Class #2048

Connection and Control

65 min - Class
200 likes

Description

It's all about connection and control in this Mat workout with Ed Botha. You will start class with balance exercises to wake up your lateral stabilizers, and enjoy the wonderful hip, shoulder, and back stretches and openers. Then, you'll get into the work with traditional Mat exercises like the Hundred, Rollup, Side Kicks, and finish with the challenge of Push Ups, Front and Back Support, and Teaser.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Feb 10, 2015
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So my name is Ed [inaudible]. I'm from Cape Town, South Africa. And I'm going to be taking you guys through a math class this evening to enjoy. So we're going to stand with our feet hip distance apart, arms down at our side, and just nice and relaxed and just finding the center of your feet. So some way between you heels and the balls of your feet, right? What I really want to avoid is that you guys are swaying forward with your pelvis, right? So if anything, bring your weight slightly back towards the heel side of your foot.

Excellent. All right, so we want to bring a little bit of attention towards the abdominals. So what we're going to do is just draw our sacrum's down slightly and give the knees a little bit of a bend. So that automatically creates a little bit of space for the pelvis to be maneuvered. Alright, we're gonna lift the shoulders up and just let the shoulders relax. So let's do that one more time. So we just bring the shoulders up, very gentle without pinching them back and just let them relax. Thumbs facing forward. And we'll start with the roll down.

So we take a deep breath into repair. And as we exhale, we just allow our head to become heavy and rolling. Oh spines down one vertebra at a time. So when you get to the bottom, keep the knees soft. Just double check that we've got the naval drawing in and up, and exhale to restack. So we're going to build the spine back up all the way up tall and keeping the little bit of bend in the knees and long spine.

So we'll, let's do one more roll down. So we take our breath in again. Exhaling. So you guys can all just relax your neck a little bit and allow your neck to go completely soft, right? The shoulders are still gently drawing away from the ears, right? Super. And then we take a deep breath in and slowly start drawing back up. And think of the hamstrings doing this, they start pulling your sitting bones down towards your heels and your lower back. It's a little bit of a stretch out and we build the spine up tall. Great. So let's bring the hands onto our hips, right?

And the feed can come a little bit closer together and you are you going to shift your weight slightly onto your right leg. And then we've got to bring the left leg up for me gently. So just a little bit of a balance, right? If you happy over here, that's great. If you want to go a little bit higher, we're going to bring the leg up to parallel to the floor. Excellent. Hold it there for me and bringing it back down carefully and placing it down. Good.

So there's no pressure to bring their leg up too high. I just want you to work a little bit on the balance. So let's go to the other side. So again, we just connecting through the center and we're going to bring the leg up to wherever you feel comfortable so we can go up and up and up and up. So when you get to about hip height, that's where I would stop for a sec and bringing it back and down. Cool. All right, so we go to the other side again. So we're going to add a little bit of an ear extension.

So we're going to bring the leg up again. So it's a great position. So what we really doing is we waking up those lateral stabilizers of the pelvis, right? So we want to bring the leg up building or waking up the sow as well. So we want to bring their leg up good. And then from there, depending on where you are with your height, you're just gonna push your leg out and bend your knee and bring it back down. Okay? So we do the same thing on the other side. Cool. So you get the picture.

So we're going to lift the leg up for me. Awesome. Good. So the ankles are working. All right. Extend the leg out to where you comfortable bending the knee and place the leg back down. Right? So what we'll do on the next one is we're going to bring the leg up, we're going to take it out, and then we're going to, without putting the leg down, we're going to bend the knee again and then we're going to reach the leg behind us a little bit and we're going to just gently lean forward. All right, so the leaning forwards, just going to activate that hamstring a little bit too to bring you up again. Okay, so from there again, so we're going to lift one leg up.

So I think we started with the left leg. So we bring the leg up. Good. Just to weigh you feel comfortable. All right. And then we're going to take the leg out. Hold it, bend the knee. Okay, so this is where it gets a little bit more balanced. Like say if you need to bring your arms out, you can, but we're going to slowly started taking the leg behind us, keep it little bit bent, and then bend your standing leg and we're going to go forward again, just to where you comfortable. If this is it, that's great.

If you feel comfortable, take your opposite hand and see if you can just gently touch the mat in front of you. Cool. And then gently come back up. There we go. And try not to look around too much. It throws your balance off. I just realized that enough throws your balance. If you look around to my chair. Okay, so let's go other side. So we're going to lift up, I mean a lot of balance has got to do just with your focus and your, I guess your focal points or leg up. Extend the leg, bend the knee and then we're going to bring it behind us.

