Class #2025

Sunset Mat

30 min - Class
310 likes

Description

Meredith Rogers teaches a quick sunset Mat workout that's perfect when you don't have much time. She focuses on getting into your body and finding a mental connection while you are generating heat. Work on your control in creative variations including Rolling Like a Ball, Kneeling Side Kick, and more!
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

About This Video

Jan 14, 2015
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Transcript

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We're going to do a quickie sunset mat workout with the magic circle. So resting the circle on your knees, holding with the heels of the hands and the outsides of the circle and just allowing the fingers to reach forward, extend forward, and then do a little slight downward present to the knees with the ring and build the spine up. And then pause here just for a moment, just taking a couple of breaths. Inhaling, feeling the ribs expand. And as that happens, wrap your fingers around the inside of the ring and pull the ring so the ribs expand and the arms expand outwards. And then as you exhale, gather your energy back inwards and press the or out of the body by pressing slightly into the ring and building the spine taller. Inhale, stretching the ring and exhale. We can press the ring with our upper arms more than our hands and we generate that pressure in the waist as well. And we'll do that one more time. Reaching out and harassing back. And now inhale here and keeping the ring where it is.

We're just going to curl the spine backwards. Keep the collar bones open as we reach back and flex that lower spine and then press the ring into the knees to lift the back tall again. And then exhale as we round. And it feels almost as though we're trying to press the ring away from us. And then inhale, feel the ring, come into the knees, feel the spine extend, and then press even more. So now in lift the chest.

So we take that back into extension and neutral and into flection and neutral and into extension and neutral and into flection. Drawing inwards with the upper arms and engine neutral and into extension and into neutral and reach the ring out in front of you. And now again, round the spine. This time we're gonna go a little further. We're going to go down to the shoulder blade. We're going to take the ring all the way back over our head. [inaudible] how far back can you go without losing your curl? And then forward.

And we rule and we find our rounded spine shoulders over the pelvis and we lift the back, pressing the arms at any and around and rock and arms go back in here and arms come forward. Exhale. And we lifter. Yeah, we reach up and we do one more round. So when we have very little time, we have to get into our bodies. You've got to get in quickly and I've got to mentally connect and we reach forward and we round [inaudible]. Let me bring the body up. And in IA here, just letting the ring rest in the hands, spiral the spine in my direction and inhale to come back to center and spiral the spine over to the opposite side and inhale to come back to center.

And we lift the spine and turn her and inhale center and lift the spine in turn and inhale center. And now round the spine in roll back. And now rotate the ring in here and exhale. So as I rotate to one side, the hand I'm rotating to goes all the way underneath towards my body relative to the upper hand and center. And in neo you rotate and center and in, you know, we rotate and center and exhale, we lift all the way up and we take the ring overhead and we open the knees and we spiral in Mia and exhale and building the spine, getting taller and taller and exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale. Reaching the head up through the center of the ring and exhale.

And as the ring comes back, we bring the legs back to center and we roll the spine down. Down. Dan, we're going to turn in my direction. Take the bottom hand out of the ring. The ring comes to the mat, the top hand is now on the ring. The bottom arm is through and we press and curl one. And and for us in curl to the knees are ally and, and pressing curl three.

And and for us in curl four and and pressing curl five, holding it. Here we pick the ring up, we roll at that side of the spine, all the way to straight lifting the ring overhead and find center. And now exhale round the spine and rock back and leg go. And the ring comes to the mat and the opposite arm is through and we reach up and yeah, and two and and three and four and two and five and down. And we take the ring in our hands and we roll at that side of the spine. Oh the way up into a long straight body in rotation.

And we find center and we roll the spine down all the way and scoot the pelvis up towards the heels, bringing the heels right up in line with the sitting bones. The ring is now reaching in the hands. It's going to come over the head. We're going to inhale here as we exhale, picking up the pelvis. We're going to press the ring down towards the hips and give it a little squeeze. So the ring meets the pelvis, depending on how long your arms are, minds just touching my pubic bone. And then we're going to reach overhead moving through the spy, moving through the feel the tailbone in this head, stretch away from each other and then exhale curly and lifting and letting their income to the body and inhale and exhale.

