Hamstring & Hip Flexor Weakness? 63-Min Peak Pose Splits Flow for BJJ

You are not just trying to stretch one muscle but you involve everything from the soles of the feet to the calves to the back to the spine. The whole chain of muscles that we are addressing become integrated in the stretch when you push and hug. So those are the things we will talk about today. Maybe this shouldn't be mentioned but I wrote down antagonistic muscle groups because the hip flexors and hamstrings are doing opposite things.

So one deeper layer of this class is that we learn how to make antagonistic muscles work together so that when one muscle is working the other one is not trying to stop it from doing its work. Anyways, that was a sidetrack. Plus, splits look really cool. And with that said, let's start on our back.

You need maybe a sock today, definitely maybe a belt or a towel or you can just use a towel like a Hikerskater Galaxy, you are always okay to have a towel. So start on your back and stretch both legs up in the air. Place your feet together. Arms can be anywhere.

Then open your feet so that your heels are touching but not your toes. When we are not engaging our inner thighs this is the action that will happen automatically. For example, if you lay your heels down and relax your feet flop open sideways. And this is the action in every pose today that we try to counter by squeezing our toes together.

And it's easy when we have the feet next to each other but it's much much harder when you are balancing poses with the feet separate like we do in splits. So lay down on the back and imagine for a second that your body is splitting too. Right down the center line you have two halves of the body. And your job today will be putting in the effort to magnetize those two parts together.

So imagine that there is a glass wall through your whole body and you are trying to press both feet in towards the glass wall. So keep this in mind as you lift your right leg and pretend like the glass wall is there and that you are pushing both feet in towards the glass wall. And then grab your belt or towel, wrap around your foot. Grab it any way that feels comfortable.

And without letting your toes open up push the toes in towards the midline. Take a few breaths in and out through your nose. And then start feeling your hamstrings or your calves. Your whole, the whole backside of your legs should feel like they are awake.

So in normal circumstances we would bend the left knee to alleviate some of the pressure. But today we are actually trying to incorporate the opposite of the hip flexor, the hamstring which is the hip flexor. So when you stretch your left leg out straight you can feel how this intensifies the stretch and makes things a little more complicated. But those are the two things we are working with today.

We are pushing and hugging and we are also working in the front and back of the legs. And we are trying to exclude every other muscle group that is involved. Grab the belt in the right hand, both belts in the right hand and slowly let your right leg fall out to the side. But imagine that the midline is still there.

Don't let your toes flop open. Just lean the right leg out over to the right. I was lucky today and there was a wall that stopped my leg. But just go as deep as you want.

Feel the inner thighs stretch without relaxing. Be active in both legs. Don't relax any muscle below the navel. Just keep your legs engaged while you do this.

Take three more breaths. We are transferring the stretch a bit more from the hamstring into the inner thighs. And then back to centre, finding the midline again. Don't switch the legs, but switch the hands, the left hand and the belt.

And then slowly open your leg over to the left for a spinal twist. As well as some more of an outer hamstring stretch. Now it's more the outside of the leg and the knee and the calf. Depending on where you are stiff.

But still focus on the hamstrings, just different aspects of the hamstring. Breathe. Good stuff. And then back to centre.

Hold for a moment. Release the belt. Lay down flat, feet together. Engage your inner thighs.

And just feel how less of a tension there is in the right leg. And then same thing again. Belt around the left foot. And hug the right leg.

And then release the belt. Around the left foot. And hug your toes and feet in towards the midline. And push into the belt a little bit.

Don't worry about if the knee is straight or bent. Bent is usually preferable, but don't think about the knees today. Think about other things than the knees. If I don't say anything, then just assume that there is a bend in the knee.

So I never assume that the knee has to be straight. Don't worry more about the midline and the pushing. Hugging in and pushing out. The right leg can be pushing as well.

