Open Sides & Lengthen: 24-Min Side Body Flow for BJJ

So drop your head and relax your neck and look under your armpit and feel how good it feels for the ribs and the lats and all the muscles that help us pull and help us contract. One more time from side to side. You can if you want to rotate your shoulders in big circles here. You can go as deep as you can with your left elbow.

Last side. Try to even out your breath and create space between your ribs. Sit back up and find plank. Hands on the shoulders.

Feet can be hip width apart. Take a breath here and move back to downward facing dog and start walking it out. Just bend one knee, straighten the other and try this. You can grab the outside of your mat if your mat is slippery.

Move up on your toes and slowly move the heels to the left and press through both hands so the sitting bones moves back and you will feel lengthening from your right hip to your right shoulder. On your toes again, heels to the left and press down through your hands to create length through your spine. The more your hips move to the right the more stretch you will feel. A couple of times on each side.

Make sure you are not dumping the weight down but lifting and extending so your arms have to work a bit here. Pressing your hands down, lifting your hips up and back and to the side. Back to down dog and slowly walk forward to a fold. Bend your knees if you have to but relax your neck.

Sit in and look forward and breathe out. You can bend your knees here and place your belly on your thighs. Just shake your head a little bit from side to side. Slowly slowly roll up to standing.

When you stand reach your arms up and grab your right wrist with your left hand. Reach up and then lean over to the left without compressing the left side. We want to go for length in both sides then we lean over without pinching or crunching. Just like a football goalkeeper reaching as far as he can to catch the ball, reach your arms up but not your shoulders.

Grip your left wrist, first reach up and then to the right. Press down through both feet. Look under the armpit. Two times more, one on each side.

Look under your right armpit and reach your arms up and create length through the sides and look up to the roof maybe. Switch sides one last time. Breathe in, look up and breathe out, fold forward again. Breathing in, looking forward, weight in your toes.

Walk or jump back to plank. Slowly lower down to a low push up. Letting out your feet. Upward facing dog lifting your knees.

Going back to downward facing dog. On your toes roll forward to plank. So find plank and move your heels to the right. Lift your left arm for side plank.

So side plank is nice for strengthening our side but also when we do it this way you will both create openness and strength at the same time. Place your feet on top of each other. Reach the left arm over, move your shoulders back, extend your neck. And when you breathe in lower your hips down almost to the ground, arm reaches back.

And when you breathe out lift and stretch the whole left side. Two more rounds as slow as you can go. Breathe in lower, breathe out, lift and reach. One more breathe in.

Breathe out, stretch your fingers, stretch your left side. Switch sides, plank. Feet on top of each other, lift the right hand. Move your hips forward and up first.

Then reach the right arm over, look under your armpit. Breathe in lower your hips. Strong left hand. Breathe out, lift your hips and stretch your right side from your toes to your fingers.

Breathe in lower down. Breathe out, reach. Breathe in lower down. One last round.

Breathe out, reach. Back to plank. Low push up. Upward facing dog.

Downward facing dog. Bend your knees, look forward, try to jump softly and quietly to the front of your mat. Breathe in, look forward. Breathe out, fold forward.

Reach to the ceiling. And interlace your fingers and press your palms up but lower your shoulders. So maybe your arms will be like this. You can bend your elbows here as long as you open your chest and not lift your shoulders.

Now move from side to side a few times with your palms pressing up. So maybe your arms are bent, maybe they are straight. But don't let the ribs pop. So squeeze the ribs in and move everything, all the tension to your side.

The side of your ribs. From the hips all the way up through the arms. From side to side. Your hips can swing from side to side but don't compress.

Open and extend. Press your arms up as high as you can. One last round. Breathe in, look up.

Breathe out, fold forward. Breathe in, extending the neck. Hands plant down, go back to plank or float back. Low push up.

Up dog. And down dog. Stretch your right leg out behind you. Bend the knee and roll the knee forward and try to place your foot as far in front as you can between your hands.

Flatten out your left foot and move it back a bit so you have a wide stance. And reach the left arm forward and come up to warrior two. So bend your right knee and stretch your left leg. Stretch the arms up and grow tall without stretching your right knee.

So bend your right leg and reach the arms up and look up. Now try to extend both sides and slowly lean to the right. I'm teaching how you work your core here to keep the balance. We're going to stay here for a while so you can put your right elbow on your right thigh here without compressing or sagging.

So keep the pressure in your feet. Look under your left arm and reach, reach, reach through your left toes, through your left hand. We're going to do three big circles with your left shoulder again. Pressing out on the outside of our left foot.

Reach the left arm forward and move the right arm to meet the left arm in the air. Come back up. Let's do the same thing but backwards. So reach up and look up.

Slowly lean backwards and stretch the right arm, stretch the left arm but bend into your right leg and slowly place your left hand on your thigh. Reach, reach, reach. Lower the shoulder. Look under your armpit and do three big circles here.

Moving with the breath. Stretching the fingertips too and come back to a classic order too. Now horse stance. Heels point in, toes point out.

