Sebastian Brosche · 11 min · 1,182 words
Previously titled: Day 1 Flow
Okay, this is our first flow class of this series and we're gonna just do sun salutation A today. We're gonna do six of them, six or eight. So I'm gonna do things extra slowly. So don't be bored just because it's super slow.
Make sure that you have time to actually experience these maybe for the first time. Maybe you've never done sun salutations before and if you have, just slow things down and appreciate the slowness. Start with your feet hip width apart and turn your thumbs facing outwards. So you're engaging your back muscles in order to open your front.
Once you're not slouching, you're really looking for a good posture here. Close your eyes and start with taking three deep breaths in through your nose and out through the mouth. Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale. Open your eyes, spread your fingers, start looking up and then as you start lifting your arms, start inhaling. And when you reach the top of the movement, reach the top of your breath and then exhale, start folding from your hips, bend your knees and try to roll your belly on top of your thighs.
Catch on to your ankles and pull your head down. And then inhale and straighten your back and your legs. You're going for a 90 degree angle here. And then step back into plank pose.
Spread your fingers, engage your knees, lift everything away from the floor, including your nose. And then lower down all the way to the belly. Setting up your thumbs under your nipples, flatten out your feet and squeeze your elbows in and lift your head. Inhale and exhale.
Push back up to plank. Take a breath in plank. And then push back into down dog and just walk it out. So bend one knee and stretch the other leg.
We're not going to do static down dog in these first classes, so just stretch and move around so you feel good. Take another breath. And then simply walk your hands to your feet, your hands, hands to shins, inhale, look forward, bend your knees, exhale and fold. So pull yourself down and relax at the same time.
Now all the way up, slowly rise up and inhale, stretch your fingers up and start over from the beginning. Exhale, hands down. So we're back where we started in the standing posture position. You can lift your toes so you feel that you really uplifted here.
You're not dragging yourself down with gravity. You're forcing yourself to resist gravity. Let's go for another sun salutation. A slow inhale and slow exhale.
Bend your knees and fold from the hips. Roll your chest down to your knees as far down as you can go. And then inhale, stretch halfway up. Your head is as high as your hips.
And step back into plank. Take a full inhale and an exhale in plank and try to squeeze your thighs, your core, your belly, your chest and lift your head. And then on your toes, lower your chest down, nipples to thumbs. Slap your feet out and go for cobra.
Inhale, elbows in. Don't crank your lower back. Exhale down. Push back to plank.
Take a breath in plank. And back to down dog. Wiggle your butt from side to side. So stretch your waist and the outside of the hips.
I like turning my head here and cracking my neck out. Take one more breath. And then step forward. Inhale halfway up.
And exhale slowly fold as deep as you can. Bend your knees always more than you think. Inhale all the way up. Exhale hands down.
Keep flowing. Inhale, look up. And back a little bit. Exhale, start always from your hips and fold down.
Deep forward fold. Inhale engage and straight everything including your back. Stepping back to plank. Take a full breath in plank.
Spread your fingers and turn your biceps forward. You're not bending your elbows. You're turning your biceps pointing forward. Over down.
Your head should be far in front of your hands. Squeeze your triceps. Inhale Cobra. Exhale down.
Push back to plank. Take a breath in plank. And back to down dog. Small movements now.
Minor movements from side to side. Try connecting more with your breath. So breathe a little bit deeper than you would normally. Step forward.
Inhale halfway up and try to straighten your back. Bend your knees and fold. Now let's go all the way up as we inhale. And skip the standing pose.
Just fold on the exhale all the way down. Inhale halfway up. Straight legs. Straight arms.
Straight back. Stepping back to plank. Take a full breath and engage your arms and legs. You can look forward.
If you look back your head will hang. If you look forward you will get a lift through your upper body and your neck. Lean forward and lower down. Try to land with the whole body on the floor.
Cobra inhale. Exhale down. Push back to plank. And back to down dog.
Take one breath here. Picking up the pace slightly. Stepping forward. Inhale halfway up.
Exhale bend your knees and fold. One more full round. Inhale all the way up. Exhale fold from your hips all the way down.
Inhale halfway. Exhale plank. Take a breath in plank. And lower down.
Bend your back. Inhale. Exhale. Push back to plank.
And back to dog and take a breath. And let's sit down on our knees. Let's finish each of these sessions with half a minute of quiet. So just peaceful meditation.
Relax your spine. Relax your head. Just sit completely still and feel the effect of what we just did. The physical and the breathing stuff that we did.
Just let it sink in for a moment. Take a big breath. And sigh it out. Awesome job.
Very, very nice. So I know that this first part is the most awkward. Just doing something super basic like sun salutation A is something that is bread and butter in every yoga class you will ever go to. It might feel a little bit like what does this have to do with Jiu Jitsu at all.
But trust me, just stay with me for these 10 days and you will feel, it doesn't matter how good I could be with words. I'm not good with words because I'm not really fluent in English. But I can never explain to you how good this is. You have to actually feel it.
And the only way for you to feel it is to be consistent and experience the full thing. Like you can't just eat one part of the buffet and judge the whole buffet. You actually have to try everything in order to get a complete sense of what this is all about. So see you tomorrow for the next class.
We're going to go through three more poses. We're going to do the same flow again, but with focus on these new poses. See you tomorrow. Us!
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