Hip Mobility Program for BJJ: 50-Min Hip Opening & Strength

If you want more intensity in the lower back and the forearms, lean back. Three breaths. Don't wrinkle your neck, keep your neck long. Engage your belly, move back to a wide legged down dog so if you have a yoga mat you can grab your mat.

Step your feet about four decimeters or three feet, two feet apart. Bend your knees so that your head touches the floor or gets really close to the floor. Let's take three breaths in a squatting wide legged down dog. You can bounce a little bit up and down.

Try pushing your chest back. Use the power of your legs to stay in the pose. Straighten your legs, straighten your arms, move through a vinyasa, so plank, inhale, half way down, exhale. Cobra, inhale, lift your chest.

All fours, exhale. Normal down dog, just walk it out. Stretching your calves, stretching your hamstrings. Lengthening through your whole spine without crunching the neck.

Walking back to a squat, so walk the hands back, squat down, five breaths here, do whatever you feel like as long as you squat down as low as possible. Forward fold wide legs, grab your elbows and bend your knees more than you think. It's better to have bent knees and relax your back than relaxing your legs and tensing your back. In the beginning it's a mix between a squat and a forward fold.

The more you practice this, the more you will be able to lengthen the legs and stretch them. But this is not an option with locked knees and bent back. Two more breaths here. Now grab your ankles and move your feet closer together.

This is a teaser for the peak later on. Lift your left leg out to the side and step it forward. Right leg out to the side, step it forward. Keep walking like this for a few rounds.

Just small steps, finding the balance. Feet together, inhale, stretch, exhale, bend and fold. All the way up, inhale, exhale, hands down. Inhale, stretch up, exhale, fold.

Inhale, stretch. Step your right leg far back, really far. Lower your hips but straighten the back leg. Place your knee down and lift your arms up for a low lunge with arms up.

Inhale, lower your hips down, down, down. Exhale, hands down. Now lift your left foot off the floor and stretch it up and back behind you as high as you can. Bend your knee and open the hip.

If you look up here you should not be able to see your left knee. Roll forward to a plank. When you reach plank, inhale, exhale, lower down. Inhale back then.

Exhale all fours. Down dog. Stretch your right leg back, bend the knee, open the hips and squeeze the heel to your butt. You cannot see your right knee here.

Roll the knee forward to your face. Place the foot down for a standing split. So lift your back leg up. You can open the hips completely here or you can keep them neutral.

But we are engaging the back leg and sucking the belly in slightly. Feet together, inhale, stretch up, exhale, bend and fold. Inhale all the way up. Exhale, hands down.

Inhale, arms up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, stretch. Left leg far back, low lunge.

Stretch the heel backwards and push the right knee forward so the legs are moving apart. Place the left knee down. Keep your hips as low as possible. Lift your arms, take a huge inhale.

Exhale, hands down. Lift your foot off the floor and stretch the leg up and back behind you. Three-legged dog. Heel to butt, point your toes.

Roll forward to plank, try synchronizing. Inhale, plank, lock your hips. Exhale, low push-up or all the way down. Cobra or up dog, your back to sides.

All fours, down dog. Lift the left leg, bend and open. Roll the knee forward and place your foot behind your hands. Standing split, right leg up.

You can reach your fingertips, you can grab your ankle. Stretch and engage the back leg. Straighten the neck. Feet together, inhale.

Exhale, fold. Inhale all the way up. Place your hands on the hips. So, right ankle on left knee, like a triangle but on the front.

So, start by finding the balance here. Since you have the hands on the hips, you can feel if you're tilting one direction. So, try to even out the hips. And from here, either keep the hands here or straighten the arms out in front of you.

So, when we inhale, we stand up with straight leg. When we exhale, we go down. You can grab your leg or just go all the way down. When we inhale, we go up.

When we exhale, we squat down into a one-legged chair. Two more, inhale up. So, we're stretching the right side and strengthening the left side simultaneously. One more, inhale.

Exhale, down. Stay here with hands on hips, in front of your chest or wherever you like. Take three breaths here. Work the left hip, stretch the right hip.

