Class #1167

Heart Pumping Mat

25 min - Class
126 likes

Description

In this Mat workout, Amy flows from one exercise to the next to keep you moving and to get your heart pumping. She uses Hand Weights to add more upper body work to the Mat repertoire. In addition to teaching the Rowing Series, Amy adds in variations to exercises like Open Leg Rocker with Scissor Legs and Swimming with the Weights.
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights

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Transcript

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Hi everyone. Amy here giving us a nice workout, a mat workout. I've got one pound hand weights, so we're going to do a little bit of hand weight work with the Mat. You can do one pound, two pounds, three pounds. I wouldn't recommend any heavier than three women. Maybe one is good. I'm an integrate some of the rowing pieces from the reformer in with the mat.

I'm probably a little improvisation as I often do. I'm based in the main mat work frame, so let's get started. I'm ready to work out. I'm going to start at the end of the mat and you can do the classical and across one leg over the other and just take one nice big breath in. Lift the stomach up into the rib cage. This breathe in. Then as we exhale, try to sit down in a swift fashion and lying back.

Munis. Stretch my legs out right away this afternoon and just try to work right into the idea of getting the spine down into the mat. So my lumbar spine, my thoracic spine, not really my cervical spine though. I'm gonna curl up. I'm gonna reach my arms. Lift those legs up on the net. Palladio's v today and we're pumping. Inhale for five. Exhale three, four, five, two, three, four, five, three.

So making sure that as you're using the weights, if anything doesn't feel right for you, just set them off to the side. No need to keep working with the weights if you don't like them where she feel any pain or distress in your body. Halfway there. Seven for five. Press the collarbone wide. Feel the length and the legs. The imprinting of the lower back. Ten two, three, four five. Exhale, three, four, five less roll in. And I'm gonna use the strap at the end of the mat today for some exercises.

So I'm going to flex my feet hard into the strap. Little piles, v with my feet and the roll up. Reaching long as the stomach pulls back. Rolling, trying to reach the sacred under and lengthen, massaging the spine into the mat. Inhale, exhale, pulling up and over. So I'm trying to leave my stomach back, but stretching my spine long over my legs too. More arms, head and chest. Pull the body up. Whoa. Sto. I'm thinking about having very strong legs squeezed together, reaching, reaching, reaching and all the way down. Setting my waist to the side. I'm going to reach my hands around.

Hold onto the bar that's in my pla, my mat here and take my hoops both legs up for rollover. Inhale here overhead. Flex the feet. I'm going to put my feet down on the mat. Find the corners roll down. Try to widen the legs lower and up. And I've got my hands behind me today trying to work on opening up my chest and reverse legs apart to roll up and over. Ah, articulating strong rib cage. No arching there. Yeah.

Open. Ah, over and all the way down. Now I'm going to leave my right leg off. Lower the left. Flex that foot, arms back. Let's do leg circles for three today. One, two and three other way and one I'm slightly pulling up with my hands in the bar three and change, crossover. Lift one, two and three other direction. Try not to scoot that bar. Two and three. Tuck both knees and let go. Hugin and let's come up for the rolling like a ball. I'm gonna lift my heels and Sitz bones together.

Wrapping in five or six rolls right away. Trying not to spend too much time back on those shoulders. Pull up. Inhale rock. Exhale coming. Three more. Shoulders back. Really wrapping them down last time. Now place the feet. Lift your seat, put it back, grab those weights and roll on down. So for sins of abdominal series, come on up, Paul Lewis, knees and close.

I'm going to have my hands just in the salute position for single leg. So one and one, two and two. Three. I'm really trying to stretch out from the hip, pressing my shoulders back and down. And four, three, two, one. So double leg. Let's go ahead and extend the arms and legs. Take a nice big circle and, and pressing the spine down into the mat to more stretch as far as you can on this one. Stretch, stretch, stretch around. And so for the scissor hands, again in the salute position to pull. So pulling that leg down, wrap the shoulders back.

I'm going to take the arms out to the side. Hold them there. Two spine is in the mat and four, three, two and one. Pull both legs up, hands behind the head, straight leg, lower. Lift down and lift. Just two more. Reaching for the wall and up and reach. End Up Chris. Cross turn. Now take that one arm and reach toward the other, the foot, so foot, elbow, back and reach and just slowing it down to really feel the opposition. One arm forward. Other elbow back, twist through the spine and twist. Wring it out.

