Class #1143

Foam Roller Release

55 min - Class
929 likes

Description

Create more movement in your body with the release work in Natasja Barnard's Foam Roller Workout. She teaches exercises like the Roll Up, Roll Over, Rolling Like a Ball, and others while using the Foam Roller to add more intensity to the workout. She also includes a few balance challenges in the Teaser and Side Plank to work on your stabilizers. Have fun!
What You'll Need: Mat, Foam Roller

About This Video

Jul 25, 2013
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So stand to the back of your roller. Squeezing your roller with your ankle bones, right up into your adductors, engage your pelvic floor, lengthen up through your breastbone, through the sternum, and we're gonna start with a roll down. So let's take a deep breath, inhale. Engage pelvic floor TA, lower the chin to chest, and gently roll the spine down, exhale. If you're feeling a bit stiff over the back, don't roll all the way down this morning.

Just hanging down, inhale, look towards the knees, and then exhale, draw the TA, articulate your spine, and roll back up into your standing position. Bringing your head up last, and we'll go two more inhale. And exhale, deep core activation, allow the abdominals to draw the spine forward, keeping the knees soft, and roll down. Use your inhalation at the bottom here. And then exhale to roll up.

Use those hamstrings. Bring your pelvis neutral and stack the spine on top of the pelvis. All the way back into your standing upright position. One more, guys. Inhale.

And exhale, lower the chin. Articulate through the spine. And this time just place your hands on the roller. Keep looking towards your knees as you gently bend both knees for me, and exhale, extend the right knee only. Inhale to bend, and exhale, extend the lift.

Now, we do four more. Inhale bend. And exhale, extend the right leg, and inhale bend, and exhale using the breath. Two more, inhale. And exhale, reach the right knee away.

And one more, inhale. And exhale, reach the left knee. Bend both knees for me, ladies. Walk your hands forward to the front of the foam roll, placing your knees towards the back in your four point kneeling position, and just as we start to engage those proprioceptors, we're gonna balance. So when you have your balance, keeping your head in line with your spine. Nice start.

This is the tricky one. So keep the knees squeezing together. And for those of you who feel like a challenge, try and bring your toes up off the floor, drawing your abdominal. So you wanna feel the balance between the abdominals. The side abdominals in the back.

So you can scooch your pelvis right forward, and then you're going to lie in a supine position with your pelvis right at the edge. And then your head is supported on the roller at the back here. Sorry. Love it. I just needed to see which pitch way I'm gonna pitch this class at now, okay.

Place your arms down by your sides. We're gonna start with your pelvic core. So we start with a in breath. As you exhale, draw your abdominals, and just bring your pelvis into deep lumbar flexion. So just a semi-pelvic tilt and then release back to the neutral position on the in breath.

And, again, exhale, draw pelvic floor, draw TA, deep, deep flexion in the lumbar spine. And then release back to the neutral. We'll do two more. And exhale. And inhale, release.

And one more. And exhale, draw pelvic floor, draw TA. And release back to the neutral. We'll roll up all the way this time. We'll inhale.

And exhale, draw pelvic floor, draw TA, articulate your spine, up off the roller. Feel the hamstrings work hard. You inhale, pause. And exhale, articulate down. One vertebrae at a time.

And release down back to neutral spine. And neutral pelvis inhale. And exhale, articulate through each vertebrae, keeping those inner thighs active. You inhale at the top. And you exhale, roll down.

Articulate, articulate. And release to the neutral. We breathe in. And exhale, draw the abdominals. Rolling up through your spine, core, core, core, feeling the work in the back of the thighs, not in the lower back.

You inhale. And we exhale, draw the ribs, draw the pelvic bone towards the nose. Nice, Mandy, good. And release to the neutral. And we breathe in.

And exhale, draw the lower ribs down. Articulate. Keep those inner thighs running parallel to each other. Roll up, roll up slight, posterior turned to me, Sarah. Inhale, and exhale, roll down.

You and I have the same type lower back. And we'll do one more inhale. And exhale, draw the abdominals. Articulate the spine. Rolling up, rolling up, holding it at the top here.

Take a deep breath. Stay here for me. Use your hamstrings, and tilt your pelvic bone slightly forward, towards your nose, feeling the work. In the back of the legs, can we lift- ah! How beautiful is that? Inhale, and then exhale, roll down, upper back.

Come, Sarah, give me lumbar flexion, lumbar flexion. Thank you, Sarah. And release back to the neutral. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling for me, everyone. So making sure your TA's engaged, we're going to challenge your stabilizers by taking a deep breath.