So again, so we've got lots of lateral things going on with our knees, so lots of stability working there. All right. And then as we're going down, our hamstrings have to release but they are still working egocentrically here and then they work on their co centric contraction to bring us back up. Excellent. And relax. Cool. Alright, so you can have a light on on your back for me so you can get down. Whatever's comfortable. [inaudible] are we going to start with a hands out in a t the position? All right. And I'm going to take my left leg and I'm gonna Cross it over my right leg in a figure four. Okay, so we're going to do just a couple of hip stretches and openers over here, right? So what I'd like to do is take my left knee, I'm just going to let it drop towards the Mat. I slowly just let the knee drop down, but I'm still in that figure four position and I'm opening up slightly. All right.

So I'm getting a twist in my mid back in my waist and then bringing the legs back into the saint or then we're going to take the leg, same leg, or we're going to drop it over to the other side so that your sole of your foot, so your sole of your foot is going to go all the way to the mat if you can. Cool. And then that knee that is just going to, that's reaching up to the ceiling, push it open a little bit to, yeah, just gently. So we're getting a little bit of a open stretch of the hip and we get to bring it back in to the center. Cool. So let's switch legs. So I'm going to take my right leg over my left and then I bring my right leg down to the mat. Yes, it's the knee is leading first and bring it back through the center. And then we would take the, the, the sole of the foot and take that down to the mat. So you just get some really nice little stretches, different parts of the hips.

And at the same time you want to think of pushing the knee open gently, right? Not forcing it, just using that rotators of the hip and bring that back into the center. Cool. And we're gonna bring both legs down, right? So what I'll ask you guys to do is you guys all turn towards me, so both knees are going to turn forward and both palms together and we're just going to open the pages of the book one. So we will the top arm and just gently bring it open. So we have a little bit of a stretch back with me.

So both knees are staying together and then bring it back into the fainter again. Right? So at this time we do a little rotation. So you're just drawing a big circle on the ceiling so your arm goes up above you. So my palm already opened and we'll end up in that same open position. And then let the arm follow the circle and come back in to where we were. So let's repeat that. So we go up, arm goes up above us. Once we get overhead late, your upper back respond.

Now we just go into a little bit of an opening and circling and bring it all the way back in. Cool. Right? So a fun final stretch here. Okay. We call it a pretzel. So what I'm going to do is I take my bottom leg and I'm going to hook it over my top leg. [inaudible] you got that? Cool. And then you're gonna take your bottom leg. Yep. Well it's the bottom leg now.

And then give that leg a little bit of a pool back. All right. So I'm going into a little bit of a quad stretch. So if you can drop the leg so you bring it down. Yeah. Good. So a little bit of Quad, a little bit of hip opening there. Awesome. Okay. So then what we do from there is you change your legs round.

So you go top leg, you're going to press down with your hand. Yep. And then take hold of your bottom leg and then try to bring that into hip extension and then lie open with your shoulders. So I'm turning my upper back, right? So your top glutes getting opened up a little bit. Bottom hip flexor.

And at the same time we are going into some thoracic rotation and then just relax. Cool. So I think the best is if we can just spin around all the way. So bring your heads to the center, right? Yup. So the first thing we did was we just opened the book. All right. So the arms together knees are together and then just gently roll it open and to the back. Good. And then bring it back in to the center.

And we're gonna circle twice. So we got arms up above the head, little stretch and bring it back. Does the start good? So we go one more time. So we got over taking it all the way around and bringing it back in to the start of the call. So I took my bottom leg and I hook it and that becomes the top league all of a sudden. Right? And then just take your hand and pull that leg back slightly. I'm letting the leg just flop down on the floor. Okay. So that adds the twisting and then we gotta to change that. So we switch. So the top league becomes the front leg and you're gonna use your hand to press it down.

And then we take hold of the bottom foot and then take your bottom leg. So I remember once they go into hip extension, so I've got to really use my hand to stretch it back there. And then I turn my shoulders. So that's the important part is that you get your shoulder blades, you're trying to get them towards the mat just to where you can. Right. But there's no reason that you have to hold your foot.

You can very easily do it just in a t position. Good. And then relax. Right? So we're going to spin back round to our start position onto our backs. With the hands down at your sides, we're going to take the left foot and we get to gently hovered up off the mat for me. So it's really just literally hovering off the floor so you can lower it. It's very, very low. Okay. It's not even close to a single leg lift. Right?

So it's just the little touch. So what I want you to really focus on is just maintaining a strong neutral position while that leg is slightly lifted. So all it does is adding a little bit of weight and challenging how centre and bringing the leg back down to the mat. So we go to the other side. So without disturbing your neutral position, we're going to bring the other leg up. So literally it's just hovering up off the floor.

