3 Stretches to Combat Modern Society

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Today’s society is taking a MASSIVE toll on our bodies…

Many of us park our butts in an office chair for 8 hours a day mulling over spreadsheets or plugging away inside Outlook…

Others are road warriors who spend a couple of hours traversing the land in the modern-day horse and buggy called the car.

Not to mention our hobbies, one of which, if you’re reading this blog, is likely mixed martial arts training, with its guard, clinch, single and double leg takedown attempts, chin-tucked fighting stances, shoulders rounded forward like a turtle’s shell, abs constantly on to make the body as small a target as possible.

antonio-margarito — I know it's not MMA, but it's a perfect example of what I'm sayin'…

Our bodies, which are almost a thing of perfection – the strength, power, athleticism, quickness and grace with which we move in the upright position and with good posture is something truly amazing – are regressing and de-volving to the point that Darwin would be afraid for our species’ (modern man) survival.

Well that’s about to change…

We’ve got to combat the effects that modern society in all its weight press upon our form.

Not to mention the fact that gravity with its constant 9.8 N/kg/m² force beating us down every second of every day, we’ve got to take at least a bit of time out of our day to make sure that we do in fact stay on the top of the evolutionary ladder.

I made this video because of a Comment on my last post from my buddy cork_boi who asked for some exercises to combat the effects of tens of thousands of pushups, squats and situps performed thorugh a lifetime of martial arts training.

When my loyal subscribers, fans, customers or friends ask, I’ll do what I can to deliver.

I also added a whole section on Compensatory Stretches to the new Bodyweight Exercise Vault DVD that I’m working on.

You’ll get full details about this little project and even how you might get it FREE next week.

But until then, watch, study, and DO these 3 stretches to combat the effects of modern society (and MMA training):

These stretches, done daily, will drastically improve your posture, reducing the frequency, severity and likelihood of experiencing:

Headaches due to neck pain
Shoulder nerve impingements
Low back pain
Rotator cuff pain/injury
Patellar tendonitis…

… and looking like a bloody neanderthal!

So if you have any friends, family, training partners or anyone who you think might benefit from improving their posture, either

a) Copy the link below and email it to them:

http://ericwongmma.com/3-stretching-exercises-posture/

b) Hit the Send button below to send it to them via Facebook

It’ll help them prevent (or decrease) injuries and pain and it’ll help me out too by spreading the word about effective and efficient exercise, nutrition and fitness advice.

Oh and don’t forget to tap the handy little Facebook LIKE button below. Thanks and I’d love to hear your Q’s and C’s (Comments)!

– Eric

Comments

14 responses to “3 Stretches to Combat Modern Society”

September 22, 2015

James

Hey Eric,

I think these stretches are awesome. What stretches/exercises do you know of that help with patellar tendonitis? Besides those in this video. I have been working on correcting this knee problem for months, and tried stretching my quads and IT band but haven’t had great results.

Thanks,
James

Reply
July 13, 2011

Eric

Hello “fellow warrior” and “Tim Martin”-
For most kicks, the impact point of your kick is the point at which you are maximally stretched.

There are only a couple of common foot/leg positions (stretch positions) for kicks:
Base leg toes pointing same direction as kicking leg
ie. front kick of various types and back kick (ball of foot contact, heel contact, instep contact, etc)

Base leg toes pointing 90 degrees opposite to kicking leg toes
ie. side kick and round kick (again, various contact points are possible)

With that in mind only a few specific kick stretches are necessary. Many may be supplemented but just a few form the core. A front split variant (standing, standing with partner, on the floor, etc.) and a stretch with legs extended and feet at 90 degrees opposite angle will cover almost all kick types. You may wish to use dynamic stretches before your sport specific workout and PNF stretches after. Always be careful to protect your knee and hip joints.

I hope that simplifying the stretches by looking at full extension foot position ( and thus femur/hip relationship) will help.

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July 5, 2011

Brandon Richey

This is an excellent post Eric. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the lack of spinal extension that people have this day and age due to lifestyle habits. I am always working on correcting patterns in my athletes and clients as well. Once again, great post and I’ll be back to check out some more.

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July 1, 2011

Eugenio

Thanks, Eric. I´ll try these ASAP.

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June 22, 2011

SJS

Great stuff – thanks – nice stretches and good explanation – appreciate the detail

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June 20, 2011

Josemm

Great my body is pretty stiff this will help me alot I actually got an injury in my low back due to a lack of flexibility and is painful as hell, my right leg is not flexible and my knee hurts some times I cant kick properly due to this, would be great to have some vids like guys like me to improve kick reach and relief the pain of my knees 🙂 thanks.

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June 20, 2011

Tim martin

I think that it would be awsome if you were to create a video that would go over specific stretches to improve leg flexibility and strengthen kicking in mma. Like fellow warrior mentioned, I have learned so many different stretches for leg flexibility. It is near impossible to fit them all in one session. So if you could go over some key stretches for improved kicking flexibility I would be so thankful.

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June 19, 2011

fellow warrior

Nice Eric!!Thanks for sharing. I have been a martial artist since childhood so have studied a few discipline. The styles I studied have a variety of kicks. Each style has there only stretching in order to execute kicks. The problem is there are way to many different stretches I can’t seem to fit all stretching my routine. So my question to you is as a MMA what stretches are key having flexibility to preform great kicks. It would be greatly appreciated if you could make another great video with share with use. ThankS

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June 18, 2011

Dan De Bond

Great video as always Eric, keep up the good work.

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June 18, 2011

Jimmy

good job, and thanks….

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June 18, 2011

cork_boi

Wow Eric, I’m mucho grateful (& embarassed to hear my name on YouTube). Tried these out and they definately hit the spot: my Quasimodo days are behind me! My physio will hate you now 🙂
Thanks a mill dude.

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June 18, 2011

Bruce

Thanks Eric… stretching, all important and often missed out of training and conditioning workouts… Me Included, nice explanation.

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June 18, 2011

Kris

Im putting this into my nightly stretches. Thanks Eric!

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June 17, 2011

Tony Ricci

Nice video addressing many of the hip-flexor issues present today. At the risk of sounding like a complete jerk, I suggest one small correction. You mention releasing the spine “one vertebrae at a time.” Woulldn’t you write “one vertebra at a time.”? Yeah, I know….I am a total nerd 🙂

It would be great seeing your take on loosening the pec minor and internal rotators somewhere there along with mobilizing the thoracic spine. I’m sure you’re doing this in your bigger project though!

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