Inhale, lift the leg closer to me as you exhale off the floor with control. You inhale, tap the toe down. And exhale, lift the leg up. Remember to stabilize before you move. Inhale.

And exhale, draw pelvic floor, deep TA connection. We do two more inhale, lower. And exhale, draw TA in, lift. If you need to place the hands down, go ahead and stabilize yourself a little bit with the hands. One more, exhale, lift.

And inhale, place the foot down and then switch legs as we exhale. My tricky side too. And inhale down. And exhale, draw, keep the control, keep the focus, keep the concentration. Inhale.

(indistinct comment) And keep the hands on the floor, then exhale, lift. And inhale, tuck down. Two more, and exhale. Keep the eyes open. And one more, inhale.

We exhale, lift the leg and hold it here for me, guys. Take a deep breath. Just use the exhale, and draw the abdominals. Everything towards the midline of the body as you gently place your hands on the floor. From here, we go into the leg changes, we inhale.

Draw deep abdominals and exhale. Switch the legs in the air. We inhale, pause. And exhale, switch the legs in the air, making sure your abdominals are supporting the legs, supporting that lumbar. And exhale.

Two more, inhale. And exhale. And one more. Exhale. And place both feet on the floor, reach your arms up towards the ceiling.

Rotate your palms to face your knees as you exhale. Reach the arms back over the head. Draw the lower ribs down and circle the arms around towards your heels, and lift the arms up. Inhale. Exhale to reach back.

Circle the arms all the way down towards the heels, and lift the arms up to the ceiling. Two more, exhale. Two, reach back, drawing the lower ribs down, circle the arms and reach for the heels. And one more. And exhale, draw the lower ribs down.

Circle the arms. And all the way up, from here, interlace your hands, and place your hands behind your head. Ready for your chest lift. So make sure your elbows are forward in your peripheral view. Your shoulder blades are not squeezing against the roller, but it's rather drawing away from the foam roller.

Inhale for the preparation. Exhale, draw pelvic floor TA, and then allow your chest to come forward into that chest lift position. Eyes towards the mid-thigh. You inhale. And we exhale to lower down.

Good, inhale again. And exhale, draw the ribs, draw the TA, curling up, curling up, curling up. Inhale, hold it there. And exhale to lower down. So the next one, inhale.

Bring your elbows slightly forward. Exhale, curl your chest up and just feel more or less how far your head is off the roller. So just feel how high you are, and then we're gonna lower down, and what I'd like to do, is a little bit of thoracic extension and grade mobility through the thoracic spine by getting some rota- some movement in the first joints of the spine. So roll off to the front of the roller for me. And then just turn your roller and place it under your shoulder blades so just below the shoulder blade area, the tip of the shoulder blade.

And interlace the hands behind the head. Let your hands support your head as you inhale, extend back and allow your chest to open up and generally this is such a feel good sensation for most people, but if it's uncomfortable, then rather move yourself a little bit lower down. So from here, everyone, inhale. Exhale, just allow the chest to come forward by engaging your abdominals, and this is just movement, not so much strength but just movement of the thoracic spine and then inhale to lower back. And exhale, draw the ribs in.

Allow the abdominals, the rectus abdominis to pull you forward, and then inhale to lower back. Reaching back, elongate the spine. And exhale, draw the ribs, draw the abdominals and core forward, forward, forward, forward. And inhale, we'll do one more. And exhale, the hands are supporting the head.

Exhale forward, bring the elbows a little bit forward for me, that's it. From here, use the back of your legs to lift your hips off the floor. Allow your chest to move back slightly and then just get a massage with the foam roller down towards the lower rib and then back up towards the neck area. You never wanna go lower down onto the kidneys or onto those floating ribs just for safety. Inhale back and keep the hips high.

Exhale, and inhale back. And exhale, so rotate your upper body towards me everyone. Let's just roll out the front area of the shoulder blade closer to me, that's it. And if you feel a tender spot, try and ease out into it. Be kind to your body.

And then back to the center and we'll do the other side. And roll out. Keeping the hips high, 'cause at the same time, those hamstrings are working. We'll do two more. And one more.

And then bring your body to the center. Lift those hips. Then place the pelvis down with control and lean the chest back right back over the roller. So just stay there for me, inhale. Breathe out, exhale, let your hands support your head.

Do you wanna move over a little bit more? Is that okay? So if there's any shooting pains down the spine, then this is obviously not the best position for your body to be in. So what I would suggest then is that you bring your chest slightly higher up so that the roller's higher up towards the top of the scapula. Take a deep breath, inhale for me, everyone.

