Warmups for Every Class – updated June 2025

This list will be updated with new images and video so you can work out with us from home.

Begin class with respect. line up and bow together, then spread out for warmups.

Neck Stretch – Extend your arms forward and parallel with the ground, then roll your neck clockwise. You can imagine drawing the widest box possible with your nose, or you can picture each vertebra as the pivot point as you draw spirals up and down the neck. Reverse direction and rotate counter-clockwise.

Trunk Twists – Plant your feet hip-width apart, pointing forward and parallel to each other. Relax your arms and twist your trunk from side to side, letting your arms loosely wrap around you. You can lightly strike yourself, tapping on different targets as you twist.

Hikite Trunk Twists – keeping the feet in place now as you swing your hips from side to side pull the hand back to your hip as you twist it forward, using your core and arms to ring your torso out like a hand towel. Add as much speed and snap as you want, thinking about the application of this movement against an opponent.

Reach both hands up and let them draw a giant circle clockwise, hinging at your hips and locking the knees. Swing your arms down with the exhale, using the weight and momentum to accentuate the dynamic stretch in your hamstrings to the point that you’re grazing your fingertips on the floor in front of your feet. Inhale as you come up the other side, and repeat. Keep drawing circles, and maybe introduce some trunk twists as you go, increasing the spiraling motion until you are drawing figure-eights between your feet and above your head, bringing your shoulders and waist into the twisting motion. Now reverse direction and circle counter-clockwise.

Isometric stretches – Reach your hands up towards the ceiling or interlace your fingers and press the palms up, opening your shoulders and pulling your hands over your back, gazing upwards at the thumbs. Imagine someone is grabbing your wrists and pulling them upward as you move your feet into the ground.

Keeping your feet in place, grab your left wrist and bend to your right. Press left hip out as you lean away from it. Increase the stretch by crossing your right foot in front of the left, drawing a straight line across the front of your toes. Increase the stretch further by crossing your left hand in front of your right and turning your palms inward so you can interlace your fingers, stretching up again, and then leaning and pulling to the right, left hip jutting out left and the feet crossed and planted next to each other. Straighten back up and then switch sides to lean left.

Bring your palms together, interlace your fingers, and then press your palms out forward and swing them upward, pressing your palms towards the ceiling as you begin to turn to your right. Keep pressing up as you twist, and gaze up past the thumbs. Turn your hands counter-clockwise slightly to engage the shoulder and wrist. Return to center, then switch sides and spiral to the left.

Interlace the fingers, press the palms forward and swing them upwards, then back. Brace your core as you try to press your palms towards the wall behind you, bending your head up and back until you can gaze through the thumbs. Press your hips forward as a counter balance to the weight in your hands. Take care not to over, compress the lower spine, and keep your core engaged throughout this hold.

Straighten back up with the palms now pressed towards the ceiling and then hinge your hips forward, keeping your knees straight and your arms in line with your torso as you lean forward into a 90° stance. Imagine someone is standing in front of you and pulling your hands. Make your rear heavy to cement yourself in place.

Relax the arms and fold forward, letting your head hang. Imagine you were standing on a piece of rope, grab the sides of the rope on either side of your feet and use it to pull yourself deeper into the forward bend. You can grab your ankles or toes and pull yourself for real. For an added challenge. You can place the back of your hands on the ground, fingers point back towards your feet as you bend your knees and gently step onto your palms with your big toe, pressing into the hinge of your wrists. You can bend the knees to stretch each side a bit at a time, and then straighten the knees and press some weight through your big toes into the back of your hands, simultaneously.pressing your weight down as you pull back on your straightened arms, as if doing an upside down dead hang.

Knee Raises – Square yourself forward and march in place, bringing your knees as high as you can, alternating quickly between right and left.

Do another set of knee lifts, bringing the knee across your body. Try to get your knees above your belt line, imagine you are grabbing someone and pulling them into each knee.

