Sebastian Brosche · 19 min · 1,491 words
A relaxed morning mobility class to start your day loose and calm. Part of the Informal Morning series.
Good morning guys, this class is based on a set of assumptions. That it's the morning, that your baby is asleep, that you have walked the dogs, you have done all of the chores that is necessary for the first couple of hours of the day and you can drink a glass of water, sit down and take a breath. So this is a short, nice, seated down or laying down type of class. We're not going to do any standing poses or any flow.
This is just a morning routine to stretch out your muscles and lubricate your joints. Start by finding a seated position where you feel comfortable. If you don't feel comfortable sitting straight up and down on the floor, lean your shoulder blades back to a wall and let's take a minute of just breathing. If your neck is stiff, try to balance your head on top of the spine.
Nothing formal, just a very informal class. Just some nice breaths in and out through your nose. Keep breathing like you're doing now, but start moving your neck from side to side. So shoulder, ear to shoulder, ear to shoulder.
And in every exercise we do, try to find your own rhythm. If you have a lot of energy, you might want to go faster. If you're sapped, go slow. I like to grab my knees and inhale as I lift my chest and look up.
I exhale as I round my spine, chin to chest. Relax your back. Inhale as you lift and exhale as you fold. Keep going.
Nice. Find a nice center and go side to side. You can pull and push with your hands a bit to rotate not only the neck but also your torso and your lower back. I just was rewarded with a little crack in my lower back.
Feels so good when I don't go too fast but I push it slightly over the edge. This class is recorded in 2019, a week before the European Championship and my educated guess is that I am not the only one who can feel all the training leading up to this tournament everywhere. Taking some time any time of the year but especially before tournaments to wind down and heal, recover from hard training is never a bad idea. Nice.
Spread your legs, go side to side. One hand touches, slides down the ankle and the other one reaches the ceiling. Just let your breath be natural. You don't necessarily have to synchronize the breathing and the movement.
Just do something that feels good so you can go deep or you can stop early. Nice. Small force. Turn your fingers around so they point backwards.
Take a couple of breaths. Static first. Then drop your chest and lift your head. Inhale.
And exhale round your spine, chin to chest. Repeat. Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale. A couple more on your own. Nice.
On your knees, sit down on your heels. If you have knee problems, stack something under your butt so you don't compress the knees. Just gently, slowly soften your wrists and your neck simultaneously. We do warm-ups in jiu-jitsu to prepare for sparring, right?
But sparring is not the only thing we do during the day. The day has 24 hours and you maybe spar 2 or 3 hours maximum per day. And the other 20, 21, 22 hours per day you're doing other stuff. So only having jiu-jitsu warm-ups as a tool in your toolbox is not enough I think.
I think we could learn to warm up for everything else we do during a day, sitting, driving, standing. So doing it super fast like this, like we do in jiu-jitsu, is not necessarily as good as doing slow stretches like this. Flip your palms, lift your arms overhead. Tiny back band, stretch your elbows.
Deep breaths through the front of your body, through your chest, through your ribs, through your belly. And release your arms. Sit down on your butt again. Let's do seated sun salutations like this.
Inhale arms up, exhale touch your ankles or toes. Halfway up, inhale. And fold again, exhale. Repeat arms up, inhale.
Exhale fold. Halfway up, inhale. And fold. One more time, inhale up.
Exhale fold. Halfway inhale. Two more on your own. Nice.
All fours again. Stepping one foot back in plank and turning so that you're in a side plank with one knee down. So you should be able to stand here for minutes at an end without creating any tension. Now just roll your shoulder in big circles.
Big circles all the way back and in front. And of course we usually use our arms in front so we spend more time when we do this complementary work back here than in front. So when you come in front you go a bit faster and then slower back there. Shoulder, chest, spine and neck.
Switching sides. Side stretches feel so damn good in the morning. Nice. Let's try a downward facing dog.
He's still sleeping. Nice. Move in your down dog. Move everything.
Arms, legs and spine, hips. Three more breaths in down dog. Stretching the calves and the hamstrings. Straightening the spine.
Place your knees down and throw your left foot forward. Lower your hips. Take a breath. And then move back and stretch your hamstring and calf like this.
And then forward again. Flow between these two. Slow flow. We're not trying to create heat.
We're just trying to welcome our muscles and joints back to the realm of living. After a long night of inactivity. Switching sides. Left foot back, right foot forward.
Start by three breaths by dropping your hips down. And then start flowing. Switching sides. Left foot back, right foot forward.
Start by three breaths by dropping your hips down. And then start flowing. And then start moving. One more.
Nice. Sit on your knees again. One arm up. Catch that elbow.
So bend your right elbow and grab the right elbow with your left hand. And lift your head so much that your neck is not being pressed on. You can press with your neck back if you want. But make sure you're not pressing the arm into your head.
Maybe pressing the head into the arm to stretch the lat and the armpit. If you want to go a bit deeper, just tilt your hips in that same direction. So you get a huge side stretch from hips to elbow. And then switch.
Not too long in the intense poses. And release. Let's do a lazy up dog. So upward facing dog but with the knees in the ground.
Drop your hips. Engage your arms so that the arms are strong. If your back is hurting from this, tense up your belly a bit. So that you get enough tension in your back.
And release. And release. Starting from this, tense up your belly a bit. So that you get enough back bend to have a nice sensation.
But you don't drop into the lower back. And you don't push your hips down. Try to go for 75%. Leave some extra space.
So that you're not resisting the back bend. And then you're rather easing into three quarters of a back bend. And then turtle up, defend the hooks. Chest and belly to your thighs.
Take a couple of deep breaths with your lower back. And sit up on your butt or on your knees. Take three moments to prepare for the day. This might be a really shitty day.
It might be a superb day. Some of it is not up to you. But some of it is. So try to keep your head high even when things are not going your way.
And also keep your head low in a way to be humble. For everything that you don't know and that you don't have any control over. Be proud but not stubborn. Go with the flow but take control as well.
Thank you very much for today's morning class. It was amazing. Luke was sleeping the whole time. I think this might be a good day.
So far so good. See you guys in the next super informal yoga class with Yoga for BJJ. I was filming this simultaneously with a professional camera and with my not professional Samsung Galaxy. So it's live on Instagram.
So if you like the class on Instagram, please subscribe. If you like the class on Instagram and you want to take it, you can go to yogaforbj.net and see this class. If you're on yogaforbj.net, you don't have to go to Instagram live because the quality is shittier. Thank you guys for joining me.
I hope some of you got a really nice feeling in your body for the rest of the day. If you're going to Europeans, see you there. Oss.
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