Class #1728

Total Body Mat

50 min - Class
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Glutes, arms, and abdominals are the focus of this total-body Mat workout by Mariska Breland. Enjoy her clear cueing while trying interesting variations of Tendon Stretch, Spine Twist, Rolling Like a Ball, side-body work, and Jackknife into Teaser, among other exercises.
What You'll Need: Mat

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I'm Mariska from [inaudible]. And at our studio in Washington D C we teach all of our classes on requests, usually around three body parts. And so today we're going to pick some of the most popular requests that we get, which are glutes, probably our number one request arms, which is especially popular this time of year. And then we also get different areas of of abdominals in every class. We're gonna kind of cover them all today.

So we're starting with your arms reaching long by your side and just letting your back be heavy into the map. So we're not trying to find any specific position, just a lot of heaviness, letting your body really relax into the mat, pull your abdominals into wards your spine, and you want to have your legs about a fist distance apart between your knees. And then you have that same distance between your feet. And we bring your with this foot, portal that, and then really stretch your arms long. Press your hands down into the floor a little bit to engage your triceps.

On an exhale, pull your abdominals deeper, press into your feet, peel your back away from the Mat and simultaneously let your arms reach up and all the way overhead, finding the floor. Keep your arms where they are and you're going to traction your back away from them. So laying down one vertebrae at a time and if you have tight shoulders and your arms lift off a little bit, that's totally fine. When your tailbone comes down, you're going to float your head and chest up, reaching towards the inside of the room. Shoulders are down, abs are in. Lay your spine all the way back down with your arms up towards the ceiling. Press into your feet, lift your hips up, your arms going to reach overhead.

And then as your arms are reaching, drop your ribs first, lower down one vertebrae at a time, tailbone is tucked under you. And then when you come all the way down to the bottom, you float your head and chest up and reached for the inside of the room. Nice. Again, lower down. Stop your arms at 90 press into your feet. Begin to lift your hips up and then your arms reach overhead, and then from the top of your throat all the way down, you lower down one bone at a time. Arms reach, head follows, lifting up. Good.

We'll do two more like that. So arms go up towards 90 degrees. As you lay your spine down, press into your feet, reach your arms up and overhead all the way to the mat. Lay your spine down away from your arms to get that stretch through your spine. Tailbone comes down. Float your head and chest up and reach for the inside of the room.

And then we'll do that one more time. So your lower down arms stop at 90 exhale, press into your feet, lift your hips up, reach your arms up and back behind you. And then creating that two way stretch. You're going to lay your spine down. As your arms reach back. They stay reaching back, they stay reaching back, they stay reaching back. Tailbone hits, head and chest lift, arms come forward. Circle your arms out around to the side. Bring your hands behind your head.

You can either interlace your fingers or have one hand stacked on top of the other. On an exhale, lift up a little bit higher. Can you get your elbows wider and lower down? Just an inch. Exhale to lift. Really pulling your abdominals down and lowered out and exhale, lifting up and lowering back down and exhale, lifting up and lowering back down to more like this. Exhale we lift and lower back down.

Exhale we lift and lower back down. Take your right arm, reach your right arm up. We're going to lift up towards the left and place your right hand to the inside of your left leg so it's touching your less leg. From there we lift up a little bit and down. Try not to twist your hips. Lift up and down. Lift up and down.

Lift up and down. Lift up and down and last one, lift up and hold it there. Take your right arm back behind your head. Return yourself to center. Release your opposite arms, so left arm reaches to the inside of your right leg. Keep your hips square, widen that right elbow. Lift up an inch and down. Lift up an inch and down. Beautiful. Lift up an inch and down and lift and down.

A couple more like this. We lift and down and lift and down. And now take your arms, circle it around. Come back to center length in the back of your neck and layer spine down one vertebrae at a time. Go ahead and extend your legs all the way long on the floor.

Zip them together as if they're one externally. Rotate and squeeze your heels together. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling. We'll let your ribs just drop down by pulling your abs in. You. Keep your legs down to start. Exhale, head and chest lift. Arms come down towards your side, palms down towards the floor.

Begin to pump your arms. Inhale and exhale. So I want you to reach your legs so far away from you that your legs begin to hover off the floor so they're hovering just like a centimeter. Inhale, squeeze your glutes externally. Rotate your legs and squeeze your heels together. We're now going to take your legs up to your happy hundreds position. Inhale and exhale, or at least your least miserable.