So instead of having the right leg relaxed, hug in towards the midline and press your heel away from your hips. And then grab belt in the left hand and let the left foot fall out sideways. Keep your feet engaged. One nice little check mark that tells you that your legs are relaxed is if you can spread the toes.

If your toes are relaxed, then usually the rest of your legs are a bit too relaxed. If you engage the toes, then you kind of have a more relaxed position. So if you engage the toes, then you can spread the toes. If you engage the toes, then you can spread the toes.

If you engage the toes, then it helps you remember to activate the anchor fast. Another breath. And then back to center, back to midline. Switch hands.

Now slowly twist over towards the right. Pushing the foot into the belt and pushing your other leg away. Nice. And back to center.

Release the belt. Bend the left knee and pull it in. And then do some bicycles where you split the legs really intensely, but with one knee bent. So really try to make maximum splits without involving the hamstrings.

You're splitting the knees away from each other. Nice. And then grab your hamstrings and start rocking your rolling up and down a couple of times. And then roll up to all fours.

For some cats and cows. We've got a slight variation for the cats today. Which is when we inhale and forward, we bend the knees and hug the heels towards the butt. And when you exhale around your spine and lift the knees off of the floor just a couple of centimeters.

You'll have a few more minutes to do that. And then we'll go to the next exercise. So we're going to do a couple of exercises. We're going to do a couple of exercises.

Off of the floor just a couple of centimeters. Do that a few times. Inhale as you hug your heels in and look forward. Exhale around your spine, look at your knees and lift the knees.

On your own a few times. One more. One more. And then stepping your leg back to a plank.

And finding a way back and forward a couple of times. And then we're going to do a couple of exercises. And then stepping your leg back to a plank. And finding a way back and forward a couple of times.

Until you find your first dog pose for today. And then in down dog. Lift your heels and push the ball of your feet into the floor. Bend your knees and use your hands to push your toes down.

And the toes are pushing back so that the butt is lifted. And then drop one heel down stretching the calf and hamstring. And then with the inhale lift really high and super engage your feet and legs. And then exhale drop one heel.

Do this at least ten times on each side while I talk a little bit about what we're doing. When you relax a muscle and stretch it, you only stretch the part of the muscle which is really weak. The weakest thing when your muscle gets stretched when you're doing relaxed stretching. There is nothing wrong in doing relaxed stretching.

But when you are engaging your muscles you are stretching everything. Not just one spot. You are stretching the parts of your muscle chain that also needs attention. Not just one place but every place.

So instead of just swapping the belly one knee and wiggling your hips from side to side. Engage your muscles as if you're doing weight training. Because that activates the nervous system in the correct way to get something out of it. Because we don't want to just increase our flexibility and range of motion through a few more knees.

We want to be able to for example when we are in guard and someone over under smash passes us. So that the shin touches our face. Completely clearing our legs. We don't just want to stay there.

We want to be able to generate power from the limits of our range of motion. And in order to do that we have to stretch that way. We can't stretch passively and then try to generate power from those positions. So push your legs strongly in all positions you do for the rest of the class.

Just push your knee to the legs. Walk your feet forward to your hands. Take a couple of breaths and squat just to let the blood drain out of your brain. And then let's do some forward folds when we have the feet a bit further back.

So if you can get your palms to the ground that's great. If not then walk forward until your palms can touch the ground. If you're still not able then stay on your fingers. Grab your right ankle with your right hand and then look forward and inhale.

Exhale and bend your left knee and pull your whole body in towards your right leg. And then both hands forward inhale. Grab your left ankle, exhale and bend your right knee and pull in towards the straight leg. And then bend your knees look forward.

Exhale straighten the leg while you put yourself forward towards the leg. And then find this flow. Inhale and exhale. Inhale, lift knee.

Pulling yourself in towards the straight leg and exhale. Do a few more. One more. Nice.

And then walking back to a plank pose. Lowering the hips down like a sprawl for a double leg. And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the left leg. And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the right leg.

And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the left leg. And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the left leg. And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the left leg. And then slowly rolling one hip down looking towards the left leg.

