Sebastian Brosche · 13 min · 1,520 words
Previously titled: Video 5 - Shoulders
Hi guys and welcome back to the Tenin Den. Grab your belt and sit down on the floor. We're gonna work our shoulders today and we're gonna start with some dynamic exercises. I really like making a knot at the end of my double folded belt like this.
So I'm grabbing the knot with one hand and I'm placing my other palm inside. So my thumbs are pointing forward and my palms are facing out like this. Stretch the belt overhead and try to sit as tall as possible. So try to avoid crunching your chest and your front.
Try to engage your back and lift your chest. Take a couple of breaths here and try to relax your shoulders down away from your ears. So even though you straighten your arms, try to let your shoulders fall down. So if you can stay here and breathe unless you're injured in your shoulder, then start twisting from side to side gently.
Not fast and not deep, just gently from side to side. And try to breathe naturally while you're doing this. So since the belt is not moving at all, it's easy for your shoulders to adapt to this new environment. Your shoulders are not used to be here for more than a couple of seconds at a time.
So they might already be starting to fall asleep. Try a few times just from side to side to loosen up both the shoulder blades, the shoulder socket and also your chest. Lower the belt down and shake your arms out. I feel looser already.
I don't know about you. Let's try it again. Grab the belt and now this time go all the way back to your lower back. And then slowly on the way back all the way.
And if this is too tight, then just loosen up the knot and grab the belt wider. So try to keep the same width all the time. So if this is not enough, then you should be doing every exercise with the width. This should actually define the width of your belt.
I just really prefer to have it in this exact length. It's perfect for my shoulders. Just go up and down a few times and avoid skipping like one side and one side. So you're doing something like this.
Try to avoid this. Rather find the perfect width and go up and down with both arms exactly simultaneously. Don't forget to breathe. Breathing is what makes this practice feel good.
Nice. Shake out your arms again. Let's do one more with the arms overhead. It's like this.
Arms up and then side stretch from side to side. If you need to change the crossing of your legs, do that. Side stretch your armpit and your lat muscle. You use the bottom arm to pull the top arm slightly, but try not bending your elbows.
Try to keep them as straight as possible. Nice. Release the belt. Move your arms in big circles.
You can keep sitting on your butt or sit on your knees. One arm in front of you, the other arm is wrapping the triceps like this. Catch your shoulder and pull your shoulder down and then squeeze your arm into your chest like you're trying to reverse arm bar yourself. The stretch should be on the outside and the back of the shoulder, but try to really pull the shoulder down before you pull it in.
Let's stay here for five, six, seven breaths. Release and wave your arms back and forwards like this. Switching sides, catch your triceps, catch your shoulder, pull the shoulder down and the triceps in. You're using your right arm, like powerful right arm, and try to not turn to the right.
Try to stay straight and parallel, squared off with your upper body and just pull the arm in towards your chest. Breathe as deep as you can through your nose, both deep and slow. Release, swim again, back and forwards. You might want to use your belt for the next one.
If you can interlace your fingers behind your back without a problem, then you don't need the belt. So either interlace your fingers like this or catch the belt with the thumbs pointing out. Palms are pointing in towards your butt and your thumbs are pointing out. Either stay here with the belt or try to interlace your fingers and do a back bend here.
Bend your back backwards so your chest is lifting, your face is lifting, your chin is tucking slightly in so you're not neck cranking yourself. Then stretch the arms back, apart and up. You're both moving the arms back and trying to almost pull the fingers away from each other or stretch the belt if you hold on to your belt. Take five here.
And then release, swim the arms around, big circles back and forwards. Get some movement back into your stiff muscles. Interlace your fingers again but this time in front of you so your palms are pointing up. Try to really go as high as possible.
Stretch your arms super straight but try to be free in your neck so you're not crunching your shoulders in and tightening your neck. Try to keep your neck long and move your arms in front of you. It's not like you cannot see your armpits. You're moving your arms so much forward that you can actually see your shoulders, your arms and your armpits.
From here go up and then relax your neck and breathe for five. Straight arms, stretch your fingers, lift up and keep moving your arms forward. And release. One more, sit back on your butt, hands behind you, fingers are pointing the same way as your toes.
So fingers are pointing forward and then move your butt away from your hands and bend your elbows and drop your chin to your chest. You should feel this on the front of your shoulders. If you don't then move the butt even further away from the hands and try to lay down on your lower back here. Of course it's impossible and that's why this stretch is so good.
You're trying to lay down but the front of your chest, the front of your shoulders are stopping you from laying down. Stay here, relax your neck and breathe for five. Alright, sit back up. One last exercise.
One knee, place the elbow on the inside of the knee. So your wrist should be on your waist and your elbow on the inside of the knee. Then you try to squeeze the knee in towards the midline. So it's basically a kimura, you're trying to kimura yourself super gently.
If you would be able to do both at the same time you could do that but I'm going to do one at a time. So wrist on the waist, elbow on the inside and then without moving your upper body just hug your inner thigh in towards your triceps. So your knee is pushing your elbow into a kimura but you're stopping before you feel like tapping. So it's like a kimura by a massage therapist.
Relax your face and take two more breaths. And then slowly release and try to stretch your arm out completely and switch sides. So kimura on the other arm, take five breaths here. And release.
So this was a quick class and if you have stiff shoulders, if you have popping shoulders, if you have any problems with the shoulders, you're not alone. Most of us do and usually one arm is much stiffer than the other. The shoulder blades and the muscles around in the front, the chest, it usually tightens us up a lot as we do jiu jitsu a lot. But there is really no magic even though for some it feels like magic, just doing ten minutes can make you feel so much better.
There is no super special advanced tricks that someone will be able to tell you that is just going to make things super quick and super good. What we did here are basics, fundamentals, super basics and if you just start doing them regularly, then the miracle happens over time. Every overnight success is usually followed by days and weeks and months and years of practice. It's going to take you ten years to become a black belt if you start today and it's going to take time for you to loosen up stiff muscles.
If you're 30 and watching this, it took you 30 years to become as stiff as you are today so don't expect things to happen instantaneously. Give it a few days, a few sessions, a few weeks before you start expecting anything. But if you just do the basics we did here today, your shoulders are going to thank you over and over again because you can feel already that what we did now makes a big difference for all the stiff muscles we have in our shoulders. See you guys tomorrow.
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