Hundreds position. See if you can pull your abs down, lift yourself up a little bit higher than your, drop your shoulders. Look at your ab, see if you can sink them down towards the floor. Bigger arms. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale a couple more times. Inhale and exhale more. Wrap of your legs. Last one. Inhale and exhale. Reach your legs so long away from you.

They lay all the way back down towards the Mat. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling and then all the way overhead for a stretch. So really reaching out. Let your ribs pop. We always say keep your ribs in every night. Every once in a while you're just like, just let me pop my ribs and be the best feeling in the world. Go ahead and reach your arms forward, Chin towards your chest and roll up one vertebrae at a time.

Reaching for your f. It's a reaching past your feet. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Shoulders are down and then lay it down one bone at a time. It's a really pulling your abs in, trying to make sure each bone has its moments. And then again, rolling up. Inhale, exhale to roll a, pull your abs back as your arms go forward. And then slowly lay your spine back down.

We'll do one more like this and we're going to get ready for a change. So x help to roll it up, roll it up, roll it up, roll it up and roll back down. And then on this next one, we're going to think light feet, especially since you have the mats underneath you. So you're lying down, reaching your arms up so your arms are going up, you're gonna begin to pull your legs in as you roll up. So you roll up one vertebra at a time, knees are pulling in towards you, and I want you to try to let your feet come up to your tones so your knees are really in. So you should feel like your abs have to do a lot of work to keep them there.

And then you're going to slowly lay down away from that position and you can reach your arms to whatever happy position you want to reach them to. Again, exhale, you're rolling up, so you're pulling your abdominals in, pulling your knees in towards your nose. Nice. And then lay your spine all the way back down away from your legs. We'll do two more like this. So head and chest. Lift her, rolling it up, rolling it up, rolling it up, rolling up, knees, pull in towards your nose and then slowly lower it back down. And then we're going to come up one more time and we'll stay there. So lifting it up, legs are coming in. ABS are pulling your legs in.

We're going to hold it there. See if you can pull your knees in a little bit more towards you. Hold onto your ankles, drop your shoulders. And then I want you to think about lifting your chest more towards your legs. So the scoop is really in your low abs. Head is dropped.

Lean it back just an inch. So we're not going into rolling yet. We're just finding a challenge point. And then from there, pull your abs in a little bit more. Lean and back another inch, and then come back up that inch that you just lowered back. So think of the world's smallest rolling like a ball. Lean it back, it's a marble. Lean it back like an inch. And then exhale, we come up, lean it back just that inch, and exhale, come up, lean it back that inch, and that's your new start position. From there, we're going to go back another inch from there and then come back up. This is just to prove that rolling like a ball is an abdominal exercise. Lean it back a little bit. Relax your shoulders, relax your face, lean it back up. One more time, going back.

It's going to be the best thing in the world. Won't actually let you roll and then back up. And then we're going to take you to an actual rolling like a ball. So roll it back to the tips of your shoulder blades. Keep the shape the same. Exhale to roll it up. Gorgeous. Inhale it back.

X held up so you can have your hands sort of lower on your ankles. If you can. Nice. Inhale it back and exhale it up. Good. We'll do two more like this. Inhale it back, exhale it up. This is so impressive. Or in Cameron, everyone's rolling like a is working out. And then slowly, slowly lay it down to your low back touches. So we're coming all the way down to your low back touches and then let your knees come together and then have your hands on the tops of your ankles. Good. So you're pulling your legs in head and chest. Stay lifted.

We're going right into double leg stretch. Reach your arms long. You want your arms to be really close to your ears. If you can circle your arms, bend your knees when your legs are extending out. Keep going. They're going to externally rotate and squeeze and then circle. Pull everything in. Good. Reach it away and circle. Pull everything in. One more like this. Reach it away. Circle, pull everything in. I want you to press your legs forward a lot, so I'm still holding onto them.

So press your legs forward to lift yourself up more. So now the position of your knees is your new knee position. Reach your arms and legs away from each other. Your legs come into just that further away knee position. So you have to lift up higher towards them. Inhale to reach away.

