00:00:00.00 nextlevelguypodcast end, if you just give it a couple of minutes once we stop recording and it uploads your video stream and I can send your video stream to you and you can use it for content and anything you want. 00:00:03.84 Bianca and 00:00:12.07 Bianca Okay. 00:00:12.33 nextlevelguypodcast But if you need a painkiller for your arm, just let me know. That's it. 00:00:16.77 Bianca Okay. Should be fine. 00:00:19.07 nextlevelguypodcast No. Well, and we'll just go into it and then if there's anything you need or any questions, just let me know. But term thank you so much for coming on the show. 00:00:25.32 Bianca Okay. 00:00:28.53 nextlevelguypodcast I've been a big fan of your content now for quite a while. But for people who don't recognize the name and you're going to explode in popularity, how would you define who you are? 00:00:38.43 Bianca ah Thank you. Thanks for inviting me, first of all. 00:00:41.25 nextlevelguypodcast It's... 00:00:41.86 Bianca um And yeah, secondly, well, how would I define? So firstly, I'm yoga teacher. That's my main thing, yoga. And then I'm also a BJJ practitioner. So I managed to combine the two of them somehow. 00:00:57.69 Bianca And yeah, I think this is what defines me. I'm a yoga teacher, which does BJJ. Therefore, I combine the two. So I do yoga for BJJ. So yeah. 00:01:08.56 nextlevelguypodcast And so you're originally from, is it from Romania? 00:01:10.84 Bianca Yeah, am Romanian. Yeah. 00:01:12.52 nextlevelguypodcast So how did you, because in your history of on your website, you mentioned that you train jujitsu now, but you trained judo from about six years old, I think it was, and you were very good. 00:01:18.58 Bianca Yeah. 00:01:23.54 nextlevelguypodcast You were training with Olympians and stuff. 00:01:26.30 Bianca yeah 00:01:26.31 nextlevelguypodcast How did you get into that? Hmm. 00:01:28.67 Bianca My dad. So my dad is a big fan of martial arts. He used to do martial arts himself and lots of other sports. But we also had some other family friends which were already into judo. 00:01:40.72 Bianca I'm not sure, but judo is quite, or it was quite big in Romania when I was little. I'm sure it still is, but... um Yeah, so he sent me to training and I just loved it straight away and honestly just became my personality for a long time. 00:01:57.52 Bianca ah Well, a long time, I think four years. It's not that long really, but it felt long because it was very intense. So I started when I was a kid and yeah, I was quite aggressive. 00:02:10.42 Bianca straight away so I became good quite quickly um then I got noticed and I got asked to join the national Romanian team which luckily was also in my city um So, yeah, this is how I made it there. I started then training. 00:02:31.41 Bianca God, I remember I was training in the morning before school and then I was going to school and then I was coming back to training in the evening and we were training six days week. I only had Sundays off. 00:02:41.26 nextlevelguypodcast ge 00:02:42.51 Bianca And literally, and I was like 13, 14 by this point. So my body literally became to fall apart and eventually I had to... 00:02:53.80 Bianca stop because became too much for me and i felt like I don't know, like we didn't have proper education. and i I think there's a lot of the cases even nowadays, the coaches are just pushing, pushing, pushing. 00:03:10.17 Bianca But where is the recovery? 00:03:10.31 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:03:11.42 Bianca Like the recovery is so important. And now doing yoga and everything, looking back, I'm just, I just feel like this could have been avoided so much with the proper recovery and like the proper, you know, rest and not keep pushing, especially at that age as well. Because yeah, it was, it was just too much. 00:03:30.98 nextlevelguypodcast What did that sort teach you that age, try to deal with school, having a social life, friends, just keeping on top of all like the the normal stuff you do, but juggling, training, nutrition, recovery, you know because that's such a burden. 00:03:37.19 Bianca yeah 00:03:47.41 nextlevelguypodcast What did you learn about yourself during that time? 00:03:51.48 Bianca At that time, because I was so young, I literally, I just started to feel so lonely and so different because none of my friends were, well, only my judo friends were doing the same. 00:04:03.42 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:04:03.49 Bianca But then also most of the um ah girls I was training with, they were quite older than me. So I think... like at least two years older than me so they were already like in high school and it was more flexible for them or I don't know so for me i was just I just became very lonely and i didn't because I was so young I didn't actually have the time for a reflection thinking oh like what does this mean in my life I just I just wanted to run away from it so that I think when I was 14, I was like, okay, I never want to do sport again. 00:04:36.81 Bianca so I just want to be normal. I want to be part of the group. I don't want to have massive back as well as a girl. So... um 00:04:44.51 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, grappling's not the best for staying small, is it? Yeah. 00:04:49.38 Bianca Especially as a girl. And especially when... Because, you know, at that age, the the boys are a little bit smaller than girls anyway. So was like, big, big in comparison to everyone else. 00:05:00.15 Bianca And was like, oh my God, I just feel so odd. And when I decided to quit judo, I just remember hating... hating going to like do sports and stuff like that so for a very long time I didn't do any sports I didn't want to I didn't yeah I was like oh no um so then I got into high school and I actually went to art high school and don't know if it's the same in England but like in Romania it was kind of like Not a competition, but it was you either an artist, either a sport person. 00:05:34.28 Bianca It was like a weird thing, right? 00:05:35.15 nextlevelguypodcast They are. 00:05:35.98 Bianca And then I was obviously an artist, right? Because I was in the art school. So, yeah, sport again was so far out of my side. But then... growing up and having let's say some like mental struggles and just life struggles in general life brought me back to sport and I realized that reflecting back now when I was doing judo was was the happiest in that time because I didn't have time to like think about all the I don't know like issues whatever other stuff so 00:06:10.43 Bianca I think just sport just allows you to be like your real self because you can play. And now I'm an adult, right? 00:06:15.95 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:06:17.37 Bianca And I feel like I can tap into my inner child easier. So, yeah, I think if i'd if I'd be to take a learning from when I was a kid, it's just that sport, it is it is my real personality and what makes me feel the best. 00:06:33.39 Bianca And I actually gave up. art in a way. I mean, I'm still doing creative stuff, obviously, on my Instagram. That's what keeps me creative, but drawing and all of these things. I, for a long time, I thought that's my personality, but yeah, I was wrong, I'd say. 00:06:49.74 Bianca I think it's poor. 00:06:49.85 nextlevelguypodcast I think that's the thing when you're younger, isn't it? We say to kids, pick this, pick that. you know you You can't choose both. Then as you get older, you realise you could have a sporty side, a creative side, a You know, you can have various parts of you. You don't have to define yourself. 00:07:07.94 nextlevelguypodcast And it's a lot of pressure to put on somebody young. 00:07:08.71 Bianca Yeah. Yeah. 00:07:10.50 nextlevelguypodcast And especially, you know, when you're you're maybe struggling at the time to fit in and somebody says, to yeah, you want to step out? Most kids are going to step away. but you said on your your website that you step, you know, your initial recovery methods were really bad when you were doing judo. 00:07:20.87 Bianca Yeah. 00:07:28.02 nextlevelguypodcast What were they teaching you at that point about recovery? Did they really focus on it or was it a case of just go away, eat and come back at eight o'clock? 00:07:33.15 Bianca Oh. 00:07:36.65 Bianca No, no. 00:07:36.95 nextlevelguypodcast Was it anything? 00:07:38.83 Bianca Honestly, not even eat. Like, it was so bad because I i was competing very often. when I think about it, I'm like, how is that even possible? But, like, I remember I was doing, not cut, because you don't when you're a kid, you don't cut properly. 00:07:51.19 Bianca But, like, I was constantly kind of dieting. 00:07:52.22 nextlevelguypodcast Hmm. 00:07:54.93 Bianca So I do the lower um category in weight. And, like I said, I was, like, 13 and stuff like that. So, yeah, they encourage you to go on a lower category in weight. 00:08:06.86 Bianca Or at least that's how it was like a few years ago. Obviously now it's been like so long. Maybe people go a bit more... 00:08:11.53 nextlevelguypodcast It's kind of exploded about now. Yeah. 00:08:14.76 Bianca Yeah, we didn't have all this like internet and social media to educate ourselves so easily. But yeah, and then in terms of the recovery, was like just nothing. 