When you stand up this time, grab your right knee and try finding the balance here. Engage the left side and lift the right side. Don't complain, just do it. Feet down, shake your hips.

Second side, left ankle, right leg. Hands on hips, try evening it out. So, the right hip into the middle, left knee pushes down. If you have knee problems, don't go hard, just do it nice and easy.

And then, we're going to do the same thing. If you have knee problems, don't go hard, just do it nice and easy. Maybe straighten your arms. So, inhale, stand up.

Exhale, one-legged chair squat. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up.

Exhale down. Last round, inhale. Exhale, stay here for three breaths. Hands wherever you like.

Keep working the right hip, work the right foot and calf. Stretch the left side, relax your face. Breathe. Grab your left knee, stand up.

Engage your right leg and your right hip, work it. Focus. Feet down, shake it out. So, we're ready for our ladder hip flow.

So, we're going to do the same thing. We're going to build on to each round and add a pose every time. So, starting mountain pose, let's go. Inhale.

Exhale, fold. Inhale, stretch. Exhale, back to down dog. We're going to start from here.

Right leg out, bend the knee, inhale and lift. Exhale, slowly roll the knee to your nose and hold here. Three, two, one. Step the right foot forward.

And now, really walk the foot forward so that your chest is pushing your knee all the way to the half of the foot. So, the knee is really working forward. While at the same time, the left heel is pushing back. So, you're super engaged here and you should be able to lift your hands and find the balance here.

From here, arms back, shoulders together, shoulder blades together. Stretch out through your head now and really engage and fire up the back leg. And from here, stretch the arms forward and lift all the way up to crescent pose. And you really have to use your leg here.

We'll try it again. Arms back, right hip in just like we did in the one-legged chair. Push your foot down to raise up. You should not feel it in the back, you should feel it in the right leg.

Take three breaths here. Stretch your fingers as high as you can. You can lift your hips a little bit, but bend the right knee, engage the hips. Inhale, look up.

Exhale, hands down. Inhale, plank. Exhale, push up. Inhale, back bend.

And exhale, down dog. Second side, lift the left leg. Bend and open, lift as high as you can. Inhale, exhale knee to nose, squeeze it.

Three, two, one. Foot between your hands. Take some time to set it up. Pushing your chest into your knee so it moves forward.

Pushing your right heel back. Engaging the legs and feet. Lifting your hands. Left hip moves in.

Arms back, stretch the fingers and squeeze your shoulder blades together to create space in the neck. Move your arms forward and push through the floor with the left hand to stand up. Engage your left hip. Again, back with the arms, squeeze the shoulder blades together.

And push through the floor to raise up and take three in and exhale here. Bend the left knee, but keep lifting the hips. Inhale, stretch up. Exhale, hands down.

Inhale, plank. Exhale, halfway down. Inhale, back bend. Exhale, down dog.

Second round, adding on. Inhale, lift the right leg. Exhale, knee to nose. Don't place your foot down yet.

Stretch the right leg back and up. Exhale, roll the knee forward a second time and place the foot between the hands. Same setup, inhale, arms back. Exhale, stand up.

Hands in front of your chest or out to the side for balance. Knees together, one-legged squatting chair. This time fold the left heel into your butt and squeeze the right hip in. Three, two, one.

Stretch the left leg back before you place it down. Inhale, arms up. All the way down to low push up on the exhale. Inhale, back bend, stretch.

Exhale, down dog. Second side, lift the left leg. Inhale, knee to nose. Again, inhale.

Knee to nose, exhale. Foot between the hands. Do the proper setup, everything engaged. Inhale and exhale, stand up.

Hands in front of the chest or out to the side. One-legged squatting chair. Left hip moves back. Knees squeeze together.

Inhale, down dog. Exhale, down dog. Knees squeeze together. Stretch the right leg back.

Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, all the way down to low push up. Inhale, back bend. Back to down dog.

That was the second round. Let's go for the third. Inhale, right leg up. Inhale, leg up.

Exhale, knee to elbow. Doesn't matter which. Inhale, leg up. Exhale, knee to nose.

