Class #1213

The First PA Video

40 min - Class
144 likes

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We are so excited that we have reached 1,000 videos on Pilates Anytime and we wanted to share a special class with you! This Mat workout with Kristi was filmed before Pilates Anytime was founded and it was Kristi and Ted's first attempt at making an online video. We have come a long way since then and we want to say thank you to all of our members and instructors for making this possible. We hope you enjoy this class that was designed to lengthen your body and free it from tension so you can move more efficiently.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Sep 30, 2013
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[inaudible]. We begin today's class on our backs, so with your feet about four or five inches apart, go ahead and lie down onto your back. Your knees will be bent and then bring your feet comfortable distance away from you. The position of the fetus in parallel and the feet are relaxed. The knees are pointed straight up to the ceiling and there's some energy through the inner thigh as if you were hugging that space between the inner seam of the legs. As you travel further up your body. The pelvis is meant to be neutral or level, so we're not arching the back and we're not rolling the back into the mat, but rather we try and start with the back even or level. For most of us, that means we're going to have a little bit of space between our low backs and the floor. Traveling further up your spine, become aware of the backside of your rib cage and gently allow the back of the ribs to settle into the mat. You may feel that the abdominals engaged, they're going even further up the body for our initial setup.

Think of reaching the shoulders, the arms down your body towards your hips. That ought to give you a sense of activity in your upper back. And we'll gently press the shoulders toward the Mat and finally allow your chin gently curve toward the chest so you have a sense of length through the back of the neck. In this position, we're energized. We're ready to begin without going anywhere. Let's take a couple of deep breaths. Inhaling, [inaudible] and exhaling, letting any and all tension go.

What we know about this work as the freer of tension we are. When we start the more efficient we're going to move. Inhale, filling up and exhale, letting go. And with that we'll inhale beginning a gentle rocking of the pelvis. Let's exhale and roll the pelvis so the low back gently presses into the mat and the tailbone curls up. As you inhale, go back to your starting position and then a little further so you have a gentle arch to your back and exhale rolling back so you feel the low back. Press into the mat and inhale, reaching into the tailbone, allowing just a little additional arch come into the movement and exhale, rocking into the low back. We do this just to loosen up the body a little bit.

Wake up that low back a little and inhale to the tailbone and exhale nice and easy as a way of entering into the workout with as little tension as possible. Inhale to the tailbone and exhaling back to the low back. Finally, let's go back to our starting position where once again it feels neutral and level. We're going to add to that pelvic rocking by carrying it all the way up through the body called the pelvic curl in health PR. To prepare, begin the exhale. Allow the abdominals to sink to the spine. We roll the pelvis up off the floor of this time, rolling through the middle back all the way up to the upper back, lengthening down through the body.

Inhale for no movement and on your Xcel rolling back down. Your upper back comes down. Then your middle back, curving the low back so that you can reach the tailbone into the mat and inhale, begin the exhale and roll the pelvis up bone by bone, trying to articulate through all 33 bones in your back until you get to about the shoulder blades. Inhale here and exhale to roll down, softening through the chest, reaching down through the middle, back, curving through the low back, and finally allowing your hips to release back to the start position. Inhale, begin the exhale and follow the breath. As you roll the pelvis up, feeling the gentle massage to the spine. You may feel some activity in the back of the legs. That's a good thing. Inhale, hold and exhale. Rolling back down. Finding the curve to your back, feeling your body become just a little warmer, a little more supple, and inhale. Exhale to roll up scooping the belly, using the back of the legs and the abdominals to create the action of this.

Stay up here. Look down your body. You should see a straight line shoulder to knees. Inhale and exhale. We bring it back down. The chest falls, the rib cage falls, you curve the back, and then finally we're back to the starting position. We'll do two more. Inhale and exhale, hauling the belly. Maybe you can imagine drawing the pubic bone towards the chest, rolling the hips up, finding that nice long line B. Being mindful not to arch too high, meaning allowing the ribs to release in him and we'd come back down.

Exhaling, reaching the spine, creating just a little more space as we come down. Last one. Inhale and exhale up. We come rolling. Finding the ease in the movement, finding the efficiency and the flow and inhale and exhale. Bringing it back down all the way to the start position. From here, please bring your feet together so you feel the big toe joints, the ankle bones and the knees as best you can. Even the inner thighs are gently pressing together.