00:08:25.94 Bianca Like you had a day off, that's it. That's your recovery. I remember I actually started to develop scoliosis because in judo, you know, you do like lots of things and it's very explosive as well. 00:08:37.11 Bianca So if you do lots of explosive movement on one side, it like your spine is naturally going to start kind of going to that direction. 00:08:43.93 nextlevelguypodcast Oh, because you start twisting into the throws and... 00:08:45.98 Bianca Yeah. And I was going, going, going for it. And then I started to have really bad back pain. And we actually had physio in the team. And he was trying to give me some exercises. But to be fair, because I was so young, I was like, like this is so boring. It's so slow. 00:09:03.29 Bianca So he told me, but it's not like, yeah, it wasn't, I don't know, he wasn't there with me to hold my hand the whole journey, I guess. So... Yeah, that's why I didn't even really do them. 00:09:15.71 Bianca So that was my fault as well. 00:09:17.86 nextlevelguypodcast I think that's the thing, isn't it? is's like You see your life as as like you're young. you know You're thinking about school. You're thinking about friends. You're thinking about stuff that's happening. 00:09:28.64 nextlevelguypodcast You're not thinking of what you're going to be like at 40, 50, 60. 00:09:31.66 Bianca Yeah, no. 00:09:32.46 nextlevelguypodcast So you don't think longevity when you're that age because you can do it and then jump back in and do something else the next day. 00:09:35.64 Bianca No. yeah 00:09:40.01 nextlevelguypodcast Whereas if you're like me, you feel out of shape just thinking about going and training. 00:09:45.41 Bianca Yeah, but the the thing is, I feel like not even people my age, and I'm 28, I feel like not even people in my age are thinking about longevity because you still feel good at 20, even 30, 30, I don't know, 5, I guess. 00:09:45.44 nextlevelguypodcast I think... 00:09:56.95 Bianca You feel quite like fresh, so you just don't think about your 50s and even 60s, 70s. It just seems so far away. 00:10:05.33 nextlevelguypodcast I mean, I'm 42 now, and I just, whenever I think back, um my brain says, yes, my body kind of goes, okay, let's think about this. 00:10:13.87 Bianca and 00:10:14.54 nextlevelguypodcast so You know, with a bit more warm up, with a bit more cool down, with bit more of a kind of structured approach, you can still train. You just have to be trained smarter, not harder, as they say. 00:10:21.29 Bianca Yeah. 00:10:23.89 Bianca Yeah. Yeah. 00:10:24.84 nextlevelguypodcast Was that what led you into judo? From judo, sorry, into BJJ, that you liked the sport more, but also led you into yoga, that you needed a recovery tool? 00:10:38.34 Bianca So, like I said, I completely gave up sport when I was in high school and after 14 years old. 00:10:42.07 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:10:44.96 Bianca And think it was in around... I started going to the gym because I was like, oh, I just want to look, I want to have abs, right? That's how was like, okay. 00:10:54.72 nextlevelguypodcast Don't we all? 00:10:56.08 Bianca Exactly. That's why I wanted to go to the gym. So I started going to the gym and then eventually I got hooked because I loved the feeling that it gave me. um At this point, I wasn't doing anything else. 00:11:07.42 Bianca I tried yoga. Actually, I tried yoga when I was 18 once and I was like, oh, like, this is horrible. Like, i don't like it. It's so funny. 00:11:14.55 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, going to make a career out of this. 00:11:15.03 Bianca Yeah. Yeah, exactly. ah This is like so confusing, right? Everything is so hard. um Anyway, so then I went to the gym a few years. 00:11:25.31 Bianca I think after about two years of starting my gym journey, was like, OK, like, I think I need to start stretching. So I remember coming from the gym and... 00:11:37.10 Bianca Actually, at the same time, I was in quite a bad period of my life. So living in Bournemouth, I recently would have just moved there. And I didn't know anyone. I had a job, which was part-time, which I didn't really like and stuff that. 00:11:50.80 Bianca So yeah, I was going to the gym and came home and was like, okay, let me just try some yoga to do some, to stretch. Because that's all I knew about yoga back then. And this is how I kind of got into it. 00:12:02.76 Bianca So I did a few classes and then I remember one class. It was so nice. Like I just been to the gym and then I came home. I did a class and at the end of the class, it was Shavasana. 00:12:14.14 Bianca And the lady was actually Boho Beautiful. I used to do it with and I still do on YouTube. um She was guiding through like a meditation It was so powerful, honestly. I think it was the first time when I realized... It kind of like it opened the door. like I think it was the first time I realized there's more than this body. 00:12:35.78 nextlevelguypodcast yeah 00:12:36.66 Bianca So I managed to access my inner self and my inner world. And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. So I continued to use the meditation and dive deeper into yoga because of my... 00:12:51.47 Bianca mental health situation and stuff like that back then and then I just fell in love with the physical part of course and then I discovered all these like advanced poses and I had really a lot of fun with them but then through them I realized you can go so much deeper into the mental side of things and the spirit so Yeah, this how I became hooked. 00:13:11.12 Bianca And then in parallel, 00:13:15.45 Bianca because I started to get back into movement, I started to really crave judo. Because I started to tap into this inner child, right? So I like, but it be would wouldn't need be so nice to do a sport like I used to do because I remember i used to have so much fun and um eventually yeah I just joined BJJ class because that was very close to judo. 00:13:43.88 Bianca I like to say that judo is you start with judo and then you finish with BJJ, right? So... Yeah, I just, yeah, and I just fell in love with it straight away because felt quite natural in my body and I could get the moves. 00:14:00.57 Bianca Well, up to specific percentage, but yeah. 00:14:06.17 nextlevelguypodcast And you find that sort of the cross training help that doing the judo gave you that good grounding that it kind of almost felt felt natural that at least the stand up game and you kind of understood the mechanics of levers and throw points and all that kind of stuff. 00:14:11.63 Bianca Yeah. 00:14:14.47 Bianca Yeah. 00:14:20.27 Bianca Yeah. 00:14:22.85 nextlevelguypodcast Did you pick it up quite quickly at the time? 00:14:22.99 Bianca Yeah, I think so, yeah, to be fair. I mean, comparing to other people that joined at the same time, I would say it's because I was already firstly used to the aggression from judo. 00:14:35.32 Bianca Like, I'm not scared. No, honestly, I'm not scared to be like dragged around, right? Or to drag people around. So that was one. And then secondly, I'm used to the gi because I started in a gi. 00:14:46.86 Bianca Of course, judo is in a gi. So that was quite familiar. Everything felt familiar to me. And then in judo, you also do lots of groundwork anyway. So of course you don't submit, but you do. 00:14:59.99 Bianca even competed in only ground judo competitions, if that makes sense. I don't know. You just hold the person down for like specific amount of time and then this is how you mean. But yeah, so for that reason, grappling felt natural to me. 00:15:15.60 Bianca And then, yeah, I just had to learn. what actually BGJ means so like all the positioning and the more the theory side of things yeah yeah sure 00:15:24.70 nextlevelguypodcast Because that's the thing, isn't it? They say it's the gentle art, and you're literally beating the crap out of each other. And then you shake hands at the end, and you know yeah you appreciate the the the combat of And I suppose it's the closest a lot of us get to like wars and like proper fighting and stuff. 00:15:40.99 nextlevelguypodcast And it's something that we it helps us like cognitively as well as you know physically. 00:15:41.05 Bianca yeah to be fair 00:15:46.24 nextlevelguypodcast But did you start noticing when the people you trained with were coming into it, not having a clue about how to recover, not able to figure out how to help their body? Did you see them getting nagging injuries? 00:16:00.11 Bianca Oh my god. 00:16:00.18 nextlevelguypodcast what was the Did you see the same problems you that you saw in judo? 00:16:04.30 Bianca Yeah, even worse, of course, because you're older, so your body a bit more stiff naturally. And then also, if you're not coming from a sports background, then you start BGJ, your body is not athletic and is weak, so you're going to get injured. 