Balance & Grounding: 58-Min Vinyasa Flow for BJJ Athletes

There is so much to explore in our inner world But we got to slow down and we got to breathe So I will remind you again and again slow down take a breath and Explore the nuances When you are present doesn't matter how many repetitions you do it does not become a not on us because no two Repetitions are the same Each time we're warming up a muscle And stretching a Fascia or there is so much going on we just have to become a bit more aware All right arms and legs up rotate this and circle your wrists and ankles all in every direction Move your toes and fingers Maybe move your neck super multitasking move everything knees and elbows shoulders and hips Knees and elbows shoulders and hips freestyle on the back And then grabbing the back of your thighs Looking up and lifting up not all the way up but to a point where we can rock and roll a little bit on the back and then rock all the way down and A little bit more up without straightening the spine try to keep the spine rounded all the time here, so Just To a point where we feel that we couldn't almost balance, but not to the point where we sit up Yeah, so do this a few times supporting yourself with your arms rolling on your lower back There's a lot of flatness there in the sacrum and the lower back We want to round it out a little bit so that there is some movement down there Nice a couple more And one more And then rock all the way up to seated and cross the right shin in front of your left just to make it easy and Yeah Yeah neck slow neck circles big neck circles first very slowly If you do this fast, it's not a healthy exercise for most necks, so just move your head in slow circles and the other direction And look a little bit left and right Shoulder to ear tilting your head sideways And look up and look down Spending a little bit of time here setting a benchmark for how really good balance feels so move your neck around in small small circles and Then suddenly stop in the perfect dead center And then start moving again random directions just bobbing and rolling your head around Over the neck joint and then boom Perfect center do that a few times And when you stop in the center There is absolutely no effort we're not holding Gripping and tightening our head in place it just naturally ends up Where it should be? So that's our benchmark for other poses It's not going to be easy when we do balancing poses on one foot or the hands to achieve that But we have the imprint in our muscle memory in our neck And we will try to steal a little bit of that Self confidence that the neck has they can just stay exactly where it should perfectly still and balanced and unbiased Without any effort That's what we're going for in this class even if it's almost impossible in almost every pose. We will try right Side stretches grab your right knee with your left hand and then right arm comes over Sideways, so we're side stretching our right side leaning to the left and then lean far enough that your butt lifts so that there is a Point when we're sitting on our left, but that we're almost falling left, but not quite and Then you have to use Balancing muscles in your legs like your leg muscles usually don't balance like this But now you have to use those muscles to calibrate and adjust To be able to hold the poles in the right place and that I think is a super valuable things Second side right hand to left So opposite side, so when you're using muscles to calibrate They can't Hold tension. It's impossible for those muscles that are working right now to be tense when they have to constantly Firm up and let go in order to hold balance.

That's one of the surprising effects of balancing poses That seems to be very valuable. What first side again, so switching sides one more time Find the pivot point where you almost fall and then calibrating you still using muscles to calibrate They get a nice stretch also And last switch Oh A lot of it that is perfectly fine Nice alright, and then switching the crossing of our legs folding forward using our hands in the ground or Yeah, I need to use my hands in the ground but move so far forward that your butt lifts and feel the difference between sitting on your butt and Then moving so far forward that your butt is off the ground and you don't fall either way You don't fall forward. You don't fall back To me there is a lot more potential it is a lot more potential When the butt lifts and when I'm flat, I'm not saying it's better. There's just more potential for things happening.