I'm going to take our arms out to a t position with the palms facing up toward the ceiling. If you can imagine you only had one leg because we're going to keep the legs together exactly side by side. Inhale, allow the left hip to lift up off the mat. Keep the feet aligned as you rotate the knees to the right. From there, you'll exhale, contract the abdominals and draw the legs back to the center. Starting position to the left. We'll inhale, lift the right hip so the knees can lean off to the left or rotate to the left. Start Your exhale and allow the knees to sway back to center until both feet come back on the mat and to the right we inhale to rotate. Meanwhile, the upper body is still and stable. Exhale, contract and draw back to center and inhale.

It's a sense of separation from the upper body and lower body. Exhale to bring it back to center. Continuing our warmup. Inhale, the outside edge of that top foot is off the floor as well, and exhale, draw back to center. And inhale. If you want to do a position check, look down your body and make sure that the knees are lined up side by side and exhale, pull back to center. It's almost as if the knees are swaying from side to side to the right. Inhale and exhale and inhale to the left.

Feeling the stretch in the rotation and exhale back to center. We'll do two more here to the right. Inhale, keep those feet lined up. You always have to pay attention when you're working in class. Exhale, center, and last time. Inhale to the back and exhale. Come back to center from here. Take the hands behind your head. We're going to fully laced the fingers together and let our heads rest in our hands as if our hands were a pillow.

You're probably gonna want your elbows just off the mat so there's no unnecessary tension in the neck and shoulders. This exercise is called the chest lift. It's going to go kind of slow, but it will look very similar to your basic ab crunch. Inhale, prepare, begin exhaling and curl the head, neck and shoulders off the mat. Looking somewhere about mid sigh or your abdominals. Stay here in inhale and on your exhale. Lengthen yourself back down to the mat and inhale and exhale to curl up. Letting the breath proceed, the movement curling up high enough that you can relax your low back into the mat. Inhale and exhale lengths in yourself back out.

Imagine your spine growing longer as you come back down and inhale. Exhaling to curl up, allowing your head to relax into your hands, holding it here for an inhale and exhale, deepen your sense of the abdominals as you lengthen yourself to the mat. Inhale and exhale to curl up again. As we continue doing our repetitions. Inhale here at the top. Exhale down. As we continue doing our repetitions, you're going to start to feel the heat and the abdominals warming you up.

Inhale and exhale to curl up. Remind yourself to look straight ahead. Inhale, hold and exhale down. You get four more. Inhale, exhale. You might feel the rib bones knitting together or coming together curling up. Hold it there. Inhale deep in your contraction and exhale.

Lengthen yourself down and inhale and exhale. Letting the breath provide your rhythm, following the breath at all times. Inhale, hold and exhale. Lengthen it back down. Two more. Inhale and [inaudible]. Yeah, inhale for no movement. Exhale, lengthen down, and one more from here. Inhale, exhale. Feel the abdominal sink toward the spine. Try not to let them pooch up. Inhale, hold it and exhale back down. [inaudible]. All right, so far so good.

We're going to release the hands. Reach them out straight in front of you where you can place one hand on top of the other. From that position, press your shoulders toward your hip so you have a sense of length. From collarbone to collarbone. Inhale, prepare. This is chest lift with rotation XL, first thing you do is curl up, reaching your fingertips towards your knees, looking at your fingertips. Take another inhale and on your exhale we're going to take the whole upper body and reach just outside the right knee. That's your exhale. Inhale, come through center keeping your height. Exhale, rotate to your left.

Inhale, come through center and exhale. Rotate to your right. Inhale the lower bodies. Absolutely. Still exhale to your left. [inaudible] Ian held a muscle focus abdominals with obliques and to the right. Exhale, inhaling to the center and exhale, keeping those hands still one on top of the other. Inhale, center and exhale to the front and inhale center and to the left. Inhale, come back to the center. Separate the hands and exhale, allow everything to return to the mat. From here, we're going to allow the legs to come apart just a little bit so they're back to that original pelvic curl position. From this place, we're going to go into an exercise called single leg lifts. What's important about this exercise is that you keep your trunk, your pelvis absolutely stable, so it might be helpful to imagine something heavy on your abdominal wall so that you have no tendency to arch or talk, but rather you're supporting this heavy stone if you will.