Last one to each side. Last one here, knees in and rock on up. Spine, stretch forward. Let's go right to the corners of the mat with the feet. Arms for Russet, as tall as you can for just a moment. Let's take it a deep breath. Stretching the spine. Forward. Stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. I'm actually going to touch the front of the mat now. When I roll up, I'm going to bring the arms with me and just do a nice press press. Bring them down and press.

Press one big circle in each direction. Just feel your body opening up spine stretch, forward stretch. You can hold the mat, you can pull yourself forward, but make sure you pulling his stomach back. Rolling up. Lift the arms. Two presses, one to work to control the ribs. Press impress. Now here comes the circle. Big Lift. Circle around. Let your chest open. One more round.

So pulling the spine over over, hand, over rolling up with the arms. Two presses, one to bring them back. Feel your triceps to big circle, round and last. Circle around and rest. Open my Grok or close the set the weights down. Just bring those feet in. Find your center. Find your focus. Look forward now. Again, look into your stomach as you roll. Inhale, come right back up. Hold your stomach back.

So too often we lose our balance by pushing those ribs forward. Think up through the head. If anything, look into the stomach. Look straight ahead. Focus, look into the stomach. Look straight ahead. Focus one more guys roll. And I'm going to do a little bit different. Rocker. One leg, a scissor, three times here.

Whoop and look into the stomach. Look straight ahead. Look into the stomach and straight switch three times. Ideally keeping this scissor the same split between the legs and rock. End Up. Hold the legs together. Now let's roll back down. Tuck the knees in for a second and find the pole again.

If you're not on a mat with a pole, you can have your hands just behind you on your mat and legs up, right leg up. So what I want to do is lift the leg, lift your hip, and then pull that hip down into the mat, almost into the floor. So we're lifting and I'm pulling down, trying to get my obliques to help me rotate a bit and down. One more lift and lower switch. You'll see what this is for and lift. Now the other thing I'm trying not to do when I lift this leg is roll sideways.

I'm really thinking like I'm going up a telescope up and pull it to the mat. Pole lift, pull to the Mack, heave that leg there. We're going to take the legs to a tick tock side to side. So if I go to the side, how far can I go without letting that opposite shoulder come with me and then find center to the other side of the ankles are touching this right shoulder and opposition is down on the mat, over and left and over and lift. Once again each side. This is a nice prep for corkscrew.

Okay, and we're going to go into that next. I'm going to do it with the little rollover, so take it to the size. Sweep around, roll up and over the shoulders there, down the left and around so you can get your legs. Do that tip talk there. I got a little better. How round center and and to that opposite ticktock down around and lift.

Once again, I'm trying really hard not to move my stick so that I stay in the center. Oh my body around. We're going to come up for saw, right on up to the right. Twist and reach. Arms and opposition there. One's going front, one's going back. Twist, stretch in opposite directions. Rolling up. Find your center. Lift. [inaudible] we'll do one more. Each side.

Remember to lift up there in the stomach and rich. Roll up, twist last time. Twist and reach. Rolling up. Find your center legs in and arms in. Okay. A little slow swimming, so I'm going to flip over. Hands and the corners. Forehead down. Regroup. Feel the stomach. Pull up, take a breath.

I'm going to take my right arm up. Left arm up. Excuse me. Right arm up, left leg up. Headon chest and reach and reach. I don't have a lot of pressure on the down arm. Trying to lift my limbs up and lower other side. Left arm, right leg. Find your muscles. Use them to lift. Lift, lift. First side.

Can you lift higher? Yes. Even half an inch. Quarter of an inch. A mindful lynch. Yeah. One more each side and long and down. Last time, lift, lift, squeeze. Use those muscles up and where to rest your arms. Bring yourself back to a rest pose. That's all. Turn right around. Grab those weights and we're going to find this strap again for our feet. For neck pull. Okay. Neck, fall.

Pull the feed into the strap. Let's pull the feed apart. Just a little bit. And then hands behind the head. Squeeze the glutes, lift, roll back, not very long on the mountain. Curl up, rail over. Roll yourself up. Set the shoulders. So how far can you lean? Control your flection. Control the flection round, round, round. Roll it up. One more lean flection.

Curl over and rolling up and rest. I'm going to do spine twist here, so arms forward first, take a breath. If we're going to take an exhale and reach the chest, I'm actually going to turn and look at that back arm. And now try to reach both arms in opposite directions and come home and twist, twist, twist, and come home. I'm like a growing vine. Twisty vine.

Round and up and twist. Anchoring the sit bones down into this mat down into the earth. Last one, twist, twist, twist, and last one. And twist and twist and twist. Okay, ready for a little rolling. So I'm going to move back for a second. How did the hands come into the chest says take a breath and just roll back.