Let's do a dynamic one from side to side. Arms up and with your breath move from side to side. So the legs will work hard here to keep us in good base but of course a good base is good for BJJ. But also try to extend from your hip socket all the way out through your shoulders and through the arms.

Extend, extend, extend. Two more rounds. Reach both arms up and turn the heels out. Moving forward place your hands on your ankles or on the ground.

Drop your head. Just jiggle from side to side. So feet are active but the upper body relaxes. Slowly if you grab your ankles just move from side to side.

If you can reach the floor maybe you have to bend your knees a bit and start walking from side to side. Maybe you are reaching out here to create super length, super human length. Couple of times just moving slowly from side to side. And when you are finished let's meet in the middle.

Breathe in, look forward. Breathe out, stay. Breathe in, reach up and back to Warder of Two. Breathe in, reach the right arm up and stretch your whole right side.

So grow super tall through the toes and the fingers on the right side. Circling your hands down. Move the right foot back a bit. Let's do a couple of rounds of handstands just for fun.

Handstands are fun just up and down a couple of times. With long sides handstands become easier because our hips get more easily replaced on top of our shoulders. One last handstand. Walk back to plank.

Low push up. And take child's pose. Heels and butts move close to each other. And now walk your hands over to the left.

Place your forehead on the ground. And without lifting your butt move the fingers forward and do a passive nice stretch for your side body. And try to breathe into your back. Remember that the side body is part of what we call core.

So if you have a strong core you want to have a long side body too because they are essentially the same thing. Being strong and being long goes together. Slowly move your hands over to the right side. Place your forehead down.

Move the fingers forward. Drop your elbows and breathe. Come back to middle and find your down dog again. Let's do the other side.

So stretch the left leg out behind you. Bend the knee. On your tiptoes roll the knee forward and place all the weight into your hands. Then the left leg places on the inside of the left hand.

Flatten out your right foot and circle up to a border two. Stretch both arms up. Lift your chest, lower the shoulders, stretch through your fingers and slowly lean to the left. Look under your armpit and place the left elbow on your thigh.

Three big circles but stay firm in your legs. Lifting your chest up and out from your hips. Coming back to border two with arms up. Now lean backwards but lift up first.

Don't crunch the right side but lift up and back. Place your hand somewhere but without putting weight in the hand. Bend into your left leg to make it strong and then stretch from the hip socket all the way out through your fingertips. Three big circles here.

Nice and back to border two. Horse dance again. This time interlace your fingers, lift the palms and move from side to side. Pressing down through the outside of your feet, moving the knees backwards, go as deep as you can and stretch through the sides.

Maybe you can even straighten the arms here. Two more rounds. And breathe in, reach up, toes point in, breathe out, fold forward. Place your left hand in the middle and let's twist, straighten the right arm up through there, lean forward and put pressure into your left hand and now from here reach the right arm over your head while at the same time your stilling bones move back.

So you might be able to feel a nice stretch both in the hamstrings and your side of your waist. Reach that right arm up again and let's do the other side. Place the right hand down, lift the left hand, shoulders back, extend the neck and extend the fingertips forward over your head and move the sitting bones back and squeeze the feet together so you're both twisting and extending through your left side. One more deep breath here.

Reach the left arm up and place it down on the ground, breathe in, lift everything up and breathe out, back to warrior two. So one last reverse warrior, lift the right arm and let's move it into a reverse triangle so straighten both legs and reach through your left hand, long neck and stretch the arms a bit more before we circle the arms down, move the right foot back, lift the left foot, few rounds of handstands, shoulders back, extend the neck, lift as slowly up and down as you can without bending one knee. Keeping the legs straight will give you control in your hands, control over your core which will help you tremendously both in top game and in bottom game. Do a couple of rounds more up and down before you slide back through a vignasa, low push up, up dog and down dog.

So from here just sit down and stretch your left leg out to the left and place your right foot on the inside of your leg, of your knee or your thigh as long as you can sit up tall here, toes point to the ceiling, left arm reaches up to create length in this side because if we don't do this and just do this we're just compressing. So stretch the left arm up, reach forward and grab whatever you can grab, maybe your pants, take a couple of breaths here, make sure you're not popping your ribs but squeezing it in and up and to the side. If it's enough for you to be here, stay here or maybe reach your right arm up and over your head, you could grab a belt around your foot and stay here, maybe even grab your toe one day or just stay here for half a minute. Just notice what's happening to your left side when you're leaning forward.

Even out your breath and switch sides, straighten the right leg, bend your left knee, reach your right arm up, reach your right toes up, lean forward and grab whatever you can grab, you can just place your hand on the floor, grab your pants but everything is to extend the right side and not crunch the ribs together. Your left hand can be anywhere you want. Try to make the position steady, comfortable and fun if you can. Don't make it into torture, try to make it fun and relaxing.

And come back up and we're finished for today. I hope you will feel the difference in your posture and how you will be able to move more freely with the torso and the shoulders when you have created length through your sides. So I hope you guys enjoyed it and I really look forward to seeing the fights from ADCC. It was a crazy tournament this year so if you have some links to some of the best fights please send them to me and I will be really really happy.

Thanks guys, see you in the next video, see you on the mat.