tommi wrote:
Thanks a lot for your reply, would you mind teaching me some of your warm up / stretching moves (or point me to websites, i couldn't find much info with search engines)?
They would really help me to improve with SG
Sure! Here's a site with tons of stretches. I only do a few that seem to help me warm up for the movements in SG. My advice is to check out each one and do the ones that feel good to you.
http://www.netfit.co.uk/stretching.htm
The key is not to be rigid in terms of following a particular stretching "plan", though that may be useful in the initial stages. What you are looking to do is gain a better understanding of your own body, how it works, how it moves, what its limits are, etc. By learning that you are better able to predict what you can and can't do, how and how much to warm up, how and how much to cool down, etc. But these of course only come with experience. But the basic concept is to (a) loosen your muscles by stretching them (statically, hold for 10+ seconds, I often do a 30-count each stretch) and (b) warm up your muscles by increasing the blood flow so they are prepared for the movements. Not warming up can lead to injury if you suddenly start snatching heavy objects around with cold muscles, kind of like trying to start a car without any oil.
Here's another good overview that talks about fundamentals:
http://www.aikido-reading.co.uk/micro_s ... tretch.htm
The SG movements will be a heavy workout on your upper body, so you should focus on stretches and warm ups that will loosen you up from the waist up. I personally do deep (almost Hindu) squats when doing the churn butter / tuck bales movements, and I also have a lunge move that I added, so I tend to shake out my legs some too.
For the warm up I tend to do some torso twists (just stand feet shoulder width apart and twist left and right, gently but fully, similar to the "bar twists" in the site above) and also explore my full torso range of motion (leaning forward, right, left, rotating, etc), and then move into smaller muscle groups.
From the site above I might do:
- calf stretches briefly
- standing quad stretches briefly
- hamstring stretches (the "easy normal stretch" from that site), I tend to have tight hamstrings so I spend more time here, but I also have an old spine fracture and tight hamstrings cause lower back pain, so I have an extra incentive
- "shoulder strangles" (never heard it called that)
- bicep wall stretches (this also really stretches your chest, feels great)
- tricep stretches (they call it "hand down spine", ok)
- maybe a neck twist or stretch similar to the torso twists
The key is to work the muscles that are being used in the SG movements. These will be primarily your "core" (not just abs but also thighs, hips, chest, and back), shoulders, biceps, triceps, and forearms/wrists.
Oh and I also know a few arm twist stretches from jujutsu training ages ago, I do them without even realizing it sometimes.
But then again mostly I may just do a 10 second rough shake out of my whole body before I begin the workout. Nothing formal, really, and this post is ridiculously long-winded and rambling now and was not intended to be. But these are my observations on injury prevention, based on past experience and new pains from starting SG a few weeks ago.
It should go without saying, I am not a doctor.
Good luck!
This will increase the blood flow to your muscle and speed healing. You should also find that as the heat takes effect you should be able to extend your arm and begin stretching it out. Be sure to heat the forearm some as well.