notice that one side of you stretches easier than the other. Almost every human body has asymmetries. The trick is to stretch and strengthen to balance those asymmetries out, so that your body isn’t constantly compensating for a restriction on one side. Sometimes the exercises that you do to condition your body, in order to correct these asymmetries, have to be done more or less to one side than the other.
You can obtain some great information about specialized corrective exercises from me of course!www.bodyworksptonline.com But you might also want to check out www.totalmotionrelease.com to get more information about this sort of thing.
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COMMENTS
Dear Laura,
I really enjoyed your TKD blog. You helped reconnect with Hapkido, a Korean martial art.
Hapkido helps people defend themselves, utilizing simple techniques such as grabbing, twisting, and striking.
Hapkido helps people defend themselves against attackers even if they were two or more and against weapons such guns or daggers.
I think Hapkido is great for women, people who work night shifts, and teenagers.
I will be testing for the greenbelt within two weeks. I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks for sharing your TKD blog with me.
Best Wishes,
Mishkat
