I was asked this question by one of my adult students recently, in relation to taiso, “I need to increase the flexibility in my legs and I appreciate there is no quick solution. I would appreciate any advice, guidance etc?”
PROVISO: Before I set out to answer this old chestnut, let me make it perfectly clear that I am not an expert in the field of human anatomy. There are many texts on stretching that you should consult, Thomas Kurz’s Stretching Scientifically would have to be top of the list for most martial artists. What you have here is simply proof of the ability of an older person to regurgitate what they accumulate over the course a lifetime. Double-check everthing. Cross-reference everything. Take nothing as gospel.
There really is no simple answer to this question. First up, you have to understand your own body. Take into account where you are starting from … your age, your frame (i.e. skeleton), your weight, your build, your diet, your current exercise regime, your occupation (active or sedentary), any old injuries that you may carry, any chronic conditions that you live with, your propensity for seeing things through once you’ve started them. Remember, ‘ … a black-belt is simply a beginner who never gave up!”
Understand how the human body works, how far you go down this avenue of study is up to you, but whatever time you spend will be time well spent. It’s a sad fact of life that we don’t get provided with a Users Manual when we are born. Be realistic in your aspirations of flexibility. Being aware of your bodys limitations doesn’t mean you have to be constrained by them forever, just be aware of them as you proceed along your journey of discovery.
In terms of flexibilty, understand at the very least how the human muscle system works, in concert, to move your skeletal frame; the importance of tendons which attach muscle to bone, how muscles live and breathe and what nourishes them. All of this helps to understand where you are at what you need to do in order to get to where you want to be.
Once you’ve understood, as best you can, where you are coming from, the next thing is to clearly understand where you want to get to. So, begin with the end in mind. Why the emphasis on end in mind. Because the mind is where body conditioning starts. In our lives today, with so many labour saving devices and so little manual work left to do, we have a lot of time to just sit and think. Our predecessors didn’t have this luxury. Their daily toil gave them their workout. They didn’t drive to the gym to go running in situ on a treadmill. If they had a bicycle, they rode it to get to where they were going, they didn’t hang it off the back of a 4×4 off-roader. They walked a lot more than we do. Why do African nations produce such good middle and long-distance runners? Because, as children, they ran too and from school, barefoot, everyday, for years. No school bus, no cars and no bicycles.
Anyhow, the mind, as you all know, is very powerful. If you can imagine where you want to end up, and can keep that image alive, bright and powerful everyday, especially when you are doing your exercises, it will help to get you there. Case in point, recall the last time you planned a holiday. You probably began with the end in mind; sitting on the beach, chilling out in the sun and the surf. Then, you took all the necessary steps to get yourself to where you wanted to end up. And that image of the sand and the surf probably drove you all the way.
WORDS OF CAUTION:
The 3 P’s; Pace, Perspective and Permanency.
Pace: Take your time. Don’t go too fast. If you try and stretch a 2-inch rubber band out to 2-feet in one fell swoop, you will like as not permanently cripple yourself. Work to better your own self over the long haul, not to catch up with your more flexible classmates as quickly as possible.
Perspective: Ask yourself, why are you doing this? Put your answer into perspective so that it fits with the rest of your life. If you have a family, a mortgage and a job that helps to support it all, do not jeopardize all of this for the sake of showing everyone in the dojo that a person of your age and make-up can indeed do side splits, if all you do is end up out of work and out of favour with your bank manager and your family.
Permanency: Aim for permanent, life-long practice in your martial art, not a permanent, life-long disability.
Okay, enough said. Probably the biggest piece of sagely advice I can offer to any adult coming to the martial arts is to get a good physical check up from a trained professional before embarking upon any stringent exercise regime. Seek professional advice wherever you can. Don’t rely on your martial arts instructor to have all the answers. Look at their professions by day and ask yourself, “Why should I expect this person to be able to teach me anything about human anatomy when they fix cars for a living?” Conversely, there aren’t that many physicians who heal some by day and then train others in the martial arts by night.
When I think about it, I guess I am lucky in that I started my karate training at a relatively young age when I was 16-years old. At school, I had lived and breathed football (soccer) and, to placate my gym teacher, would run the 220-yards sprint (200ms now) as my specialty event to make up the numbers for the athletics team. I was an okay runner, and the West Indian blood in me probably helped in my overall athletic make up. So, by the time I came to karate-do and the stretching involved, I had a good strong pair of legs to work with as raw material. Kicking came relatively easy to me. I benefit from that now, not just in terms of flexibility, but because in my mind, I have always been able to kick relatively high. I cannot see it any other way. When I imagine performing a kick, I vizualize it as a high kick, even when it doesn’t need to be.
My limited knowledge would suggest that Yoga would be a good place to start if you need supplemental help over and above the limitations of taiso. What I have learnt is that in order to achieve greater flexibility we sometimes have to strengthen muscles first. So, if you want more flexible legs, look at making your legs stronger (from the glutes down). Do strengthening in tandem with the stretching. Strengthen, stretch, strengthen, stretch. Don’t suddenly turn up at the dojo one night with a pair of weightlifters legs saying you’re now ready for your flexibility training.
Balance, in all things. Are you aware of the bodies propensity for gravitating towards homeostasis at all times? My students will have heard me use the example of a pendulum, where the middle point, at rest, is where you are aiming at with your training. Homeostasis is the property of a system that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition of properties. So, as much as you train, don’t over train. Build in rest time. Give stretched muscles, which are sometimes damaged as a result of overstrecthing, time to heal and repair themselves.
One last thing, please re-read the PROVISO at the top of this post. I am not qualified to give you anything other than advice on how to pull off a few karate-do techniques that I have learnt along the way. Please bear that in mind and don’t have too high expectations.
Shotokan Karate-Dō Upper Harbour Dojo 