Lower Back Pain? 11-Min Cat-Cow & Recovery for BJJ (10-for-10 #6)

So imagine what we're doing cat-cows kind of up and down, we're now going side to side with that. So I'm going to crunch my left side and shrug my right shoulder away from my right hip. Then I'm crunching my right side and dragging my left shoulder away from my left hip and then switch. And what feels really good here is if your heels match the direction you're turning your head.

So at the moment, I'm stretching my right side and my head's pointing to the left. Now, if I point my heels to the left as well, I feel like I can get more of a stretch. I can do it with my hips too. And then when we switch, head to the right, heels to the right, everything changes there.

So it's like we're windshield wiping with our shins here and it feels really good. We're stretching the kind of sides. You can even exaggerate it, shrug your shoulder up more and switch. Okay, let's add to this now.

So now my heels go over to the left, my head points to the left and my right hand's going to step over my left hand. Take a breath here. Right hand back, heels over, head over, then left hand steps over the right hand and stretch. Let's switch again.

And keep switching. Not sure if you're feeling it too. Hopefully you can even reach it further. So I'm going to go over my left hand, my right hand, my right hand, and stretch it further.

If you're not yet, you should feel it all down, almost your lats, backs of your shoulders and everything here when we start stepping that hand forwards as well. Okay, back to all fours now. So let's combine what we were just doing side to side with cat cows. Okay, it's going to feel weird whilst we kind of coordinate, but once we get that movement, it's going to feel really good.

All right, so start off sending the ribs out to the right and then drop your head, push your chest free your back into the midpoint, then send your ribs out to the left, head over to the right, then drop. Okay, now that I've dropped, send the hips out to the right again, head to the left and go round. Keep going. It's almost like a cement mixer in the middle of the body.

And again, now that we're getting it, we can start to exaggerate those movements even more. So maybe move the heels, maybe move the head more and just see how that feels. See if you can feel it in the backs of your shoulders now. Almost shrug the shoulders forwards, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and back.

Keep going. Two more. Good. Now, let's come back to a flat back.

Okay, we might feel confident going one way, but we've got to go the other way now. Okay, so ribs out to the left, head down, lift the chest free the back, over to the right, and switch. Any movement you can get here, just keep going with it more and more each time. And these are great if you're sore from training.

You can never underestimate a good cat and cow. Good. Let's sit back again, see how that lower back is if it was sore before. We can move from side to side, checking in.

Okay, let's come to cross-legged position now. Nearly said all fours, we were just there. Okay, left hand just past the left hip, my right hand driving up. Before we go over to the side, shrug your right shoulder up to your right ear, so you're already feeling a bit of a stretch here, and then super slow the first time especially.

Send that hand over the opposite hand and stretch here. If your hip's coming up, that's no good. Keep your hip down and stretch. Don't go too deep the first time because we need to come off this, and I want you to feel really good when you do.

Let's come up, super slow, then over to the other side. If you went a bit too far the first time, you might feel that almost a bit crampy there, so just go a bit less this side now. Left hand up, shrug, and then over. Again, don't go to a ten.

Take a breath, keep that hip nice and heavy, then back up, and now over to the other side. Let's go really slow, just flowing here from side to side. If your elbow isn't touching the floor, if you're just going to this point, that's fine too. I want you to feel a stretch for you.

It's irrelevant what kind of stretch I'm getting here, or if you're going further and it feels really good, keep doing you. That's fine. One more each side now that we're getting this. Back up now.

Let's go. This time, my left hand is going to go in the same place, but my right hand is coming up and then forwards and in line with this knee. It's coming in this direction, and you feel that stretch, the right side of the lower back, but just a different place. Reach that hand forwards.

You can even drop your head. Take a breath here, and then creep that hand back, back up, over to the right, left hand up, and then in line with the right knee, creep that forwards, feel that stretch. Good, then back up, open, and down. Nice.

Whilst we're doing this as well, I want you to really circle your hands out now, so open out the chest, and in line with the hip, back up and over. Working the chest as well a little bit, or the shoulders, which is really good. Open up, and over. Good.

Last one, this side, and back up. Good stuff. Now from here, both hands forwards. We've got our legs crossed at the moment.

Both hands forwards, and just start to walk those hands forwards. Or if you're on a slidey surface, slide forwards. Drop your head as well, and just feel a bit of a stretch in the lower back here. And very slowly bring yourself up.

Nice and straight back. Let's go again forwards. Hinging at the hips though, we're not doing this first. We're hinging at the hips.

As soon as you feel that kind of tightness, you stop there, and then everything else can come down. I don't want you to drop your head and your shoulders first. I want them to come last. Let's come back up.

Now we'll switch the crossing of the shins into the weird way, which we never sit like, so it always feels a bit off. And then same thing here. So starting here, hinge at the hips forwards, reaching the hands forwards. Then when that starts to feel tight, everything else can creep down.

Let's take a breath here. And back up. Good stuff. Hands behind you, bend the knees.

Just send the knees from left to right a few times. I know this is hips, but a lot of the time, if you're looking for something because you have a tight back, a lot of the time, the hips can play into that as well. So just get a bit of hip movement in, see how that feels. Good stuff.

And sit yourselves up. Thank you for watching guys. Hope you're enjoying this series. Let me know if you are in the comments and I will see you in the next video.