Class #2393

Advanced Mat Flow

55 min - Class
277 likes

Description

Blossom Leilani Crawford invites you to come along with her as she does an advanced Mat workout on camera for the first time. She incorporates breath in each movement along with variations she has learned from her mentor, Kathy Grant. You will feel like you are right there with Blossom as you breathe, work hard, and have fun together!

Blossom recommends a warm up before jumping right into the class. This quick Mat workout is a great option.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm blossom. Laelani Crawford. I am, um, I'm going to do a full advanced mat work today. Something I've haven't done on camera ever. So I'm really kind of excited. Um, I used to do it a lot back in the day and um, so I'm trying to pull it back together and I hope to do this today with you. I'm not too crazy, so I'm not going to be going at a breakneck speed, so don't try to keep up with me. Just come along with me. I'll be suffering to, I promise. Uh, I need a towel cause I'm gonna Sweat and um, that's Kinda it.

We'll breathe together. Hopefully you'll have done some sort of warm up and beforehand. I don't suggest going right into the hundreds, but if that's what you do, then let's get going. Okay, so here we go. So I'm coming down. You can cross the one arm over the other, however you wish to come down, you're going to come on down.

And in theory you're going to come on down and lower down and go right into your hundreds. So as I come down saying my internal prayer, I see my hundreds position right in my head. I come down into it. Let's go. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Adding on a little variation. Inhaling, and as you exhale, goes, sure my tummy gets tired. And if I sure sh helps, bring the tummy in. Okay, last one.

Sure. Lower the legs down. We're the arms over your head. Yay. The hundreds are over. So have a nice flex feet. Legs are together, budgets are big. Toes are together, but not the heels in one motion. Sit all the way up. Inhale, roll up. Okay.

Exhale forward. Roll back, all the way down. So as you do this, I like to be parallel. If you prefer a little Wii, you're welcome to. But if you're parallel, keep those little toes coming up to you two more times. Inhale, exhale, roll back, lie down again. Exhale, you're gonna roll back and find a challenging spot. And just for a little side twist, see challenging your asymmetry. Definitely my asymmetry. You're going to do reaching one arm up.

Inhale and keep the curl Heather side. Inhale, keep the curl on the inside. And on the next exhale you're gonna lie all the way down. Bend the knees into the chest and breathe. Ahh, the roll overs. Please inhale. And as you exhale, hands at your tummy and extend the legs up to the ceiling. Inhale. And as you exhale, draw the tummy in and extend the legs.

Let's get ready for the rollovers. Hands are down by your sides. And from this position you're going to try to lift up and over your head. Try not to slam the thighs toward your face. Here we go. Inhale, lift, open, roll down. Run the legs together. Up and over. Inhale, exhale, roll down. One more time. Inhale, lift, open, roll down. Get ready to reverse. Low, close, low, open, low up, close to come down two more times. Lift. Now I remember why my triceps are sore from getting ready for this. Inhale, lift up close. And as you exhale, chest away from the chin. Breathing as you come down.

When the booty touches down, grab onto the back of the right leg. Extend the left leg forward along the floor. Flex and point the foot. No little circle, a little circle in the other direction. Let's do leg circles today with polls. I could use the hamstring stretch. Hands are down by your sides. Go across, around, up, grab on.

As you do this exercise, you're trying to keep your standing leg flexed and parallel. Sometimes you have to look at it because it's like my children. Sometimes you have to check on it. Pool Pool. One more. Hopefully that's five. Get ready to reverse.

Exhale a cross pull. Pull. As you pull, pull, I'd like you to think of pressing the thigh away. Three more. Pressing the thigh, pressing one more time. Exhale, grab onto your leg and pull and stretch and again, check on that standing foot. Mind likes to sneak away. Look for the toes. You're going to climb up the ladder, Huh? Lower the leg towards a few inches above the ground. Bend your elbows.

Curl forward toward the toes. Use your time. You sit up nice and tall. I slide my leg down, my hands down my leg and lift up again. Lower the leg. Crawl forward. Exhale, head to the toes. Use Your Tummy. Sit up tall. Lift the thigh, release the arms, lower the leg. Exhale, lower the torso down. Hug the knee into the chest.

Left leg. You're gonna extend the leg toward the ceiling. Pressing the thigh forward. Flexing. Point the foot. Whoo. And then circle and then the other circle. Yes. By the way, I'm going to be huffing and puffing. So flex your standing foot. Take a look at it. Little Toe side up. Here we go.

