Class #2278

Finding your Internal Lift

45 min - Class
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Focus on your lift while you're moving in this Mat workout with Monica Wilson. She works on finding the "in and up" feeling while you are standing so you can carry it with you throughout the entire class. She also gets you out of your quads by emphasizing the work in the powerhouse, glutes, and hamstrings.
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All right ladies. We are going to be doing an intermediate to advanced Matt today and it's going to be all about keeping a certain shape, which is what Joseph plot is always wanted you. So I want you to stand with your heels together and toes a little bit apart. If you do have bad knees, this might not be the class for you. We're going to try to not use our quads work a little bit in parallel towards the end and really work the hamstrings and bottom, but a lot of work will be on your knees. So that's why I say that.

So when you stand, you want to have weight on the ball of every toe and the side of the foot. I'm going to have you bring your left heel a little bit over. Aha is a teeny bit. And now bring both. Yeah, there you go. And so you have weighed on the side of your foot, the ball of every toe and your heel, but not on your arch. It's hard on these squishy mats, but try to find a lift in your arch so that we have a little lift.

The ball, the big toe stays down. When you have a lift in your arch, it automatically sends a message up your body where your inner thighs are lifting and your pelvic floor is lifting and then you're a little lower belly can really pull in. That's really nice, Juliana. So Joseph plot is always wanted you to have a nice pulled in and up stomach fighting gravity, and he wanted you to have a nice long back. Not Necessarily get rid of your natural curve or try to pelvic tilt. In fact, her hipbones are beautiful right now. They're facing directly forward and that's what we want. We want our belly to be pulled in and pulled up so that if your lower back was a spring, that spring is being pulled into and then stretched, and that's the shape that we want to keep throughout our mat work. Okay?

Where our shoulders are, right over our hip bones, making our nice piles frame. But it's all from that lift of our arch lift of our inner thighs, lift of our pelvic floor, lower belly, pulling up, stretching this spring all the way up here and the energy going out the crown of your head. Can you feel that work, Brianna? Great. Try to keep that in and uplift and we're going to put one arm over the other, one foot either in front or behind the other. And you're going to go ahead and lower yourself down, but constantly be pulling up your powerhouse, trying to keep that shape. Very good effort. Not trying to stick your bottom out behind you too far. Good.

Put. Let's put your hands behind you and lift your bottom back and go ahead and stretch out. Nice and long. Reached. Just lined on down. Lying on your back. Good. Reaching, stretching, arms back. Yes. Good. And now arms reach up to the ceiling and arms down by your side. Great. Good. So here you are on the floor, but I want her on the Mat, but I want you to rethink about that. So to start off, we're not going to be in parallel.

We're going to be in a little Pilati stance and I want you to feel the lift in your arch, which is pulling up your inner thighs, which is pulling up your pelvic floor, the lower belly, pulling in and into your back. You want to pull into the mat and you want to pull up so you feel as great stretch and energy out the crown of your head. That's wonderful. Go ahead and keep that feeling and let that in and up. That stretch of your upper back, lift your head up to your chest so you're pulling it, pulling everything up this way. That's so awesome. Nice, beautiful, flat belly and pump your arms. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five.

Exhale. I'm going to come over in a moment, Juliana, and to lift your legs long, keeping that shape. Good. Stretch your right side just a little longer. Excellent. Keep pulling those arches towards you, those inner thighs, that belly in and up. Yes, you can start this by bending your legs. Keep pumping. Good. Draw that law. Yes. That's the change I wanted to see. Keep that lower belly pull and keep the lift in your arch.

Find that connection. The inner thigh, the pelvic floor, the pulling into the mat and up into your upper back. We have 20 more. Here we go. In two, three, four, five. No quads here. All powerhouse. One more in two, three, four, five and Xcel. Scoop and in. And now reach your legs down. Long and arms reach back for the roll up. So we're going to have the arms up, head to your chin, arms up, head to your chest and dry everything up as you just peel up. Beautiful.

Reaching forward and roll back. So we're going to pull those inner thighs with us, that pelvic floor. Good and reaching back and arms head and we draw everything up. Ancient reach and rolling back. Get that middle belly. Yes and three more arms head and scooping it forward.

Beautiful Scoop here. Reaching and pulling back. Find that connection. Always tying the quads, the turnoff, and two more scooping in good. And you can also feel the back of your thighs. Press into the mat to help you so that those quads don't last one. Nice reaching. Think about the roll over that we're about to do.