Side Lunges – From a natural stance, step your right to your right and reach your left hand to your foot, taking a bit of a lunge. Step back to neutral, then step out to the left and lunge that way. Alternate from side to side as quickly as possible. You can experiment with the angle of the feet to feel the stretch on the inside of the thigh or the psoas muscle.

Leg Stretch – Plant your feet wide and bend the right knee forward, squatting down towards your right foot. You can place your hands over your knees, lengthening your left leg and feeling the stretch in your inner thigh. Try to keep the bottom of your feet planted on the ground pointing forward, and push into the blade of the left foot and pulling the toes back towards you to stretch the ankle. If you haven’t worked up to this very deep, you don’t have to bring your seat down, or you can turn your right knee out to open the hips and sink deeper. Switch sides.

Cossack Squat – Return to the leg stretch, turning your right foot and knee outward to sink deeper into the stretch. Let your right heel relax and come down towards the ground. Using your left heel as a fulcrum, roll your foot to point upwards, pushing out the heel and pulling the toes back towards you. Switch sides.

45 Degree Cossack Squat – For the last round, either place your hands on the ground in front of you or grasp your feet or ankles, hinging the hips 45 degrees forward towards your extended leg. You can roll the extended foot on the heel forward as you straighten the leg and lean into the stretch. You can press your elbow into the inside thigh of your bent leg, to open the hip more.

Squats – Plant your feet hip with the part and bring your hands up either in a defensive posture or touched behind the ears. Hinge at the knees and hips, keeping your back straight as you squat ten times. Bring the feet together and do 10 more.

Wide Squats – Place your feet wider than hip width and bend your knees, coming into a low squat, squeeze your glutes and do mini squats, bringing your butt up and down 6 to 8 inches. You can turn down the difficulty with a wider stance and turning the toes outward.

Jumping – Bring your feet close together and begin jumping on the balls of your feet. You can add a slight twist at the hips, turning your heels side to side. This can be very beneficial for bone health. You can add a little kick conditioning by landing harder on the balls of your feet. Continue for one minute.

Jumping Jacks – Do classic jumping jacks, or with each jump practice either a strike or bringing your hands up into a defensive move. Let the wrists cross and imagine catching an arm. Strike one hand with another, conditioning your striking surfaces with each jump. This looks like clapping, but you can work the palm heel, shuto, ridge hand, and even jamming your fingers into the other palm. Continue for one minute.

Warrior One – Step the left foot forward into a deep stance, and your left knee directly over the ankle, press, your right heel down and back, straightening your leg. Twist your hips to your left, squaring the hips and shoulders straightforward. Raise the hands up into the air and reach for the ceiling, or bring your hands to your hips or let them hang at your side.

Pushup Series

Jump back into a very wide stance, feet, hips and shoulders pointing forward. Hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the ground and place your hands on the ground slightly in front of your shoulders, rolling onto the knife edge of your hands.

Scoop Pushups – Straighten the legs and grip the ground with your whole feet as you dive your head toward your hands. As the top of your head meets your hands, scoop yourself forward, looking up. Let your back bend slightly, and when your rib cage meets your hands, push your torso up and then push back, resuming your wide legged forward bend you started with. Do 30 reps.

In between each set of push-ups, we will do one of three split stretches. Do whichever one (or combination thereof) of the following:

Splits Stretch A – Keeping your feet very wide, turn your feet, hips, and shoulders to the left, coming in to the deepest comfortable side split you can with the top of your rear leg on the ground. You can hold this, or you can reach your right hand out and post on it, then gently drop your right hip forward, and focus on the lengthening of the hip flexors. Do both sides.

30x knuckle pushups – Come back to the wide-legged pushup stance, come onto your fists, maintaining good alignment, bracing the wrist and squeezing the thumb to reinforce. Do 30 pushups. Move your hands forward to increase difficulty, or back to make it easier.

Splits Stretch B – Turn your feet, hips and shoulders to the left, staying on both feet, but doing as deep a stance as possible, straightening the rear leg, and then the front. You can drop head and lean forward and to the left, or even incorporate a slight twist to the left.