Exhale, lift your chest up and this time, you're gonna roll your body forward to face me, making sure the shoulder blade stays under the armpit so just, more or less, where the bra strap would be. We're gonna move into the rotation of the thoracic spine. The knees are bent. And the hands interlace, and then just bring the elbow forward and so this is just a rotation. As you lift, inhale the elbow to the ceiling.

Exhale, rotate and let your head rest into your hands. Good. Inhale, little bit of feedback. And exhale, verbal feedback is good. And forward.

And inhale, lift the elbow. And exhale. Roll over those tender areas in that shoulder area. Inhale. And exhale, use those oblique muscles side abdominals to draw you back and forward.

Let's do one more. Inhale, lift the elbow. And exhale, let your head rest back in your hands and we stay here. We breathe in. Relax, can you open the elbow a little bit more as the head rests in the hands?

One more, inhale. And then exhale, you're gonna roll halfway forward, push your feet into the mat, lift your hips up and let's roll out. Infraspinatus. Can you feel it? Yes.

Sarah, thanks for the smiles. And wiggle yourself around so that you feel where your body needs it the most. And then come back, lower the hips. And luckily there are only two sides to the body so we do it on the other side. That's kind of like doing the IT band, isn't it?

That's a lot of strong elbows. So remember this is all the release work. We're trying to create more movement in your bodies, bring the roller down a little bit for me, that's it. Elbows forward, knees on top of each other. And we lift the elbow, inhale.

And exhale, you okay? I'm fine. Good. Inhale. And exhale.

Roll forward, if it's too painful, please either move the roller down or roll it up, okay? But get the movement of the thoracic spine, wherever it feels good to you, inhale. And exhale forward so we don't move our bodies enough in this rotation with the extension during every day activities, inhale. And exhale. This time, we stay there, we inhale.

Relax your body a little bit more. Allow the body to release, yeah. One more breath, inhale. And exhale. Inhale.

Exhale, roll halfway back. Push the feet into the mat, lift the hips high, and then roll it out. Sarah, what's going on there? Bring your roller a little bit lower down towards your, is that okay? Yes.

Good. Lift the hips, hold. And then lower down. Okay, so we're gonna move back into the chest lift position, so place your rollers down lengthways on your mat, and then you have that mental note of how high you were able to come up off the roller in the chest lift, and you should be able to have more flexion this time because of the mobility in the thoracic spine. Interlace the hands behind the heads for me.

We go, inhale. As you exhale, stabilize with the TA and then allow the chest to come forward as you exhale. How does that feel? Inhale. And exhale, lower down. Good job.

Inhale again. And exhale, draw pelvic floor, draw TA and flex the chest forward. Inhale, hold. And exhale to roll down. And we breathe in.

And exhale, draw. Flex, core, core, core, core. Take a deep breath, inhale. And then exhale, lower the body down. Make sure your feet is only one fist width apart and we'll do one more inhale.

And exhale, draw the ribs, draw the TA, core forward, forward, forward. From here, circle your arms and hold the back of your legs. Allow the arms to pull the chest a little bit forward. Keep the TA connected as you reach your arms towards the ceiling. Maintain the flexion in the spine as the arms go behind the head.

Draw the shoulders down for me, Mandy. Interlace your hands and hold it here. You exhale, rotate towards me as you exhale. Exhale. Inhale center.

Exhale towards the back of the room. Beautiful rotation, Sarah. Inhale. And exhale, Mandy. Draw down into your sceps for me.

Yes. Inhale, center. And exhale, rotate interlace the hands behind the head for me, good. And inhale, center. We do two more.

Exhale, rotate. Beautiful. Inhale, center. And one more. Exhale, rotate.

Inhale, center. Give me a little bit more flexion and then we lower down. Place your arms down by your sides, everyone. Breathe in. As you exhale, lift the leg closer to me up off the floor.

Let me help you, there we go. Yeah, we don't want crooked, we want straight. Is that better? Yes. Good.

Inhale. And exhale, drawing the second leg off the floor. So allow your hands to support your body a little bit on the mat here. We breathe in. As you exhale, extend both your legs up towards the ceiling.

If you can have 90 degree angle of the hip there, then that's great. Let's externally rotate the legs as the heels squeeze together like a ballet first position, and can I have straighter knees, tighter knees, pull up the VMOs, thank you very much. We're going to flex the ankles as the legs open out to the side, we breathe in. In, in. Use your adductors and exhale, squeeze the legs together.