You're rolling over your knees, stretching your neck and the front of your hips. The side of your hips. Just to counteract that forward folding with some super gentle back bending. And if you feel any kind of funkiness in the lower back while doing this, that's a red flag that you should be doing more of this.

This should not hurt. If this hurts, then you should definitely prioritize this and make it a new habit. Because we will find ourselves in positions like this in Jiu Jitsu a lot and we don't want to get injured from students and stuff like this. Moving back to the dog.

We will take five breaths in each pose. Start by hugging the feet in towards the mid line. So feet together. And then lift your right leg without opening your toes.

Look at your toes. Your toes should point the exact same direction in three legged pose. And then you should lift your right leg. And then you should lift your right leg.

And then you should lift your right leg. And then you should lift your left leg in three legged pose as you go. Push back into your left foot. Maybe lift the heel and push the foot down.

So hands and feet are pushing down. Right leg is lifting high. Don't open your hips. Keep pointing your toes down.

Take another breath in three legged pose. And then walk your hands back to a standing split. So you can stay with your fingertips or catch the heel to interact with one or two hands. But keep your back leg engaged and look back.

Make sure that your big toe is pointing straight up. Internal rotation of the back leg. If you want to pull yourself in towards the leg here with your left hand, you can try that as well. It does not have to be a straight up rotation.

It does not have to be a straight up rotation. It does not have to be straight up. Push down into your left foot. Push up through your right foot.

Take another breath. And then walk forward to a three legged pose. Heel to the butt. Knee to the nose.

Foot between your hands. Don't put the back leg down. Take five breaths. Imagine that you are looking at your left foot.

your whole left foot and imagine that you're doing the full splits right now, the only difference is that the right knee is bent at 90 degrees but keep lifting your back knee, keep driving the heel backwards and drive your right knee and shim forwards. So this should be really intense even if you're not going for the maximum range of motion, you're still engaged and stretching it while you're having it towards the middle of the knee. Take another breath and then back knee down, lift your arms up, keep your chest nice and tall, arms comfortable distance, hug your knees in towards the midline and push your hips forward. So squeeze your butt and your butt and hamstrings are working together now to move the left thigh backwards stretching the front of your hips so we're not going down we are squeezing and going forwards and push back into the back foot almost like you wish to lift your back knee almost.

If we had really stumpy legs this would be our splits, this is a modified version of the splits. Now straighten the front leg, flex the right foot, place your hands on your chin or the floor and now really try to squeeze the right heel and the left knee together, don't actually move the heel but imagine that you're pulling them towards each other. So having them bending the right knee and you try to drag your right heel back should activate the hamstrings and what you have really activated you can try to lean forward with your face trying to touch your chin to your right big toe. That won't happen but that's the direction we're going, we're not going around and looking at the approach we're trying to touch the chin to our big toe while we pull the heel back.

Take another breath and then re-bending your right knee standing up tall in a high high lunge crescent pose only focusing on the back ball of the toe super strong and straight left leg, arms can be anywhere but core is engaged, butt and hamstrings engaged, stretch the front of your hips and really push as if you're pushing a big truck in front of you, use all the power from the back leg and push forward while you also lift your chest, super strong back knee and back leg and back foot and keep this engagement of the back leg while you stretch your right leg straight and lean forward in a pyramid pose. So hands can be on the chin or ground or blocks whatever you have available but keep the engagement in the back foot and if you can't reach the ground at all maybe slide a bit deeper so that you're going 10% more into a full split. If you have any pain in the right angle you can keep the foot flexed or toes in the ground, your choice but don't bend the back leg keep it super straight for now and again try to get your chin towards your right big toe. So take another breath and then grab your right foot back a bit, come into standing splits, toes are pointing down and then bend your back knee, grab your left foot with your right hand on the outside of the leg and try going for a foot grab here.

