Full-Body Yoga with Shoulder Focus: 35-Min Stretch for BJJ

This time you exhale, turn to the right. Just so you can push the back of your left hand on the right knee. Let's go back. And to the left.

And to the right. Again, if you're absolutely burning, shaking and sweating here, just try and chill a bit. I'm just trying to breathe. Right side one more time.

And left. Come back. And now just hands by your sides here and lift the right leg up towards the ceiling. If you lifting your right leg up is here, that is all you need to do, okay?

So just wherever your right leg goes as you lift it and just feel your kind of hips activate, trying to keep that leg up and everything. And remember that breath. Good, one more inhale. Exhale, bring that down.

Now other leg, so left leg up. Again, to wherever that is for you, if you need a little bend in your knee as well, just put that there. And now just hands by your side. And lift your right leg up.

And now just hands by your side. Bring that down as you exhale. And now we'll combine the two. Again, nothing crazy, just for a few breaths.

So inhale, hands up. Exhale, start to lift your right leg as your hands come up and over to the right, you feel a little twist, bit of core engagement. Exhale, come up. Inhale, back.

Exhale, come up. One more each side. Good, and we'll finish on the left. Back down, nice.

Okay, so we've warmed everything up a little bit and we've worked within our breath, so just keep those slow steady breaths going. And we'll just come up to all fours. And from all fours, make sure your hands are under your shoulders in the mats here and we'll get some cat cows going. And what we're doing with cat cows is, as I look up, I take an inhale, I turn my hips up towards the ceiling.

And exhale, head towards your hips, lift everything between. So just find some movement in your breath with these for a second. And I'll bring some attention to a specific area. Okay, so if we break down what we're doing with our hips, I'm just rotating my hips where they are to move everything between.

And same with my upper back and shoulders. So I'm shrugging that down on the mat to get my chest nice and low as I look up. And as I reverse, I'm pushing, almost pushing my chest through my back here and getting that nice dome shape in my back. I really want you to exaggerate what you're doing with your shoulders here now.

So shrug down, inhale, and exhale, push. You can see your shoulders in the corners of your eyes. Inhale, and they disappear. And push, good, really open out that point in your back between your shoulders, feel that open.

Good, maybe lean a little weight forwards. Inhale, drop that down now, maybe pinch your shoulder blades together here. Open your chest out. Good, exhale.

So we're focusing this movement on the shoulders. Whilst moving our hips, little crunch in the core, everything you'd normally do here, we're imagining that movement in our shoulders and reactivating that movement. Feel your shoulder blades move around your back. So I come up, they pinch together.

And as I push away, you feel your shoulder blades, shoulder blades separate. Come almost round to your sides. Good, open that out, looking down, opening the back of your neck. One more.

Ah. Good, and then just move forwards and back, doing some catcalls. Find your own movement here. Maybe send a wave down your spine as you move.

And I just want you to keep in mind where your shoulders are, not just this part of your shoulders, but your shoulder blades, everything around your shoulders. As we go through the cast, and as we move, think about you opening your chest out, your shoulders back, and then you're stretching forwards. Where are your shoulder blades? So meet me at the top of your mat.

Just stood up nice and tall here. And now as you open your arms out, I don't just want this, okay? When you open your chest out, and now, stay standing up, pointing your arms up to the ceiling. Feel your shoulders come up.

Shoulders are by your ears now. And down in front of you. Shoulders right in front of me, and then they're down. Okay, just a few circles, just really open out here.

So my thumbs are pointing back, open out, looking up. Hands together. And down. Good, so we're like exaggerating that movement today.

Okay, so open your shoulders out. Good, hands in prayer. Take an inhale here. Now, as you bend forwards, take an exhale, bend your knees, fold at the hips here as much as you can.

Keep bending your knees though. And we'll just dangle here. Again, let your hands in front of you, where are your shoulders? They're by your ears now.

So you're just letting them go. Okay, find some space under them, maybe in your armpits and everything, and feel your back stretch out and open up. Stretch out and open as well. Maybe rock side to side, just feel how that first fold of the day is.

And then on your next inhale, bring your hands to the tops of your shins and activate your back. Shrug your shoulders back and lift up. Lift a little higher than you normally would just to feel your back activate and your shoulders pick up a bit. And then exhale down into the fold, shoulders back down, inhale up.

Good, one more of them. Feel your back activate. And then exhale, hands in plank, step back to plank. Take a breath here.