Draw the heels. And we do four more. Inhale, open. Reach it wide, reach it wide, tailbone is down. Abdominals up tight, and exhale, draw the legs together.

Good work, everyone. Three more, inhale. Inhale. And inhale. And exhale, draw the legs together.

Draw inner thighs, draw the VMO up, and two more. Inhale. Stretch behind the knees. Good. And exhale, draw together. Beautiful.

And one more, inhale, over. Over, over, and draw the inner thighs and exhale, draw the legs together. Bring your knees into a bent position here for me, everyone. 90 degrees bend to the knee. We inhale.

As you exhale, flex your chest forward and extend your legs away from the torso, breathing out. Think of your double leg stretch. Resist your knees as you go back down with the head to the floor. Inhale, and exhale. Lift the chest.

And reach away, and resist the legs back as you inhale, inhale, and inhale. And exhale. Three more. Lift the chest. Reach away.

No shoulders in the ears. And inhale, resist as you lower back. And we do two more. And exhale, draw TA, then flex the chest forward. And inhale back, and we'll do one more.

And exhale, lift the chest. And reach the legs away. Inhale to bend the knees. So just stay up with your chest. If you feel your knee can stay constrained, please allow the head to lower down.

Otherwise, we inhale, pause with a single leg stretch. Stretching the leg closer to me as you exhale. Reach. Inhale bend, then exhale, reach. Inhale bend, and exhale reach.

So the modification here, if it's too unstable on the roller, is just to do the single leg changes with bent knees, okay? Otherwise keep going, three more. Inhale, exhale two. And exhale one. Bend your knees, lift the chest, make sure the spine is controlled and lower down all the way.

Place the right leg on the floor, place the left leg on the floor. Okay, pause, how are you feeling? Good. How's the back? Feeling those abs.

Okay. So remember, how's the back feeling? Great. Good? Good, good, Sarah?

Okay, if it's too taxing on the back to bend the knees, okay, guys? Not to have the straight legs, but to bend the knees. So from here, lift the right leg bent off the floor. Bring the left leg bent off the floor and extend your legs up towards the ceiling. We're going to scissor the legs twice.

Flexing the ankle closer to the body and pointing the leg going down to the floor. And then we change it, from here, you're going to, one more, your legs around getting that beautiful rotation in the hips. We go, inhale. And we go, exhale. And inhale, circle the legs around, controlling that lumbar spine, we inhale reach.

And we exhale, reach. And we circle, circle, beautiful. And we go two more. And stretch the knees for me, guys. And exhale.

And circle around, getting the stretch through the hip joint, one more. And scissor one. And scissor two. And circle around, around, around. Lift the legs up, bend your knees, place the right foot down, place the left foot down, reach your arms up to 90 and open to the side.

And here, you can just rock from side to side, getting your massage over the spine, over the shoulder blades. (indistinct chattering) And then roll off to the front of your roller, everyone. And just lie on your backs for a split second, and just feel the floor drawing you in. Feels so nice. Yes.

Enjoy this sensation. Okay. So from here, you can take your roller and move it between your heels and your obliques. And we do a pelvical exhale, articulate the spine up off the floor, bringing your roller just above your coccyx, so onto the sacrum area. Your hands are gently holding onto the side of the roller, not groping it, not digging your nails in, but just gently assist yourself.

Inhale, lift one leg off the floor and then exhale, control as the second leg comes off the floor. Form your spine to a supine on the in breath, the knees come over towards me as you rotate in the waist, and then you exhale. Draw the legs back to the center. And we inhale, over. Making sure those shins are parallel to the floor, and you exhale, draw your legs back to the center.

So you might feel a tender massage on that piriformis, on that glute area. Exhale, draw the legs back to the center, and inhale, the shoulders stay on the mat, rotating in the waist, and exhale, how's that, Sarah? Wonderful. Good. So inhale, bring the knees over to me, hold it here, and you're going to circle your legs in and around, just to create a bit of a massage on those tight glutes, and two more.

And one, and we're going to reverse the circle on the side, inhale, and exhale. And inhale. And exhale, lift the legs up and over to the other side. And we circle, inhale, and exhale. And three.

And four. And five. We reverse it, we inhale. And exhale. And inhale.

And exhale. And inhale, exhale, lift the legs back to the center. Adjust the roller if you need to. As we extend the legs up towards the ceiling, we're going to do the same leg movements we did in the previous series. So rotate in the hips, fan out the legs, and we flex, this time, as you reach the legs out to the side.

