Shoulder Mobility Flow for BJJ: 30-Min Fun Movement Routine

Same arm. Hopefully things are loosening up a little bit. Start to open out the shoulder now. So if you're thinking of just moving around here, think about what the shoulder's doing as you move.

Open in the chest, there's a hands back. Now over, see if you can get that shoulder in the corner of your eye and down, almost coming up to your ear and down in front of you. Just open out more and more. Okay, let's go the other side now.

Start off going up, small circles. Start to get a little bigger maybe. See how this feels. Again we're not trying to push, we're just checking in and warming up a little bit.

Get nice big circles. Let's switch direction. Opening out. Get a few more.

Okay, now we'll sit back down and to start with grab your jiu-jitsu belt or your resistance band or mop handle, whatever you're going to grab. Just have it completely open out to begin with. Just get that in the front of you and just start off with a fairly wide grip, definitely wider than your shoulders. Just bring that in front of you and just up and over.

And the first few times, I'm not really going for a stretch, it's just a bit of a test again, a check in. And as you start to do a few more, you can start to bring your hands a little closer in. See if that starts to open you out. So I like to mix between my belt and my band when I'm doing this.

To start off with the belt is super easy to do it with or if you're using a mop handle, that's fine. And then as things start to open out, start creeping my hands together more and more and then I might switch to the band. But the first time I do this when I've not really gone over the other drills, I'm just checking in and getting some movement. And as you move, again think about what the shoulders are doing.

So as you move forwards, get those shoulders in the corners of your eyes, shrug them up towards the ears and then back and open the chest out. Back up and in front. Back up and behind. Good.

Okay now just belt above your head and then just move from side to side lightly. Focus on opening your chest out to the right and then over to the left. And we're not doing this 100 miles an hour, we're doing this nice and controlled. Just feeling the chest open out and any soreness.

Always good to just let the shoulders know you're going to start working them a little bit. Okay we'll come back to that. So just put your belt or band or whatever to the side for a second. Then we're going to start with some cat cows.

Alright and we'll kind of move into something else from there. So just to recap, I'm looking up, two of my hips away and dropping everything between. Take an inhale, exhale, forehead, drops towards your hips, hips towards your forehead and push everything between up. Back up, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

And you could just do three, four, five of these. Just natural to begin with. Again testing, checking in movement. But now start to think about the shoulders.

Alright and what are they doing? So as I turn and look up, I'm dropping everything between but I'm going to focus on dropping my chest down and I shrug my shoulders back so my chest can really drop down. And then as I look down and reverse I'm pushing my chest through my back, my shoulder blades are winging around my back and then I drop my chest again. So obviously we're focusing on the hips and the head and everything but just add a little bit of attention to what your shoulders are doing.

Now I've got my shoulders in the corners of my eyes as I'm pushing my chest through my back. Then reverse. Give it a couple more. Good stuff.

Okay checking with your wrists as well. You can move over your wrists a couple of times just see how they are as well. Obviously we're going to spend a little bit of time on them so it's always worth getting them nice and warm. Point your fingers away from each other, go side to side.

Point your fingers towards your knees and just move back. I'm moving forwards a couple of times. Fingers pointing away from each other again. Fingers back to plank and now turn your fingers so they're pointing towards each other.

Go from side to side. Changes the rotation of your shoulders doing this. Maybe forwards and back a little. Nice.

Now try and turn your fingers in so they're pointing towards your knees and I get super tight up here when I do this. Even if you've gone for that action and you've turned a few degrees that's fine. Just see where you are and move from side to side a little bit. See what your forearms are saying here.

Again another check in. Hands back to plank and then point your fingers away from each other again. We'll go from side to side. As I'm doing that every couple I'm just going to step one hand away then stick the other hand away.

As we do this the movement gets even more exaggerated. Just like we're doing when we're turning holding the belt I want you to think about opening your chest to the right as you turn over to the right then over to the left. Then open your hands up some more to the right and to the left. So much that I'm dropping that bottom shoulder and I'm looking over the top shoulder and keep going.