Yup. And then bringing it back and down. So from there, let's bring both legs up off the mat. So draw the navel in and up and literally, again, both legs are just coming off the floor. So you really should be able to hold this position and bring it back down for a second. There's definitely gonna be a little bit of work in the lower back area as well. Don't be afraid of that, but the abdominals taking most of the weight and obviously the hip flexes. So we go again. So naval draws in and up and both legs come just off the mat there for me.

Slight little res and just bring attention to that position so that we strengthening our bodies in our neutral position as well. And bringing it back down and relax. And one last time. So gently lifting both legs up off the mat again, pulling the middle in and tight and relax. Bring it back and down, right. So we're going to bring both arms up to the sky, palms pressing together, keeping the bottom ribs engaged.

And this time I'm Maraski bring your back down into the maths. Are you creating a little bit of a, a gentle imprint of the spine but without squeezing the glutes, without gripping into the hips. So all I've done is I've just pressed my low back down a little bit and then where the palms together bring the arms up above the head, keeping your elbows straight and your shoulders away from your ears and the ribs sliding down into the mat. So bring a bit of a awareness towards the abdominal area. Feel what happens there, how it has to tighten to stop the back from arching and then bring the arms back up. So we'll repeat that one.

So the arms are just going back slowly, keeping the abdominals, pressing the palms together. And that's going to obviously challenge the flexibility in the lats as well. The rotators super. So dropping the ribs down. So remember this one is done in a slight imprint and bringing the arms back up to the sky. Okay, so we take it one step higher. You're going to bring one leg up at a time to the table top position and then hold her.

Here we are in the very specific the tables up and it's going to bring you up a little bit just so that we feel that we not hanging into our lower backs. Cool. And then we do that same movement taking the arms up above you and you definitely should feel the abdominal is getting a little tighter in that position. They really scooped in with the same term and bringing it back up and we'll repeat it one more time. So the arms go back, drawing the navel in. I end up really stretching those arms back, ribs, staying down and connected.

Bring the arms back up and let's take one leg down and the other leg down. Cool. Okay. So if you can do that then it's going to be really easy to just to bring your arms up above your head. Separate right with the palms facing the sky.

So similar to a set up of the hundreds and we're going to bring the legs back up to the tabletop. So we go for one and there's the two. And on an exhale we bring the arms up. Once they get to perpendicular lift head, chest, and we're in a hundred prep position. So flatten the naval in, bring the arms up to vertical. Once they hit perpendicular and then we go back. But still being really aware of the ribs and the abdominals. So we just all about connection, right?

No and up again. So arms go up, head, chest, arms and lifting up, abdominals flattening. And then the arms go up. Nice and high. Shoulders down and all the way back down. Let's go one more time. Up, arms, head, chest and strong lift. Keeping the middle end tied, absolutely soft around the neck. And we take the right leg down to the mat, just a touch of the foot.

And we got to change for 10 so we're going for one too. The leg changes three and four still flattening through the abdominals. Five. So we really work on that scoop. Six, four, seven and exhale eight exhale mind and exhale 10 and bring both legs down to the mat and come back. Arms, head, chest and all the way back and down. Super. So from the position here, we are going to bring the back down a little bit more into the mat. Bring the right leg up to the table, top left leg, up to the table. Top.

All right. Exhale as we lift up, head, chest, arms, and this time we take the legs up to vertical or not. If you need to keep them bent, that's not a problem. And we're going into the hundreds. So we take a long breath and one, two, three, four, five into three, four, five, two, two, three, four, five. In two, three, four, five, three, two, three, four, five and into four, five, four, two, three, four, five. And in three, four, five, five, two, three, four, five. Excellent. Let's see if we can lower the legs a little bit to four fives.

See if we can find about a 45, seven, two, three, four, five and into four, five, and eight. Two, three, four, five and into four, five, and nine. Two, three, four, five. Last one. 10, two, three, four, five. Ben, the knees in. As we come up a little bit deeper there. Hands under the thighs and you're going to just use your five. Either both legs are going to rock you up or you can put one leg down on the mat and draw yourself up and up into setting. Cool.

All right, so from there, hands under the thighs, lift up through your upper back and slowly melt yourself down. That's a two about halfway position, so we keep the little bit of scoop through the Santa's shoulder blades are still drawn down and then draw yourself back up and you will see curve. So let's stay seek of position there and then we go back down again. So we just sliding down, that's an hollowing out, finding our halfway mark there and coming back up, stolen the c curve and back down. And let's pause at the halfway position. Take the left arm out and bringing it back and the right arm can God and bringing it back in and up. All the way up to the top.

