Foundation Week 1 for BJJ: 36-Min Class (Day 3)

And then as you straighten the legs, straighten your spine and come all the way up and interlace your fingers overhead and push the arms high. Take another breath here and lift your chest. And then interlace your fingers behind you. Stretch the arms back and out as far as you can go.

And if you can't really stretch the arms straight, keep them bent but keep lifting the hands away from the butt. And then arms up again and lift your heels so you're on your toes. Try to find a good posture here. So lift the chest but engage your belly so you're not letting your belly hang out.

Release the belly in. And then lower your feet, feet hip width apart, hands in front of your chest. Two sun salutation A's. Inhale arms up, exhale fold.

Inhale halfway up, look forward. Inhale plank pose and lower down. Inhale Cobra. Exhale down dog.

Bend your knees, look forward. Inhale, exhale jump. Inhale halfway, back bend. Exhale bend and fold.

Inhale all the way up. And exhale all the way down. Inhale halfway. Exhale plank pose.

All the way down. Inhale up dog or Cobra. Exhale downward facing dog. Step the right foot in front on the outside of your hand so your right arm moves up and you're pushing the weight into the right foot.

So lean from the left into the right foot and look up. Your left shoulder is usually cranking forward, try to hug it back. And from here step into a side plank with your right foot in front of your hips and still moving the weight into the right foot. So your left arm is not supporting all your body weight, your right foot is helping and your right hip is stretching here.

Back to down dog, stepping the left foot to the outside of your left hand. Twisting your spine to the left and hugging your right shoulder back. Take a breath. Moving the weight into the left foot.

And then stepping back to a side plank with your left foot exactly in front of your hips and move the weight into the left foot. Your right shoulder is still hugging back and your left hand is still straightening up, but you're supporting your body weight with your left foot to stretch the hip. Back to down dog and let's roll forward through our lower back and our upper back all the way down to the belly and interlace your fingers behind your back. Try to keep the toes together, lift your chest for three.

And then toes in the ground, hands in the ground, inhale look forward and exhale plank pose and back to down dog. Take three breaths in down dog, move around. Something new I started to do in down dog is circling to plank and circling back. So you're kind of doing a dog to plank circle.

In my shoulders this feels very very nice. Do equal amounts on both sides. Plank circles. And then bend your knees again and look forward, inhale and exhale jump forward.

Inhale halfway up and exhale sit down on your butt for both pose. In the beginning everybody hates this one so grab your hamstrings and squeeze the feet together, spread your toes and try really lifting your chest as high as you can. If this is completely impossible place your fingers behind you and do this instead, but if you can try to balance on the middle of your butt and lift your chest. Roll back into upside down guard, stack yourself and take a breath.

And then roll up to a squat, take five breaths in squat and warm up your ankles, your knees and your hips and actually warm up everything, move every joint in your body. Hands down crow pose, knees on your triceps, elbows are squeezing in towards each other so the lat is activating. Flex one foot and lean your head down and maybe flex the other foot and stay here for three. Your fingertips should be wide here because you're moving your weight forward to one.

Stepping back to plank, inhale. So halfway down place your knees in the ground, now stay here for a breath, elbows in and then lower your hips, straighten your arms for upward facing dog. Lift your legs and activate them and then the power of your legs is pulling you back to down dog. Lift the right leg up, bend the knee and open the hip and pull your heel into your butt and lift the knee as high as you can.

You should feel this in the hamstring, the inner thigh and you should engage your top hamstring so it's almost cramping. Roll the knee to your elbow, hold here for three, two, one and inhale leg up, exhale roll the knee to your face, you can lower the knee first and then you kind of knee yourself in the chest to get the foot forward. Alright, we're going to do a pose today called warrior one. So your right foot should be on the inside of the right hand and your left foot should be on the side of the mat.

Foot is pointing 45 degrees forward, lift all ten toes, engage both legs like crazy but bend the front leg. So your thigh is moving back, your hips are moving forward. Toes up for three, keep lifting the toes and lift your chest, two, one and then inhale, look up and exhale halfway down. Inhale up dog or cobra depending on your lower back, lift with your legs back to down dog.

Left leg out behind you, bend the knee, open the hip, even lift up on your toes and try to touch your nose on the back foot. Roll the knee to the elbow for three, two, one and inhale leg up, exhale knee to chest and first lower the knee and then you kind of knee yourself in the chest to get the foot forward. Move the foot to the left, right foot to the right and you should not collapse into the inside of the foot, you should roll down to the pink side for warrior one. Arms up, you do not have to squeeze your arms together, you can keep them in a wide Y, arms up, stretch your fingers and bend your left knee, not like this, not like this, like this with knee over the ankle.

Inhale, look up and exhale low push up. Inhale, back bend with the hips in the ground or the legs off the ground, exhale down dog. Bend the knee and take three jumps, one, two and three. And land your feet between your hands, inhale half way up, exhale fold.

Sit down on your butt again, try catching your feet this time and see how much you can straighten the legs, lift the chest and breathe. Focus at the same time as your face is relaxing. Focus and concentration is not something that happens in your muscles, it's on the inside, it's in your brain. So it's just a matter of attitude of being focused and concentrated.

