Open Guard Flexibility for BJJ: 21-Min Class

You sit down on the ground and come up again. The more challenge you have, the more you will need to use your arms. So try to use your arms in the air before you use the hand in the ground. Because we want to be able to use our hands in jiu-jitsu and come up and down from the floor while doing our jiu-jitsu kung fu with our arms and our legs is making sure that we have the base.

So this is very good practice. No matter how much experience you have, you can always get more effective and efficient with your movement. Now, sit down into the figure four. Right foot is on the floor, left knee is down.

From here, lift your right leg as high as you can, straighten the leg, big circle kick all the way back, place the knee down and then swivel. Don't move your feet, only move the knees pointing the other direction. Back leg, left leg lifts off the floor, lift it high, all the way around, don't use your hands and get the foot to the outside. From here, come up a little bit and sit down and kick round as far as you can before you swivel.

Lift, lift, lift, all the way forward, lift the butt off the ground and do these kicks from side to side. Not allowed to use the hand, just really do your best at moving. If you cannot absolutely do this, do this as well as you can. Even if you almost can't lift the foot and can't get it all the way, just get as far as you can today and do this class more often.

I guarantee you the results will show eventually. One more round. Nice. We're in figure four, this time with the left foot up, right foot is in the ground.

Lift the hips high first, as high as you can and take a breath. And now with the hips lifted, tilt until your left foot touches the ground. Boom, just like this. Left hand comes off the ground.

And then look, I'm lifting the hips, leg comes through, kicks up and we're in figure four on the other side. So, tilt towards your left, left knee kicks up, left foot kicks up and we're in figure four. Tilt towards the right, leg comes through and kicks, figure four crab, tilt to the side and flow from side to side. Go slower than you think.

This is not a warm up where we want to get as, you know, do it finish as fast as possible. We want to be able to improve our mobility in each step. So don't just lift the foot and put it there, kick it up first and hold it for a moment. And when you put the figure four, really lift your hips and that makes a big difference.

Two more from side to side. Nice. And then sit down, cross your ankles, shake the shoulders, grab your right foot and grab it like a forklift with your hands and do a few biceps curls. You're pulling the calf in towards the chest as close as you can.

Do a few curls. And then the other leg. And then switch again, first leg. Try to get your arm as deep inside as you can.

Maybe you can clamp the calf around the biceps. Unless you have really short arms or a long torso, it should be possible to get close to this position. Come here. If you can get the hamstring on your triceps, place your knuckles or hands down and lift your butt off the floor and take two breaths.

And then come down, shake it out. Maybe bow an arrow and try to get your knee higher. Maybe skin to skin helps. Jam your triceps in there.

Again, lift the butt. Maybe lift the leg. Maybe lift the left leg so that you're floating, hovering in the air. Three, two, one, sit down, shake it out.

One more round. Do level one or two like we just did. Or if you want to try to lift everything up and cross your ankles and then start stretching the legs, you can do that. Maybe bend into a crazy pose called eight limb.

Sit down, cry a little bit. And let's do the second side. Left arm jams in as deep as you can. Just lift your butt off the ground.

And even if the foot is hanging like mine now, just keep doing it. One more round. Relax first. Bow an arrow.

Get the elbow in deeper like elbowing your way to the front of the cue. Maybe lift everything off. And relax. And last round.

As deep as you can. Cross the ankles. Squeeze or lower. Relax.

Butterfly position. Open your feet. And then stick your arms down between the legs. And then wrap your hands around so you can grab the shins or toes or foot blade.

And when you get hold of something, pull it in really deep. So you're pulling the heels in, in, in. And then inhale, look forward. And exhale.

Pull yourself in. Don't relax. Really squeeze the air out of you here. Get your forehead down and take seven breaths.

Nice. One more breath. And then come into figure four. So that your right foot is in the ground, left knee is down.

From here, without using the hands in the ground, maybe use the hands on your knees. Stand up. I'm going to move back a little bit. Stand up.

Left foot does a big kick and lands in figure four. Now you're dropping to your foot like this. And then you slowly, slowly, slowly sit down. Place your left hand on your knee.

And then stretch a little bit back and forwards here. And now come on up. Same thing. In figure four.

Coming up. Big circle kick. Without using your hands to figure four. And then fall down.

And your back here, stretching. Back and forwards two or three times. And then getting off the floor with your head over your hips. Woops-ah!

Big kick. Figure four. Fall down. Nice and slow.

And stretch. Two more. Woops-ah! Final one.

Nice. And then let's join in butterfly. Seated guard. Feet together.

Elbows in. Now keep your knees wide. Fists behind you. Lift as high as you can.

Butterfly, crab. Squeeze your lower back and your butt. Three, two, one. Sit down.

Lift your feet off the ground. Squeeze the feet together. Elbows on the inside of the knees. Palms together.

And then squeeze everything in. Squeeze the knees in towards the elbows. Three, two, one. Stay here with the legs.

Hands either behind you or between the legs. However you want. Just lift off the ground for five, four, three, two, one. Hands behind you.

Three hips. Butterfly, crab. Breathe. And then elbows.

Squeeze. Maybe hands on the inside this time. One more round. Lift, lift, lift, lift the hips.

Squeeze the elbows. And if you want to try something difficult, jam both elbows on the inside and lift up. Oops. Oops.

Smile and save. Nice. Roll, rock and roll a couple of times. Last big movement.

Rock up into figure four. Right foot is in the ground. Left hand shoots up. And now we're standing up and kicking our left hand like this.

Boom. Hold on for one moment. And then nice and slowly come back to figure four. Sit down and then look now.

Left hand is behind us. Split the legs. Bounce up and down. And then switch the hands only.

Turn to the other side. Bounce. And come back to figure four on the other side. Yes.

So right hand is up. I'm standing up, kicking and grabbing my own foot. Holding the balance. Keep breathing.

And then get into figure four. Sit down. Split sprawl like a leg scissor set up from capoeira. Switch the hands.

Switch the sides. Come into figure four. And then all the way up again. All the way down.

One more side. Split. Bounce. Switch.

Bounce. Figure four. And stand up. And come all the way down.

Let's move over to all fours. We're done with the tough stuff. Move into frog position. So split your knees maximum.

Come down to your elbows. Feet are pointing outwards. Feet are far away from each other. I like stacking my wrists, my fists, and relax my forehead on my hands.

One minute. Nice. Stay over on your back. Catch your feet.

Pull the knees down. Pull the butt down. Arch your back as much as possible. And then shake your arms and legs for two seconds.

And then lay down. Close your eyes. Relax your face. Soft breaths.

And then come back up. And come back down. And come back up. And come back down.

And come back up. And come back down. And come back up. And come back down.

And come back down. And come back down. And come back up. And come back down.

And come back up. And come back down. And come back up. And come back down.

And come back up. And come back down. And come back up. And come back down.

And come back up. And come back down. Take a long inhale. Hold the breath.

And exhale. Move one finger. Move one toe. Move your hands and feet.

Give yourself a hug. And rock back up to seated. Take a moment with your eyes closed. I can move my hands.

Take a moment with your eyes closed. Acknowledging the effort. Looking forward to the reward. Which will be a different day than if you didn't do this.

Well done. Open your eyes. Thank you. See you in the next video.

Or see you on the mat.