JKA Vic Article - Warm Up Stretching and Karate

Articles

Warming Up, Stretching and Karate.
By David Owen

Karate classes should always begin with a warm up in order to prepare the muscles and joints for activity. A proper warming will decrease the chance of injury - unwarmed muscles and joints are prone to injury, it will also prepare the body to stretch and achieve its fullest range of motion. It is very important to warm up before stretching. Attempting to stretch before warming up has caused people to pull muscles and tendons even before training.

In this the first of 3 related Articles, David Owen takes a close look at the subject of Warming Up. David started Karate some twenty years ago, training with the late Sensei Frank Nowak and grading to brown belt with Kanazawa Hirokazu Sensei. These days, he and his son Michael are both active members of JKA Victoria.

David has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Human Movement and a Post Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Studies. He is a Master of Health Science (Rehabilitation Counselling) with a Certificate of Applied Ergonomics and he has been a professional Occupational Rehabilitation Consultant for over 10 years. He currently practices at The Epworth Hospital in Melbourne.

Part 1: Warm up

There are a lot of assumptions made about the benefits of warming up and stretching before and after Karate, but how much of this is based on science and fact? This article will review a sample of scientific and medical research on stretching and then look at the implications for Karate.

Warm up
We all know that we should warm up before exercise or training. But why should we and what is the reason behind this?

The physiological theory behind warm up is to gradually increase the body’s temperature prior to strenuous exertion or exercise. A slight increase in the body’s core temperature improves the efficiency of a number of physiological processes. Athletic performance has been shown to measurably improve with warm up. There appears to be a link between warming up the body before intense exercise or physical activity and a reduction in the number and severity of injuries. However the research is inconclusive and this link appears to vary between the type of exercise or activity and the type and intensity of the warm up.

Research has shown that a number of physiological processes are sped up by the body’s core temperature increasing by 1 to 2 degrees (e.g. haemoglobin and to a lesser extent myoglobin becomes more efficient at higher core temperatures). The viscosity of the muscles improves as the core temperature is increased which allows the muscles to go through their full range of motion with greater ease. The improved muscle viscosity will also allow the muscles and tendons to be more efficiently stretch and theoretically with less chance of sustaining an injury. It is also known that the transmission speed of the body’s nerve fibres improves as it becomes warmer.

There appears to be a number of psychological benefits associated with warm up prior to training. Several studies have used methods such as hypnosis to determine the effects of warm up on performance. Athletes were hypnotised into either forgetting that they have warmed up, or into believing that they had performed a warm up. These athletes were then compared to a control group who had either undergone a warm up or had not. The variation between the test group (the hypnotised group) and the control group showed significant differences that could only be accounted for by psychological factors. It has been theorised that warm up prior to training or competition is an important psychological step that prepares an individual mentally as well as physically to undertake the task.

How long does an individual need to warm up for? The aim of a warm up is to increase core temperature enough to improve physiological efficiency of the body. If the warm up is too short then this is not ideally achieved and conversely if the warm up is too long or hard then this may actually cause the individual to fatigue and their athletic performance may be reduced.

Warming up prior to an athletic event or a strenuous task has not been conclusively shown to reduce the number or extent of injuries. The literature on the prophylactic effects of warm ups on reducing injury has not shown a definitive link. This may be due to the wide range of athletic and strenuous activity that has been researched along with a vast number of warm up techniques that have been reviewed. The lack of standardisation of the type and intensities of the warm ups has been a major difficulty when measuring the effects on the number and types of injuries.

Types of Warm Ups
Generally warm ups can be divided into three categories, the passive warm up, the general warm up and the specific warm up.

The passive warm up relies on raising the body temperature by some sort of external means. This could include heat packs, showers, steam baths, ultrasound etc. If the bodies core temperature is elevated sufficiently then the individual should derive the physiological gains. A passive warm up has the advantage of not requiring any energy to achieve an ideal operating temperature and therefore would not contribute to premature fatigue. However this method is likely to be impractical for most training needs.

A general warm up would not necessarily be associated with the neuromuscular components of the activity or event. Jogging, stationary bike, callisthenics, rope jumping are typical examples of a general warm up. One of the advantages of this type of warm up is that the deep muscles are effectively warmed up. This ensures that the know benefits from warming up are achieved through a general warm up.

Specific warm ups concentrate on the neuromuscular parts of the body that will be used in the task or activity. This warm up relies on performing movements that are similar or identical to the task or activity to be performed but at a lower intensity level. A specific warm up should not just concentrate on elevating the body’s core temperature but also provide a rehearsal for the training that will follow.

It is advisable that the warm up includes the larger muscle groups, as the general aim of a warm up is to elevate the body’s core temperature. It is unlikely that any further benefit would be derived by including all of the body’s muscle groups and this may simply cause premature fatigue that reduces fatigue. Most warm ups would be advised to start with activities that involved the legs being some of the largest muscle groups in the body.

How long and how intense should a warm up be?
The aim of a warm up is to elevate the body’s core temperature sufficiently to achieve the physiological gains that are associated with an increased working temperature. As individual’s fitness can vary significantly so will their warm up requirements. A sedentary individual may only require a few minutes of light exercise to elevate their body’s core temperature, whereas an elite athlete or a very fit person may require half an hour at a much more intense level to elevate their temperature enough to derive any substantial gains. An example of this would be a weekend runner who runs 3 km at a 6 minute per km rate may only require a brief 5 minute warm up. However an athlete who is doing the same distance at 3 minutes per km rate may need to warm up for 15 minutes.

As individuals become fitter or more adapted to the physical requirements of their task, their thermoregulatory system becomes more efficient to responding to the heat produced during exercise. A fitter individual will need a longer more intense warm up than a lesser conditioned individual. The individual should also be aware that if the warm up is too intense and too long then their performance may suffer due to fatigue. The warm up needs to be adjusted accordingly to factors that may influence the body’s thermoregulatory system. For instance temperature and humidity changes can significantly alter how long an individual needs to warm up. Warming up in cold weather needs to more intensive.

To achieve the maximum benefits from a warm up the body’s core temperature (measured by the rectal temperature) should be elevated by a temperature of at least 1°C to 2°C. As the physiology of warm up is individualistic and dependent on a range of factors the increase in core temperature should be the outcome rather than following a set routine that may be deleterious to performance. The simple observance of light sweating at normal abient conditions has been found to be a useful indicator of the elevation of core temperature.

Applying basic Warm Up principles to Karate.
When applying these principles to Karate then it is advisable that every session should include some form of warm up. It is recommended that the warm up is specific in nature that includes the same or similar neuromuscular groups as the activity. This will allow these groups to achieve the best possible warm up whilst also deriving significant psychological benefits. Where possible the warm up should be specific to Karate and even to the particular training session scheduled. This would also assist the individual to mentally focus on their training session at hand. The warm up should be specific to the group training; the warm up session for a beginners group should be shorter than for an advanced group. Now you are warm lets look at stretching....To be continued....