A few weeks ago I got really sick and tired of having sore joints all the time. I have been unable to do much weight training outside of kettlebell swings for over 18 months now because my elbows have been giving me a lot of grief. Also my groin injury has been playing up which in turn affects my lower back and knees. Lastly I tweaked my left shoulder at BJJ the other day, so you can see the sort of mood I was in.
So my wife told me to do something about it – so I decided to take up some yoga of some sort.
I asked on my Facebook wall of anyone had a YouTube Channel or online videos that could help me get more flexible pretty much over the entire body. At the moment I have been following Mark Kislich’s Bulletproof shoulders package for my shoulder as well as Eric Wong’s Hip Flexibility for my hips but I wanted to get something that was entirely full body.
Someone linked me to a 30 day challenge on YouTube but I found that those videos went for a touch too long and weren’t exactly what I was after. If you know me then you know I like things that are specific, when you go general you get general results, but when you get a specific program, then you will get the results you are after. That’s why I do Eric’s and Marks stuff, because they are both combat athletes so their products suit my needs. Anyway, a few days later someone posted a link to a website called yogaforbjj.neton that Facebook thread and my eyes lit up, I never knew there was a website that had yoga videos specifically for BJJ and I’ll lump Judo into there as well.
I hopped onto the site and signed up to access the free videos that are on there. I had a quick look around the site and it turns out it is owned by a BJJ Brown belt from Sweden by the name of Sebastian Brouche. Judging from the videos he looks like a lean and fit guy so he must be pretty handy on the mat.
Anyway I signed up for the free videos and started going through the ones that stuck out to me. I mainly did these 3 videos:
I did these stretches for a few days and decided that I wanted more, and I was sick and tried of searching the net for judo and BJJ specific stuff so I got they yoga for bjj monthly subscription through PayPal. The site is only $ per month which is pretty awesome value considering a casual visit to a gym in Australia is $20 AUD (about $16USD I think) and a yoga class would be close to $30 for one class! So $25 per month sounds pretty good to me.
If you don’t want to sign up for a membership you don’t have to and there are still a ton of videos on the FREE part of the site but I felt like I wanted some longer yoga movements and I wanted to see what other stuff the site contained.
Turns out there is a lot of videos on there. Not as many as my University of Judo, but there is a ton of videos on there.
Sebastian has beginner, intermediate and advanced yoga workouts,
- He has dynamic workouts
- Stretches you can do with a partner
- Strengthening exercises
- Core stability exercises
- Mobility movements
- Joint stability
- Stretches to do with your Belt (which is a great alternative to do before and after practice besides the usual boring stretches we usually do)
The great thing with the routines is that Sebastian talks you through each and every video. He discusses the how and why the technique works and he even does them with you. He also gives you some easier or harder progressions deepening on how flexibility or inflexible you are.
I have been getting into a lot of the lower and middle back specific stretches as well as his overall full body routines. The great thing with this site is there are a range of different videos depending on your ability levels or time restraints.
For example Sebastian has a 5, 10, 20 or 30-minute beginner yoga stuff. So if I have a lot of time on my hands I select the 5 or 10 minute routine, or if I have plenty of time ill either choose the 30 min video or do the 15 minute video twice through.
Sebastian even has some morning routine videos on there. These are 5-10 minutes long and are designed to be done as soon as you get out of bed. These have been great, especially after a hard training session the night before. You now those days where you wake up sore and tight, these morning routines work heaps for that.
Another great thing with the site is that all of the videos on there work on your iphone, ipad and any mobile device you can think of. That’s pretty cool because you can pretty much log in wherever and do one or two of the routines.
Some negatives about the site is that there is no search function or favourite function. It would be great if the site had a search function or tag system on the videos so you could search a particular category such as ‘hip flexibility’ or ‘spine mobility’ but to be honest it isn’t that bad. I just scroll down to the bottom, hit Control F on my keyboard and search a phrase I want. It take me about 10 seconds and it gets the job done.
A favourite button would also be really nice. Although I’m not quite sure how that works because I have been trying to get one on my University of Judo and I don’t know how to do to that either.
All in all the site is awesome if you are looking for ways to get more flexible and stay injury free then I urge you to check out yogaforbjj.net. If you don’t want to fork out the per monthly subscription you don’t have to just try out the free videos. Although I reckon after you do them for a few days you will sign up for the premium service because the gains for me have been great.