00:16:17.16 Bianca And to be fair, I'm saying that, but I was in the same boat, because at this point, when I started BGJ, I was already practicing yoga, but I wasn't like, oh my god, like, I'm such a yoga girl, like, 00:16:27.95 Bianca doing it properly I was just doing classes every now and then and like doing stretch there and then meditation so I was kind of combining the different aspects of yoga in my literally everything in the first six months right and then I was like I know actually yeah because I had my back injury so I started to develop herniated disc I was like okay I think this is the calling for to get to get back into yoga properly so I started to do yoga again properly and yeah eventually my herniated disc got started to get better and then I start I could carry on with training jiu-jitsu as well and I was like wait a second there's like 00:17:22.92 Bianca these two things like they just go hand in hand like you can't I mean you can don't know how people can but I feel like in my view you can't do one without like you shouldn't do one without the other so yeah and then I actually it was a coincidence but at this point I found online some people they were doing have you heard of buddhokan yoga 00:17:44.71 nextlevelguypodcast heard of it. I've never said, don't think I can think of what it looks like. 00:17:48.30 Bianca it's like the Buttockon yoga is like the mixture of martial arts movement with calisthenics, with, of course, yoga, and it's basically all into ah yoga. It's like a new type of yoga, let's say. 00:18:01.66 Bianca um Yeah, and then I discovered this. Actually, that explains better, Budokon is called like the warrior yoga or like the way of the warrior if you translate it word by word. 00:18:13.42 Bianca Anyway, and yeah, I discovered this person and I was like, oh, wow, these things actually exist already. So... Okay, so I'm going to dive deeper into this. 00:18:24.96 Bianca And around that time, I decided to actually get qualified as a yoga teacher. So I started to take my yoga very seriously at this time, of course, in parallel training BJJ. 00:18:35.40 Bianca So this is how they kind of grew together. 00:18:39.99 nextlevelguypodcast So what is it about that? Because something I really like about your your content, like on your TikTok, et cetera, is you'll show a video and you'll say, well, you don't like yoga much, he's jiu-jitsu. 00:18:52.35 nextlevelguypodcast And you'll show a position that you hold in yoga and how it could be part of side control or how it helps your triangles or whatever. 00:18:57.85 Bianca Yeah, literally. 00:19:00.73 Bianca yeah li 00:19:00.95 nextlevelguypodcast how would How do yoga... how do they go hand in hand with jujitsu? What is it you think that they just ah they help each other ah develop? 00:19:10.79 Bianca I just... Do you know that you know that meme which says BGJ is just involuntary yoga? I think that just explains the best. 00:19:18.58 nextlevelguypodcast ah but Like folding people with their clothes on. Yes. 00:19:22.55 Bianca Yeah, right? So if you know going get folded in a specific position, why don't you just fold yourself and get comfortable there? And then from there, you're going to have more options to control, move, right? 00:19:34.33 nextlevelguypodcast Fair point. That's 00:19:36.28 Bianca So this is this is my view, honestly, like... Yeah, when you get... I think the best example for me that I always like to give is when you get stuck in, like, a stuck position. Honestly, people... lot of people are really struggling there because you can't breathe. 00:19:48.57 Bianca Your back is so tense. Like, you can't... You just can't get in that position. But if you do, if you manage to stay there comfortably, then... honestly you're just so much in a better position in jiu-jitsu because you can actually do lots of stuff from there so you make it a lot harder breathing breath can't like to be fair if you can be a black belt but if you can't breathe properly 00:20:26.88 Bianca you can't really do much can you so and of course if you're a black belt you will learn anyway because in that amount of years you'll just develop yeah there's a shortcut you know and I think that's what yoga is 00:20:28.50 nextlevelguypodcast no 00:20:41.26 nextlevelguypodcast suppose that's the thing into it's it's using breath to move yourself your body through into certain positions and get comfortable and ah isometric holds and all that and it's there's such a similarity to jiu-jitsu except to somebody's tried choki out at the same at the same time at least with yoga you can kind of control it easy if you really want but how do you see like when somebody starts doing both 00:20:55.16 Bianca yeah 00:20:58.69 Bianca ah Yeah. 00:21:02.11 Bianca yeah 00:21:05.83 nextlevelguypodcast What do you notice about somebody? Is it the fact that a bit more they've got a bit more mobility? Is it that they they can just move a bit better, go to deeper into guards and things like that? 00:21:16.69 nextlevelguypodcast What kind of signs do you start seeing when somebody's doing yoga and jiu-jitsu at the same time? 00:21:22.49 Bianca Actually, I have a friend at one of the clubs. She does yoga as well. And she's a white belt. And honestly, I find it so hard to roll with her because she is just so, she moves so easily. is It's quite hard for me to get to stabilize the position because she's just too mobile, flexible. 00:21:41.76 Bianca I think that's the main point. 00:21:48.09 nextlevelguypodcast I like it because I've ah watched a lot of your videos and you can see how your yoga is used to improve your flexibility or improve your your position, but it's still a dogfight. 00:22:02.23 nextlevelguypodcast you know you It gives you that like the secret code. like It lets you level up your jujitsu plane. 00:22:07.92 Bianca Yeah. 00:22:09.22 nextlevelguypodcast And it's like you said earlier, why wouldn't you learn how to get your body into better positions or breathe through when you're getting stuck in the most uncomfortable, know, get comfortable in the uncomfortable positions. 00:22:09.51 Bianca Yeah. 00:22:20.69 nextlevelguypodcast But how how much do you need to get into yoga 00:22:20.90 Bianca Yeah. 00:22:24.24 nextlevelguypodcast to get better with jiu-jitsu do i need to understand the the what do you call it like the belief behind it the the the all the sort of spiritual side of it you know if somebody kind of says oh yoga is a bit it's a bit out there for me but you showing it can be applied to the martial art what would you say to somebody that's been an idiot like that 00:22:50.19 Bianca I think you don't need to go into the spiritual side of things you just need to be aware that you're not just a physical body like if you have this blockage then yeah you can just do like I don't know go to the gym and do mobility exercises and stuff like that which it's going to help but if you want to deeper you just need to realize that there is more to you and also uh bjj some martial arts are actually deeper than just like the physical side of things because it teaches you so much more about like all the respect the discipline so like all of these things come from within and when you're talking about yoga this is what it works on so 00:23:30.62 Bianca we say your yoga is not a workout it's a work in first of all so that's that's how it is it focuses it comes everything the strength the power comes from within rather than i'm practicing my muscles you know again i'm not saying like because i go to the gym as well so of course it's good to practice the muscles as well but yoga is just a different type of um of practice yoga is a philosophy as well so it just goes a little bit deeper and yeah you don't need to go spiritual you just need to the minimum just practice being aware of the body while you like while you do the class just being aware of the body being aware of the breath and then being aware of the body that's that's all and you're gonna you're gonna improve in your martial arts in your everyday life and as a person in general 00:24:19.81 nextlevelguypodcast No, I love it I mean, it's a fair point. I mean, it's like, why would you leave potential gains on the table? You know, yeah you can get better and move better, but you also, like you're saying, is it can actually let you find out who the real you is, the real your your real PowerPoint. 00:24:30.45 Bianca Exactly. 00:24:35.10 Bianca um exactly and 00:24:37.07 nextlevelguypodcast And I think that's the thing is, why why wouldn't you do that? So do you encompass, um like, mindfulness, meditation, In addition to your jiu-jitsu and your yoga, you know do you journal? Do you use visualization? 00:24:51.68 nextlevelguypodcast What do you do for the cognitive side of things? Okay. 00:24:54.66 Bianca Everything, literally. i I try everything. So I meditate every morning and I do sleep hypnosis every night. 00:25:05.81 nextlevelguypodcast Okay. 00:25:06.93 Bianca And then depending on how I'm feeling in my life, I do journal if I feel like I need to. I do lots of other things. Sometimes I do like the tapping. I don't if you heard about it. 00:25:18.24 nextlevelguypodcast Oh, like emotional freedom technique where you tap the... 00:25:20.50 Bianca Yeah, yeah. 00:25:21.60 nextlevelguypodcast Okay. 00:25:22.95 Bianca Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I used to do lots of other things like kinesiology, all of So because I so this spiritual side also started because I also had an autoimmune disease and it was quite bad. 00:25:41.06 Bianca And I went to the doctors, many doctors, they said, no, we can't solve it. really aggravating it. So I had no solution really from the doctors. 