: What is a good early morning stretch routine? I'm 45 and play squash once or twice a week in the evenings. I am an early riser, but have never been an early morning exerciser. I do enjoy early morning meditation, though.

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I try do 5-6 straight forward yoga "sun salutations" every morning. The purpose is to get myself started, not to be - as you said - the main source of exercise.

For me, this takes about 5-7 minutes. Last year (2011), of my 366 yoga trainings, this routine was counted for more than half (196 ones)

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I agree with @Dave Liepman and @Fredob that yoga is a great way to keep flexible and balanced. Yoga is ideal for growing older gracefully with flexibility and balance. Given that you meditate, yoga should be a nice fit for you.

My favorite morning routine however, is Joseph Weisberg's 3 minute stretching routine that targets the whole body with six 30 second exercises. These target the spine, torso, hips and legs. Some of the exercises are yoga stretches like child's pose and cobra. After a quick warm up as you describe, the 3 minute stretching routine is effective and short enough to keep it up consistently. The routine is so compact that I don't have any excuses not to do it.

After squash, be sure to do some stretches while you are still warm. Static stretches after exercise can help with your flexibility. If you are interested in the 3 minute book, I'd appreciate it if you use our link 3 Minutes to a pain-free life. Thanks. It also includes specific stretches for specific problem areas.

Also, take a look at other areas of your life where you may be stiffening up. Prolonged sitting is often a culprit. If that applies to you, this q/a has some exercises specifically addressing a balance of stretching and strengthening as it relates to sitting.

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I've found success with two approaches:

Yoga, whatever flavor or sequence you happen to like. What I did was go to classes several times a week for a month, then practice at home in the morning with intermittent ventures to group classes.
Tom Kurz' morning stretch and warm-up series, recommended for combat sports and general health. You take a few minutes to rotate all your joints, then get your heart rate up with five minutes of anything (running in place, jogging, shadowboxing, whatever), then do arm and leg swings to get your shoulder and hip joints mobilized for the day.

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I'm personally fond of Craig Ramsay's Anatomy of Stretching which has a 15 minute essentials set of stretches which comes on a poster that comes with the book.