Arms are down by your sides. Leg circles with Poles. Inhale. Exhale up. Grab on. Pull, pull. Inhale. Exhale. Pool, pool. Okay. And the pool pool.

Straighten the leg one more time and pull. Reverse the circles to the side. Height across. Pull. Pull. How's that foot pull? Pull two more times. Pull, pull and Nepal. I think it's one more actually, and a pull. When you're ready, lift your head up. Look for that foot. Climb up the ladder.

The hard part is to really sit up tall cause I want to be back here and look, make it look like my leg is up. It's really here if I'm honest. Oh yeah. When you're ready. Lower the leg, bend your elbows, come forward. Inhale, sit up tall, lift the leg up, lower the leg bend and go forward. Sitting up as tall as you can. Lift up, lift up, hold the leg. There really least the arms lower the leg. Bring your hands by your seat.

Scoot forward, grab onto your shins, pick your feet up, whoo. And take it down two more times. Pick the feet up and balance. So as I'm doing this, I'm trying not to shift down and back, but really lift up and take it down. Last time, lift up and balance. Easy. Rolling like a ball three times. And by three I could mean five. It's how many you can fit in there. How many you want to fit in? What feels good for your back? One more.

And balance up top. Stay here. Put your feet down, slide your hips back. And as you exhale, lower the torso down, hugging your right knee into your chest. Now let's do something a little different. Rest your head done. Gently press your head into the floor. So I'm kind of working on the extension of my Lindt neck, but still using my abs. Change legs, pull, change, pull change side to side. Inhaling and exhaling. The breathing is up to you.

Just keep breathing when you're ready and with both knees into your chest. Pull tight. Keep your head down. Double leg stretch number one for me. Arms and legs forward. Then the knees into the chest. Pull tight. I'm sending my legs forward from my low belly, trying to keep that in. I have a little V of my feet. Bend the knees into your chest. Go for number two, arms and legs go forward. Stay. They're really arms back by your ears. Hole.

Ha. Circle the arms around. Pull tight, arms back, legs forward two times. Inhale, exhale, circle around. One more time. Inhale, exhale, circle around a bicycle. Sit-Up Cathy grant's bicycle setup. So you start with a nice bicycle motion of the legs and I'm really thinking of a huge round bicycle wheel.

Lift your head up in the direction of your hill. Hands on those handlebars, and let's bike up the hill. Here's my heart spot. Yes. Exhale as you bike down the hill. One more time. Circles of the legs. Head chew training slowly bike up. Thank you. Treat you. And while you're there, you're gonna extend the right leg up to the ceiling. Hold onto it.

Extend the left leg for but not on the floor. Lower the torso down and give me up. Pull, pull, change legs. Oh pull. So yes, you pull your leg, but that's not the effort. The effort is coming in, especially as you change sides. Whew. Yes. Flex the feet for the last set if you wish.

Here we go. And with both legs up to the ceiling, both hands behind your neck. Use those hands. Lower the legs. Inhale. And as you exhale, curl inner thighs to come up two more times. Inhale to lower the legs as you exhale. Zip Tie jeans on. Belly button to the lowest part of the waist. Brine. Whew. Last one. Inhale. And as you exhale, tummy and the knees into the chest, left elbow to the right knee and hold change sides.

Thank goodness I might change. Twist and hold. Change, twist and hold for faster. Change One and two and three and 400 he's in tight, said all the way up fast. Slowly but surely sitting up nice and tall. Pull your pants up if you have to reach both arms for instead of Tulsa, really draw those little toe sides of your feet back and up. Reach the arms forward and just this is enough, but it's not today.

And when you're ready for me, you're going to lengthen the head forward. And I like to remind people that this is called spine. Stretch forward not shoulders. Stretch forward from there. Use Your Tummy. Sit Up. Tall. Head is the last thing to come up and breathe two more times.

Inhale and as you exhale, start to lengthen forward reaching. Keep the Sitz bone straight down to the floor. Huge exhale at the bottom. Use Your tummies. You sit up tall, tall, tall. Last one sits bones and I'm lengthening, lengthening, lengthening, lengthen and again slowly come up, up, up, up, both hands behind your neck, a little khaki grant, sort of intersection, left elbow to the outside of the left knee and stay there. Right elbow to the inside. Hold open up the right elbow. Sit up tall. Look straight ahead. Right elbow to the outside of the right knee.

Left elbow to the inside. Huge. Exhale. Open up that left elbow and sit up tall and go outside. Inside Open Center, outside, inside open hold center. One more time that I'm really using the hands behind my neck. Yes. Last one. And sit up tall and hold.

