Tight Chest? 10-Min Chest Stretch Recovery for BJJ (10-for-10 #10)

And this doesn't need to be a really, really intense pose, I want this to be somewhere you're comfortable but you can feel a stretch down the front. And if you're very comfortable here and you want a bit more of a stretch, think about your belly button and then think to just lightly like you're trying to put on a tight pair of training shorts, maybe just after Christmas we've all been enjoying ourselves too much and you're trying to put on your training shorts, just lift your belly button up towards your spine and you should feel more of a stretch down your midsection, keep shrugging those shoulders back and breathe. And you don't need to be looking up towards the ceiling, try to do some crazy back bend, just keep the neck kind of in line with the spine, looking diagonally in front of you. And just take two more slow breaths and then replace the elbows with the hands and lower your chest down.

Then slowly lift yourself to all fours and really slowly sit the hips back onto the heels just to stretch out the lower back, just to kind of count what we've just done for a few breaths. And then come back up to all fours, lower your front back down to the mat and this time the hands are going to go out nice and wide and think about your left knee, so bend your left knee, then the left hand is going to come closer to you, your left elbow is going in or up towards the ceiling, bend the left knee and then turn so that your left foot touches the mat behind you and take a few breaths here. And if you're really tight you're probably round here, that just means your chest is a bit tighter, that's fine just keep leaning that foot back and trying to open everything out here. Take a few breaths and you can rest your forehead on the mat and just try not to scream into my microphone too loud.

Okay, let's slowly come out of that, how we came into it and then switch sides. So left hand out nice and straight, the right elbow up towards the ceiling, bend the right knee and then push onto your left side, rest your head on the mat and breathe. And really push into that chest stretch, taking a few big breaths and this is especially good after chest day. Which for some people I swear is every day, do something else at the gym.

Okay let's come out of that, switch sides again. See how that feels the second time round. If this is the second time you've ever been here, so the first time you do in this video, just give yourself a chance to let everything open out and really stretch here instead of thinking how you should look. Just use this as a comparison for next time you do the video.

Good, let's switch. And then come back down to your front and again bring your hands under your shoulders where you would lift the chest but replace your elbows where your hands were and lifting the chest, shrugging the shoulders back. We'll start driving the elbows back and lift the belly button for a few breaths here. Feels really good as well if you keep bridging your hips down into the mat.

This is also a good one if you slouch all day at work because again we're hunched forwards, reaching forwards, this feels really good because we're opening the chest, the shoulders and everything that's super tight when we're doing that all day. So if you've got a desk job or you slouch a lot, this is probably going to feel really good for you. Okay, let's come back down, so hands back to where they were. Lift all forwards, very slowly back just to give your lower back a little stretch out and if you do feel very tight after this, just spend a minute or two in this pose here just letting the lower back stretch out because that will feel really good.

Okay, back up, okay lower down, let's open the hands out again but this time I want you to bend your arms almost like a cactus. So my upper arms are in line with my shoulders and then my forearms are parallel with each other here. And again if you're super tight you're going to feel this so just go really light to begin with and just check in and see how you feel for next time. So turn to look at your left hand, bring your left hand in and your left elbow up, bend the left knee and then very slowly start pushing down the left hand to turn onto your side.

Okay, take a few breaths here, you can rearrange the right hand just to see how that feels and breathe here. Good, let's switch sides, so come back down to your front, switch the arms, right hand in, right elbow up, bend the right knee and push round. So I'm much tighter this side, all we need to do is think to get our right foot back just behind us on the mat and take a few breaths to see if we can find some comfort here. Good, let's come down, switch sides, super slow.

And again switch, breathe, undo that and then push yourself up to all fours again, let's sit the hips back over the heels, just let everything relax down towards the mat and take three deep breaths here. Good, let's switch sides, come back down to the mat and take three deep breaths here, and then switch sides, come back down to the mat and take three deep breaths here. Okay, bring yourselves up and that is the end of another recovery after rolling classes. Hopefully you enjoyed that one, let me know if you did in the comments, as I said if you slouch or play this kind of slouch jiu jitsu position a lot, this is going to feel really good opening everything out.

Okay, so hopefully you feel good after this and I'll see you in the next one.