So make sure you're not standing awkwardly there, catch the top of the foot and really try to lift the leg and push down into the foot. You're standing on your right foot but also imagine that you're trying to push your foot down into the floor so instead of thinking rise up we can think push dog, push push push with your right leg. Take another breath and then release back to dog maybe roll forward and do a little binyasa and then back down, a little inhale and a little back down and then back to dog. Let's start over.

Taking our time starting in dog with feet together without moving the toes outward just lift the heel the left leg back maybe stand on the right foot and take five breaths internal rotation of the back leg push out from both feet and now walk backwards to the right leg hold on to the floor or reaching with one or two hands maybe even pull the upper body downwards and chin towards big toe keep back leg engaged god damn it now is the time that you start fatiguing and think that you're not talented for this which might be true but it doesn't matter you do it anyways you decide that you start and you don't quit halfway god damn it back to three leg dog roll the knee to your face foot between the hands look at your back foot you should be able to see the whole foot and ankle bend the front leg keep the back leg super straight right now and push your left shin forward push your left knee forward and push your right heel back legs are doing completely paradoxical things creating length in the front of your hips engage your knee your back knee and lower the hips a bit okay and then back knee down arms up hug in towards the midline and push both feet into the ground arms can be anywhere lift your chest don't drop your hips squeeze push and then push your left knee forward instead of dropping your groin push the left knee forward and keep holding on so if we had really weird 90 degrees knees that couldn't move this would be our split all the actions are there just the intensity is not cranked up that far yet another breath breath and then straighten the left leg hands on chin or floor hugging the left heel towards our right knee almost dragging the foot backwards leaning up and forward trying to touch your throat to your big toe no rounding the spine you can micro bend the left knee so that you don't feel the stretch behind the knee you try to feel the stretch in the middle of the muscle so not the attachment or not the origin but in the center the belly of the muscle is what we're trying to stretch take another breath and then bend re-bend the left knee stand up tall crescent pose where all the power is generating from the back ball of the foot super strong right leg square hips push your left knee forward maybe arms up maybe lift high maybe lift the toes on the left foot and push down into the ball of the foot imagine that you're trying to lift your whole spine higher and higher and higher and now straighten both legs lean forward bend don't bend forward lean forward hold on to your chin or floor maybe split the legs a little bit and now feel the high high and thighs and push both feet out down and out so you're trying to push yourself longer we're not going for the splits yet but this is like 65 percent splits maybe flex the left foot whatever you want to do you can micro bend the knees a bit but keep pushing even though your knees might be bent push really really really hard and hug you take another breath and then left foot in the ground right knee right leg back bend the right knee catch the footer ankle with the left hand and go for the foot bend and then push and go for the foot grab instant splits maybe drop your chin towards your left big toe nice another breath and then release and step back to doggy let's do this whole sequence right side and left side non-stop so not three five times in each ball just going for it so try to follow my breath as best as you can starting to go take a inhale and exhale lift your right leg out on the inhale walk your hands back on the exhale grab your chin inhale half lift and exhale fold over your left leg back to three-legged dog inhale when you get there knee to nose exhale foot to the ground back knee down arms up inhale exhale half splits lean over and try to touch your chin towards your big toe crescent pose lift high inhale both legs straight exhale pyramid pose inhale standing splits don't grab the back leg now hands in the ground lean into your arms without without without bending your knees switch the legs in the air and landing standing splits on the left leg and let's do that a few times switching the legs don't focus on the handstands focus on the cushion and the hugging of your legs push and hug push and hug and just push and hug while you're upside down in there don't bend your goddamn knees good job let's go through a vingasana climb pose inhale lower down exhale half lift inhale exhale down pushing back to dog let's start over kick the floor feet together take inhale and exhale lift the left leg hug it towards the center inhale exhale walk back into a standing splits half lift inhale exhale pull your forehead down towards the big toe three-legged dog inhale inhale knee to nose exhale back knee down arms up inhale half splits exhale crescent pose inhale pyramid pose straight legs exhale forward