Joint Mobility for Karate

The first part of early morning training in my dojo is always to run through a full-body joint mobility routine. This is also something that I encourage my students to undertake before each training session. Many traditional karate styles incorporate such activities as standard in the dojo, Goju Ryu and Uechi Ryu being two notable ones, and I think that the benefits of this practice go further than a physical preparation of the body for upcoming activity.

The first occasion where many people talk about their joints is usually when describing some sort of pain or restricted motion. Because of this, it is common for us to isolate and focus singular joints (such as knee or ankle) in our mind without appreciating the fact that all the bones, muscles and connective tissues surrounding a joint and indeed throughout the human body, act together as a fully integrated movement system.            

The optimum health and ability of a particular joint will rely on the health and ability of other joints around it. If one joint doesn't work as it should then this can have an effect on others, as the body automatically attempt to compensate for its lack of performance. For example, if articulation of the hip is restricted, then the inability to open this joint during a squat pattern may cause undue stress on the knee or ankle joints and supporting tissues. Over time and consistent demand, this can lead to injury.

In general, there are three important aspect of human movement that we need to understand as martial artists. These are mobility, flexibilty and stability. Flexibility corresponds to the distance and direction a joint can move, without necessarily taking into account ancillary aspects such as core strength, balance and co-ordination. Therefore, good flexibility does not always equate to good mobility, where unrestricted and uninhibited motion is key. Stability is the requirement to maintain control of a movement pattern or static position, by the coordinated actions of surrounding tissues and neuro-muscular efforts.

In Traditional Karate, the study and repetition of core kata such as Sanchin, Naihanchi and Seisan help the practitioner to ingrain a higher level of body awareness, proprioception and the control of important patterns and positions that if practised correctly, have a positive transfer effect on the functional application of the art. Also as karate practitioners, understanding how the human body works, along with its inherent strengths and weaknesses is critical for longevity. Therefore, working on flexibility alone does not always help prevent or treat injuries/restrictions, as the mobility and stability of joints also play crucial roles.

Major synovial joints in the body can benefit greatly from a daily mobility routine.

Let's look at some of the benefits of investing even just a few minutes of your dojo time each day on joint mobility exercises...
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1. Mobility exercises help encourage joints to move within their natural patterns and help counter-act the significant restrictions we tend to place on them during monotonous every day activities. Sitting at the desk or in a car for hours on end can be extremely bad for your joints. Take a moment to think about how many everyday activities call for a full squat movement pattern, spinal flexion/extension or rotation of the shoulders...not many in this day and age!
2. Joint mobility helps remind the body how to move at full range. The human body is a fantastically adaptable organism that will change according to the stimulus offered. Less stimulus will inevitably result in restricted movement over time and inhibited reflex actions that later in life may cause issues and injury.  
3. Mobility exercises help to wash, lubricate and nourish the joints with synovial fluid. It is thought that after adolescence, the only nutrition that our joints receive is from that which we feed it through movement. This coupled with the limited actions that modern-day life offers could be a prime reason why we experience more restriction as we age. So of course, the best way to counter-act this process is to MOVE MORE OFTEN.
4. Even after only a simple 5-min joint mobility routine, your body will feel more relaxed, warm and ready to go. Areas of specific tension can be worked through until softened and you will also experience a heightened sense of body awareness. If you're preparing for a particular exercise (such as martial arts, running or weightlifting etc), then such a routine can be used to help 'grease the grove', preparing both the body and mind for better performance.
5. Performing regular joint mobility exercises can help to dramatically decrease your chance of injury, especially as you age. Lack of mobility often causes us to lose a degree of integrated structural integrity as other areas try to compensate for specific restrictions. Sudden movements performed with inadequate carriage or incorrect joint action is a recipe for disaster.
6. Good joint mobility results in smoother, unimpeded and overall more efficient movement. With less structural deficiencies hampering your performance, you can enjoy a less injury prone lifestyle. For instance, picking up a heavy object with the back instead of the legs is a very common problem caused by bad technique, with the root cause quite often being poor mobility. 
7. Your athletic performance will increase dramatically with regular mobility and active flexibility training. Not only will your body have the ability to function correctly, but your ability to acknowledge, understand and control joints and associated muscle groups will make every movement more precise, more integrated and more effective. For martial arts like karate, this is an absolute no-brainer and one of the reasons I still teach joint mobility to children. Not so much for the health of their joints, but rather to help them become more body-aware, making accuracy of movement easier to achieve.
8. Joint mobility teaches you about the way the human body moves - it's natural pathways and articulations. As karate-ka, this knowledge is critical, not only to remain healthy but also to better understand how the application practices of classical kata strive to cause the opponent trauma and dysfunction.   

How long you should devote to joint mobility and which parts of the body to focus more on will of course depend on your current state of movement. For most people, a few minutes each day mobilising the major joints will yield great results in only a short space of time. Others may need to spend a little extra time working through specific patterns until the spot rust is removed. There are literally hundreds of exercises to choose from, so it pays to spend some time exploring different routines until you find what works best for you. 

Personally, I like to start from the floor (our connection to the Earth) and then work up through the body progressively. However, if I'm feeling particularly tight in any areas then I may break this pattern to suit. Being malleable to how your body feels, rather than repeating patterns for the sake of it, is a valuable skill to develop in all aspects of training.  As far as rules go, here are three important ones to keep in mind...
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1. Aim to perform smooth and consistent patterns, refraining from any fast, sudden or clunky movements. Always work under full control and be mindful of every movement you make so that every exercise can be a learning experience.
2. Discomfort in necessary for growth, but pain tends to lead to injury. Learn to understand the difference between the two so that mobility may be developed in a positive way. If working through a past injury, take extra time and caution to feel the real benefits.
3. Think integrated and three-dimensional! Joints are designed to work in unison with others and together, they allow for greater articulation across numerous planes of movement. Isolation exercises are great to focus on specific joints, but you should also look to incorporate multi-joint actions that will carry over well into your karate training.        

Generally speaking, the 10 areas of the body to think about (bottom to top) are:
Feet > Ankles > Knees > Hips > Spine > Shoulders > Elbows > Wrists > Hands > Head

In recent years, joint mobility has become a bit of a buzz phrase and is growing to becoming a very popular aspect aspect of contemporary fitness practices. However, it has always been a integral part of traditional martial arts training and although it can often seem quite complex to begin with, it's really not. All it requires is that you MOVE with variety and ensure that your joints experience a FULL RANGE OF MOTION on a REGULAR BASIS.

Thanks for reading and enjoy moving :-)