Jiu-Jitsu Warmup: 15-Min Pre-Class Hip & Chest Flow

Good. Good. Now what we're going to do is we're going to walk hands forwards and just drop the chest down looking towards the hands. And then same thing here, so push down in the hands, look towards your hips and just a few of them.

So you can feel your shoulders and your chest opening here, particularly if you're tight. You should also feel a little bit more movement in the lower back and the hips as you do this more. We spend so much time in Jiu Jitsu hunched forwards, whether we're playing guard or going for takedowns or standing up wrestling or mount, we're always hunching forwards, so it's just nice to get everything moving, stretched and open out. Good.

Come back to all fours. Now we're tucking our toes here and I want you to lift your hips up so you get a nice and straight back. We're working towards down dog here, so I want you to keep your legs nice and bent here so your knees are bent and just keep lifting your hips up. I know you're probably looking at the screen a bit here, but try and just let your head hang for a few seconds so you've got no tension in the back of your neck.

And just breathe. Keep lifting your hips up. So we're going to stay in a very similar position, but I want you to drop your left heel slightly and bend your right knee so you can feel that stretch down the back of the left leg. And then super slow, switch sides and keep switching sides.

Try and go about half the speed. You probably imagined doing this, just so you can feel everything slowly opening up here. And I'll remind you a few times throughout the video to breathe because a lot of the time when we're doing things like this we hold our breath. That is not what you want when you're trying to stretch, trying to warm up and get everything ready.

Good. Come forward to the plank now. If you think you're in plank, just lower your hips a little bit, lift your head a bit. And then super slow, lower your front all the way down to the mat.

And imagine bridging down towards the mat now. Lift your shoulders up and back, using the muscles in the back and then lower down. We don't have to go super high. Let's do that one more time.

Maybe inhale as we do it, maybe exhale as we come down. Now this time without the hands, so we really have to use the muscles in the back here. So shrug back, lift the chest. We're not going to go as far.

And then we hold and lower down. Let's do that one more. And lower. Push yourself back up to all fours.

Tuck the toes and lift the hips into down dog. See if you feel a little better here this time. You might not, that's fine. But we're going to do that one more time.

So forward to the plank. Lower down. Lift the chest without the hands. And lower.

One more time. And lower. Then push yourself up to all fours. And back.

Tuck the toes, lifting the hips. Okay, three breaths here. Again, just walking on the spot. Hopefully everything's starting to feel a bit more comfortable here.

Maybe you're opening out a bit. Nice. Okay, forward to the plank. Lower down.

Shrug the shoulders back and lift the heels as well. And down. This time push yourself all the way up to the top of a plank. And then back into down dog.

And two breaths here. Okay, let's come forward to the plank. And now think about your right knee. When you bring your right knee towards your right elbow.

And then your right foot is going to step outside your right hand. Alright, if you do this to get there, that is fine. Or if you just step there straight away, whatever works. Now drop the hips.

Lift the chest a little bit. And feel the hips open out slightly here. And just take two or three breaths. Try and keep your back leg nice and strong.

Lovely. Okay, back to down dog. Lifting the hips again. And now let's go same on the left side.

So forwards, left knee to the left elbow. Maybe step, step, step. Or just kick it round. And again, see how you feel here.

The amazing thing is when we're doing these both sides is just like Jiu Jitsu, you know, you've got a good side and a bad side. You're going to feel that when you're doing these yoga poses and different stretches. So, if you're doing this on the right side, it's fine, it just means you've got more work on one side. But the more we do things equally, just like drilling, the better we get in general, okay?

Okay, back to down dog again. Take a couple of breaths here. Then forwards to plank. Lower down.

Again, lift the chest and heels. And back down. And back to down dog. Good, just walking the heels out one more time.

Always feels good. Okay, let's revisit that right side now. So step the right foot outside the right hand again. This time though, let's drop the back knee.

When we drop the back knee, you might feel more of a stretch in the front of the left hip here. Just breathe and think of a proud chest. So lifting that chest up, dropping the hips slightly. And then super slow, keep your hands and everything where it is, apart from your hips, just drag your hips back until you feel a stretch on that right hamstring.

You're only going to feel it more in your lower back or your hamstrings. Either or, that doesn't matter. Okay, let's now go forwards to find that hip stretch again. And back to find that hamstring stretch.