Exhale, circle, come in in, helps you reach away. Exhale, circle. Pull your abs in one more like this. Inhale to reach away. Exhale to circle. And now your inhale your arms to the right legs to the left, sort of an oblique variation. Arms go up and back to the right. And then we pull to come back in and we switch sides. Reach away and pull to come back in.

Nice to reach away and pull to come back in. Last one. Then we get a break, a Mariska break of five second break and then lower it all the way back down to the bottom. Rock yourself a little bit from side to side. Bring your right hand to your right knee, left hand slides down to your ankle, opposite leg straight, all the way on the floor. Okay. So yes, switch. So, so I think so. Left hand, right knee, right hand, right ankle. Bad Cue on my part. You're going to go ahead and pull that leg and lift your head and chest up into flection. Float your other leg up off the floor. So you're going to pull, pull, switch, pull, pull and switch and switch and switch. Nice.

Wide Elbows and switch and switch for four, two, three and four. One more to get on the right side. So your left leg is going to lower all the way down to the floor. Planted down on the floor, press into your right leg can get a little momentum and rock yourself up just halfway. And then we'll lower it back down and you go just halfway up and lower it back down. And one more time, just halfway up and lower it back down. Hold it there.

Switch legs, shoulders are down. Plant your right leg and then use your abs to lift yourself up halfway and then back down and halfway up, shoulders down and back down. Last one like this, lift it up and lower it all the way back down. Bend both knees in. Bring your arms to a T. Press your hands down into the floor. Tabletop legs. Hike your left hip.

Hop as your legs go towards the right shoulder. Stay down on the floor. X helped pull back into center over to the other side. And exhale, pull back into center over towards the right. Exhale, pull into center over towards the left and pull into center. Let's go towards the right. Extend your legs. So if you need to bring them in, especially if you feel like you're arching your back, just bring them in a little bit.

We're gonna pulse your legs towards your right shoulder for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Bend your knees back to center over towards the other side. And extend and pulse for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Bend your knees. Come all the way back to center. Extend your legs up towards the ceiling. Lift your head and chest up. Hold onto your right ankle. Legs are externally rotated.

Left leg can go down towards the floor. I want you to think about your arms staying where they are in your arms, staying straight, switch your legs, all your arms are doing is staying put and switch and switch and switch. And I want to add one more thing on top of this. Keep going. Make sure your legs are externally rotate and I want you to skim your heels each time they're crossing. Good. Keep that going. Bring your hands behind your head and we're going to rotate towards the up.

Like rotate and twist and twist and twist. Last four and two. That's always the main count. And you make the southern board and three gorgeous and four and then come all the way down. Hug your knees into your chest, rock a little from side to side, some massaging out your low back and then extend your legs all the way straight and roll yourself up to seated. Just for a transition. Get up. How are we going to get up? Just get there. Okay, so from seated, let's go ahead and start with your legs all the way together.

Reach your arms out to a tee. And this time, let's do palms facing forward. So I want you to grow tall, squeeze your glutes, grow two more inches. Ribs are in. Inhale here. Exhale to rotate towards the right, grow taller and back to center. And you make sure that your feet are going to stay exactly at the same place so that you know that the rotation is coming from your waist and not from your pelvis. So each time you grow taller and back to center, and last one like this.

And now because I think it actually feels better to do the um, the inhale to twist, we're going to inhale to twist. So inhale to twist, feel your back body expand. I think it's a nicer stretch. And exhale, return to center and inhale to twist and exhale. Return to some of these look beautiful. Inhale to twist and exhale. Return to center and inhale to twist and exhale, return to center. Now pick whichever breath pattern you liked. We're just going to do one of each of these on each side. So rotate and lift the same side, leg up a couple of inches off the floor and just hold for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and lower your leg down. Return to center, grow taller, squeeze your glutes, massage it out a little bit and rotate.

Opposite leg is going to lift up and then hold last for two, three and four. And return to center. I know that's a little bit quad, um, grippy. So let's go ahead and just massage it out cause we have one. One last thing that we're going to do here. We're going to sit up tall and tall for me. If you tie have tight hamstrings, can be bent legs, um, or it can be straight legs.

We're going to sit up really tall, engage your glutes, grow taller, and then reach your arms forward and up. And you don't have to have them. They can be sort of forward of your shoulders. We're gonna Tuck your hips under a little bit, keeping your abs pulled in real lean back with a flat back. Rotate to one side. Reach your hand down towards the floor, back up. Still in rotation. We come up and center.