Take another inhale. And then on the exhale, drop to your knees or just drop down to your front nice and slow. Take a breath with your front down. Then bring your hands back.

You're not interlacing your fingers here. I want you to drive your hands back so your shoulders lift up off the mat. You're activating your back again just like we just were. And imagine you're reaching your hands together but don't touch them, okay?

Arms straight, reach them together and open your chest out with that activation. Good, breathe your belly on the mat. One more inhale. Exhale, lower, good.

Hands back where they were when you came down. It's not about how high you go there today. It's about how much you activate. Good, push yourself up to your knees.

Tuck your toes now and lift your hips up. Bent knees here, straight back in this down dog position. Good, and breathe here. If you wanna walk your heels out, that's fine.

But again, what are your shoulders doing here? Your shoulders tight here and stiff and too strong or are you trying to open your shoulders out slightly? Okay, keep grabbing that mat. And breathe.

Okay, look towards that space between your thumbs now and just start bending your knees a little more and walking your feet up into that forward fold that we were in a second ago. Do another half lift, remember that activation. Inhale up. Exhale, fold.

And now on the inhale up, exaggerate that movement. Open your arms out. Arms are coming nice and high, pointing up where your shoulders up above your ears. Exhale, hands in that prayer.

We'll do that circle again, it feels great. Inhale up. Exhale, fold. Bent knees in the fold.

Take a breath here. Let your shoulders go, let your back open. Hands on your shins. Inhale, half lift.

Exhale, hands down, step the right foot back. Okay, keep that heel of the right foot up nice and high. And now maybe a bit of a wider stance here just to keep a good balance. And now I want your hands to come forwards and up.

Good, and where are your shoulders? Get them above your ears. Lift those shoulders up. And don't let your lower back point out here.

Activate that, nice straight back. Take a breath. Exhale, hands come down. Step the left foot back to plank.

Inhale here. Exhale, I've down to knees, I'll just come down. And then hands back again, lifting up. Get that activation.

It's not about how high you go today, it's how much you lift your shoulders and how much you activate. Another inhale. Exhale, down. Push yourself up to your knees.

We'll tuck your toes, come up. And back to that down dog. Okay, take one more breath in down dog. Then on the next inhale, step that right foot forwards.

And then find your base. Bring your hands up and now we're in that lunge on the other side. Take a breath. Take another breath.

And then exhale, hands come down in front of you so that your weight's in front of you so you can just come down into that fold. Take a half lift. Come down. Come down.

And then open out again, exaggerate that open L. And then hands in that prayer position. Good, remember what your shoulders doing. Keep thinking that today.

Sit your breath. Inhale up. Exhale, fold. Half lift.

Exhale, come down. Step that left foot back this time. Set your base, hands up. Where are your shoulders now?

Bring them up, feel that stretch. Come down. Step back to plank, take a breath in. Step back to plank, take a breath in.

And down. Back to that locust, okay? So back, lift up. One more inhale, lift more.

And come down. And now put your hands where they were before you push yourself up. Keep that activation but lift your shoulders up towards your ears, up towards the ceiling. Just lightly press on the mat.

Activate and see how high you can get here. Using that activation, not just pushing. Come down. Push yourself up and back to that down dog.

Good work. Next inhale, left foot comes forward. Slide that out. And the next inhale will come up.

Lifting those shoulders up to the sky. Exhale, come down. Step yourself forwards into that fold. Take another half lift.

Take a fold. Stand yourself back up, arms out nice and wide. Hands down to your chest. Set your breath here.

How does your posture feel as well? Pay attention to that. How do you feel stood up now? Your shoulders feeling open or are you still like this?

Assess that, okay? See how you feel in these positions. Okay, we'll take another inhale up. Exhale, fold.

Half lift. Come down. Step back all the way to plank. Inhale and plank.

Lower yourself down now. Okay, come to that skydiver or locust. So hands back, lift up. Open your chest, exhale down.

Now try that cobra. Inhale, push up. Exhale down. Push yourself up and back to down dog.

And this time from down dog, step your right foot forwards and outside your right knee as that back knee comes down to the floor. Good, and just breathe here. If you're up here and you can feel that stretch in your hips, that's fine. Just wherever you're comfortable.

And just start to breathe now and maybe bring your weight forward slightly and imagine your shoulders are going back, okay? And your chest is moving forwards. Good, now your hips are nice and open here. Bring your hips back slightly so you can tuck your toes on the back foot.