The more you do these kind of stretches, the better you're going to feel on the mats, especially your lower back and your hamstrings. You think how often you get stacked in jujitsu when people are passing your guard or trying to arm bar you. The more you work on these things, the better you're going to feel on the mats. Good.

Next time your hips are back, just drop the head and take a couple of breaths. Never straining. I never want you to get to a ten with a stretch, just like a six or seven, just to the point where you can chat or you can breathe comfortably. Good.

Let's come forwards again. Tuck the back toes straight in the back leg. Then we'll go back to down dog. And then let's go left side.

So forwards, step the left, drop the back knee. Again, nice and proud chest here. Just feel that stretch to begin with. Then hips go back.

Feel that stretch before we flow forwards and back. Good. Let's go forwards. Feel the hip stretch before we go back, hamstring stretch.

And we're just working within our range here. So if you look different to me, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you're working that, and maybe the next time you do this video or next time you do a similar movement, you know that range you've got to and you know what you're working with. Just like a sparring partner, if you spar with them, again, you know how it feels.

But each time you're trying to get better and better rolling with that person and improve, maybe get tapped less, maybe catch them more. But that's always a good indication of where you're at, unless they're training like twice a day, seven days a week, in which case, good luck catching that guy. Okay, tuck the back toes. Step back.

This time we're going to step back into plank. Then slowly lower yourself down. This time, lift your chest, but keep your hands where they are. You're going to lift, straighten the arms, lower the hips here, take a couple of breaths, and step back into down dog for two more breaths.

Okay, let's step the right foot outside the right hand again, just like we've been doing. Now this time, my right hand is going to lift off the mat, and my left foot, so the back foot, is going to kick through towards the wall in front of me. So I'm sitting down here, and my left foot's forward. Now what I'm going to do is that right knee, I'm just going to let that open out, and I'm going to reach towards my right foot.

If when you reach, you feel super tight here, just bend the knee a little bit and fold forwards, reaching towards that foot. You can rest your forehead on your knee, or if you feel a bit more flexible, you can keep folding towards that knee, and just take two breaths. Okay, make your way up now, so left hand and right foot in the mat. Lift your hips up, and now the left foot's going to step back, right hand down, back into dog.

Now let's try on the other side. So left foot outside the left hand, lift the left hand, right foot kicks through, sitting down, let the left knee flare out, and then just fold towards that right foot. Again, if you're super tight, don't worry. All right, just means you've got even more improvements to make, and you're going to feel even better on the mats when you start to make those improvements.

And it doesn't matter if you're doing these, like, stretches or these sessions before or after class. We've got warm-up classes on the website and the app, and I've got a 30-day cooldown series on the app and website. It's 10 minutes a day for 30 days, or it's 30 classes, and they're 10 minutes each. They work on different body parts, and they're great for after class or after a long day.

If you just want some slow stretches just to breathe, switch off and stretch, work on some flexibility, that's exactly what they're for. I love stretching after a class. It makes me feel even better. I don't wake up absolutely killing and sore from jujitsu.

I wake up feeling really good, and I never used to before I did yoga for BJJ. Okay, let's step that left knee up, right hand down, so the left hand is up still. Lift my hips. I'm going to sit back into that down dog and just take three breaths here, really lifting the hips, maybe opening the shoulders more, just letting the head hang, and see how different you feel in down dog now compared to at the start of the class.

Use that as a bit of an indication for what we've done today. And then start to lower your hips, start bending your knees, walk your hands towards your feet here, and we're just finishing a squat here, just sitting back. You can keep as much or as little weight as you want in your hands. We'll move from side to side a little here, and again, if you're here in a squat, and that's a squat for you, that's fine.

Just take a few breaths. Okay, hands go behind you, feet go in front, and just to finish off here, we'll just do some windshield wipes. My knees are bent. I'm just going to move them from side to side, just working my hips.

Again, this is a bit of a check-in for you to see how everything feels. Breathing as we move, and these windshield wipes are amazing for your hips. Great to do before class. Maybe you're doing this video just before you step on the mats.

I recommend doing it, you know, if you've got, if you get to class early, put this video on. Practice with some teammates, or if you've got 10 minutes before you leave for class, get this video on, get moving, see how you feel, and like anything, the more consistent you are with your practice, the better you're going to be over time. You know, 10, 15 minutes a day here or there, doing yoga for me today, you're going to feel those improvements. Okay?

As I said, head over to the app, head over to the website. I'll leave a link in our description, and I'll see you in the next video.