Hamstring Stretch: 14-Min Belt Flow for BJJ (Yoga for Rocks #1)

Hi guys and welcome back to the third yoga for rocks program in this program we will focus on our legs our legs are as you probably can figure out connected to our hips so if you have stiff hips your legs are probably going to be stiff too we're going to start the program by attacking with gentle love our hamstrings and what better pose to do than the belt stretch on your back so we start with the best pose of all stretch your right leg up hook the belt or a towel or a t-shirt around your foot and start with your right leg bent and your left leg bent so both legs are bent and then stretch it out and bend it so if this means you need to let go of the belt a little bit and slide it out if your angle is 45 degrees like this fine just start by warming up the hamstrings so instead of holding static and pulling we kick up and bend the knee try to do so many repetitions maybe 30 40 50 so that you forget what you're doing so that you kind of hypnotize yourself and can start thinking about your breath instead of your tight hamstring now stop and reach closer to the foot and pull a little bit with your biceps so push the foot into the belt and pull the belt and then release a little bit and go back to stretching and bending stretching and bending stretching and bending slide your other foot your left foot out a little bit so the knee is almost straight now to not slip you might have to hook the belt a little bit around your heel and heel hook yourself now with a straight leg pull with your arms over your head like this so when you pull down you don't have as much leverage when you pull up like this with your arms you get more leverage on your hamstring but it's still gently it's more the weight of the arms that are pulling not so much force so pull your heel with your arms overhead if the knee bends let it bend but use maybe 30% weight and force backwards take five breaths here nice and then release and switch sides so left leg up right leg down start with bent knees if you feel like wrapping your belt around your wrists go ahead and do that I like that because I don't have to use my fingers as much and then start bending and stretching relax your elbows so this bending and stretching is teaching our nervous system that it's fine nothing bad is gonna happen we're not gonna pull a tendon or get injured from doing this and with repetition the body is tricked into a sense of security not false security but actual security this is safe and actually feels pretty good now pull the belt push the foot into the belt so stretch your leg if it bends it's okay but try to stretch the leg as much as you can and then go back to pushing and bending stretching bending straightening bending and time for heel hooks so wrap the belt around your heel if necessary stretch both belts up and use the leverage of the arms to straighten the belt try to straighten your bottom leg as well almost straight leg and pull the heel with leverage from your arms take five breaths don't resist relax and release very nice moving to the wall I'm not gonna move to the wall but I'm gonna pretend that there is a wall right next to my butt stretch your legs up and move your butt really close to the wall and if you are a rock your hips are probably off the ground don't place your hands under your hips like I'm doing I'm just pretending that my hips cannot touch the ground but I can wiggle my butt really close to the wall and then just let the weight of the legs push your hips down we're going to stay here for a couple of minutes so you can interlace your fingers behind your head but try closing your eyes instead of watching on your phone just let the weight and time push your hips down and that creates a passive stretch on the hamstrings your knees does not have to be completely straight but if you want them to be straighter you can place your hands on your knees and slightly push maybe five percent push into your thighs to straighten the legs take seven more deep inhales and exhales you can wiggle your butt a little bit from side to side as well and if you're sliding away from the wall it needs it means you need a sticky mat under you so you should not slide away from the wall that defeats the purpose of the exercise nice wiggle down from the wall find a way to get back to all fours so stand on all fours turn your fingers outwards inhale look forward and exhale push yourself back into down dog and then forward again so knees down inhale bend your knees exhale stretch your legs as much as you can one second in down dog inhale knees down inhale knees down exhale stretch knees down inhale exhale stretch if your heels does not touch the floor walk your feet slightly forward if they still don't touch the floor never mind bend your knees inhale inhale focus on the right leg try to stretch the right leg as much as you can inhale bend your knees exhale stretch the left leg again bend inhale you don't have to put your knees all the way down if you don't want to exhale right leg inhale weight forward exhale left leg one more on each side inhale and exhale inhale and exhale nice walk back to a squat if you cannot squat place more weight into your hands and do a half squat so it's a mix between all fours and a squat just stay here and lift your hand again move your head from side to side if it's not comfortable to sit in a half squat sit down on your butt and just take a few breaths as long as you have your head above your shoulders and then let's try a forward fold so bend your knees feet parallel catch your elbows and bend forward if you have a belly here never mind let the belly rest on top of your thighs and then from here lean over to the right side and try stretching the left leg a little bit straighter and then back to middle so your feet can be quite wide so bend the left knee and straighten the right leg and then switch from side to side four more breaths your knees can be as bent as you want to as long as you feel this on the back of your legs perfect so nice sit down on your butt bend your knees grab your opposite elbows if you can't catch the elbows just catch the thighs or one arm around the thigh and one arm around the ankle so any variation that you can figure out to grab just so that we have connection between our upper body and our thighs and then two options here either slide the foot slightly forward the feet slightly forward or wiggle your butt back not so much so that you lose the connection with your thighs drop the head and take a few breaths here if you don't feel it in the hamstrings you need to slide out more here One more breath. And then sit back up. So that was a gentle start on our yoga for rocks for legs program. Tomorrow we will focus on the front side of our thighs, but we will get back to the hamstrings.