Cold Weather Warmup for BJJ: 14-Min Yoga Class

Sufi circles, my lower back and hip favorite. Change the direction, change the crossing. I'm doing it extra fast today because it's cold as heck here so I need to get some heat up. Find a squat.

Stretch your legs, head down. Lift your head, bend your knees. Alternate between these two positions. Stand all the way up.

Fingers behind you, interlace. Push your hips forward. And push your hips to the side. Hips forward.

Hips to the side. Keep going. And then big circles. Nice.

Arms overhead, interlace your fingers. Lean back. Hands down, forward fold. Lift your heels, head down.

And then one of my favorites. Fingers are pointing out, plank. Wide legs. Hips down.

Keep a lot of pressure and tension in the front. So you're squeezing your front, almost trying to push the toes into the ground to activate the front of the legs. And then lift, stretch back into a wide legged down dog. And then do this a few times with momentum.

So you're going down and then back quite fast. I tried to do these slow, but I find that they feel a lot better doing these fast. I'm going to do a few more because these feels absolutely fantastic for my lower back. After having slept in awkward positions for many hours.

Nice. Now it's time for the WBS, the world's best stretch. Left foot forward, left arm up. If this feels awkward, just keep your elbow or your hand on your knee and move more weight into the foot.

Because usually it's people's shoulder and right side that feel bad. So you can compensate for that in the start by focusing more on the leg side. And then switch sides. So the arm up doesn't really make the pose better in any way.

I think the pose is 95 percent the foundation and the orientation. This is just for camera, the top arm. So you can support yourself with the hand. You can challenge yourself by pushing the knee out.

But the arm up is kind of useless actually. It's more for a direction. Switch again. This time lower down, low and up.

Low and up. Switch again. Down and up. Down and up.

And now switch a few times. And then kick through so the back leg comes through. And a lot of people struggle here with the foot. So you need to get the knee to your armpit.

And then maybe pull the foot through. Shake your hands out. Come back. Switch.

Kick through. Shake your hands out. Keep going. I like grabbing my foot like this and not put the foot down.

This is a nice shoulder stretch for between my shoulder blades. Nice. Sit down on the floor. Spread your legs.

Go from side to side. So instead of leaning and pulling, rise up and push. You're pushing that side away. You're not reaching for that side.

And then other side. And I like pulling my thighs out when I do this. So I'm getting extra waist stretching. My waist slash lower back tends to be really stiff.

So this is what I do to relieve it. Grabbing the foot doesn't really help when that's what I'm trying to achieve. And again, sometimes faster can feel better. Sometimes it's just too difficult to do it static and slow.

Doing it fast and dynamic can be a lot easier and just what your body needs right now. Okay, let's not forget the strengthening of the lower back. So hip thrusts like this where you're squeezing and lifting. And again, static can be too much, especially in the morning.

So doing small micro bounces or bigger momentum like this can be really nice. Because then you're just in the extreme position for a fraction of a second and then getting repeated exposure. Now balancing on the butt engages the inner core muscles and wakes up the connection between the lower back and the front. So balancing on your butt should be part of every all-around class.

If you're not doing stuff like this, then you're missing out. And what I always like to do is to come down on the lower back and do this. This is called a hollow body in gymnastics, if I'm correct. And then when I come up, that transition between chest up and collapsed chest is...

I can't explain it, but it just feels so good. Maybe not feel good to do, but it feels great to have it done. As soon as I'm done with this, I feel more integrated and wholesome. But for the first few years perhaps, it's just gruesome torture.

But stick with it. You're going to learn to appreciate stuff like this eventually. Nice. OK.

Straddle, big legs. Straddle twist. Hand on the hip or arm up. Again, the arm up doesn't really help.

It's all about the foundation and the intention of the twist. So this is the foundation. This is the expression. This is just a cherry on top that makes it look pretty.

So hand cannot be back here. Hand has to be under the shoulder. Get the legs and arms strong and then rotate. Look here to here.

And then if your arm can get straight, it means you did all the work with the hips and the chest. You should not have to overcompensate with the arm. Makes sense? So you go bum, bum and then maybe up.

If you're here, you probably didn't work hard enough. You have to work hard on your foundation. Your legs and arm and hip and shoulder need to really do their goddamn job for this to work. And something I started adding recently is the airplane pose.

So not here, please. Here. And then airplane. And then with momentum, touch the fingertips.

Bum, bum, bum. And then kick sideways. This kick is more of the release. The hard work is the three airplanes.

And then this is to be able to come down and relax for half a moment. And then this is the job. Bum, bum, bum. Relax.

And then a little work, technical stand up. Coming back here. And then look, this is what you're doing. This is what I want you to do.

Makes it more challenging for everything. The hamstrings, the lower back, everything has to work in this moment. And then you get to relax. Then you get to practice a little bit of jiu-jitsu.

And then back to the hard work. Let's do a couple more. Building heat. Feels like I'm in Spain again.

One more on each side. Alright, stop in the center. Catch your elbows. Drop your head.

And then inhale. And relax your neck and shoulder on the exhale. Nice. And we're done.

Let's not overdo it. This was great. I'm not sweaty, but I feel ready to go. Thank you for sticking with me all this way.

And for those people that dropped off, absolutely fine. This was not the class for them. And if you like this class, please start a new habit of scheduling the next class as soon as you're done. You're feeling great now.

Instead of just forgetting this class, happy, happy, happy. Getting this class happen. Add this class to your calendar in the app or in your fridge. Make a dedication that I want to feel exactly like this again.

Create a habit out of good experiences. Please try that and get back to me and comment under the video if it's possible. Or send me an email how that is working for you. See you in the next video or see you on the mat.

Us.