Hamstring Stretch for BJJ: 21-Min Common Mistakes Fix

Hello everyone, my name is Sebastian from Yoga for BJJ. If you looked at Instagram last week I showed these six videos of how I use flexibility in positions to either escape or defend or attack or counter. And in this class we're gonna use a belt and some time and learn what we can do to do the stretches better because you have probably done all of these stretches before but yoga is very much like sex you can't just jump straight into it and have a good time you need you need a build-up and you need preparation and you need to get in the right mindset in the right mood and that's what we're gonna do so lay down on your floor your mat and just check in with yourself relax and relax is not an order relax is not something we have to do it is an invitation invite yourself to a relaxed party and accept the invitation with a breath when I was new to yoga I thought breathing had to be deep but the more I practice the I transform my view that breathing is better if it's soft so take a couple of soft breaths before we begin stretching our hips and legs and hamstrings the stretching doesn't work if the muscles are not on our side so we have to be in tune and we have to be balanced and the whole body has to agree what we're doing and why before we start doing any stretching just putting tension in the muscles which is what most people do when they're stretching doesn't make us more flexible using ballistic force to stretch is in most cases a very bad idea and that's what most people do that's what I did when I was new take your right knee and hold on to it hold on to your shin with your hands and rotate the ankles a bit soft breathing switching sides stretch your right leg bend the left knee wiggle your toes keep rotating the ankles and then switch again but this time hold behind your hamstring so you're bending the right knee and then pushing the hamstring into your hands so your knee is moving away from you do that and then straighten the leg not to straight but straighten the leg make it straighter and then keep doing that from side to side switching sides pushing the hamstring into the hands and then straightening the leg so instead of pulling the leg towards us in this class we're pushing the leg away and using the belt to resist that pushing away one more from side to side nice and then grab your belt hook it around your right leg I like to place the belt exactly on the middle of my foot and making sure that I'm not sickling the foot but I'm keeping the foot kind of flat as if I'm standing on the ground with the right foot holding on to the belt I prefer to not use bent arms I like straight arms and if gripping is not on the agenda today then you can wrap the belt around your palms but we're not pulling the foot towards us today we are holding on to the foot with the belt and then pushing the leg away from us so you're trying to get the leg to move further away so you're right butt is basically being pushed down into the floor and don't go harder than 60% here anything over 70 80% is too intense and you can't really relax so start at 50% and then slowly increase to 60 a couple of telltale signs that you're overdoing it is that you're biting your teeth together that you're clenching your jaw that you're frowning your forehead and the sign that you're doing it right is that it's a bit boring boring is good we are not doing this to excite our nervous system we're not looking for entertaining excitement switching sides that was enough for me to start feeling it and just a side note the reason I'm wearing jeans is because I am way over average ly flexible so wearing jeans I found is a way for me to be able to better relate to where most people are so I need a handicap that's why you don't need to wear jeans you probably shouldn't so push your your whole leg away from you and the belt is resisting keep your face soft and relaxed boring is good like I said in the beginning we're beginning to get into the right mood for yoga now release remove the belt grab your left knee again and then do a couple of bicycles first and then the second one we did was holding on to the hamstrings do that now hold on to the hamstring but now point and flex the foot so point and flex and then switch you can try to slide your hand higher to the knee or to the calf and do the same thing switching again can you see how this is keep switching can you see how this is a more sensible approach than the stretching we usually do where we sit on the ground and then just desperately try to grab our toes and hold the breath that's the reason why nobody stretches because they're doing it the wrong way they're not doing the wrong positions they're doing it the wrong way it's not what but how when you get the how right the what doesn't really matter as much all right this is a really good start now sit up and try the seated forward fold but forward fold is not what we're doing today grab the belt we're not folding forward we are pulling our hips forward so instead of sitting here we're using the belt tugging the belt with the biceps so we're rotating our hips as far forward as we can and even though I can fold forward pretty easily here this is a lot of hamstring stretching for me even for me so just pulling the hips forward like this sitting straight up is pretty damn intense even for super flexible hamstrings like mine you see this is a different how instead of this like most people do we can do it properly like this and breathe another huge mistake that people do is that they stretch for 10 to 15 seconds 10 to 15 seconds that's like 10 15 seconds of sex take some time enjoy it get into it be present in it that's what we're doing so we're I'm not really present now because I'm looking at you and talking to you but you know we're almost there so breathing not being too occupied with how it looks or where we are or what I should be doing tuning in to a soft breath and being present in your body and just feeling the sensation of the hamstrings being stretched and we've been here for a minute now and now things start