00:25:52.20 Bianca So then I got to the conclusion, like I was just thinking in my head, I was like, if my brain, because autoimmune disease is something that is created by your brain, really, like your because your body just attacks yourself, right? 00:26:04.11 Bianca Your immune system just attacks yourself. 00:26:07.28 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:26:08.00 Bianca So I'm like, well, if my brain decided to do that, then surely I can teach my brain to reverse that, right? So this is how I got really, really deep into meditation and all these practices, just by trying to... 00:26:26.06 Bianca to heal this autoimmune disease and it took me two years but i did heal it actually and yeah they said it's not possible and and to anyone that are listening and they're struggling with any skin disease or anything it is possible it just takes a lot of work and a lot of a lot of strength mental strength so yeah 00:26:45.75 nextlevelguypodcast ah I mean, there is there's been a lot of thought into you know these kind of like our mental health, and the stuff we have in the atmosphere, the foods we eat, how we take off the plastic containers and all this kind of stuff and and how we can fix ourselves by removing the garbage in our minds and and our bodies. 00:26:58.27 Bianca Yeah. Yeah. i 00:27:06.62 nextlevelguypodcast And there's a lot to be said about just by fixing your brain and your gut health to fix your body. 00:27:13.96 Bianca yeah Yeah, it's really hard because you need to just unlearn everything you learned your whole life and then pick how you want to live. 00:27:14.14 nextlevelguypodcast And 00:27:20.50 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:27:23.82 Bianca How do you really want to live your life? Do you want to keep consuming these, I don't know, foods or whatever? Do you want to... keep applying those products, like you need to question everything, or at least that was my journey. 00:27:37.28 Bianca So I had to question even like my makeup products, my shampoo and everything. I realized everything had chemicals that might have affected my skin and all of these things. 00:27:47.49 Bianca So I had to eliminate everything, literally. everything like you said plastic and stuff and then incorporate lots of self-care mindfulness meditation slowing down because we're always in a fight or flight mood constantly right we're just trying to get there we're just trying to don't know 00:27:51.43 nextlevelguypodcast No. 00:28:06.80 Bianca solve things, make more money I don't know always tasks right and yeah it doesn't work like that because we need we need that side of us of course but we need the slowing down side we need the balance otherwise we're not going to function properly and this is how we get out of balance 00:28:25.58 nextlevelguypodcast Because I think that would help so many people just listening if they just said, take all the crap out, slowly add it back in to see what works and what doesn't, add in the self-care, do some visualization. 00:28:32.71 Bianca yeah 00:28:38.79 nextlevelguypodcast you know and It would help them find their version of their true true power, like you did when you you did the mindfulness. But 00:28:45.39 Bianca oh 00:28:45.51 nextlevelguypodcast You were saying there about balance. 00:28:46.36 Bianca yeah 00:28:47.34 nextlevelguypodcast You know, if I said to you just now, you've got to do a class in the morning, you've got to teach people, you are doing your jiu-jitsu class yourself, and you're going off to get your latest tattoo, and you're doing this, and you're doing that... 00:29:00.87 Bianca Yeah, okay. 00:29:02.04 nextlevelguypodcast How do you balance that? i mean, how do you put in strength training, senior friends, um doing your yoga? 00:29:06.40 Bianca and 00:29:10.19 nextlevelguypodcast i you know i know you can probably do short of shorter relaxing yoga and maybe a 10-minute warm-up before class or whatever, but how how do you balance that? Do you do, like, jiu-jitsu twice a week and the rest of the week you're doing yoga? 00:29:26.05 nextlevelguypodcast Do you incorporate them together? How how do you build up that yoga in? 00:29:30.36 Bianca yeah So I think it's all to do with discipline and well-structured calendar, which is also discipline. So I literally have everything in my calendar, like time with friends, cook meals, literally everything. 00:29:45.98 nextlevelguypodcast Okay. 00:29:45.99 Bianca And I try to follow it as much as I can. This is how I can, because I also have a full-time job. So yeah, I... I know my working in the office days are just set. 00:29:57.51 Bianca I know what my schedule is and then my classes are the same. So basically my week is the same because my Jiu-Jitsu classes are at the same time, the same day. So like, yeah, I do BJJ like twice or three times a week and then I go to the gym in the mornings. 00:30:12.45 Bianca twice a week um I practice yoga like Fridays or during the weekend and then I also do my around my training so the classes I teach I mean so yeah he's just I am ah when I'm talking like yeah I am I know I'm talking about balance you know I could say I'm a bit too much at the moment so I am trying to find a better balance in my life but 00:30:25.73 nextlevelguypodcast Well. 00:30:37.85 Bianca I have my tools and I think having the weekend to kind of slow down a bit. I think I also have ADHD. So I think that's a good thing for me because it allows me to do all of these things because I have lots of energy. 00:30:50.02 nextlevelguypodcast No, I mean, it but it makes it makes a lot of sense of having the structure during the week and then having specific times to do stuff because I think we all do that, don't we? 00:30:54.40 Bianca ah 00:30:58.02 nextlevelguypodcast I'll do that later. And then three days three weeks later, you're like, oh, shite, what was it i was to do? 00:30:59.94 Bianca Yeah. 00:31:03.62 nextlevelguypodcast But then you also have the weekend to kind of just let yourself be, you know, i suppose it's like jujitsu. 00:31:08.80 Bianca Yeah, and... 00:31:09.85 nextlevelguypodcast You know, you have the training version of you and then you have the creative version, the the one that goes and gets tattoos and all this kind of fun stuff. 00:31:14.36 Bianca Yeah. 00:31:16.88 Bianca Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and the thing is, is all... is Because people ask me, oh, how do you have time to do all of this? But it's not about... Because we have so much time. It's all about prioritizing rights. 00:31:28.21 Bianca So priorities, right? 00:31:28.40 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:31:29.65 Bianca What is priority for you? Is it training? Is it... work? Is it working on your business or is it watching the series and relaxing? Because that's fine, you know, but it's just you need to recognize that be aware the fact that you can choose and be aware of your priorities as well. 00:31:46.34 nextlevelguypodcast It's a very fair point. And to to to know or understand that at such a young age, yeah know there's adults that still don't, you know, and they go to their deathbeds wishing they'd done more. 00:31:57.22 nextlevelguypodcast But if they pick 00:31:57.46 Bianca I know and it's hard, yeah. It's hard because It's hard to get out of your comfort zone. Yeah, it just, especially with so many temptation nowadays and like the social media and stuff is very hard, but then also is the easiest it's ever been for us because we have access to so much information. 00:32:16.90 Bianca We have access to so much support and we have access to so much, like, I don't know, tools, you know, to help us get productive, such as and stuff like that. 00:32:17.10 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:32:27.61 Bianca So pick your heart. 00:32:30.47 nextlevelguypodcast Well, mean, that's the thing, though. It's like you have some amazing products. You know, you're doing like online classes. yeah You're pulling out like a, how would we say it, like a participation product where people can do your different programs. And, you know, you're doing like so almost like online coaching and stuff. 00:32:49.82 nextlevelguypodcast How do you find that? Like, you know, how did you find the skills, the the mentor, et cetera, to create a business as well as a full-time job? mean, I'm just running a podcast in addition to a full-time job. 00:33:01.69 nextlevelguypodcast you're You're creating it and you're building a ah very big reputation. How have you found that entrepreneur to training, to coach, to yogi, to just you being you? 00:33:16.16 Bianca I think I'm just... To be fair, I'm not doing anything apart from just following what I like to do. So basically, I'm just following my passion. 00:33:25.59 nextlevelguypodcast I like it. 00:33:27.78 Bianca Yeah, yeah, because I really love training BJJ and I genuinely love doing yoga, but genuinely love teaching. It just makes me feel so fulfilled when I know I can help people in a real way and just make a difference. 