Inner Thigh: 10-Min Side Split Stretch for Grapplers (10-for-10 #8)

Hey everyone and welcome to another in the recovery after rolling series. So today we're going to work on some side splits stretches just to kind of open out the kind of inner thigh area. This can really help when we're kind of playing open guard or even sometimes mount when we're really tight opening the knees out. These kind of stretches and working this kind of thing can really help just open out and give you a bit more mobility there.

So starting off on all fours all we're going to do is just keep our hips over the knees and then the right foot is going out to the side and if when that goes out to the side your hip lifts up I want you to just slide the foot away so that you get your hip in line with your shoulders here. Right and we're just going to let that slide out until we feel a bit of a stretch here and start to take a few slow breaths. Again these recovery after rolling classes are slower we're just getting a few stretches in just kind of 10 minute classes you can even kind of pick the ones that you feel like you need at the moment and just work on kind of stretching and opening out specific areas. Good let's switch sides now so right knee back then the left foot out and again just start to drop that left hip slightly get your hips nice and in line with your shoulders and open out here and that tight area should start to maybe slowly open a little bit as you as we breathe in the pose here.

Good let's switch sides again this time bringing the foot out and then I'm just going to sit back slightly so you might feel the stretch change a bit you can also come down to your elbows and sit back just to ease that weight back sitting towards your heel here obviously if your knees are a bit sore and this hurts we can stay forwards here just slowly working on going back again if you're tight this is really good sorry if you're tight in the quads and the hips this is really good working it sitting back onto the heel as well you can kind of use this for both because as I'm sitting back I'm kind of stretching out the areas that I need to to sit on my heel without being up like this and really putting a lot of weight down on it so we can kind of use that to open both areas. So at the moment in this stretch my foot my toes are on the floor now lift up your toes and point them up to the ceiling and you should feel that stretch just change a little bit onto your hamstrings which should feel really good maybe you can sit back a little more now and take a couple of breaths so you might need a bit of activation obviously to keep your toes up the ceiling but that's fine here again if you're playing an open guard or you know well any any open guard you know different like lasso guard and things like that you're obviously moving moving around quite a bit so you're gonna need some mobility and flexibility in kind of all angles okay let's come up slowly and then switch sides so dragging the left foot away this time keep the toes down to begin with we're gonna come down to the elbows and then super slow start to sit back here just onto that heel and another thing that might help if you feel really tight here you can put a pillow kind of under your hips here between your like heel and your hips if you feel super tight or that's uncomfortable or if if this hurts your knee as well you can kind of fold the yoga mat in half so that you've got kind of less pressure on the floor all little things just so we can find some comfort and we can breathe like we are now we can talk and just get comfortable and work on that tension good let's lift the toes of the left foot now keep that activation might change to the hamstrings as we lift might stay on the inner thigh just keep breathing always with these stretches with these glasses just like slow deep breath through the nose good let's come back up now slowly to all fours okay and then just a few little reps here but keeping the knees bent okay starting in all fours and we're not moving too much all I'm doing is lifting my right knee out to the side and back down a few times so two and three and then the other side so keep that knee bent again we don't want a crazy workout here we're just working on a couple of areas so we can see if we can make things open out a little bit okay so knees in sorry heels in together knees open out down to the elbows again and at the moment I'm forwards here so I'm going to turn so you guys can see what's going on so at the moment I'm forwards here and I'm just letting my knees open out I'm on quite a slippery surface here on these mats and that kind of helps this stretch and then I'm just going to slowly bring my hips back to start to feel a stretch on the inside of my thighs okay and as you breathe here and try and relax your knees might slowly open out a little bit just take three or four slow breaths here let's come forwards now so elbows forward and creep the hips forwards see if your knees open out slightly keep the heels in though and then we're creeping back again and as you can see my my voice and my breathing isn't changing here I'm not pushing back and really struggling to kind of teach I'm just just at the point where it's comfortable but I can feel a stretch keep those slow breaths going and then slowly forwards see if the knees open out see how that stretch changes just take a couple of breaths here and then very slowly creeping back again see how that feels just leaning back slightly I'm not like really driving back because we don't want to you know we don't want to provoke anything here we're just trying to open out and release some tension we're not trying to like overstretch and like potentially harm ourselves we would be looking like a cowboy for the rest of the year for the rest of the day good okay forwards and then super slow bring your knees back in together back to all fours and let's lift the knee out to the side again so find that kind of even all fours and then one two three and then other side switch one two three good now the knees are gonna go wider than the mat again this time my heels are in line with my knees so my shins are parallel and I'm gonna drive my knees apart and really look after your knees here okay because if we drive back too far we might provoke some knee pain I just want you to drive back so you feel a stretch in your hips never in the knees okay so breathing here and this should feel more intense because of the positioning of our shins here so I'm probably pushing back half of what I would if my heels were in just to be extra cautious of my knees here let's come forwards again see how that feels they're very slowly pushing back and then one more forwards and back just for one breath here good slowly forwards come out of that and then we'll just finish sitting with our feet touching and our knees opening out here sitting up nice and proud knees open and just see how that feels where you are maybe things are opening maybe you need to do this cost a few more times that's fine it's never gonna happen the first time so obviously make sure you keep following it or this series just keep following and you're gonna improve you know the more and more you work on this kind of these kind of flexibility stretches mobility drills and things like that that the quicker and the better you're gonna improve over time okay it's all about consistency just like jujitsu time on the mats is gonna make you better okay and proper practice is gonna work at that good just some windshield wipes to finish just to shake off see how you feel and then hopefully you're feeling good in whatever you're about to do if you're gonna chill now make sure you chill in a stretch or just you know some active recovery okay thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one