Class #1121

Quick Arm Weights Flow

10 min - Class
303 likes

Description

After enjoying Meredith's Mat Workout, you can add this quick and effective class. She uses the Hand Weights on the Fitness Ball to give you a little more upper body work and then adds gentle stretches for your neck. This is a great addition to any class.
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights, Fitness Ball

About This Video

Jul 18, 2013
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Transcript

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Okay. So we're just going to do a few minutes of arm weights and a little bit of neck stretching, which I think will feel fantastic. So let's just start with the arms and at our sides and lift the spine. Just feel very weightless in your back. And just notice if your pelvis is behind you or underneath you, or just right under your body, which is where I want it.

Reach your arms out and push down and take the arms and reach out and expand through the back and push down. So what I want you to think about is as the arms are reaching out to the sides of the shoulder, blades are going down the back and reached down and inhale as you reach out, expanding through the sides of the body, and then contracting through the sides of the body. So it's a beautiful place to practice our breath. Right? Do the ribs not move in the same direction as the arms are being pulled? I believe they do.

And do they not move inwards in on one another as the arms come down? One more reaching out and coming down. Now we're going to take the arms forward and open and press. So we do a circular motion, palms down as the weights come forward. Try to just let, don't, don't grip the weights super hard.

Try to just let them almost sit in your hands. So the work isn't coming from the hands picking up the weight, it's coming from the weights, creating heaviness as the shoulders lift the arms. Does that make sense? Yeah. Good. Let me reach out. And, and there are two pound weights, so they're not super heavy et for us, but they do get fairly tiring after awhile. And then we're going to do three more and um, and too and um, and one and on. And then we're going to go the other way. So we're going to go out, feel the shoulders, reach back and bring the arms down and reach the arms out. Feel the shoulder blades go back as the arms come forward and down and just continue moving, creating a nice, strong open joint.

Forward down. Keep the shoulders very heavy. Forward down. We'll do three more and ah, and two more and one more. And I'm now. Then it's just how the whole the weights here, just kind of right in front of the ball. Rotate the upper. I'm not just the lower arm or the hand, but rotate the whole upper arm and reach behind you and to the side of you and behind you. So we work from the back.

Try not to lean forward as your arms are reaching back. Try to just take the arms back and as the arms go back, also try to reach them towards the floor so we get a extension opportunity through the shoulders without really creating an extension opportunity in the spine. We'll do more here and forward lifting the spine as the arms travel backwards. Last one, come back to your sides. Take your arms out to your side. Hold there, and now we're going to circle the arms. Yeah, don't circle from the elbow.

Circle from the shoulder. So we push down each time you feel that movement down. Yeah, rest if you need to, and then come back. Just rest all the time if you need to. We'll do three, two, one. Lower the arms down. It's tough. Guess what? We're going to go the other way too. Yeah.

So reach out and then circle the opposite way reaching. So the circular action is happening at the juncture of the upper arm and the shoulder, not in the elbow, not in the wrist for three good. You can do it too. One, lower the arms all the way down. Flip the hands up so that the palms face up. Rotate the hands out to the sides.

Reach up and forward through the arms like you're offering. Not so much out to the side but a little bit forward. Like you're offering something to someone and then pull back and feel the shoulders reached down and a little forward as you reach up with the arms and pull back and in. Yeah, an exhale. So again, we create a, an expansion opportunity through the whole body. And then I can track how opportunity and an expansion opportunity and I can traction and we'll do two more. Feel the whole body expand as the arms reach, ah, the waist, just rest in the hand. Nice and light. Last one and reach and then straight in the arms and reach down.

And set the weights down onto the floor. Bend the elbows like this. We're going to go into rotation in the shoulder, feel the elbows go a little forward and now start to reach the arms overhead. Now I want you to do a little back then tier from the upper back, letting the arms guide you, letting the arms guide you. So lift the spine as the arms reach out and then bend the elbows, spread the elbows wide as they dragged on your back and then bring the hands down. Good. And then rotate. I reach up reaching, reaching and Ben and return a little bit more straight with your body on the return depth.

So we would do a little fluxion for me and reach it. I think it's just your structure. I think we all have certain places in our body that feels like home that maybe aren't unnecessarily exactly what this exercise calls for. Yeah, okay. But we all need to feel at home in our bodies at the same time, in my opinion, to stay there, stay there, reach the spine longer, let the arms just circle, just circle. Nice.

Let them be heavy. Drop them all the way down. Lift up both arms back up. They might feel like, take the right hand to the left side of the head. Don't pull. Please just gently guide the head over and let the hand rest on the head and then start to reach the arm out and down, out and down. Just going gently towards the floor. [inaudible] stay there for a moment. When your arm gets as low as it will go, then let it totally hang. Totally Hang. Take your hand off your head.

Wait for a second. Then lift the head up. Arms back up. Let me take the opposite arm to the opposite side of the head. We'd dropped the head, but when the head drops, we're not moving the whole spine. Just gently allowing the neck to go into that flection and then reach out through the arm to the outward reach is happening in what? In the Scapula and the Scapula. Slides down the back. Yep. Just start to lower your beautiful.

It's good. Go ahead. Just once you get to the bottom as far as you can go. Just let that arm be heavy and then let the head come off hand, come off the head, I left [inaudible] and then bend the arms again and go into rotation of the shoulders and then reach just the head over. We're going to take it to the right or whatever, it doesn't matter which way. And then we're going to roll it to the center of the chest. We're going to roll it to the other side are we're going to look [inaudible] and then released and Concentra that made me dizzy a little and go the other way. Roll around the center of the spine, roll around and look up. And then really from there that the head dropped down.

Rest your hands on your thighs and then just gently lift your head up. Now lift the arms up like this, Erica quests. If you are by any chance watching this, I'm s have stolen this move from you. I love it. Open your arms. Why? Why, why it open your spine and now flex the hands the other way. Push the ball backwards and around the spine and flexing open, reaching out and m and around the spine. And one more time. We're not going around again. We're going to open, we're gonna leave the expansion opportunity there and our [inaudible] body for, I don't know how long the rest of our day, the rest of our life. Hopefully. Maybe. Yeah. And we're going to be done.

Thanks.

Comments

3 people like this.
Perfect...
Thanks Nancy!
1 person likes this.
great conclusion to an already great ball class
Thank you Joni!!
1 person likes this.
An awesome addition to any class! Thanks:)
Thanks Danette!
Jo Landis Shields
Ok I admit it, I routinely do this as an add-on once a week! I don't have a ball at home, so I sit on the corner of my bed. Thanks Meri!
Jo, I LOVE it!! You know, if you wanted more a full body workout you could stand and incorporate squats and plies :)!
1 person likes this.
More short hand weight programs Mary. They are terrific! Thanks, Michelle
Michelle, I will be sure to keep that in mind! Great to see you in person today!
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