THE BENEFITS OF GOOD WARMUP SBN Ramón Navarro

The Benefits of a Good Warmup

SBN Ramón Navarro

After so many years of training in the martial arts, I realized that warm-ups are healthier if you start from the top down. That is, starting with the neck and going down until you are sitting doing the seated stretches. Martial arts depending on where they are from have a custom depending on the place. For example, the Japanese arts, after warming up, make hands or blocks and then blows to then do kicks. Korean styles after warm-up we do kicks then blocks and punches. That is traditional and the truth is that there is no way to prove what I say is good. Only by doing it this way that I suggest and in two weeks you will find out if it is working for you or not. When finished, a cool down should be done. Usually these exercises are done by stretching, so you get to the point of the exercise and stay there giving it about 10 times and think that this will make you more flexible but this does not work for everyone. What causes is that when the body is warmed up it can for example kick higher but this is not flexibility. When you do your exercises and in the position in which you stretch the least, you should do it two times a maximum of four times, it is only necessary that you end up stretching instead of looking for flexibility. Speaking about the more times you stretch in the class is not enough, although it is enough to do it every day even if they are not coming every day to the Academy, Dojo or Dojang well gym. By custom in many schools is to do sit-ups and push-ups in the warm-up session. The sit-ups calm the body of energy and that is it cools the body so these should be done in the cool-down at the end of the class. The pushups warm the body so these should not be done at the end of the class or training is they call it practice. Let's remember that the martial arts is more than a sport, it is for life and you do not have to rush or allow yourself to feel bad if things do not seem to go well for you and this happens because it is a development that is it takes time, effort and work with goals plus most importantly don't give up. What about the forms, Kata or Hyung like Tul or PoomSae (PumSe) are the activities that will allow you to master them then you are prepared to pass the exam and then this belt that represents the range in which you find yourself is in stages or colored ribbons and when go to the levels that are called Dan or Black Belt, most martial arts have up to the 10th Dan. The normal thing is that there should only be a single 10th Dan no more since that person if he has not inventor of a new art should not have that degree. It does not matter if he is the one who runs an organization be it large or small but was not the inventor or creator. This that different entities or organizations exist are not of a single art and should not give ranks to people, students or instructors as to teachers who are not of the same art. Nor should there be that when you get to First Dan with two years of being in that rank you can be a candidate to go to the 2nd Dan and three years here to go to the 3rd Dan or more ranks with those non-logical times. Also today students or parents are the ones who want to ask to be tested so because they ask for it. The truth should be when the instructor or teacher decides. This about the

MMA or Mix Martial Arts or as it is in Spanish the AMM or Artes Marciales Mixtas that are giving degrees of Dan or Black Belt should not be because it is not really a martial art because it does not implement a curriculum of progressive learning to pass ranks. Nor is it a philosophy and they were not more than entities or organizations of fighting and not a way of life. All this is called modern but modern and what they say is modern it has nothing, only fashions change and they express themselves differently to something that 25 or 30 years ago was expressed in another way and it is still an activity that only changes the expression. So these ones that have no philosophy in their teaching are just activities that are being enjoyed a lot to kill time and what is it causing is the distortion and taking away the value of a true martial art. The martial art must be to develop the character of the person. Not to develop people with bad ego and with this attitude, that nobody beats me or is not better than me. This should not be so. If it were that it should be like that, we would not be taught that we must respect those of higher rank and be humble with those of lower rank since doing the first thing in daily life would be to respect authority, the elders, our parents, teachers or professors etc. and to those of lesser rank it would be people who, for example: at work, are motivated by a good example, as well as those who are younger than one and show good education with respect are not distorted. In addition, respecting others causes them to esteem us. Also the development of values such as being a gentleman, respecting the ladies and vice versa are that everything in life is reciprocal as the attitude based on ethics and morals. Ethics is good example and behavior and morality is the way that others cannot say that because he asks us to do something that he never does. This does not exist in sports or in contact sports in a professional way. The issue is not what others are doing who do not share life in martial art with a sense of humanity or under the Do aspect of the martial art. The important thing to achieve as good benefit from the warm-ups is the cooling is that in the warm-up the same stretches are done as to cool the body with the exception that in the warm-up they must be done finishing with the pushups and in the cool-down as well so the same stretches just to finish them doing the sit-ups. One more thing is that when you finish taking a bath and thus throws away the residues of the toxins that we throw away when training through sweating and these are found at the entrance of the pores since this toxin comes out in sweat. These residues remain at the entrance of the pore and it is best to bathe if you can at the Academy or not then when you get home. When you get in the water that is better cold until your body is completely wet and if you have a habit of bathing with hot water then put the hot water and finish bathing. The reason for the cold water is because it closes the pores and the hot water opens them, so bathing by throwing away those residues of this toxin and those residues that are at the entrance of the pore do not enter back in if you start bathing with hot water. The pain or discomfort in the body due to training is because something or several muscles of these movements have not been done in time or it is the first time that they are done more for beginners and very important for all who do not stop these discomforts to do them if possible on a daily basis. So if you can't go to training every day, take at least 20 or 30 minutes and practice at home. That is the best way that you can be flexible over time as it will be easier and there will be no discomfort in your body the next day. Bon appetit and happiness with your health training the martial art.