Vinyasa Flow Yoga for BJJ: 16-Min Startup Class (Day 8)

Sun salutation B, classic one, stretch your right leg out, inhale. Knee to nose, foot on the inside of the right hand, step your left toes out to the side, setting up for warrior one. Arms up, inhale, exhale, hands down, vinyasa. Back bend, inhale, exhale, down dog.

Lift your left foot as high as you can, bend your knee, inhale. Exhale, roll the knee to your forehead, foot between the hands, setting up warrior one, back leg straight, arms up, look up, inhale, exhale, hands down, vinyasa. Down dog. Make a slight bend in your elbows, so your elbows are, it's like a rubber band between your elbows, so you really have relaxation in the neck and keep the strength in your arms.

Stretch your arms, bend your knees, inhale, exhale, jump and land between your hands. Exhale halfway up, exhale fold. Stop here for five breaths, you can grab your elbows around your shins or just grab the back of your calves, drop your head and look up to your butt and from here try to stretch your legs. Now squat down to a squat and sit down on your butt, just grab your legs and roll up and down a couple of times, moving your spine around.

So we're transitioning from sun salutation A to sun salutation B and now we're finished with those two, we're going to do a standing sequence based on the poses we have learned so far. So roll up and jump back, shoot through a vinyasa, nice and steady breath, meet in down dog. Let's go slowly, start by lifting your right foot, stretch the leg up and bend your knee. Remember to point the toes and suck the heel in towards your butt, lift your bottom heel, inhale, exhale right knee to right elbow, hold here for a full breath, one legged plank.

Stretch the leg up, three legged dog, maximum stretch, inhale, exhale other elbow, left elbow right knee, hold for a full breath, right leg up, last round, inhale, exhale knee to forehead, foot between the hands, setting up for crescent pose, remember your hips low, your back knee straight, lift your arms and take three breaths here. Lift your chest, lower your hips and stretch your back knee, bend your front knee. Straight elbows, look forward, now catch on to your left knee, hold your balance and when you lift the knee as high as you can, from here, release your knee, arms up, stretch the left foot forward, three, don't complain please, two, work your left hip flexor, one and from here standing splits, hands down, left foot up, perhaps jump back your right foot slightly, head low, left foot high, you can bend your right knee but keep lifting your left leg as much as you can, finding the correct angle with the left hip, so open hips or neutral hips or somewhere in between, just keep your back knee straight. Now look down towards your hands, lean forward, inhale, exhale with a straight back knee, lift off the floor and land softly, so you were probably doing this, stretch your back leg, use the power of your arms to almost push yourself up from the floor, if you do it slowly you don't cheat and you find the right technique, three more to go, one, back leg straight, two and three, step back to plank, inhale, low push up or down to your belly, exhale, vinyasa, inhale back bend, exhale downward dog, second side, left leg up bend and open, lift your bottom heel, inhale, exhale left elbow, left knee, inhale, exhale, lift the left knee, inhale, open for three legged dog, exhale twisting one legged plank, one full breath, three legged dog last round, inhale, exhale knee to forehead crescent pose, arms back first and then push down through the floor as you rise up, hips low, back leg straight, core active, elbows straight, relax your neck and breathe, one more breath, catch hold of your right knee, take a second to find your balance, when you found the balance, stretch your leg out, arms up, work the thigh and hip flexor, we're gonna stretch them very soon, one more breath and then stretch your hip flexor in standing splits, engage your butt and your hamstring, lift the back leg as high as you can, you can bend the bottom leg, head low, foot high, let's use this flexibility and strength, keep everything in standing split, just lift your bottom leg off the floor a few times, so it's okay to use some momentum from the back leg but don't bend your back knee god damn it, use the back leg as leverage to lift up off the floor, so momentum is fine but it's the strength in the arms and the control of the breath that matters, three more to go, next to last one and final round vinyasa, cobra or up dog inhale, finish in child's pose, reset sit up on your knees or on your butt, let's finish today's class by a minute and a half plus of contemplation and breathing, active part is over passive part commencing open your eyes, awesome work today guys, I am convinced, I am very biased because I have experienced the transformation from being really in pain and really immovable to a flexible supple body, I am convinced that you can take the biggest legends in our sport, the old guys, the old generation, you can take the new guys like Hodgries in the middle but Pushecha and all these guys, if they did these programs they would, like the big legends, they would understand it immediately because they have struggled for so many years with some things, everyone struggles, even the ten time world champions, they struggle with things in their body or their breath and everyone who transitions their supplemental training to jiu-jitsu into this area, I am not just saying that yoga for BJJ is the only thing but everything that is connected with the breath and the movement and the transitions and the focus and presence, it transforms jiu-jitsu and my biggest hopes is that we are going to transition from this military style warm-up, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, running in a circle, I am dead tired of it because I did it for 16 years in judo and for now for many years in jiu-jitsu, this is what I want jiu-jitsu warm-ups to be like because it is going to remove 70% of all the injuries and make our jiu-jitsu just up the level many many times over.

So thank you for doing this with me, don't quit yet, we have two more classes to go in the startup program and before we finish, when we finish the last class of this program and repeat the two for the last, we did a full two weeks, you're going to be in a different place than when you started, I guarantee it. So keep going with me, see you tomorrow.