Guard Flexibility for BJJ: 56-Min Full Yoga Class

Just a little bit of this to go for a solid result. So the flexible guard, the calm speaks for itself. Like it's very beneficial to have flexibility when you're glad to work. The flexibility is obviously in the hips, but also in the whole space, which is part of the legs of course.

Also, I think flexibility in the spine can be also really beneficial. So we want to rest it on the legs and hips, but also a little bit, especially the upper back. We're slowly moving each side, the first part where we relax. So you say a round on the bottom or just a little bit of a round.

A little bit of a round to quiver the body weight to add a little load into the drills. Now we place the lift of the foot onto the rocks. So the lift is onto the side. And then you grab the outside of your right foot.

If that's far, you can use your towel or you can grab your pants or your ankle, wherever you can get a nice hold on the right leg. Your left hand can rest on the front of the left hip or your left thigh, whatever feels good. And then just push the right knee towards the floor and allow the left knee to pop up a little bit. And then slowly taking the leg up and down again.

Just doing that a couple of times, rocking up and down. And as we move, also trying to just have a nice, stable inhale and exhale through the nose. It's really nice to be present when we move so we can notice things within our own bodies. If we're somewhere else in the mind, it's hard to really get to know ourself, our limitations, our strengths.

So we're going to put on a little bit more. So we're taking the right leg out to the side. Again, use your towel or grab the pants and then bending the knee and pulling the foot now towards your belly, your chest. Just 50 to 80 percent force, not 100 percent.

And then stretching the leg straight at its base. As it will go out to the right. Bending the right knee, pulling the right foot towards your upper body, and then stretching the right leg out to the side. Just two more times.

And then slowly, again, just bringing the right knee up. And then keeping the bend in the right knee. Now you're lifting the left knee and putting the left knee on the right ankle. So you have your figure four here.

Grab behind the left thigh or over the left shin and gently rock from side to side. If your neck is tense, maybe roll the hand from left to right. And if you're laying like this, maybe you have something to put under your head so you're not creating any more tension in the neck. Just taking your time to slowly open up the hips.

So we're not going either full force or full speed. We're allowing the body just to trust in whatever we're going to put it through. So the muscle relaxes. And you relax.

We don't want to tense up and get even tighter. Taking one more deep breath here in this figure four. And keep the figure four, but release the hands. Put the left foot down to the floor and then see if you can bring the right foot down to the floor.

And take a few breaths here into the wherever you feel the stretch. In this pose, I like to really try to relax the hip, relax the back. So allowing the back to feel really, really heavy against the floor and really relaxing the right hip. One more deep breath.

And then slowly taking the legs back and shake out the legs a little bit. And then you put the right edge on your right foot onto the floor, half-waterfly, and then grabbing the left side of your left foot with your left hand or towel, pants, whatever you can grab. And then slowly guiding the left knee towards the floor, allowing the right leg to move up and slowly rocking up and down. So you're basically just giving yourself and your hips a little massage.

And I'm sure if you play guard, this position is familiar to you and you can enjoy it now without someone trying to ping you. Keeping your breath now nice and steady. And staying present within the movements so you get to know your body. And notice your own mobility and flexibility and its limitations.

Now we're adding the stretch out to the left. So straightening the left leg as much as it can go out to the left. And then now bringing the left foot towards your upper body, pushing the left leg out to the side. And bringing it in so you're not pushing everything you have.

You're just finding 50 to 80 percent. We have two more. Next time you have your left knee bent, keep it bent. Bring the right knee to your left ankle and finding the figure four here, grabbing behind your right thigh or front of the shin.

And just gently rocking from side to side. And notice if you have different sensation from the left side to your right side. Without thinking like, oh, this is the bad side, the other side was the good side. Just, okay, this was different.

And notice so you know what you have to work with, like there are imbalances. It's good to know that you're still aware of them. So we can adjust. So it's like a little bit more to the side where you feel committer.

Really, you'll try to figure out why is this so tighter. Maybe you got a long smidgen or just a little bit of a ripper or something. This is our place, so if either of you just took that to me, I would state that it's very glistening. Big breath.