See where you can get to. Maybe you can even drop that bottom shoulder on the mat, turn the top shoulder up and look over your top shoulder then back up and over. So we're really opening the chest out here. You might even feel a nice stretch down your biceps as well which is always good.

It's a nice little twist in the spine as well. If this feels like too much of a press up move your knees a little closer towards your chest or wrists and you'll have less weight in your hands here which is the goal. We're not going for a mega workout or some crazy new style of press up. We're just opening the chest out.

Next time you're over to the left just pause there, take a couple of breaths and I want you to just imagine you're pushing your weight down in your right palm a little bit. Nothing too heavy, just a bit of pressure in the mat. Just take a breath in and out. Last one in, really opening the chest out and out.

Let's come back up over to the right. Wherever you are, even if you're up here that's fine. Just a little bit of pressure down in that left hand. Let's breathe in and out.

One more and out. Nice. Let's come back up now. Let's open the chest out a little more.

We'll come back to this all fours or like cat cow position and then just step your hands forwards slightly. Nothing too crazy. Just so you're in more of an extended all four position. We're going to do cat cows from here.

What I want you to do is I want your hips to go back almost to touch your heels. Then come back up and start doing some cat cows from here. It's not strict what way you go. Just find some movement.

Just find some movement. As you start to come back up, I want you to imagine you're pulling your hands almost like you're trying to drag your yoga mat or the floor towards your knees as you come up. Same thing back. Keep that pressure almost like you're really trying to slow yourself from falling back.

Keep moving with them. Nice. Now let's come back up. Just imagine that cat pose.

This way. I want you to do the same thing. Slowly going back. I feel super tight in the backs of my shoulders when I do this.

That's the goal. Slowly back up and back. One more and back. Now, I'm going to come back up.

I'm going to come back up and back. Now, you wondered why I've got the chair in the class or the sofa or whatever you're going to use. We're going to use that now. Just like what we were just doing, we're going to do with our hands on the chair, sofa, coffee table, dog, whatever you're using.

Bring your palms maybe shoulder width. Then I want you to get your back in line with that. Then lift up and again imagine that cat. That hip tilt towards your forehead.

Then take an inhale. A bit of pressure with your palms and slowly lower your chest. Back up and down. Keep moving with that.

Good. One more. Keeping those hips tilted. Good.

The direction they are. Good. Now, this time we'll do three as you drop your chest. Your hips can tilt away.

Almost like we're doing cat cows again. Back up. Back down. And up.

Again, if this feels like too much weight in your hands, you can move your knees a little closer. Feel free. Let's go down again. And back up.

Good. Keep that cat in that tilt in the hips. So hips are tilting towards your forehead and then slowly lower the chest. But try and keep that tilt so you've got a nice straight back and you feel it open out the shoulders, the armpits even more.

That's what we want. Two more breaths wherever you are here. Good. Slowly come back up.

Good. Now, we're going to do a couple of more. Up and out of that. Again, we'll just have a little check in.

See how the shoulders are feeling. Open out. Couple one way. Couple the other.

Switch arms. Good. Okay. Let's sit back down across your legs or sit on your heels.

Now we'll grab the belt, band or mop handle again and start to bring the hands up nice and slow. Remember, shoulders come in front of you. So straight arms and then think shoulders push. Almost like you're trying to push your chest through your back again.

Then we go up and back. Back up. And forwards. Back up.

And back. And then back up. And forwards. And I'm going to show you how to do this.

I'm going to switch to my resistance band now. The reason I really like using this is because it does exactly what it says on the tin. Obviously it gives resistance. So even if you're here, as you come up and you get a bit wider, it naturally opens out more.

But it's just giving a bit of resistance. So you're a bit more active when you're moving and it's just got a bit more give than a belt. But obviously most of the people watching this, we're all going to have a jujitsu belt unless you're one of those no-gi guys that never puts a belt on. In which case, use your leather belt or something.

Okay, so let's go up. Open out. Back. I'm super tight when I go back there, as I'm sure you will be.

And back up. And in front. Back up. And behind.

Back up. And in front. I'm going to bring my hands a little closer together now. Back up.

Open out the chest. Down. Back up. One more super slow.

Find that tight area. Go even slower there. Back up. And in front.

