Jumping jacks

[mickey]

Greetings,

Even people with degrees in exercise physiology can be wrong. There are times when you have to find out for yourself.

I have done four count jumping jacks in the past and to very good effect. But let me give you the details on how they were done:

Standing Position

1- Jump out into a horse stance*, arms stretched out

2- Jump Legs together arms up

3- Jump out into horse stance, arms stretched out

4- Jump legs together, arms done

Do 2 Sets of 50-100 repetitions. Can be done with a weighted vest (START LIGHT).

This should be done on matting to reduce shock to the bones and encourage maximal fiber recruitment in the legs. The matting should not be so thick so as to minimize the actions of the calves.

The benefits:

1- Improved leg strength

2- Improved leg endurance

3- Lightness of body in movement from one stance to another. You will run up stairs like they were never there.

Prerequisite: Good strong stance foundation. This is NOT for beginners.

Unlike the conventional jumping jack, the emphasis is an getting through the transitions smoothly and softly. The major bounce through movement only evolves later when your strength improves. The bounce is full physical coordination and not a slight muscular pulse.

*My horse stance was done with the thighs forming a 90 to 120 degree angle to the crotch, with the knees and feet vectoring the same outward line as the thighs.

This four count exercise is similar to some stuff found on ballet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wgj-wwGWxY


Enjoy,

mickey

[Frost]

but should the general warm up be sports specific? surely as long as the warm up increases blood flow, raises core body temperature and gets the body ready for the main part of the warm up it is serving its purpose?

[Oso]

yea, krist, this is almost as bad as the main forum...

Mr. Punch, stop being a pansy ass and just do the jumping jacks, mkay?

[Kevin73]

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

The body works by cross connecting it's movements. One of the things that therapists do to re-establish neuro connections is having a patient raise up their left knee and then in an exagerated motion touch the knee with their right hand. This motion is called a "Cross crawl" after how neuromuscular patterns are established in babies crawling. Forward to walking...the motion is still crossbody where as one leg moves forward the other hand moves forward. The body has no natural motion where both sides move forward at the same time.

Now, get a young kid around 4-5 years old and try to get them to do jumping jacks. Most of them will have trouble doing them and it takes a lot of work to get them to do the motion because it is not natural and goes against their neuro programming. The reason is that cross body motions activate and utilize the corpus collosum(sp?), which is the tissues that connect both sides of the brain and allow you to use both sides better, which in turns makes the brain better overall in it's development.

People working in the field of proprioception and neuromuscular things will recommend if you are going to do jumping jacks to swith them up a little bit to make them more neuro friendly. Instead of the normal way of doing them, you would reverse the motions so that as the feet go out the hands come down and as the feet go in, they hands go out. This matches the bodies natural neuro patterns better.

If you have lots of other activities that use the cross motion then doing jumping jacks once in a while is not going to "hurt you" since the connections are already made. But, it is not the most beneficial activity for really doing anything.

[taai gihk yahn]

The body works by cross connecting it's movements. One of the things that therapists do to re-establish neuro connections is having a patient raise up their left knee and then in an exagerated motion touch the knee with their right hand. This motion is called a "Cross crawl" after how neuromuscular patterns are established in babies crawling. Forward to walking...the motion is still crossbody where as one leg moves forward the other hand moves forward.

the only wrench in the machine is that there are many therapists who do not do cross crawl or anything even remotely similar, and get just as good results with patients as those who do, indicating that it is not necessarily a more powerful technique just because it engages crossing of midline;
as far as _restablishing neuro connections, that is debatable - plasticity often will take existing pathways and use them for different thing s as opposed to re-establishing old ones that have lost due to some reason - but I'd have to see the current research on that to be sure

The body has no natural motion where both sides move forward at the same time.

this is loaded with assumptions; first, define "natural"; if you want to argue natural versus unnatural, you get into a whole bog of operational assumptions that may or may be not be shared by someone else - any movement the body can make, without causing disrution of tissue, I would say, is "natural"; second, in a functional context, e.g. - environmentally specific, such as one's home or job, you may have to do exactly that sort of movement: for example, when you get in and out of a car, you do that; when you shuffle forward and throw a lead hand jab, you do that; when you fence, you do that; when you have to move between objects that are narrowly space, you do that; if you were edging along a narrow trail on the side of a cliff, you would do that;

Now, get a young kid around 4-5 years old and try to get them to do jumping jacks. Most of them will have trouble doing them and it takes a lot of work to get them to do the motion because it is not natural and goes against their neuro programming.

