Full-Body Front-Line Stretch: 40-Min Yoga for BJJ Flexibility

Makes it a little easier as well when we get to training. It's much easier to control your breath doing yoga than with a hundred kilo brown belt, putting horrible side control on you. Good, as they start to feel a bit more natural now, start getting some movement. So let's move forwards as we look up and push through your back and almost send a wave down your back as you go back.

Inhale when you get to the end of your breath and come forwards. Exhale back. And you'll feel that stretch go right as you look down, you'll feel that stretch go right in the centre of your back, all the way down to lower back as you lean back a little bit. Feel a good stretch there and come forwards.

Obviously watch those knees. If you've got bad knees, don't sit back too far. And really think about bringing your belly in as you go to that cow. Good.

Nice. Okay. So bring your hands forward slightly and just sit your hips back now, but make your knees a little wider. This might make it a little easier for you.

Some of us struggle kind of coming down with your knees in. So if you widen your knees, you might even find it a bit easier to sit back and take a few breaths here. Rest your forehead on the mat if you can. And just feel how tight the fronts of your shoulders and your chest and everything is here.

Now just come up slightly and then come to your fingertips. Okay, so nice and strong on your fingertips here. And now sit yourself back a bit and see if you can just start to open out your chest. You should feel your lats opening out a little bit here, fronts of your shoulders and everything.

And see if you can almost dip your chest down to the mat on your fingertips here, nice and strong. Keep your arms straight as well. Don't let them bend down and keep lowering your weight slightly as long as that's comfortable. Good.

And we'll do a similar thing now. Okay, so look up and imagine you're doing that cowl. Look up towards your hands, tilt your hips. You probably won't look any different, but imagine you're tilting your hips and now reverse that.

So that cat's going to be what really changes you in this position. Now let's go back. Just get some movement with your breath. Really feel your front stretch open as you come up here.

And then back. You should feel your legs start to open a little bit as well. As that stretches now on kind of the insides of your thighs. A few more of them.

And really imagine you're pushing down on the mat as you come up to that cat and back to that cowl. Two more now. It's really important you stay mindful of your breath as well and you don't strain. Now come back up to all fours and then just some natural movements here.

Maybe bring your ribs out to the left and the right. Just feel a bit of a crunch as you do that as well. Just see how your back's feeling. And now however you do, just get to the top of your mat and stand yourself up now.

Okay and we'll do a little bit of a some salutations I guess just to kind of warm us up and then we'll stretch the front out and we'll go over some some adaptations too. Okay so stand up nice and tall. Nice and proud chest here. We're not shrugging forwards.

Nice and proud chest. Arms by your side. Take an inhale. Slide that out.

How's everything feeling? Just kind of check in before we start moving. Next out again. The next inhale open your arms up.

Up to the top. Stretch your arms up. Look up towards your hands. Bring them together.

Exhale come down. So folding at the hips. Bend your knees as well. This is the first time we're doing this today so you're gonna be tight.

Nice and slow. Take a breath here. Take another breath here. Now keep your knees bent and we'll half lift now.

So hands on top of your shins. Activate your back. Shrug your shoulders back. Chest forwards.

Maybe pull the top of your head forward as well so your spine and neck are straight. And back down. Let's do that again. So inhale up.

Now fold. Good. So just take two breaths here again but cross your arms so that the weight of your arms is just kind of stretching your back out nicely. And don't look at me for a sec.

Just let your head hang here. And if your weight is too far back here you might not feel as much of a stretch. So if you think to bring your hips kind of over the balls of your feet you should feel a bit more of a stretch and maybe a bit more in the lower back as well which was really good. So just try that.

And next time you inhale bend your knees a bit more and start to stand yourself up. Widen the hands. Hands together. Exhale.

Hands down to your chest. Good. If you feel a bit lightheaded here just take another breath to calm that down. Okay we'll go again.

Inhale. Exhale hands down. And then inhale up. Exhale fold.