00:33:42.12 Bianca So just following that, the rest just comes. And I'm not saying it's easy because it's not at all. Like, honestly, I get burned on a day, on a weekly basis. And unsure about where I'm going, if I'm doing the right things. 00:33:55.18 Bianca And I don't really have, like, a mentor or anything like that. I'm just guessing if it's the right thing to do. But the thing is, we just need to do it anyway because this is the way we find out. 00:34:06.77 Bianca Like, if I wouldn't do anything, I wouldn't know, right? So I'm just testing things out and... keeping my eyes and ears open to what people say and the feedback and just trying to take that on board. 00:34:18.53 Bianca So, yeah. 00:34:20.72 nextlevelguypodcast so But what's the best way to start learning yoga? I mean, just two minutes in into watching your videos, you realize the the joy, the fun, but also the amazing correlation between becoming better at jiu-jitsu by doing yoga. 00:34:25.83 Bianca Hmm. 00:34:36.69 nextlevelguypodcast But should we start in the general kind of yoga stuff? 00:34:37.17 Bianca Hmm. 00:34:40.32 nextlevelguypodcast do we Should we start looking for how we can find similar movements in yoga that we can use in jiu-jitsu? What would you advise people? 00:34:48.73 Bianca I mean, it's so um different from a person to person because some people like me would get into yoga just through like stretching and like the physical part of things. 00:35:00.93 Bianca But some people would actually get into yoga through like a lot of people I know. They go into yoga discovering meditation first and then introducing the physical practice. 00:35:10.05 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:35:10.17 Bianca So it depends. But I think the easiest way is just to go on YouTube and just... test that's what you like do a 10 minutes class and see how it is do uh 10 minutes meditation and see how it is but yeah when it comes to bgj i think again it's just probably it will probably be the physical practice right so i think just trying from youtube or just trying some stretches see how it feels into your body and uh taking from there of course you can go to in-person classes I think that would be really good but I think lot of people are intimidated to do that so that's what I'm saying yeah 00:35:48.63 nextlevelguypodcast I mean, they could then do an online class with you. They could buy your product. Because I think that's the thing is on your site, you've got a bit about how would you like, you know, you you're you're looking at creating maybe specialist techniques patterns for people to try. 00:36:04.01 nextlevelguypodcast And I think that's the beauty is we can order stuff now to do at home. 00:36:05.30 Bianca yeah 00:36:08.58 nextlevelguypodcast You know, it's no longer you have to go to a class, you have to go to a center. 00:36:12.67 Bianca Yeah, of course. 00:36:12.86 nextlevelguypodcast we can We can connect with you and pay you to show us how to do it in the privacy privacy of our own home, which is amazing. 00:36:19.76 Bianca yeah so I have, um yeah, so on my website at the moment, actually created, I think few weeks ago, three weeks ago, I launched this program, which was for beginners, because a lot of my audience are actually beginners. 00:36:20.15 nextlevelguypodcast How... 00:36:33.78 Bianca So it's for beginners, specializes in yoga for BJJ, and it covers all aspects of, not all aspects of yoga, but It covers the mobility, flexibility and the recovery side of things. 00:36:46.98 Bianca And like I said, it's made for beginners. So that would be like a really great way to start because it's quite basic moves. But because it's tailored after Jiu Jitsu is a bit like it will probably give you a little bit of a challenge, but not too much. So you feel like you can't do anything. 00:37:04.63 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:37:04.73 Bianca So, yeah, I think, yeah, if you if you're looking for something like that, that'd be a great way to start. 00:37:10.20 nextlevelguypodcast Because what I do love about your your social media, for example, is there's things like we all struggle with, even if you don't do a martial arts, you know, like you've tight shoulders, a sore back, tight hips, and just your little kind of routines about what to do if your shoulders are tight. 00:37:22.39 Bianca yeah 00:37:29.06 Bianca yeah 00:37:29.33 nextlevelguypodcast mean, I've got a shoulder impingement just now, and that benefited me so much. Just doing some of the movements, I was like, this is amazing. 00:37:34.09 Bianca I'll get to hear yeah 00:37:36.83 nextlevelguypodcast And then I remember when I had tweaked my back, I can't remember what it was. I basically had a big guy land on me, and I was killing for days. 00:37:44.53 Bianca I'll 00:37:45.67 nextlevelguypodcast And i't thinking, I wish I'd known that you know yeah some of the... the back loosers and all that you use. 00:37:52.80 Bianca Like the routine, yeah. Yeah. 00:37:54.38 nextlevelguypodcast And I think that's the problem is we we assume yoga is easy. It's not. I mean, there's a lot of isometric holding. There's a lot of very kind of difficult transitions and stuff like that. 00:38:03.06 Bianca Yeah. 00:38:05.49 nextlevelguypodcast As we're starting, do you want somebody new to just go through the movement without pain? 00:38:05.92 Bianca yeah 00:38:11.86 nextlevelguypodcast Do you want them to be slowly and build the technique? What would you want a newbie to focus on? 00:38:19.14 Bianca again it's different it's different from a person to a person because someone might come to a class wanting to or maybe like having like a lingering um injury you know and they just want kind of like get rid of it or like increase the mobility and stuff like that someone would just want to come to prevent anything so like you said earlier like you're you think because you're 40 42 did you say 00:38:42.09 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, it's horrible to think about, yes. 00:38:43.66 Bianca because Sorry to remind you. 00:38:47.37 nextlevelguypodcast yeah 00:38:47.64 Bianca um Yeah, because you're 42. 00:38:48.64 nextlevelguypodcast No, I'm 24, sorry. 00:38:49.35 Bianca Okay. 00:38:53.20 nextlevelguypodcast i can hope 00:38:53.22 Bianca But yeah, anyway. Yeah, sometimes it's, you're just thinking about that longevity and like later years. And then some people actually start yoga for that reason, because they want to feel better for a longer time. 00:39:06.69 Bianca Some people start yoga because they already have issues. Some people start yoga just because they're stiff. And, you know, so it depends of each person's need in particular. 00:39:18.27 Bianca But I think generally just go into it with an open mind. Because like I said, when I started yoga and when I did my first class, I didn't like it. So it might be quite confusing or it might seem either too... 00:39:33.76 Bianca too easy or just too slow something but just go within it with an open mind and just try more than once like go slow breathe yeah 00:39:44.25 nextlevelguypodcast Because that's what I was going to ask is like, how do you breathe through yoga? Because a lot of people, when we're weightlifting, when we're doing lot of sports, we hold our breath because you're so focused, you forget to kind of concentrate on letting your breath out. 00:39:57.01 Bianca yeah just think 00:39:59.42 nextlevelguypodcast How should you breathe? 00:39:59.74 Bianca Well, yeah, that's what we do in yoga. 00:40:03.66 Bianca So we basically, a good way to practice this is one breath, one movement. So for example, in yoga, we do like inhale, reach your hands up and then exhale, release it down. 00:40:18.18 Bianca Inhale, exhale. do something else exhale something else know what so every movement has breath so that's a really good way and then in yoga we don't we don't focus on the movement first we focus on the breathing first so when i cue i cue the breathing first if that makes sense and then by practicing that you're literally going to take that with you in real life so if i'm in bjj if i'm like rolling with someone i can actually listen to the person's breath and know if they're 00:40:24.97 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:40:49.99 Bianca close to tapping or if they're tired or I just I just feel 00:41:05.28 nextlevelguypodcast I suppose it makes you a better jujitsu for your subs, you know, because you're kind of realizing you're almost like an anaconda where your chokes, you know, you realize as they struggle, as they breathe out, you know, what to pull it tighter and yeah. 00:41:17.54 Bianca Yeah, you just know how long is left, like you know. 00:41:19.88 nextlevelguypodcast yeah 00:41:22.71 Bianca the Yeah. 00:41:22.74 nextlevelguypodcast its it because that that's a scary thing and it's like these like medical guys doing jujitsu they know like which way to push something because it's not meant to go that way to get the tap and so when we start should we be it's all is a full body process should you be looking at doing a hip one then our ankle movement one know should we break it down into 00:41:31.35 Bianca and oh yeah 00:41:47.02 nextlevelguypodcast stabilization versus ah opening versus, you know, kind of just flexibility? Or should we just do an all body thing? Or does it depend on what you want and what you need in your history of injuries? 