Since November of 2023, I’ve been doing morning warm-ups. In the last six months, I’ve done them almost every morning. If you can do them, I think they’re helpful, especially if you’re over 40.
Even though they’re most helpful for older people, I got the idea by watching my kid’s judo class. (Incidentally, if you want to try judo as a kid or adult, Tohuku is a great club for that. They’re technically solid but also good at teaching people with differing levels of physical ability.) The first 15-20 minutes of their 1.5 hour classes are all warm-ups, many of them judo-specific, but they include classics like jumping jacks and arm circles.
At some point in my thirties, I unconsciously drifted toward “measurable” exercises: Running durations and distances, pull-up reps, weights lifted. A couple of years ago, I hurt my back during a stressful move and could not do a lot of these.
It was frustrating to not be able to sit up at a desk without struggling, then to have trouble with my legs as a result of them compensating for my back and from sometimes standing all day. Also, possibly due to non-injury-related aging, sometimes I’d move suddenly and my ankle would hurt.
Why? When I went to physical therapy, I realized that many parts of my body were just not used very often.
I was reminded of a plumber telling me that valves need to be exercised to continue working. That is, occasionally opened and closed so they don’t drift toward a state in which they become stuck and can’t do that easily or at all.
This is different from how I used to understand exercise as a practice to improve the performance of some function. For the avoidance of injury, the plumbing understanding of exercise is more useful. I’ve found my body is less surprised throughout the day, especially if it’s a mostly sedentary day, if I make sure that most of it gets some “juice” in advance.
So, I started going what I think of as “junior calisthenics.” I’ve found it well worth the time to do them either when I get out of bed or before breakfast or before and after breakfast if I split them up. In addition to protecting myself from a muscle not being ready for something during the day, sitting down to work with a little blood flowing feels better than going in cold. If I worked out the day before (in the other sense of “exercise” for performance), the warm-ups really help with unstiffening. For whatever reason, I also feel mentally ready for stuff, even if that stuff is entirely non-physical.
Here’s the exercises I do in the mornings. You probably want something different that fits your specific body situation. You just need to cover a lot of body parts and avoid picking exercises so challenging that you dread them.
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- Drinky bird
- Slowly bow 90 degrees while keeping your back straight and your legs straight. I do 5 of these.
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- Jumping jacks
- This will impact your ankles and knees, so move it to later in the sequence if those parts don’t feel ready. I do 10.
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- Windmills
- Stand with your feet wider than shoulder width, then put your arms out to the side and keep them straight. Rotate your hips so that a hand touches a foot on the other side. Then, do the same with the other hand. 10 pairs of reps.
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- Side stretches
- Squat down, then stretch one leg out to the side so that it’s straight while the other leg is still bent. Reach with your hands to the floor space in between your legs. Then, switch legs and the reach. 10 pairs.
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- Judo push-ups
- These are also called hindu push-ups. They cover a lot of the body in one go. There is a legend that the world-dominating Indian wrestler the Great Gama did 3000 of these a day. I like to do 10.
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- Fingertip push-ups
- These are push-ups, except that you do them on tented fingers. I think these may only be useful if you’re trying to build grip strength (I’m nterested because I returned to judo a few months ago), but they might also help for typing? I just do 3 of these.
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- Planks
- I hold a plank for a 60-count (way less than 60 actual seconds).
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- Cat/cow
- I hold each pose for a ten-count and do about 5 sets. If my back feels stiff, I do more of these.
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- Small arm circles
- Hold your arms out to the sides, then make small circular motions with your hands, keeping your arms straight. 10 circles in one direction and 10 in the other.
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- Large arm circles
- These are like the small arm circles, except large.
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- Head circles
- Slowly roll your head around in a circle to stretch your neck. 10 times clockwise, then 10 times counterclockwise. It can sound surprisingly crunchy.
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- Side breakfalls
- This is the junior calisthenic that feels most like traditional exercise because lying down and standing back up is tiring. It’s a judo technique, but I like it as regular-life technique because being prepared for impact is comforting. You can learn this on your own if you’re interested (back the linked video up to the beginning and turn on translations), but you can also just substitute lying down on the floor and getting yourself back to standing. This will exercise your ankles, legs, and core. I do 10 of these, 5 on each side.
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- Zenpo kaiten
- This is another judo thing, the forward rolling breakfall. I do it partly because I’ve cut down to one cup of coffee a day, which helps with my sleep, and this really wakes me up. Also, getting your body to negotiate momentum and to be upside down for a bit makes me feel extra prepared. You can substitute with the forward somersault or skip it entirely. I just do one on each side. Oh, also, make sure you have enough floor space before you do it.
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- Bridges
- Here, I do a judo variation in which I bridge at an angle toward one shoulder or another, then immediately shrimp (curl up, connecting knee and elbow — sorry, couldn’t find a video in which it was done correctly), but the regular version is going to warm up your back and core just as well. I do 10.
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- Hip twists
- Stand with your hands up framing your face. Rotate your hip so that you face sideways, keeping your hands framing your face. Then rotate in the other direction. I do 10. (If you are a judo player, try to keep your shoulders aligned with your hips so that you build flexibility while building the habit of not putting yourself in a vulnerable position.)
Lately, I’ve enjoyed doing these in random order. Here is a bare bones list shuffling app that I use for this. (You can clear everything in the url after the # if you want to start fresh with your own list.) I hit “Shuffle deck”, then “Draw next card” before each exercise, sometimes ignoring what I get because it would be straining.
Give it a shot if you’re in a condition to do so! As a result of doing the junior calisthenics (and the practice of picking a list of tasks to shoot for that day), I’ve felt prepared for each day, which is a good feeling.