standing split inhale hands down five switch legs handstands push and hug your legs three more on the last one vingasana half lift forward just lift and back to dog let's keep the floor going one more round each side inhale back right leg back exhale walk back half lift inhale exhale four three-legged dog inhale knee to nose exhale back knee down arms up inhale exhale half splits crescent pose inhale exhale pyramid pose standing splits take a breath breath and you are going to switch legs push the feet away and hug towards the middle vinyasa final round down low with left leg inhale walk backwards exhale half lift inhale exhale forward fold exhale three-legged dog inhale knee to nose exhale arms up back and down inhale exhale half splits crescent pose inhale pyramid pose exhale standing splits inhale one two three stretch legs vinyasa let's meet back on our knees feet together wide knees hands behind you tuck your tailbone and butt under so that your butt is trying to get under your over your heels and then lower down as far as you need to get a nice stretch not for the lower back but for the front of your hips lower back but for the front of your hips so again just repeating why we're doing what we're doing we're trying to very dynamically and actively engaging the front and the back of our hips and having learned how to work together it's not easy i bet you hated part of that sequence but as a totality it's a very good thing even if partially it is impossible for you just doing the whole thing as a thing is a hundred times better than just stretching the areas you think are the problems because some of your problems are compensation problems they might not be the real issue the only way to know for sure the problem is is trying to address everything at once like we're doing this but it takes a ton of swallowing your pride and just going we're rolling with the punches so to speak but it's harder because our hardest enemy is ourself we're not sparring in this element and blame them being better we're finding ourselves here and that's a really tough battle so good on me for not bringing heads we're halfway through okay let's take another breath and then come on forward to uh for for wide legs or a hip win bend your knees grab your big toes with two fingers each four different things a knees bend bend your knees i repeat bend the knees so b pull forward and pull with your biceps but pull your head forward so you're not rounding trying to fold in on yourself you're using the toes to pull yourself you're pulling yourself down but you're resisting and going forward c the weight should also be forward because if we lock the knees and lean back into our heels we are avoiding our biggest problem areas in hamstrings so pull forward and lean forward and lastly think the butt upwards you're trying to lift your sacrum and butt up keep your knees bent but lift your butt so those two are mutually exclusive but you are trying to achieve both things keep your knees bent lift your butt pull forward lean forward and then finally chin to big toes chin to big toes chin to big toes let's do this five times inhale forward exhale chin to big toes four more inhale lean forward exhale inhale lift your butt exhale pull down keep your knees bent inhale pull forward exhale lean forward and down and stay down five four three two one release and roll all the way up to starting all the way up to starting so take a couple of breaths stepping your feet together again cut your body in half down the center line and imagine that these two bodies are trying to reunite magnetizing your both centers and pushing them in and pulling themselves in towards the center push the feet down and hug it pushing hard pushing hard stretch right arm forward and resist the temptation to open your toes sideways now just lift the right leg and if you see that there is no way i can grab my toes here grab behind the knee with one or two hands grab the deep hands and if the knee is there if the foot is there you can grab the big toes you can also bend the right knee like i said a hundred times but hold your left arm out for balance or catch onto the ceiling or a wall whatever you have standing there for balance but not push the standing leg straight and try to push the other leg straight no matter even what you grab you try to push both legs straight take another breath and now either lift the leg higher or lean over your leg one more breath and then hands to hips hold your leg here for five four three both knees straight one right leg out behind you resist the temptation to open your toes sideways keep pointing the toes down maybe your arms can be out for the outer sides for wings for balance bend the left knee a bit straighten the right leg a lot take another two breaths here leaning forward into your toes engaging left hamstrings bend your left knee stepping back to a low lunge right knee down on the ground hands can be on the left knee or arms up hug your right heel in towards the butt like the first one of the first exercises we did hug the heel in towards your butt and drop your hips down hug hugging the heel lifts bending the left knee it drops the hips down two mutually exclusive actions working against each other in harmony nice back foot down half splits completely opposite action down instead of driving the heel