00:42:00.49 Bianca Again, it depends. So it depends because some people come to me and they're just like, oh my God, I really need some yoga because I have really tight hips. And I'm like, okay, in that case, we're going to work on hip mobility, hip flexibility. 00:42:11.73 Bianca And then of course, all the time, every time we're going to work on body awareness as well. So that just comes. 00:42:17.59 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:42:17.85 Bianca But there is, so body awareness and breath just... is there all the time when it comes to yoga. But then you can bring the focus in different areas. So like I said, maybe like hip mobility. To be fair, mobility in general just should be part of the training anyway. 00:42:32.54 Bianca So mobility is the base of the movement and you just, yeah, it's non-negotiable. So you just need to do that anyway. But then again, like I said, there are focuses where you can practice more. 00:42:45.87 nextlevelguypodcast but that's the thingtake it You look at what you want out of it to what you challenge. 00:42:48.80 Bianca Yeah, exactly. 00:42:51.13 nextlevelguypodcast How long should you be holding positions for? you know Should you just go through movements and go from one to the next? Should you hold it? What's the the best return for it? 00:43:02.32 nextlevelguypodcast yeah like Say if you go into a transition that like where you go a push up and you do a Hindu push up and you push your head up. Should you hold it at the top or go straight into the next movement? What's the best kind of approach? 00:43:15.99 Bianca Sorry, do you mean like when you go when you do yoga? 00:43:19.81 nextlevelguypodcast Oh, sorry. Yeah, for yoga. what What's the best kind of thing? Should you just go from movement to movement to movement through a pattern or should you hold? 00:43:26.69 Bianca So it depends again Again, it depends because, we're stretching, right? It's holding, you just need to hold it for a bit longer. So I would say, I always like to say minimum five long breaths. 00:43:40.15 Bianca So when you think about the time, I mean, when you think about how long to hold the pose, again, don't think about the time, think about the breath. That's another way to exercise your breathing. 00:43:47.92 nextlevelguypodcast ah love that. 00:43:49.20 Bianca Yeah. So if you do like a forward fold or something, just count your breath. and I like to do minimum 5 long breaths if you want to practice your mobility then there's no holding because you're practicing your range of motion so we're moving again it depends so if you're doing like a vinyasa flow that's going to be one breath one movement so each you're not holding any pose but if you're doing like a hatha class 00:44:03.32 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:44:16.72 Bianca you hold each, not each pose, but most of the poses, you hold them for longer. So maybe like 10, 20 seconds. So like, again, five to 10 breaths. 00:44:30.38 Bianca Yeah, is that, does it answer your question? 00:44:33.34 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because I like that idea of focusing on the breath because then it removes you from thinking of the struggle. you know youre You're thinking on the breathing, but you're focusing, you're centering yourself on one specific thing. 00:44:42.56 Bianca Yeah. and 00:44:46.82 Bianca Yeah. 00:44:47.80 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, really like that idea of 00:44:48.47 Bianca And then again, I'm going to take this example with like when you're in the stuck position. So, you know, in so like in yoga, we call that position the plow pose. 00:44:59.82 Bianca So that, for example, in order to get comfortable here, you just need to hold it for, don't know, at least... I would say 20 seconds, something like that. 00:45:09.28 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:45:09.59 Bianca So you just need to, yeah, because for example, we do cool down at the gym. I train BJJ and then we do in the cool part of the cool down. We do that position, you know, like legs over the head. 00:45:22.96 nextlevelguypodcast yeah 00:45:23.41 Bianca but you just hold it for like quick 10 seconds like one two three and that does i mean i guess it's better than nothing but it's not gonna make a difference you know so if you really want to practice and get comfortable in those positions and also lengthen the muscles release you need to hold you need to stay there you need to go through the uncomfortable feeling because that's what it is you know it's getting used to being uncomfortable that's what we're practicing 00:45:50.50 nextlevelguypodcast Because that's what I love about your social media. Sorry to keep going on about it, but I find it amazing because in there, there's always a video on like, if you don't like this position, here's a position in yoga that you can use that mimics that away from the mats, which allows you to kind of 00:45:53.85 Bianca Yeah. Yeah. 00:46:03.75 Bianca yeah 00:46:07.00 nextlevelguypodcast get used to it to learn how to breathe while you're in how do we use breathing to control our emotions because we all panic when we get stuck by some big guy at the gym or whatever or they twist you into an uncomfortable position how do you use yoga and the breathing to get comfortable in uncomfortable positions 00:46:08.58 Bianca yeah 00:46:26.29 Bianca It's just being aware of it. So every time you're panning, just bring yourself back to your breath. Just being aware of the breath makes all the difference. I know it sounds really easy, but it's really hard because our mind will always want to wonder and will always want to distract us because that's what the mind does. 00:46:45.83 Bianca always thinks. So we need to... quiet it so by by bringing it to the breath we quiet the mind so then we can't think about oh my god this guy is like i don't know suffocating me or whatever so you need to focus on your breath and then what i like to say is as long as you can breathe you're fine and then just if it doesn't matter you're twisted in whatever position can you breathe notice if you can breathe then if you can breathe you're fine so like calm down and work your way up from there you know think clearly what can you do if there's no point like know what mean because you can breathe so there's no point panicking if that does if that makes sense 00:47:15.08 nextlevelguypodcast yeah 00:47:22.91 nextlevelguypodcast I really like that because that's the thing it is like you're not going to suffocate you're not going to die yeah it just means you just need to stop and go okay it's just ah just sort of centre yourself realise that you're getting the oxygen you just need to then 00:47:27.81 Bianca yeah okay i'm here like ah acknowledge what's happening yeah yeah 00:47:40.88 nextlevelguypodcast I suppose that links to your body awareness. How do we know where our body is by using yoga so that when we're on the mats, we know if our arms are left out or if we're twisted, how to untwist ourselves, you know, how to get back to, you know, how do we know where we are more like spatial awareness? 00:47:44.87 Bianca Yeah. 00:47:56.75 Bianca Yeah. 00:48:01.42 Bianca Yeah, I think it's all through the practice. So, for example, you know, when you do like... Do you do any yoga, by the way? 00:48:07.46 nextlevelguypodcast ah done a wee bit through Diamond Dallas Page, the DDP yoga. 00:48:11.88 Bianca Hmm, okay. Yeah, so for example, if you do like a warrior or any but any pose, right? I like to say, so, okay, an easier one is like, you know, the chair pose when you have your knees bent. 00:48:25.71 Bianca So you obviously focus on your legs, your legs are burning and all the attention go there. 00:48:26.72 nextlevelguypodcast Hmm. 00:48:30.46 Bianca But just remember to focus on keeping your elbows and even your fingers straight. And this is how you develop body awareness. You are aware of the whole body. You're not just, oh my God, my legs are burning. That's not body awareness. 00:48:42.13 Bianca It's like, so when I do the class, I always like to tell, to remind people how, like, how are you holding the the the whole position, you know, is your chest forward, is your chest back, is your belly engaged, is your elbows straight, you know, and just by practicing this, you develop the body awareness, but then also by just by holding the poses or like getting into specific poses, you just get to know your body better and you know what your limits are. 00:49:11.32 Bianca So this is again, this is how you develop It's all through practice. 00:49:14.98 nextlevelguypodcast And what's, ah as you're moving through the different motions and like stretching and you know, you're maybe doing things you're you haven't done since you're a kid. what but What is a good pain and what's a stop right now pain? 00:49:25.75 Bianca one 00:49:29.75 nextlevelguypodcast Is it a sharp stabbing pain? Is pushing in the muscle just a wee bit more than normal? 