In this 10‑minute YouTube session, instructor Theresa Byrne leads a full‑body dynamic warm‑up that blends breath work, spinal rotation, hip circles, shallow squats, and a series of boxing‑style punches (jab, cross, hook, back‑fist). She emphasizes breathing as the foundation of movement, offers cues for safe spinal and shoulder mobility, and provides scaling options for those with low‑back, shoulder, or mobility concerns. The routine progresses from gentle rotations and knee kicks to increasingly rapid punch‑and‑step combos, incorporating isometric holds, high‑low foot patterns, and a final integrated combo that ties lower‑body weight shifts to upper‑body strikes. The class ends with a brief gratitude prompt, encouraging participants to acknowledge their effort and body. Throughout, the tone is upbeat, instructional, and supportive, with a sentiment of enthusiasm and encouragement.
Chapters
Hi! Good morning, good afternoon, good whatever, good day, good evening. Maybe you're doing this in the nighttime. Make sure that you've got some space if you want to do some movement with me. Less than 10 minutes and we'll get your body activated, we'll get your brain activated, we'll get you feeling good and moving your body. So let's start. Hands right here. I want you to rotate your body and punch over to the side. And breathing in, breathing out. And wherever you are in the world, Air, breath, these are the most important things. Breathing is the first thing we do when we come to the planet, and it's the last thing we do before we leave. So that's the importance of breath. All right, and you're rotating, you're punching. If you've done these with me, you know to put your thumb on the outside. For these, you're punching across your body, but your face is forward. A lot of times I'll have clients look to the side as they're punching. We're not punching, but I really want you to start warming up your spine, and that means crossing the midline all the way over. 4 more. 3, 2, 1. Nice. Now we're gonna do a little lower body warm-up, and I want you to think that you stepped in something gross and you're picking up your knee and you're kicking it off your foot. Now you don't have to go fast, and you don't have to go high. Just waking your body up. Waking your body up. So you're kicking forward. Knee kick. Good. 3, 2, 1. Nice! Breathing in, breathing out. Good. Now we're gonna do some core stuff and some more cross-body. So I want you to think about rotating, and if you can touch your hand to that opposite knee, great. If you can get your forearm, great. And if that's easy and you're flexible and you can cross, do that. 4 more. 3, 2, 1. Nice. All right, rotate your arms forward, and I always start with bent arms. If you've got great flexibility, good shoulder range of motion, you can always do big arms. Same thing going backwards. Breathing in and breathing out. Nice. Cross in front, and a lot of my students like to clap behind. That is entirely up to you. Warming up the body. Good. Arms go up and down. And these These are the kinds of moves that your body would love for you to do every day. These little exercises. Movement. Alright, hip circles. So rotate your hips, push out to where you feel the stretch. You do not have to go fast. In fact, you can really go slow if your low back has been bothering you. And switch directions. And again, this is just a dynamic warm-up, so there's a lot of kinds of flexibility. There's static stretching, where you just hold a stretch. Stretch. Let me talk for a second. Push out on the sides of your hips. So there's the hold stretch, which is a static stretch. Dynamic flexibility is what we're doing when we're stretching and using range of motion. There are ballistic stretches. There are so many different kinds of flexibility and stretching that we— and we often think it's just that one, right, where you just sit and hold. Not that. All right. Do you need to warm up more? Let's do a little bob. So slight bend in your knees. That's what I've got in mind for you next. I think you're gonna like it. 3 more. 2, shallow squat. And 1. So what is a shallow squat? So a full squat would be like 90 degrees. Your booty goes back and you're at 90 degrees. Make sure your knees never go in front of your toes. A deep squat would be your legs— your booty goes down really far. A shallow squat is just near the top. So you're just at the top of that range of motion. Alright, now here's what we're gonna do. One of my favorite moves is the back fist. So we're gonna go back. 2. Good. You're gonna aim like you're hitting somebody. This is all defense. Toward the face. Face. Face. Face. 4, 3, 2, 1. Other side. 3, 2, 1. So same thing, you're hitting with the back of your fist over and over. You're making sure to use your muscles to stop the motion. You don't just throw your arm out and hope that your joints stop it. You want to use your muscles. Boom! Isometrics. 