back lift the left foot five four three two one foot down back to the last pose bend the knee lift the arms so same hugging low lunge heeling towards the butt take another breath and then from here standing on the left leg again arms out sideways for balance or maybe catch your hips or interlace the fingers behind your back whatever you want to do with the arms but keep turning your back toes down and lift your whole leg don't open the hips roll your hips square then stand up catch the leg for another couple of breaths breath and then back to standing oh my shofar we are not preparing for the splits we are doing the splits we're not just going to the absolute 100 percent we're staying within 90 80 95 percent somewhere but these these are all splits let's do the five breaths on in each pose for the second round hugging towards the middle push the foot away left foot out in front of you catch the big throw with the knee bent find your balance hold wherever you can hold and breathing a lot through your nose resist the temptation to grunt or moan or you know through your mouth keep it together and then pull over pull your leg up and pull your upper body over your left leg three two one let go of the foot hands to hips or arms up whatever you want straighten both knees lift three two one and let your left leg fly out behind so we just engage the hip flexors a lot now engage the hamstrings a lot and lift the leg so high that you feel your hip flexor saying so work your right hamstring really hard by moving forward and work your left hamstring hard by lifting the foot up hamstrings are working like crazy left hip flexor is having a nice time stepping back to a low lunge back knee down hug in towards the center line but move your right knee forward put the left heel in towards the butt hugging and dropping and pulling your heel in okay cramps means too little water too little magnesium and probably too little other stuff as well but you know the cramps take a break and then come back and continue don't give up because of cramps back foot down right leg straight hands in the ground lift the right foot five four three two one and then back to the low lunge with a heel curve with a hamstring curve three two one and then forward to the flying side of the right leg three keep turning the toes down rotate the back leg inwards two one and then standing up tall find the balance catch the knee pads or the back of the knee or the foot three two one and feet down shake it out we're doing this right side and left side again without holding for several breaths just trying to flow with the breath all right take a deep inhale and exhale right arm out right foot up take a inhale here and then exhale lean over your chin release the foot inhale and then exhale warrior three balance left foot step back to our low lunge inhale and exhale drop down hug the heel in and then inhale back foot down exhale hands down lift left foot and then inhale throw the back heel low lunge exhale warrior three right foot up inhale and then exhale feet down down starting more left arm forward left foot up inhale exhale lean over the left chip inhale release the foot arms up exhale warrior three hug and push three hug and push hug and push hug and push low lunge inhale exhale drop down carry the back heel straight in your front leg inhale exhale hands down lift the foot back to no lunch inhale exhale warrior three back up inhale left foot forward exhale feet up let's go for two more rounds right foot inhale exhale exhale lean over the ship inhale release the foot exhale warrior three no lunch inhale exhale drop down and curl inhale straight back exhale lift the foot left foot inhale curvy lunge exhale warrior three grab the toe inhale and exhale feet together final round left foot inhale exhale lean forward let go inhale balance warrior three exhale curvy lunge low lunge inhale exhale drop down curl inhale lift up right leg exhale hands down lift in curvy lunge inhale exhale warrior three capsule foot inhale and exhale standing taking no breaths so we have been working we are we are we are forwards and backwards hugging pushing dropping lifting all of this has been splits split split splits but with balance with purpose and intention let's try four different ways to do the full splits so this is not a check to see how good of a person you are this is to this is the the clematis the crescendo of the class final wall right hand ground left foot in the wall and then i'll do that i'm just so that you can sit there walk left off as high as you can and when you feel like you're more or less safe it might be a good idea to have another wall to balance to and balance your hand towards but you can walk and stand your foot backwards a bit too and then take a breath then walk your left foot higher and then walk it back heel even further down now push the ball of the big toe a ball of the left and then come up on your right on the toe as well and try to just push the feet away from each other don't worry about dropping your hips worry about lifting and pushing away lift your chest push away so we are not trying to drop into the post we're trying to lift ourselves out of the post but then rather than taking the feet away so that it's harder and harder to live but the focus is on the lift not the meaning for lift lift lift