Hip Flexibility: 23-Min Lunge Flow for BJJ Mobility

If you can straighten it more, do it. And then heel to butt and lift your knee as much as you can. Your left hamstrings is probably resisting here but try still to lift the right knee and then on your toes rolling the knee forward. Let the right foot down, maybe inch it a bit forward and come down to lunge.

So bend the right knee, stretching the left, just waking up the hips. Stepping forward, breathe in, bend your knees, breathe out, lower your head. All the way up, breathe in, start over again in mountain pose. Inhale, reach to the top, breathe out, fold forward.

Inhale, look forward, exhale, step the left foot back. So now maybe you can sink deeper but you don't have to touch the ground with your knee. Try to straighten the left knee and instead bend your right leg. Stepping back to plank, you can always put your knees to the ground because we are not building massive strength here, we are using our strength, stopping in half of a plank, so a low push up and then you can put your hips down and open the chest.

If you want with straight arms you can do up dog, if it's too much for the lower back, go for cobra. Back to plank, back to down dog. On your toes roll slowly forward all the way through plank, so look at your toes the whole exercise. Hips lower down and when you can't see your toes anymore, look forward and use your toes to press your chest a bit forward through your arms and then we roll back.

Again from down dog lift your heels, look at the toes, roll through your spine, lower the hips, extend the arms, legs and your spine and roll back. Just to build heat and wake up the spine stretch your left foot back, try to keep the left knee as straight as possible, you can bend the knee you are standing on, bend the knee, roll it forward, place the foot down, maybe help it forward and lower down into lunge. Maybe you can come to your fingertips, maybe you can even lift the hands off the floor, but start squaring your hips which means pull the left butt back and move the right hip a bit forward, so imagine you are trying to do this with a mat, you are squeezing the feet together to make the hips square, that gives us a nice foundation in our lunges. Step the foot forward, breath in, bend your knees as much as you have to to relax the head, breath out, inhale all the way up, exhale start over, breath in, try to open the chest when you reach your arms, keep this opening in the chest, lean forward and forward fold, breath in, look forward, this time standing splits, lift your right leg, so try to point the toes on the right foot down to the ground, you can be on your fingertips and bend your left knee if you have to, and then you can come to the other side, lift your right leg, and then step the right foot back and bend, put your right knee in the ground, so you are in a lunge with your knee supported to the ground, breath in, try to lower into the left hip, when you breath out straighten the left leg as much as you can, breath in forward, breath out back, try to find your flow here, breath in forward, breath out, if you want you can flex the left foot too to make an extra stretch on the back, breath in, look forward, back to plank, squeeze the elbows in and rotate your biceps forward, lower down half the way or all the way down, cobra or upward facing dog, roll back to plank, stretch the right foot and leg back again, bend the knee, this time open your hips, which means make your right leg look to the right, so open your hips but try to not collapse your left shoulder, so keep the arms straight and just try to open the hips not the shoulders, keep the head relaxed, breath in, breath out, roll your knee to your nose, so try to get the leg as far forward as possible, breath in, sweep it up and back again, let's do it one more time, look at your knee and try to get the knee as close to your face as possible, last round, breath in, lifting the leg, breath out, move the knee forward and then put your foot down, maybe help your foot forward, walk forward to standing split left leg out and back, bend your right knee on your fingertips, maybe grab your ankle if you want to, breathing deeply, stretching the left foot behind you, feet together, breath in, breath out, lift 90 degrees, breath out, fold forward, all the way up on the inhale, all the way down on the next exhale, breath in, look forward, standing split left leg out, bending your right knee and pointing the toes of the left foot down, on your fingertips or on the knuckles, make your spine, make the crown of your head and your left heel move away from each other, this is something we call elongating the spine, we are using the small muscles around our spine to make the spine longer, put the left foot back and put your knee to the floor, breath in, sink into the right tips, breath out, stretching the right leg, two more, three more rounds on your own, breath in, forward, breath out, stretch the right leg, again breath in, forward, maybe flex the right foot if you want to, breath in, forward, step it back to plank, lower down to the belly or stop half way down, make a straight line tiny back bends, cobra or up dog, but make your shoulders always move back, using the strength of your back to open your chest, back to down dog, on your toes again, roll forward and this time stop in plank and on your fingertips on the left hand, hold here for three breaths, just make your core wake up, switching hands on your right fingertips, make sure you are pressing into both hands and lifting your belly away from the floor so you are not sagging and you are not pointing your ass up, try to stay in plank, back to down dog, stretching the left leg back, bend the knee and open the hips without twisting your torso, try to just open the hips, keep lifting your right armpit, pull the heel as much to the butt as you can, breath in, breath out, roll the knee forward, look at your knee and make the knee come as close to the nose as possible, breath in, sweep it back up, breath out, roll the knee forward, sweep the leg back, inhale, roll the knee forward as close to the face as possible, then put your foot down and maybe help it forward.