So you may be lifted your bottom forwards, your feet are at this front edge. Same with you, Juliana, slide forward. Good and roll on back. So you're pulling those inner thighs, pulling everything with you. Good. Staying down, reach your arms up. Good.

And as you press them down into the mat, make sure you continue to feel that in and up. And then we're going to lift those legs all the way over, pulling in as much as you can over open the legs and hold it. This is our first time we see parallel. So we're going to keep those legs parallel. Focus on that. And we're going to roll down the upper back, the middle back, the lower back. Reach your left shoulder more away from you. Good.

And how low can you take those legs, keeping your back flat and together. Over. Yes, and open. Good. And keep them parallel still within the mat. [inaudible] reaching, reaching, reaching, and scooped together. No, arching off that mat. Keep that shape. Open the legs and rolling. Dad. How's that paralleled? We're going to reverse it. So you're going to come down, you're going to click, you're going to open feet flex. And where's that belly?

Oh, there we go. And over she goes. Nice. Squeeze together. And as you go down, find that lift in your inner thigh, the pelvic floor, everything's lifting. Two more down with the legs open and flex and over. Nice. Slide together and nice lift here. Squeezing those inner thighs last time down. Keep that belly open the legs and over and squeeze together.

And we're gonna roll down nice and long. God. Good, good, good. Keep the right leg. Lower the left to the floor. Perfect. Stretch that right leg towards you. So go ahead and put your hands behind that thought. A calf and that left leg is down the middle of your body. All right ladies, I want you to just press your arms down to your side. Okay.

I'm pressing down on the mat and we're going to reach your right leg down the middle of your body. Just reach it down long. Feel your belly pull in and up and see if you can pull it back up. Thinking about the arch, lifting that inner thigh, all of that lifting so we can keep that stretch and reach down. So if you are against a wall, your back would stay flat against that wall. One more. Pull into that imaginary wall for me. Juliana AAHA. Yes.

And then pulling up. Now keep pulling into that wall as you lift that leg up higher. Keep it up as high as you can as you cross. And then circle down to the other leg around and up. Good. And pooling into that imaginary wall around up so that you don't use that quad.

So you're pulling cross around and you pull into that imaginary wall. So your back's against the wall one more and you're pooling in and go the other way and reach. So we're pulling in and up and drying that inner thigh. Good. And two and one more. Reaching and switch legs. Scissor switch.

Actually and stretch that left leg to you. All right, and we're going to try to feel that again with this left leg. So arms, Briar side and your stomach is pulled into an imaginary wall and reached the left leg down the middle of your body and pull it back up from your belly. Excellent. Chew more reaching. Don't let that quad pool up. It's from that deep lower stomach.

One more down and where you pull in and up, up, up. Stay up as you cross the body around and pull up and staying up as you cross around and up. Good. Staying up. I love how you're staying against that wall. This is a good leg for you around and one more pulling around and reverse. Very Nice Briana and round. Pull into that mat. Good down around him. Pull into it and down around really getting taller, perfecting that posture.

One more time around and up and hug in that knee. All right, place that leg down on the mat. Heels are together and you want to regain that feeling. In fact, why don't you go ahead and bend the knees. Feet are on the mat. And imagine you've just lied down on the reformer and you pull your belly deep into the mat, right? And if your feet were on that bar, you would push out using your stomach. So I want you to put your heels together for me, Juliana. Good. And with your belly pulling in and up, slide your feet on the mat until the legs are straight, pulling in and up with your belly. The legs will squeeze out from here. Pull.

That's it. Now you've regained your stomach. Bring your head up, roll up, pushing down with the back of your legs and using that power house. Fantastic. But your hands by your hips, lift your bottom forward to your feet and then grab onto your ankles. Prepare for rolling like a ball. Point your fingers towards each other. Good. Excellent. Open the knees a little bit and get your ears between your knees. Go ahead and using that lower belly.

Let's roll back and exhale up. Good. And I'd like a little more distance from here. Aha. Aha. And then use your yes and inhale, roll back and exhale. I love how tight you can get, but I think your back would enjoy more. And inhale, roll back. I think your back would enjoy more the stomach pulling into your lower back and then lifting all of this forward. And two more. Inhale work on that and exhaling up. Good.