Release. Skate the figure four right foot to the floor. And lift the foot towards the right to the floor. And again, trying to allow the back to be really heavy and relax the hip.

Notice if you're kind of holding yourself off the floor, trying to drop the weight onto the floor. Also your belly, can you relax your belly? One more deep breath. And slowly release, bringing both legs in.

And now angling the right leg like we did in the figure four, but taking both your hands like a fork underneath the back here. And extending your left leg. Just dropping the left leg over the floor. Trying to pull your shoulder blades off the floor.

So you engage your core and see how you can do it. Or you think, bring the leg to the forehead and bring the forehead to the leg. And see, very good. And then you switch legs, rotate and then lift.

And just kick the weight with your arms. And in your own pose, we keep engaging the core, pulling the leg towards her. And keep the bones away from you. And then relaxing down.

Taking the legs and then, so you're grabbing the feet or the ankles. You come up, see if you can go from rounding to straightening the back. And then rounding back again. So you're rolling, coming up, balancing on your hips, trying to straighten.

And this time, see if you can straighten the right leg out to the side. Maybe it's still a bend in the knee, that's no problem. Trying to find the balance. Rounding first, rolling back, rolling back up, straighten first.

And then see if the left leg wants to go out to the side and take a breath. Left leg comes back in, rounding first, rolling back. And this time rolling up, see if you can straighten, find your balance. And maybe both legs can keep a bend in the knees or maybe they go a little bit straight.

Take a breath wherever you are. And then bring the legs in. And we are moving into our 90-90 here. So you're taking your right foot in front and the left leg behind you here.

So finding your balance here. See if you now can sit up straight and lift the right leg off the floor. Take the right leg out in front, so your toes are pointing to the right. But now you're trying to turn the toes so they're pointing as much up as you can.

And then rest the leg down. You can support yourself with the right hand next to your right hip. It can be a lot on the inside of the left hip and the right hamstring here. Take a moment.

Inhale, reach the left arm up. Exhale, just lean from the hip as far forward as you can. And take a moment wherever you grab, if it's the knee or the toes. Take a moment, take a breath.

And come up again with the torso. Again, push down into the hip. See if you can lift the leg. Turn the toes to the right again.

Bend the right knee. Try to lift the foot up and then place it down. Same thing now with the left leg. Sitting up straight.

See if you can lift up. Out to the side, so your toes are pointing now forward. And then see if they can point up. And take the leg down.

Keep the right leg as it is. You can have your left hand next to your hips. Inhale here. And exhale, reaching from the hip.

Forward, forward, forward. Take a moment, take a breath. Inhale, coming back up. Exhale, pushing into the hips.

Leaning a little bit to the right. See if you can lift up the foot. Toes forward again. Bending the knee and placing the left knee down.

So one more round. Lifting up. Toes to the right. Toes up.

Right hand can support. Exhale, reaching. Take a moment, take a breath. Inhale, coming back up.

Pushing down. Lifting the leg. Toes to the right. Bending the right knee, keeping the lift.

And you decide when you want to put it down. Left leg up. Toes forward. Toes up.

Foot down, keeping the right leg. Left hand supports. Inhale, reach. Up and exhale, reach forward, forward, forward.

And take a moment, take a breath. And then coming back up. Last time now. Torso forward.

Lifting the leg. Toes forward. Bending the knee. And knee down.

And see if we can switch the side without using the hands now. So you're sitting here. You're lifting the legs. Placing the left foot forward.

Right foot back. We do that a couple of more times. Leaning a little bit to the left. Placing the right leg in front.

Left leg back. Making sure you're not like this. Keeping the 90 degree angle. Switching.

Switching. Switching. And this time we're staying on our left side. So same here.

I'm sitting down. I'm lifting the left leg off the floor. Reaching the left leg forward. So I'm going to start first to the left.

And then I try to turn the toes up. Place the left leg down. Left hand can support. Inhale.

Right arm up. Exhale. Reaching from the hips forward, forward, forward. So I'm not just rounding down.

I'm reaching up, up, up and forward. And taking a moment here. Breathing into wherever you need to breathe into. And the next inhale coming up.

