Warm Ups: We always start our Combat Yoga Fitness program with warm ups, in order to generate core heat and loosen the muscles and joints up, which helps avoid unnecessary injury. By warming up, it will ensure the release of synovial fluid, which brings lubrication to the joints.
The only exception to not warming up is if you‟re experiencing the onset of an anxiety or panic attack, in which case, you would immediately go into a relaxation and meditation pose.
Our first warm up begins with a simple posture. Stand tall in “Mountain”
pose . Shoulders are drawn up, back and down. The spine is elongated and the crown is raised. The feet are slightly apart with toes pointing straight ahead. You should feel strong and planted. Take a deep breath through the nose and exhale. You feel focused and are ready to proceed.
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Placing both hands on your stomach, you will make clockwise circles while rubbing the abdominal area. You will then reverse the direction and make counterclockwise circles.
You will then rub the left arm several times starting from the shoulder to the wrist, then back up again. Repeat same process for the right arm.
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Making two small fists, you will place them in the kidney area and rub in a clockwise motion, then reverse direction.
Using the index and middle finger, you will now massage the base of the skull.
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Using the index and middle finger, now proceed to massage the temples using a clockwise motion, then reversing direction.
Relaxing your jaw muscles and opening it slightly, you will now drop your fingers down to where the upper and lower jaw meet and massage it using a clockwise motion, then reversing the direction.
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Rubbing both hands together and generating heat, place the palms gently on your face over your eyes, taking a deep breath, then exhaling through the nose.
Dropping the hands back down to the sides, step back into Mountain pose.
Take a few breaths here and feel the good energy around you, as you stand very tall, feeling calm and relaxed.
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Keeping the back flat and head and chin up, squat down and cup your knees.
Gently make knee rotations (clockwise and counterclockwise).
If you have issues with the knees, you might not be able to do this, which is fine. Instead, stand in Mountain pose and take a few breaths. You should not feel any pain when doing knee rotations. Stop if you do.
Stepping back into Mountain pose, extend both arms out to the side, making small arm circles in a clockwise motion, then reversing direction.
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Next are lateral bends. Leaning to one side, pull one arm up, while lowering the other arm down. We always do both sides!
Stepping back in Mountain pose once again, extend both arms out to the sides and crisscross them together, alternating them so that the hand on top moves to the bottom, then to the top again. The head looks straight ahead.
The knees can be slightly bent. The motion here is adduction, moving towards the midline of the body. See below.
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This concludes our segment on warm ups. We will now proceed to the combat yoga fitness poses.
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Copyright 2009 by Cliff C. Smith.
Combat Yoga Fitness
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Combat Yoga Fitness Poses