Last night in karate class, I went to do some mae-keage-geri’s (high front stretch kicks), and couldn’t kick nearly as high as normal. The muscles in the backs of my legs felt very tight. Looking at a chart, I am guessing they were the biceps femoris, semimebranosus, or maybe the hamstrings in general. I don’t know, I am not a doctor. On the other hand, my side splits don’t seem to be affected at all.
Maybe after running, I need to work on stretching. I think the running is strengthening muscles, or parts of muscles, that I don’t use as much. That’s a good thing. While it’s nice to be able to throw high kicks, the style of karate (Isshinryu) that I study, and teach, actually favors low kicks. But it is still nice to be sparring, and be able to throw a roundhouse kick, and put a foot right next to the other guy’s ear. They don’t usually expect an older guy like me (43 years old), to be able to kick that high and fast.

Posted by Rob in Running on September 6th, 2006 |