Place leg on table and stretch towards the toe. The higher the table,
the more difficult the stretch. There are two variations; the side as
well as the front. See pictures. Advance requirements : touch your toe with
your head, nose or even chin.Stretching is one of the exercises that all martial artists must do. However the requirements vary greatly according to the schools. Those schools that emphasize more on kicks will emphasize more on flexibility. It is actually not easy to be very flexible. Progress is often slow and difficult to achieve. Some of the slightly more difficult traditional stretching pose are illustrated below.
Place leg on table and stretch towards the toe. The higher the table,
the more difficult the stretch. There are two variations; the side as
well as the front. See pictures. Advance requirements : touch your toe with
your head, nose or even chin.
Stand straight and bend down. For the not so flexible touch the floor
with your finger tips. For more advance flexibility training, touch the
floor with your knuckles, palm. The most difficult is probably to bring
your head to touch your shin. Make sure that the lower abs touch the
thighs too.
Stand straight and bend sideways and touch the floor with your palm.
(use fingertips or knuckles for
those who are less flexible).
Bend backwards till your hands touches the floor to form the bridge position
which is not too difficult. The difficult part is
reverting to a standing position from the bridge position. For beginners, lie on
the floor with arms and legs bend. Straighten them and form a bridge.
Go down with one leg in front and one leg behind to form the forward split. In this
positon, you can bend forward for more stretch on the hamstrings.
There are actually two versions of the side split. The abductor muscles must be
quite flexible to do it. It can be done with toes pointing up as shown in the
photo or with toes pointing forward.
Exercises that can be done in this position include bending forward until your chin touches the
ground or bending sideways.
Sit in the cobbler position as in the image. You can flap your legs in this position
or bend forward in this position.
The full lotus position is a traditional meditation position. You sit cross legged with your feet facing upwards. Those who are comfortable in the full lotus can try bending forward, bending backwards until your back lie on the floor (fish position), or do a shoulder stand with legs locked in full lotus.
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