00:49:32.52 Bianca Yeah. 00:49:35.27 nextlevelguypodcast Good, you know, you feel bit of stretch, but a sharp pain is a stop. well What do you teach people? 00:49:40.99 Bianca Yeah, I always like to say if it's just an uncomfortable sensation, you're fine. Just breathe through But if it's a sharp pain, and especially ah ah pain around the joint or the tendons, then, yeah, you can adjust or maybe even go out of it or skip or, yeah, go into another position. 00:50:02.04 Bianca But generally, I like to think of the sharp pain as a no-no. 00:50:08.20 nextlevelguypodcast Well, that's probably a key for a lot of life as well. What do you see? 00:50:12.06 Bianca then you also need to identify because a lot of because if you stretch it feels quite hard sometimes and you just need to identify is your brain telling you no get out get out oh my god this is so hard or is it actually a sharp pain so it's again it's practice so if you really feel like your brain is telling you it's a sharp pain you can just go out of it you know but keep practicing and keep being aware of what your brain is telling you because the brain is not always right yeah 00:50:37.23 nextlevelguypodcast I suppose that comes down to the mind-body awareness, doesn't it? you but Having that mind-body connection, you're suddenly using muscles you've probably never used in a long time. 00:50:40.63 Bianca yeah 00:50:45.03 nextlevelguypodcast and 00:50:45.05 Bianca Yeah. 00:50:46.39 nextlevelguypodcast When you have somebody that comes to you new, do you put them through just a standard yoga thing to see where they're struggling? do you Or do you get them to fill out a questionnaire? like how How can we analyze our current self to see, oh I'm tight in my hips, I'm tight here. you like How can we see where we're struggling? 00:51:05.92 Bianca So it depends because in person, yeah, I like to do a few poses with the person and test them out. But in online, I do have a form and then I ask lots of questions there. 00:51:16.89 Bianca And then from the questions they tell me, I do create either a basic flow. So depending on their needs, you know. a flow that I think is suitable based on the questions and amend so there's always feedback 00:51:39.50 nextlevelguypodcast So if I came to you and we started doing yoga and I was like, holy hell, Bianca, you've changed my life. I'm super fit and I'm feeling more controlled and able to deal with being stuck. mean, but I used to do powerlifting and I could barely get my legs over my head because I used to deadlift that a lot, but I couldn't. I was so stiff everywhere. I couldn't move. 00:52:00.00 nextlevelguypodcast I was out of breath going up steps, for instance, because I did so much weightlifting but not a lot of cardio. 00:52:00.20 Bianca Yeah. 00:52:05.86 nextlevelguypodcast So I wasn't designed for life. 00:52:06.35 Bianca Yeah, yeah. 00:52:07.46 nextlevelguypodcast That's... ah so But how do we use yoga to benefit jujitsu? how Not just the mobility. How do we make how do we roll better? How do we understand? 00:52:21.94 nextlevelguypodcast like how do How do we become better on the mats by using yoga? 00:52:28.09 Bianca So it's just by practicing, you will automatically develop all the, I would say, the control and the awareness. 00:52:39.02 Bianca So when you go into the role, you're not going to... Because I remember when I started to role for a time and I wasn't that deep into yoga, I was just... going crazy, right? Like no control, nothing. 00:52:52.50 Bianca was just going for the role. But when you actually learn about yourself and, you know, like we said, to develop all this body awareness, you develop... 00:53:04.17 Bianca the the like the better mobility and stuff like that you're just going to be more controlled on the mat overall you're going to be more respectful of your body and then of the person the other person's body and you're just going to be able to think more clearly clearly and generally 00:53:09.27 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 00:53:21.32 nextlevelguypodcast Because you've got a video where you show how you can improve your transitions through using certain jujitsu kind of him like training things, but also to utilize your yoga into it. So it's kind of like, I see how that works, how I can control myself, how I can use this transition in yoga improve. 00:53:44.76 Bianca well 00:53:44.99 nextlevelguypodcast not have a sore knee at the end of shooting for a takedown or whatever it is and it's it's really well thought out your videos and you know i think that's why ah you should get a lot of fans from this because you should really show people how to level up their jujitsu by doing yoga and i think that's the thing is we kind go nah yoga's for recovery but it's it is life-changing and 00:54:02.19 Bianca yeah 00:54:08.05 Bianca well 00:54:10.84 nextlevelguypodcast talent and skill development. So how do we build this in? Do we do like a 10 minute in the morning, 10 minute at night, just after class? 00:54:22.45 nextlevelguypodcast Like how, how do we make it a consistent habit? 00:54:27.38 Bianca again it depends because everyone has different lives and different training patterns so some people like to do it just after or before the bjj class some people like to do it separately completely so yeah morning always great way to start your day with your even if you do it twice i would say twice is really great but even if you do it once a week is amazing and you'll still see the difference and the thing is because yoga is like the base of all movement you can just incorporate anything you know and then that's because that's what i do you know when you said about that like mimicking the takedown or whatever it's just 00:54:53.10 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:55:09.11 Bianca teaching your body to move in a specific way and then from there you can start you know implementing into your bjj but then your body is going to know how to move where to move how to like rotate on that knee or whatever you know what i mean like it's just 00:55:22.11 nextlevelguypodcast yeah I suppose it's doing like mental, well, sort of lighter reps of the movement without the opponent, et cetera. 00:55:28.11 Bianca yeah yeah yeah yeah like 00:55:31.01 nextlevelguypodcast And how do you utilize like training partners, bands, don't know, like steps and stuff like that into your yoga, like to do, you know, to make it progressively more difficult or to have a training partner to help you get into the more difficult positions or push you through tight bits? 00:55:52.17 Bianca ah Do you mean how I how i do my ah yoga sequences in order to be more difficult? 00:55:56.71 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah, well, i mean, you've got a video where you say about using a jujitsu rolling partner for, you know, helping you with your yoga, for example. You know, you could train yoga together. And, you know, we can use buns to, I think we've got one somewhere down here. It's, um you know, to help you through a movement and help you hold it better or stretch a muscle or whatever. 00:56:17.44 Bianca yeah 00:56:17.63 nextlevelguypodcast what like What accessories and training partners can we do to make yoga and ah help us more? 00:56:24.49 Bianca I mean, i really like that because it's so fun to just do it with someone else, to just do any movement with someone else, right? So, yeah, I have a few real stretching. 00:56:35.22 Bianca Stretching, especially, is really easy to do it with someone and really fun because... There's no competition anymore. Like we've done that already, right? We're old. 00:56:43.43 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:56:44.15 Bianca We try to kill each other. there Now let's help each other, right? So yeah, it's really nice. There's so many stretches that you can do. Like even if you put, you know, the child pose, for example, when you go into child pose, even if the other person just puts a little bit of pressure on your lower back, it really goes a little bit deeper into your hips and like releases the lower back and stuff like that. 00:57:01.66 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:57:06.64 Bianca So there's like lots of moves you can see. my reels as examples. 00:57:23.70 Bianca that position and then you can start thinking from there what to do. Like, do you know what mean? Like, okay, how can I move from here? Like, what do I feel tight in my body? Is it my back that is stopping me from evolving or from here? Or is it my breath? 00:57:40.44 Bianca Am I panicking? Like, know what mean? It's just, that's how... 00:57:43.26 nextlevelguypodcast No, it makes a lot of sense because I suppose that's the thing, isn't it? they They can feel where you're tight or they can feel where you're you're pushing back and they can help you through it by putting a wee bit maybe be extra resistance or helping you get into position you might not be able to do yourself. No, it makes a lot of sense. 