Jumping jacks

[Mr Punch]

Read something somewhere about them being bad for you in some way. Er. Anybody any ideas?

Do you do them?

Do you think they're good or bad, and why?

[Oso]

if jumping jacks are bad for you then just about everything we do is bad for you.


i'd have to say that they must be referring to if you do like 600 of them or something...but 600 reps of anything is kinda silly.

100 jj's as part of a class warmup should be fine.

[Mr Punch]

Nah, it was something I read about the neuromuscular connections you reinforce actually buggering up your coordination and balance...

[Oso]

really? seems odd, but i'm not a professional.

i've done all sorts of light plyo type exercises, as we all have...to me, JJ's fall into that category.

for the last 8 years, I've had my students doing a very tight, quick JJ where the feet only move a little bit out side of shoulder width and the arms are not out at full extension but held closer to the body in basically a guarding type position that moves from close to the chest and front of face to a high block type of position.

so, fwiw, no big flailing movements with the arms and quick, quick feet.

it was also a fairly easily attainable goal for beginning students to try and get 100 of those in 60 seconds.

[Iron_Eagle_76]

I have that book The Science Of Martial Art Training and they have jumping jacks under questionable or non productive exercises. On jumping jacks it basically says the only true benefit is it raises your heart rate. The time spent doing jumping jacks could be used more wise. Other exercises mentioned as questionable or non productive push ups, sit ups, lying leg scissors, static stretches, duck walking. I have been in a number of schools and every instructor incorporates them. My believe is any exercises is good for you as long as you don't push your self to injury. The book author is Charles Staley, mss pages 133&134.

The thing about these kind of studies is they do not take into account the fact that the human body varies from person to person in response to exercise. What may work well for one person may not work for another. Also, any book that questions the productivity of push ups is questionable at best

[David Jamieson]

I've done them for years and years with no ill effect, so, I can't support the findings of that study through validation via my own experiences.

Not to say that is true for everyone.

I think Jumping Jacks would be difficult and possibly not good for someone who is obese for instance, but for someone who is relatively fit and not completely overweight, they are beneficial light plyo and cardio-vascular work to be used in a warm up.

[Scott R. Brown]

It is hard to believe that jumping jacks are bad, but jumping rope is good.

BTW, Jumping Jacks, I think, were invented by Jack LaLanne!

[taai gihk yahn]

jumping jacks were invented by Satan; if you do them, you will become his minion and writhe in the eternal fires of Perdition;

[Scott R. Brown]

jumping jacks were invented by Satan; if you do them, you will become his minion and writhe in the eternal fires of Perdition;

Ahhhh...that explains your appellation: "Christian F***ING Jurak!!!"

[taai gihk yahn]

that explains your appellation

no, this happened in art class, not while mountain climbing

- CFJ

[Mr Punch]

From here.

A general warm-up should start with a few minutes of aerobic activity—for example, jogging, shadowboxing, or any exercise or game having a similar effect on the cardiovascular system. The one exception: Don't do jumping jacks.

Why not jumping jacks? Because there is no technique in sports that is similar to and can be improved by doing jumping jacks, but what is more important jumping jacks can neurologically disorganize a person (Diamond 1979). Jumping jacks, even for normal persons, can cause regression to an out-of-sync, ****lateral pattern of locomotion (left arm swings forward with the left leg, right arm with right leg) and “a vague feeling of confusion” (Diamond 1979).1 An instructor who makes athletes do jumping jacks shows ignorance of exercise physiology, proper methods of training, and pedagogy. Jumping jacks raise the blood level of lactate before the main part of the workout and they are not a lead-up exercise for any technique.

1 The normal pattern of locomotion is heterolateral (left leg and right arm forward). Normal babies, when they first begin to crawl, move in a ****lateral pattern (left leg and left arm forward), and as they achieve a higher level of neurological development, progress to a heterolateral pattern. Many children with neurological problems, especially speech and reading difficulties, either have not progressed from a ****lateral locomotion pattern to the heterolateral pattern or have regressed to a ****lateral pattern typical of more primitive neurological organization. Similar regression occurs in people who are under constant stress. In well people such regression, accompanied by a feeling of confusion, can be caused by a ****lateral gait and by other nonheterolateral movements such as bicycling, rowing, weight-pulling or weight lifting, with both arms and especially by jumping jacks. Exercises that use either one limb at a time or use opposite arms and legs do not have this disorganizing effect (Diamond 1979).

So there you go David, you could have been a Nobel physics prize winner if you hadn't have been retarding yourself with all those jumping jacks! Still, it explains a lot of your posts...

[taai gihk yahn]

wellllll.....

I don't know - I think that you'd have to be pretty neurologically challenged to begin with to have jumping jacks disorient you to the point where you regress to a non-oppositional locomotor pattern! the other thing is that jumping jacks occur in the frontal plane, they do engage the postural system in the same way gait or throwing a ball does (classic example of contralateral patterns) - so if they don't contribute positively to improving sport-specific (contralateral) function, how they could spill over neurologically to disrupt that sort of pattern also seems a bit of a stretch - I'd have to see the original research though to see what the methodological parameters were, including what the specific evidence for regression they found;

I do agree that they aren't sport-specific - and in fact, I personally don't like them - if you wanted to do something like that, I would do more of a contralateral switching pattern myself...but that's just me...

[TenTigers]

we do stance changes instead. Accomplishes the goal of warming up, but is directly applicable. I then add variations, such as bringing the knees up higher, moving forward and back.etc.

[Mr Punch]

I do agree that they aren't sport-specific ...

That's my basic gripe.

Like you TT, I prefer stance changes as warm-ups.

[Oso]

interesting...but...isn't martial arts about making your body do what you intend it to do?

so, training odd patterns and getting them correct demonstrates the ability for you conscious mind to control your body exactly as you wish it to move.