Martial Arts Forward Kick Warm Up

Video Transcript

"So we started off down at the toes and the ankle working it around a little bit, bringing blood flow, warming it up a tiny bit. Then we set the feet tight unto the ground and together where we can start to bend the knees. When you worked the knees, you will still kind of warming the ankles but you are also stretching out the Achilles and the calve a little bit when you do that. You are also bringing a lot of blood flow now down to the knees, which is obviously very important. And starting to begin a little bit of warmth in the quad area. So continuing to move up the body, now we are going to get a lot more into your hamstrings. We are going to do kind of a little bit of leg swing. So what he is going to do is starting in this neutral position where his feet is together and he is going to take a step forward with his left foot to create momentum. That?s going to help him to raise his right leg up. He is going to hit his right hand and step back to a starting position. He repeats again. Steps, swings. Good. He will do it again and go even faster. One of the things you can do is look at your hand when you swing this up. You can give yourself higher and higher goals with where you want to go. And what you would normally do, is you would do about 15 of these on each side. We are going to abbreviate this a little bit so we can show you more stretches. Go ahead and switch to the other side. So now he will step forward with his right foot and swing his left foot up. Good. And again. Now if you need a variation to this. If you have very flexible hamstrings, instead of pointing your toes like he is doing, you can actually flex the toes back. So go ahead and show that this time. Step. He is going to hit the ball of this foot instead, which now tightens the hamstring up a little bit more. Again. Good. One more time. Good. Now we are going to go back to the original side again. So now instead of stepping on each one, we are going to assume that he is done one or two sets of 15 each to kind of gets the blood flowing a little bit. It?s a big limb to try to swing around. Now he is going to start with his left foot in front. That is going to be his starting position. Now he is just going to swing his leg up over and over again. Go. Swings up, hits and back down. And again. You notice now, it is a lot more active. There is not very much of a forward step or anything. There is no momentum to help him. And if this is easy for him, he can switch and hit with his other hand. So he will swing right leg up and he will hit left hand. Now he is stretching across his body. Again, he would do 15 of these but we will abbreviate. Let?s go ahead and switch your feet and go the other side. Swing it up. Good. Since this is his lead one using the same hand or he can switch to the other hand. Good. So it takes a lot for the heart to pump blood to a limb that is that big, that far away from it, while you are getting your legs moving like that. This is a natural way that you are going to end up using the muscle anyways. That?s a natural way that your muscle would all of a sudden be stretched taut if you had to actually use it in a real self defense situation. So it is a great way, it?s an important way to start to worm yourself up and gain flexibility for your exercises."