So we grow tall and rotate. Lean back, arm touches down, arm lifts up, lift up in the twist and center. One more side. We grow tall, we twist, we lean hand down, hand up, lift up in the twist and back to center. And last one, grow tall. First Rotate Lien, hand touches, hand lifts, rotate back to center and lift all the way up. Go ahead and fold forward over your legs and then come to seated and you're going to have your knees bent. Feet flat to the Mat. And I'd like to start with your hands on your knees first and we're just going to extend your spine. So we're going to grow taller and you can arch your back.

So pop your ribs, enjoy it. I'm going to have a new class, I'm just going to call it the, we let you pop your rubes class, it'll be so popular and then go ahead and come back. When done go back right. Go ahead and come back into sort of more neutral position. You're going to bring your hands back behind you. And I want your hands to be outside of your hips.

Fingertips facing in towards your seat. And you may have to adjust at some point. But we're going to start here. Push your hands down into the floor and we're going, especially focus on your index fingers and thumbs pressing. And then push the floor away. So getting your shoulders away from your ears. Push into your hands and feet.

Lift your hips forward the tiniest little bit and Tuck your hips under you. Good. So we're sort of low. We're gonna bend your elbows back and push bend down and push bend and push. Bend and push for four to three. And this one we hold, and this is usually in class where we talk about movie stars and what we're planning on eating for dinner. Little pulses from there for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and hold.

And then we have another conversation for a little bit and last pulses for eight two three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Send it all the way down. Hands onto your knees. And again, stretching your chest forward. So that was sort of the prep for what we're really going to do, which is sort of a mat version of tendon stretch. We're going to have your hands back behind you and anatomically this does not work for everybody. So if it anatomically doesn't work for you, it is not a character flaw. It's just that your arms are shorter than my arms, or maybe you're lucky enough to have a bigger, bigger bum. So you're, we're going to scoot it back so your hands are going to be back behind you. Similar position.

And I find that sometimes you need to bring your legs just a little bit forward. So press into your hands, press into your feet, think happy thoughts, lift your hips up, pull your abs in like crazy. You're gonna rock back on your heels as you send your hips back behind you. It's always so nice when it works out and then pull back forward. Nice. So your abs are pulling in. You're going to lean it back, keep your obs pulling and keep your obs pointing and keep your obs pulling in.

And then we're going to come back to the start position. Only one more, cause these are rough. We're going to lean it back and hold and then just have a seat all the way down to spring, the tops of your hands together so that we can stretch out your wrists just a little bit. Shake it out, and then make your way to lying down on your stomach. So why don't you just start by resting your head down in your hands. Everyone sort of went there, so let's just go with that. Have your legs externally rotated. Lift your abs off the floor.

We're going to take your right leg and you stretch it so long behind you that it just floats off the floor and lower it down and then left legs so long behind you that it lifts and lower it back down, right leg and lower it back down and left leg and lower it back down. One more each side, right leg and lower it down and left leg and lower it down. Slide your legs so that they're the width of the mat. Bend your knees, heels come together. Pull your abs in, lift your legs up an inch, lower your knees down, extend your legs long so we bend in, heels, touch, knees, lift up and lower down and extend. Keep going. You want to make sure that you don't feel this as sort of a compression feeling or crunching in your low back so you really don't have to lift your abs up towards your spine. If you're feeling it too much, you might be extending your legs a little too high, in which case keep them a little bit lower. Let's do two more like this. So you bend it in, heels, touch, lift it up, lower it down and stretch and again lifted up. Lower it down and stretch on this next one. We'll stay up so you bend it in.

Heels, touch, heels, lift up towards the ceiling. Lift your head and chest as one piece so your head, hands and heart as one piece up. Head enhanced. Stay connected. Presses up with your legs for eight. Flex your feet, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight and lower it all the way down. Let your legs go straight and then just Shimmy your hips a little bit from side to side, just to relax your low back. And then from there we're going to press yourself up to hands and knees or have hands on your shoulders, knees under your hips.