Hinge at the hips. Bend the knees as well. Let's do that half lift one time. Now exhale bend your knees.

Hands down to plank position and just step back to a plank. Good. Breathe here. Exhale slowly lower yourself down.

If you need to use your knees to lower yourself down that's fine. Take an inhale here. Let that out. Take another inhale.

Bring your hands back past your hips. Palms facing down. Lift your shoulders up just like that half lift. Back to your back.

Exhale here. Take another inhale. Exhale down. Hands come back to that press up position and then take an inhale.

Just lift up. Push yourself lightly into the mat. Bridging into the mat as well. Keep breathing.

Back down. Now push yourself up to a plank. Then lift your hips into a downward facing dog. Keep your knees bent here.

Okay if you straighten your legs too early and you're not kind of warm or you're too tight what you do is you straighten your legs and your back will bend a bit. And the idea of this pose you want a nice straight back. You want to feel a good stretch in the hamstrings too. So just walk your heels one at a time here.

Just feel a little stretch in the hamstrings come on. Come back to those bent knees in a second. Good and think about your shoulders again here. So the fronts of your shoulders.

If you're too far forwards in down dog like I'm doing now. I've kind of come forwards I'm halfway between a plank and a dog. You'll probably feel you'll probably get more tired here. Whereas if you're quite strong your shoulders are above your head.

You're driving your shoulders away here and you feel your lats and everything open out again like when we were in that pose a minute or two ago. Good now start bending your knees more and just step in your feet up and walking towards your hands. Okay keep bending your knees. We don't have to go crazy straight leg too early.

And then just when you get there take a big sigh into another fold. Take a breath here and let out. Then next inhale bend your knees. Widen your arms lift yourself up.

Exhale hands down to your chest. Good take a breath here take a second. One more inhale. Next exhale let your hands drop.

Inhale lift them up. Look up towards your palms and then exhale fold. Bend the knees. Inhale half lift.

Remember that breath. Exhale step back into that plank again. Take an inhale in plank. Then exhale lower yourself down again using knees if you need to.

Take a breath here. Sigh that out. Then hands back again and we'll inhale up. Activate your back bridging into the mat.

Exhale down. Let's do that again. Inhale up. Exhale down.

Now we'll do it with our hands where they were when we came down. So inhale up. Exhale down. And you'll notice how much higher you can go.

Just keep breathing here for a second. You'll notice how much higher you can go when you push up to this this kind of cobra position. And when you're in that locust and that's because this locust is kind of all in your back. Activating your back whereas in that cobra we can push ourselves up a bit.

So it's really important to strengthen that part of our back. Okay take another inhale here. Okay so and then inhale push yourself up and back to down dog. Bend your knees again.

Good. Breathe in here. Take another inhale. Exhale again walking your feet towards your hands.

Keep breathing. Getting that nice fold with your knees bent. Where are your hips? Maybe bring your hips over the balls of your feet a little more.

Let your head hang. And just breathe. One more breath in. One more breath out.

Now next inhale bend your knees. Widen your hands. Standing up. Hands together look up and then exhale down.

Hands together look up and then exhale down. Good. How are you feeling here? Just checking.

Hopefully you're getting nice and warm now. We'll get into some other poses in a second. We'll just do one more of them. So take an inhale.

Exhale down. Inhale hands go up. Exhale into the fold. Inhale half lift.

Exhale back to plank. Take a breath in plank. Exhale down. This time we'll inhale into cobra bridging into the mat.

Make sure you activate your back here. Exhale low down. Let's do that two more times. Let's do that two more times.

Lifting with your back muscles. You're not just pushing up. Inhale up. And down.

Okay push yourself back up. Back to down dog. Walk your heels out for a second. Good.

So we've done some fold. We've done some half lifts, some cobras and things. We'll stretch out the hips a little bit now. So come back to a normal dog with your knees bent and then just bring your weight forwards to a plank.

Step the right foot outside the right hand and drop the back knee. If you can't always get there doing that. Just baby steps there okay. Then drop the back knee.