3, 2, 1. Now we're gonna switch each side. Punch, punch, back fist, back fist, back fist, back fist. And I love these because you're using a variety of different muscles. You're using your shoulder muscles, using your biceps, you're using your triceps. Now, if we were hitting these with a bag, we would also be using more core because you'd be rotating, rotating. And you can do that, but it's harder to do in the air. All right, now you ready for your next challenge? High, low, high, low, high, low, high, low. Back fist high, back fist low, back fist high, back fist low. Same thing with the back of your fist. 1, 1. And if you know me, I like to go fast. Slow is so difficult for me, but I do it. Speed it up. Up, down, up, down. High, low, high, low. How fast can you go? I don't know how fast Here we go. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Nice! And same thing, other side. You can have a lead leg, which means you have one leg in front or behind, or you can have a centered stance. It's up to you. See what your body feels like today. High, low, high, low, high, low, high, low, high, low, high, low. Low, face, groin, face, groin, face, groin. Can we only use these feet at that? Get ready to take it fast. High, low. Go, go, go. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Yes, you're feeling it, you're doing it. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Nice, shake it off. Brain challenge number one, actually probably number three for today. So you're gonna go high, low, side, low, switch side. One, two, one, two, one, two. Now I'm holding and freezing on an isometric, which is actually harder than throwing that punch out, but it can help me show you what the move is going to look like. So if you feel like you've got this, I'll speed it up. You ready? Go! High, low, high, low. And you can do a little squat, a little dance, whatever you feel like doing with your lower body. Uh-oh, uh-oh. Yes! Boom, boom, boom. And go as fast as you can comfortably. If your speed is here, that's beautiful. Whatever it feels like to feel good in your muscles and your body. I love these punches. 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, 2, last one here, last one here. Nice, shake it out. Now if you have had shoulder or low back or upper back issues, this is one of my favorite shoulder. I want you to keep your head down though, you're gonna look down, you're just gonna swing your arms out. And if you've got weights, you can do this with weights, but it's still a great exercise without weights. So you cross your arms in front, let your shoulder blades come apart, and then bring them up. Make sure you look down, otherwise it's hard on your neck. Nice! Alright, let's see, what's our timer say? Oh, we've got a little bit more time, so I'm gonna do a combination. So go ahead and start with your left leg forward. Jab, cross, hook, cross. 1, 2, hook, cross. Front punch, back punch, hook punch, cross. So it's 4 punches, And you're rotating your body using your lower body to help motivate those punches and move you through the motion. You're using it to help shift your weight. I'm going to take it fast. Stay here if you want. I don't want to confuse you, but it looks like this. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 3, 4. Give me a few more. 2. Good. And last one. Nice. Shake it out. Now it looks like we're not using our legs, but we really are because every motion we use has legs involved. Other side. Jab, cross, hook, cross. 1, 2, 3, 2. Actually, on Muay Thai, punches have numbers. This is a 1 punch. A 2 punch, a 3, and a 2. But I'll just say 1, 2, 3, 4 for the ease of use. 2, 3, yes! Jab, cross, hook, cross. Jab, cross, hook, cross. You ready to take it fast? I know I am. Go! 1, 2, 3, 4. Good! And making sure you're getting that pivot in your waist and in your hips. Your feet aren't planted. You're rotating. 1, 2, 3, 4. If you get lost, who cares? Just punch, just move your body. Follow along to your level of comfort and ease. 3, 2, last one. Nice! Shake it out, shake it off. Oh, excellent work! All right, how I end every single class Yes. Just get grateful for yourself, grateful for what you've got, grateful for who you are, and grateful for what you get to bring to the world. Thank you so much for taking care of your body today.