Good this time. Use your arms to extend up a little bit and then roll back all the way down onto your backs so your hands can just reach down. As I'm reaching down, I drew my heels a bit closer to my back. Yeah, side. And I'm down ready for a pelvic hill. So we're going to take a deep breath in. Exhale, rolling the spine up and find the top line of your pelvic [inaudible]. Deep breath in at the top and out-breath to roll it back down. So I'm thinking through my upper back, mid back, lower back, tailbone goes down. We're going to do one more pelvic call. So deep breath in. Exhale as we roll it up.

So we scoop in through the center, it's a stretch up the lumber and find the top position there for me. As we breathe out the ride lake comes up to the table top. We do five single leg lifts there and we go for one. Inhale to touch or to, and that'll touch for three and four. One more time and five bring it all the way.

[inaudible] keep the height of the pelvis. So let's just double check that. Let's come up a little bit higher. Go into a little bit of a deepest scoop of the abs and the left leg goes up. Five, four, four and three. Four, two and last one and one good left leg down.

Hips up a little bit higher, and then roll down for me all the way down and onto your back. All right, so we're going to take the right leg long on the mats. Are you going to extend it out all the way from me? The left knee. You're going to take your hands behind your thigh and you gotta hug that leg into your chest. Yeah. So from there, try keep the leg hug to your chest. All right. And then you want to challenge yourself. So my thigh doesn't move any further away from my chest from where I am.

And we're going to activate our quadriceps again and then just lengthen your leg for me. So we straighten the leg to way you can without the leg pulling away from your thigh. So we're going to bend the knee again for me. That makes sense. So we're going to go up, straighten the leg up completely there for me. Straight, straight and straighten and bringing it back and change legs for me. So lengthen the left leg and then just bringing your right knee into your chest with your hands behind your right thigh. Yeah. So remember we want to keep the fires close to our bodies as possible and then slowly start extending your right leg.

So are you using your knee extensors and that'll give the hamstring some length, but just take it to where you feel comfortable and then bend the knee and bringing it back in. Right? So this is just a great preparation for our leg circles. So people do struggle. So let's go to the other side. So the same leg, but one more repetition. So it just gives them that little bit of flexibility and quadriceps strength that's needed to hold those leg circle positions and band. And it's a great active, isolated stretch. Good.

So we're going to release hands down at your sides. This time the left leg comes up to the tabletop position. So I'm going to bend the leg and we're going to reach the leg up to the sky and Dorsi, flexing your foot. Alright, so we're going to cross the midline with a circle. So we just gonna go inhaling for one. Exhaling, inhaling and exhaling four. And so we got to keep the speed quiet, consistent and exhaling.

Inhaling and exhaling. One more time. Inhaling and breathing out and hold up at the top. So we're going to pose and we reversed. So we changed the direction so we going to the outside and exhale.

So let's not forget about our middle in and out, keeping the center strong and in and out. And I'm paying a lot of attention to my bottom leg. So my hip extensors are pressing down. Let's do one more cycle there. So we're going in [inaudible] out and pause. Bend your knee and place the leg. Slide it along. So we go to the other side.

So we go bent leg. [inaudible] table Top, lengthen. So all the way up, get your leg as close to perpendicular as possible. Super Dorsey. Flex the foot. Are we crossing the midline? So we're going for inhaling and exhaling for two [inaudible]. Paying attention to the center. Three, two more cycles. So it's inhaling, exhaling. That's one cycle. Inhaling and exhaling and hold up at the top.

So let's go reverse. So we going for inhaling and exhaling for two, three [inaudible] good. Two more. Inhale. And exhale. One more time in breath and out breath and hold it up at the top. Fantastic. Bending your knee, hands behind your thigh, and you push yourself up all the way up. Cool. So we're going to bring the legs up to the table, top position, then hands reaching [inaudible] along the outsides of your carbs, trying to get a little bit of extension through your upper spine.

And then gently rolling down towards the lower back. Just before we get down flat with our back, we're going to roll back up. So still articulating. So we don't want this to become a hinge. And then we lift up at the top through the upper back. So let's go back down. So we're gonna sink down through the sponsor at really work on Vertebra by Vertebra. Pause and then keep the cool. So curling, curling, curling to come back up and then straightening the spine up as much we can.

Their left arm goes out to the left and bringing it back in and right arm goes out to the right and bring it back in. And we roll down one more time just to the tip of the shoulder blades this time. And we're going to hold that position and curl back up and up and up. Bend the knees, hold onto your shins for a roll, like a ball. So we'll just take a second there just to feel that position between the sitting bones and the tailbone and then gently, literally start rocking slightly, so backwards and forwards. Gentle little rocks, Jane to Little Rock Ben, pause.