Good. And whatever this position looks like for you, whether you're here, whether you're here, you're still going to get hip stretch okay. And just wherever you are just start to lower your hips towards the ground. Again you don't have to get to this kind of a stretch.

You can be here as long as you feel a bit of a hip stretch in the front of your left hip. That's fine. And then just activate your glutes. So your bum a bit and just bridge down towards the mat and feel that stretch come on a little more.

And then drive your heel towards that back knee now but keep it on the mat and just feel your hamstring activate here. So you've got your glutes engaged, hamstring engaged here. Feeling a bit warm and then shoulders back chest forwards head up. Again if you're like this, if you're tight and you can still feel that activation that's fine.

Take an inhale here and now exhale keep everything activated and just slowly stretch your hips back and straighten the front leg a little bit. You don't have to straighten it perfectly to feel a hamstring stretch. Whatever a hamstring stretch is for you that's enough. Take a breath here.

Exhale forwards. Inhale here. Exhale back. Inhale forwards.

Exhale back and just do that a few times but try and keep those muscles activated and see how that feels. A lot of the time we're in like a passive stretch so we just kind of get somewhere and chill forwards. Whereas if you kind of activate the muscles when you're in the stretch you're activating them when they're in a lengthened position like the hamstring when we're here or when we're forwards. We're activating our glutes to stretch out the hip more and stretch it down to the mat more.

Good. One more inhale forwards. One more exhale back and then we'll come forwards. Step back to that plank.

Come back to a down dog. Come back to a down dog. Knees bent again if you need to and just paddle your heels out again and see how that feels right side compared to left after a bit of movement there. Keep your breathing and now step the left foot forwards.

Good. Drop the back knee and again wherever you are as long as you can feel a stretch start to come on that's fine. So activate your glutes so you're bridging down to the mat and you can feel that stretch in the front of the right hip this time. Take a breath or two here.

Good. You don't have to perfectly look like me. If you're back here and you can feel that stretch coming on that's fine. Like you'll get there eventually or if you're further than me well done.

Good. Now heel towards that knee so activating the hamstring you feel that that kind of trying to curl against the mat. Good. You're activating your glutes and your hamstring.

Now weight back a little bit. Inhale forwards. Exhale back. And it should feel like as you inhale forwards like your heel is pulling you forwards which is activating the hamstring.

Exhale back again. Inhale forwards. And if you're breathing slower than me or a little bit faster that's fine as long as you're controlling your breath. Okay come forwards now.

Step back to plank. Come back to that down dog and just walk one heel out at a time again. And then start walking your feet towards your hands one more time bending your knees a little more each time as you go. Then into that fold.

Good. Two breaths in this fold. Okay next inhale bend your knees. Widen the hands.

Stand up. Hands in prayer in front of you. Good. Step to the top of the mat if you didn't quite make it that time.

Take a breath. See how everything feels as you stood up now. We've just stretched out front of the hips the sores so if you were having a bit of lower back pain that might have even relieved a little bit sometimes tight hip flexors at the front can be a cause of that so keep that in mind and we'll do another couple of stretches for that shortly. Okay take an inhale.

Drop the hands in the exhale. Bring the hands up. And fold. Half lift.

Exhale back to plank. Take an inhale in plank and lower yourself down. Remember bridge into the mat here. Lift the shoulders with your back as well.

Come down. One more. Good this time really shrug your shoulders back on the inhale and down. Okay push yourself up and back to a down dog now.

Good. Okay from here just come forwards. Lower your knees so we're in all fours now and now I want you to lower your forearms to the mat here. Okay like if we step back we'd be in a forearm plank and now we'll look at kind of an a bit of an adaptation for dolphin pose.