You reach back. So just using that ring is a little bit of extra arm work, little bit of extra energy and one more excellent as we curl up and we inhale and exhale as he roll down and dropping the pelvis, bringing the ring just over the chest. We're going to bridge up now instead of curl up, I want you to hold with your hands, wrapping the fingers around the ring. We're going to pull the ring to the chest. As we lift a flat back up, we're going to push the ring as we lower a flat back down and pull the ring flat back up and press the ring flat back down and inhale and exhale and inhale as the regenerating work through the whole body. There's arm work and leg work and ab work and breath work and ah, up. Holding the ring up. We lift the hips up, we take the arms overhead, we roll the spine down again, leading the arms overhead, just floating off the floor, stepping the feet together and we inhale bringing the knees towards me and the opposite arm just reaches away and Xcel to come back. And inhale, we reach away and Xcel to come back and inhale to reach away, rotating the spy, keeping the shoulders still and exhale back and in.

Reach away and exhale back. We'll lightening up on the legs, start bringing the ring over the chest, started sliding the feet up off the floor, lift the legs up to tabletop. And now we're gonna let the ring. It's gonna stay on that vertical line or a horizontal line. But we're going to bring the knees towards me and we're going to take the ring in the opposite direction and exhale to center and inhale to reach over and exhale to pull center and inhale to reach over the arms. Let the knees move further and center and in your chair.

Reach over and center and then reach back and place that ring behind the back of the head. Right at the base of the skull. The hands come right to the front of the ring. [inaudible] we XO lifting, curling the spine, trying to get up nice and high, nice and high and then inhale to come down and exhale to the left. Breathing all the air out of the body and any alter come down. What's that? You're not pushing your head forward, but instead you're allowing the ring. Do you just let your head have some thing to rest and center and now we lift the body. Yeah.

And we lower the legs and we lift the legs. How can we lower the body? And exhale, lift the by and inhale, lower the leg and lift the legs and lower the body. And exhale, lift and lower and lift and yeah. And now lift the buy. Hold their turn to the left, lower the legs. Lift slowly turn to this center. Turn to the right.

Lower the Ley lift slowly turn to the center and go down. And that's not easy. And lift the head and chest and rotate to the left. And the legs go down and up. And the body comes center and we rotate to the right and the legs go down and up and the body comes center and we lower down. And we're going one more time.

Exhale into the left, reaching to the left, lower left center, reaching to the right lower lift center. I had the ring out from behind the head, place the head in the feet down, separating the feet as you go. Arms are in there, hand ring is in the arms. We lift the pelvis back up, we take the left leg off, the mat reaches back to touch the ring and then it goes down to the floor and back. Walk down to the floor and back to keeping the pelvis high and left. Two more and last one and left.

And now we roll the spine down, bringing the leg back to touch the ring, dropping the hip, taking the foot, putting the ring over the foot and drying that leg back. Yeah. And then you're letting the ring come up into their hands and exhale to lift the body, keeping the left leg on the floor. We bring the right leg up and stretch and then they'll hit it, goes away and pulls back what? Oh, away and pose back to Oh away and pose back three Oh away. And Paul's back four Oh away and pulls back five and now we rule the spine down.

Roll the spine down, reaching the leg back for the ring. Take the ring, Hook it around the foot, find the pelvis level steady, bring the leg back, and then we take both feet in so they just snuggle in together. Right in that ring. We bring the legs back and we bend the knees. We pulled down jury Cha. Okay. And inhale, bend the knees and Exhale, pull down to stretch up or down with your waist, as well as with your arms last one and called down the stretcher and then start to move the legs away from you. Lift the head, lift the upper body, roll your spine all the way up. Taking your time, looking for control. Reaching a Oh by the way, oh by the way. And then take the ring off the feet, reach the ring over your head, lift tall and reach back.

Put the ring back over, long around your feet and stretch forward. Sit yourself back up on a slide. Back on my mat a little bit. Bringing the arms out, flexing the through the feet, weak. Inhale to turn the body. Exhale to bend the elbows, lifting the chest to the arms. Inhale to reach and exhale to find center.

Inhale to turn the body. Exhale we pull in how we reach and center and turn and bringing the body to the ring. As the ring comes to the body and stretch and center and turn and lift the spy and stretch and center. And this time we take the arms up and we look up and, and we bring the ohms down and we find center and we turn and we lift up and we look back and we come back and we bring it center and we inhale and reach back and um, and center and inhale and reach back and down and center and take the ring behind you and place your hands. Just on the outsides of it, just for spacing, we point through the feet, we stretch to the spine, we inhale and pressing the hips up, exhale and any other hips come down.

