Need Flexibility help

akafful

Hey guys,

I'm practicing Taekwondo after a while and I need help with my flexibility. I want to do the high kicks, like the ones that involve the legs being near 180 degrees spread apart, but I have not reached my maximum flexibility yet.

So I need suggestions of the following.
1. Exercise type
2. Exercise duration

Thank you for the help.

nutmegoreo

Have you spoken with whomever is training you?

aspencompton

What I can tell you, as a former dancer, is that the kicks you're mentioning have a lot to do with bone structure over flexibility (which sucks for someone like me whose hips are completely stiff). But there are ways to improve hip mobility to help you achieve what you're looking for!

1. After stretching leg muscles, sit in a strattle position with arms stretched straight above you. Keeping your back straight, slowly lower down and aim to have your finger tips reach the opposite end of the room, stretching as far down as you can. Keep legs straight. Hold at the bottom for 5 seconds, come back up and repeat 10x.
2. Lay on your stomach and bring your feet close to your bum and have the bottoms of your feet touching (think frog like) rest there for 3-5 minutes.
3. Always warm up by doing several hip mobility exercises. One I like is to find an object that is hip height or just lower and step over it with each leg sever times. This warms up the joints well.

k8eekins

You may consider starting with the variations of the wall split stretch (gymnastics) technique(s). The duration is entirely up to you. Depending - you may need to do a warm-up.

akafful

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Have you spoken with whomever is training you?

I haven't yet but I will.

dewd2

Give it time. It takes many months (or longer) to do this and you have to start with a good foundation. Even with that not everyone can do some of the kicks (me included). Keep attending the class and trust the process.

Good luck.