Taking your right leg, let's bring it up to tabletop or 90 degrees at the hip and the knee. From here, it's an inhale and exhale. Hold it there for one more breath. Inhale, prepare on your exhale. Lower that foot down to the mat. Just lightly tap it on the ground. Inhale, hold. Same legs coming up on the exhale. Here it is. Exhale, float that leg back up into position. Inhale, as we lower the leg, that's the breath pattern. I wanted. Lightly. Tap The toe and exhale.

Scoop the belly without changing the spine to float the leg back to 90 degrees in how the leg lowers and exhale to lift up. So as best we can, we let the leg relax and focus on the abdominals. Inhale, the big toe touches the mat and exhale to lift it back up. One more time. Inhaling down the rest of the spine, absolutely still and XL to scoop and bring it back up. Return the leg to the mat. Inhaling, we're going to switch sides. Exhale, everything's still the left leg comes up to that 90 degree angle. Inhale, reaching the leg down without changing the knee at all and XL.

Scoop or tighten the abdominals to bring the knee back up and inhale as you lower. It's an important skill to build upon. Exhale. That's why we do this exercise. It will help us in so many exercises later. Inhale as you lower and so be mindful of the energy that is taking to hold the trunk. Absolutely. Still. One more time. We inhale to lower and exhale to bring it back up. Next exercise is called the leg changes. From here.

We inhale on your exhale. We're going to just switch legs, so exhale slowly. Switching legs to the left leg touches the floor and now the right leg is up. Hold it here for an inhale and exhale to change. Inhale, pause and exhale, change. Again, absolute stability of the low back. Inhale and exhale change.

Inhale to exhale, change, hopefully starting to feel that sense of abdominal connection. Inhale, exhale, change. Inhale, exhale, change. This'll be the last one. Keep the left leg on the ground and inhale. Exhale. Return the right leg to the mat right alongside the left foot, so again, the knees are together. Moving into a classic exercise called the hundred I'll prepare you for it first and then we'll, we'll stay up and do the actual exercise. It starts like this. Inhale, prepare on your exhale. You're going to curl your head, neck, and shoulders up, sliding your hands along your mat until at the last minute they have, or just off. Inhale, hold and exhale. Come right back down.

Lengthening your neck back into the mat. Inhale. Let's do that again. Exhale as you curl your head, neck and shoulders up. Slide your arms down along the mat, feeling that sense of region at the last minute, the arms float and stay up. Inhale, exhale to lengthen yourself back down. On the next version of this, we're going to up there and do a breathing exercise or do the hundred which is a breathing exercise. We inhale. Exhale, curl, head, neck and shoulders up, reaching the arms until the point where they hover off the mat. Stay here.

Inhale on your Xcel. Start pumping the arms, just little pumps. It's exhale. Two, three, four, five. Now inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Two, three, four, five and inhale. Two, three, four, five. Everything else is stable for five. An inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, or five. And inhale, two, three, four, five. Number five, two, three, four, five. And inhale, we try for 10 and six. Two, three, four, five and inhale, keep the sense of reaching. Seven, two, three, four, five and inhale, and two, three, four, five. And inhale nine. Keeping the low back, relaxed and inhale to last. Full breath cycle. And ten two, three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five. From there, allow your head, neck and shoulders to go down and from here you may want to look over your right shoulder to free up any tension that may have been collected. Allow your chin to come across the chest and look over your left shoulder letting go of any tension there. We'll come back to center and from here, once again, separate your feet just a little bit to prepare for yet another precise pelvic curl. We inhale. Prepare on your exhale, scoop the belly, rolling the hips up all the way to that shoulder blade position. Check your position that once again as you look down, you have a straight line and that you don't see your ribs above your hip, but rather it's on an ice long line where both the front of the body and the back of the body feel flat. Inhale, prepare. On Your exhale, you're going to lift the right thigh up so you bring that knee to 90 degrees.

The knee is still bent. Just like the exercise before in how lower that leg back down? Lightly tap the toe. The same leg comes up again. Exhaling to lifted and inhale as you lower down absolute stability in the hips. X Helsel lift in, scoop the belly. Inhale to lower down.

Looking for stillness in the trunk. Animal if and inhaling down. Just one more for this leg. Exhale to lift up. We're going to inhale, set it down, make it a smooth transition. The hips remain. Level two. Exhale the left leg up and in how lightly touched down. Find the abdominals as you exhale in.

