knee circles and stretches to avoid

[morgan]

In my jujitsu class the traditional warm-up involves sitting down and pulling the foot in circles to 'loosen' up the ankle, followed by knee circles. (Knee circles are where you stand with feet together and try to move the knees in a circular motion first one way, then the other.)

My problem is this: both of these exercises put a lot of pressure on joints to move in ways they're not supposed to go.

I've read enough to know that you shouldn't strech ligaments and tendons. Stretching joints like this increases risk of injury.

I've brought this up to the instructor and he is open to hear what I have to say. But I don't want to come to him and say "xyz is bad you need to stop it." I need to be able to show him research and articles which demonstrate the dangers of this kind of activity. Which is what I need you for. Can anyone here point me towards scholarly articles and research about these motions and injuries to knee and ankle joints? Cheers.

[Matt Z]

I don't know about knees and ankles, but I've heard neck rotation isn't good.

PS.) I suppose you could limit stress on joints simply by making smaller circles.

[morgan]

yeah we do neck rotations too. Where have you heard they're bad?

[Matt Z]

I forget ... it was a long time ago. I think it might have been school gym class. The teacher used to have us do them in elementary school, but we didn't do them in middle or high school.