Best Martial Arts and Combat Sports Classes in Farnborough

Stretching is a waste of time, damaging, and overrated.nnAnd there’s something else you should try instead.nnBut first, a quick story…nnIt’s easy to think it’s important to stretch, as that’s what you’re told to do if you want to stay flexible, and mobile right?nnI used to stretch for hours every week.nnThat was over 10 years ago.nnI thought that it’s important too, and I was 15 years into the health, fitness, and Martial Arts world by then.nnGrowing up in an old school Martial Arts Dojo with my Dad teaching me, he was heavy into stretching.nnAnd we used to disagree on stretching being good or bad, up until he passed.nnIn his classes, it wasn’t unusual to stretch for 20-30 minutes, and sometimes more.nnI used to be able to do all kinds of splits and stretching movements.nnBut now, no chance.nnYet, I can still kick as high as before, and move better in many ways, without stretching.nnI get injured less, my body is stronger, and it works more as one unit from head to toe.nnStretching just elongates the muscles, and doesn’t get rid of the source of tightness.nnPicture this simple experiment.nnIf you tie two elastic bands together, and then stretch them apart, the knot in the middle gets tighter.nnIt’s only the bands on either side of the knot that get looser.nnNow in the body, this creates a dysfunction between your muscles, as you need them to work together, not separately.nnTo get around this, I switched my students and myself to Myofascial Release, which in simple terms is self-massage.nnMassage gets rid of the knots at their source if you do it right, and doesn’t create dysfunctions.nnJust 15 minutes a day while you’re winding down makes a huge difference. Your muscles will feel more relaxed, less tight and achy, and ready to sleep deep too.nnTry it and quit stretching (or thinking you need to stretch) today.