Now for something physical...

A lot of my posting recently has been about psychology so this time let's try something about physiology. Let's talk about stretching.
I've noticed over the years that some fencers seem to have a naturally inbred allergy to stretching. They tend to regard it as something that other fencers do; a pointless waste of time mate, I'm an athlete let's get on the piste... aargh there goes my hamstring... To be honest, most of these fencers fall into the category of the posse who buy all the kit and then turn up and stand around all evening, maybe have a couple of matches and then disappear.... Hopefully this doesn't sound too personally familiar to readers of this blog...!
Now I'm a great believer in stretches as those who attend the club on Saturdays will attest. I have recently been reinstalled as Mr Stretchy (leader of the group warm up); a post I held for a number of years before it fell out of fashion for a while. But now I'm back! It's important to get those major muscle groups active before strenuous exercise and I tend to do a set series of stretches every week. Starting with legs, we then work up through the waist and to the shoulders. For some reason my shoulder exercises seem less than popular with the class but you can't have everything. Andy also does a group warm up on Wednesdays but I prefer to do my own thing then, mainly because I struggle to make the start of the class due to work but I always make sure I do some stretching before demonstrating anything with Andy. As his Junior I am usually the one doing the lunging so it is important I get the old creaky thighs warmed up.
I've also been doing yoga on and off for the last few years so I may start to incorporate some of the basic moves into the stretching routine. Some seem very applicable to fencing if viewed in the right light, although I can't see a group attempt at the tree posture working particularly well.... The basic thing is that you should look at some form of stretching as an integral part of your fencing routine. It might just save you a lengthy lay off with injury.