Good stuff. Okay. Let's open the chest out a little more. Just put your band and your belt or your mop or whatever accessory you're using to the side.

And then we'll just sit in kind of like between rounds jujitsu pose here. But what I want you to do is I want you to imagine your elbows aren't flaring out. So if I just turn, your arms aren't flaring out. I want you to have your elbows pointing behind you.

So my elbows are going to point towards the wall behind me. You can either have your fingers out or your fingers pointing towards the direction you're facing. And what I want you to do here is just bend the elbows behind you and come back up. If that felt okay, lift your hips up.

Move them towards the heels a bit. Lower down again. And back up. And here I'm not crowding my shoulders in front of me doing this.

I'm opening my chest nice and proud. Again pinching my shoulder blades together. Then my elbows go back. Back up.

And back. Back up. And then this time as you bend the elbows, we'll just spend two breaths here wherever you get to. If you're still here doing this, that's fine.

Just see where you're good. Bring yourself back up. Good. And now bring your hips back towards your wrists.

And what I want you to do from here is bend your elbows away. And then just lift your hips up so my heels and feet are heavy in the ground. Wrists are heavy in the ground so I can bridge my hips up. Then I'm just going to move them towards my heels.

Then back. Then back towards my heels. And back. Constantly opening my chest as I do this.

Okay? And bending your arms nicely. Should feel like you're working the triceps a bit but that's good. We want to open up the shoulders here.

So back towards my heels. And back. Heels. And back.

We'll do one more. And back. Sit your hips down. Maybe walk your hands back a little more.

And then just let those elbows go behind you for two breaths. And then we'll do the other side. And then bring yourself back up. Nice.

Feeling open there. The front of my shoulders. They get so tight. I think that's just from so much grappling here and not enough opening out here.

You don't really do this in jujitsu unless someone's got your back and they're really putting that pressure down into you. Good stuff. So same again. We're going to grab that band or belt one more time.

We're going to bring everything up and back. Then back up and in front. We'll do two more of them. Then we'll do something else.

Back up and back. And this time when I go up I'm going to stop there. And find that balance point. So if you've found that balance point it should just be a little less effort.

Obviously if you're here you've got to hold it up. If you're back you've got to hold it up. Find that midpoint and then get a nice straight back so you're not arching the spine. Get a nice straight back.

Then just open to the left. Open to the right. And just turn a few times. And what you'll feel as you turn your chest will open out on the right.

Then as you turn to the left it'll open out a bit more. And just light movements. I'm not going crazy. Just open out just like we did earlier.

See how that feels. Then bring that in front. Back up and behind. See if your chest has opened out a little more.

Back in front. Good. Put your band down. Now we'll come back to the chair, sofa, coffee table or dog.

Now what I want you to do is I'm going to bend my forearms. So I'm going to have my elbows on here. And I'm trying to open my hands out. So if I show you on the floor I'm doing this.

On the chair I'm trying to open my hands out. So imagine your thumbs are pointing away from each other. And we're just going to do a few reps of opening that way. And if you do it right this isn't going to feel easy.

So all we're doing is extending a bit so we feel a bit of a stretch under the arms and everything in the lats and stuff. And then just start to point your thumbs away as you dip your face through that hole. So we'll come here. Elbows about shoulder width.

Drop the head a little bit and then point the thumbs away. Take two breaths. Ease off. Come back up.

Hands together or whatever. Take a little breather. It's much harder than it looks. Let's do the same again one more time.

So hands apart, thumbs away from each other. Almost like you've got magnets pushing away from each other. Try and drop your head a little bit. Breathe in here.

Ease off. Come back up. We can do one more of them. Again come back.

Thumbs out. Point away from each other. Maybe drop the head a little bit. Take two breaths.

Come back up. That sucks. Hands back on the chair or whatever surface you've chosen today. Walk the knees away and then just drop the head between the arms.

A bit of pressure on the surface you're using and just let your head and your chest drop down. You can let the hips tilt away from you. See if you can just drop the head towards the floor. And then just come back up.