Now, point the ankles and then draw the heels together, creating your own resistance, and we inhale, flex, and reach, reach, reach. And point the ankles, exhale, draw the heels towards each other. We do four more, inhale. Keeping your legs at that 90 degree angle, and point, exhale, draw and squeeze together. And three more, inhale.

Inhale, inhale. I need tight knees, I need elongated joints. Come on, stretch through the knees and two more, inhale. Reach, reach. And exhale, draw together.

And one more, inhale, reach. And hold it here. You can take your hands onto your inner thighs and gently allow the thighs to stretch out a little bit here. Breathing in, and gently push down as you exhale. And one more.

Point the ankles, and draw the legs together. Bringing your legs into a parallel position, the arms stretch over the roller, we're going into the two scissors and then one more around with the legs, so let's go. One leg towards the nose, the other leg reaches, and get that beautiful hip extension. Hang out here for me. One second.

So really reach through the back of the leg to get the stretch through the hip joint and then we scissor, exhale. Stretch. Reach, squeeze glutes, squeeze glutes. Then windmill your legs around. Big stretch around all the way.

And we scissor, one. And scissor two. And circle the legs around, around, and around. And we scissor, one. And we scissor, two.

And then one more, the legs around. Around, and around. Give me pelvic stability. And we scissor, one. And we scissor, two.

And we circle the legs around, one more set. And scissor, one. And scissor, two. And circle the legs around, around, around, and hold it there. The leg closer to your nose, draw the knee in towards your chest and extend the bottom leg away from you, getting that stretch through the hip joints.

We breathe in. And we breathe out. We inhale. And exhale. And one more.

And exhale. Draw the bent knee in towards your chest and then change legs around. But you have to help your legs come back. Inhale. And exhale.

And one more. And exhale, reach, reach. How beautiful is that stretch? Nice. Good job.

And bring the knee in towards the chest. So from here, we're going to go into the roll over. Does everyone do the roll over in this class? Mm-hmm? So position your roller just above the coccyx then reach your arms on top of the roller for me, Mandy, that's it.

And remember to not look around when we do the roll over so keep your eyes fixed on the ceiling as you exhale, extend your legs up to 90, keep exhaling as you lower the legs to 60 degrees. Inhale, up to 90. Allow the abdominals to peel your pelvis off the roller as you roll over. Inhale, flex open. Then lower the feet to the floor.

If you have the range, you exhale, roll down through your spine, keep pushing the roller away with your arms, as the tailbone hits the roller, a bigger circle than usual, but control it with pelvic lumbar stability, and we inhale to 90, we exhale. Flex, open, and stretch out. Exhale to roll. Keep reaching the arms away. Tailbone hits the roller and circle around without arching the back, two more, inhale.

And exhale. Exhale. Exhale, and circle around. Do one more for me, please. Inhale.

And exhale, roll up and over. And hold it there for me. Keep pushing down with the arms. If your toes are touching the floor, please anchor the ball of the feet into the floor, keep the legs adducted, keep the legs together, from here, you're going to reach your right leg up to the ceiling as you exhale. Reach, reach, and then change.

And exhale, reach. Reach. And check in with your pelvis. Nice, Mandy. And we do four more, beautiful.

Exhale, exhale. And give me long feet, exhale, exhale. And two more, exhale, exhale. And one more, exhale, exhale, bring both legs over your head. Just flick your roller away gently just a little bit, you're gonna roll down with your pelvis, connecting with the mat this time as you exhale, exhale, exhale.

Bend your knees and place the roller underneath your feet, everyone. Ready for your pelvic core. Without the roller moving, underneath your hip joint, we inhale. Take a deep breath, roll underneath the feet, and then exhale. Draw the abdominals, tilt the pelvis, and articulate your spine off the floor, keeping the roller absolutely still, we inhale.

And exhale, articulate rolling down. Core, core, core. And release back to the neutral, and we inhale. And exhale to roll up. One vertebrae at a time.

You can do it with your feet just on the floor, yeah, good. Inhale up. All the way. And exhale, roll down. Nice work, good, just open the thighs, yeah.

Keep curling, keep curling, keep curling, this way, this way, yes, can you feel that stretch over the back? Brilliant. Inhale. And exhale, relax the feet for me, Mandy. Exhale, articulate up, up, up, good, inhale.

And roll down the upper back. The mid- Ma- give me that stretch, give me that stretch, yes, that's brilliant. Inhale, we'll do a slight modification on the next one. Exhale, if you feel the hamstrings cramp, please stretch it out and then carry on. Exhale to roll up and up and up.

