I’ll get right to the point. Every dojo I’ve ever practiced at does stretches, but very few people at any of these dojo ever seem to get very flexible. There’s a good reason for this: most people are stretching wrong. This article is about stretching right. Just look at the number of people who have been doing…
A while back, I ran a poll about warm up methods and promised a follow-up article. You are now reading the follow-up article. I think most people are vaguely aware of the importance of warming up prior to engaging in demanding physical activities. Properly warming up prepares the body to operate beyond its usual ranges — and pushing beyond our…
Since posting the Stretching Challenge, I’ve gotten some good feedback and comments. I really appreciate everyone sharing their own experiences here. On the challenge post, I embedded a video of me performing and explaining the essential components of my current stretching routine. As I wrote then, all of these movements (and more) are included in Paul Zaichik’s Elastic Steel course,…
If you haven’t been following Taido/Blog lately (and shame on you if that’s the case), you should read the first two posts in this series before continuing. Here they are: You’re Probably Stretching Wrong Why Flexibility is Important in Taido Those posts really lay the groundwork for what’s to follow, so please read them to make sure…
Just to let you know, I have not forgotten to add the next article. I promised in Why Flexibility is Important in Taido that I would post again soon with some specific recommendations for improving your flexibility, and I am working very hard on getting that done. The problem I ran into was trying to describe stretches adequately in a written format.…
