Cooldown with Sarah: 34-Min Post-Gi Recovery

Releasing the left foot to the ground, interlocking the fingers, placing them on the right shin just below the knee. Pull the right knee towards the right armpit. You can move around with the knee or you can find stillness, find a spot that's still if that feels good. Release the right ankle to the left quad.

Use the right hand to push off the knee a few times. Notice how that feels. You have the option to stay here. This is enough for you.

If this feels like the limit of your stretch, or maybe you feel like you just need to chill a bit, that's fine too. You have the option to stay here or reach the hands through the thighs, interlocking the fingers behind the left leg. If you're not sure which variation that you'd like, try both. Once you've found your posture, once you've found your stretch, find the breath.

Inhale to notice any tension throughout the legs. Exhale, release. Release. Releasing the legs to the ground, keeping your figure-four shape.

I'm moving only the legs. Lower them to the left side until the foot's on the ground. You have an option to make sure that right knee is still facing towards the ceiling. You have the option for the left hand to hold the right ankle, or not, to see what feels better, and reach the right arm out to the right side in a T position.

Head can either stay facing up or look towards the right for a stretch through the spine, through the cervical spine. It takes a moment to settle into the posture, to find your variation of the posture, and know that not one variation is better than the other, or one adjustment is better than the other. It all depends how it feels in your body today. Once you've found your posture, settle into it, find the breath.

Use the inhale to notice any tension throughout the stretch. Exhale, release. Taking your time, slowly find your way back to center. Place both feet on the ground, re-center the spine, and take a moment.

Notice the difference between the right side and the left side, and how the entire body feels. Interlacing the fingers, place them on the left shin, just under the knee, pulling the left knee towards the left armpit. And again, you can choose to move that knee around a little bit, or you can choose to keep it still once you find a comfortable spot. Releasing the left ankle to the right quad, using the left hand, push off the knee a few times, noticing how that changes the stretch.

And you have the option to stay here, know that the right side can be different than the left side, so don't expect them to be the same. You might do something different on this side than you did the other side. So you have the option to stay here, or reach your hands through the thighs, interlocking them behind the right leg. Use the inhale to notice any tension throughout the entire body.

Exhale, release. Do this with each breath. Not only are we doing a cool down after training, we're also calming down the nervous system. It's something that's so incredible and so complex.

It's important to let the nervous system know that it's okay to chill. We've just worked, we've just been in fight and flight, we've just been training, so it's okay to calm everything down. So as you breathe consciously, notice any tension throughout the body. Inhale, exhale, release.

Lowering the right foot to the ground, keeping your figure four triangle, moving only the legs down towards the right side and finding your variation that you would like with the legs. The knee can either stay facing to the ceiling or if it drops down a little, that's okay. Option for the right hand to hold the left ankle, but it doesn't have to if that doesn't feel good. Left hand out to the left side in a T position.

The head can either stay facing up or look towards the left. When you find the posture, find your breath. Inhale, notice any tension throughout the entire body. Exhale, release.

This is an example of how effective it is to use the breath consciously. We're using it to release tension so we can get the most out of the stretch, the most possible out of the stretch. But at the same time, there's also the practice of using the breath to stay present in this exact moment. Not having to worry about the past that's done and actually most of the time we spend in the future with our thoughts.

It's most of the time what we have to do, where we have to be. That doesn't help us right now. It's not the time for it right now. So if you notice how much of a difference it makes using that inhale to notice any tension, exhale to release.

Notice how much of a difference that can make when you're training using the breath to anchor you to the present moment. To breathe and focus. Taking your time, slowly come to center. Place both feet on the ground.

Re-center the spine. Take a moment. Let everything reorganize after that. Find your jujitsu belt.

Loop the belt around the ball, the ball of the right foot. With the grip, I like to loop the belt around the grip a few times. You can't see the top of my foot quite in the camera, but that's okay. You know it's still attached.

Few times. Bend and extend that right leg a few times. And for the left leg, it doesn't matter if the left foot is on the ground or if it's extended. Both are fine.

I like to place the left foot on the ground just because it offers more stability for your stretch through the right leg. But both are correct. Just find what feels better for you. So after you bend and extend that right leg a few times, go ahead and straighten or almost straighten it.

And I say almost straighten because sometimes those hamstrings can be stiff and that's okay. So once you've settled into the stretch, find the breath. Inhale, notice the tension. Exhale, release.

