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.
If you want to take it one step further and also combine breathing, stretching and strength training, you should seriously consider Yoga. BJJ world champion Sebastian Brosche has a very good online resource Yoga for BJJ .
Sign up with Yoga for BJJ USE PROMO CODE “BJJEE TO GET 10% OFF.
Check out this video series from Ryan Hall about how to improve guard flexibility. Hall is know for his extreme flexibility:
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