This time we're going to poorest the lower back so deep into the mat that it tips us backwards as we inhale and rolling up. So for the roll like a ball. So we inhale to roll back and exhale to call back up, keeping the eyes through the thighs. Inhale and exhale in breath and out breath. Inhaling, exhaling two more times. Soft back breath to come up. And again, soft back down and breath to come up.

Left legs gonna extend right leg, goes into the chest and sinking down to the tips of the shoulder blades into our single leg stretch position. So we just want to hold really tight shoulder blades drawing down again, eyes looking through those thighs. And we change for 10 we go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Bring them both in, lower their upper body down capsule. Just give the knees a little hug for a sec. So we're gonna do the double leg stretch now focusing on the, the holding of the extended position with the arms and the legs. All right, and keeping a good isometric contraction of the abdominals. All right, we really want to feel like we're in a hollow scooped out position there. All right?

So what we'll do is bring the legs up to the tabletop coming up into the head and chest right now. From there on an inhale, we reach arms and legs and we hold. So this is where I want you to really flatten in with your middle. Keep your chest lifting and then circle that round. So that's the, that's the, the, the cracks of the exercises, hollowed out position there. So we got again, reaching arms and legs. So we scooped and we strong. So we got to hold. This is it, this is the work.

And then bringing it back and in, if your neck feels a little bit tired, you can always put one hand behind your head to help. And we go again. Reach, come up into the thoracic arms, reaching behind you. Keep the hold, exhale to come back in. Excellent. Two more times. So we go reach, arms and legs. Hold, flatten the middle. Exhale one more time. And we reach and we hold and we bring it back at lower. Hugging the knees into the chest. Okay, so legs back up to the table.

Hands behind your head. Fingers interlaced. So the elbows in our peripheral view and we do the chest lift three times. So we're going to reach up. Exhale, ish. Think of the sternum coming towards the five. Inhale at the top. And exhale, bring it back and down.

So we are really diving into the abdominal work now and we're coming up. Exhale, scooping deep. Hold the position there. Inhale at the top, still flatten the navel and back and down for me one more time and exhale as we go up. Good. Keep the hold. Lifting up a little bit higher there. Deep breath in out-breath to come back down for a sec and just give their knees a quick little hag. Again, super hands go behind the head straightaway.

Legs back up into the table. Come up, head, chest again, legs go up along vertical legs. And this time we lower the legs down to where you feel comfortable. So I think I'm going to go down for a little bit of work and then exhale, bring it back and up. So that's up to you. But it's that same hollow position we've been working on. So the lower I go, the deeper I have to press my back down and exhale to come back up. And again, inhaling, learning, draw the saint in and exhale.

That feels good. And we go to more. So we go lower, lower, lower, lower, low, and, and one more time. So find the scoop deep in the center. Hollow, hollow, hollow, and bend the knees and give the knees the little hug. So the last one, we will move to the crisscross. So legs up to the tabletop. Hands behind the head again. So we know the position, we come up with the head and the chest when we okay. And extend your left leg. Long leg.

Rotate over to the right side. So his shoulder blade up and over. And we change. Yeah. So just think of one shoulder blade lifting over the other. All right, so it's just really rotation, rotation, rotation. And again, one, two, another 10, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, one more 10. Bring both legs in, lower the head and the chase legs can come back down onto the mat.

One and two. So we take the legs out straight and strong if you can, right? So we're going to just lift up through a neck full. So if you not comfortable with the neck pull position, then there's going to be that point where you're going to lengthen your arms to come up. So it's really just a loaded roll up. So from there we're going to go up head, chest, and then from there you would lengthen and curl and bring the hands behind your head and stretch all the way forward over your thighs. Restack your spine up tall and then rolling.

Or should I say hinges first and then we're going to roll back in the last phase of the exercise. So from here we're going to start lifting up ahs and then exhale, continue without forward flection and over the thighs of restack. So we build it up tall, rip stain and we are going to hinge and then roll and back. One more time. Up we go. Head, chest, abdominals and exhale. So we find out scoop through the center all the way forward over the thighs and restack bringing it back up. Tall, flex the feet, separate the legs and bringing the arms out in front of us for a sitting spine stretch. So arms are shoulder width apart, feet are just a little bit wider than the shoulder width. And as we exhale, we go head, chest, upper back, roll through the spine and relax down at the bottom there.

Take a deep breath in at the bottom and really, really stacking the spine back up again. So tall, tall, tall position in that final position. So when you guys are sitting here, I want you to really to sit with purpose. It's like you're sitting on the stove and you want to minimize your contact of your bum cheeks. On the, on the mat there's I, the taller I get, the less I'm going to burn and exhale. So the head goes heavy again through the upper back, the mid back, always supported from the abdominals. Deep breath in at the bottom and exhale to bring it back up. So I'm hollowing art with the same [inaudible], curling up, getting taller and taller. One more time. So we go, exhale as we go down. So the head upper back, mid back, lower back and roll it through.