So your hands are down, your knees are down. We're just going to start with a couple of cat cow stretches. So don't try to make it all um, precise. We're gonna make it like feel good. So inhale, head up, butt up, chest down, and exhale round your spine, eyes at your abs. Really push the mat away here and spread the muscles of your upper back and inhale to look up and exhale to round and inhale it up and exhale to round any help to come to a neutral spine so you're neither arched nor rounded. Tuck your toes under.

Pull your abs up to your spine and lift your knees off the floor just a couple of inches and hold and hold for four, two, three and four. Knees come down just for a little break. We're going to lift up again. So knees lift up. Pull your abs in and begin to send your hips back and your feet down towards the Mat. You can drop your head weight. So you're in sort of a short upstretched. So I want your abs pulled up, so don't think downdog so think rounded spine and then pull your abs in.

Bend your knees and come back to hovering knees. So again, you pull your abs in, push the floor away, drop your headway down, keep your back rounded, shoulders are down. And then we pull to come back in. Drop your knees down to take just a little break so you can sit at [inaudible] and I actually want you to walk your hands a couple of inches forward from where they are because we want to come into sort of a bigger up stretch position. So you're going to press your hips up, aim your fingertips a little bit in towards each other, and then come high up on your tip toes. So your head is aiming down towards the floor.

We're gonna start by bending your elbows out wide to the side and push and bend and push. So you're trying to aim crown of your head to the floor, lower it down and lift. Couple more. Go down and lift and down and lift. Drop down to your knees, press to child's pose. We're going to do a second set, not exactly like that. This time we're going to come into it and we're going to have your hands facing more forward because we are in.

Drop it down more like we're trying to come to your forearms and maybe you get all the way there and maybe you don't, but you're just going to bend your elbows, aiming them towards the Mat so your hands are down, your feet are up. You pull your abs in a lot so you have slight roundness through your spine. Bend your elbows like you're dropping to your forearms and try to push equally up. Say Ben, drop and push Ben drop and pushed a couple more. Ben, drop and push Ben. Drop and push lower to your knees and press back to child's pose.

This time go ahead and reach your hands back behind you. So you're gonna actually try to grab your heels. Give yourself up hall. Nice and come back to hands and knees this time. Your hands are directly under your shoulders, knees are under your hips. Extend your right leg straight back behind you and then lift your right leg up to hip height.

And then we're just going to do eight little lifts from there. So we lift up one and two and make sure it's not going into your back. Everyone looks good here. Just think glutes are lifting it up. Go for two, three and four. Hold your like there. Make sure abs are lifting up. I'm going to do little circles. Eight each direction. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We switch directions for eight to make it smaller. If you can't think the size of a quarter, four, five, six, seven and eight, leave your leg up, extend your opposite arm and just find your balance and hold more length through your spine. Like you're trying to reach both sides of the room at the same time.

So more of a stretch. If you can hold last eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Lower your light down. Lower your hand down for one second. Just so you can take your right hand back a little bit. Right leg is going to go back up and you're going to lift it. So you're looking over your right shoulder. Good. And your right leg is up.

And then we're going to go from there. Little lifts for eight to think waste away from the floor for five. Get that left arm straight if you can. Six, seven and eight can you go higher with your leg? Maybe just a little bit. Little circles from there for eight two, three, four, five, six. Don't freeze your abs. Seven and eight.

Switch directions for eight to three left, arm straight if you can. Four, five, six, seven. Leave your leg there. We're going to bend your knee in like you're trying to touch your knee to your shoulder and then press it out. So you want your knee to travel parallel to the floor, bend it in and push left arm stays straight, bend it. And if you're on your right fingertips, it actually helps you rotate.

Open more. Bend it in and stretch. Last four, bend it in and stretch and two and stretch. And three and stretch and last one in and stretch. Come back to center and then lower down to come to the other side. So let's not take a break. Let's go ahead and extend your left leg back. Straight up. Square your hips off. So I find it usually easier. The up leg, same side arm, little bit more weight will square you.

So little lifts for eight to keep your obs pulling up. Three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Hold it. Their little circles for eight. Two sides go. Quarter three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Pause. Switch Directions for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Hold your leg there. Reach your opposite arm forward. So right arm reaches, left leg, reaches back as if I'm pulling you into different directions. We stretch, we stretch, we stretch. Don't let your shoulder come up by your ear. Hold last eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. We're coming back to center so that we can come up onto this time.

