Most BJJ players tend to focus mainly on strength and conditioning rather than flexibility.
Flexibility is so important in Jiu-Jitsu because it really makes all the vast number of techniques much easier to do (for ex gogoplata, inverted guard etc..). Increasing flexibility is going to help you in your Jiu-Jitsu, especially your guard, speed recovery and can make you less injury prone.
Think of all the extremely flexible BJJ players: BJ Penn, Nino Schembri, Cobrinha, Keenan Cornelius, Roleta, Eddie Bravo, Royler Gracie, Ryan Hall, Michael Langhi etc…What do they all have in common? They have amazing impassable guards and are all very flexible.
You can improve your flexibility by stretching at home or at the gym for just 10 minutes a day.
If you want to take it one step further and also combine breathing, stretching and strength training, you should seriously consider Yoga. 2x BJJ world champion Sebastian Brosche has a very good online resource Yoga for BJJ .
Why should a grappler incorporate Yoga into his or her training regiment and which are the greatest benefits ?
According to Sebastian Brosche:
- Lesser injuries.
- Better breathing [huge!]
- Better use of energy, so you can spar more.
- Moving smoother and quicker.
- Increased flexibility, of course.
- More powerful submissions and being able to hold them much longer.
- Improved balance,base and control from top.
- Your core will get much stronger, and this will help all aspects of your game.
- The number one thing for me is the mental calmness (Keeping Cool) you get from yoga, which is paramount and crucial in a big tournament.
Yoga and jiu-jitsu. The perfect combination. Today we go over some simple hip openers to help your guard and we talk about why you might want to give yoga a try to help your game. Watch a Vinyasa flow style of yoga with Nino Schembri & Kenia Novaes that stresses breathing and movement while increasing core strength and flexibility.