There is more There is more options when the butt lifts There's more freedom, but it's not better. It's just different balancing and grounded. They complement each other and we will explore both Grounding on our butt and lifting the butt off the ground Take another breath And then walking back up holding on to your knees cat-cow five times inhale if your chest Exhale round Nice and let's move to all fours tabletop same thing here a few rounds of cat-cow Maybe stretch out your wrists while you do this turning fingers backwards stretching the forearms Maybe flipping the palms that you can see the palms stretching the back of the wrist Freestyling the cat-cow Create movement And then moving back into turtle position child's pose Completely flat passive pose. No no balancing all grounded Take one moment to feel that And then rolling with the spine through a low push-up, maybe the knee stay in the ground Lowering down setting up for a cobra lifting the chest on the inhale Exhale lower down moving back to child's pose one more round Starting in grounded rolling through the push-up Cobra And I'm pushing back up to plank pose to down dog take a couple of breaths in down dog walk it out Bending one knee moving the head whatever you feel like is fine And Then lifting one leg out behind you take a breath maybe lift the heel to balance on your foot Taking a small step switching legs lifting the left leg taking a breath Small step walk slowly slowly all the way forward to your hands in the next 10 seconds And Then as you are in a forward fold here hands to shins Bender straighten the legs as you want But lean into your toes and lift your heels as you look up into a half lift And then as you lower the heels and bend your knees Lift the toes and maybe even the ball of your foot off the ground Do that a few times inhale straighten up straighten forward Lift the heels and exhale lean back into the heels bend your knees and lift the feet You're not supposed to feel grounded here.

You're supposed to Find a place where it's difficult to balance a Couple more We will keep doing this one throughout the sun salutations And then inhale come all the way up lift your arms overhead and lift your heels And Hands in front of your chest for namaste, but keep your heels lifted and let's consider for a moment What balancing means let's take the definition of finding our center? We find the center right now over our the ball of our foot and being centered means Not picking left over right so we're not left biased or right biased when we're standing here. We're standing centered in balance and That is a great position to be in if you want an open mind open minded meaning not picking left or right red or blue Or picking one side over the other but including both sides and opening your mind Because no matter how intelligent we are or we see ourselves. We can still be very close minded Without knowing so finding a place of centered s is a great starting point to open your mind And the mind is like a parachute it only works when it opens Inhale arms overhead some sun salutations Exhale lower your heels fold forward lift your feet lift your toes Inhale half lift lift your heels again Stepping the right leg back on your mat right knee down Hands can come to the left knee lunge into the hips so hips drop down look forward and Then as you exhale lean back So that you straighten the left leg do that a few times inhale lunge forward Exhale stretch the left leg.

Maybe you want to try to lift the right knee. That's very difficult and do a couple more And On the last lunge arms come overhead look up inhale Exhale hands down down dog take a breath And then roll forward to plank pose go through a vinyasa lower down through the low push up to the belly Setting up for a cobra or up dog And on the exhale push back to a plank back to dog and take two breaths Lifting the right leg out behind you bend the knee roll the knee forward and step the foot between the hands Low lunge hands come to right knee chest forward As you exhale lean back and flex the right foot maybe lean over the leg a little bit and then low lunge again inhale drop into the hips Exhale, maybe try to lift the back knee stand on the ball of your foot and your heel whoa a couple more It's not a defeat to lose the balance Losing the balance is not like losing your car keys. You can find it immediately again, and there is no shame in Failing balance there is no failing the balance You you become right biased and then you come back to center and you can do it a million times Come into forward fold and then half lift lift your heels Exhale fold forward lift your toes And then all the way up lift your heels Back to mountain pose with your heels lifted one more round slightly faster inhale arms up Exhale fold lift the toes Inhale half lift Exhale step the left foot back left knee down arms up this time and Then lean back try to lift the left knee whoop Arms up inhale lift the back knee Exhale arms come down lift the back knee again and one more inhale lift the back knee and Then exhale downward dog take a breath Roll forward to plank pose come through your vinyasa maybe stop in low push-up setting up the cobra from there If you want more intensity extra push-up on the way back Down dog left leg out behind you take two breaths in down dog first And then left leg out behind you bend the knee and roll the knee forward Low lunge arms up Exhale leaning back lifting the back leg arms can come down whoa Arms up inhale lift the back knee Exhale stretch the left leg flex the left foot one more Hands down for fold Half lift inhale lift your heels Exhale fold forward and let's take a couple of breaths here. Maybe place the hands under your feet or grab your ankles grab your elbows Just take a moment hanging forward Rolling all the way up keeping your knees bent Bend your knees stretch your arms overhead for chair pose I Really like leaning back into my heels all the time in chair pose But today we're doing a combination of what we just did heels toes And then we're going to do a chair pose I'm doing a combination of what we just did heels toes heels toes so on your Heels when you're in chair and then as you're leaning forward and laying your belly towards your thighs You lift up on your toes arms behind you So inhale chair pose lift your toes whoop Exhale lean forward lift your heels Do it again Lift your heels do it a few times sit deep into it so that it's challenging Maybe look between your legs as you're falling forward If you don't feel this in your legs you either have really strong legs or you're really good at cheating yourself out of the post Exhale straight legs fold forward Half lift inhale and Then setting up for crow pose spread your fingers Bend your elbows lower your head and try to take the feet off the ground maybe Narrow for more challenge wide for more support Stepping back to a plank inhale exhale lower down Inhale back bend look up Exhale push back to down dog straighten your right leg out behind you Bend the knee open the hips take a moment here Lift the back heel lift the back knee Lift the bottom and lift the left heel and lift the right knee and then roll your right knee to your nose three times Inhale lift as high as you can splitting the legs curling and squeezing Inhale and then the right foot between the hands Back heel comes down arms come up for warrior one so it's like semi open hips kind of open hips Interlacing the fingers behind your lower back Slowly work your shoulders in place depending on shoulder flexibility And then try to straighten your arms expand puff your chest open completely And then feel the line from the back leg through your neck And try to straighten that one out so that you're not standing up Straighten that one out so that you're not standing up you're leaning forward and then lift your back heel and push really hard through the back foot So this is a lot of effort a strong power line Keep that but lift the back leg off the ground keep that pushing your left foot Through the ground that isn't there anymore bend your standing leg and straighten even more Now hands come to the ankle of the right ankle Straighten the arms maybe straighten the right leg a little bit straighten the back leg a lot And then hands down jump the right leg back quite far so that you can lean forward and Do some handstand kick ups and that means you should be able to see your right foot if you can't see your right foot at any point I might call you out because it's too soon to do full handstands This is just a jumping part where you engage the arms and you keep all the straightish lines And you don't lose control If you can do this exercise Well and still see the right foot Handstands will be a lot easier if you skip steps.