So why would I want to do is open the arms and close four times. Open and close, holding that stomach back and close and open and close and open. Now pulling the stomach even deeper. Hands behind. Clasp the fingers and pool. Let's lift the arms up. Stretch, lift and circle. Stretch those hamstrings. Roll back up the full piece. Three times. Pulling in [inaudible] class. Give a little extra stretch now.

Keeps stomach pulling as you circle the arms and stretch out. Out, out. Ruling up. Two more. Pull in, open round. Pull that stomach way back to the spine. Clasp, lift, circle and stretch. Rolling up. Last time pulling in [inaudible]. Sure.

So my shoulders feeling a little tighter than usual today. Oh well I'm working on it. Flexi elbows. Now let's do something a little less than this angle is open and tiny bed. Squeeze the booty and let's just hinge back and hinge forward. So all we're doing, I want us to feel a little bit more.

I'm kinda thinking of being in a really skinny hallway and I'm holding my arms in, pulling my pelvis together, squeezing my legs together to more. But yet I'm starting to taste stay tall in my spine and down and over and I'm just going to stretch. Okay, so from the chest hands here, let's reach, bring me arms down. No, slowing it down just a little bit so we can work on the vertical alignment. Lift that spine, open the arms. You can even let your chest reach a little bit further forward.

Not the ribs with the chest. See if he can find the difference. Arms down. So find that lift right. No rib pushing the chest can open. Think of your upper ribs, maybe your upper collarbone and two more. Reach down, sitting tall. Can the collarbone widen out long with your arms and around two more. One more. In reach.

Lift all the way round. We're going to come into bending down, so hands by the hips. Breathe in tall stretch. Now again, I'm going to roll up my spine, keeping my arms in line with my shoulders first. Then with the pelvis, reaching it back, reaching it back, lifting all the bones in the spine and coming down three more. Sitting tall, bending down stomach work. Stretch the arm. Leaving that stomach back there. Roll up shoulder level with those arms. Now I'm thinking pelvis back, chest forward, pelvis, back. Reach a little further. How long can you feel your body, your spine, controlling the ribs? Two more. And stretch, lift pelvis back.

Just forward now taking that whole column of your spines. Lift. Control the lower rib cage open. And last one here. Lift in taller down, stretch and relative vertical pelvis back. How long can you get and and open and pause. Hug a tree. Let's inhale. I'm gonna Change it. Exhale, arms forward. Inhale, chest open. You can always cross your legs into Indian style. Diamond position.

I'm going to do three more. Think of opening your back, opening your front, opening or back. Opening your front. Last one. Open and here. Salute or shave the head. I'm going to lean forward a little bit and reach down. Three more. Reach for me. Controlling my rib cage is my main objective. Last one up and we're done without piece.

So I'm going to take us over to our side, right arm, left arm. You can mirror me and let's take our tao top leg that foot forward so I've got the feet side by side into side bend on the arms so you can have open fingers or closed. It's your choice. Control your shoulder. Here we go and take a nice big breath and I'm controlling my lift, but I want to go into a pretty generous bend and want to look down at that hand to push the mat down as they lift my hips, my ribs, my waistline up, up, up, up, and control my coming down. One more there and push the mat down. Lift, lift, lift, strong legs, strong legs. Now let's come to a plank or side position.

Let's try this three times top leg kick up and down. See, what do we have? We've got a one and a two and a three [inaudible] and coming down. Spiral the legs around, slipping all over the place. Here I'm very sweaty three times a big breath. Get in the center of the body hacks so you can look down at the hand.

Now lift the bones of the ribs up the waist, the hips as you equally pushed down with that arm. It's a lot of arm work on that side. Strong legs coming all the way to the mat. Breathing in. You know what's coming next. Lift. Feel those legs strong. Now Find Center.

Look toward me and look right at the front and here go turned out with this top leg and kick and kick and kick. Whoa. And Center. I'm going to spin back this way. I'm going to come in, hug my knees, bring my head and chestnut for a little teaser. Here we go. And he's, or one. You could do this with the weights in your hands if you'd like to. I'm choosing not to. You can see that one more whole now.

Legs only down and up. Down and lift and down and everything. Arms and legs down. Reach for the toes. Reach for the sky. Reach down, not lowering those legs to the mat. Lift one more time up and tuck them in this seal.