Can you get onto your ankles? Hands on the ankles? Yeah, and keep them there. And then open the knees a little bit and try to pull forward your upper back like that. And now roll back two times like that in with the air. And then we're gonna scoop in and stretch her. That's excellent. One more. And exhale, scoop in it and rest your feet down. Lift your bottoms back. Good.

And we're going to keep thinking about that. So the feeder and a little bit of plotty stance, we're going to draw those arches towards you. Draw those inner thighs towards you and start rolling back as your pelvic floor pulls in towards you, your lower belly stop when you hit your bra strap. So you're routed with nap and draw your right knee into you, bringing your right hand onto your ankle, left hand onto your knees, which are root, and then really reach from the back of your thigh to lift that leg up, up. See Daisy and we're ready and switch. Draw on your left.

Good and draw on your right each time. Think about that shape. You got a pool and don't press the knee down, which presses the quad down. Work the back of your thigh and your seat and stead drawing all of it in good draw. And that's it. Again, same thing in the rolling like a ball. You want to keep pulling into the mat and stretching this part of your back. There you go. Nice.

One more left in and grab both ankles. Good and reach your arms back, reach, reach, reach and pull everything together and in with the air. And exhale. Now keep your upper back exactly where it is and reach. That's it. And pull and, and as your legs go, keep that shapes. You've got to lift in the inner thigh. There we go.

Two more in everything's pulling this way and then one more arms are by your ears in how reach right here by your ears. Pull the belly all the way out to your fingertips. Excellent. And pull in right leg up to the ceiling, left leg forward and switch scooping in one and two and switch and switch. You're pulling into that imaginary wall. Now I like it. There's Juliana. That's it. Good. Brianna, keeping anchored. No thighs.

Try to say no thighs, no clots. All stomach, all stomach. Last set and on the left leg up. Both hands behind your head and both legs up, sorry. And down you go. And we're reaching down. Head and shoulders are up and pull. So this is again, nothing here. All this scoop, scoop, scoop.

Curl up another inch to make it easier on you. And inhale, reach and scoop. Scoop, scoop. That's it. Inhale, reach and schoolies and add one more time. Inhale, reach and pull it up in the right knee and twist to it. Twist, twist, twist and switch and up up. Now stay as high as you can as you switch to the other side. Staying up. Then twist, twist, twist, and last one, staying up as you twist, twist, twist, and hug in both knees. Very well deserved there. Nice job ladies. Okay, sit on up and you're going to put your like straight with a heel on each of these blocks. Slide back so that the heels in the middle.

If you don't have these boxes at home, you can just have your legs about three inches wider than your shoulders. All right? So we have your hit shoulders right over your hip bones. Okay, I want your hands actually on the mat for a second and I want you to think about an imaginary wall right here. And I want you to pull your lower belly into that wall and then pull it up, kind of pushing the back of your thighs and your seat into the mat to give you a little more lift opposition.

You push your heels away like you're skidding on them so you lift up more and more and more. And now lift up your arms to shoulder height from those strong oblique muscles. Keep the lift in your Maggiore spring here and exhale forward. Head to your chest and down. You're going to go forward as you pull in and stretch, stretch, stretch, and push your heels away. As you lift off your seat, lift up your pelvic floor, lift up your lower belly, all the way out the crown of your head and take a breath and exhale down.

Good. Good. And inhale, roll up. Imagine I'm the wall. So get in. You got to get on my leg. Good. DDA, Huh? Good. And pull in as you push up off your seat and head down and pull into my leg with your lower baggy. Yes. Oh, that was very nice, Juliana. And push your heels away and lift off your seat as you lift up in the pelvic floor, your lower belly all the way up. And one more. Nice job. Lift up. Exhale down. Great job. Really working that spine and really getting a nice stretch out of it and drawing up up. Good.

Now roll back in your pelvis using your lower belly, nothing in the quads. Good. And hold it there. Bring your legs together. Rock back a little bit more for me. Thinking about that lift of the arch inner thigh. Yeah, stay there and then draw your knees towards you from your powerhouse, keeping the feet on the mat. Open the knees and hands. Go on your ankles, but keep this lifted and I want you to feel like you're kind of pushing down with the ball of your foot, not with the whole foot, but so bring them a little closer to you. And we're going to keep your nice square box with your stomach.