Anchor the leg closer to me by using the leg closer to me's glutes and hamstrings, pushing down into the roller. Lift the other leg up towards the ceiling and we're going to exhale, lower the leg down, and inhale, flex and lift up. Exhale, reach, and inhale up. Three more, exhale reach, and inhale. And two more, reach.

Give me hip extension. And one more. Lift and hold. Point the toe, bend the knee, place the foot down. Anchor that foot into the rollers, the other leg reaches up to the ceiling.

And we go exhale, reach through your arms and up, yes. Exhale, reach and inhale, lift. Exhale, reach, and inhale, lift. Two more, exhale, reach. Give me hips, Sarah.

And one more. Lift and hold it. Bend your knee. Place your foot down. And articulate, roll down through the spine.

Core, and core, and core, beautiful, Sarah. Straighten your legs with the roller underneath your calves. That is your calves. Reach your arms up to the ceiling, and reach your arms back over your head. Ready for your roll up.

We lift the arms and nod the chest forward, inhale. You then exhale, roll up. Into your seated position. Inhale, pause. And exhale to roll down.

Articulate through the spine. You roll down one vertebrae at a time. Group the fingers together and then reach the arms back without letting the ribs flare out. Inhale, arms and head follows. And exhale.

Roll up. Shoulders over the hips, inhale. And. And arms go back, keep the ribs connected. One more, inhale, lift the arms.

Nod the chest. Exhale, let's have a beautiful stretch as you reach your body all the way forward and down. Hold onto your ankles, or your knees. Or the soles of your feet if you have the range. Breathing in, and just gently ease down and give yourself a extra stretch there.

And one more, inhale, and exhale, reach, reach, reach. And from here. We can bend the knees and hover the feet off the floor. Holding onto the side of the roller for the rolling like a ball. So you squeeze your roller in your hands.

Not everyone's favorite exercise. Just give me your best with a smile. That's all I ask. When you're ready, we inhale, rolling back. Exhale, up.

Hover and hold. Good job, everyone. What was all the fuss about? Inhale, back. Exhale, up.

Hover and hold. We do four more, inhale. Massage that spine into the floor, exhale. No tension in the neck. Three more, inhale.

And two more. And one more, inhale. And we're gonna have a balance challenge. From here, bring the legs up, shins parallel to the floor. Breathing in, just tease the legs, okay?

No arms. Exhale, reach and hold. And inhale, bend. Give me backs. Exhale, reach and hold.

Nice work. And bend. One more. Exhale, reach and hold, from here, extend the arms up and we hold for five, exhale, four, draw the inner thighs together, three and two, and one. Bend the knees.

From here, roll down to the scapula ready for your double leg stretch. Exhale, exhale, and exhale. Breathing in. We exhale. And I'm changing the breathing as we inhale, reach out, and exhale, resisting.

Inhale, reach out. And keep that lower back connected to the floor, four more, and resist. And exhale, reach. And two more. And exhale, reach.

And back. And one more, reach, reach, draw the abs, and bend, lower the head down. Keep the shins off the floor please. Bend your elbows, push your roller into the front of your thigh. As you exhale, lift your chest and stretch the leg furtherest away from me, and we exhale, change.

Slight resistance between the roller and the thigh, exhale, elbows are wide, exhale. Inhale and exhale. And three more. Exhale, two. And we go into the rotation.

We exhale, rotate. And exhale, rotate. Create that resistance with the roller into the thigh, four. Exhale, three. Exhale, two.

Exhale, one. Center and relax. Place one foot and the other foot on the floor. Reach your legs away, lift the arms to 90, then reach the roller back over the head. Remember to modify if you need to by bending your knees.

We lift the arms and we nod the chest forward, inhale. And we exhale, to roll up. Good job. Let's do some spine work. So sit up tall, your legs are only as wide as your mats.

So only as wide as your mats, so bring your heels to the inside of your mats. Sitting up tall like you're sitting on a hot plate, feel connected in your body. Your chin is parallel to the floor, you inhale. Draw into your pelvic floor, your TA, allow the rectus abdominis to roll the body forward as you exhale, and then a slight hinge forward. And exhale, articulate back up, and up, and sitting tall, we breathe in.

Feel the connection in the abdominals in the back, then articulate up and over. Rolling forward. Inhale to pause. And exhale, two, roll back up. From the base of the spine, sitting tall, tall, and lift up, thank you.