Push yourself up and then back to down dog. Breathe here, maybe assess what's going on. How does that feel, both sides? And then stick the left foot outside.

Drop the back knee. And again, if you're here or here, just go with it wherever you are. But imagine again, shoulders back, chest forwards, opening out. Good, tuck the back toes again.

Come back to dog. And open the shoulders out. And now stick the right foot outside again. Back knee down.

Okay, and wherever you are here, bring your weight off your right hand, but don't lean over and bring your weight off. Just distribute the weight between your left hand and that front foot, your right foot. Okay, so just pick the right hand up and now open it out. So reach your right hand forward like you're trying to shake someone's hand and look at where your hand's going the whole time.

Lift the right hand up. Okay, keep that towards the ceiling and now think about your left shoulder here. So if that's collapsed, because you're thinking about the right now, activate that again. Okay, nice and strong in the mat here.

And now start to open that out, almost like you're trying to reach towards the back foot. Okay, and if you're like this here, that's fine. Just keep opening out. Or if you're forwards like this, that's fine too, but just open that out.

Almost like I'm turning to the right and opening my chest out to the right here. So opening out like this or like this. Just feel that bit of a twist and your chest open. Couple more breaths.

Inhale, come up and back, nice big circle. And then step back to that down dog again. How does that feel? Breathe into that down dog.

Maybe try and stretch your arms up a little higher. And then inhale, left foot forwards, drop the back knee. So your weight's gonna be in your right hand and the front foot now. So lift the left, shake some hand.

Follow the hand with your gaze, keep that bottom shoulder activated. Turn, open your chest out to the left, reaching back. Again, depending on how your hips are, you could be like this today. That's fine.

Whatever works for you. So, come up and back down. Step back to that down dog. And then just bring your weight forwards to a nice plank.

Drop your knees and then come down to your front again. And we'll go for that locust or sky that we proposed. So hands back, clench your bum, bridging into the mat a little bit, lift. Activating everything here.

Turn your thumbs out now, outside, so your palms are facing down. And then maybe open your palms out to the side so your thumbs are facing up, opening your chest. Next exhale, come down, palms down, either side of your hips, thumbs facing out. Take a breath.

And then inhale, keep your hands on the mat so palms facing down on the mat. Lift your shoulders, open your chest up, use your back. Doesn't matter how high you go, what matters is the activation here. Take an inhale.

Exhale down. Bring yourself back up. To a down dog. Okay, stick your right foot outside your right hand again into this lizard lunge stretch.

And then a lot of you probably have seen when we reach up and back over, bring that foot and grab it. That's not always accessible for people. So we'll kind of find a way of getting there, which is a bit friendlier. So if you're in this lunge, just bring your hips back a bit so your hips are almost above your knee and shorten the lunge.

And now see if you can come up with your fingers on the left, sit yourself up a bit, and now reach back. It's less of a stretch out like this and less of a reach back and this open out thing. But if you wanna try and get to that stretch without that, try and just lean your weight back. So it's almost like I'm in that king Arthur lunge.

Put hand down and then just grab it that way. From here, I like to grab the outside of my foot, but you can grab the inside. Just see how your knee feels with both and what you like. And then open your chest out again like we did earlier.

That's why I like to grab the outside because it just feels like it's opening my chest out more. And then you can kind of start to walk your foot and your hand forwards a bit into that eventually as you open out your quads and your cellos and everything. Okay, but we're also opening out our chest here. So if you're still here, open out to the right and maybe kick a bit of weight into that right foot and feel your chest and shoulders open.

So if I turn around, it's like this from the other side. Okay, so a bit of an adaptation, but it's a bit more friendly for people that couldn't kind of get there before. Let's take two more breaths here. And then slowly come out of that and sit back to down dog.

Take a breath here. How does each side feel? Are we opening everything out a little more? Then take an inhale, step the left foot outside.

Okay, so drop the right knee and maybe lift your right knee up a little bit more. So I'll take an inhale, step the left foot outside. Okay, so I'll drop the right knee and maybe shorten that a bit so that we're in this front knee above the ankle, hips above the back knee. Okay, and then see if you can make that accessible for you.

So hand up, then back, and see if you can either reach under and grab it and open out, or maybe you can just get to here, start to open. Okay, it's much shorter. And then just like the other side, turn to the left, open your chest out. And as you get more into the stretch, as you work on it more, you might get a little further forwards and start opening out more.