And as you extend the right leg right up. Good. Now while it's there, can you feel both hips evenly on the mat and lifting up through the powerhouse out of the crown of your head and put that foot down so you're kind of pushing the right foot down. Now as you extend with the left cause I want you to feel even more of a lift. So you're using those feet to give your body a feeling and put the foot down. I was just at a seminar last weekend and put up your right leg where we described the reformer as our dance partner.

It helps us a lot and bring your foot down, but on the mat you have no dance partner, so you have to really find a way to feel everything. Now hold that. Actually bring that foot down and now we're going to keep, you've got that feeling. Now let's lift up both legs, so pulling in and up, in an up, up, up, up. Bring the legs together. Hold. You still have that inner thought, that arch, inner thigh and all that. Lift and open the legs and bend the knees as you lower your toes together. One more. Pulling your belly in and up.

Beautiful legs seamlessly. Go together. As you squeeze those inner thighs, open the legs and hold it there. Let's do six rocking. You're going to inhale, roll back and exhale. Rock right up using your belly to pull in and up. Inhale, roll back and exhale. Feel everything. We'll lift up in with the air and exhale, pulling everything up. Two more. Inhale, roll back. Exhale scooping up. And last one.

It should feel a nice massage on your back. Squeeze your legs together and leave them there as you roll your back down. So same thing, the lift in your arch, all of that arms down by your side. Good. And let's bring the bottom all the way up over your shoulders. Here we go. Lifting the legs all the way up to the ceiling. Voila.

And arms by your side. We're going to do a cork screw. We're going to go down through your back, scooping in and to the right around l, lift on eh legs, up, air down through the back to the left and around and scoop and up and down around an circling and lift and one more. All the way up with the legs. And then come in down through the mat to the left around and scoop. Nice job. And now come straight down.

Sit on up for saw. Good heel in the middle of each block. Good. Voila. For now. I want you to put hand over hand behind your head. One over the other. Don't cheat on that. They don't slide wide. They go one over the other. All right. Push your heels away from you.

Push the back of the side, not the knee, but push the back of the thigh down. Use your belly to lift in and up, to stretch the crown of your head. And now keep both cheeks on the mat as you twist to the right, pulling and twist, twist, twist, and then extend the left arm forward to your baby toe and the right arm back and exhale nose to that knee. Exhale. Exhale. Exhale. Roll Up. Lifting off your seat. Hands behind your head, twist to your left and extend the right arm forward as you stretch and everything's lifting, lifting, lifting, stretching and rural. Uplifting off your seat. Hands behind your head and twist to your right and left arm forward as you scoop every yes, everything up nice and roll up from there.

You're pushing your heels away. Hands behind your head. Twist to the other side, using those great obliques. Yes, right arm forward. Gabe lifting as you lift off your seat. Everything's lifting, stretch, stretch, stretch. Nice. Roll Up. One more set. Hands behind your head and one over the other and reaching. That's it. And stretch, stretch, stretch and rolling up. Nice hands behind your head, good twisting.

And last one. Sometimes we get just a little more out of our twist when our hands are behind her head to start and now I want you to bring your legs together, going to turn over onto your stomach, flip on over. Hands are going to be right under your shoulders if you've got a really nice flexible back. Otherwise you can rim a little forward and a little out to the side. All right, but forehead is on the mat. Now I want you to still think of that posture that we started with.

So I still want there to be a lift in your arch. A lift in your inner thigh. I'll lift in your pelvic floor. Your pubic bone really should be on the mat. It shouldn't be the opposite, okay? Cause then you're really taking it in your lower back. So you're going to be pulling that lower belly in and pulling it up towards your head and that is what's going to start lifting up your head and your chest are coming up off the mat using those muscles.

Legs are sitting down and we're pulling up until your straighten the arms but not so high where it hurts in your shoulders. Take to the right your head and circle the chin down to your left and look forward. Use your belly to lift up through your chest more and look to your left and down around here right and look forward. And as you go down, keep that line lengthening out the crown of your head. Still lifting from your arch, from your inner thigh, from your powerhouse. Good. We'll do one more time. So pulling up through the body, squeeze those inner thighs and we're going to lift with our lower belly pulling in and up. You do not need to come up. Come on up to a straight arms.