Roll back to upside down guard, take a breath here, stretch your neck and if this hurts of course you can just support your butt with your hands like this. Roll all the way up to chair pose, hands in the hips, lower the butt, lift the chest and squeeze the elbows together for three, two, one. Crow pose, spread your fingers if it's hard, wide hands, forehead in the ground, if it's easy, squeeze your elbows together and lift your heels as high as you can. Three, two, one, jump back to your belly.

Interlace the fingers behind your back, try crossing the ankles and lift everything off of the floor. Switch the grip and switch the ankles. Keep the engagement of the back body, hands and feet in the ground, inhale and exhale, push back up to plank into downward facing dog. It's time for our long standing sequence, stretch the right foot up, inhale, exhale, knee to your left elbow and try to stay here for three, two, one, right foot up, inhale, exhale, knee to nose and really kick your foot forward.

Warrior one again, arms up, inhale at the top and exhale, interlace your fingers behind your back and try sliding your knuckles down the butt and the leg and really squeeze your butt and your back leg back. So you're pushing your leg into your hands while the right knee is moving forward. And I want you to breathe and keep the engagement of the back leg as if your life depended on it. And from here, pushing your left foot back, moving your head down, lifting the arms.

You can rest with your chest on the knee, but try pushing your right foot down and push the hips back and the arms up. So you might be here, but stay here. Humble warrior is not easy. That's why it's called humble warrior, this pose.

You have to be humble and patient to master this pose. On the next inhale, raise up and arms up, stretch up and catch your knee in front of your chest. Stay here. If you can't grab your knee, grab your thigh.

If you can't grab your ankle, grab your ankle. Do the hardest pose you can figure out here, but don't bend the bottom knee. Try to straighten the bottom knee completely straight. Take your chest and breathe.

Shoulder blades are always moving together in poses like these. Kicking your leg back for warrior three, place your hands on the right leg, stretch your heel back and point your toes down. Stretch the chest and stretch the back leg and bend your standing knee. Look the outside of your right hip.

And then same exact sequence again. Starting warrior one, arms up, inhale. Engage the back leg, exhale, interlace your fingers behind your back. Lift all 10 toes, inhale, look up and exhale, fold as deep as you can.

So you might stop here, you might go with your head down to the ground, but squeeze your right hip in and push your hips back and bend the right knee. One more breath. Arms up, inhale, look up, exhale, catch the knee again. If you want to try for a back bend here, lift your chest and look up.

Warrior three, left heel back, hands on the knee, push your chest straight and your back leg completely straight. Last warrior one, inhale, exhale, plank pose. Inhale in plank, exhale lower down, halfway down. Knees down, flatten out your feet.

Exhale, cobra or upward facing dog. Exhale down dog. Let's do dolphin pose. Elbows down, forearms parallel to each other.

Drop your head, on your toes lift your right leg for three, two, push your chest back, one. Switching sides, do not hold your breath or make funny faces. Relax and do yoga. Two, one, forearm plank.

Your butt should not be sticking up or hanging down, you should engage your core and your legs, move your chest forward without lowering your hips. So straighten the back, lengthen the front body while you engage the core. Five, world record is now five and a half hours here so don't complain. If you complain about five breaths you're a pussy.

Lower down, hands wide, wide cobra. Arms should be perfectly straight here, if they can't be straight just slide them further away from each other. Stretch the front of your body, stretch the back a little bit. And go into turtle pose.

Take three here before we do the second round. So three breaths in turtle. Try to get your ribs glued to your thighs. That's going to help your defense a lot.

And then roll forward to plank, come back into down dog and stretch your left leg out behind you. Bend and open, inhale, exhale left knee towards your right elbow. Hold hair in a twist for three, two, one, left leg up, inhale, exhale knee to nose, moving into warrior one again. Remember lift all ten toes, lift the inside of your foot up, arms up, take a couple of breaths.

So you're pushing your stance longer but at the same time you're squeezing the legs in towards each other. So you're not releasing, you're working like crazy. Interlace the fingers behind your back the weird way. Lift hair for a couple of breaths and move your hands down your butt and engage your back leg and push the right leg back, push the left knee forward, inhale look up, exhale fold as deep as you can.

Deepest might be here but don't relax your shoulders, try to squeeze your shoulders together and look towards your back foot. Make sure you're not collapsing into the inside but you're pushing back towards the pinky toe. So even work in both feet. Two more breaths here, pushing the left knee forward and the right leg back.

And raise up on the inhale, arms up, exhale, catch the right knee, stand straight up, shoulder, chest up and breathe deep through your nose. What we're doing is very simple and that's why it's so damn hard. It's not complicated, it's very simple but it's hard. Stretch your right heel back, karate kick your leg back, toes point straight down, push your left thigh so your chest are straightening forward and your right leg is not bent, it's straight.