and push push push switching sides right foot in the wall left foot slides back right foot lifts left foot slides back take your time however much time you need i'm restricted by the time that you are so you can take your time to feel like okay this is about as high as i can go then you come up on the ball of the toe then push the other toe like you're trying to push a hole into the wall don't kick in the hole of your wall but try to push the hole in the wall and then lift and push lift and push lift and push and don't drop in lift higher and take away some of your base make it harder for yourself to lift and then finish shake it out feeling sassy don't focus on the handstand in the next one focus on using the wall to do the exact same thing but upside down so standing splits with the ball of the foot to the ground and then the other ball of the foot to the ground so this is option one is just try to push your feet away from each other just like we did if you want to take this upside down for a harder variation then lift the left foot and try to go really far over and then keep yourself in the face three times on one leg and then man the ball of the foot try to lift up don't lean over your left leg try to push both legs away from each other and then stand up take a break and let's try the second side so standing splits with the left foot back push both footballs ball of the foot feet footballs were a better way lift out of the post and gradually climb higher how you towards the midline how do you toward the god damn midnight and push away how and push hug and push we we talked about this for 45 50 minutes now how do you push how you push how you push this is why you need it because if you don't have your push you will tear something this is the sensation we will have when people smash past us with all the runner and put all their weight on your hamstrings and we want to be able to generate power from that maximum range of motion try to handstand wheel all the way up and all the way down try to have towards the midline and push from the bottom of the foot and then drop down take a break fire your sock and place the sock in front of your hands come to the dog pose stretch the right leg out behind you push and push and step your right heel towards the sock and then i like coming up on my knuckles ready as well push lift hug and slide forward and look forward we are not dropping and bending our elbows we are going up on the inhale forward and exhale back on the inhale forward and exhale if we were really strong on our hamstrings and hip flexor we would be able to do this without the hands and the ground which is almost impossible some surface people can do it but that is the what we're aiming for is to be able to you know stop it and suck it back in no matter how much pressure someone puts on us we are able to pull it back in using all our muscles available muscles to do this we're not opening our hips dropping down and being lazy and just stretching one part we're trying to import the whole whole check and then take a break say take a breath step let's do the second side three leg walk left leg out inhale exhale step towards the sock back leg straight don't place the back knee now push with the back foot hugging towards the midline without that hugging you will just flop open and sit on your left butt forward backwards forward backwards this is the full splits your balls or your genitals will never touch the ground most likely because you are doing such a good job of hugging towards the center line we don't have to be able to get our crotch to the ground we have to learn how to be integrated and work very strongly in extreme positions take a break release your arms it's not supposed to be that fun or exciting but it can still be extremely good for us it's like a salad it's not particularly interesting but it can be very very helpful if you felt like this is a bit sketchy in my hamstrings or for whatever reason there is a cheating way to do this i'll start on the left side just so you can see better three lady dog left leg out stepping to lizard pose with a heel on the sock back knee down then just like lizard pose we we try to ease into it and then kick the left foot out to the side and then trying to mop the floor with the left foot so instead of going forwards and backwards which can be really intense for the hamstring we go completely sideways then we try to mop the floor and going as far forward as we can because when we go straight out to the side it's no hamstrings and all in your inner thigh and every angle we change moves it more and more into the hamstring direction so here you can kind of choose how far you want to take it in terms of hamstrings it's also okay to bend the knee here and work everything but your weak part of the hamstring so taking the take with the knee bad people take some of the pressure out of your hamstring and you know cheating splits so a lot of people will be able to do this here or at least this even if they can't even get their foot between the chest between the arms all right same side three-legged dog to lizard and from lizards kick sideways and mop the floor straight leg or bent knee hug and push hug and push but a little less here so not as intense as we're used to let's take a break and just look at how we can take this to