You want to come up only as high as you can. Keep your belly and now drop your shoulders away from your ears a little bit. Look over your left shoulder first this time. Thanks Juliana. Look down around to your right and look forward and look right down around all the way to your left and look forward. And now keep pulling your belly in and up as you go down, reaching that spring, stretching long out the crown of your head. All right, and go ahead and round your back and sit on your heels for a nice stretch.

Go ahead. You're thinking about your next exercise, which is going to be single leg kicks and double leg kicks. And this is when we start getting into more of our parallel work. So we're going to go onto our belly and I want you to have your elbows right under your shoulders. So bring your elbow right here, elbows. There you go. And then you can push your knuckles into each other. Yes, but you want to really push your forearms into the mat so that you're lifting up in your chest. Good. Alright, so now I want to be really careful with that pelvis. Did we lift up our pubic bone?

Cause you really want your pubic bone kind of down so that you're scooping in that lower belly and it's lifting. So you're coming up as high as your lower belly can stay engaged. Watch those. There we go. All right, we're going to lift both legs up a little bit and then straight legs though. And now we're going to do the right kick in your bottom two times one, two and left two and right two and left two. So I mentioned parallel cause you don't want your feet crossing.

They're going parallel, right? They're going right to your seat, right to your seat. Don't cross over and midline. One more set right to left too. Nice job. Place your right facial cheek on the mat and hands together behind your back. Then bring your hands up as high as you can to your shoulder blades and lower them down. And now we're going to do a little dance here. You're going to still find that line. Lifting your arches, lifting your inner thighs, lifting your pelvic floor.

Everything's up and that lifts your legs up. The opera body stays down, legs up, and you can do three beats to your bottom. Kicking one, two, three legs down now and lift up that line. The Belize lifting, lifting, lifting and switched cheeks. And it's kick two, three and legs down. But you're lifting your stomach, both of you. I'd like to see that more switching and kick to the race. A, hold this for a second. Let the legs down and get your body down. Yeah. Good. And I want to see body upper body down. And then I want to see you guys feel that lift in your arch on the front of your body, the inner thighs, the pelvic floor. Get that belly and lift your body up with your belly. Oh, that looks so much nicer. Switched cheeks for the last set.

Bending those elbows and kicking. One, two, three. Now find that line. You're not just shoving up your upper body. Excellent ladies. Hands on the mat. Round your back and sit onto your heels scooping in. Good job. Alright, more parallel work ahead here.

So we're gonna keep your bottom where it is and crawl your hands as far away from your body as you can. And then you're going to Tuck your toes underneath so your feet are flexed and parallel and you're gonna lift your body up into a plank or pushup position. So using your powerhouse lift up. Now here is that shape. You're keeping the lift in your inner thighs. Lift in your pelvic floor, lift in your lower belly, up to your back. Don't change that shape. The right leg goes up. We rock back.

We pull forward using those muscles and we lower down. Don't lose that shape the left leg up, rock back. Pull forward and switch two more. Right leg up. You still are lifting in your lower belly, out the crown of your head, but the right foot down, left leg up and rock back. Scoop forward. One more set and write up rock back, pulling forward from your lower belly. Last one and scoop it. And now keep up with the body. Right hand to the left.

Cross your right foot and naturally lift your arm up to the ceiling. Stretching your hips are lifted. Both fingertips point towards your feet. Hips are still up and alternating right leg flex down. You kick from your seat up and flex down and up. Not quads, not lift and left. Eyes on your belly helps. Yep.

And one more left. And Brianna, I want you to Tuck your left knee under. And Juliana, your right knee under and so you're going to come and here's a super important position. So I'm going to want you to slide forward a little bit so that your foot and like forward to the front edge there. You're good, you're perfect. Briana here cause you want to be able to, if you can, grab on with that back of the foot. But most importantly what I want you to see as how her hip is right over that knee and your shoulder.

I'm going to just bring this forward a little bit is right over that hand and this hand is going to be behind your head. It's there so that you push your head into your hand. Beautiful, good alignment here. That's what I want to see. Nice. Okay. Point your elbow straight up to the ceiling as if someone's holding it and push your head into their hand, your hand. That looks so beautiful. Now remember that lift in your arch, the lift in your pelvic floor, all of that stays as we lift that leg up as high as we can and sweep it forward and sweep it back. Now. I love for this like keep going for it to be higher, but what I love is more that she's keeping this so nothing changes. She's moving that leg while keeping that shape in her body and three and back and two and back, and last one.