Lifting the leg. Turning the toes and bending the leg. And you decide when the leg comes down. And then lifting the right leg.

Reaching the right toes. So they're reaching forward first. And then they turn up. And right foot comes down.

Right hand supports. Left arm up. And reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching. Grabbing wherever you can.

Taking a moment. Taking a breath. Coming back up. Turning your torso.

Pushing down into your hips. Lifting the leg. Turning the toes forward. Bending the knee.

Placing the leg down. One more round. Lifting left leg. Toes are to the left first.

Turning them up, up, up, up, up. And then placing the left leg down. Inhale, reaching up. Exhale, reaching forward.

Take a breath. Coming back up. Pushing down so it's easier to lift up. Turning the toes.

Bending the knee. And placing the left leg down. Last one. Lifting the right leg.

Straightening the leg. Turning the toes. Placing the legs down. Right hand supports.

Oh, folding over the right leg. Take a moment. And then coming back up. Pushing down so you can lift up.

Turn the toes forward. And bend the knee. Coming back to center. You can take both legs in front and just come on to all fours.

I'm just going to move through Cat-Cow a little bit. So you spread your fingers. And you start to roll through your spine. Pushing the floor away.

And then you roll. Round and round. Maybe you want to go forward and back. So just getting some big movements into the spine.

If you go one way, make sure you also go the other way. And we meet in neutral. Taking the right hand. Reaching the right arm to the sky.

So we're going to take care of the upper back a little bit. Exhale like you're trying to put the right shoulder to the floor. Inhale up. Exhale right shoulder to the floor.

One more time. Inhale up. This time right shoulder to the floor and staying here. Maybe you want to take your left foot.

Maybe trying to put it towards your right hand. Maybe you keep the left hand for support. Or inhale, take the left arm up and over. Exhale, close your eyes.

Open. Exhale, close. Inhale, open. Exhale, close.

Reeling back, pushing the left hand into the floor. And coming back up with the torso. So you have your left foot out to the side. Right knee is on the floor.

And here you just walk your arms forward. Maybe the forehead or top of the head to the floor. Just really breathing into the upper back. And then keeping the legs, just walking the hips back.

So you're sitting back onto your right heel. Taking a moment here. Trying to push the outside of your left foot into the floor if it's possible. One more deep breath.

And then lifting off the right heel. And pulling the left knee next to the right. Inhaling, taking the left arm up to the sky. Exhale, taking left shoulder down.

Inhale, up again. Exhale, left shoulder down. One more time, inhaling up. Exhaling, left shoulder stays down.

Maybe you take your right foot to your left hand. And you can stay with your right hand down. Or you can inhale, right arm up. Exhale, close.

Inhale, up. Exhale, close. Inhale, open. And exhale, hand comes down.

Pushing into the right hand so you're keeping the legs as they are. And then walking the torso forward. This time a little bit more dynamic. So we're going to round in.

So you're gazing toward your own belly. And on your inhale, reaching the chest forward. Maybe shin down. Exhale, rounding the upper back, gazing toward your belly.

Inhale, chest or chin. Maybe forehead, whatever feels okay for your back. One more. And then we walk and sit back onto our left heel, keeping the right leg as it is.

Trying to push the outside of the right foot down to the floor. Lifting the inner arch of the right leg. Just breathing here. And then slowly coming back up.

Pulling the right knee next to the left. And we're moving into a little series. So first just tucking the toes, lifting the hips up and back. Just taking a moment to walk, stretch out the soles of the feet, the back.

And then lifting the right leg up, open up the hip. Take a big stretch into your right side. Big breath here, bending the right knee. And then rolling the right knee forward, stepping the right foot to the outside of the right hand.

And come onto your fingertips here. Chest reaches forward, trying to keep the neck long. And then inhale here. Exhale, just tap the left knee down towards the floor.

Inhale, lifting the left knee. Exhale, try to put the left knee even further back. Inhale, lifting. One more time, reaching the left knee far back and down.

And staying here, maybe come onto your palms. Maybe flatten out the back foot. Just breathing to the front of the left hip. One more deep breath.