Two more breaths here, turn your hips down facing the floor not the right side. Head is long, shoulders back. Stepping back into warrior one for one more round. Inhale arms up, exhale interlace the fingers the weird way, lift all ten toes, look up and inhale, exhale fold your head as deep as you can, squeeze the left hip in, lift inside of the feet, look towards your back leg, lift arms as high as you can.

Inhale arms up, exhale catch your knee again, try back bending here, leaning back towards the heel, lifting your hips and your chest, stretching the front of your hips, keeping the balance. Remember if you feel frustration that's just energy without focus so if you can focus your energy frustration will turn into something more valuable. Stretch back into warrior three again, your left ankle is probably feeling it now, toes are pointing straight down, heel back, straight leg, straight chest, breathe. Warrior one, inhale plank pose, exhale, inhale in plank, exhale lower halfway down, stay here for three, squeeze your elbows, two, one, lower all the way down and either interlace your fingers again or catch your ankles, squeeze your knees together as much as you can and lift your chest up for five, four, three, two, one.

Push back up to all fours, knees together, heels apart, sit back, if your knees are hurting you can do the opposite, you can just sit normally or like this but if you can sit your butt down between your heels and lean back. Warrior ten, squeeze your butt and your belly and lower down. So again we're not practicing yoga as we're practicing strength and conditioning, we're practicing yoga in the exact same way as we practice jiu-jitsu, we practice yoga to have more energy and less resistance in the other activities we do. Yoga is for sure if you ask me the most potent performance enhancing drug in the world, it's illegal, it's healthy, it feels nice and it's a lot cheaper than doing steroids.

Just play with the idea of practicing yoga every day one hour for 365 days, you would have completely changed your outlook and you would have changed the way it feels to live in your own body, just one hour a day, that's one twenty-fourth of your reality. So if you're wasting one hour a day on some stupid shit, I don't know what, if you could just switch that and replace it with one hour of yoga, I can't even begin to tell you how nice that would feel after a year. Let's move into pigeon pose, left knee forward, so your left knee is pointing eleven o'clock, your left foot is pointing like four or five o'clock and you can stay here in kind of a plank pose and you have no problem with your knee here, the more you relax the more pressure you put on the leg and if your knee is hurting you can stay up here or just cheat and go a little bit to the side. Stay here for thirty seconds, relax your head down and let your weight, if you have a heavy butt, perfect, you're going to stretch, the heavier you are the more it's going to stretch.

If you're slipping you might need a better mat or you can place something between your hip and your foot to keep the foot in place, so you can put a block or something under your right hip to block the foot from sliding back. Something I really like to do here is walk the arms out to one side, doesn't matter which side but if you angle the arms you change the stretch a lot. Don't wrinkle your face, don't bite your teeth, just relax. Switching sides, other leg forward, right knee is one o'clock, right foot is like seven or eight o'clock.

If you're hurting move to the right, so your right chest is leaning on your right knee or stand straight like low plank that we did. One aspect of yoga that is really obvious in Jiu Jitsu when you roll with a good black belt is sensibility. If you take one of the top ten guys in your weight category and you roll with them you will see a person who is immensely mature and who really understands on a deep level his physique and his mind. Practicing sensibility in yoga will probably help your Jiu Jitsu more than anything else.

Straighten both legs out in front of you, catch the feet, if you can't catch the feet bend the knees and catch the feet and then sliding the heels forward until you get some tension in the arms. Move your feet until your arms are straight and then kind of lean back stretching both the shoulders, the back and the hamstrings because if you're moving forward here with a round spine that's usually not good but pushing back like this can be really beneficial. And then feet together, heels together, toes apart, move forward as far as you can go, hands on the feet or hands on the ground. Now you're moving forward and relaxing down.

And then for the next pose you can use the wall and throw your legs up the wall or just lay down on your back, grab your calves for a straddle, laying down straddle. So if you have a wall to put the leg against, easy and convenient, then just throw your legs up the wall and stay here for a minute. If you have two belts you can put one belt in each hand and just get an intense stretch here. This pose combined with the next are the two best poses to improve your open guard.

So this one and the next one, happy baby. If you're against the wall you can just slide your heels down and bend your knees for a wall happy baby. But when you grab your feet, if you can catch your feet or your knee pants, push the hips down so you're really stretching your sacrum and your hips towards the ground and almost arching your lower back here. So you're pulling the knees down and your hips down so your arms are working, your hips are relaxing.

And this one combined with the last pose are the two best poses to improve your open guard obviously because this is the exact pose we are in when we play open guard. We stretch the legs and we pull the knees in. We stretch the legs and we pull the knees in. So if you can get super comfy here, if you can get super comfortable here, you can get super confident in your open guard game.

It might take a couple of years but hey, you have all the time in the world, right? You're doing Jiu Jitsu for life so two years is nothing. And then short Shavasana, relax everything down, take a deep inhale and exhale. Don't let anyone or anything disturb you in your Shavasana.

Just ignore it and relax. Inhale and exhale. And sit up on your butt, cross your ankles. Take a moment here.

And always after practice, if there was one pose or one sequence that you want to do but we didn't do, go ahead and do it now. Nobody can stop you. All right? See you guys tomorrow for the next class.

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