Foundation Week Day 1: 35-Min Building Blocks for BJJ

Grab your legs, rock up and down. Inhale when you sit up, exhale when you roll back. Sit all the way up, hands behind you, lift your hips, make circles with your hips. Low first towards the heels, switching directions.

And then go as high as you can and do the same thing, maybe get up on your toes, switching directions, stretching your shoulders, engaging your butt. Sit down, cross your ankles, push your knees down and circle your chest. Inhale when you go up, exhale when you go down. So neck and hips and lower back.

Two more. Switching the legs, switching direction. If you're incredibly stiff in the hips, use your hands to push away so you're not using all the weight of your upper body to stretch, you're balancing out the stretch with your arms. Sit back up, hands behind you again, knees from side to side.

So your knees should be touching the sole of your foot here. Inhale up and exhale twist, push the hips to the side. Nice. All fours.

Five push-ups on your knees. Inhale. Exhale down. Inhale up.

Exhale down. Elbows into the side all the time. Exhale down. Inhale up.

Exhale down. One more. Inhale and exhale. Interlace your fingers behind your back, stretch your arms as much as you can, lift your chest, but relax your neck.

If your neck is tense, move from side to side. Stretch it out. Hands down, toes in the floor. Inhale, exhale, push back up to plank, back to down dog.

Push your butt back. Look back. So down dog is moving away from plank. You set up in plank, but then you move your head as much away from the hands as possible towards your feet.

The reason people don't do this is because the more you lean back, the more you push into your hands and the more you start slipping. So you need a good mat or you need a sticky surface to practice on. On your toes, inhale. Exhale plank.

Inhale down dog. Exhale plank. One more inhale. Exhale plank.

Side plank with the left arm up. You can place your right knee in the floor and open up here. So you're using the knee in the floor to push the hips open. Look up and stretch your left chest.

You can even bend your arm here. Switching sides. Right arm up. Push your hips forward and up and open up and twist your chest.

Back to plank and down dog. Let's do a couple of quick sun salutation A. Bend your knees. Inhale.

Exhale, walk or jump forward. Inhale halfway up. Exhale, fold. Inhale all the way up.

Stretch your arms up. Exhale interlace your fingers behind your back. Stretch it up. Inhale look up.

Exhale bend your knees and fold your head down towards your chin. Take a breath here. Inhale. Exhale plank.

Inhale plank. Exhale floor. Cobra pose. Inhale.

Exhale down dog. Roll back and forward to plank a couple of times more. Inhale butt up. Exhale roll forward.

Inhale. Stop in plank. Move into full side plank. Hug your shoulder back.

Make sure your hand is in front of your shoulder. Stretch the left arm up. Take two breaths here. Switching sides.

Hips forward, hips up. Shoulder behind the hand. Stretch it up. Lift, lift your right hip.

Back to down dog. Take a breath here. Bend your knees look forward. Inhale.

Exhale walk or jump. Inhale halfway up. Hands back. Exhale head towards the feet.

Inhale all the way up. Stretch your arms up. Exhale hands to chest. Interlace the fingers behind your back.

Push your hips forward. Lean back. Inhale. Exhale fold.

Hands down. Inhale. Inhale plank pose. Inhale look forward.

Exhale lower everything down in one piece. Inhale cobra or up dog. Exhale down dog. Stretch your right leg out.

Bend your knee and open your hips. If you want to drop your left elbow you can. Keep pushing into your right hand. Roll your knee to your shoulder.

Take a breath here. Set your right foot down in front of your mat on the outside. Lower your hips. Rock up and down and side to side.

If you want to place your knee down and grab your back foot why not. Stepping back to down dog. Left leg up. Bend your knee.

You can drop your elbow down and push through the forearm. Keep pushing through your left hand. Roll your knee to your shoulder. Hold here for a breath.

Place the foot down. Up and down side to side. If you want to grab your back foot you are probably doing that already. Stepping back to dog.

Take a big breath here. Bend your knees look forward. Inhale to prep and exhale jump. Exhale half way up and exhale fold.

Bend your knees and place your feet in your palms and push your toes into your wrists and pull your head down. It's not important to have straight legs just lean into your hands and massage your hands with your feet. Inhale all the way up. Keep your arms up bend your knees take three breaths in chair pose.

You can push your thighs down if you want to lengthen your lower back. It's very common that you bend your elbows here. No no no stretch your arms. Spread your fingers and look up.

Inhale reach up. And exhale fold. Inhale half way up. Step your feet slightly back.

Lean into your elbows light on your toes heavy in your hands. Keep your elbows bent and squeeze your inner thighs and your lat into the midline. So hug everything in from the sides towards the middle. Inhale plank exhale.

All the way down to the floor. Stretch your arms out behind you rotate the wrists lift legs take a breath here. Cobra or up dog inhale. Exhale down dog.

Stretch your right leg up inhale. Exhale knee towards your chest try to keep the knee up from the floor. Inhale foot to ceiling. Exhale knee to nose place the foot between the hands.

Back knee down push your knee away so your belly moves away from your thigh but still push your hips forward and pull your belly away. So the hips moves down the belly moves up. Try to engage everything in your hip region and reach your arms up for two big in an exhales. Hands down vinyasa half way down.

Cobra or up dog. Down dog. Exhale knee to chest lift the knee away from the floor. Inhale up exhale knee to nose place the foot between the hands.

