This is the second in the series of posts about doing karate when you’re over 30. Over the next two blogs we’ll concentrate on what is the most important part of any karate routine: warm-up and stretching. Without doing both activities to the correct level, adults will quickly find themselves injured, disheartened and quitting. That is why they are part of every class that Red Tiger teach and take up a good proportion of the time of each one. This week is warm-up. A BIG thanks to my son, Isaac for getting the videos and images for this blog and next

Health and Safety

Speak to your GP first if you have not exercised for some time, or if you have medical conditions or concerns. Make sure your activity and its intensity are appropriate for your fitness. Also, listen to your own body. If something really hurts when doing it, then don’t do it. If you are members of the club, speak to your Sensei if you have any questions about a specific activity.

Visit this link from the NHS for exercise advice for adults: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/

If you come to class with a light injury, inform your Instructor, adjust your routine accordingly, even do a different exercise to the one asked for, e.g. do squats if you can’t do press-ups because of an elbow injury.

Recently, I had Covid, and although all my symptoms had gone, I still felt puffed out after some parts of classes. Yes, you are supposed to have heavy breathing at times, but not like this. If you have also had Covid and still have some resultant issues, listen to your body. Don’t do what I did at Senior Class last week and try to keep going, which resulted in me having a coughing fit and gasping for air. Listen to your body. The same goes with any injury or illness you may have. Speak to a specialist if you have any questions or need advice.

The Warm-up

Doing a warm-up before exercise helps get your body ready for aerobic activity. It gradually prepares your cardiovascular system (heart, arteries, blood, etc.) by raising your body temperature and increasing blood flow to your muscles. Doing an adequate warm-up may help to reduce injury and help muscle recovery, thus reducing soreness.

A warm-up is not fitness training, although one may merge into another. It’s necessary before stretching, or executing any of the other parts of a karate class syllabus, e.g. kihon, kata and kumite.

OK, so I have hopefully impressed on you the importance of warming up. Ideally, it should leave you lightly sweating and slightly out of breath.

Types of Warm-up

Although there are many ways to warm up, we’ll focus on just three. Two you’ll see in a karate class, and one is for when you train alone.

Quick and Dirty

Just about adequate and certainly not a complete method, is the quick and dirty. This should only be used when time is short, or you don’t intend to do intensive exercise following it, or if you are preparing for a more intensive warm-up. Yes, a warm-up for a warm-up! Here is my routine. Perform each of the following for 10-15 seconds each. With the standing exercises, try to keep your heels off the floor if possible.

• Jump up and down on the spot (15-30 cm off the ground).

• Jump side to side: 5-10 cm off the ground as if you were jumping out of the way of something.

• One leg forward: With one leg one pace ahead of the other (fighting stance, with arms as appropriate), lightly jump forward, using your back foot to push off. Land on the ball of your front foot. Then, using your front leg, push back and land on the ball of your back leg. Each jump should only move you backwards and forwards 30 cm and no higher than 5 cm. Repeat continuously. Switch to have your other leg forward after 10-15 seconds.

• Star jumps.

• Star jumps to the corners: The same as the last exercise, except each time you raise your arms, jump to face one of the front corners of the room. Then arms down, face the centre, arms up and face the other front corner.

• Star jumps with legs front and back: Same as normal star jumps, except your feet move forwards and backwards in an on-the-spot striding motion.

• Squats: There are many squat-based exercises, so here are just a few. You don’t have to do them all in every warm-up. Keep your heels on the floor for these.

  • Normal squats: With feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees and allow your body to drop so that your bottom reaches the level of your knees if possible, then come back up. Go lower and/or faster for more intensity.

  • Pulsing squats: Start in the lower position of normal squats, trying to keep your heels down. Instead of rising to a standing position, pulse in the squat, coming up about 5 cm each time.

  • Jumping squats: As normal squats, except jump into the air 15-30 cm when coming up each time. This is quite intensive, and you should land on the balls of your feet before lowering your heels for the squat. Jump higher for more intensity.

• Sit-ups: Do your best to come from the lying position to an upright position. Add a couple of punches at the top of each move for variety. You can do the mini version of this called crunches. This is where you curl yourself forward, taking your shoulders off the floor, and quickly pull yourself towards your knees and back again rhythmically. For more intensity, lift your feet off the floor so that they are higher than your bottom, and try the crunches again.

• Press-ups: Go from straight arms to at least a 90-degree bend at the elbows if you can whilst keeping your back straight. Increase the width between your hands for more intensity.

• Leg raises: Laying fully flat on your back, lift both legs straight up, or as close as you can get. If it’s uncomfortable for your back, make a triangle out of your fingers (with both index fingers and both thumbs touching) and place in the small of your back. An alternative way to do this is to raise and lower each leg alternately in a walking fashion.

• Leg scissors: Instead of raising your legs, perform a scissor action whilst keeping your feet 5 cm above the floor, i.e. from feet together, separate your legs so that they are almost in a box split (see Stretching), then bring them back to feet together.

• Plank: With either straight arms or elbows down on the floor, keep your body in a straight line with your feet toes down. Increase the length of time you do this exercise to 30 seconds.

• Windmills: Swinging your arms forwards or backwards in circles to either side at a rate of one to two per second. You can do this for just your shoulders for a more specific warm-up or stretch.

You should be a little warmer now and perhaps ready for…

HIIT (high-intensity interval training)

Although not necessary for a warm-up, it does ensure you are sweating and your cardiovascular system is fully engaged. The most popular HIIT used in the club is Tabata. Normally this is 20 seconds of fast-paced exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This is repeated until eight cycles of fast-paced exercise have been completed. Any of the previous warm-up exercises can be used but should be performed more vigorously. You don’t have to do the same exercise for each cycle and often people mix it up. A good addition here is skipping, which can be used for one or more cycles, or even alternating using four different other exercises. There are many phone apps available to do Tabata.

By now you should be quite sweaty and breathing heavily.

Own Pace

Often the temptation in class is to try and keep up with the younger and/or more experienced students. If you can keep up, great! Show them that the oldies have some ability. If not, don’t. Do it at your own pace. This warm-up is for you to get your body ready, not for you to get theirs ready.

If you have exercise equipment at home or use the gym, hopefully you warm up and stretch before using it. When I was using the gym, my warm-up of choice was the cross trainer for 15 minutes so that arms and legs were equally warm before getting down to the tough stuff. It also counted as cardio fitness training. Two birds with one stone! If you have access to equipment or the gym, then you can gradually increase your performance ready for classes in the future. If you don’t, you may have noticed that all of the warm-ups, except skipping, require no equipment. This is callisthenics exercise, which can be done anywhere - the kitchen, the lounge, or dining room. During lockdown, people on Zoom trained anywhere they had space.

That’s it for the warm-up. Checkout the next blog in the series for stretching

Other Posts in this series

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: This Page
Part 3: Stretching
Part 4: Kihon and Combinations
Part 5: Kata – How to be coordinated when you’re not.
Part 6: Kumite – Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Part 7: Fitness – There is nothing like being karate fit