How to do a Kip-Up or Kick-Up?

How to do a Kip-Up or Kick-Up?

The kip-up movement is one you must have noticed in nearly every martial arts movie. It involves getting up from the ground by kicking the legs forward in the air. You might also learn this skill if you joined any gymnastic or MMA class near your home.

Some of the renowned celebrities like Bruce Lee, Akshay Kumar, Jackie Chan, and Jason Statham have performed the kick-up in their movies and during tournaments. It seems like a natural movement because they show it as if it's easy to do and a part of their fighting style.

It can be easy to learn if you don’t give up easily, and then you can show it off to your friends and family members or just learn it as a handy fighting skill, especially during self-defense.

5 Steps to Learn a Kip-up or Kick-up

Step 1: Stretching and Warm Up

The first step before learning any new bodyweight exercise is warm-up and stretching. It is especially important when you are going to engage the relaxed muscles and trying to do something new.

So, before you wonder about how to do a kip up, you should do a few jumping jacks, sprints, shoulder rotations, arm rotations, neck and back bends, and bodyweight squats. The repetitions should be enough to feel your muscles activated, but not exhaust you, as you need to do a movement that will require strength.

Step 2: Beginner Posture

After you finish the warm-up, it is necessary to sit down on the ground with your arms crossing your legs and then roll backwards. Once you roll ten times on the ground, you should come back to the original sitting posture. Complete at least three sets of this movement.

Step 3: Lying Down Knee Tuck

The next bodyweight movement to learn is a kip up, which involves lying down flat on the ground and then folding your legs so that your knees touch your chest. Keep practicing this movement until you can bend back and complete the leg bends properly and grip your legs with your arms.

Step 4: Pushing the Legs Upwards

The lying knee tuck involves crossing your arms around your legs once they reach the chest. Now, you have to release the legs and push them upwards. Put your hands behind your head while doing this to give an additional boost to getting up from the ground.

Step 5: Finished

Once you start pushing the legs upwards while lying on the ground with your hands behind your head to give an additional boost for the kip up, the next part involves landing the feet inwards and again coming back to the original sitting posture.

Bonus Step 6: Keep Practicing

Although the kip-up movement is clear in the above steps, it is necessary to keep practicing until you finally land on your legs and sit back in the original posture. Once you finish this kip for beginners, the next one involves a hands-free kip-up. As the name suggests, it involves doing the kip-up without using assistance from the hands for the push. Most people either keep their hands on the side or on their thighs once they get the hang of the kip-up motion.

Tips to Improve the Kip Up

1. Keep practicing until you can avoid bending extremely forward or backward and land on your toes
2. Make your body more flexible with stretching exercises, such as front and back bends
3. Practice bodyweight exercises to enhance body strength, especially in your arms and legs
4. Increase your stamina with bodyweight strength and cardio training workouts
5. Lose your excess weight to improve the kip up and increase stamina

Things to Keep in Mind While Doing a Kip Up

1. You can ask someone to hold your hand to assist you with the kip-up up but you should keep the minimum dependence on it.
2. Avoid sudden movements while doing the kip up to prevent injury to the head, legs, feet, or back
3. Always complete a warm-up and stretching routine before doing any workout or learning a new bodyweight movement.
4. Learn under the guidance of a personal fitness trainer to learn the kip up faster and avoid injury.
5. Don’t keep practicing once you get exhausted, or ask your fitness trainer to know your learning limits.

Conclusion

The kip-up is a fantastic movement for martial artists, dancers, gymnasts, and other athletes. It helps to prevent breakage in the flow while fighting and keeps the opponents on their toes. If learned properly, you can even use it can prove effective during self-defense.

But the question often comes to mind, “How to do a kip-up?” It’s simple if you learn it step by step, beginning with sitting or lying on the ground and then pushing your legs upwards until they fold and land on the ground while you are in a seated posture.

You can learn the kip up easily under the guidance of a personal or online fitness trainer. The coach will give you the necessary tips to learn the kip-up faster without facing critical injury. Comment kip up or kick up to begin your online fitness classes.