Hip Mobility for Jiu-Jitsu: 17-Min Class

And of course, cooling down. But if you look at even today's class, I'm going to put you down for a second. There we are today's like looking at the guard in relation to the hips. And the hips in relation to yoga, we close up that guard, right?

We close the guard. And so we're really using the inside of the hips a lot. And if you're like me, when I wrestle people, I'm like, I like to sometimes if they're really pissing me off, I'll squeeze the knees together when they're right below the rib cage. And that's that's using the inside of the hips.

The adductors are pretty big. They're pretty big muscles, right? There's a lot of them in there. You can squeeze them and then obviously squeeze sometimes to get them on balance.

You'll bump them forward. So, again, that's that's the adductors, among other things. But the really interesting one is on the outside of the hips. There's not a ton of muscles there.

It's just just some little, little tiny guys. And they're used to pull the legs out. So you got these little tiny guys using to pull the guys out and obviously some almost ligaments, connective tissues. You got these little tiny guys, right?

And we use it with our knee shield. I have I have someone in my garden, my knee shield. And if you ever wrestle someone, it is really, really easy to push down, right? Push them down, compress them and then just smash pass, because nobody is strong here.

Because it's just a little tiny muscle. And we're asking it to do a lot. And that's not really a normal thing. That's how it likes to do.

And that's why commonly the outside of the of the legs, they tend to be they tend to get weak. And then because they're weak, they do a lot of work. They tend to get tight. And that's no one's fault.

That's just life. That's just life. Right. Like I mentioned before, during the day, we do normal things.

We we work, we eat. Like if you think of the hips in relation to the day, we do a lot of normal things. And then you get on the mat. And you wanted to do a knee shield.

And it's like, what do you what do you want me to do? So we have the clothes guard and we have the knee shield working on keeping that leg up, which is really hard. And you move into like the scissor sweep, which is also again, the bottom. The bottom leg is moving the top leg.

So obviously, the hips are moving. And then we move into like bum sweep. So shrimp like almost not shrimping, but move will shrimping to escape the bad positions with the hips and then turning to get your arm bars and your attacks. So if you look at so many things that the hips do, like with your last wrestle in relation to Jiu Jitsu, and it's actually really amazing how at first even it's hard.

Like you ever watch a white belt wrestle and then you and then it's hard. Like even someone's first class, they don't really know how to move the hips. They don't have the mind body connection yet. And you move to black.

It's second nature. Like you just know the hips move that way. And I think it's really cool, really extraordinary how that changes over time. Then I'm like, OK, so it's guard week for our Jiu Jitsu.

And what do we need to stretch in the guard? And really, the focus of today's class is the outside of those hips because it's so common that they're so tight because we just don't do a lot with them during the day, right? We just don't do a ton. So today's class, we'll move through just stretching the outside of the hips in a really nice way.

And then we'll also move to a little bit of hamstrings. Obviously, hamstrings are below the hips, but they're always tight. So we can definitely use those hamstrings, some stretches through those hamstrings. And then hips and hips and shoulders like to like to hang out in the same class together.

So we'll move through some shoulder stretches. I have a couple more minutes if you guys have some questions for me. Are there tips for rubber? I can hit one side blocked out on the other side.

You know what? That's a really great question. We actually have on a side note, Adam, who is who is the rubber guard master. He's really good.

He's really good with it. He loves it. So make sure to hit up his AMA on Monday. I love the clothes guard.

But I would say in regards to the rubber guard, today's class, like you just signed up, you just just became part of the part of the biggest family on earth, part of the best family on earth. So you just signed up and hit up today's class because we are going through. It's actually kind of a purposefully messy, messy pigeon, purposely messy pigeon. But here, right?

So this is one thing that can help with it. And so the knee is forward almost to the elbow. And you can bring the foot forward, too. And if you look at this, this is called pigeon variation.

I call this variation one. You can keep the knee down. This is with the knee closer to the hip. That's that's better.

People have problems with their knees. Welcome to Jiu Jitsu. All of our knees are sore, I think. And number two, the other variation, which is really nice, pulls the foot down and put the ankle on the quad here.

This is really nice. So try this out, because if you think of rubber guard, look at where that is and look at where that is. We are not doing this one in today's class. Then the other one, which is just nice for stretching the hips, a timeless classic is if you start in plank position, tricking you into a workout, take the left or the right foot, but put the right foot to the outside of the right hand.

So this is lizard, but it's also opening up the hip. And it's just really good for increasing the range of motion. So try those. I like how your elbow is posting.

Yes, I fell back when pushing my knees down during butterfly stretch. You fall back while pushing these down during butterfly stretch. So Pedro, it's a great name. I love that name.

So you mean here, you've got a butterfly stretch, you're chilling and you're trying to push your knees down. Where are your knees? Are they pretty high up or are they like kind of like mine? Um, you know what?

All of us will take all of us while we have mobility. Don't worry. So with the knees, you know what? If you fall back with the knees in your butterfly, I would recommend I don't have one, but I'd recommend grabbing a blanket.

This is my blanket. This is my blanket. I recommend grabbing it. And probably what's happening is your pelvis is like tilting back, you know, so it's tilting back, which is almost even rounding back, which isn't wrong.

It's just different. So grab your blanket. Hopefully it's thicker than mine. Sit on it just with the edge here.

And then that will tilt your pelvis forward just a little bit. Then I want you because it sounds like it's really good. You're doing the stretch. It sounds like you need it.

Sounds like you're tight and that's okay. Sounds like you need it, right? Everyone needs a stretch. If you have the feet closer to the hips, that's going to be, you know, obviously a bit more of the inside of the hips.