The chest reaches forward and drawing and where it's feeling. The support come from the front of the body and do a little inward squeeze with the upper arm. You're not actually going to push on your ring. That's not real, but it's energetic and you'll be able to feel it. Reaching up and and reaching and down and reaching out. And now we sit up and we bend our knees. Let me take that ring and wrap it around.

Coming around towards the front of the ankle, lifting the feet, drawing [inaudible] we're going to walk back and lift and lift the ring and thread the legs through. Lifting in the back is their income's over the knees, bend the knees, Hook the ankles and rock and left and lifting the rain and bringing the legs through. The back reach is long and band and Hook and a rock. When lift and let go and [inaudible] and reach back and put the ring in between your ankles and who are each to like sa and roll down slowly, slowly and bend the knees. Hands are on, the nice ring is in the ankles. Stretch everything, bringing the hands and the opposite direction inside of the ring and then around.

What I mean by that is that they're narrower and it's interesting to feel, can we stretch the legs out at the same time? Do we feel the ring moving in between the legs or is it very still and reach and back and reach in? No. As the knees bend, we reach for me and back and as in he's been, we reach away and bow and reach for me and, and reach away and back. One more rich for me and back and reach away and back and let the head come down and lift the legs and rollover and flex through the feet and press into the ring and slowly start to bring the spy. Yeah, yeah. Down to the hips and then as it backdrops down and take the legs away, kind of still likes back up and I roll over, kind of flex through the fee and oppressing to the ring, you know, roll down, flow flow, checking in with all your pieces. Where are your arms? Where is your tension?

Reach down and I hope you can stick with the rollover or you can come with me and one take the ring down and will reach up into the Jackknife. So pressing the ring up, lifting to the ceiling, and then we reach back over breaking at the waist. Finally it's parallel to the floor and in a rolled down. I'm going to do that one more time. So if you don't want to do the Jack Knife, just stick with the rollover. I'll be right there. Inhale to lift. Exhale, roll. The legs go down.

We start to feel the back of the body working. We feel the backs of the legs working. We're reaching up, up, up, and then we fought. And guess what? We're gonna roll down, but as we roll down, we're going to lift the head. Then we're going to roll the lap and we're gonna take the ring. We're going to flex the feet. I lower the legs and sit up. And again, I'm going to move myself back. And then we start, we in here and when you take the ring four and we roll the spine, okay, I'm elan gate the back, bring it out nice and flat and then round back down and lift back up and in here and at this moment I'm just holding the ring, I'm using it, I'm following it with my energy reaching out and I even down and rolling and India and ax and I reaching out and we hold here and me take the arms back and the spinal longer and theory and four and we lift the body and we bring the ring forward and we turn towards me. The hand you just rotated to goes on the bottom, the other arm goes on the top and we reach out towards the outside of that foot and then we roll back and center and in here and reach through and lift up and center and rotate and Sirio try when you're going forward, not to get too curious about lifting the shoulders to take the arms forward, try to make it, oh, spinal movement and Enya and dyes and exhale and center.

Last time. Inhale and exhale and center. Are we going to take the ring? Am I going to come up onto our knees and we bring the arms overhead and we're just going to sway in the breeze. So we reach over and we let the ring, the heaviness of the ring help us against gravity and we pull back up and we reach over, reaching out through the fingertips and pulling back and in Neal to go over and exhale to lift up and inhale to go over and exhale to lift up. Now we're going to take the ring in the left hand and it's going to, we're going to separate the arms.

We're going to place the ring down onto the mat. We're gonna push the ring away as we reach the right arm over. And then we're gonna pull back. And this time as the right arm reaches over, we're gonna put some weight onto that circle and we're gonna bring our right leg out. This is a little tricky, so we look after yourself. You want your ring to be pretty far away from you and gonna bring the arm just out to the side pretty far away from one of you with their ink.

And then we just lift the leg and lift the leg and, and lifts the lake and down. Well I feel like and down [inaudible] oh let we do five little circles. One, two, three, four, five go. Five little circles the other direction. Two, three, four, five. We placed the leg down, we bend the knee and we lean the hips away, reaching the arm over towards the ring and we bring the ring with us as we come back. So let's see how we go on the other side. Can we take the ring in the right here and they were reaches, we're way, way, way away from you.