Paul was down at the bottom there. Take your hands onto your shins and then just gently start extending your spine. So shoulders stay down, left up through your back. My arms lengthen and I'm trying to create length in my back here. So we want to create a long spine, long diagonal.

And then we're going to roll back up. So the arms just slide along your thighs and building it back up tall. And this time the arms follow and they go tall with us. Still sitting up with purpose. So let's do everything with the arms long so the arms come down first, the head and the chest follow.

So that leads our spine into our flection and we're going down. My arms are through my legs. This time our arms start lifting. Then my head and my chest want to join my arms and I'm going into that diagonal again. So lengthen, lengthen, lengthen up through the upper back, the mid back and repeat. So we're going back down so the head goes heavy again. Restack and once we get to the restack position, let the arms come up again.

Vertical. So the arms are tall, shoulder blades are drawing down, the lumber is lifted. And one more time. So we go arms go first head, chest follow. So it's a little bit of a dive over and in stretch through. Pull the shoulder blades down and back. Arms come up for me. Abdominals flatten, lengthen up through the spine and just find your best diagonal.

So you want to keep the ribs connecting, but you want to lengthen from the lumbar spine, all that. This time bring your arms out to a tee position still in that extended position, right? Then we're going to take the right arm and we're going to rotate it over the left foot and the hand goes behind the back, the opposite hand, thumb turn down, and we're in our sole position there and all we do from there is continue with that extension. And that's going to bring you up into sitting all the way, putting the emphasis on that extension and coming back into our center there. Right? So the saw, I'm not looking for deep reflection necessarily. I want you to be pay attention to your back extending throughout the whole movement all the time. Yeah. So we go to the opposite side.

So I'm going over towards you guys there and my thumb goes down and then I'm reaching forward creating length opposite sitting bone is drawing down, thumb is back, arm is pointing down now from they get that extension. So Lenzen so try create long spine lifting up, trying to get a bit out of diagonal. And then from that diagonal we continue extending and we bring it back in and it centers. So we go across other side from goes down, we draw in sort of try and tighten through your thighs. So I remember earlier we did those knee extensions.

That's the same concept is try straighten those legs if you can and lens up through the back door. So we create our diagonal elongating, elongating, elongating all the way up. Bring it back into our center. And one more time. So we find our rotation from points down and we reach and we are going to reach, we are gonna reach, we are gonna reach, we are gonna reach, start extending your spine all the way up, up, up. And as we start getting to that final point, the legs start abducting already. So they come together, thumbs, turn out to the sides, palms up.

And we are already into that spine twist and we change one, two, one, two back through the center. One to add one to just little pulses and one to add one too. And again, one, two and last one. Nice and slow. One and two and bring it back in throat. So you guys are all gonna flip onto your side facing me on your form.

Yeah. So form down, pushing out of your shoulder, top, arm behind your head, pressing down with your palm and the top leg goes up in line with your hip joint. All right, so not too high with the leg, but really push out of that bottom arm. So from there we're going to bring the leg forward. Double pulse. One, two, inhale to the back. So it's exhaling for two pumps. Inhaling for two pubs, three and to the back, fall and back for five and to the back for six and back strong, middle seven and to the back for eight. Good. Two more. One, two back, one, two back. Let's just do one more there and one, two and then bring the two legs together. All right, so you're going to bend your bottom knee for me. Keep the top leg straight straight.

They've me bottom leg bent and I'm bringing my knees together. All right. And then my bottom leg is actually going to take all the weight and we're going to lift up into a side position so that you can actually bring your hand to your side. And then from there I push up and lift the top arm up. So I'm really using my bottom abductors, my hip abductors and then bringing it back and down. Okay, so we push up. So it's a little bit of the less strain on the abductors with a bent knee and coming back in. Excellent. So we are using particularly the Gluteus Medius, they're pushing up and bringing it back and down.

And we'll do one more time. So we're going to push up and we hold it up at the top. So let's see if we can bring the top leg up and bringing it back and down and too and back and down for three and down four and back. Four five we're going for eight and six and in four, seven and one more time and aid and have a little stretch down kids, they'll bring the legs over to the other side. So we do the sidekick first. So hands behind the head, top leg, lift up, slightly, push out of your bottom shoulder and we kicking forward.

So it's one and to the back for two into the back. Three to the back, head four and back. Five keep pushing out of the bottom. Shoulder. Sixth and back. Seven and back. Four eight and back and nine and back.