The adductors, like we talked about earlier, the inside of the hips. If it's the feet are further apart, like just further forward, it'll allow the hamstrings to join the party. And like most of us, those hamstrings are tight. So you've got your hopefully larger belt than mine.

Just sit it. Just sit, you know, on it so that you can tilt the pelvis forward just a little bit. Then bring the feet further away from your hips so we can allow the hamstrings to join the party and just a really gentle stretch. Then my last thing to say is give it time.

It sounds like you need, I have one yin class I uploaded. It was I think a couple weeks ago, but it's a hips one. And I start in this stretch, this butterfly stretch. And we actually stay here for five minutes.

So you don't need to do that class. You can just set yourself up like this and, you know, post the hands down, boom, and just stay here for five minutes. So that's what I would recommend. And allowing the lower back to release and also legs to release, because when you hold a pose for a long time, it actually allows the fascia to begin to release all the connective tissue.

And the crazy thing is you can watch TV, you can be on your phone, like you can, if that sounds boring, but I actually recommend setting your timer and putting your phone to the side and just sitting here. Close your eyes and just breathe. It sounds boring, but it's very calming for the nervous system and actually allows you to realize when stuff starts to release. So after about two or three minutes, you'll start to release and you'll go lower and lower and lower.

So instead of sitting here and just kind of trying to push the knees down, like spend more time in this pose. And I also recommend one more stretch. You grab your blanket. This is our blankets 2020, anything goes.

Take the right foot in the right hand, bring the belt out to the right side, stretching again, the inside of those legs. How does that sound? You don't know, you know what, you don't need the best posture. You really don't.

You don't need the best posture. I thought when I started yoga, I'm like, oh yeah, the back has to be straight and you got to pull the legs and you got to be like this. And I'm like, you know what? No, you don't need the best posture.

You can have the legs out forward. It just depends on what you're trying to accomplish. It's just different. Right.

So for us, boom, legs forward, just hang out and then try that out and let us know how it goes. We're actually super invested in your success. So shoot us a DM. You don't need the best posture.

Yeah. All right. All right. All right.

I can't do the straddle pose. Not even the first part. You sit with your back straight and legs apart because I have stiff hips or back. What can I do about it?

I got to be honest with you. I hate straddle. I hate full straddle pose. I hate it on the ground.

It's we do Jiu-Jitsu and we're not, we're not, we're not like, most of us aren't like straight yoga people who don't work out and do yoga 17 times a day. That's super offensive, but it's kind of true. Straddle pose. You got the legs open and forward.

This just doesn't feel good. It doesn't. Like I feel like I got to engage my muscles to sit forward. Then I'm like, okay, okay.

I'm told I'm going to grab my blanket and you sit on your, like not sit totally on your blanket, but just have it at the back of the hip. Sit, tilt your pelvis forward. This still feels terrible. Like I just don't like this pose.

And you know what? You don't, you don't need to do this pose. There's different ways to work the same thing. So a variation of this that I want you to try is actually a standing straddle.

This is a lot better. So I like to stand all the way up and straight. It's nice to strain your back to start. Maybe hands on the hips.

Inhale, exhale, go forward. There we go. That's a lot better. So stay here.

This is, this is a variation of straddle using gravity. And then again, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you can play here a little bit. So you can walk the feet out. You can walk the feet out.

Okay. I got a bit more hamstrings. You can walk the hands to the side. You can just hold this and you can hold this pose for a while.

Sometimes I'm like, Oh, I want a bit more tensed. I want to grab something. So I do one and two. Oh, there we go.

So that is a way to use straddle with gravity. Then the next one with straddle is do half straddle. This feels really good. We're doing this in today's class too.

Do half straddle. So one leg is out. Instead of having both legs out, one leg is out. The other leg is in along the inside of the inside of the knee, anywhere here.

Then to look a couple variations, but you can just, you can just kind of sit here. And again, I like the slower yoga. It's a good option for the slower yoga. You can hold it for one, two, three, four.

You can't hold every pose for five minutes in like what's called yin yoga, but this is one you can loop the belt around the ball of the foot and just stay here, just stay here. So this, this feels really nice. And your options are, this is really cool because you can use the same stretch for different things. I can focus on the hamstring, allow the lower back to release.

Little life pro tip. If the lower back is tight, it also affects the hamstring flexibility. So both of them need to be open to get a good stretch. And then that's not totally correct, but that's what we're going with.

Like the lower back needs to be open to open up the hamstrings. So boom, here we go. Because of the lower back's tight, obviously I can't like grab the toes. So if you begin with like four folds and open out the back, the lower back, it really helps.

One, if I'm facing the foot, it's more hamstrings or you can work into into more of the hips, more of the hips facing this way in a different part of the back. So it's super cool. You can use the same stretch for different things. So get rid of half straddle.

You don't like it. That's okay. Get rid of it. I honestly hate that pose.

When they do like half straddle in yoga classes here, I'm like, and I'll actually just like stand up. Way better. Or I'll bring, yeah, that's full straddle. I don't like it.

Or I'll bring one foot in. You're still accomplishing the same things. You just don't hate your life while you're doing it. So kind of taking apart that pose.

It's super cool. All right, team. All right. All my favorite people, all my favorite people, I am going to get ready for my live stream class today.

Make sure to jump on the story, swipe up. It'll be on there for a couple more minutes or just jump to our website at YogaForBJJ.net and join me. Today's stretch is nice and it is slow. So we'll be able to have a nice little slow relaxing party.

Okay, I'll see everybody there.