Your left fingertips, right hand down, left leg out is parallel to the floor and we're just gonna lift. See if you can get a little bit higher. Pull your abs in. We're going for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold Eight. See if he can lift it up a little bit higher. Circle eight two, three, four, five, six, seven it switch directions for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Hold it there. Now we're going to bend your knee in. We're going to try to get it parallel to the so up a little bit higher and then stretch your leg out. I know it's just crazy or that way. Lifting it up, knee in and stretching it out.

Bend in like you're trying to touch your knee to your shoulder and reach it out. Bend it in and stretch it long last for. Bend it in and stretch it long. Bend it in and stretch it long. Finishing up. Bend it in and stretch it long and bend it in and stretch it long coming all the way in. Drop down to your knees, press back to child's pose.

Let's come forward propping yourself up on your forearms. And we're going to be, sometimes I do the class pans, but because where we're going with this, we're not going to clasp your hands. You're gonna bring your arms parallel, press into your elbows, almost. Think about digging your elbows back a little bit to draw your lats down, engage your Serita's and pull your abs up off the Mat. Tuck your toes under and then we'll lift yourself up into a foreign plank. First is going to hold here. Widen your feet just a little bit cause we're gonna rotate around so that we're on your right forearm and your feet can be just kind of stacked one in front of the other. Nice. Bring your left hand behind your head.

Grow Taller through your spine and longer through your waist is lowest ribs or away from the floor. We're going to take your left elbow, aim it towards your right elbow and fold yourself and like you're trying to touch your left elbow to the floor and lifted back up. Good. Four more like this. Rotate it around and lifted up. Three more. Rotate it around and lifted up, trying to keep your hips basically where they are rotated around and lifted back up. Keep me honest. We have two more. One more. Rotate around and lifted back up and then let's come out of it back to center and we'll rotate to the other side. I never believed my students when I tell me these things. Rotate around, right hand behind your head, longer through by.

Pull a little bit on the back of your neck to get length through your spine. Nice and rotate. Elbow towards the floor and lift five total. Rotate it around and left. Rotate it around and lift.

Two more times rotated around and lift and last one, rotate it around. Don't forget your abs. Pull them in and back. Come all the way around. Come back to your foreign plank. We are not done. We're going to hold in this forum plank. Pull your abs in if you are feeling frisky right leg up. If you're not feeling frisky, you're right.

Like in stages where it is little lifts with your right leg for eight to make sure not sinking in your back. Four five, six, seven, eight, right leg, down, left leg up, little lifts for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight foot down. Lower down, slowly come onto your stomach. Just a little rock from side to side. And let's roll onto your side facing towards the camera. And we're going to start lying down on the long arm. So your arm is really reaching long and you can do palm up or palm down.

Doesn't matter at all to me. I for some reason like palm up, now I want you to, so we're in line. We're in a straight line from shoulders, hips, knees, feet. Everything's in a straight line. We're gonna take your top arm now and reach it overhead and you're going to stretch it so long over your head that it lifts your lowest ribs away from the floor. Pull your abs in and then lift your legs up just an inch and hold them there. Four, eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Lower your legs down. One more time.

We lift and hold for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight top hand can come in front of you. Go ahead and swing your legs forward about 45 degree angle, and then take your top leg and send it back behind your bottom leg. So it's just, yeah, floating off the floor. We're going to take that shape and maybe I'm carrying, maybe not so much. So narrow it up a little bit. Now we're gonna take that shape and lift it up and down and lift and down and up and down and up and down. Four more. One and two and three and four.

Four keep your legs hovering. Prop your head up in your hands. So we've now made the angle a little more intense. Try to keep your ribs lifting away from floor eight lifts up one and two. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. It's going to get really interesting. Prop yourself up on your forearm. Keep your ribs away from the floor. Eight lifts here, one shoulders away from your ears too. Three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Lower everything all the way down. Roll onto your stomach.

Reach your arms long in front of you. Pull your abs up, float your arms up, float your legs up. Begin to go for a swim. Inhale and exhale. Remember, even if your arms are reaching forward that you're trying to draw your down, your back. Inhale and exhale. Your arms are getting as straight as you can get them. Good. Couple more breaths. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Lower it all the way down. Just a little Shimmy of your hips from side to side.