So rock forward to standing splits, hold your ankle if you want to, bend the knee but straighten the right leg out behind you, two breaths, deep and nice, elongating your spine by moving your chest and the crown of your head forward, place the foot down, inhale, exhale, forward, fold, this time all the way up on the inhale, try to go straight down to a low push up when you exhale, inhale, back bend, cobra or up dog, if you want to do extra push ups on the way back please do, let's combine, stretch the right leg out, roll the right knee forward, place the foot down, this time try to flatten out your left foot, so you're keeping most of your weight into your right leg and trying to press down into the left foot to lift your knee, from here try to lift the right hand, try to lift the left hand, doesn't matter where the arms are, just try to square your hips, move the right butt back, press into your left leg, two more breaths, you can keep the hands on your thigh if you want to, if you have to, hands down, back to plank, low push up, cobra or up dog, back to lung, stretch your left foot back, roll the knee forward, place the foot down, help it forward, flatten out your right foot, press down through the foot, maybe first come onto your fingertips, try to lift the right hamstrings up, up, up and bend down into the left knee, maybe let go one arm, maybe the other, maybe support your left leg with the arms straight in the back leg, two more breaths, hands down, back to plank, through what we call vinyasa, low push up, up dog, back to down dog, stretch your right leg again, open your hips, roll the right knee on the exhale to your right elbow, try to make them touch, stretch it out on the inhale, one more time to the right elbow, inhale right foot back, exhale, send the same thing one more time, but this time place the foot down on the outside of your right hand and squeeze your right knee into your right shoulder or triceps, so squeeze, hug the right knee into the midline and this time on your fingertips, maybe bend the back knee if you need to, slowly step by step come up to standing, so a wide lunge, you can keep pressing down into your right thigh, but try to move your belly backwards, so you want to create space between the belly and the right leg, so if you bend the left knee you can move back more, but when you have found the position try to straighten the back leg without popping your chest or contracting your lower back, try to stay here, you can even use the fingers into your belly, so squeeze the fingers in and push the belly against your fingers to make yourself strong, last thing you can do is add the arms up, lower the shoulders and maybe even look up, one more breath, hands down, back to plank, low push up, cobra or up dog, back to down dog, stretch the left leg back, bend the knee, on your toes inhale, exhale left knee, left elbow, stretch the leg back, and back to the right, exhale knee to elbow, inhale open, open, open, left foot on the outside of the hand, so now we have a wide stance, maybe you need to move the foot in a bit, but squeeze the left knee, hug it into the mid line, on your fingertips, straighten your back leg as much as possible, and then step by step keep squaring your hips, so your hips look forward, your chest and your face looks forward, you can bend the back knee now, make sure your left knee is not too far forward, try to keep as much weight, equal amount of weight in both feet, stand up, move your belly back, hug your belly with your fingers, make sure you are firm, and lastly add the arms up, up, up, chest moves up, shoulders move back, stretch the fingers and look up, hands down, back to plank, lower the knees, and then up, low push up, up dog, back to down dog, last round, stretch the right leg back, on the exhale right knee to left elbow, reach up on the inhale, one more round, right leg to left elbow, breathe in, lift the leg one more time, this time knee to nose, hold the knee as far forward as you can, three, two, one, and place the foot down, on your fingertips, slowly adjust the feet so you can find your lunge, so first the low lunge, and then we are slowly pressing down through the right foot to make us lift up the arms, hands in front of your chest, find the balance, and now breathe in, flow up and down, exhale, you can touch the left knee if you want or if you need, breathe in, straighten, breathe out, lower, breathe in, open, try to lean back with your upper body but lean forward with your right knee, one more, breathe in, breathe out, last round, breathe in, and hands down, lift the right foot off the ground, step it back to plank, open your chest, cobra or up dog, back to down dog, stretch in left, foot up as high as you can, on your next exhale, left knee to right elbow, butt stretching out, inhale, roll it forward, squeeze your knee forward and up, exhale, last round, inhale, left knee forward, holding through the left knee, three, two, one, left foot down, help it forward, arms slowly reach up, bending your right knee, shoulders back, chest back, and lower the hands, find your balance, breathe in, open up, maybe your right knee touches the ground, maybe not, breathe in, open up, breathe out, exhale, breathe in, lifting your chest, opening up, leaning back with the upper body, leaning forward with the hips, breathe in, open up, last one, breathe out, lower down, hands down, lifting your left heel, three, two, one, step back to plank, last vinyasa, low push up, up dog, and back to down dog, take five breaths in down dog. To feel the effect of the rolling knees and the low lunges, especially together, and sit down. So when we combine the rolling knee, which really strengthens the upper body and also the hip flexors, when we combine them with the lunge, which activates the leg massively and stretches the hip flexor, you're increasing your mobility and building strength at the same time. Not maximum strength, but efficient strength.

So I hope you guys like this little yoga flow, I hope you got as sweaty as I did and that you could put all the technique that you already have and put into this one. If this is your first yoga flow, then maybe grab one or two of the tips that you got from this one and add them to your practice. Thank you guys for training yoga with me, see you in the next video, or see you on the mat, two weeks to world championships. Take care.