One more time and tin and back and bring the two legs together. So I'm bending my bottom knee. I'm down at your side. So we're going into our lateral lift. So we're using a little bit of their obliques, but a lot of that bottom leg to push us up. Add Up, we go and back and down. Good.

So we go for two and back and for three lift and a for good. Do twice more and one down. And on the next one we'll hold it up at the top and we're going to push up. And then we go with a top leg. One, four, two and three. Really pushing into that bottom knee.

Four, five, three more. One, two and three. Good. And bring it all the way down. Turning onto your forearms into a single leg kick position. So I've got my elbows in under the shoulders, pushed up out of the chest, bring your pubic symphysis down. Just gently pressing it into the mat and lifting up through your center. Yeah.

So just careful of dropping into your lower back there. And then both legs are just going to come up off the mat. So I'm really pushing up of the shoulders and knees are lifting up off the mat. So take a long breath into prepare yourself. We go a little bit slower with the left leg. We do two palaces.

Then with the right, so we go one, two, one, two and we got here. Inhaling, inhaling ad. Okay. Inhaling, inhaling, ah, emailing in ailing. And again, inhaling, inhaling, last set. So in, in and long exhale and exhale and both legs long and just lower them down.

Hands under your forehead and you lying. Prone, right? So first just relaxing your upper body and adduct your legs for me. So we bring both legs together. So really connected. So gently bring the pubis emphasis into the mat. All right, so we've got a little bit of the abdominals, a little bit of the hamstrings engaging and bringing both legs up off the floor for me, right? So both legs are raised, knees must stay together. Pelvis, we drawing now slowly start bending the knees slowly without the knees coming apart and keep them raised. Keep them raised, keep them raised and hold and lengthen the legs. But keeping the legs together, keeping the legs together, keeping them together, up off the ground. So again, slowly bending the knees slowly, slowly squeezing those knees together. Keep lifting the knees, keep lifting the knees. [inaudible] legs go out long, long, long. So you should really be getting the hamstrings and the gluteals to engage there.

And again, slow bend of those knees. Keep the legs together together. Together. Yeah, the and take the legs out long. We're going to do that one more time. So keep the knees squeezing together, bending at the knees. Excellent. Adductors legs, hold it. And then lengthen the legs out carefully behind you. Carefully, carefully, carefully. Place them down on the mat, relaxing the legs. Keep the hands connected to your forehead. But this time you're going to lift your foot forward and your hands and your upper back up off the mat. So we're in a little dot and we go back down carefully. So again, draw the abdominals in and slowly as we lift up the head, the chest, the hands are glued to the forehead and we're going to bring it back and down. So we're going to repeat that again.

So you're going to do a little lift up. Yes. Good abdominals. Keep them zipped in and lower down. One last time up we go again, keeping the middle drawn in, tight, zipped up and back. And so the arms, we take them out along with your thumbs pointing up to the sky. So if you can keep the arms parallel, if you want a little bit easier, you can go a bit wider and the head is just resting on the mat. Draw the shoulder blades back and down and then lift both arms up off the mat and bring the arms back down. And again, bring both arms up off the mat and bring the arms back down. Lifting both arms up off the mat.

Beautiful. And bringing the arms down twice. Small arms go up, arms go down. One more time. Arms go up and arms come back down. Hands under the shoulders and pushed back into your wrist position just as far as you feel comfortable and into some lumber flection there. Yeah. So we're going to go back up onto all fours. All right, so I'm going to just go onto my fists cause I've got a little bit of a issue with my wrist. So that's an option for you guys. Otherwise your palms are flat and your hands are directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under the hips. So what I'd like you to do here is to go into a post Steria tilt of your pelvis.

So it's half a cat. Exaggerate into that post area tote for me. Now keep that position without changing your body at all. Slowly take your left leg out behind you into the front support position. Okay, so keeping that little bit of tilt, we haven't rounded the upper back excessively, it's just in the lumber and then the other leg goes out behind you keeping the tilt, right. So that should set you up for a good friend support.

And then from there we're going to just rock over our hands. So we go forward, keep the abdominals drawn in and then let's go back again. So again, keep the abdominals drawing in and coming back again and again. So we draw over the hands, keep the scoop in the middle. So it's like a long stretch on the reformer, similar and we're going forward and bringing it back in. And bring the legs in for a sec and just take your weight off your hands all the way out into the rest position. Yeah, so we're going to repeat that position one more time.