But everyone starts somewhere. So find something accessible for you. And if you wanna open out more, kick a bit of weight into that back foot and open your chest out and your hips. One more inhale.

There you go, let go of that foot. Calm back around and step back to down dog. Okay, come down to your knees now. Hips above your knees, shoulders above your hips.

Good, and now we'll look at that snowboarder pose that you might have seen. We'll try and get there, look at a different way to get there as well. So we're gonna use our quads here. So strong quads are useful here.

And I want you to pinch your bum so you can get a little bit of a stretch. So you can get a little bit of a stretch. And I want you to pinch your bum so you're bridging forwards. Use your quads almost like you're trying to push your feet into the mat to bridge your quads forwards.

And now very slowly lean yourself back using the strength of your quads just a little bit and come back up and breathe with this. So inhale back, exhale forwards, inhale back. Exhale forwards. Good, we'll do that again.

And if it's hurting a bit to have your toes tucked, you can drop your feet down. It should almost feel like you're kicking someone up with your butterfly hooks here. Okay, this is a similar activation. So if I'm back here, you go back down here, and you kick, you pull them into you, you kick them up and you're at the turnover or whatever.

But it's a similar thing here. It's quads whilst bridging forwards. So we're going back and up. And just even if you're going back slightly, just keep working with that.

And eventually you can work towards bringing your hands back onto your heels as you do it. So we go back slowly. I open my chest out, my hands come to my heels, and then I come here, okay. Instead of coming back into this kind of awkwardness where it's not that comfortable, we can slowly go towards there, okay.

So we'll work towards that. So what I want you to do is as we go back and as you get comfortable going back, open your chest out and come forwards. Open out. And come forwards.

And for now, for today, if it feels easier with your kind of shoelaces on the floor, that's fine. Open out and come forwards. Don't go crazy, don't go too far. Just wherever you're comfortable.

And if you keep bridging towards the direction you're facing, keep everything engaged. So nice hip opener and nice front body opener. It feels really good. And eventually you can go back, grab your heels, open out and stay here.

And back. Good. Okay, so bring your hands down to the mat. Come down to all fours now.

Open your knees out nice and wide. And just sit your hips back. And rest your forehead in the mat. We'll just take a little rest here.

Your legs might be burning a little, but good effort there. It's nice to kind of make a pose a little more accessible or look at something on the way to a pose that we just see so commonly. So yeah, I hope some of those options work for you lot. Okay, come forwards now.

Lay on your back. Put your knees up again like we did at the start. And if when you lay down, your lower back's coming up, just activate everything at the front a little bit and your hips, just rotate them a bit so that your back's flat on the mat here. And then just turn your knees over to the right to open out your side in just a nice little spinal twist.

Maybe put your right hand on top of the left knee and open out to the left. Feel that chest open. And take three breaths. Good, slowly come out of that.

So just turn over to your right side. Now use your left hand to just push stuff into the mat. And now knees over to the left. Maybe left hand on top of the right knee and open out your chest.

Look over towards that right hand and just take three breaths. One more inhale. And exhale. Good, come back up, knees up towards the ceiling.

Walk your feet out slightly, maybe the width of your mat and just let the inside of your knees rest together. Sort out that lower back again so it's flat if that's comfortable. Just have one hand on your belly, one hand on your chest. And then just turn your knees over to the left.

And then just turn your knees over to the right. And just inhale and sigh that out. Let your eyes close for a second. Take five nice deep breaths.

Last inhale. Last exhale, just sigh that out. Good, open your eyes, just turn onto your side and push yourself up now. And that is it.

Now, we're gonna do the last two breaths. So, one more inhale. And exhale. And exhale.

And exhale. And exhale. And exhale. And exhale.

And exhale. And exhale. And exhale. And exhale.

And exhale. And exhale. And exhale. And that is it for this session today.

Okay, a lot of shoulder focus, a few adaptations for you. Hope they helped, let me know if they did. And I'll do more classes like this where it's a bit of an introduction into a couple of poses that you might look at usually and be like, nah, that's not gonna work for me. I think it's important that we all get a go at trying things and working towards things that weren't possible before.

Just so you can see your own progression and you can see and introduce new poses into your Yoga for BJJ. Thanks for watching guys and I'll see you all in the next video. fiance ultimate