And then you just stay as you are. I'm just going to show from another angle. So you're going to take your right hand to the inside of your right knee or thigh. And just lean away.

Come onto the edge on your right foot. Lean away, take a breath. And then close it, rounding. Open, edge on the foot, lean away.

And then pushing the hips down, the chest up. And then pull everything in. One more time. And now this time, you're keeping the leg out to the side.

You're taking your right arm and reaching it back. And then coming all the way, I'll show from this side. Coming all the way, tucking your back toes. Taking your left heel down, turning the toes 45 degrees on the right foot.

And then you're lifting and rolling onto the left heel. So you're sitting in what we call the kung fu stretch. You can support yourself with the hands or not. Maybe you come all the way down to seated.

And then we come around again, back to the rotating lizard. Rolling on the back foot, rolling on the front foot, reaching the arm back. Turning again, both hands on the inside. Rolling onto the left heel, toes 45 degrees on the right foot.

Make sure the knee is in the same line. And then rolling on with the toes facing up on the left foot. Maybe you touch the floor, maybe you stay leaning forward. One more time.

Coming back all the way into our rotating lizard here. And coming back to center. And now we stay here in the lizard. Left knee is down.

If it's an option for you to come down onto your left elbow, do so. It's easier if you lean a little bit out to the left. If not, you just stay onto your left hand. We're going to lift the left foot as close as you can towards your left hip.

And then turn it over to the right and tap the top of the right foot down. Lift it up, turn it back, release it down. Do that a couple of more times. Rotating it all the way back towards the right.

Lifting up and down. And next time your left foot is pointing over to the right, come back onto your hands. And just walk yourself towards your left knee so you can come all the way up. Now you should have your left hip above your left knee and your right knee somewhere around your right ankle.

Okay. Now we're going to lean the hips towards the right heel. Now, as much as they want to go. Leaning forward and then pushing off the right leg.

Taking your right knee now, roll onto the inside of the right foot and see how far your right knee can go without pain. Without pain. Coming up, rolling onto the heel so the toes are pointing forward. Right knee follows, hips follows.

Pushing off the leg, turning to the inside of the foot, rotating the knee to the left and down. Pulling it up, toes, knees to the right, hips to the right. Two more rounds. Do it slow with control so you don't feel any pain in the right knee.

Last round. Next time you have your right knee above your right ankle again. Take the right hand, maybe on the fingertips, down to the floor, left arm up. Inhale here.

Exhale like we did on all fours. The left arm underneath, maybe the left shoulder goes down, maybe it's a meter over the floor, doesn't matter. Just go to your depth. Inhale, reach the arm up again.

Exhale, you thread it down to your capacity. Inhale, reaching up. Exhale, threading under. Last one.

Inhale. And exhale. Coming back, putting both hands to the floor. Left foot moves back.

Put your hips down and reach the right leg, right arm back towards the left leg. Now you try to bend the knee. You can use your towel again here if the foot is far away. So you can grab the towel or the left foot with the right hand.

And breathe, breathe, breathe into your hips. So maybe your hip flexor, your front thighs are mostly tired from all the guard work. Maybe they are weak, maybe they are stiff. But no matter what, it's really good to get movement in there.

And the best of all, get some awareness into these areas. And then slowly release, left leg. And taking the right leg straight, so you're into like a half split here. Now take your right hand, thumb face down a little bit to the right.

And the other four fingers, grab underneath your right foot. The thumb is on the front of the foot. And now you turn your right foot to the right. And you take it up.

Turn it and take it up. Do that a couple of more times. And then on the last one, stay there. Breathe.

This is a rotation that is very important in our guard, in our open guard. And slowly come up with the toes and come back to all fours. Shake it out a little bit. And coming back to your down dog when you're ready.

I'm just pedaling out the feet and the knees and the hips. And we are going towards the other side, lifting the left leg up. Open up the hips. Take a deep stretch into the left side.

Deep breath. And bringing the left foot to the outside of the left hand. Into your lizard. Coming onto your fingertips.

So instead of rounding here, trying to reach the chest forward. Taking an inhale and on your exhale, tapping the right knee down towards the floor. Inhale, lifting the knee. And on your exhale, back and down.