Inhale. And this time on the exhale, release your heel towards the ceiling a little more. Taking the belt in the right hand, lowering the right leg to the right side. And you have a few options here.

Using the right elbow as a prop, so not going the entire way down. This can be really intense through the inner thigh. And if you find it is quite intense to the inner thigh, engage through the right quad. That can help protect the knee and the tension that you feel in the muscles.

So you can either stay here or if you find this is still a bit too much, you can actually grab... Usually jiu-jitsu schools won't have blocks, but if you have them or if you're a yoga studio, put a block under the leg. Or if you have a sweater or jacket or even your gi top, if you're doing jiu-jitsu, take that off and just let your leg rest on it. If you find there's quite a bit of intensity throughout that right leg where it feels good, just let it go.

But remember that you want to stay within that 60 to 70 percent intensity. Don't go to 100 percent because then everything tenses up too much. It's counterintuitive to what we're trying to do. Left leg, the knee can either fall out to the left side or the left leg can extend straight.

And I want you to try both. Try both. See what feels better for you. The left hand on the left hip.

Seeing if those both hips can stay somewhat on the ground. Find your breath. Taking your time, slowly come all the way back up to center. Place both feet on the ground.

Re-center the spine and take a moment. From here, loop the belt around the ball of the left foot. Looping the hands around the belt. I like to do that just to save the grip a bit.

Right foot on the ground and bend and extend that left leg a few times. That is getting them to the back of the left leg, but also letting the nervous system know that it's okay to straighten that left leg. Because quite often our legs are bent. There's usually even a micro bend in it.

It's not often that the leg is completely straight in jitsu, but also in everyday life. It's usually a micro bend in it. It's important to let the nervous system know that it's okay to straighten or almost straighten that leg. And after you're done bending and extending it a few times, see if you can straighten or almost straighten it.

Inhale. Notice the tension. Exhale. Release.

Inhale. Exhale. Release the heel towards the ceiling. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Inhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale.

And taking the belt in the left hand, lowering the leg to the left side. And you can either, remember you have options here, so you can use that left elbow as a prop. Or you can put something under the leg if this is too intense, a block, your key jacket, normal jacket, whatever. Or even you can rest it against the wall as an option as well.

If you find lots of tension throughout the left glute, engage the left hamstring. Or if you're okay to allow that left leg to go all the way down to the ground, do that. Right leg can stay bent, knee falling out to the side. Or right leg can be straight, extended down.

And know that what might feel better on one side won't feel better on the other side. It's very possible they'll be different. So see if you want the right leg bent or straight. Right hand on the right hip.

Keeping both hips somewhat on the ground. When you find your posture, find your breath. And taking your time, slowly find your way back to center. Placing both feet on the ground, re-center the spine.

Take a moment. Notice the difference between left and right side if there is one. And how the entire body feels. And from here, arms above the head, hold the elbows.

We've done a shoulder opening in our figure four twist at the beginning of the stretching session. Beginning of the cool down, I guess. And here, this is a nice opener for the lats. Arms above the head for the shoulders.

And feet can either stay on the ground, knees can be facing up, knees can be together. Or the soles of the feet can be together. And knees out, almost a butterfly. Try all three, see what feels better for you.

And with the hands, I want whatever hand is on top, whatever hand is on the bottom, I actually want you to switch. Bet you didn't even know that was possible to switch the bottom and top there, but we're doing it. Legs can either stay exactly where they are or you can find a different place for them. You can extend them out if that feels nice.

Or knees feet down on the floor, knees together. So you can either keep them exactly where you are or change position of the legs. Eyes can stay open or you can close them down. That's our last posture.

And you can either stay here if you like or you can find a way to be almost comfortable that you possibly can be. Just like we did at the beginning of class, five or ten percent more comfortable. I like palms up away from the body, legs extended, legs out, close eyes. Take one minute letting the body process and integrate all of the work that we just did.

And honestly, that's a privilege because life is so busy and we do so much back to back and back and we're always so mentally engaged. It's not often the body is allowed to process all the work that we just did. And that is just as important as doing the work itself. So everything from the training session, whether it's jiu-jitsu or weights or cross training or running or whatever, to this cool down right here.