Back knee down so lower your hips pull your belly away creating distance between the thigh and your belly. Engage everything and stretch your arms up your pinkies are rotating forward your thumbs are rotating back lift your arms relax your neck. Vinyasa plank half way down. Inhale look up exhale down dog.

Grab your mat if you have one and push your head back as far as you can go take three breaths in a exagerated down dog. Release the mat bend your knees look forward three jumps kick yourself in the butt one two three and jump to a squat. Take five breaths here push your knees away and your chest up. Sit down on your butt both pose everything together spread your toes chest over knees feet also over knees keep the balance for three.

Lift your chest now flex the feet stretch your legs slightly off of the floor round your spine and lay down on your lower back shoulder blades are not touching the floor three Exhale roll up to a squat feet together arms up chair pose two one and stand up hug your right knee in grab your knee with your fingers lean back as much as you can push your hips stretch the front of the standing leg. Lean back stretch your left arm out to the side open your knee out to the side. Don't lean sideways try to stay exactly as if you were in mountain pose just lift the knee and keep everything neutral. Put your right heel towards your butt grab your foot with your right hand you can stay here push your hips forward so you're really stretching the front of your hips if you want to go further or deeper you can do so so you can stay up here you can go to 90 degrees so you can go all the way down.

And karate kid pose inhale and exhale shake it switching sides left leg up lean back as much as you possibly can push your hips forward. If the balance is not there grab onto a curtain a girlfriend anything that's close by hold on to it or improve your balance without help. Knee out to the side exactly as if you were standing on two legs just knee out to the side keep your balance improve your balance breathe. Heel to butt catch your left foot stay here or lean forward.

And karate kid pose inhale exhale shake it out sun salutation again inhale arms up exhale down inhale halfway jump all the way back to your belly cobra up dog down dog stretch your right leg up inhale exhale knee to nose one more time inhale exhale knee to nose last time inhale exhale knee to nose foot between the hands warrior two left foot sideways hips open right knee forward lift all 10 toes lift the palms up and lower down as much as you can and squeeze the feet together so you're engaging your scrotum area like really pull everything together there. Lean forward and drop stance bend your left knee squat down back to warrior two lean forward drop stance forward drop stance all the way up flying lift your leg out behind you stretch everything out and lock your standing knee or keep a micro bend in it and standing splits hands down open your hips as if we were doing half moon pose but keep your hands down open up everything you can don't bend the left knee keep it straight and do a couple of jumps one two and three plank pose inhale exhale hold low push up cobra or up dog inhale exhale child's pose you can roll backwards and forwards a few times juicing up your spine down dog left leg out inhale exhale knee to chest inhale leg up up exhale knee to nose last one inhale exhale foot between the hands warrior two left knee forward right foot flat extreme straight in the right leg make sure you're not tilting forward lift your hips up palms facing up go deep and squeeze your thighs together move your feet slightly to the right drop stance back to warrior two lean forward drop stance lean forward drop stance all the way up to flying stretch your right leg back spread all 10 fingers all 10 toes lift and stretch standing splits open hips lift your right leg and keep it straight you can bend your standing leg place your palms flat into the ground make sure you have distance between the foot and hands move the foot back or the hands forward if you need space and three jumps one two and three three plank inhale exhale all the way down stay down either interlace your fingers behind your back or grab onto your feet take five breaths in a back bend here using your back muscles to lift yourself off on the floor two more ah back to down dog left knee forward pigeon pose so your belly should be over your calf muscle if this is too much just angle yourself to the side but i want to just slide back as far as you can go without feeling pain in the meniscus you can stay in an up dog like this or you can go down to a low plank resting your forehead on your fists take five deep air ah back to down dog slowly switching sides if your left knee is far out to the left it changes the stretch completely try to keep the left knee towards the right so towards the midline many poses have their own personalities and they might seem quirky and awkward when you first meet them before you get to know them but they can have a really like deep and profound change and you can really when you get to know them they can really become your best friends and for me pigeon pose has been like that you hate it and then you don't hate it as much and then it's not too bad and then you actually like it and then you're addicted for life one more sit down on your butt and stretch your legs out sideways a back bend first lean back lift your chest take three and then side stretch slide your hands down the leg go as far as you can go stretching your the opposite side of your body if it's too much you support yourself in the floor and the arms are pushing away while the upper body is trying to reach forward so you're doing two opposite things at the same time you're leaning forward and also pushing back so switching sides if your spine is really round here try to lengthen it if it's really long let it round so nothing is perfect it all depends on where you start and where you're going what your body needs sometimes it needs exactly what you're giving to it and sometimes it needs the last the thing you want the least so if your side body is super tight here you might feel like no i shouldn't do side stretches because it hurts so much but compared to what compared to being stiff all the time and the stiffness spreading from one muscle to several other muscles sooner or later you have no idea what's actually stiff it's just like everything feels weird so even though this this might be super intense and feel bad right now in five seconds when we release the pose you're gonna feel the difference back up to a seat rock from side to side side lay down on your back interlace your fingers under your butt move your shoulders together lift your hips for a back bend squeeze your butt push your feet down into the floor so happy baby pose again grab your feet four more and lay down on your back take a couple of minutes here to relax in shavasana so stretch your arms overhead take two here squeeze yourself together into a tight ball knees and forehead together and sit back up sit for a second and feel the magic of yoga not only in your body but in your mind and soul hands together in front of your chest bow your head down and be truly grateful for being alive and being healthy and being smart enough to dedicate a part of your day to your body, mind and soul Namaste and see you in the next video or on the mat