The Collaborative International Dictionary
Setting-up exercise
Setting-up exercise \Set`ting-up" ex"er*cise\ Any one of a series of gymnastic exercises used, as in drilling recruits, for the purpose of giving an erect carriage, supple muscles, and an easy control of the limbs.
Usage examples of "setting-up exercise".
But all of that had proved the merest setting-up exercise for his training program as Dahak's commander.
There wasn't anything to laugh at, but we could see his teeth shining white, and he grinned every minute while he went through a sort of setting-up exercise.