And now as we push down in the surface, tilt the hips, head towards your belt. Cat cow's here. Super slow. So we're really focusing on that kind of flexion of the shoulders and your hands over your head, which we rarely do in jiu jitsu unless we're getting Americana'd.

So it's really good to work on. I've been working on it a lot recently for handstands as well. Getting that nice flexion. Hands above the head.

It's going to help your shoulder press as well and opening everything out. Good. Let's come back down to the floor. Come back down now.

Sit yourselves down. And then one more time we're going to grab the band, the mop handle or belt or whatever and just up and back. This time whatever you're using, I want you to start off really wide. Maybe start off where you began at the very beginning of the video just to test a bit and see how that feels now.

So grab your belt or whatever it was you started with. Nice and wide. Come up, back and down. And then each time just take a micro step in.

See how that feels. Come up and back. Keeping your back nice and straight as you move. Moving those shoulders.

Maybe stepping forwards. Just again, use this as a check in or just to see how much everything's opened out here. Back in. We don't have to aim for the kind of best stretch or the tightest stretch every class but it's nice to just check in and just see like wow I was there at the start, now I'm here.

It's nice to just be like it works. If you do this class two, three times a week if you want to work on your shoulders, of course it's going to help because you're doing more than you were doing before. If you're particularly tight as well, you've obviously got the Yoga for Rocks shoulders stuff but maybe you just want to sit down, do some nice easy mobility stuff. That's what this is.

I love doing stuff like this especially before I start working on my handstands because it opens you right out. It feels really good. Drop that resistance band down to the side. Now take the back of your left hand and that's going to go behind you in your belt line.

Behind you and the centre of your back in your belt line there. Then shrug your left shoulder up towards your ear and then do the opposite. Drop that down nice and heavy almost like you've got a weight there and you feel a stretch down here. Now super lightly take your right hand that goes over your head and almost grab the top of your ear and I'm not pulling here, I'm just resting.

A bit of weight open that left side so my right ear is nice and heavy going down towards my right shoulder. Take two breaths here. Make sure that left shoulder stays nice and heavy. Then you're going to tilt your head back slightly, see if that changes the stretch.

Then forwards and back again and forwards. If you feel super tight anywhere here, just stop there for a couple of seconds or a couple of breaths just wherever you're feeling tight and let that open out. You'll release that right hand off your head, let your head come back up to the top, relax that shoulder and then we'll go with the right hand. So back of the right hand, behind that kind of belt line, base of your spine.

Shrug the right shoulder up so you're picking that up and nice and heavy down. You'll already feel that stretch come on. Then left hand, grab the top of the ear, then just gently let your left ear get heavier and heavier. Driving that away, I feel way tight on this side.

A couple of breaths. Now again just tilt the head forwards and back and forwards. Then you're going to release the right hand forwards and back. I'm definitely a little bit crunchy this side.

I got spiked on my head ages ago before everything shut down and luckily Rosie and her neck rehab programme saved me but that wasn't very fun. Then again any tight areas, you can stay there if you want. Good. Bring the hand off the head, bring the head back up, hands back in front.

Then just have your hands behind you here. My fingers are pointing behind me and then I'm opening my chest out, shoulders back, pinching my shoulder blades together. I'm just going to take a couple of breaths here. Not an intense stretch but just with a nice open chest and I'm not doing this trying to keep a straight back but just trying to open my chest as well.

Just breathe. We spend so much time with our hands in front of us on a keyboard, grappling or on Instagram. It's just nice to have the hands behind you for a few seconds. Really focusing on opening your chest.

Last deep inhale. Slowly let that out. Good. Then slowly sit yourselves back up.

Okay, so I hope you enjoyed my shoulder mobility fun flow. Get involved, keep doing it. Obviously once feels good but it's not going to feel as good as if you do it a few times a week so get consistent with your goals and they're going to pay off. Just like Jiu Jitsu, you go Jiu Jitsu a few times a week, you're going to get better.

You work on these kinds of things a few times a week, of course that's going to improve because it's more than you were doing before. Any questions drop in the comments. I'm going to do more of these mobility fun flows. Let me know what body area you want the next one and I'll get involved.

I'll see you guys in the next video. Cheers for watching.