Lift watching your body paying attention that you don't drop the hips as you lift the leg. Exhale, lifting number three and inhale lightly touched down. Exhale number four, strong through the center. We'll do one more here. Exhale to lift that like up. Replace the leg on the mat, holding it there, right back where we started. And on your exhale we'll roll down upper back, middle back, curving the low back all the way down. Why don't you hug your knees to your chest for a minute. Take a little break.

Trust that our abdominals are warmed up just a little bit. Now I'm here. Hold on behind your size. I'm going to ask you to curl your head, neck and shoulders up again and from here keep this position, this nice curve to the back. Let's just get a little rocking motion. Basically keeping everything as it starts. We'll do five more. One exhale as you go forward to inhale back three, make it a little bigger for and on the fifth one we'll try to get all the way up. Five. Feel that sense of energy from the tailbone through the top of the head.

It's also important to think of the inner thighs here. We find that that's a real helpful connection. If you think of lightly pressing on the space between that inner seam of the leg, it's helpful to find the abdominal wall. Inhale here on your exhale. We're gonna. Once again, scoop the belly, allow the pelvis to roll back. The upper body will just follow it. Getting a gentle curve to the spine, holding it there.

Inhale and on your exhale deep in that sense of contraction. Bring yourself forward and at the last moment you inhale and lengthen your back again. It's completely acceptable to use your arms a little bit. Inhale, and on your exhale, the first thing you feel is the abdominals pulling away from the size, tucking your pelvis to create the curve to the low back, allowing your arms to stretch out a little and hold. Inhale, keep your feet on the floor. Exhale, recommit. Draw the abdominals or the belly button back, keeping the curve as you come forward. And then inhale, lengthen up through the crown of the head. Where are your shoulders? Are they down and relaxed? Hopefully inhale and exhale. We'll call this the seated contraction.

Scooping the valley eyes are forward, are somewhat low toward the thighs. Inhale, hold it there and exhale. Zef in the contraction. Rounding forward and once again, lengthening up through the crown of the head. Two more here. Inhale to exhale, drawing the navel to spine. See if you can find that sense of hollowing through the abdominal wall. Hold. Can you go a little lower this time in him and exhale deep into rule backup.

Ah, sitting just a little taller each time. Inhale and exhale down. We go. Inhale, stay there. Starting the exhale. We'll follow that. Exhale, bringing our bodies Baca and links in the spine. Okay, we're going to challenge the abdominals just a little bit more here, but I'd like you to do is roll yourself down in the same way we just were. So let's do it together. Inhale on your exhale.

We'll go through that seated contraction. Exhaling to roll down when we get about just before the point of no return, allow the feet to come in just a little closer to your hips. [inaudible] slide along the map. So we want to be in a position where the low back is rested and we're pretty close to the bottom of our shoulder blades. From there, pick up your right knee. Place both hands on top of that knee, so closer to your Shin then than the thigh. And from here we inhale.

We've got a nice firm grip on the knee. We're going to exhale, let go of the knee and change legs so the hands go to the other side. Inhale, exhale, change. Inhale, pause, exhale, change. Once again, absolute stability, the trunk and change. Inhale, pause and change and change and change. Let's challenge your breath pattern just a little while. Inhale and exhale, change. Now, inhale as you pass and and, and so. I'm inhaling as my legs are passing and exhaling as one leg touches. And so it's right and left and right and left less to right and left. Bring both knees up. Exhale. Allow your head to go to the mat, hugging your knees to your chest. Gently rocking the spine from side to side if necessary.

Take your head from side to side. Again, Pilatos is a practice. It's a journey, so if you don't feel like you're getting all the repetitions yet, that's okay. It's about going through those exercises and building your endurance and staying focused on the center. From here, we're going to do a very similar exercise. Place the hands behind your head. Once again, they're laced. We'll take the knees. Let me do it this way.

Let's take the left foot back down to the ground, but leave the right foot in the air. Inhale, prepare on your exhale. Cruela head, neck and shoulders up. Straight up in the center. From here. Just rotate toward that right knee in the air. So it says if your left shoulder's reaching to your right hip and now the exercise is going to be similar to before we inhale on your exhale, change legs and rotate the other way and again, change. So it's yeah, and change. So we're inhaling quickly through the center. Exhale when you hit it.