Inhale. And exhale. Chin to chest, naval to spine. Stretching out the spines. Inhale.

And exhale. Two, roll back. Deep abdominals. Get a lift, get a lift, good. Inhale.

And exhale, chin to chest. Naval to spine. Rolling forward, and then this time, on the in breath, we move into the extension of the spine. So inhale. Reach the roller up to where the wall meets the ceiling.

The eyes are towards the toes, and we're gonna just hold it here. Draw down into the shoulder blades. Bend your knees a little bit for me. And give me a straighter spine. That is beautiful.

Lean a little bit more forward. There, hold it there. Breathe in. Mandy, squeeze the roller with the palms, not the fingertips. As we exhale, pulse the arms back one.

Liz, upper traps, give me more right here. Two. Exhale, three. Abdominals lift, four. Exhale, five.

And six. And seven. Eight. Nine. And breathe in, hold.

And reach the body down, forward and roll back up. All the way into the seated position. Draw the legs together, and reach the roller up over the head. Make sure you're squeezing the roller with the palms and not the fingertips. Your shoulders are over your hips.

Line the joints up with each other. On the in breath, you pause. You're going to rotate towards me as you exhale, exhale. And inhale, center. And exhale, exhale, keeping the ankles together, and exhale, exhale.

Inner thighs and ankles squeeze together. Exhale, exhale. And inhale, center. And four more, exhale, exhale. And inhale.

And three more, bring your legs together for me. And inhale, legs together. And two more, exhale, exhale. Give me backs, give me backs. And one more.

And center, hold the it here. Hold it here in the center. I need breaths, I need shoulder blades down, I need lower ribs down, Mandy. Draw the abdominals, draw in towards the center of your body. Lengthen the spine, feel your back work.

Come on, give me attitude. Give me attitude. Breathe in, breathe in. And relax. Good.

Brilliant. Yeah. Bring your roller up towards the center of the room. And you're gonna lie on your side and stack your legs on top of each other. Okay.

So you can do this exercise off the roller if you feel it's too much of a challenge. 'cause I'd rather you work in a less challenging environment but more perfect. Okay. So let's get off the beach, and lift up. Thank you.

We inhale. As you exhale, lifting up from the underneath side abdominals. The underneath obliques. You're going to lift your hips up and balance for me. Beautiful.

So the palm is towards your feet. We inhale. And exhale. Give me a little bit more lift in the hips. That's it.

A little bit more lift, inhale. And exhale, beautiful. Inhale. So you ready for the challenge. The balance challenge.

Inhale, the top leg is going to lift up, and you exhale, hold for five. Exhale, four, give me hips, give me hips. Three. Two. And control.

And lower down, draw your heels in towards the obliques. Beautiful work, everyone. And let's have a stretch. So, falling means you've been taken out of your comfort zone which is a good thing, okay? And let's do the other side.

This side'll be easier. Good. Are you staying for the next class, Sarah? Huh? Are you staying for the next class?

Yes. Good job. I don't know if I can handle it. Of course you can. So let's lift.

Come on, Sarah, come on. Breathe in. Exhale, lift the hips up. Lift up. Reach and hold.

Beautiful. Inhale. And exhale, you can keep the arm down if it's easier, but lift up away from the floor. Breathe in, and exhale, from here, concentration, focus, balance, breath, and ta-da! Inhale. And exhale, lift the hips, Mandy.

That is so beautiful, Mandy. Little bit more! Little bit more! And thank you, Christi. And lower down. It's hard sometimes not to be the teacher. And lift up and over.

Inhale. Enjoy the stretch. And we breathe in. And exhale. Good.

So we have to do the ITB release with an extension and flexion. So we're gonna make it a moving ITB stretch, okay? So bring your roller underneath the hip joints. Point your fingers towards the diagonal of your mat, away from your hips, having both hands on the floor. If this is too painful on the ITB, place the top leg over to push, and alleviate a little bit of the pressure off the thigh.

So what I'd like you to do from here, on the in breath, move and roll the roller towards your knees as you bring your body into an extension on the diagonal. Keep lifting the legs, the hips are on top of each other. Then slide posterior, tighten the pelvis. Tuck the chin and then roll down and lift the legs as you come back into the extension of the spine. And.

Are we rotating at all? Not rotating, okay. And then we go, inhale. So extension, extension, extension. And then flexion, and roll down to get into the obliques.

And we do three more. And lift up. And remember to roll on the whole area of the ITB, so you might have to roll out a little bit. And two more. Lift, lift, lift.