Bring your arms into goalpost arms so your elbows are in line with your shoulders. Your hands are above that angle. Pull your abs in lot. Zip your legs together as if they are one, and then bend your knees like just the tiniest little bit, so just, yeah, just so that your feet are off the floor a little bit. Keep your heels squeezing. Keep your knees squeeze and keep your inner thighs squeezing. Pull your abs in. Lift your knees up and hold for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Let your knees lower down for just a little break.

We're now going to lift your upper body up. So all in one piece, hands come with you. And then same deal. Your knees are a little bit bent and hover your knees and just hold it there. Pull your abs in, hold for eight two three four, five, six, seven and a lower it all the way down. Let's press up to hands and knees for a stretch it that's other than a child's pose stretch just to go into that really big rounded spine. And then let your hips twist from side to side just cause it generally feels pretty nice. And that's enough of that.

So let's go ahead and come lying down on your side now facing towards this direction. So first we're lined up in a straight line. Ear Stacks, shoulders, back, knees, hips, feet, thighs, everything's all stacked. You're going to reach your top arm over your head and that reach will lift your lowest ribs. Beautiful off the floor. Pull your abs in, lift your legs and hover them. Hold for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Lower your legs. Keep your arm reaching. One more time. We lift in. Hold for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight and everything reaches away. Go ahead and take your top arm forward for balance. Swing your legs forward and then your top leg is going to go back.

Lift your legs up and will moving like your torsos between two panes. Blessed. We go up for one and two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold prop yourself up. Head in your hands. Lift from there. Eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now the really nasty one, we lifted up ribs away from the floor and then we left from there for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight coming all the way back to center. And then just make your way up to seated. So we'll swing your legs around.

Okay, so from there we're just going to do a little sort of half jack knife into teasers. So we're going to have momentum to come up to teaser, which how wonderful is that? So we're going to have 'em a seat forward enough so that your Lacey was slightly back behind you. If you're at home and you have furniture in the way. I have totally been there and done that. So you're going to come lie down on your back. Arms are going to help you out here.

So you're gonna really press your hands into the floor, bend your knees in towards your chest, and then extend your legs up to 90 degrees externally. Rotate them, squeeze your heels together, engage your glutes. We're going to take that shape up and back at an angle and hold. So exhale up and back while you're trying to get your feet right above your face. And then we're just holding, holding and breathing so your lights can actually be a kind of a higher angle and then lower back down. So just parkland. So again, exhale, we go up and back at an angle like you're trying to touch the edge of where the ceiling and the wall comes together. So we're slightly more and lower it back down. Last one like this and the lower down. We're going to roll it up into a teaser. So legs are going up and back.

Hips lower down. Let your body just respond by head and chest. Lifting up, roll up, reach for your toes. Let's go with the angle of your legs. Nice. Lower down to your low back touches first, then all the way down, legs up to 90 up in, over, and then you're going to lower it back down. Let your body respond and roll up into a teaser. Beautiful. Lower your lower back down to touch and lift it back up because one wasn't quite what I was thinking. So we'll do it on the next one and lower it back down.

Sneaky. Yeah, lower back down. Lift it up. Now this time we're slowing down just to your low back touches the floor and lifted up. [inaudible] two more times. Low back touches the force. You're really pulling it in and lift it back up. Last one like this. We lower it down and lifted up. Hold it there. Arms circles, arms go out around and forward. Out, around and forward. Out around. Bend your knees if you need to. I could care less up around and back. Last one up around, back. Reach for your toes. If you can fold your legs in a teensy bit, closer to you. Lower down to your low back touches. And then all the way down, hug your knees into your chest, rock a little from side to side, massaging out your low back.

We one last exercise that we're going to do to rock and roll yourself up to standing. And I want you to stand at the back edge of your map. So we're gonna do a couple of Claudius pushups. We have three steps with your hands to get you into a plank. So if your first hand position is really close to you, then you're going to have to fling yourself through space to get to the end of the mat because we only have three steps. So we're going to aim for the middle of the mat on the first one.

