Hamstring & Lower Back Stretch for BJJ: 11-Min Flow

And that's what I want. Good, take a couple of breaths here wherever you are. I almost feel like, if you're really tight today, I almost feel like you're in a weird squat folded forwards. That's what we want.

Good, let the head hang. No tension in the back of the neck. I'm not doing that. I just don't wanna scream into my microphone.

Okay, hands back down to plank hands. Now we're gonna walk back exactly the same way we got there. So left foot back, right foot back, left foot back, right foot back. Until we're back to that down dog with our knees nice and bent.

Focus on a nice straight back. Take two breaths here. Okay, lift the heels now. So we're on like tip toes.

Then I want you to drop the left heel down. Bend the right knee more. And then switch to come back up onto your toes. Drop the right heel.

Come back up to your toes. Drop the left. You keep moving with that. That's all we're focusing on for the next few breaths.

Back up on both toes. And then drop your heels both at the same time. Keep the knees bent. Now I'm gonna walk my hands to my feet.

Okay, so left hand, then right hand. Bend in the knees more and more. Left hand and right hand into a forward fold at the other end of the mat. So that's the first one.

Now we're gonna walk the other way. So we're gonna walk the other way. So we're gonna walk the other way. Now we're gonna walk the other way.

And then into a forward fold at the other end of the mat. Good stuff. So I imagine you can feel it in your lower back. I hope you can feel that opening out in everything so far.

Just take couple more breaths, let that head hang. And then I want you to, so at the moment I'm looking right down into the middle of my feet here. If there's a line, it's the centre of my feet. I want you to bring your weight over so that you're over that left foot.

Okay, I'm going to turn so you can see what I'm doing. So we're here, I'm over that left foot. Just place your hands down here or on your shin. And I want you to just bend that right knee a little more.

Try and straighten the left leg. Again, doesn't have to be perfectly straight, just enough to feel a stretch. Breathe in here. Ease off, so bend that left knee.

Shift your weight over into the middle, then over to the right. Hands down or grab your shin, bend the left knee, straighten the right leg a little bit. Bend both. Come over to the middle, then over to the left one more time.

Same thing, straighten and bend the right. Over to the other side again. Straighten and bend. Bend and back into the middle.

Good. So we're at the end of the mat. Let's walk forwards again, back to that bent knee, down dog. And then from that, just bring yourself forward to plank.

Drop your knees and then just drop your hips down in front of you. Chest forwards, shoulders back. Just to kind of counter that fold because we've been doing that for a little while. Okay, come back to all fours now.

All right, left foot outside the left hand. And now from here, just start to bring your hips back. Try and keep your hands where they were. If you need to come down to fingertips, that's fine.

Try and straighten that left leg a little more maybe. When you're kind of at the point where you're like, that feels like a good stretch, I want you to ease off a tiny bit and then focus on your left heel, nice and heavy down into the mat to activate your hamstrings on the left. Good. Keep that activation for one more breath.

Good, relax that. Then maybe hips back a little more. Nice, come forwards again a tiny bit. Nice and heavy on that left heel for a breath.

Exhale, maybe straighten that as you relax. You can move the right knee back if you feel like you're going to be more comfortable. Bend the left knee again a little more. Push in your left heel down into the mat.

Breathe in here. Exhale, relax, maybe straighten that left leg. As long as you can feel a stretch in the hamstrings, you're doing the right thing, even if you're up here. Okay, let's come back up.

Step back to all forwards. Now I'm putting the right foot outside the right hand. We're going to do the same again, so hips back. Feel that stretch to begin with.

Maybe come at your fingertips. Bend a little bit forwards. Focus on that activation, so heavy right heel. Taking a breath here.

Ease off, straighten that right leg a bit more. See how that feels. Ease off a tiny bit, nice and heavy, with the right heel again. Take a breath.

Ease off, maybe straighten a bit more. You can move the back knee back further. Okay, this time, hips back slightly. Ease off.

Curl that right heel down. Take a breath in. And out. Ease that off.

Good, just folding forwards, whatever that looks like for you today. Okay, come back to all forwards. Drop your hips in front of you. Nice, then we'll come back up to that down dog.

So bend the knees, lift the hips nice and high. And then, just slowly, in your own time, just walk your right foot forward towards a tiny step, left foot tiny step. And we're coming back to that forward fold at the top of the mat. Whatever that forward fold looks like for you.

Bend the knees, rest the front of the body on the quads. And then from here, wherever you're at, I'm going to inhale, bend my knees more. Exhale, lift my hips, straighten my legs a bit. Let's do that again.

Lift the hips. Inhale, bend. Exhale, fold. Good, do three more.

Super slow. Last one. And whatever your fold looks like, just bend two breaths there now. Super slow breaths.

Nice and calm. And then, just come back up to that down dog. And then, just fold. Okay, come back down to all fours.

Drop your hips in front of you. Open up the chest and the shoulders back. And sit yourselves down. Okay, so that was just a quick video for stretching the hamstrings.

Just something I like to do sometimes to work a bit more hamstrings, like this. Kind of adaptations of some poses, but it's quite fun and available for all levels as well. Hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you in the next video.