Yeah, it's change. Last four here. Exhale, right. Inhale as you pass. Exhale left. Inhale as you pass over, right and finally left. Come back to center. Inhale and exhale, hugging your knees to your chest. Place your feet on the mat in that initial, uh, pelvic curl position.

Hug the knees back up to your chest. Hold on behind the thighs. And let's just give ourselves a rock to sit up. Just a couple of rocks. And then up we come to a seated position. We're going to stretch the legs all the way out. Sitting right up on our sits bones, looking for that straight spine, almost as if you're sitting against a wall. If that's challenging for you, if or to the backs of your legs, what option you have is to bend your knees or you could elevate your hips.

And sit on something just a little higher. Ultimately, try to go to straight legs. The feet are flexed, hands are resting on or about your knees. From here, it's the spine stretch. We're going to inhale. Prepare on your exhale, engage your abdominals. Allow your head to round forward your shoulders and upper back to round forward. As you glide the hands along your thighs, rounding your back. Hold it there. Inhale, and on your exhale we're going to restate the spine as if we're sitting against that wall. Arms. Just slide back along the legs to the starting position. Inhale and exhale. Engage the abdominals. Your head goes forward, your upper back goes forward, your middle back goes forward and hold.

Inhale. Exhale, recommitting to the abdominals, stacking the spine, shoulders, drawing down, and finally your head comes back up. Inhale and exhale. Do around over. It's almost as if you're rounding over a ball or something right there in front of your abdominals. Inhale, hold. As you look down, see the abdominals. Pull away from your face. As you roll back up, stacking the spine and your head comes back up again. Inhale and exhale. Turn around forward. Being mindful not to collapse the spine.

It's the sense of space between the ribs in the hips, holding it there and inhale. Exhale, restacking the spine. We lifting, re lengthening, sitting just a little bit taller than you were before, and inhale, exhale to round when we tightened the abdominals, that allows the back to relax. It's a great exercise. Inhale and exhale. Drawing the abdominals back toward the spine. Restacking from the tailbone through the top of your head all the way up and two more here. Inhale, exhale to round over. Sometimes you have to imagine that ball or something that you're stretching the spine over. Deepening the sense of your abdominals. Inhale and exhale to restack.

Sitting a little taller. Feeling those muscles in the back. Helping to support the spine. One more time. Inhale, grow tall. Exhale to round over letting the arms glide along the legs and inhale just for additional support and XL to restack. Really lengthen. And here we are a little taller than when we started from here. What I'd like you to do is bend your knees so your feet are still apart, but they're in a little closer to you from their lace, the fingers behind your head.

So the elbows are pointing to the sidewalls or perhaps slightly toward the front of you. It's the spine twist with the body. As long as you can, we'll take an inhale and on your exhale, rotate to your left. Inhale, come back to center and rotate to your right [inaudible] and inhale and to the left [inaudible] center. So I do add a little pulse pulse as I twist. It's not a bounce, rather it's a pull pull. See if you can get a little further than you think it's get there.

And then a little further and center. Hmm. And Center lies long bodies. Okay, last two and one and center. One more time. Twist and center. And from there, let's just round over our thighs.

You can release the hands and take a stretch for the low back, supporting your chest on your thighs. Couple of deep breaths there. Notice if there's any unnecessary tension in the neck and let it go. Now [inaudible] and then help yourself back to an upright position. Walk your feet together, and then we're going to just lie down onto our side facing your screen. The lower leg is going to come to about a 90 degree angle out of the hip.

The top leg is reaching long and down along the floor. The big toe is on the mat before we even start the exercise, create a sense of length through the top of this hip so you're not just resting here, but rather you're active and you're reaching up. The head is just resting on your arm and it's outstretched straight from your shoulder. We begin with an inhale on your exhale, reach that toppling even further along the floor to the point where it lifts up to about hip height. Then inhale and exhale. Lower the leg back down a little further than where you picked it up. Inhale, hold, and as you exhale, feel the abdominals engaged as you reach the leg to lift it to about hip height and inhale, hold, but reach and XL to lower the leg down and inhale, exhale to lengthen and or left. You might feel the abdominals if you don't.

My suggestion would be to relax the leg a little. Inhaling and exhale to lower down and in here. XL. Lengthen and lift long. Putting some attention to this oblique muscle here in the, in the front or on the side. And inhale, exhale down and in [inaudible]. Exhale, lengthen and lift.