Same setup. Foot between the hands. Arms back. Inhale here.

And exhale, stretch up. Hands to chest. Knees together. One-legged chair.

Stand on up here and stretch the left leg out in front of you. And don't be satisfied with the foot over the floor. Try lifting the left leg as high as possible. Flex the foot and really stretch through the left heel.

Take another breath here. And then inhale, arms up. And exhale all the way back to crescent pose. Inhale.

Exhale, low push up. Back bend, inhale. Exhale, down dog, second side. Left leg out, inhale.

And exhale, down dog, second side. Inhale, knee to nose, exhale. Inhale. Exhale, knee to elbow.

Inhale, leg up. Exhale, knee forward, foot between the hands. Same setup. Inhale.

Exhale, arms up. Single-legged chair. Squeeze together. Stand up and stretch the right foot out.

Three and a half big breaths here. Lift the right leg. Concentrate to stretch both legs straight. Inhale, arms up.

And exhale, stretch everything back. Landing crescent and inhale. Vinyasa, exhale. Halfway down.

Inhale, stretch it out, back bend. Exhale, down dog. Right leg out again, inhale. Just once this time, knee to forehead.

Foot between the hands, exact same setup. Inhale. Single-legged chair, knees together. Standing on up, stretching the legs L-shape.

Inhale. And this time back to single-legged chair. Try sliding your left knee as far down as you can. And stretch the left leg back behind you.

All the way up. We're going to do this a few times. Inhale. Exhale, knees together.

Slide the left leg knee down as far as you can. Stretch the leg out. Stand back up. Stretch everything, inhale.

Exhale, slide the left knee down. All the way to the heel. Stretching back. Land in crescent pose.

And this time keep your right leg up. Left hand down, stretch. I like taking my right foot back a little bit. And try standing on my right leg here.

To really stretch those muscles we just worked. Try to really open your shoulders here too. So the right knee moves away from you. The right shoulder moves away from the knee.

Slowly place the back knee down. Maybe even grab your foot. Find more breaths wherever you are. Let it go.

Let's go back to down dog. And do an extra vinyasa here. Rolling from down dog to plank. All the way down to the belly.

Inhale, cobra. All force, exhale, down dog. Second side, left leg out, inhale. Rolling knee slowly.

Try to stretch it out in every direction. Knee to forehead. Put down. Inhale, arms up.

Knees together, single leg chair. L shape. Inhale. Exhale.

Single leg chair, try sliding your right leg down. Stretch it back out. Inhale, right leg up. Stretch everything.

Exhale, knees together. If your left knee is hurting like mine, just use your arms on the knee. Stretch the right leg out. One more round, L shape.

Stretch everything up. Knees together, try sliding the right knee all the way down to the heel. And push your right leg back out. Crescent pose.

Inhale. Arms stay up, right leg goes down. Shoulders back, head forward. Twist.

It actually helps to imagine a kettlebell that you're pushing up. Left leg, left foot can move back. And start open twisting. Lean away from your knee.

So it's a back bend, a twist and a hip opener at the same time. If you want to place your knee down and grab your foot. Maybe even squeezing the heel to your butt. Be my guest.

Five more breaths here. Try sinking your hips even lower. Usually you can go a lot lower than you think. Let's go back to down dog.

Roll through another vinyasa. So even though we're working hips, we try to get a whole body workout. Back bend, inhale. Exhale, back to down dog.

Last round, this is different, so no more ladders. Just stretch the right leg out, inhale. And push your right leg back out. And push your right leg back out.

Exhale, roll the knee forward, foot between the hands. Starting crescent. Interlace your fingers behind your back. And really try to squeeze the palms together.

Stretch it out. If your shoulders are stiff, you're welcome. Now, try balancing on your right leg again. But open your hips and stretch through the foot and the head.

Create a long line. Keep squeezing your shoulder blades together. And push your hips forward. So if you're pushing enough, you can feel it on the inside of the standing leg.

From here, right hand down, left hand up without tweaking the shoulder. So don't try to take the hand behind you. Keep the hand and use it for the next round. And then we're going to do the same thing.