You re chat with that top on that left arm and then the left arm comes out. And I would recommend moving that ring just a little further away. So you have to lean into it a little bit to lift your leg and the rest is holding our balance here. Take the lake down and up and down and [inaudible], stabilizing through the body through the way and down and up and down and up body. And we do five little circles, two, three, four, five little circles the other direction, two, three, four, five.

Why don't we take the light down and wait, bend the knee and we lean into that knee and reach into that side and stretch. I'm going to, I'm going to turn towards the Mat. We're going to take your ring right underneath the chest. I'm gonna step one lake back in a step. The other like back, lifting up off the ring energetically and we bend the arms, straighten and bend, knee straighten and bend and straighten. And now we take the left leg up and down and two and three and and we hold the leg up and rebend, knee and strain.

And then the and straight. I like guns down. My right leg lifts up one and down and two and three and the arms bend and straighten and bend and the light comes down and the elbows bent and straight. We're going to do 10 pushups in a row today. Here's our last one. Bend and stretch. Bring one knee and bring the other knee in.

Bring the ring out in front of you. Don't reach back to sit on your feet. Okay, you can just a moment. And then placing the body down on the mat. So I'm going to do some gliding of the ring. So if you're on a sticky mount, that's going to be tough if you're on carpet or hardwood floor to take the ring in front of your mat. So what we're going to do next is we're going to engage, so light engagement through the legs, the light engagement through the abdominals, and then just float the body up. So my arms are still on the mat, my ribs are still on the mat.

Essentially I've just picked up my head and as I had the weight of my head is bringing my opera Baca and I'm going to bend my arms and I'm gonna bring that ring right underneath my body. Well, I'm going to push the ring away and I'm going to lower so you can just glide it along the floor. That's the easiest way to do this. Or You could hover in and bend whichever you prefer. I like both. And reach and Dan, just do one more arms. Either hover or they just slide Ben range. And now we're going to take the ring and turn it on its side.

Bringing the hands just on top. Just outside of the handle. We're going to lift the head just between the arms and then let the head start to travel above the arms, sort of sliding the arms backwards, sliding the body upwards. So we bring the breastbone towards the ring, lifting the body up and then we lower the body down. Let's do that again two more times. Inhale like you're rolling a marble along the mat with your nose and then just reaching up.

Uh Huh. And down. And I visualized just not pushing down on the ring to lift my body up, but instead sliding the shoulder blades back, sliding the arm bones deeper into the shoulder joints to the left and lower when they ring back down. So it's flat. Place your forms underneath you. Lift yourself up onto your hands and knees and just reach back again and sit down on your feet. Yeah, sliding the arms out in front of you.

Maybe shifting the pelvis first to one side and then to the other, and then arriving back and center. And let's just take three full breaths here. Inhaling, expanding through the back of the body annex. Hail looking to let go of any excess tension and India and exhale [inaudible] [inaudible] and just starting to slowly roll the spine back up, bringing the hands to the knees. Five, opening the gate and just being still for a moment. Peer prepare you for whatever's next in your day. Okay.

Comments

2 people like this.
Truly lovely! Thank you
1 person likes this.
Outstanding workout. Thank you. Very flowing yet challenging.
2 people like this.
excellent free flowing class. Perfect for a quick but complete deep body work out
2 people like this.
Excellent as always Meri! I love your connecting arm bone into shoulder cue when we were doing the prone work.. can't wait to teach it to my class tonight.
1 person likes this.
What an inspired and inspiring class. I was a little hesitant to return to a 2/3 class after a week without internet and a full day of travel but this class turned out to have everything I needed. While I love daytime classes I found the contrast of your white top with the dark background offered easy to see assurance that I was correctly following your clear instructions and cueing.
Great class...I loved the challenge, flow, and especially the calm ending :) Love you
1 person likes this.
Like always, you rock Meredith! :)
1 person likes this.
Great class really enjoyed doing. Some lovely ideas for my classes as well. Thank you
1 person likes this.
Fabulous class with great cueing and flow as always. Some new variations for the Magic Circle and nice work in spinal extension and flexion.
Many thanks to those of you I know and those of you I don't. I so appreciate your feedback. It never fails to put a smile on my face!
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