And exhale. Let's go for two more. Here. Inhale, Xcel reached a lift and inhale, exhale to lower on the next one we're going to stay up and add on. Inhale, prepare. Exhale, reach the legs so far out that it lifts up at hip height. We're going to stay there. Inhale and exhale. Lift that leg 10 times a one and lift to the ideas that you continue to reach and for feeling that glute medius five, six and reach and seven and eight and nine. And finally 10. Let's see if we can do a tough transition here. Sit yourself up so you're on that lower forearm. Now the leg is still reaching.

We're going to flex the foot and and bring it forward, forward, and then back. So draw the leg way out in front of you and then reach it behind you so it's exhale, exhale and inhale. Inhale, little pulse, pulse and back, back and pulse, pulse and back. Meanwhile, the rest of your body's very still probably feeling that right. Gluteal muscle m back, you get four more and pulse, pulse to reach and pulse pulls, getting long, nice straight leg, pulse, pulse and back. One more time. Pulse, pulse. Reach away back there and then take a little stretch, hug that needier chest and then we'll just help ourselves up to go to the other side. Lying once again, all the way down on the mat, resting on your [inaudible] arm, on your upper arm. Bring that lower leg to 90 degrees bent at the hip and the knee, and then the top leg is stretched out so you have a sense of length from the, the lowest rib to the hip.

A lot of space there just to start the exercise from this point, the leg itself is rather relaxed. It's, it's the idea of reaching from the hip. We inhale and on our exhale, lengthen the legs so far out that it lifts up off the Mat. Inhale, hold it there, but think about stretching it further and exhale, lower the leg back down, lightly touching the floor. Inhale and exhale. Lengthen to lift a long leg. Inhale, hold and exhale to lower it back. Yeah, and [inaudible]. Exhale. Notice that the breath can help the abdominals work.

So that exhale is a really good reminder to use your apps. Inhale and exhale. Yeah, and email lengthening through the hip. Hold that reach. Inhale and exhale and inhale. Exhale to lift the side lift, beginning to focus on her own bleaks and that glute. Inhale and exhale down and reached to lift. Inhaling to hold and exhale down.

I'm gonna do one more here. Inhale, exhale, lengthen and lift. And from that position we lift another 10 times. Exhale, lift one and two. It's not very high. Nothing else can change. So the leg itself won't lift very high. Number five, five more regional one and two, three, four. And finally, there it is. Five, help yourself up with that forward supporting arm. Bring yourself to your forearm. The elbow should be right underneath the shoulder and a real sense of lift.

I always tried to think proud in this position. Flexing the top leg. You kicked the leg forward, forward, pointed and reach back, back and forward, forward and back. It's a strong leg. A straight leg is probably a better way of saying it. And press, press and reach. Exhale, exhale and back keeping the rest of the body very still.

It's about the control here of the leg as it moves to try and change the trunk. Last two here, pull one and back. One more time, all the way back, reaching back and then once again, hug that knee into your chest. Getting there, we're going to turn over onto our abdominals, so just adjust yourself that you're lying on your thighs and most of your rib cage, the hands are going to go right below your chin, maybe just under your chest. The elbows are turned out to the side and from this position you want to apply a little pressure into the floor, or maybe a better way of saying it is lift your chest away from the floor and feel supported by your arms. Most definitely the shoulders are down and you're gazing somewhere a few feet out in front of you from that place. Draw the abdominals away from the floor. They'll still touch, but it's the idea that they're supporting you.

You may feel a gentle pressing of the pubic bone into the mat. And then finally we reached the legs so far that they have are just a few millimeters off the ground. So now then most of the size touching the mat but the knees are just off and the feet, the exercise goes like this. Taking your left leg, you're going to draw the heel to your button, kick twice its kick kicks, straighten change legs, kick, kick and reach to straight, alternating its kick, kick and stretch and kick, kick, stretch. Maintain that sense of lift through the so you've got some upper back working and again is the left leg, left leg straight and right, right. Straighten the pumps or the kicks are quite small. It's pulse, pulse and reach. Again, pulse, pulse and reach and pulse.