When you're ready, you're gonna lower the torso. Reach the arms forward. You can slide those heels on in checking your rear view mirror. Make sure you have room for open leg rock or so, a little Kathy style. Extend the legs out to the side. So you're balancing. And Ben, I like to keep the elbows a little bent cause if not I can hang out in my elbows and shoulders and Ben. So keeping those elbows bent, you're just extending and holding from there. Bring the legs together. You might have to adjust your whole of the legs and bend the knees.

So adding od up, open together and then again up oh inner thighs and Ben, last one up open. You're going to stay there and just breathe. If you want to add on Chin to the Chester roll back, look straight ahead to come up. Kathy would say put a ball or any of your chin to go back. Get rid of the ball to come up. Last one ball underneath the chin. Get rid of the ball to come up. Take a breath cause you know what's coming.

The corkscrew. Inhale. Exhale. Lower the torso down. We're gonna do the corkscrew in four parts. Small the size of a cantaloupe. Take the legs to three o'clock, six o'clock. Well, that's a big cantaloupe. I've got to pull it back here. When you're ready to the other side, that's more cantaloupes. Let's do that again. Three o'clock, six o'clock, nine o'clock whole last side sort of. Yes. Now bigger. Three o'clock the hips move.

Six o'clock hopefully the rib cage does not. I said, hopefully. Inhale, exhale and up. One more time. Inhale from six o'clock you exhale and send her last one. Sh this is 12 o'clock low. Lift up to 12 o'clock high from there. Lower down to 12 o'clock. Low. When your booty touches down, you're going to swing the legs. Three o'clock, six o'clock, nine o'clock 12 o'clock high. Come down to 12 o'clock low, nine o'clock, six o'clock, three o'clock. Come on up from here. You can just do that same one.

Or if you want to get challenged for number four, right from here, go to three o'clock. Here we go. Three o'clock, six o'clock. Nine o'clock. Microphone. Stay on. Last one. Nine o'clock, six o'clock, three o'clock. Up and from there. Set all the way up. Yeah. Best. Ooh. Okay. So here we go. So after the corks, are you going to sit up and for the saw? Here we go. Sit Up. Nice and tall. Inhale, lift up. Left little finger saws off the right little toe. Drop your head. I like three pulses. Three press the end.

Up to one user. Tell me to sit up tall. Inhale to twist. Exhale, go. Three, two, one. Sit up tall, tall, tall. Two more sets. Exhale. Three. Backhand is pressing. Left hip is sit up tall, tall, tall in her legs. Hail three, two, one. Sit up tall. I think I'm gonna do another set. I don't know. Three, two, one. Lift. Lift, lift. Hardest part is right here. Last side. Exhale. Three, two, one. Sit up tall. That's it.

Draw those legs together. You're going to go on your hands and knees. Oh, that's what that was. And when you're ready, you're gonna go for a cat. So I'm coming all fours. You have to rearrange your hair if you need to. Oh, forget it. The hair's going to be a mess. I'll be huffing and puffing. So here we go. When you're ready. [inaudible] cat position. You might want to watch it the first time. So here we go.

You're a cat resting in the sun and you hear something. It's a bird. So you pick your head up, you crawl after the bird and you become the bird pushed back. Sit on your heels. That's literally the story. Kathy would say every time she taught that cat. So let's try that one more time. So here we go. Kitty cat position. You're resting and you hear something, you pick your head up and you crawl after the bird and you become the bird lifting up tall. So on this one, you know, lower yourself down to the floor.

Hopefully you're centered. You're going to rest your head down. Just relax. It's nap time. Now at least you didn't tell yourself that later. So from here, let's go through the mechanics. You're just going to gently lift just the shoulders up off the floor. Lift your head as you look down at the ground. So this moment here, I call angry turtle.

Right now here you're really lifting the back of the head and you're not here either. Just Bang. On the next exhale, stretch the jaw muscles. Then you can lift the chest. You decide how much. Inhale, find your angry turtle. Turn your head to the other side and melt to the floor. Again, gently lift just the shoulders. Lift your head as you look down the floor. Exhale, jaw muscles, then neck, then chest reaching. Inhale, looking down at the floor.

Turn your head and arrests. I'll teach you Cathy style. Kathy would say someone comes along and gently caresses your shoulders up off the ground. And if you move too fast, you'd say, is that how you move your shoulders? When someone comes around and when you're ready, lift your head up. Look down at the floor. Exhale, look up for the ceiling. Stretch to the jaw muscles. Inhale, look down at the floor.