30x finger pushups – Resume the pushup position on your palms and press your fingers into the ground, raising your palms up until your straight thumb and fingers (except the pinky) are fully engaged and supporting your weight. Do 10 push-ups, then lift the ring fingers for 10 more, then lift the middle finger for 10 more on just the thumb and index finger.

Splits Stretch C – Taking your wide stance, but keeping your feet hips and shoulder, squared forward, try to open your feet as wide as you can and lean your upper body forward as if to attempt a pancake splits. Let your butt get heavy and pull against the weight of your upper body. Squeeze your quadriceps for a few seconds and relax them a few times, then gently try to widen the feet and deep in the stretch. If you want, you can reach to the opposite foot and twist that way.

30x Diamond Pushups – Back in your push-up position, bring your thumb and index fingers together, and do 30 diamond push-ups. Focus on the flexion in your triceps and chest.

Core Series

Butterfly Kicks – Raise the hands straight up, lifting your shoulders, slightly off the ground. Brace your core and lift both feet in the air. Keeping your legs as straight as you can, kick your feet as if you are swimming, keeping your heels off the ground. You can drop your chin and look down at your feet as you kick.

Scissor Kicks – Keeping your feet off the ground, now scissor your legs so you’re right foot passes over your left foot then switch to leftover right, repeat.

Crunches – Bring your hands gently behind or to the sides of your head and brace your core, bring your legs to 90 degrees with your knees over your hips. Do a set of crunches of your choice, such as straight crunches, bicycle crunches, or do them together: straight, right elbow to left knee, straight, left elbow to right knee, and so on.

Neck exercise 1 – Relax from your crunches, then lift your head and neck only off the ground. Each count look up at the wall behind you, then down at the wall past your feet. Repeat 10 times.

Neck exercise 2 – Keeping your head off the ground, bend the neck first to the right and then the left, touching your ear to the shoulder. Repeat 10 times each side.

Roll to your stomach – Almost done!

Back Extensions – Lay face down, bend the elbows out and place the hands in front of forehead palms down. Keeping the toes or top of the feet glued to the ground, life the chest with an inhale and take a slight backbend, squeezing the scapulae together. Exhale back down. Repeat 10 times.

Keep this position and extend the arm in front of you like Superman, then do 10 more back bends, this time lift both arms and legs with each inhale, relax them down with the exhale.

Child’s Pose – Bring your big toes together and bend the knees, pointing them wide. Set your rear back into your heels and reach your hands forward, lowering your hips, chest, and head towards the ground.

Meditation – Come up to seiza position, and get as comfortable as you can. Close or heavily lid your eyes and focus on the sensation of your breath for the next few minutes, forgetting that you have anything else to think about than the feeling of your breath flowing in and out of your nostrils.

Bow out and go get some water.

Warm-up (1st half) – updated 6/18/2011

1. Begin class with respect. Bow together.

2. Neck Stretch – Forward, sides, and back – rotating.

3. Loosen Arms – Swing arms out and in parallel to ground at shoulder height.

4. Twist – Standing forward feet parallel – twist at waist to right then left gently.

5. Loosen Shoulders – Make circles with arms, reaching up (inhale) then (exhale) on down stroke.

6. Breathing exercise – in sitting position (Seiza), ankles tucked under with knees bent forward. Hands on hips. Focus on breath pushing out from “Tanden area” or belly pressing against the obi on exhale.

8. Standing legs at shoulder width – try to touch left foot, then right foot.

9. Yoga pose #1 – Right knuckles on ground, left hand straight up, right leg straight with right leg supporting body weight. Switch to opposite position.

10. Knee circles – with feet side-by-side hand on knees, circle clockwise 10 revolutions, then reverse for 10 revolutions.

11. Reach for the Sky – Both hands reach high as possible, then lean left, then lean right.

12. Jumping Jacks – 2 minutes

13. Yoga pose #2 – Warrior pose, hands on hips left forward with knee bend no more than right angle. Switch to right forward.

