If you're coming from a sedentary lifestyle, jumping immediately into the Kali program might not be the ideal choice for you. Most of the time, the body adjusts to new movement, coordination and high repetitive motions which are not the usual movements one does in school or in the office. Even if you are already involved in some kind of exercise or sport, you may still not be able to maximize the experience and material to be taught. One might be discouraged with Kali if one cannot perform the simple basic motions and body mechanics required for the first few weeks of training. These simple exercises can prepare anyone before undergoing your first few weeks of Kali class.
100 jumping jacks
30 pushups
20 burpees with jumps
20 squats
30 situps
Consider this a fitness test you can use even if you are coming back from an off season. Note that you do not have to do all of this in one sitting. Performing any 2 exercises consecutively may already suffice. Slowly building up the numbers by adding 10 repetitions each week can be a good motivational challenge.
Another notable issue one can face with training is blisters. I have had a lot of questions regarding blisters and writing it here hopefully helps those questions. Even if one is already accustomed to the strikes and techniques in Kali, after weeks or months of not practicing, blisters can still occur. These exercises will help address those issues:
100 broken strikes high load
100 broken strikes shoulder load
100 broken strikes medium load
300 bridging between broken, fluid and circular strikes
Varying the stick you are using from light to heavy then back to light, or even changing the orientation from wooden stick to iron pipe to baseball bat can also help solve blistering as well as develop power and control of your weapon. Of course as time goes by, you can even add tire hitting with 1,000, 3,000 to 5,000 strikes per day.
If you constantly train with different weapons, in the end whatever you have in your hand doesn't matter. Edged or impact weapon only change attributes, but mastery of control and power depends on the wielder.