Turn your head and relax. When you are ready, come up on your elbows in a sphinx position please. All right, so this is how I really want to hang out, but that's not what's happening here. You're going to push down into the floor, try this and pushing down to the floor. Lift the rib cage or the spine up between the shoulder blades, keeping that lift in the tummy. Can you lift your head? I'm gonna go to fist. Keep that lifted.

The ribcage lifted the tummy right leg goes kick, kick, extend other side and a kick. Kick extent and a kick. Kick extend and a kick kick. A little Kathy variation and a flex point extent. And when I say extend, I mean through the whole spine at least that's what I'm hoping for. Flexport extent. Flex point. Flex point, extend, flex point, part three. You lift both legs up. Right leg goes. Flex point, extent, flex point. Keep your legs off the ground the whole time.

One, two, kick. One, two, kick. One, two, kick one, two. When you're ready, melt to the floor. I shouldn't be so thrilled. Every time something's over. It's the small challenges. It's the small exciting moments. So you're gonna hold on to four fingers like so behind your back.

And I tried to get my hands way up and I released my elbows to the floor. Really get this moment cause that's a nice stretch there. Triple kick both legs go. Three, two, one. Extend the legs and the arms. Lift the thighs, lift the chest and try not to hyper extend in those elbows. Melts and go way, way, way, way. Woo.

Release the elbows down. Triple kick. Three to what extent you do want to kick both legs at the same time as opposed to what I just did. Melt down and go way up. So after this one, we're going to go for our swan. Here we go. Triple kick. Two, three. Come on up. Stay here with your hands. Start a pumping motion. When you get a good pumping motion, you're going to bring the arms out to the side. And when you get that reach up, reach, reach. Yay. Again, I did it. I can't help myself.

So when you're ready, start to seat it. Get ready for the neck pole. Each exercise is a triumph. So here we go. Start seated in your neck. Pull. It's my little trick. Hands behind the neck. And when you're ready, think of lengthening your head forward. Yeah, for the toes. And give me a little pulse. Pulse. You start to roll backwards to where you know you can. Oh, that's about all I have right now. And a pulse pulse. Add a little momentum. That's about it. Pulse, pulse. So if I push it, I can maybe get to my shoulder blade right out there and a pulse pulse.

And that's as far as you should push yourself. Let's see. Oh my God, let's do one more. Roll down to the shoulder blades and I pick up. That's all you get. People when you really sit up nice and tall, the last one, sit up tall. Lean on the outside, curl on the inside, lean on the outside, occur along the inside timber until you come down. So here comes the next hill. Scissors, bicycle, shoulder bridge. So I'm gonna give myself enough room and breathe for a second. So from here you can bring your knees into your chest, give yourself a hug, think about the drinks you can have later after this. On the next exhale, extend the legs up both legs, up and over your head. Okay. Okay, so I'm going to be a stickler for hand positions. So when you're ready, all 10 fingers together, your back, reach the legs up to the ceiling. Here we go. Scissors first. So right now I actually don't have a lot of weight in my arms. I'm really lifting up on the torso, right leg, the one that's up to the ceiling is reaching.

As the left leg goes away and I'm trying to stretch the front of that hip and go reach, reach up to the ceiling. Other side, lifting up, reach, reach can come up. Resist the urge to let the leg coming towards your face. Drop down, reach, reach, and desperately, and I mean that we're desperately trying to stretch the front of the hip forward reach, reach and come back up and spices [inaudible] please thumbs come out. But really lift up. Left leg goes forward and when you're ready you reach up again. Stretching the front of the thigh. Kathy would say Ben through the thigh, not the knee. So hopefully you can see that it's not about speed, it's about intention and keeping that leg parallel and going through the muscle.

Last one, there's that bicycle. Reach both legs up. Inhale. And as you exhale, roll down. Getting ready for shoulder bridge. Okay, so for shoulder bridge, be a rearranged furniture here. Okay, so let's just practice this for a moment. So I, I jokingly in my mind call this the Michael Jackson in my mind. So you're just going to slide one leg along the floor to straightened slide the other end. Change size and change one more time. And with the right leg straight two kicks point up, flex down, point up, flex down, slide the right leg inside the left leg out. Point up, flex down. Parallel sled. The left leg. Good side.

The right like out. Singles, up, flex down, change legs up. Flex down. Change legs up. Flex down. Change. Legs up, flex down. Yes. So the changes always happen along the floor. Let's go. Pelvic lift at Eva. You want all 10 fingers on the outside and if this isn't available to you, I'll take this. Elbows bent. Pressing down into the floor. But I'm going for it. I'm going to have top for goodness sakes. Here we go.

