Today’s post is a departure from much of what I coach in my business, but it comes straight from the authority on this subject.

We’ve been doing 100 kicks everyday this month, although that turned into 200 a day this week (thanks Grant and Harry for upping it!).  Today I was so tight when I did mine!!  5 hours in the car didn’t help that cause.  I turned to Master Harry Sese for the answer to this problem today (also known as my husband).  Since he does have a 6th degree black belt in TKD and somehow seems to have major power and flexibility in his kicks, he must know right?

According to Master Sese, although an active warm up is essential to any athletic activity, when it comes to gaining massive range of motion in your kicks, you have to static stretch into some pain.  And when he says stretch, he means holding it for up to 20 minutes!

So I took on his assignment tonight in a straddle stretch, the idea being to get into a comfortable range to begin with and then slowly increasing as the muscles relax.  You can also squeeze inward a bit while you’re doing this which helps activate the adductors.  This is important because while you want to achieve more range of motion through these muscles, they also need to be strong enough to support it.

Next time you are watching TV, give this a try and see how long you last!

-S