by the time a typical kid is 5, IMPE, he / she usually has no trouble doing a jumping jack; many can do it by 4; in fact, developmentally, kids typically can do same side, non-oppositional movement well before contralateral stuff - for example, on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Performance, there is a trail where the kid switches sides ipsilaterally (same arm / leg), and then contra-laterally (opposite); the same side switch is considered more primitive and easier, and in fact most kids even up to age ~9 or so (IMPE) have no problem w/the former and a much harder time with the latter, often regressing to the same-side movement when they can't figure out the opposite side one; by your logic, they should have any easier time with the opposite, since it's "natural"

The reason is that cross body motions activate and utilize the corpus collosum(sp?), which is the tissues that connect both sides of the brain and allow you to use both sides better, which in turns makes the brain better overall in it's development.

again, a big assumption - for example, plenty of people who never crawled as babies do just fine with their brains, as well or better than people who did crawl; and then there are cases of just the opposite; also, people who were born without a corpus collosum seem to due pretty much just as well without one in terms of brain function - it's one of those surprising things that gets noted in a neuroanatomy lecture by the prof, because you would think it would result in major functional deficit, which it does not; also, a lot of the crossover connections occur in the spinal cord, not just in the mid-brain so it's not all about corpus collosum (I am a a bit rusty on my neuro anat, to be sure, so I would have to go look up the exact pathways that do this)

People working in the field of proprioception and neuromuscular things will recommend if you are going to do jumping jacks to swith them up a little bit to make them more neuro friendly. Instead of the normal way of doing them, you would reverse the motions so that as the feet go out the hands come down and as the feet go in, they hands go out. This matches the bodies natural neuro patterns better.

again, this is not necessarily the case, but it does reflect the belief systems of certain schools of thought (e.g. - Bobath / NDT and PNF); and in fact, those that would recommend it are vastly in the minority, IMPE;

If you have lots of other activities that use the cross motion then doing jumping jacks once in a while is not going to "hurt you" since the connections are already made. But, it is not the most beneficial activity for really doing anything.

again, determining "benefit" is a highly subjective exercise, and is highly relative to the situation, person, etc.; so from person to person, what is benefit changes, unless you design a study where one has objectively documented outcomes based on standardized protocols (which can be quite difficult to design properly); then, you would have to compare jumping jacks to other types of activity and then see the results on pre-determined outcome measures in order to say that definitively; otherwise, it's theoretical or anecdotal at best; which is, of course, fine - research studies are one sort of useful tool, they are certainly not the end-all, be-all - but what they do enable you to do is generalize beyond one's own subjective perspective; and when dealing with subjective personal clinical experience, as long as one can provide anecdotal evidence for a variety of seemingly contradictory eventualities, then no one particular view is more valid than the other; so one can have a particular viewpoint, and one can propagate it and demonstrate how in their personal experience it is "beneficial", but to say that this viewpoint holds true across the board over another one derived in the same manner, is specious at best, and disingenuous at worst;

[Lucas]

i hate jumping jacks

id prefer to jump rope or just do a form

[taai gihk yahn]

i hate jumping jacks

Taliban-lover...

[Lucas]

man everywhere i go nowdays i find you jumping jack elitists

[David Jamieson]

Taliban-lover...

I think it goes further than that. He may very well be a full blown terrorist with his jumping jack hating ways.

I mean, it is quite clear that jumping jacks and general calisthenics are hated in those types of social groups.

even when we in the west try to reform them and shape them into the good guys, they still resist the jumping jack as demonstrated here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOTV_3ohxk

It is how you shall know them!!

[sanjuro_ronin]

If you want to maximize the time you do MA related moves, when you have a minimal of time to work out, you make the "warm-up" and intricate part of the workout by starting the prescibed moves and slowly increasing range and speed till you are doing the moves as fast and as forceful as you can.
No need for generalized warm-up UNLESS you have the time and want to do it that way.
Jumping jacks are pointless for a MA, but if you like doing them, knock yourself out biotch !

[David Jamieson]

jumping jacks and switch stepping are one of the quickest ways to raise your heart rate. At least that I have found.

Loosen the joints, raise the breath and heart rate, do your workout. That's how I do it. I don't want to blow all my energy warming up. A little goes a long way if you do the right things.

So yeah, I WILL do those jumping jacks thanks! :-)

[Lucas]

I think it goes further than that. He may very well be a full blown terrorist with his jumping jack hating ways.

I mean, it is quite clear that jumping jacks and general calisthenics are hated in those types of social groups.

even when we in the west try to reform them and shape them into the good guys, they still resist the jumping jack as demonstrated here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOTV_3ohxk

It is how you shall know them!!

every jumping jack i thwart, is an extra virgin in the afterlife for me

[sanjuro_ronin]

every jumping jack i thwart, is an extra virgin in the afterlife for me

Jumping jack virgin:

[Lucas]

ya, i 'thwarted' that one this past weekend. how are you getting a camera into my back yard desert training area?

[sanjuro_ronin]

ya, i 'thwarted' that one this past weekend. how are you getting a camera into my back yard desert training area?