Straddle Flexibility for BJJ: 15-Min Flow

Twist, kick, stand back up. Alright, two more. One on each side. Nice.

Okay, everybody stand up. This time, instead of kicking in between in front of the leg, we're going to kick behind like this. So we're doing a dragon kick. You can sit all the way down if you want.

And then coming back here. Now, instead of standing all the way up, we come into airplane mode. So back bending, pulling the shoulder blades together, twisting and kicking. And then airplane.

We can go one, two, three and kick. Airplane one, two, three and kick. One, two, three. Kick.

You can support your hand on your knee too when you're kicking. One, two, three, kick. One more. One, two, three, kick.

Okay, this time bend your left knee. Bend your left knee so you're in a deep one-legged squat. And then knee down, half straddle. Right hand reaches the heel.

Grab your head. Nice. Twisting straddle, switch sides. One-legged squat, deep one-legged squat.

And then knee down, hips up, half straddle. Reach for the heel. If you can't reach the heel, just keep trying to reach. And then twisting straddle.

So one more time. Bend the knee first into a deep squat. And then knee down, half straddle. Reach for the heel.

Switching sides. One more on each side. And then sit on your knees and lift, upper and lower, wherever you feel comfortable. And then sit on your knees and relax a little bit.

Now we're going to do two advanced options. One of them is probably going to be hard or impossible. Try the one, go for the one that is least difficult. So we're going to try both and then you decide which one you want to integrate later.

The first one looks like this. We're bending one knee slightly and then sticking the arm behind us, trying to reach our hands behind the back like this. If you can touch the hands, you straighten the legs. Maybe you can grab properly, straighten the legs.

And then coming all the way up, bending the knee, trying the second side. Maybe you can just grab your t-shirt or whatever. Some of you will grab all the way to the wrist, depending on shoulder and hip flexibility. So we're coming up in between, coming into straddle, bending a knee and then wrapping and grabbing.

Try one more time. Even if you're failing, it's still really nice to attempt it. It's good flexibility training, just trying. Nice.

Okay. Now do the bent knee again, bend the left knee and now sit down all the way to the butt. So the right leg is straight and then you go behind yourself and do a push-up. Coming all the way up, switching sides, sitting down and from the seated position, you go towards the straight leg and do a push-up behind you.

So switch from side to side. And the transitions, the clumsy transitions that we're looking for. We want to do those clumsy transitions several times. Now start integrating what we've just done with the stuff that you normally do.

So maybe you're coming down here into a 90-90, switching from side to side, coming up into one of these things that we've done before. 90-90 swivels. Walking back into upside down guard. Coming up into combat base, switching.

Coming up into a squat, doing a feet clap, a hand clap, a curl, a back bend. A forward fall over. A spin. So if you want to follow me, you're welcome to, but the goal here is for the body to learn to move on its own accord.

The body shouldn't need your brain's permission in order to move and feel well. Maybe a lizard and the world's best stretch. Maybe a couple of jump switches. Maybe grab the back foot.

Just continue where we are now on your own for a couple of minutes, three, four minutes. Just integrating the stuff we learned today from the twisting straddle with our go-to's, our favorites. And maybe a couple of times the positions that we hate but that we know is good for us. Just like there is shadow boxing, this is shadow jiu-jitsu.

The body moving, stretching. Try to get everything in there, back bends, belly down, belly up, rolling. Some twists. Side stretches.

Arm folds. Everything your hips, spine, shoulders, legs and arms need in order to feel ready for jiu-jitsu. A couple of more minutes intuitive flow. 1990s squats, twisting straddles, push-ups.

Mixing big movements with slow, strict movements. Stretching the hips. Stretching the shoulders. Even if your mind feels clueless, the body is not.

It will know what to do when you give it enough time. You remember the pancake, pigeon. Maybe the pigeon into swivel, into soccer stretch that we did last week, remember? And you can always stop in frog or a stretch where you feel like things are about to burst and then just move a little bit off the intensity so that you're not resisting.

Nice and then find your way up to seated. Let's do a few extra side stretches here. Watch out for a super rounded spine. Try to both do a rounded spine and back down.

Notice how I'm placing the hand behind me to support the back fan. If my hand is in front of me it's hard to lift but with that support behind me it's easier to lift. Nice and then let's do some slow circles. Big circles first.

Get the neck involved as well. Then circle the other direction. Nice and then let's do four seven eight. So inhale for four, inhale one.

Two. Three. Four. Hold for seven.

Seven. Eight. Six. Five.

Four. Three. Two. One.

And exhale for eight. Eight. Seven. Six.

Five. Four. Three. Two.

One. One more inhale. One. Two.

Three. Four. Hold for seven. Seven.

Six. Five. Four. Three.

Two. One. And exhale for eight. Eight.

Seven. Six. Five. Four.

Three. Two. One. Big inhale.

And exhale. Well done guys that was a nice stretch. Let's get back to training. One two.