Before we start talking about the wonders of doing exercise in the morning, in particular HIIT, I’d like to say that this article does not specifically speak about karate. If you are still interested, keep on reading. If what you are looking for is something that is karate-specific, check out some of my other articles such as this review of one of Choki Motobu’s books, or this other article about my opinion on an applicative aspect of the katas of karate.
Exercise in the morning? I do that already
Of course, exercise in the morning is a good way of training, and I do train in the middle of the morning or to finish it. However, here I am talking about something slightly different. What I have found out that helps me to be full of energy and to have a fantastic day is exercise in the first 45 minutes that I am awake. In order to do that, I have implemented HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) in my waking up routine.
What exercise in those 45 minutes is about is short workouts that produce the maximum effect, getting the body moving, blood flowing and clearing our minds. I said before that this article is not about karate specifically, and that’s true. If karate is your sword and how you use it, physical exercise and getting your body rolling, just after you wake up is the sharpening of that sword every single day, right after you wake up.
So…David, what do you do when you wake up?
I’m happy that you ask me that question. The way I approach this exercise in the morning, right after I wake up, is through two HIIT workouts, 5 minutes each, making it a total of 10 minutes. If you add another 5 minutes of a light warm up and some stretching, that means that if one gets the hang of it, investing only 15 minutes each morning, you can make sure that from the start you are getting on top of things, your body ready to go and move the way you ask it to move.
Next I will tell you about my two HIIT workouts in detail, as well as how to replicate them and adapt them to your requirements. The workouts consist of 5 exercises each, which are detailed below. The idea is to perform the exercise for 15 seconds as intense and hard as you can, to then rest another 15 seconds. If you do that with all 5 exercises, you will have made one round of 2 minutes and a half. If you perform two rounds you will have finished the workout.
HIIT Workout 1: CARDIO
The goal of this workout is to push the body into the work, and make it move some. You can adapt it to your space and skill requirements, for example I substitute the burpees with mountain climbers many days. If you want to see what each exercise is like, I have included links in each bullet point, after a quick YouTube search. They show in just a few seconds how to perform the exercises. What is most important here is that the exercises are dynamic and not static and slow.
HIIT Workout 2: ABS
- Hip Overs
- Russian Twist
- Alternating Knee-Ins
- Sit-Up to Foot
- Plank Ups
This workout I take directly from Anabolic Aliens’s video, which I found really useful, so cheers to them. For me, working the abs in those first minutes of my day helps me to maintain a better posture throughout the day, as well as stretching and warming up the back before I do the workout, which gets me added benefits.
And to wrap up…
This is my proposal, based on what I do and use to start my day in the best possible way. Within the different parts of my routine to wake up, exercise really has a special place. In my case I have found that HIIT is what helps me the most, but you can do any exercise workout that you want, or modify the ones provided here. The most important thing is to move in those first 45 minutes of your day!
If you liked this article, let me know in the different social media, leaving a comment on this article or sending me a message on Tell me something. You can also check out the review I wroke about Meditations on Violence.