And we're going to keep that leg out and we're going to do bicycle, which means kick this leg to your nose, bend the knee to your chest. Take that knee back, back, back, and now extend it from there. I'm going to have her kick it forward. Bend that knee to your chest. Keep that knee up. There we go. Now keep this thigh here as you extend. Oh yeah, one more. Recheck it out. Bend the knee to your chest. Take that knee back and extend and the reverse.

Take it back toe to heel that sit all the way to your chest. Extend to more lifting. Keep that shape right there and need a chest. Try to keep your bottom over that knee. Last one, I'm going to see right here this time, wrap that leg around me. Good knee all the way in. Extend. And now don't kill me, but we're going to do five little leg circles. One, two, and three and four.

Keep that shape, reversing it. Push your hip over the knees. Stabilize with that bottom leg. And now I want you to kneel up tall on both knees, up, up, up. How'd you do there? Yeah. Knees together. So bring your left to your right. Good. So you have enough room. Beautiful.

I alignment and go onto your left hand. Good. Alright. And Briana, your loved hands going to be behind your head. Excellent. You're on, you're on this leg, Brianna. And we're going to lift up the leg and five kicks forward and back. Good. So your bottom starting to go behind your Juliana, keep it forward over that knee. I don't care how much this leg moves, but keep trying to push that hip forward.

And that's your last one leg here. And I want this line a little longer and bicycle, kick it forward. Bend the knee, take the knee back and extend and forward. So key, pure powerhouse lifting like so keep that. There Ya go at one more. Taking it back and extend. Reverse. Take it back.

Don't take it in your lower back and bend the knee into your chest and extend into more. Try to keep progressing with that thigh forward. And last one. Good. And now actually bring that leg down to the mat. I'm giving you a little moment and now push that bottom hip forward again. You really want to feel there, the work there.

And now lift that leg back up and give me five tiny little circles. One, two, belly in and up. Four, five, reverse it. One, two, three, four, five. Kneel up tall. Nice job. And now I want you to sit Brianna, you on your left hip and I believe you on your yeah, to your left hip too. Good. We're just going to go towards each other from mermaid. Reach this arm up to the ceiling. Oh my bad. Reach your left arm up God.

And we again want everything lifting as you stretch over. So squeeze your bottom together. Find a stable hip. Press your feet one on top of the other and lift your energy up out of your arm to switch sides and swing. Bring this arm up. Good. And take it out just a little bit lower down that elbow. Don't lose your belly. Good. And you're gonna come right on up to this hip. Come right on up.

There you go. And this arm up, that's it. And stretching over, over, over. Nice line here. I like that. And you're gonna come here. That's it. And slide on out. Good. So in one solid piece, try to come right on up onto your hip. Up you go that sip Brianna and grab onto your ankle here for a beautiful stretch. And one last one.

You can slide out as far as you want. Holding everything in your shape and then right on up onto your hip. Good. All right. And I want you to kneel up tall again. Tall, good, and switched to your other hip. Good. Alright, Brianna, slide a little more this way you might be okay.

All right. And grab your left ankle. Good. And we're going to go towards our bet legs. So arm up to the ceiling and you really want nice n or g. That's it. Stretching, stretching and energy up to the ceiling as he switched. Nice job. Stretching out. Good.

And you're going to keep this hip here as you lift an energy up from your waist all the way wrapping around and up. End Switch going out. This is two, right? Correct. Okay. Ain't coming up. Let me see that energy up longer ways longer. That's it. Even the crown of your head. I want to see up more. Yeah. Stretching, stretching. And one more time. Reaching out as far as you want as you can and come right on a good job.

So now I want you to go ahead and kneel up tall and you can still stay facing me, Juliana. And we're going to do, let's start off with chest expansion. So I want you to glue grab with the feet on the edge of your mat. And that's why these higher mats are more helpful because it enables you, instead of sitting back to really use the back of your legs to squeeze your seat forward, to feel that lift in your inner thigh, to feel the lift in your pelvic floor, in the lower belly. And there's kind of no question here. So we're going to start with chest expansion. Arms straight up, good, and we're going to keep everything lifted.