14. Side Kick stretch – Left leg straight, toes back towards body, right leg bent arch left arm toward right side. then, switch to other leg.

15. Foot pointed up stretch – with left leg straight with toes pointed up stretch again. Then switch to other leg.

16. 45 leg stretch – left leg straight, point body towards middle grabbing ankles with hands left hand to left foot. etc.

17. Yoga pose #3a (Pigeon) – kneeling with left leg bent at 45 under body. Right leg straight back with toes pointed straight back. Hand under shoulder push body up with chin pointing up. Yoga #3b – move hands forward as far as you can reach keeping elbows off the ground. Switch to opposite Yoga position #3a and #3b other leg.

18. Hurdler’s Stretch – Left leg straight out, Right leg bent with right foot touching left inside knee. Left hand grabbing left foot.

19. Splits – legs spread at close to 180 degrees. Stretch with hands towards left and right legs. Bend body forward with goal to touch head to ground. 2nd part move each legs closer towards 180 degrees and re-stretch.

20. Both soles of feet touching – stretch forward, press knees toward ground. 2nd part move feet forward a few inches, then stretch forward again with chin going pass feet.

21. Trunk twist – while sitting, legs straight out in front, place right leg over left knee bent. Then twist body towards right. Switch to opposite position.

22. Yoga pose #4 – Child’s pose – toes pointed toward each other knees bent, hands together pushing on ground.

23. Push-ups – 30 knuckle push-up on first two knuckles. Legs Straight (Students alternate sets of 10 requested by Sensei).

Update: 11/3/2021 – Shuto 30 / Fists 30/ Fingers 30/ Hands together 30 = 120

later… Plank style – 40, Plank 20 seconds, 10, Plank 20 seconds, 10, Plank 20 seconds, 10 = 70

later … Plank Style – 40, Plank 20 seconds, 10, Plank 20 seconds, 10, Planks seconds, Plank 10 seconds, drop down 10 seconds = 60. Total for the session 250.

25. Four Finger push-ups – 10 reps.

36. Roll over on stomach. With legs straight out, push up with hands and chin high toward ceiling – hold for Sensei. 3 reps.

37. Lumbar-ups – back of hands on forehead, lift head up leaving legs and lower body on ground. 10 reps, hold last count for Sensei.

38. Porpoise-ups – hands to sides, lift legs and hand up 10 reps, hold last count for Sensei.

39. Yoga pose #4 – child’s pose.

40. Break for water.

Second half – exercise vary.

(under construction)

• Shoulder kicks, Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Straight leg kicks, Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Crescent kicks – outside/in, Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Crescent kinks – inside/out, Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Straight leg right kicks – angle out towards right – Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Straight leg left kicks – angle out towards left – Right 10 reps & Left 10 reps.

• Side swing kicks – using “Yoko geri” kick, swing right leg out to right then left. 10 reps. each leg.

• Squats – holding hand up, 30 reps.

• Shovel push-ups 30 reps.

• Stretch splits – Left then Right

• Close hand push-ups 30 reps.

Block/Strike/Kick/Tactics workouts – exercises vary.

(under construction)

Alternate Exercise – Occasionally the Sensei adds an excercise. Listed below are additional exercises:

• • Cleansing Breath – Hand starting at the “Tanden” area (middle section). Inhale as the cupped hands rise above the head and exhale as the hand desend to the “Tanden” of stomach area.

Cool down

• Stretch on your own – about 3 minutes.

• Yoga pose #5 – Downward facing dog. 1st on balls of the feet. 2nd on heels.

• Yoga pose #6 – Lunge position. Left leg forward to chest, right leg back. Hands push shoulders up and head pointing up to the sky. Switch to Right leg.

• Push-ups – 30 knuckle push-ups.

• Plank – 1st, arms straight – hold for Sensei, 2nd arms bend – hold for Sensei

• • Class Ends with respect. Line-up, bow together.