And roll down, elbows connect with the floor. And last one. Lift up, lift up, and lift up. And roll down. And up.

Let's do the quads, just from here. Lie in the prone. Elbows on the floor. Give me some glutes and hamstrings and hover the legs off the floor without letting the abdominals release so the legs are together. You're going to peel your body forward into the extension as you lift up on the inhale, then draw the abs, tuck the chin, and exhale, reach back.

And hold. And inhale. Inhale, and inhale. And draw the abdominals and exhale. Roll back and hold.

And one more. Inhale. Roll forward. And forward. Lift, beautiful shoulder stability.

And exhale, roll back, back, and back. And you can come down and we'll do the other side. So fingers point towards the corner of the mat. The legs are lifted, side abdominals are active, we breathe in, and we drag the body up and forward. For this side.

And exhale, roll back. And lift the legs. And we inhale. Inhale, and inhale. And exhale, abdominals are active.

And three more. Inhale, lift, lift, lift. And exhale. Good modification. And two more, inhale.

Inhale, and inhale. And exhale, down. Last one. And inhale, inhale, inhale. And exhale, lift, reach, and reach.

And relax. Okay. So let's finish off with a back extension. Gonna ask you to lie in a prone position for me. With your hands squeezing into the roller, and it's not a big movement at all, but it's a deep movement.

Deep into your upper back extensors, so from here, draw the TA off the floor. Squeeze your palms into the roller, and hover just the nose and the arms off the floor. So just hovering and holding at the the elbow is elongated. The naval to the spine, the legs are reaching away, and try not to hang onto your glutes so relax up here. Breathe in for me.

And then lower down on the exhale. Draw the scapula back, thank you, thank you. And we lift up on the in breath, lift the arms and give me, extend more here. So push just this area into my hand, not so much the head. Just here.

That's it. Beautiful, and exhale, lower down. We'll do two more. Keep the legs on the floor, and work into the upper back. Give me foam roller, then nose off the floor.

And lift chest here. Go lower down. But lift the arms higher. Yes. And lower down.

And we'll do one more. And inhale. Inhale. And inhale. A little bit more neck extension.

That's it. And exhale down. Leave your roller on the floor. Place your hands under your shoulders and push back into your rest position. If the knees are happy, keep the legs together, and just stretch out.

The backs. Good. Breathe in. And exhale. And inhale.

Breathing in. And exhale. And one more. Bring the hands under the shoulders, tuck the toes under, lift your hips up towards the ceiling. Walk your hands closer towards your feet, and exhale, roll up through your spine.

Rolling up. And up, and up. Bring the weight back into your heels. Feel centered, we inhale. And exhale, lower the chin.

Articulate through the spine. Rolling up. And over. And you should feel more flexible than an hour ago, inhale. And exhale.

All the way up. Into your perfect posture. Well done. Good work, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Good.

Comments

Natasja - this class was amazing!

I had absolutely no idea what was coming up next so I had to concentrate hard on your excellent cues and go with the flow.

Foam roller classes have always been one of my favourite 'challenge' mat workouts. This class is one that I will repeat for my own practice and enjoy sharing with my classes.

Just wonderful x
3 people like this.
Loved the strength work incorporated with stretching and release of tight, sore muscles. One of those "hurts so good" workouts in some parts. Really great IT band and thoracic spine work- which I need.
4 people like this.
This class is what I have been waiting for in a foam roller class: steady pace, beautiful movements, strengthening and stretching for 50 Minutes!. Thank you!
Beautiful class! I really loved your helicopter abs. I feel wonderful, thank you!
1 person likes this.
Are there any substitutions for a foam roller for those of us who don´t have one yet?
2 people like this.
brava natasja.kiss from italy
1 person likes this.
I really liked this class - it was a nice combination of stretching and strengthening. However, it would be great to have a shorter version that was faster-paced and more focused on the strengthening exercises with the foam roller. Thanks!!
1 person likes this.
Fantastic class!! Just what I needed after traveling! Thank you!
Tash Barnard
WOW! Thank you everyone for the positive feedback - i'm totally grateful to have had the experience to film for P.A and of course to share my passion with the WORLD is completely overwhelming!
Tash Barnard
Joni - you can certainly use other assists: place a 'try-ad ball' under the pelvis for the hip work, under the scapula for abdominal work! You can also use a pilates arc to lift the pelvis and thoracic spine - as for the balancing work - stand on a couple of 'squishy' mats to challenge the proprioceptors - let me know how you go! GOOD LUCK!
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