So, we're going to do the same thing. Try to take the hand behind you. Keep the hand and use it for balance. Same with the left leg.

Left side is balancing. And here comes the peak, my friends. Bend the left knee and pull the knee to the side. Grab your knee and knees together, single leg chair.

Inhale up. Exhale down. Do not complain. Inhale up.

Exhale down. If you can grab your foot, you can do that. Inhale up. Exhale down.

Last round. Now stay here for five breaths. Five, four, work it. Three, two, one.

Bend the left knee and place the left knee on the outside of your right foot. So you're crossing the legs and slowly sitting down on your left butt. So the right foot is in the ground on the outside of the knee. And you can choose where the left foot is.

You can pull it in or you can keep it there. The mission now is to squeeze the right knee in so that you stretch the muscles you just worked. And then you're going to do the same thing. Inhale up.

Exhale down. The reason I said do not complain is because it's so much sweeter to sit here if you just push through the hard part so you can like savor this moment. If you were bitching and moaning when it was tough, it doesn't feel as good to sit here and reap the benefits and enjoy. One more breath.

Keep the legs as they are. Just place the left foot in the ground. Fingers out to the side. Reverse tabletop.

Try even out the hips. So left hip into the middle. Push it up. Squeeze everything together.

Inhale up. Exhale, squeeze it together. Inhale up. Exhale, squeeze it together.

And here comes the finale. Lift up, stretch the right leg. Seven, six, five, four. Keep lifting.

Three. And the one. And sit down. Relax your hips.

Roll back to your back. Upside down guard if you don't have neck problems. On your back if you have neck problems. Take a breath here.

Roll back up to a squat and let's do a super duper, super wide crow. So this is crow. We're going to do crow but much wider hands. And try separating the knees.

So much so that when your feet lift your head touches the ground. So you have a very wide tripod. Take five breaths here. And then you can do the next one.

So this is a nice alternative to this one if you don't have any padding. This one can hurt a lot if you're stiff. This one is usually better. Take two more breaths here.

In a frog-like crow pose. And then you can do the next one. And then you can do the next one. And then you can do the next one.

And then squat down. Move your hands around a little bit. And let's do the finale round on the last side. Down dog.

Let's do it. Left leg out, inhale. Roll the knee forward, exhale. Foot down and inhale crescent pose.

Exhale, interlace your fingers behind your back. And squeeze the palms together. And push through. And from here balance on your left side.

Stretch your right side. Lengthen your neck. Lengthen your breath. Engage everything that is weak like the right foot.

Like the arms. Keep breathing. Lower your chest slightly. Left hand down, right leg up.

Shoulders down. Keep the balance with the right hand and the right leg. And here comes the fire hydrant. Bend the right knee.

Grab the right knee with your right hand. Inhale. Exhale knees together. Inhale up.

Exhale down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Grab the foot if you can.

Inhale up. Exhale down. Do not bitch and moan. Inhale up.

Exhale down. If you moan, let's do one more. Four, relax your face. Three.

Two. And one. Right knee on the outside of your pinky toe. So cross your knees and slowly sit down.

This should feel very good in your left side. Grab your knee and push your chest to your leg and lean forward. You can sit on your heel if that feels better. But make sure you are not leaning forward.

But make sure your left butt is stretched out. Don't emphasize the twist here. Just push forward and stretch one of the biggest or the biggest muscles in the body. Glute max and all his friends.

Two more deep breaths here. Keep the legs as they are. Just place your right foot down. Fingers out.

Reverse tabletop on one leg. Evening out the hips so the right hip is not sticking out. You are squeezing it together. Fold.

And inhale up. And exhale down. And inhale up. And exhale down.

And inhale up. And exhale down. Last round. Inhale up.

And stretch the left leg. Seven. Six. Push the leg up.

Five. Four. Three. Two.

Relax your face. One. And sit down knees from side to side. Hoo-ha.