It will be very hard vinyasa plank pose inhale Exhale low push-up Inhale back bend and exhale down dog take a breath take a moment Feel the class picking up pace intensity increasing Left leg out behind you bend your left knee lift your right heel take a breath and moment here And then on your exhale knee to nose three times inhale Exhale Inhale Exhale Inhale Exhale left foot forward right heel down arms up warrior one Kind of open hips doesn't really matter too much just feel strong and stable Interlacing the fingers behind your back Take your time to straighten the arms stretching the arms and shoulders and chest Connecting through the back foot leaning forward into a strong line of power from the foot to your neck Feel how stable and strong everything is and bring that into flying So back leg comes off and keeps pushing backwards your arms are still strong your hands are still connected And then hands come to the ankle Balancing on your left foot trying to find that center that unbiased Open-minded center Where you're not leaning one way? literally or figuratively Hands come down left foot jumps back If you lose sight of the left foot It's too high up. I Just want the small jumps if you're extremely flexible You might catch the handstand and still see the left foot, but most of you are just going to that Point where you where where it goes from up and down again trying to slow that down a little bit each try Vinasa Go through it. You can start skipping if you have any issues Keep doing double push-ups if you want strength Take a moment in down dog preparing for a float or a sit-through Bend your knees and look forward two options first option is to float forward sit in a squat and then sit down option number two walk back on the mat and then try crossing your shins and sliding your feet Through and sit down might take some practice depending on your proportions setting up for boat to Low boat so posture up arms straight knees bent Just checking out that pivot point depending on the shape of our behind It will either be very easy very hard or somewhere in the middle Then lowering down on the lower back like we did in the start, but now we don't hold on to the thighs And then coming up again, so it's a cat cow basically, but we're balancing as we're doing the cat cow It doesn't matter how many repetitions we do But we use the repetitions to get more exposure to randomness And trying to tackle and deal and explore and become aware of what's going on That was a lot of words that didn't mean anything just do them do the repetitions.