Inhale, up. Exhale, even further back and down. Inhale, up. Last one, further back.

And right knee can come down, relaxing the right foot. And then taking your left hand to the inside of your left leg. Pushing the left leg away, leaning away from the left leg. And then pulling it in, rounding the back, gazing to your belly.

Two more times. Out to the side, leaning away. And pulling it in. This time leaning away.

And now allow the left hand to move back towards your right foot. And this time taking the left arm to the floor, tucking the back toes. Coming onto your right heel, spinning the toes on the left foot 45 degrees. And then toes on the right foot goes up.

You can stay here, support with your arms. Or go all the way down to seated. And then same thing coming back, hands to the front. Rotating right hip down, left arm towards the right leg.

Again, coming around. Walking, maybe sitting all the way down. And coming up. And this time, coming up.

And this time coming to the front here. Right knee comes down. Right elbow, if possible, goes to the floor. The further away the easier it is.

Or stay onto your right arm. And here, take your right foot off the floor. And turn it towards your left and tap it over to the left. Lift it back up.

Rotate and relax it behind you. Repeat that a couple of times. Really pull it up close to your hip. Guide it over to the left.

Pull it up. Guide it over and back. And one more time. Pull it close.

And over to the left. Walk your hands towards your right knee. And come up so you are right above your knee with your right hip. Left toes, left knee pointing forward.

And now start to bring your hips towards your left heel. And then push off. Come onto your heel. Left toes and left knee.

Start to move towards now the ground and to the right. Tapping the knee as close to the ground as possible. Without any pain. Make sure you don't turn your knee.

Turn the whole foot. And the hips follow forward and down. Pushing off the left leg. Turning the toes and the knee.

Tapping the left knee. And coming around one more time. Hips moving just as far down as they can. And turning.

Tapping the knee. And coming forward. This time we are moving into the upper back again. Taking the fingertips on the left hand down.

Right arm up, reaching, opening the front. Inhaling here. Exhaling, working the right shoulder towards the floor. Inhaling, reaching up, opening up.

Exhaling, reaching. Again, inhale up. Exhale, reaching, maybe touching the floor. Inhale up.

Exhale down. And now coming forward with the hands. Releasing the back foot. Make sure the hips are low.

Taking your left hand up and back. And bending the right knee. Catching the foot or using your towel around the right foot. Breathing into your front of the hip.

Front of the thigh. And notice again any difference from your left side to your right side. Without the need to label the good the bad, the right the wrong. Just making observations.

One more deep breath. And slowly releasing the right foot. So you're straightening the left leg now. Flexing the left foot.

Taking your hand, turning it so the four fingers are on the inside. The thumb on the front. And then you're opening your left foot to the left. And turning it back in.

Opening and back in. Couple of more. And on the last one to stay here. Keep the foot.

Breathe. And bringing the foot back. Taking it in. Shaking it out if you need.

And when you're ready. Coming back onto a seated position. This time finding your straddle legs. So just straddling the legs apart.

As much as you are comfortable with. So as much as you can without feeling you're falling back. So using your hands lift the hips up. And see if you can scoot the hips back.

So you're more on the front than onto your tailbone. And when you feel like you have this natural lean forward. We stay here. We keep the legs active.

See now if you can point the toes. You really engage the front of the legs. Make spider fingers in front of you. And you're allowed to lean a little bit back now.

So push into the hands. Lean a little bit back and see if you can lift the legs. Place the legs down. Reach the arms up.

And then you clasp the elbows as you go forward and down. As much as you can. So you really keep the legs active. You can flex or point.

Just keep the legs active. Reach, reach, reach. And then come back up. Release the hands.

Spider fingers point. Lifting up. Placing the legs down. Clasping elbows.

Forward, forward, forward. Keeping the legs active. Down, down, down. Lifting yourself up.

One more round. Active point. Lifting. Releasing.

Up. And down. Coming up. This time turning to your right leg.

So you're rotating. Spider fingers on each side of the left or right thigh. Again, pushing down, lifting up. Lift.