Give the body a moment to process it. Moving out of the thinking head into the feeling body. Allowing the ankles to relax more. Allowing the calves to relax more.

Allow the knees, the quads to relax more. Allowing the hips, the torso, the chest, relax more. Allowing the shoulders, the arms to relax more. And finally the neck, the head, give the head a light shake side to side.

And let it relax more. So deep inhale. Exhale, release. Give yourself a big stretch from the toes all the way to the hands.

Roll to your favorite side. Coming to a sit. And there you are. Thank you for joining me, everyone.

Some bonus material for my instructors. During the cool down, I offered the option to talk about the breath and having that. It's a nice concept and theme that transfers really easily to jiu-jitsu, but also to life. You can add that or not.

It really depends on the group. It really depends on the energy of the gym. It depends on all of that. So the most important part of that concept or theme is that it feels genuine.

So if it doesn't feel like it's the right time or the right place or there's the right focus, or if you're doing the cool down and there's a whole bunch of people that are super loud getting ready to go over chatting, that might not feel like it's the right setup. Or an example is maybe you have a smaller crew and the gym is pretty quiet. It could be nice to cool down with that. But having said that, you'll know.

So feel the energy of the room, feel the energy of everyone. But the most important part of you integrating that concept of breath, using as an anchor to stay present in the moment, and you can use that in your training, but you can also use that in everyday life. So it has to feel genuine to you, and you have to embody that concept in your own training, and you have to find your own way to say it. That's how I say it and that's how I experience it, but you have to find your own way.

So that's the most important part is that you feel genuine doing that, and you can carry that to a lot more. The breath has to stay anchored in the moment. The past is done. So even past training sessions that weren't the best or that were harder or that didn't feel the best, those are done.

Or even the best training sessions, those are done. That's all the story now. And the future is that hasn't happened yet. So the future is where we stay a lot, like I said, a lot of the time in the future, that hasn't happened yet.

The most important place that we can be is right now, because right now is really the only time that we have any influence or changes or have any power to make decisions is in this moment. So why would we live in the future or the past? So you can carry that concept as far as you'd like to or to do as little as you'd like to. So think about that and make it as simple as possible.

It should be two or three, four sentences. That's it. It is harder to say something in a simple way. So you need to make that incredibly simple and try it.

Try it and you'll refine it as you do it. So make that your own. Use it or don't use it. The next is the Shavasana at the end.

It depends on your group, depends on the energy of the room, depends how it feels. You can hold that for a minute or you cannot do any at all. I find that if there are some groups and they're joking around and laughing and having a great time, blah, blah, blah, it might not be the best to do the Shavasana. It might not be filling it and that's OK.

Or if everyone's pretty exhausted and they had a great training session, take your time. Next thing is the timing of this cool down. Depending on how much time you have, you can speed all of this up to 15 minutes or you can make it as long as half an hour. A stretch I did not do that I want to give you an option that you can add in, which can be really nice.

You know, when we grab the belt and we looped it around the ball of the foot, boom, boom, boom, boom, take the belt. So after you go out to the right side, you pull it back to center, give them a second and then take the belt in the left hand. Lower everything down to the left side and right hand out in the T position. I got a wall so I can't do it.

I'm not going to put a hole through my wall just to show you the stretch. Although I figure you'd probably really appreciate the effort if I did that right hand out in a T position. And now we have a really nice stretch where the left leg is boom out straight, right leg is to the left and the right hand out. This can be really, really nice and people can do it whatever intensity they like.

If this is too much, if you're like, oh, this is too much, you can just stack both legs and bend them. That's fine, too. This is a twist and it can be really nice to do at the end of the session. OK, so you can add that if you like.

If you find you're short on time, so that'll carry probably half an hour. If you're short on time, when you're on the back, pull both knees in, boom, boom, boom, rock side to side. Do your figure four on both sides. And so take out that revolved figure four.

Do your figure four both sides and then just go into one and two. Boom, just like that. OK, so that is just an exceptional cool down. Really, really nice.

So send me any questions or you can comment and ask if you have any. But that's such a great way to close out a training session, to transition off of the mats into the everyday. And honestly, you actually will get more out of the training session by cooling down properly and you'll feel a lot better. OK, thank you for joining me.

Thank you for geeking out on the cool down just like I do. I just love it. And yeah, send me questions if you have them. All right.

Talk soon, guys.