God damn it Don't Make it into a intellectual thing Make it into a intellectual thing Couple more And then last one closing your eyes going all the way up all the way down All the way up again, let's throw in our reverse tabletop here to stretch it out hands and feet down lift your hips Lift your chest Drop your head back squeeze your butt Nice and then either coming up to a squat or trying jumping back through the arms vinyasa Child's pose feeling the groundedness And Then down dog trying to feel centered and balanced We're not trying to feel we allow it to happen we don't need to try All right the standing sequence Stretching the right leg out behind you bending the knee opening the hips Right now lift the ball of your lift the Palm of your left hand and then try to walk your hands back your left hand back so that you're just balancing on the fingertips and Then you're picking the left foot Left hand off the ground left foot is impossible left hand is just off the ground And see if you can balance using your right arm and your left foot left leg Nice placing the hand back to the front placing your hands down again at the front of the mat Rolling the right knee forward stepping the right foot between your hands and here you can grab your ankle If it's hard to get the foot all the way forward grab it and then another Addition here is a balancing extra balance just trying to get our foot forward So instead of seeing it as a failure that my foot doesn't come forward I'm like, oh, I'm gonna add another balancing exercise and helping my right foot forward That's a different it's a different and better kind of thinking to think of everything as a new challenge and an extra bonus instead of failures Take a moment here in low lunge Last grounded pose in a while And then arms come up Back knee comes off the ground and front heel comes off the ground So crescent pose a super high pose imagine that you're reaching for the ceiling trying to grab some Roman rings or something really high and then you drop into the pose, but don't drop your heel down So we're balancing on the balls of our feet Taking three four five breaths in each pose And then hands to hips Lowering the right heel down coming into chair pose, but with one leg So in one leg of chair pose sit down as deep as you can but tuck your left foot into your butt And then standing up grabbing your left shin or your knee with both hands Trying to posture up super posture lift your chest if You your balance is on point today make it harder by looking up So slowly lift until you feel that this is enough challenge Then you stay there and close your eyes. Just kidding closing the eyes is like black belt level challenge Maybe close one eye and see what that does to your balance. Whoa Releasing back into warrior two, maybe shake out the right foot Open hips open arms right on forward Getting the feet and knees into the right place Where's the right place figure it out? Reverse warrior left arm Drops down and forward right arm comes over the top and then switching the arms Yin-yang arms yang-ming arms Close your eyes and There will be a little bit of balancing here, but there's also groundedness Right elbow to right knee left arm up or over top you decide Super grounded pose look down towards your right foot Maybe step it back a little bit Right hand comes down hovering over the ground lifting the left leg of the ground make sure that your left foot doesn't fall behind you because then you will lose the balance keep the foot engaged and flexed and Finding that place That center over your right foot where the foot doesn't have to work like crazy.

It might take many many many tries Before you find that place But it is there just like with a neck in the beginning of class The point is there where you can find it Nice hands come down to the right ankle this this old familiar super nice pose where everybody's ankle is super happy Nobody's hurting in the ankle muscles right now, right? Keep pushing yourself a little bit more if you give up now the next exercise will not feel as good hands down Handstands shake the right foot out. Oh Goddamnit, so we work the balancing poses until the ankle burns so much That we want to stay in a handstand for a long time and shake it out Incentives we are working with incentives Incentives With some practice maybe a few thousand repetitions you will suddenly find yourself Floating in a handstand for one second two second three seconds and beyond Vinyasa Coming back to down dog taking three breaths Same sequence a second time left leg out bend and open Splitting your legs away from each other Walking your right hand back use your fingertips And then use four fingertips three two one When you're ready take the hand off the ground If this is impossible turn your back foot so that it's pointing out so that you have a better control Balancing on a better triangle take a breath Right hand comes forward again left foot comes forward maybe use the left hand creating another balancing pose Before the foot comes down take a few breaths in a low lunge grounded grounded grounded Arms come up Back knee comes off the ground Front heel comes off the ground super tall crescent pose Dropping down into the pose, but lifting up out of the pose at the same time your lower body and your upper body meets In a in a In a In a In an intense point And then chair pose heel comes down Hands to hips squeeze your elbows sit down deep into the pose butt comes back And then It's not supposed to be fun, not this part. It's supposed to be tough.