Wrap in. Let's roll back. Clap, clap, clap and clap, clap, clap. Roll at two and one, two, three. Can you pull your heels closer into your sit bones? Can you press those knees in against your elbows? Elbows out against the knees. Can One, two, three, one more.

One, two, three u-haul. Okay, I'm gonna do a little mermaid. I love saying that. The Little Mermaid. So tuck your feet in. We're going to just spend a little more time on a stretch and a breathing with this. All right, so taking that one hand and hold us feet. Calm things down and get a little slower and your breathing. Reach this available arm up. Can you get the arm near the head or the ear? Yes.

Go Higher. Reach for the blue sky and then bend. Make it a nice long bend rather than downward bend. It's an upward curve. Upward curve. I'm going to take that other arm and help drape that elbow really nice. Stretching the triceps on the top arm and I'm going to turn myself into my little shell and around relaxing the neck and shoulders and open, open and all the way to center. Now does transition.

Let's just do a little fin kick there. Hold onto those ankles and shins. Reach for the sky, look right up to it. If you can. You can see it inside bend. I'm going to take that other arm and bend, enjoying the stretch along this Armin tricep set for me into my lats. And then tr open up your back would if there's sun behind you nuna expose your back to the sunshine. Ms. Feel that warmth. Take a nice deep inhale.

Melt the shoulders as you come back to center and all the way up. So the last thing I want us to do is come down onto her tummy. Stack your hands, float the legs up, hold your legs maybe inch or two above the ground and just feel some steadiness for a minute in your pelvis. Your stomach is supporting as lifting up off the mat towards your spine. Let's do some heel beats. So two flex, two pointed. So if this is a still a strong movement, even though we began slowing down with the mermaid, keep going with the focus of contracting and strengthening, toning through your lower half flex and point flex point.

Let's take four, three, two, easy. NEC, last one, and settle your legs. Okay. Yes, three swans. Let's take hands here. Push reach down. This is a beautiful stretch for the front body. Look up again into those heavens and then bring yourself back down and pause. Reach through the head, through the spine.

Press using the strength of the arms. You did all that work earlier to support you. Push yourself up and lower. Last time in reach. It's a beautiful, strong spine. We're gonna rock three times one, two, three and around into child's pose.

And just a nice, easy coming into talk toes. Stretching the basis of the feed, the base of the toes. Straighten those legs. I'm going to walk in the middle of my mouth just for a minute. So this little closing, what I'd like you to do, have your feet just slightly apart, should be plenty warm to do a deep, deep stretch of your legs. I would've suggest not to lock your knees out. Uh, you know, no lock-in. Take one arm and circle it around, hook the ankle and then the other hand, some kind of doing a little braiding with my hands. Drop that head.

Try to pull the stomach up off the thighs. So here's me resting on my thighs, kind of comfortable. But if I lift up off my thighs, it's a whole different deal. I feel a much more efficient stretch away in my hamstrings, my lower back. Two more breaths. Go a little deeper. You're nice and warm. The hands from the breeding thing, but see if you can still stay forward. We're going to bend deep into the legs and easy. 10 counts to roll up.

Starting with the tail one and rolling up three easy does it, four and five and six and seven and eight and nine and 10. Just reach forward and lift. Press the air down and reach forward and lift. Press the air down, reverse palms face, up and down. Uh, last one, press lift, and we are finished with our network. Thank you so much.

Comments

Great! Love that it was 30 minutes for a quick workout! and I love that mat!!! I need one of those. So Amy, I'm thinking I want to do your class on Tuesday morning (the 27th) at 7:45. I'll just go to your website and sign up if that's okay. we can talk about going to Pilates Anytime on Wednesday or Thursday, if it doesn't work to film I would at least love to see the studio.
Thank you for a challenging but super clear class. I often have time for only 1/2 hour class -- although I watched a lot of this one before deciding I should try it--and this was a really good one. It was helpful for me to watch your form, Amy, while listening to such specific cuing. Thanks.
Loved the flow and heat and detailed cues that allowed me to focus on the movement and great alignment cues! Thanks Amy
Loved the flow and heat and detailed cues that allowed me to focus on the movement and great alignment cues! Thanks Amy
Hi Connie, sounds great! Looking forward to it!! Yes, we'll talk about other opportunities for that week!
Thank you so much Kate and Zoe!!
1 person likes this.
Outstanding class. Loved the fast pace and challenges! Thank you!
Sherri....thank you so much! :)
Nice one Amy!! New favourite cue "take the pelvis back". Thanks!!
Thank you Kerry! :) Yes, 'take that pelvis back"!
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