Shoulder Mobility Yoga for BJJ: 11-Min Class (Day 5)

Nice. Release the rubber band behind you. Grab the band with the thumbs pointing out and then try to stretch the rubber band as much as you can. So lift your chest and push your arms back away from you.

So your shoulder blades are pinching together, your shoulders are moving back in space and your chest is lifting. Put some tension on the rubber band. So try to stretch it here. Try to breathe while you're doing this.

Now when you're doing back bends like this and you feel it in the lower back, then squeeze your lower belly hard. So squeeze your butt and squeeze your lower belly to protect your lower back. And then release. Drop the rubber band and swing from side to side.

If any of the exercises we do in this program doesn't feel good, you can always, please do, start over from scratch. So if you make it to day three and day three was too intense for you, then just do day one and two, one and two, one and two and then try the three again. So progressively work your way through the program and don't feel it necessary to do everything. Nobody is made to do every pose and some poses are going to take a lot longer than other poses.

Just like in BJJ, triangles might come easy, but arm bars might take years. It's the same here. Grab your rubber band again and let's do some kayaking. I like sitting down on my knees for this one.

Stretch your rubber band overhead and then without placing, not like proper kayaking where you have the paddle in front of you, arms overhead. You shouldn't see the rubber band so much, but do the kayaking motion from side to side. So no strength here, just really unusual movement for our upper body and our shoulders. Imagine having a little bit of resistance from the water when you put the paddle down and push back.

The rhythm here is what's important. Try not holding your breath. Try to make a smooth movement and smooth breath. This is the best shoulder mobility exercise that I know of.

Of course you can have your elbows bent, of course, obviously. So if straight arms feels good, do that. But don't go too fast. If you have one shoulder that is really funky, go super slow on both sides, convincing your body that this is okay to do even if it's the first time you're doing it.

If it's too hard to sit on your knees, then just stand up and do this. But don't go fast. Go slow. Five more.

Keep holding on to your rubber band. Place it behind your shoulder blades and then push the arms forward so you're like this. So you're pushing forward like this. If it feels better to keep your thumbs this way so your thumbs are pointing forward, for me that feels better.

What's nice about this one is it's really hard to roll your shoulders forward here. The rubber band, if you grab it tight enough, is going to squeeze your elbows in and puff up your chest automatically. It's hard to slouch here. I'm trying to slouch now and when I relax, my rubber band is doing what my back muscles should be doing, posturing me up.

Let's walk around like this a little bit for a minute or so. You have already bought your rubber band, yes? So I want you to buy another one to have one for home, one for Game of Thrones, and one for the office or your workplace. So every time you take a break, at least five times a day, I want you to do a couple of the exercises we do in this number five video.

So do some kayaking motions and then do this one. What are we going to name it? We're going to call it the elbow squeezer. So this elbow squeezer is making it easier to breathe with my chest and belly and also it stretches my pec minors and my pec majors on the front of my chest and it's also helping my back muscles understand the optimal position to where they want to keep the upper body.

So you're going to get tired in these muscles, not now when we have the rubber band, but when you try to posture up like this, like we're doing now, you are going to be tired in your upper back because your muscles are probably stiff and fatigued from rounding forward already. So when you start trying to posture up, they're going to get even more tired, but that will eventually pass when the muscles in the front of your body will start loosening up and stop pulling you forward. So eventually when you get more flexible on your front body, it's going to be easier to keep a good posture. When you have a good posture, when you have your shoulders not in front of your midline, but when your shoulders start rolling back and using gravity to drop down, everything will change.

The reason why your shoulders are stiff is because your hips and upper body is not aligned properly. When you get a good alignment of your hips and your torso, your shoulders are going to get much more flexible just from not having to be tense all the time. So let's release the rubber band and let's do some swimming motions. Just swim like this.

This one you can probably not get away with when people are looking, you look really stupid when you're just standing and swimming. And what have we learned through this shoulder week for rocks? That swimming is great, that climbing is great, hanging is great, and doing these 10-15 minute videos every day is going to be a tremendous change for your shoulders. You're going to feel much more mobile.

Let's say you do this week, this program four times. That's 20 sessions of shoulder mobility. I promise you, you're going to feel a huge difference from just one month. And if you get this into a habit, like in the beginning you're excited and then it's hard and you need discipline.

But after that, when it becomes a habit, it's going to feel so easy to just grab your rubber band or your belt or the wall and just do five, 10 minutes of mobility and your shoulders are going to feel like you're 10 years old again. All right, guys, let's not overdo it. This was enough for today. I hope you guys enjoy this.

If you didn't, do it again until you start enjoying it. Thank you guys for watching and see you in the next program or on the mat. Us!