What expands our chest is our belly pulling in and up, lifting our chest to the ceiling, pushing back with the arms. Inhale, belly in and up. Hold the breath as you look right. As you look left your bomb better be on. Look forward and exhale again. Scoop n hailing as your bottom presses forward. Look left this time. Look right, look forward and exhale.

One more time back the thighs and seat bellies. Plank in and up to your chest. Look right, look left. Look forward. Exhale. One more time scooping in and up again. Don't lose that. Your belly is what lifts the chest. Look left. Look right, look forward. Keep your belly lifting the chest. Good. Now relax your feet and maybe bring your feet a little more forward.

We're going to do thigh stretch, so we're going to keep using those muscles. You're good there. Brianna and your knees are going to be a little bit apart. Find those muscles again though. You're going to use the back of your thighs and your seat. Someone was behind you. Everything would be lifting on the backside. Yeah, nothing drooping. And then in the front, your inner thighs, pelvic floor and belly and hold like rains on a chariot in front of you.

There you go, Briana. And maybe even you can naturally look down towards your navel if it doesn't change the shape of your body. Okay, keep that in mind. And we're going to hinge back from our knees. Definitely. If you had bad needs, leave this out. So you're using your belly to go back, back, back, and then squeeze the bottom forward. No question there. And scooping and drawing everything in in it and hinge forward. Nice job. One more time. Back of those dyes.

Squeezing pelvis in the right place. Oh, everything works correctly in coming forward. Nice work. Alright, one little extra thing here. We're going to hook those feet again cause we're going to do rocking and crab in a second. And I want you to really understand that crab is all about these muscles supporting you in that lift rather than plopping on your forehead. So you can have your knees a little bit apart. But hooked those feet. Work the lift in the back of your legs.

Work the lift in the front of your body and her thighs, pelvic floor, lower belly, and from those nice strong waist oblique muscles. Lift your arms, shoulder height. Great. And now keep lifting everything so that your arms lift all the way to the ceiling and you have a straight line from your fingertips to your shoulders, to your hips, to your knees. Nothing's broken. And we're going to go forward like a candy cane. The arms go forward, the head keeping your hips over your knees as you try to take your hands down to everything is lifting. And then roll up back of the legs, scooping in, hips over those knees and up. One more time and keep squeezing using the back of your legs. Keep the lower belly lifting.

Beautiful and coming back up. Nice job. Keep your hips forward, forward, forward, arms lifting from your waist length in the lower back chest to hold it all more. And Nice job. So now go ahead and both of you ladies lie on your belly so that your heads this way and you're going to lie down and grab the top of your foot for rocking. Good. We're going to keep ourselves down and use two stretches first. So you're going to again, have your pubic bone down onto the mat, have your belly lifting in and up and enjoy pushing your feet into your hands.

You're going to pull your heels to your bottom three times. One, two, three. Push your feet into your hands and just lift and go down again and clapping in one, two, three and pull your belly and pelvic pubic bone is down. Lift and last time. Then we'll go into our rocking, one, two, three and you can't help but feel the back of your legs and rock. Inhale and exhale, Justin breathing naturally rocking using these muscles. Hopefully lifting your powerhouse and rest. Good.

Round your back and sit on your heels. Good, good, good, good, good. And we're going to go into crab. So the transition is you're going to lift with your powerhouse. Bring your knees through your arms and cross your ankles. Nice. Juliana. There you go. Good Briana. And now find those muscles as we bring our hips over our knees.

That's it. Good. And then your, you're in your powerhouse as you gently put your forehead down on the mat and shift a little bit forward onto that gland. There you go. We're going to feed our crab as we roll back, keeping a hold of our feet rock back. Take your hips over your shoulders and open switch and then roll forward. Nice dynamics. There Ya go. Good. Do you want to come forward a little bit more so you're not gonna yeah, there ya go. Rocking back. Good.

That's it. Hold it there for me, Juliana. So you guys can work together and a little bit more bottom over, bottom over by, uh, Ooh. I got a little extra depth in that belly there. And now roll back using your belly. Feed that crab and lift the hips right over those knees. Nice job.

And one more set are crossing those feet differently each time. Good man. Scooping in a little more forward at those hips. Yes. And one more rockin back. Good. Hips up. Nice job. And lift. Lift, lift. Good. And Go ahead and sit on your bottom and think about seal.