Back into that front support. We set it up with that half cat, right? Then this time as we rock forward, we're going to bend the elbows into a little pushup. Okay. Your push up, it depends on where you want to go, right? The lower you go, obviously the more emphasis is going to be on the upper body, but we don't want the chicken neck going forward. So as long as you can hold strong and connected, drawn up, tight through your knees, and you keep your little cat right, then you can sink lower and lower and lower and push yourself up. As you push up. We rock back towards the heels again. Okay, so it's almost like your pushups going forward and backwards. Make sense? Again, let's give it a tract. So first we go into our poster position.

So use your shins, so press your shins into the mat and then feel your sacrum drawing down. So by pressing into oceans, you can really get the, the feeling of the Seeker and whole that seeker really just in the Lumbar area. And then from there we go. One leg goes out, keep that position. So we strong through the center and the other side, slowly taking it out, keeping strong through the center. Now we're going to bend the elbows and rock forward keeping our scoop.

So we onto the tones. And then from there we're going to push up and back and we're going to repeat. So we go forward, pull in through the center, try, go all the way forward and push up and back. Can we do two more now? Let's give it a go. So we go all the way forward. Keep the abdominals in. Ended up [inaudible] and back one more time.

So abs working forward and up and relax. And just last little stretch back for me all the way out. Uh Huh. Yeah. So we're going to bring the legs through in front of us or a back support position. So, but what would I'd like to do is to start with the knees slightly bent. Alright. With your back support position, your hands are gonna go a little bit longer back than what we normally do. So if you, you know, back support is just the reverse of the pushup.

So if you there then go a little bit further back cause we're gonna use the legs to push into it. Okay. So it's going to take us into a little bit more extension. So legs are parallel and together. So from the straighten out the legs, so I haven't gone all the way. I need to go a bit further back. So we'll repeat that again. So sorry, we've got up again.

So push out of the legs to get you back and then come back and down. So again, I'm just using my fists cause of my wrists. So from there we push into the legs and up into the legs and up and coming back and in. So one more time. So we push into the legs and back. Excellent. And then coming back and in. Okay.

So bring that hands in a bit closer this time and the legs start long and together. So now we've got the use of those hip extensors again. So from there we're going straight back up into the regular back support position. So we just push up out of the shoulders there, all the way up into a long line and come back and swinging into the hips. So we'll do that one more time. So we go up. So we push up all the way, lift up out of the thoracic spine. Good and swinging it back and down. Great.

Bending your knees for me [inaudible] and we're going to do the tease one, right? I know we've done a couple of teases earlier on today, but let's see where we go. So legs are long in front of us. Use Your hands to support, try get your backup nice and long. And then from there we're going to bring the arms up and enrolled back down. Just trying to keep your feet as still as you can and the arms going up above the head. So we go up slowly, head, chest, head, chest, articulate. So it's all about the control. And then we're going to bring the arms up above the head and rolling it back and all the way. Let's do two more.

So we go up, head, chest, scoop into the center and bringing it up. Arms up, up, up, get the long line. And then we go back. I had all the way down. One more time. Head, chest, arms. So take your time. No flip flexor. So we want to articulate it should feel like we moving on the slow motion camera here. Are we going up to [inaudible] and bring it back down now? Articulation again. Control and bend the knees and give the legs a little hug into the chest.

Both feet down onto the mat. Take a breath in. Exhale. We're going to pell vehicle up all the way up till we achieve the long lineup at the top. Deep breath in at the top of the pelvic [inaudible] and exhale to bring it all the way down. Arms up above the head. Just walk your feet, your knees together. And we're going to do a roll up. So we go up, head, chest, arms, and exhale your legs.

Yeah. And one last one. Inhale at the top. Exhale to come back down. So we just keeping our c curve or any version of the roll up that you know, or you do an arms go along. One more time. We're going up head, chest, arms, exhaling, and this time just stretch it all the way over and restack the spine. Thank you very much guys.

Comments

10 people like this.
Okay all you level 2 and 2/3 ers. Find out, like I did, how much cheating you might be doing when doing Pilates at a more moderate or accelerated pace. As a wise young teacher once said " Pilates, at any level, is never easy!"
2 people like this.
Wow! that deliberate pace is so challenging :))
2 people like this.
Fantastic class! Absolutely agree with the above comments. I've been doing for pilates for years and found this class to be challenging. Loved it.
1 person likes this.
Yep - that works!
4 people like this.
Yes, level 2-er here, this kicked my butt. BASI frequently does. Ed's an awesome teacher.
1 person likes this.
Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed the challenge!
Great class!! Loved it!
1 person likes this.
Absolutely loved it!!! I am adding this into my weekly rotation as a wonderful way to reemphazing control and connection within myself!
Thank you!!
Absolutely Fantastic! I loved everything about it--great smooth cues, expert order of moves and pace. Excellent instruction!
Thank you Ed, as always a real ass kicker but I wouldn't have it any other way!
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