Then stand up, grab your right knee or shin, finding balance. And in the center there is a groundishness, kind of grounded inside that balance. It's all words. Explore the meaning for yourself.

Stepping back to warrior 2, shaking it out, figuring out where warrior 2 is today. And then yang in arms. Close your eyes and flow. Left elbow, left knee, right arm up or over top.

Perfect balance. Your left ankle should not be working hard, then you need better alignment. Find a position where it's not so much effort required. And then looking down, stepping back, half moon.

Left arm up, left arm down, right arm up. Extend, whoop, and find center. Allow your mind to open, not close. Hands to ankle.

Stay here until everything burns. And when you can't take it anymore, kick it up into handstand and shake it out. Right leg is straight, left foot can disappear from you now. If your handstands are tough, try leaning forward a little bit.

Makes it harder for the arms, but makes it easier to balance. Couple more. When you're ready, vinyasa, child pose. Take a moment.

Setting up for a backbend, camel pose. Tuck your toes. My favorite camel is the balancing one. That's completely absurd.

But you can try normal camel. Hands to butt, open your chest, or hands to heels. Same thing. If you want to lean back and lift the heels while you do this, it requires a lot of training and a lot of luck too.

But I like it. Not something you should ever teach, like I'm doing now. I'm not teaching it, I'm just turning it in there as an option. Stupid option for stupid people that likes having fun.

Close your eyes. Sit still. If you're still in the pose, sorry. I should have said come out of the pose first.

Time for a super grounded pose, pigeon pose. All fours, left knee forward, right hip somewhere over the left foot. Maybe come down to your elbows, rest the head somewhere. And ground yourself.

Allow yourself to be grounded. Let go and relax. We make things complicated because we think there is something to it. That's the ego trying to intervene in rationalizing and describing reality with words.

Reality is bigger than words. And if we think there is something to it, then we try to project our reality onto actual reality. There is nothing to it. You can do it without doing it, and you can do it without being you.

You don't have to be you, and you don't have to do it, and you can still do it. You see how stupid it is when you try to describe things with words? It just sounds silly and paradoxical and childish. And it's never ever true.

Whatever I say can never be true because truth is right in front of you. And whenever someone comes to try to describe it with words, it's like a child trying to describe things. It just sounds funny and a bit silly. There is nothing to it.

Just do it. Switching sides. Switching sides. Take another breath.

Come out of the pose. Spread your legs for straddle pose. If seated straddle is not an option for you, bend one knee and do half seated straddle. And then switch halfway.

Maybe I will forget to mention halfway. About one minute on each side or two minutes in the center. There is nothing to it. There is nothing to this pose.

There are things happening and things that aren't happening. Don't project your mind onto the pose. Wherever you are, don't project comparisons with others or fabricated ideals. Sit exactly where you are and breathe.

It's like you are taking inventory of the stock but you don't use any words or numbers. Nice. Slowly coming out of the pose. Laying down for a spinal twist.

Knees over to the left. Finding the point where we balance in the pose where the knee and the elbow is kind of off the ground. Never try to twist into the twist. Breathe length through the sides.

And relax. Switching sides. Back to center. Last pose can be a happy baby.

Let's finish off the class where we started in Shavasana. Arms and legs in a position where the shoulders and hips can relax. Move the feet, move the toes, move the fingers, move your face. Get all those tics out of the muscles.

Lay down. Become relaxed and do that fullness breath a few times where you feel the belly chest and back without effort. Long inhale through the nose. Hold the breath at the top.

And let go. Start twitching your fingers and toes. Move your wrists and ankles. Maybe stretch your arms overhead.

Hug your knees to your chest. And rock up to seated. Sitting balanced and grounded on your butt. Your head sits balanced and grounded on your neck.

And your breath is grounded inside yourself. Appreciate that with 60 minutes of some movements and some intentional breathing and some letting go, we have changed our state of mind into what it is now. Big applause for the possibility of being able to do that any day. Appreciate it.

Very good job. See you in the next class.