So obviously dolphin pose usually you'd come up here you'd be in this kind of down dog but with your forearms it's kind of like going from forearm plank lifting your hips back to like a down dog position and this can be really hard if your shoulders are super tight. So what you can do is to start stretching that out so get your forearms nice and parallel here to begin with and then bring your hips back and feel your shoulders start to open here. It's a little less intense and you can kind of manage your weight whereas if you go straight into dolphin it can be quite a lot if you've got really tight shoulders. And just stretch here and imagine you're stretching your shoulders away almost like you're pushing your shoulders up okay like you're shrugging your shoulders away up to your ears and that should bring on more of a stretch kind of around your armpits and your chest and everything.

Okay a couple of breaths here. If you need to put a bit more weight back and feel more of a stretch you can. And if you feel super tight even here you can bring your hands together it's just going to change where the stretch is a little bit so kind of see where your tightest here. Good and from that using your elbows almost like you're trying to pull your elbows down the mat towards your knees bring yourself forwards to a plank but on your knees.

Take an inhale here. Now we'll exhale slowly back into that again very slowly ease into this take an inhale here take an exhale inhale forwards. Exhaling this plank on our knees. Take an inhale exhale back push your elbows into the mat weight back slightly.

And now we'll skip breath the pause so we'll inhale forwards. Exhale back. And remember inhale forwards elbows towards your knees you can feel that activate and back. Good two more like that really slowly.

Okay bring your knees towards your elbows now and just have it's almost like a bit shorter on all fours. So obviously on my forearms and what you want to do now is palms facing up and your thumbs are facing away from each other on the mat okay lift your hands up slightly and now just drive your thumbs away from each other okay it's not like it doesn't look crazy but I can definitely feel it I can definitely feel a stretch coming on here and just breathe into that. Good one more inhale I know it feels weird. Good exhale ease that off now hands into a prayer down onto the mat.

Just rest your shoulders here you can move from side to side just to kind of see how that feels or maybe some rotations here. Okay let's do that again so forearms parallel palms facing up bring your hands up a little bit and then drive your thumbs away from each other breathing here. And don't think this is like a crazy intense like you have to drive your hands away so far like so hard just enough to feel that that light stretch coming on around your shoulders. One more inhale here and exhale ease off palms together and then just move from side to side a bit.

And when you're doing these obviously the amount of weight you put into your shoulders is up to you you don't need you don't need to be going crazy. Good so now we'll come back to that same kind of dolphin variation we were just doing into this this pose so it's almost forearm plank then lift your hips okay but drop your knees. Good so this is this is puppy pose but it's really good if your shoulders are tight and your lats and everything are tight and it's not as intense as just jumping up into dolphin pose. See how that feels now with a bit of a stretch there after that what we've just done.

Good now bring your weight up and sit back under your heels or sit cross-legged for a second if your knees are a bit jujitsu'd up and just open and close your arms a bit or circle your arms just natural movements here or freestyle as Sebastian normally calls it just give your shoulders a little little bit of love before we get back on them. Give your shoulders a little little bit of love before we get back on them. Rotating the other way now. Good back to plank and then lift your hips and back to dog.

