Sarah Draht · 5 min · 742 words
Previously titled: Video 1 Hips I don't have time for yoga
Don't have time for yoga, but you know you need it. Happens to the best of us. Start in a seated position, windshield wipers with the legs, hands post behind you, feet either hip width or a little bit further than hip width apart, knees side to side. It's nice if the knees can touch the ground, but if they can't, don't worry about it.
It'll get there. I just want you to notice as you move slowly side to side, notice where you feel any tension in the hips, notice where it moves, it moves smoothly. And the purpose of this is to bring some synovial fluid into the hips, some blood flow, and to consciously notice. The hips are massively important and today we're going to be stretching front, back, and inside.
Okay, so from here, come to your hands and knees and place the right foot to the outside of the right hand. Tuck the back toes to lift the back knee. Engage the back quad and what that does, engaging the back quad allows the left hip to lower towards the ground instead of having the knee lower. Now a couple variations here, you can keep that back knee up or you can lower it down.
If you need more time here, press pause. The magic of technology. Lower the back knee and walk the hands towards the hips. Really be briefly to stretch through the back of that right hamstring.
Walk the hands forward. Find your way onto all fours, hands and knees, left foot to the outside of the left hand. Start by lifting the right knee. Engage to the right quad.
Just notice. And through jujitsu, so much guard work. Jujitsu is all guard so it's no wonder the hips get tight. But everything we do has hips in it so it's really important to take care of them.
Lower the back knee. Walk the hands towards the hips. And I say straighten or almost straighten that left leg so it can be tight. And that's okay if it's tight.
I see a few hamstring classes in your future here so don't worry about it. So you don't just want to stretch the hips, you want to stretch the areas surrounding the hips to loosen them up. Because they're all connected, they're all affected. Now from here, walk the hands forward.
Then towards, lift the back knee and turn towards me, towards the camera, for a skate or lunge or half squat, whatever you want to call it. Toes can either be up or in the 45, wherever you like. And this is for the inside of the legs and if you find that there's a lot of tension, then engage the quad. That'll help release it.
So from here, stay on this side as long as you like. When you're ready, move to the other side. And you can either stay in each of these sides for a while or sometimes it can feel nice to flow and move between them. And it's really common here all the time, people that pull their groin all the time.
And it's just, it's the most irritating thing and this can actually prevent that. Because if you pull it, obviously means it's too tight, jumped on the mats, maybe properly didn't warm up or maybe they're growing so tight that it had enough. And if the hips are tight, then it'll start causing problems in the back and knees. So even five minutes, 1% better every day, that's the Japanese concept kaizen.
1% better every day, it absolutely makes a difference. That's what we're doing with this series. So start moving side to side a few times. And if you find there's tension still, go ahead and do this video again.
No problem. Go ahead and do it again. Now, I want you to find a sit. Same place we started, hands behind you, windshield wipers.
Notice the difference. And I like to have the legs feet out far enough so my knee can touch the ground. And just notice, notice how even after five minutes, it feels a bit better. And this is also a great warm up for jiu-jitsu.
Before you get into jiu-jitsu, Matt, windshield wipe a few times. Or when instructors teach you the technique, windshield wipe a few times. Okay. Awesome work.
Five minutes really well spent. We'll see you next class.
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