Hip Mobility: 13-Min Yoga for BJJ (10 for 30 #1)

Hey and welcome to Yoga for BJJ. I'm Sebastian and you have probably just taken a leap of faith and signed up for this website. So we're going to start things very nice and gently and slowly. We're going to do 10 minutes of yoga for 10 days consecutively and we're going to start with what I think is the most important part of our body in Jiu Jitsu which is the hips.

If you can move your hips and if you can get more nimble in your hips your game is going to change. So let's sit down on the floor, on a yoga mat, on your carpet in your living room, sit down on your butt, place your hands behind you and tilt your knees from side to side. These exercises are called windchill wipers and it's usually the first I do whenever I sit down on a Jiu Jitsu mat. I like the windchill wiper because it both really gets deep into my hip joint and my lower back always makes a really nice cracking sound after a few repetitions.

One thing that you're probably doing wrong here is that you're going at this speed because this is like a normal Jiu Jitsu warm up speed. I like you to slow down maybe 40 percent so instead of going left right left right let's go with your breath kind of like inhale and exhale so you don't move faster than your breathing. So I'm not talking about slowing down 600 percent just enough for you to actually go a little bit deeper than you would if you were going fast because when you're going fast your body will resist because fast is usually dangerous that's what the body thinks at least so when your mind really tells your body to slow down your body is like okay well then I can relax more because stretching is much more about relaxation than you think. Let's stop with the knees over to the left and then puff up your chest so lift your chest and squeeze your butt so when you squeeze your butt you get a nice stretch on the front of the hips here and then try lifting your hips up off the floor and let's not stay here for long let's switch sides so go all the way as far as you can squeeze your butt lift your chest and lift your hips and that's it just go from side to side and you can stop wherever you want some of you that are practicing with me right now have knee problems some of you have herniated lower backs some of you are just super stiff like rocks so whenever you see me do something don't compare because I've been doing yoga for six years now which is not a lot compared to other people but I know my body quite well and you might think you do but don't do the mistake of comparing whatever you see with your own body because in my experience that just makes you it's not really inspiring to see someone do something crazy and you can't even attempt it that's more demotivating so try not to compare just do what you can and be mature about it all right stretch your legs in front of you no don't stretch bend the knees lift your hips and let's go reverse table so this is a nice stretch for the front of the hips if you squeeze your butt take a breath here and then sit down and circle your feet okay so again feet down lift your hips engage and then sit down circle your feet and this is like I like to work with contrasts go one more time now we squeeze and engage and stiffen up your hips and then when you sit down you really try to let them loose so you're rolling from butt cheek to butt cheek so we're trying to engage and lift and then sit down and relax them so we're learning the two extremes super stiff and super loose all right okay let's sit in a squat I obviously have a super deep squat because that's how my ankles are designed my I have no knee problems and my hips are loose so if you're here that also counts as a squat so like a 90 degree bend in the knees and supporting with your elbows that's perfectly fine okay so go as deep as you can without feeling any sudden pain in your knees let's take half a minute here all cultures in the world use the squat as a working position going to the toilet position it's only us that invented chairs we invented chairs and they're good use like if you want to sit in front of a computer for eight hours the chair is actually a good choice in order to do your job well but for your hips the chair is a bad idea any more than a couple of hours a day so anytime you have a chance on the bus or anywhere you are sitting down in a squat is a great idea okay knees down flatten out your feet and try to sit on your heels and it's okay if you sit like me like this with most of the weight into your knees if your knees are fine then sit straight up and down and if you want to get a really nice stretch for the front of your hips and your thighs lean back and squeeze your butt again but don't pop your chest up try to engage the front and engage your butt now I get a really nice stretch for the quads and the quads are all connected to the front of the hips so if you stretch your quads you're probably also stretching your psoas muscle that connects your lower back to your legs take a few breaths here nice let's stand up wide legs not too wide but maybe I know five four feet between the three four feet hands to the ground and bend one knee and bend the other knee now you can go fast but only go fast in the beginning then you try to slow down and find a nice rhythm I like inhaling straight and exhaling bend but you can do like you want just go gently from side to side and the more resistance you have in the legs the more you lean into your hands so you're kind of doing a halfway handstand here if you feel like you shouldn't put more pressure into your ankles your knees or your hips go from side to side two times more all right now walk your hands towards your left foot and place your back knee down into the ground so this is kind of a split but you're not really splitting your feet away from each other you're just doing a split from the knees okay so your hips are trying to get down between your knees if you need to prop yourself up on the fingertips or even have your arm forearms on the knee that's okay but again like we did when we were doing the bicycle thing with the feet try to relax your hips and drop it down because you probably have a lot of tension that you don't think about so try to take an inhale and then relax when you exhale one more time inhale and exhale last one nice now walk your hands back and try to get your left leg as straight as possible and then bend it again try to inhale when you bend the knee exhale straighten as much as you can do a couple more inhale exhale inhale exhale try to relax when you exhale last one inhale exhale now walk your hands all the way to the other foot same sequence here just take a few moments splitting your knees away from each other so let the weight of your butt drop down into your hips so you get a double stretch here get a stretch for the left front and the right back of your hips and if you there is a trick in yoga if you relax your face and relax your neck you kind of relax your whole spine so take a couple of deep breaths and just enjoy being here even if it hurts just enjoy being here most of the pain you feel in a class like this is good pain now walk your hands back and stretch your right leg as much as you can and then bend the knee inhale and exhale stretch inhale bend and exhale stretch inhale bend exhale stretch one more nice okay last exercise sit down in your butt like we did when we did the windshield wipers we have an S shape on our legs get your chest close to your knee so make like a do like a push-up trying to get your chest down to your knee and then straighten your arms and then go to the center of the calf and then up again and go towards your foot and then start over inhale lift your chest exhale knee inhale up exhale calf inhale up exhale foot and one more full round inhale exhale inhale exhale inhale exhale switching sides inhale exhale knee inhale exhale calf inhale exhale foot inhale six to go knee inhale calf just breathe on your own foot one more round nice cross your legs sit down try to sit with a straight spine thank you very much for completing the very first class on yoga for BJJ tomorrow we're gonna do another part of the body and I hope you feel slightly better now this was just ten minutes but ten minutes can be magic if you do it consistently so this was just the first tiny taste of what's to come and hopefully you feel good and hopefully it was a little bit challenging because if it's not challenging it's not fun like when as soon as you feel like oh this is a big problem don't think about it as a problem think about it that this is a great challenge and I please write down any thoughts you have after the very first yoga class because that is gold further down the road I really wish I did that on my first yoga class see you tomorrow