Rayna Vallandingham began doing taekwondo when she was 2 years outdated. By age 6, she’d earned her first black belt. Right now, at 20, she’s a 13-time world champion of the Korean type of martial arts recognized for its punching and powerhouse kicking methods. (Taekwondo roughly interprets to “the artwork of kicking and punching.”)
“Within the very starting, my mother and father put me within the sport as a result of I used to be simply actually shy, and I believe they might inform that I wanted one thing,” says Vallandingham, who lives and trains in Los Angeles. “Instantly, I simply beloved it. I felt at dwelling, and each single day, as a substitute of watching Dora, I wished to go to the dojo.”
“As an alternative of watching Dora, I wished to go to the dojo.”
Vallandingham credit her success, largely, to her consistency over time, and that features often hitting the gymnasium. “It’s a lifestyle,” she says. “It is not solely instructing your physique actions and being in synchronicity along with your physique, but in addition similar to the psychological facet of it.”
Mastering the artwork of taekwondo, which entails the power to carry out head-high kicks, in addition to spinning bounce kicks, plus punches, with the intention to take down an opponent, is just not straightforward. (Understatement.) It takes an amazing quantity of power, flexibility, and energy. “Of the three, I believe power and suppleness are the highest two,” Vallandingham says.
Sadly, she realized the laborious means that there isn’t a quick monitor to the kind of leg muscle extensibility (or elongation) required to excel at her sport. She remembers a time, early in her coaching when, just like ballet dancers, the varsity of thought was that you possibly can drive flexibility by pushing previous your finish vary of movement. “We used to have individuals stand on my legs and drive my knees to return down in butterfly stretch,” she says. “I’ve everlasting harm to my physique—I’ve tendonitis [because of this].”
She now has a a lot extra sustainable method to her coaching that helps her keep on high of her sport, whereas avoiding harm.
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How a taekwondo world champion builds leg power and suppleness
Earlier than Vallandingham even thinks about selecting up a weight, she takes time to stretch by doing a dynamic heat up, a kind of stretching that helps increase her physique temp and elevate her coronary heart charge, rising blood circulation to her muscular tissues, so that they are ready to fireside up as soon as she will get shifting.
When she’s power coaching, Vallandingham says she likes to give attention to supersets, which entails performing two strikes back-to-back that concentrate on the identical muscle teams with the intention to double down on their positive factors. First, she’ll do a mobility train to take all of the joints she plans to load up by way of their full ranges of movement. (FYI, mobility is product of flexibility and power.) Then she’s able to raise.
Considered one of her favourite workouts for sturdy legs is a goblet squat. To organize for it, Vallandingham will stand along with her ft shoulder-width aside, fold ahead till she will slide her palms beneath her soles (you possibly can additionally maintain your ankles or calves), then bends her knees, reducing her butt towards the ground whereas lifting her chest, coming right into a deep squat. She’ll bend and lengthen her legs a number of occasions on this place. Then, it is on to the principle occasion, holding a weight in her palms whereas bending down right into a deep squat.
Find out how to carry out a goblet squat:
One other means Vallandingham likes to coach for flexibility, mobility, and power concurrently is by performing workouts on an unstable floor. “I really like using a Bosu ball—they’re just about in each single gymnasium,” she says. She likes to face on one whereas executing lower-body actions like squats or deadlifts (in addition to kicks) because the shakiness they create causes her muscular tissues to activate greater than if she did the identical issues whereas standing on the ground.
The key to Vallandingham’s explosive kicks
Energy is a product of power and pace. So when Vallandingham is coaching for lower-body energy, she switches up her tempo when performing workouts, in order that she’s shifting quicker on the hassle and slower whereas resetting for the subsequent rep. Say she’s doing goblet squats, for instance: This might appear to be reducing down in a rely of three, then snapping again up in a rely of 1.
“If I am constructing energy, I am additionally sustaining management of my actions,” she says. “That is the factor I really feel like lots of people who’re studying learn how to generate energy overlook—sustaining management throughout it’s so necessary.”
Why Vallandingham saves flexibility coaching for after her exercises
Should you took a frozen spear of asparagus and tried to bend it in half, it’d break—however in the event you allowed it to thaw out first, you possibly can fold it over, no downside. This similar rule applies to your physique and suppleness coaching—analysis reveals that holding stretches (the easiest way to work on flexibility) is the worst factor you are able to do when your muscular tissues are chilly. “Any time you begin to stretch [cold muscles], that causes a stretch reflex that will get your muscle tissue to activate a protecting mechanism to not over-stretch,” Eric Owens, musculoskeletal professional and co-founder of Delos Remedy, beforehand instructed Nicely+Good.
For this reason Vallandingham saves static stretching for after the remainder of her exercise when her physique is already warmed up. Considered one of her favourite methods to work on lower-body flexibility is by mendacity on the ground along with her legs up the wall after which permitting them to open out right into a facet break up. “I let gravity do its work as a result of that is my physique telling me, okay, that is the place we’re at,” she says. “My hips are opening on their very own, and I am not having to drive something.”
Above all else, in the event you’re seeking to lengthen and strengthen your leg muscular tissues, Vallandingham says there’s one factor you must follow diligently: perseverance. “Consistency is a lot extra necessary than depth for attaining most positive factors,” she says. “Benefit from the journey. Do not be overly laborious on your self; do not apply an excessive amount of stress.” And never simply to your joints.