So we're going to stand with your legs together, employees V or parallel like really don't care. Reach your arms up towards the ceiling, round over. So aim your eye to the middle of your mat. Place the hand down, and then you're going to walk the other two hands. One, two, gorgeous pushups, whatever style you like. So you can bend your elbows in or out to the side. I really don't care. Just as long as you're not sinking into your back. We're just doing the, I don't know, four, two, and try to keep your shoulder blades from coming towards each other as you bend your arms. So really push into your arms the whole time, even as your arms are bending. Let your hips lift up towards the ceiling.

You have three steps to make it back. One, two, three, and then you roll yourself all the way up. I'm gonna do that again. Grow Taller, push into the floor, reach through your arms, around, over, aimed to the middle of your map. Hand down. One, two, three. Nice. We're going to lift your right leg. Five pushups, lower down, up one, down, up to down, up three. Your five could be two. It doesn't really matter. Not a math major. Lower your foot down. Lift your hips up. We have three steps to get back and because we would leave you unbalanced if we didn't do another set. We have to do one more. So reaching up so you're pressing into your feet, pulling your abs in, lift round over, spy the middle of your mat.

Plan a hand, reach a hand, reach a hand, draw your abs in, bend your elbows with the other leg lifted up. So five or your version of five, which could be none. Three abs up, four and five foot down, hips up, walk back. And then we're just going to hang there. So just hang in a forward fold. Can Rock a little bit from side to side. Relaxing your head weight down.

If you feel like you would want a little bit more stretch in your hamstrings, you can reach your hands back behind you and pull straight or back is a better hamstring. Stretch around her back is a better back stretch. So whichever is working for you today, let's go ahead and slowly round your spine. Coming all the way up to standing. Take your right arm across your body, push your shoulder down away from your ear. I'm not coming all the way across because I've been chastised for hitting the microphone. And then we'll come back and take the other arm across.

I know it's just right there and back to center. Clasp your hands behind your back, trying to get the heel of your hands all the way together. Press your arms down first and then begin to lift your arms up and back. And they probably won't go that far because we're going for the down and back. And then release.

And one last thing just because I feel like you probably need it after some of the glute work. We're going to have a seat and we're just going to do a little double pigeon. So you're going to sit down Ben, one leg, it doesn't matter which cause we're gonna do both. Cross the other leg on top so that your knees are stacked like so. Your knees over your foot, your shins are stacked.

So extend your spine first and then just lean forward into the stretch. And everyone's got way different flexibility here. And a lot of it is the anatomy of your pelvis, which again is not a character flaw and don't forget to breathe. And as it opens up, you can may become a little bit further forward. So you might be able to have your hands reached towards the Mat, your head lower down towards the mat. But again, you're trying to send your chest more forward than just rounding your spine.

And then we'll come up, untangle your legs and then re tangle your legs by stacking the other leg on top. And then you'll lean forward and totally normal for one side to feel like it belongs to another person. If your evil twin side and then the the one you really like. And then see if over time maybe you can fold a little bit deeper into it and then slowly make your way all the way up. I always end my classes with saying, take any last stretches that would feel good for you today and thank you very much for coming out. Nice.

Comments

Thanks for welcoming me back Pilates Anytime! I have to give a special shout out to Hailie, who took this class after taking the reformer class before it. Doubling up! Now, that's hardcore!!
1 person likes this.
Really enjoyed this class. Great cues! Clear and concise. Thanks!
2 people like this.
It's instructors like you that me glad I r-activated my membership.
Great class!
2 people like this.
I have been using PA for six months now and this is my favourite class so far. Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
Anne Sears
1 person likes this.
Another FABULOUS class, thank you Mariska!! I broke my foot 3 weeks ago and cannot do any of my usual activities, but I've been doing your other mat class almost every day (with a bit of modification) and it's been a lifesaver, I'm excited to add this into the rotation!
1 person likes this.
Love your cues, your sense of humor, and your creativity! Thanks for another great class
1 person likes this.
Thank you for another fantastic class! I'm glad you are back :)
Awesome class Mariska! Thank you!
4 people like this.
Honestly, I think this is one of the best mat classes I've ever done. I had mom guilt as I started it because my daughter was bummed I wasn't hanging with her... "You always do Pilates, mom..." (which is really funny because our hair was still damp from a little snorkel outing). Started the class, and the cues were so good, the exercises so different and challenging, that I got lost in myself and my body for 60 minutes. Today I type, feeling every muscle in my arm. Thank you!!!!!!!
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