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Thomas Kurz – Flexibility Express

So, I’m earnestly back into Karate training and am loving it!

One of the issues I have at present is the inability to perform jordan kicks i.e kicks to the head. I simply do not have the flexibility to lift my leg that high.

Additionally I also have problems with a shortened hip flexor as evidenced in my iliopsoas post.

I’m pleased to report back that it seems to have healed. The pain has subsided, however I do still feel a bit of discomfort when kicking so have to stay light on the kicks for the time being.

It is clear that I have issues with flexibility & mobility and naturally, me being me, I always try to find a solution.

Programs on flexibility are a dime a dozen and all one has to do is a quick you-tube search and you’ll find tonnes of clips on flexibility and specifically how to do the splits.

The problem is that the majority of them are for the spring chickens aka, the young and supple. I’m slowly approaching 40 and what works for the juniors certainly won’t work for me, unless off course I want a pre-mature hip replacement!

I need something tailored for the more …ummm “mature”.

Let’s face it, trying to learn to do the splits towards your 40’s is a lot different to trying to learn in your teenage years.

Introducing Thomas Kurz

After days of dedicated research(because I’m really serious about this) I eventually found a program that I was confident would get me to achieving my flexibility goal i.e being able to perform the splits.

… as an aside, I have a vision of me in my 70’s easily slipping into the splits as my Zimmerframed collegues look on in disbelief!

I intend to document my progress towards achieving splits using Thomas Kurz’s Flexibility Express, so if that’s something you’d be interested in, stay tuned. In the meantime I’ll give a quick review of the program …

Flexibility Express review

Flexibility express is a DVD that I thought was pretty well organized. Thomas presented the program very well in nice easy language starting from theory to the practical exercises. I was really impressed with his functional flexibility and strength in the DVD. It’s given me a target to aim for and something to aspire to (he’s actually hitting his 60’s).

The beginning of the program starts off with some test exercises you can use to determine your current flexibility level. The exercises will help you see where you need to focus your attention.

Personally, I was pleased with my results on the evaluation tests. All indications are that I am capable of doing the splits i.e I have the mobility requirements. It’ll just be a matter of doing the stretching exercises.

Hopefully you won’t have any issues when you try out the exercises. Even if you do, Thomas has some remedies towards the end of the DVD which will help you overcome these.

Mr. Kurz bases his program on Olympic lifters. I didn’t know this, but apparently Olympic lifters are second only to gymnasts when it comes to flexibility. His program on getting to do the splits is based on progressively deeper and wider squats. This works well for me as I was deep into the 5×5 Stronglifts program which is based on squats so this was another reason why his program resonated me.

One of the biggest benefits of the Flexibility Express program is that in addition to improving your flexibility it also develops your strength. I was especially impressed with the way Thomas stands up directly from a split while carrying a kettlebell.

Peerrrty impressive if your ask me!

I really love  Thomas Kurz’s approach to improving flexibility and sincerely believe this is the best way to quickly get to being able to do the splits  and develop the required kicking power for any martial art. It’s certainly something I’ll be deep into as I continue my journey.

So, that’s it for now. Gotta get back to work. Studying everything I can on Bruce Lee, as I find his life story fascinating. This is for a different project, however, if there’s enough interest, I will do a couple of posts on my findings …