the most most extreme case so for those few of you that can that will or are mastering this right now this is your main goal your ultimate goal to be able to without placing the foot in the ground going into the split without touching and then let's see my brother is a bit chilly on my left so i'll stand next to the wall go into the split and lift your arms so this will never happen if you don't know how to push and hug the ultimate expression of your pushing and hugging is will be splitting the legs away from each other and lifting up taking away all support from your arms oh that was intense but my hands are fine and then second side roll the left foot through let's see if i can do this without the support of the wall maybe yes i feel this side that it's hard for me to push with the back leg and by not pushing with the back i feel there is too much tension in the hamstrings for me to do it safely but that that should be your end goal if you are if you have the proportions that will allow me to ever do a full splits and that can be your goal it shouldn't be it can be your goal and for everyone else what we just did is extremely helpful for our lower back pain because now if you feel your hips we feel like we've been sparring with ourselves without tapping so you know we pushed it really far we sparred for 50-55 minutes without any injuries which is you know a huge huge huge positive lay down on your back take a breath breath and then hip escape over to the right knees to the left spinal twist just lay down on the outside of your hip and drop into the twist so the pushing and hugging that we did today isn't really about the big muscle groups when we go to the gym we usually focus on the big muscles like the quads and glutes and spinal muscles but the pushing and hugging is trying to incorporate all the supporting muscles all the small ones that you don't know the name of to help the big muscles do their job correctly it takes a lot longer because we are not used to using them we have all used our big muscles but the big muscles doesn't really help us keep a good posture or improve our quality of breath or or the quality of our jitsu it's the supporting muscles that makes things better and look better and perform better so if you want to use your big muscles you need the help from the supporting muscles and that's why we focus so much on the pushing and hugging today switching sides nice nice nice nice spinal twist second side and it takes a tremendous amount of discipline just to not give up and surrender and tap out and quit and excuse ourselves and blame whatever it is that will come later it takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline just to show up and not give up halfway so good on you very very good i silently applaud you for putting up with this murder of a workout it's the best this is called tough love so this is the kind of love we give our bodies jiu-jitsu is you know even love we we murder our own bodies like over to jiu-jitsu because we love it but it's like an abusive relationship we love we love the person which is jiu-jitsu but you know it beats us back but yoga is like tough love it's a firm pattern firm but fair it's a firm pattern firm but fair back to center open guard grab the feet just take a moment to let everything we did today sink in excuse me for talking so much but the concepts are too important to keep quiet about this is what you should be doing and very good of you to actually review and prioritize correctly so feet together hug me towards the midline hug hug hug and then flop open relax the midline don't push don't hug me just stay still so Inhale and exhale. Wiggle your fingers and toes and start waking up your wrists and ankles. Give yourself a hug and squeeze. And roll up to seated to finish the class.

In an alternative universe we would be able to work our whole body this well in one workout. But that workout would take 8 hours if we wanted to focus on the shoulders, the core, the spine and every aspect of our broken jiu-jitsu bodies. It would take too long. So we have to exclude some things and work specifically.

Just like we are not doing every technique in every jiu-jitsu class, we need to narrow it down and understand concept by concept. And today I know and I can tell by the people doing the class that you understand the relationship between the hip flexors and the hamstrings a lot better now. And the importance of incorporating the supporting musculature by pushing and hugging in. And this will help you so much whenever someone is trying to overhug or slash pressure.

So next time you won't just be flopping here, you will push and hug and then be able to spin around and do your crazy homebody thing that you saw on YouTube. All that comes from being able to integrate your whole body. I'm starting with some of the best legends of the sport both in past and future. And what's so amazing when I start with them is that they feel like they are one solid piece of metal.

Whenever they don't want me to do anything there is absolutely nothing I can do because their whole body is firming up and being exactly where it needs to be. So perfect technique coupled with really really good integration. And that is what we are trying to build with these flows. Thank you guys for doing this class.

See you in the next one.