Pulse and reach. Let's go for more one and press the rest of the body. Once again, very still last to pull pulls, straighten and finally pull full straighten from there. Allow your feet to come to the mat, release the arms so that they come around right alongside your legs. Your forehead will go to the mat so your poems are pressed and close to the legs. The shoulders are reaching down towards your mat and the forehead is resting from here. Inhale on the exhale.

Draw the abdominals away from the floor and gently press the pubic bone into the mat. Let's try to keep that position where the low back feels long inhale again, and on your exhale we're going to lift your head, neck and shoulders, not very high, rather thinking long than high in him. And exhale back down. Take an inhale for preparation on your exhale. Lengthen out the top of the head so your head and chest reaches off the floor and your arms are reaching towards your ankles. Inhale, stay there.

Get longer and exhale down. Inhale, hold on. Your exhale. Re-Engage the abdominals. Lift your head and chest off the mat, reaching your arms down, your back, holding it there. Feel the upper back muscles and exhale down. And inhale, exhale to lift. If you only feel your low back, my thought is that you're probably lifting too high. Rather keep the abdominals engaged and stay low and exhale down.

Two more here. Inhale and exhale, reaching the arms toward the feet. If your hands can't touch the thighs, that's okay. Just get close. Inhale, lengthening the back of the head and exhale down. And one more time. We inhale and exhale to lengthen and reach. Lifting up. Hold it there in here. And finally, exhaling all the way back down. Allow everything to release. You might bring your hands right next to your shoulders, letting your back release completely. Take a couple of breaths here. [inaudible] and then with your hands right by your shoulders, push yourself up with a flat back and then round yourself back over your hips so your knees are bent, you're sitting comfortably on the heels hugging the knees to the chest.

And again, a couple of deep breaths here, fully releasing me abdominals. I'm sorry, fully releasing the low back. Inhale, let the abdominals can kind of relax too for a, an exhale. And again, inhale [inaudible] and exhale, letting your head just relax between your arms. One more time like that. Inhale and exhale. And from there, finding a comfortable seated position where you can sit up nice and tall, maybe with the legs crossed, maybe sitting on a pillow, resting your hands somewhere on your legs where you have a little bit of additional support. And we'll just going to bring some energy back to the body through our use of the breath. So with that said, take a deep breath. Let's shrug.

Shrug the shoulders up to the ears and exhale. Allow them to fall back down. But leaving the space in the length of the spine. Let's do another one of those. Inhale, shrugging the shoulders up. [inaudible] and exhale. Allow the shoulders to fall down. Finding the space in the spine. Let's just stay here for three deep breaths for the day. We inhale bringing energy back to the body. And exhale, you might find it even more rejuvenating to close your eyes and inhale, filling up, filling the rib cage, expand to the side. Exhale, letting go and inhale.

And finally letting everything go. Allow your eyes to open. Be grateful for the time you took for yourself and meet you back here to do it again next time. Thank you.

Comments

2 people like this.
Kristi congratulations to PA for your successful journey so far and for the possibilities that have yet to be explored!! You guys are awesome and I just love the variety of content, the quality of instructors, and the creative aspect of what is provided for "everything pilates" Also, great 1st video!!
Ted Johnson
This was back before I had an HD camera... Also, this is the same studio we film in now, it just looked a lot different back then.
Yikes! This is not easy for me to watch on many levels, but I can say it is very satisfying to see how far we've come! Thanks all!
Paola Maruca
Kristi,
We all love you and love PA. You created something wonderful for all of us. You rock!!!!!!!!
1 person likes this.
Kristi,I ditto Paola. Congrats and thanks and keep 'em coming!
5 people like this.
I absolutely LOVE this class Kristi!! What an incredible beginning to an even more incredible and very credible journey! Thank you for letting me be a part of this very, very important family! I love you!
1 person likes this.
Great Class ! I'm 12 weeks postpartum and this was a fabulous overall workout. I look forward to the day when I'll be able to once again do your other classes
Thanks everyone! Here's to the next 1000! Cheers!
4 people like this.
Kristi WOW! I totally loved this class as well. Such precise instruction and mindful cueing. I enjoyed the flow as well. Thank you for sharing this special class with us!
1 person likes this.
Kristi, thank you so much for this incredible site! Because of you and PA, I have the opportunity to observe and learn from some of the most amazing instructors ~ I am forever grateful for all you do. Cheers my friend ~ here's to the next 1000!!!!
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