Why is running brilliant for Martial Arts?
Running is an amazing compliment to martial arts. It helps to build stamina, strength and recovery time. Running is a very time efficient means of developing both aerobic and anaerobic fitness, which will give you the edge in your martial arts as opponents start to fade.
At Red Dragons, we are forming a running group to aid anyone from a complete novice to running and seasoned runners. Running in a group can provide additional motivation and variety for your training.
Our running club will work on correct techniques to help with fitness, endurance and lateral movements to help when sparring.. We will guide to add that little extra and add hills, intensity and other fun stuff. Runs can keep your head clear or even give you a space to think about next sparring strategy. Strength in your legs will improve your footwork and enable you to move fast forward, backwards, side to side ..
Before running it’s a good idea to spend a short time doing for warm up exercises. We want to avoid pulling muscles that are still cold, so we use dynamic stretches rather than static ones, and avoid trying to extend the range of movement beyond what is comfortable.
Here are some examples of dynamic warm up stretches, that can be used before running.
Leg swings
Start standing upright and hold onto a tree or a bench for balance if you need to. Engage your core and lift one leg. Swing your leg up in front of you and back behind you, back and forth in a fluid motion. Do about 10 good swings on each side. You can add a lateral leg swing from side to side. This stretch will increase the range of motion in the hips. Movement should be controlled and not forced.
Walking lunges
These exercises activate the glutes, quads, hamstrings, hips and core. Start standing upright with hands on the hips and engage your core. Take a step forward and bend both knees to 90 degrees whilst dropping down into a deep lunge. Your back knee should almost touch the ground and your front shin should be vertical to the floor. Stride forward out of this position, to a lunge on the opposite side. Alternate legs completing about 10 lunges per side as you move forward.
Lateral side lunges
Start standing with both feet facing forward, and take a wide step to the right. Bend your right knee, send hips back shifting your weight over right foot to drop into a side lunge. You should keep your core engaged. Lift your body up, out of the lunge and drop into a lunge on the left hand side. Alternate sides. This stretch targets quadriceps, glutes and hips.
Jolana's RDMA Running Group runs every other Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Contact us to find out more. For members and non-members - £5 per session which includes personal running technique assessment.