So you're just going to switch so that your arms go through and let's do four maybe scoot forward a little bit, Brianna. And we're going to rock after four. Watch that lower back supporting you there. [inaudible] stay there. And I'm going to change your feet placement here. So it's the same that we've been talking about here so that you have a lift in your arch and your inner thigh and everything. That's excellent. Go ahead and stay here and clap two, three and inhale, roll back after four. We'll stand up and come back and clap two, three and draw everything in. Clap two, three and rolling up and keep this, this time.

Eyes down there. And this is always pulling in and up. Excellent. That's at Brianna and exhaling. She's like, you don't have to tell me twice. Last one, rock back. Let go of your ankles. Cross him. And let me see the back of the thighs and see. Push you up. Good. And now step over here.

Stepped onto this floor here and here. There you go. And maybe come back quite a bit for me. That's it. Nice. We're gonna start there. Let me see that original position. Oops, sorry. I'm going to put you back cause we're in New York. Push up our original position. Heels together. Toes apart.

Bring that left toe in a little bit. That likes to over a, Huh? We have a slightly weight forward lift in the arch. Lift in the inner thigh. Lift in the pelvic floor. Long spring here. Beautiful powerhouses. Lifting up into here. Good. Bring your heels just a tiny bit closer together and your toes a tiny bit closer together. Good weight on the ball of each toe. That's it.

Yes. A little softer in the knees. Depth. Just a tiny bit. Nice. And now from your lower belly, bring your arms up to shoulder height and find that incredible length as you lift up all the way to the ceiling with your arms. Beautiful. And now you're gonna roll off an imaginary wall. Bringing your arms, four in your head, same candy cane feeling. Same, work in the back of the legs and walk forward into a pushup position. You're going to go forward and I want you to hold it for a moment and feel don't lose a seat. Squeeze it down a half an inch. There you go. Draw the belly in and up. Open the upper back for me. Open this up.

Badge rounding. Yes. Aha. And now three pushups down, up one and good. Don't go all the way for me down, up to just to there. Take this with you and now lift in your center and walk back. So I'd rather you keep the shape. Sometimes we just throw it out the window and get moving. Just do it. But today I want you to keep the shape arms up to the ceiling from your waist.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And now one more. Reaching forward. Lengthening through the head, feeling the lift in her powerhouse. Good. Very nice. Walk on out. Lift those heels. That's better Juliana. I like that shape. Bring your seat down quite a bit. There you go. And squeeze it and down up. One good elbow.

Straight back for me. [inaudible] and one more and up, and then lift in your belly and walk back to your feet and stay there. You guys are both very flexible, so go ahead and grab your ankles. Pull on them so that you bring your head as close as you can. Enjoy that good. Maybe even bend the knees while you're down here. And then as you straighten round your lower back more, keep pushing your heels into the floor and the ball of foot.

Let your arms dangle and roll up. Lifting from your arch. Watch those knees lifting from the inner thighs. Find that pelvic floor. Lift your waist all the way through your fingertips, up to the ceiling, all the way up. Turn your palms out to the side as you exhale. Inhale as you push the earth down and exhale and you're all done, ladies. Nice job. Good work.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Great class! I really loved the flow????
3 people like this.
Loved your set up and cues for open leg rocker.
1 person likes this.
I too like the focus on the shapes. Especially when I am strong, I can throw away some of the "how", so it's nice room get back in line. Thanks, Monica!
Monica Wilson
Thank you ladies!
1 person likes this.
Monica , that was a fantastic class. Even at this level the detail to each exercise was just so good . The open leg rocker set up and cues I really found helpful . Thank you .
Monica Wilson
Thank you Jacqueline! I am so happy you are all enjoying this class. If there ever is something you'd like to see more of I would love to hear about it. Monica:)
1 person likes this.
Listening to you is encouraging me for pilates everday...thank you Monica
Jaclyn H
1 person likes this.
This is a fabulous class! I am one year post-partum and had done your 3 class series which has been really great also. This however, was a really great next step for me to help continue to build strength and to really feel a lift in my low belly which can be extremely difficult after 2 c-sections...the cuing of arch to inner-thighs to low-belly was a game changer and the sequencing and standing knee work just worked together so well and really got me to work at a level that has been hard for me to get to. Thank you!
Monica Wilson
So great to hear! That connection was a game changer for me too:)
Jaclyn H
1 person likes this.
Found another great one! Your anti-gravity mat. Just what I need. :)

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