If you are used to moving all the time like in BJJ, static working can be exactly what your body and your head needs. Jiu-Jitsu is outside the comfort zone in the beginning, but eventually even the toughest sparring will become our comfort zone and then this is the way to actually get outside of it. Roll back again. If you have neck problems, don't do this one.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Roll up to an old school squat, which means heels together. Hands walk forward. Butt goes down. Take five breaths here.

In a really low pose, you can even grab around your feet. Create a little cave. Imagine your nose being squeezed between your heels. One more here.

Nice. Let's do pigeon pose. All fours and then plank up with the left knee under you. So stay in plank.

If you have knee problems with the left knee, just stay here. And then take at least five breaths to first place the right knee down. Find the correct angle. So easier is leaning to the left and pushing the left sitting bone to the ground.

And this can be it for you. If this is not it, then keep sliding the right knee back until your elbows touches the ground. And this might be it for you. If this is not it, move back a little more and place your forehead to the ground.

And this is probably it for you, if not even earlier. Wherever you are, do not look around. Relax your head. Rest your head on something.

Breathe. Switching the thoughts off is difficult. Tuning them down slightly is easy. The volume control of the brain is the breath.

One more deep inhale. And sigh it out. Switching sides. Plank pose.

Right knee forward. Take your time. Plank first. Sliding the left knee back to the ground.

This might be it. Twisting to the right, placing your butt or your thigh in the ground. And if you are extremely stiff, you can always bend the back knee like this and just sit like this. Go as deep as you need, but do not tweak the outside of the knee.

The LCL, this ligament, takes a lot of time to heal, so do not push it. Relax it instead. Avoid biting your teeth together. Avoid also talking to yourself, because when you talk to yourself, nobody listens.

Try shutting up and listen to yourself, your body. Listen to your breath and practice yoga. Inhale. Huge inhale.

And sigh it out. Get back up to all fours and step the left leg forward. Let's go for splits. So this can be split enough for you.

Just slide the right knee back more and more and more until you have had enough. Blocks on your hands or supporting yourself with the hands can be a smart idea. So just split it out. The hip flexors and the hamstrings.

Don't hold your breath and don't squeeze your face, that makes it much worse. If you have to do that, then just walk the knee back and slowly slide back in like 15 seconds. And then do it again until you find the perfect spot. Not the G spot, but the S spot, the stretching spot, where you have 100% intensity and 100% relaxation at the same time.

Flexibility is not a skill, it's a mindset. I think that the movie Yes Man is much deeper than it seems. Going from being really negative and resisting a lot of friction to being more flexible and more flexible. And then you have to be more flexible and more flexible.

Instead of going from being really negative and resisting a lot of friction to being more flexible and going with the flow and surfing through life. Instead of asking why, asking why not. I think it's a huge and very important message that you can use right here in the splits. Instead of saying no, no, no, no, try saying, ah, what the fuck, why not.

Switching sides, right leg forward, start in the lunge. You can either snail your right foot forward or slide the left knee back. Heavy hips, deep breaths. The only person in the world worth comparing yourself with is yesterday's yourself.

Are you a more lazy and weak person today than yesterday, then that's a wake up call. If you manage to improve if only one thing from yesterday, that is a huge success. Then all you have to do is do it again and again and again consistently. And you can become more flexible than you think.

Most likely you're never going to put both feet behind your head. But the application of doing that is not very, there is not much value to it. But going from here to here can make all the difference in the world both when practicing jiu jitsu and waiting for the bus. Alright, down to the back for happy baby.

Grab your ankles or your feet, so modified happy baby or full happy baby. Or just open guard. Let's take a minute in shavasana, relax on your whole body. I'm going to turn off the music too.

Relax and let's go. Relax. Inhale. Exhale.

Exhale. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Feel the sensation around your hip joint. We just worked a little bit of hips today but we have four more days this week to practice.

Inhale. We have four more sessions this week to really engage strengthening and lengthening the hips. Knees to chest, squeeze the ball. Roll back up to the seat.

And maybe when you sit now, maybe we'll get the knees a little bit lower and you can feel a little more stability here than usual. I hope so at least. Lift the shoulders, inhale. And exhale, sigh it out.

Thank you guys for today, see you tomorrow.