00:57:59.42 Bianca yeah Yeah, if you feel like your neck. 00:58:00.20 nextlevelguypodcast What kind of time... 00:58:02.14 Bianca da Yeah. 00:58:03.39 nextlevelguypodcast Because that's the thing, you don't feel it because you live with it. So you're never going to, other people can notice these things. and 00:58:09.50 Bianca Yeah. 00:58:10.21 nextlevelguypodcast what What's a timeframe for this? You know, is it like a couple of weeks to six months? Does it really depend on the person and where they're starting from before they start seeing an improvement? 00:58:19.96 Bianca Yeah. Yeah, it definitely depends on your current level. But I would say you can definitely still see results in even a month. If you do it twice a week, you definitely see results in a month. 00:58:33.76 Bianca So from whatever level you are. But yeah, I would say if you want to proper implement and keep them with you, need to do a three-month thing. 00:58:42.94 nextlevelguypodcast Yeah. 00:58:46.54 Bianca yeah Twice a week minimum, I would say. 00:58:48.92 nextlevelguypodcast And what are you looking for? Are you looking in terms of just a bit more flexibility? Are you wanting them to come back and say to you, I could get deeper into that guard? Or but how do we know we're going the right way? 00:59:02.39 Bianca So you just feel it in your body like you because when I work with someone, I always ask them, how do you feel it in your role? Do you feel anything that improved? And then we can take it from there. So again, each situation is different for each person, but everyone is going to feel it differently. 00:59:19.28 Bianca Right. So, yeah, you might feel actually had a person. he really improved his hips but then he realized he's got problem with his shoulders now so then I'm like okay so you know what because you focus on your hips only for like a long period of time but then when you let something else out of sight it gets tight right because so you always need to kind of revise revise so you just yeah again being aware 00:59:40.25 nextlevelguypodcast Yep. 00:59:46.77 nextlevelguypodcast I like that idea of like that you're always juggling the different demands, but it's like anything, you know, it's just trying to keep our whole our system going. 00:59:52.69 Bianca yeah yeah Yeah, exactly. All about balance. 00:59:56.91 nextlevelguypodcast So how do we then work with you? Like, say if somebody came to you just now and said, right, you know, you've sold me on this. I really want to try it. Sounds great. 01:00:05.31 Bianca Hmm. 01:00:05.83 nextlevelguypodcast I want to um work with you. How do we become the best student for you? You know, like, do you want us to come and do an online class with you and then we work in a specialist training program? 01:00:17.98 nextlevelguypodcast what What can we do to be the best student for you as a teacher? You know, 01:00:23.78 Bianca Hmm. So I have, like I said, a form on my website and people can fill up their requirements there and then this is how we can actually work together one-to-one. 01:00:35.76 Bianca So I can create personalized or customized programs or even class which you can repeat. So if you, you can tell me, your needs and for example if want to practice yoga once a week then I'm going to give you requirements so maybe want to go into your hips and neck I don't and then yeah I'm going to create the sequence around that and from there we can but revise it on a I don't know two bi-weekly um or monthly period and then yeah go from there 01:01:09.02 nextlevelguypodcast um So if we if you were to sell yoga for BJJ just now, if somebody said to you, okay, why should I take your product? This is a perfect chance to sell it to people listening because you know if if they come this far, they're a very interested. 01:01:18.43 Bianca Mm-hmm. 01:01:24.82 nextlevelguypodcast What do they get from buying your you know your products and working with you? 01:01:30.76 Bianca They literally get everything else that is missing from BGJ. So basically all the flexibility that you need is there. Like I said, mobility, which is the base of everything, is there. 01:01:44.81 Bianca And also the recovery is so important. So yeah, in my four-week program... This is how I thought about it. I thought about the perfect package, which I thought based on how I feel, how I used to feel and based on all my colleagues in Jiu Jitsu. 01:01:59.80 Bianca So it's all like based on feedback. And this is what they gave me. And this is how I created the program. So it should be a complete package of what every BJJ practitioner needs. 01:02:11.73 nextlevelguypodcast like and you can do it in the privacy of your own home, you can do it at your own pace, 01:02:15.60 Bianca Yeah, of course. So it's online, yeah, and you can access it. It's lifetime access as well. So, yeah. 01:02:21.20 nextlevelguypodcast Okay. 01:02:22.39 Bianca Yeah. 01:02:22.89 nextlevelguypodcast i mean, I think that's the best thing about it is it shows your your belief in it that you know that you can do something that will just they can do by themselves and that'll change their lives or they can do online classes and then they can take it to a deeper level you. 01:02:37.09 nextlevelguypodcast I mean, I'd love to do another interview at some point and go into deeper things. 01:02:38.55 Bianca Yeah. 01:02:40.41 nextlevelguypodcast so I know we're we're kind of time time for time today, but... I think there's so much about this that is so beneficial to every grappler. 01:02:44.49 Bianca Mm-hmm. 01:02:49.23 nextlevelguypodcast And, you know, people should definitely buy this. 01:02:50.45 Bianca Yeah, for sure. 01:02:51.89 nextlevelguypodcast But what would you want them to take from this? You know, i mean, this is your first podcast, you were saying, and and you seem a natural this. 01:02:59.36 Bianca and 01:03:00.37 nextlevelguypodcast You seem the person that we could easily fall in love with and train and think, oh, you're amazing. You're such a good coach. You're so easy to absorb. You know, how how do you want people to use this? 01:03:15.62 nextlevelguypodcast Because not just following you on social media, how do we then think, Okay, I am going to do this. I'm going to change my life. I'm going to become fit, healthy, mobile, etc. What do you want them to do as a challenge or on a reminder going forward? 01:03:35.00 Bianca It's just starting small. So identifying first, just stopping from where you are and taking a moment to see where are you in your body, in your life? What do you actually need right now? 01:03:46.18 Bianca And then just take one thing and then focus on that thing, whether that's to do, of course, we're talking about BGJ here, right? So whether that's to do with your, don't know, you get injured too often. 01:03:56.68 Bianca So maybe that's because you train so much or you train too much or maybe because, you don't have a proper recovery routine so start there you know start looking into recovery like i said yeah you can look into my program is go recovery side as well just start with anything you can also look through my videos and do like little stretches so even even that you know it makes all the difference so yeah if i'd be to give something out of this it's just 01:04:05.14 nextlevelguypodcast Mm-hmm. 01:04:27.29 Bianca to say that recovery is the most is as important as training is like literally 50 50 like you can't neglect it you will be forced to take it otherwise 01:04:38.25 nextlevelguypodcast Because i I did one of your videos. I just followed along with your, i think it was the shoulder, at the tight shoulder one when I had the shoulder impingement. And I got relief. It was the first time in ages. It wasn't painful. 01:04:49.32 nextlevelguypodcast It wasn't throbbing and like feeling like it wasn't going in the socket properly. It just a relaxed. And I think that's, I was just thinking, this is amazing. 01:04:57.30 Bianca Yeah, thank you. 01:04:58.83 nextlevelguypodcast i was singing your praises to everybody saying, you've got to try this. But until we can get ah you back on and we can do some more and you on other people, et cetera, how can we find you? 01:05:02.76 Bianca yeah thank you 01:05:10.70 nextlevelguypodcast How can we follow you on social media? How can we buy the products, do the online classes, buy year you know your four-week training program, et cetera? How can we keep in touch with this journey you're on? 01:05:23.72 Bianca So the easiest is on my Instagram. This is where I'm most active. So bianca.yoga.bjj. um And then I'm actually building my YouTube channel, which I think would be really beneficial for a lot of people just to try out for free. 01:05:38.93 Bianca So yeah, you can just type bianca.yoga.bjj. And then also my website. So bianca.yoga.bjj. bjj.com and then you can find my products there so like I said the one-to-one personalized plans and also my four-week plans for beginners I also have a pdf injury so an injury prevention guide so yeah you can find all my products there of course I'm going to keep updating them and adding new things and then also on tiktok so I'm starting to build my tiktok as well but yeah mainly on instagram and my website 01:06:18.10 nextlevelguypodcast Well, I'll hit stop this.