Hopefully your shoulders feel a bit more open in dog now a bit more stretched out which is cool mainly the fronts of them kind of well your chest and your lats as well should feel a bit more stretched out here. Good okay bring your left knee down your right knee forwards okay so last week we stretched out the hips a bit we're still stretching the front out here so we'll do another adaptation and I know a lot of people struggle with this pose if they're tight or if their knees hurt so we'll kind of we'll go over how you can get into that or start working towards this kind of thing okay so just because you're up here to begin with doesn't mean you're not going to be able to get back so a good way you can work towards stretching that is something we did last week which was that kind of that lizard lunge where we're back here okay so try that video if you want to stretch out a bit there or you can just bring your hands down okay my hands are next to my knee here and then just start walking your weight back and if you tense your bum here as you go back I haven't actually sat on my heel yet and I'm getting into that stretch nicely okay activate your glute which will stretch out the soles the front of the hips again and your quads as well and if you push your foot into the mat as well you'll feel your quad fire up a little more and breathe here it's really important that you don't do this when you're here because you feel a little pinch in your back so you want to activate your glutes nice and with this stretch you might be here today but the more and more you do it eventually your hips are going to open out quads are going to open out and you can keep stretching and sit back and start you see people leaning back and like laying on their back here and things okay but it's all a kind of continuation from just getting up here seeing where you're at seeing how tight you are and feeling that stretch come on too often we see like the end pose and not like the way there and just breathe here good and if you can't come back up without sitting down too much you can just bring your knee your foot out watching your knee and sit down okay let's go for the other side so right foot sorry left foot forwards right knee down and we'll start off here hands next to your knee walk your hands back and bridge okay should feel like you're bridging your hips up and push that right foot into the mat for your quad stretch here you can also open your chest out as well if you're like this with your shoulders forwards push your shoulders back and you feel a nice stretch in your chest too good another inhale here another exhale good and again if you can't sit yourself up because you feel like you're gonna hurt your knee just a bit of weight in your left foot hips up and other foot comes under okay especially if you've got meniscus issues or whatever it's hard to sit on your heels too some of us when we start you just see we can't sit on our heels yet that's quite a good stretch for that and just kind of getting getting towards that okay come back to plank now lower yourself down and now stay bridging into the mat shrug your shoulders up to the ceiling and lift again you might get a little more lift now you've opened up the front take an inhale exhale down take another inhale and down okay bring your hands in front of you and now start walking your elbows under your shoulders start walking your elbows under your shoulders okay we'll get to this sphinx position if you're super tight here and you don't feel like you're getting much of a kind of back bend that's fine you can have your elbows forwards a little bit here but wherever you get to try and again lift your belly like i said at the start shoulders back chest forwards and then imagine your elbows are driving down towards your feet in the mat so you're it's almost like you're pulling yourself up the mat don't actually pull yourself up the mat but similar activation and you should feel a really nice stretch here okay one more inhale here exhale and then activating your core the same way you would in cap so we're not just pushing up i'm activating my core looking towards it or towards my belly and lifting my hips up okay now walk your knees towards your elbows a bit sit your hips back and feel your lower back open out a little bit okay sometimes in a back bend because your lower back is kind of i guess compressed a little bit it's nice to just counter that and open out and again like i said at the start open knees out if you find it hard here should feel a little bit easier maybe rearrange a little bit and see what's comfortable for you and just drive your hands up but resting your elbows on the mat forehead on the mat as well take a few breaths here just kind of countering what we've just done one more inhale another exhale good sit yourself up now into a kind of cross-legged position and now just hands behind you shoulders back and open your chest out here take a few breaths and it's just important to remember like there's always an adaptation for getting somewhere you can't just expect to be able to do a pose so if there's any poses that you're you're struggling with or you feel a bit too tight for like feel free to ask one of us or ask in the comments of this and then you can start kind of working towards things and feeling better about about your yoga for bjj usually you can make things accessible or find somewhere that's tight and kind of work on loosening that good hands in front of you now and then just let your head hang slightly here your back open out take a few breaths it's kind of like if you look at yoga as just for flexible people it's kind of like saying only strong people go to the gym you know you when you go to the gym you start off lifting you know not much and you're paranoid everyone's looking at you but no one cares everyone's just doing their own thing but eventually you build up your strength and you're going to be able to do it and you're going to be able to do it and you're going to be able to do it and you're going to be able to do your own thing but eventually you build up strength you put a few plates on the bar or or whatever you're working towards it's a similar thing with yoga we've all got to start somewhere you bring your chest sorry your chin to your chest you could bring your chest to your chin somehow i'm sure but chinch your chest and now just lower your head down feel a bit of a stretch in the back of your neck. And then just sit yourself back up here, nice and straight. So that is it for today.

Thank you guys for getting involved. Hope you enjoyed the class with a few adaptations. I'll stick to these, they seem to be a bit popular. And it's really nice to show some adaptations for people and have people getting involved and asking questions and stuff.

So keep practicing, keep bettering yourselves and stay on the mat and I'll see you guys in the next video.