Flexibility is very important to all sports including karate. There are a number of very important reasons to include regular stretching into your fitness routine.

• Injury prevention: By lengthening the muscle you are decreasing the risk of tears and strains, as the muscle will be better able to cope with stresses over a larger range of movement.
• Increased skill level: Your joints will be freer making it easier to focus your technique in the correct position.
• Increased speed: Longer muscles means less resistance to the technique, especially for those high kicks.
• Increased strength: Due to the length tension relationship, as the length of the muscle increases so to does its strength over a fuller range of motion.

Each stretch should be held for at least 30 seconds on each side. You may want to repeat the individual sequences a number of times to get the maximum benefit. The secret to getting results is consistency. If you spend half an hour, three times a week stretching, then you should begin seeing improvements very quickly. Give yourself a day to recover after a heavy stretching session to allow the muscles to grow and lengthen.

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  Start with your feet apart and your toes pointing towards the roof. (Click on thumbnails to run through stretching sequence)
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  Now place your left forearm on the floor parallel to your leg, then with your other arm, reach over your head and lower your shoulder to your leg. Make sure that you keep your torso turned so that your chest is facing the front. This will place more stretch on your lower back and your right oblique muscles.
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  Now to the other side. Place your right forearm on the floor parallel to your leg, then with your other arm, reach over your head and lower your shoulder to your leg. Remember to keep your torso turned so that your chest is facing the front to place more stretch on your lower back and right obliques.
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  Start sitting with your legs wide apart and knees flat on the floor.Bending from the hips, try to get your chest as close to the ground as possible. Remember to exhale as you bend over. This will relax the muscles and allow you to reach your maximum muscle length.
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  To place more emphasis on your hamstrings, rotate your torsso that your chest is facing your knee and tilt from the hips trying to get your chest as close to your knee as possible.
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  Now rotate your torso in the other direction to complete the exercise. Remember to tilt from the hips trying to get your chest as close to your knee as possible.

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  Sit up with your feet together, legs straight out in front of you. Reach forward as far as you can, keeping your knees flat on the floor. In order to place more stress on the hamstrings, try to tilt forward from the hips rather than arching your back. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds.
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  This shows the previous excersize from a side view. Note the tilting from the hips with minimal arching of the back.
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  Sit with one leg straight out in front of you and the other bent so that the sole of your foot is touching the inside of the opposite knee. Reach forward from the hips and try and get your chest to touch the knee. Repeat on the other side. This stretch is excellent for isolating the hamstring muscle.
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  Sit up straight with the soles of your feet touching and your knees relaxed out to the side of the body. Try to get your knees as close to the ground as possible.
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  Then holding onto your feet, pull your chest down towards the ground. In order to increase the stretch, place your elbows on your knees and gently push them towards the ground.
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  Lie on your back with your feet pulled close to the body, then hold your ankles and push your hips up towards the roof.

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  In order to increase the stretch, place your hands behind your head and lift your body off the ground. This stretch requires good flexibility through the shoulder region.
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  Kneel down on one knee and pull your foot up behind your body while simultaneously pushing your hips towards the ground. To increase the stretch, lengthen your stance and push your hips down further. You may want to place a hand on a wall for support.
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  Hold on to your shin and pull your leg up to the side as if you are preparing for a roundhouse kick. Make sure that you maintain a good posture - you may want to use a wall for support.
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  Holding the inside of your foot, extend your leg slowly toward the ceiling. Try not to lean away from your foot - rather pull the foot closer to the body.
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  Lying on your front with your arms stretched out perpendicular to your body, lift one leg and rotate your lower body to try to get your foot to touch the opposite hand. Make sure you don't move your hand closer to your foot, but rather move the foot closer to the hand. This stretch is good for the muscles that rotate the spine and the hip flexors.

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