to change the first 10 15 seconds was pretty brutal because I went to 80 percent but now without having lessened the force I'm down at 60 intensity so instead of going further and deeper I'm sitting in the same position and the body is adapting to the position becoming more flexible without moving paradoxical thinking but it works now release this come up to all fours move a little bit for a couple of seconds and get into a long plank pose long plank and then move into down dog do that a few times do that a few times so you're moving forward into plank maybe knees down and then pushing back into down dog on your own a few repetitions now stopping down dog bend one knee and lower the other heel it doesn't have to touch the ground but just move from side to side for some people this is all calves and for some people it's more hamstrings or both but what I do also I push the heel down and then I kind of turn my hips sideways like this and then to the other side turning because then I get a lot of lower back and outer hips as well together with the hamstrings so on your knees release the hands lean back I like to combine the back of the legs with the front of the hips and the front of the thighs so quads and hip flexors when you lean back you don't need you don't need to do this a lot you can start even if you're here some people start even being here but one guy I know he is in his 40s and he couldn't sit down on his heels a couple of months ago and after a few weeks of just 10 minutes a day now he's sent me a video of actually doing this so huge improvement just by 10 minutes a day but I like to do the back first and then do the front as a counter just to be able to release the stretching I did and do another stretch and this kind of switch between poses is what makes vinyasa yoga and the yoga I love so nice to do and also effective step the right foot forward low lunge if you can't reach the floor hold on to the knee moving back and moving forward I am not telling you anything about how to do it what it should look like today but try to put a label on what you're doing what is it that you are doing are you forcing or are you doing something else just objectively look at what you're doing without judging just observe and label but try not to make a judgment that you're super flexible or super stiff or super good or super bad try to not not to make an opinion about it just put a label on it what is going on switching sides left foot forward low lunge and start moving all right back to down dog let's do a dynamic little sequence lifting your right leg up behind you point and flex the foot a couple of times and then walk your hands backwards so that you're in a standing split your fingertips is in the ground and the right foot is lifting if your knee is bent straighten it out and lift it up maybe you're here maybe you're here wherever you are lift it a bit higher and then put your hands on your left knee balance and then come all the way up to standing grab your hamstrings and stretch your leg out in front of you maybe both knees are a bit bent but for a moment try to stretch them both out and maybe bend them again arms overhead inhale and dive down back to standing splits on exhale stepping back to down dog taking a breath in down dog before we do the second side walking your hands backwards to a standing split lift your left leg out behind you don't open the hips too much try to keep them a bit square so your left hip is facing down lift the leg lift the leg that's enough straighten the knees we're in the mood now we did all the prep we did the foreplay this is the climax of the class this is the good stuff hands on your right knee and then come up to standing and grab your hamstrings with both hands if you need to hold on to a wall no one is looking no one is going to judge don't judge yourself don't judge yourself find a standing splitting pose bend both knees stretch them out and finish by inhaling arms up exhaling hands down standing splits see oh nice back to down dog on your knees leaning back again maybe wider knees this time i like to have really wide knees and then move down as far as i can sweet let's finish with the first position we did not the first one of the first grab the belt right leg hooks the belt and we're not doing this to improve now we're just doing this to compare so grab the belt and now try to lift the arms overhead oh it is very subtle and unless you took a photograph of the first pose you did it's hard to know how it you know empirically and scientifically how much improvement there is i tend to not care too much about that because that's not really what matters what matters is the subjective experience how are you feeling switching sides how is the sensation different now from when we started how do you communicate and sense your hamstrings and everything that we all the muscles that we looked at today have you changed your perspective is to me very interesting to know if you got one or five percent more flexible is not too important release the belt let's finish off where we started smoking is a really good habit if we exclude the actual cigarette cigarette but after a awesome session that we did today it's nice to have a smoke and relax so smoke but with your nose sip it in and blow it out and one more through the nose and exhale be still for a moment oh and unless you're 16 and you do it with the socks on and you just want to keep going all day to me these 20 minutes is more than enough to just change the whole outlook of my day and also when i go sparring tonight i will make smarter choices because just doing 20 minutes of this puts me where my mind needs to be and you know i'm honest to myself and i realize that maybe i shouldn't train today or maybe i can go really hard today without risking any injuries so to me this is the missing link in bgj and somewhat something i wish that everybody that wears a gi or steps on the mat and starts grappling should be doing every day that's why i do this and i hope you will do that too thank you for joining me see you in the next video or see you on the mat