Elbows. Folding. Up. Spider fingers.

Lift. Elbows. Folding. One more.

Spider fingers point. Lift. And fold. Coming up.

Rotating towards your left. Spider fingers point. Lifting the left. Clasping the elbows.

Reaching, reaching, reaching down. Forward. And up. Spider fingers pushing down to lift up.

Lift. Clasping and reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Last round. Spider fingers push.

Lift. And forward, forward, forward, down, down, down. And coming back up. Flexing the feet.

Maybe you can scoot the hips a little bit more forward now. Either stay with the hands behind you here. Or walk them to your forearms. Or maybe the full pancake.

Wherever you feel like you can be for five deep, deep breaths. And if you're far down in your pancake, just take your time slowly walking the hands towards your body again. If you're far down in your pancake, just take your time slowly walking the hands towards your body again and then you can scoop behind your thighs, lean back and give yourself a little squeeze and then we find the 90-90 one more time. So same thing here, just clasp your elbows or grab your elbows, turning as far as you can go to your left with the right foot forward and then forward so you're more or less aligned with your right leg and then lean over your right leg so keep pushing down into your legs, lean forward, maybe tap the forearms down and come back up, pull the arms behind you, forward coming down tap, pushing down to lift up.

Hinting from the hips, forward pushing into the leg, coming up, last one coming all the way down, maybe even walk the arms a little further, breathe here into your hips. Then walk the hands back, keep the legs as they are, walk the hands back, keep the elbows again. Now rotate, lean over your left leg and see if you can rotate and touch the right elbow to the right foot and coming back up, leaning forward, rotate, touching and coming back up, out, maybe touching and going to foot and coming back up, maybe to the floor, inside the foot. This time we move out, out, out, out, out as far as you go, take your right arm with your left hand, pull it out and see maybe you can get the right elbow to the outside of the right foot.

If you can just push the palms together, stay here and breathe. If your elbow is more like this, don't worry, use your left hand as a little anchor and just walk your fingertips on the mat as far away as you can away from the right foot and breathe. And slowly walk back in, take the hands behind you, switching the legs, so the left leg is in front, right leg is back, same thing here, grabbing the elbows, turning first towards your right, to the front, leaning, leaning, leaning, maybe tapping the forearms down, lifting them back up, pulling them overhead, leaning, leaning, leaning, tapping, lifting up, two more, pushing down, reaching forward and down. And last one, forward, forward, forward, forward and down.

And breathe here. Just trying to stay present in your body, in the stretches, keep making observations, keep receiving the signals from your own body. And then slowly coming back up, again taking the elbows, now turning towards your right leg, moving out first and then rotating, tapping the left elbow towards the left foot, coming back up, towards your right knee, rotating, gazing to the ceiling or up somewhere, coming back, reaching over, and rotating, maybe tapping the elbow to the outside of the left foot, forward, rotate, maybe now the elbow goes down to the floor, see if you can reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, maybe create some more space and then you push the palms together and you rotate the chest. If this is no bueno or no posible, then we take our right hand as support, we reach like we're going to shake someone as far as we can and then just walk.

Pull yourself with your fingers as far as you can over your left leg with your left arm. And no matter where we are, we breathe. And slowly coming back up and taking both knees together again, squeeze, shake out a little bit, last thing, so also the feet together, walk the hips a little bit back on this one so you have this natural leaning forward and then grabbing your ankles, your feet, and just slowly start to roll small half circles or full circles, whatever feels good for you. And then see if you can sort of just surrender yourself to this last pose.

If the feet is closed, you can rest the head in the feet or you can take and stack your fists, rest the forehead on your hands. If the feet are miles away, don't worry, just have the little lean forward, relax the head and breathe. One last deep breath. Slowly rolling yourself up, closing the legs and then just taking a minute or longer if you have, take as long as you would like, but at least one minute where you just lay down and you take inventory one more time.

You started the class on your back and now you're here again. Just notice how and what feels different, what has changed, just pure physical difference from when you started, but also notice the activity in your mind, your inner dialogue, notice the activity in your mind, your inner dialogue. So just take it all in and observe and relax.