So from here two times right leg starts straight along the floor and point up. Flex down. Point up, flex down. Change legs up. Flex down. Point up. Flex down. One more. Set up, flex down. Then after this we do singles. Flex down, up, flex down. Right like up. Flex down, change legs up. Flex down. One more set. Yes.

I'm cheering myself on cause the big ones coming out. Tail roll down slowly. So I'd like to do the double on the bicycle. No, the shoulder bridge number two. And I'm, you don't see this very often or at least I don't see it very often. So take a look at it first before you try to attempt it. Please be careful. Okay.

Okay. So when you're ready, knees into the chest, both legs, up and over your head. Everything's in place. Here. Go. So from here you get your hands ready. You Bend your right knee into your chest. The right leg, the bent to one is going to reach up and over. Reaching left leg acts as your cantilever. Could you even hear that cantilever swing down and up? One more time. Right leg.

Okay. Right leg reaches, reaches, reaches, reaches, reaches, reaches. When you're down, kick it up. One more time. Right leg. The right leg is the working B left legs. The reaching up swing, change legs over the head. Bend the left knee into the chest. Up and over with the other side.

Yeah. So as you come down, you're reaching the left leg away. When you land, you go through the flip and down. Swing the right leg down. Kick up. Last one. Yes. Both legs over. And when you're ready, sit up. That last spine twist please. Sitting up. Tall.

Hardest moment is right here. Actually let's go forward. Right arm reaches behind you. Twisting. Really establish that forward and back. Reach. Come back to center, other side, forward and back. Reach and twist and come back to center. Open the arms. Here we go. I'm borrowing from the Fletcher guys. They're breathing in hell.

Twice as you twist. Go. Inhale. Inhale. Center. I believe they call it sniff. Sniff, blow. And sure, I'll sniff, sniff, blow. My New Yorkers love it. Especially the ones who live from the eighties how thank you. Inside joke. Inhale. Inhale, center. Last one. And inhale. Inhale. Center. Huh? So from here, the Jack Knife, as you lower down, I like to home.

It's a little Cathy thing. Mm. From here, bend the knees into the chest. As you exhale, extend the legs up to the ceiling. We're going to do jack knife number two first because it's easier. So part one, you're going to just curl the tummy into you like crazy lifting.

Just the sacrum. Hopefully you can see that off the ground and come down two more times and hang, come down one more time. Yeah, it takes my breath away and take it down. So that's part a. Here comes part two and up and down. Here we go. And, and two more times and up and down.

Last one, add up as you come down. You say three, four, five. [inaudible] six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Hug your knees and pull tight. [inaudible] [inaudible] get ready for teasers. No, that's not true. The side legs. So here we go. Lying on your side. I like to use the side of my mat to help me line up. Really go forward.

He'll thank me later and go parallel please. So you can come up on the elbow if you're more comfortable. I personally am going to full rest up there. So from here, internal lift of the waistline, you're gonna lift your top leg up. Inhaling to come up, exhale to come down. And again, inhale, lifting up. Exhale down.

Three more. Inhale, exhale down. Inhale up, exhale down. Last one, please lift up to your high spot and stay there and give me a little pulse. Two, three. As you pulse, you have to really think of reaching that leg away from you entirely spiraling the leg and having a good time. Because why would you want to make it harder and take it down? Rest. Get ready to lift both legs up together. Lift the wasteland. Lift both legs up, keep lifting, keep lifting, keep lifting. Take it down the throat. Back up again. Two, three, four, five.

Take it down right back up. Yes, last one and let's move on. You're going to circle both legs. No voice over here folks. That's real effort. And again, hi too. Three. Let's say I did four on the other side cause I don't remember someone to do a fourth one and take it down. Let's do the other side and so that you don't see my rear. I'll flip this way.

Yeah. Okay, here we go. So top leg up and down. Waistline lifted, ish. Wow. Isn't it amazing how different our sides can be? Wow. One. Inhaling up, exhale to take it down. I am reaching like crazy out of that top leg. Inhale up. Exhale down. One more time. We're going to hold up to your high spot and give me up. Pulse. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. After this you're going to take the leg down.

Get rid of both legs up together, lifted up and whole energy out of the top of the head. Take it down to the right, back up again. Two, three, four, five, down and up. Ooh. Oh there's my butt. Last one. Lift up. Stay here. Circle one, two, three. Reverse the circles. I'm trying to really get ball parts of the circle cause I always find that there's one part for me. It's the four one on that side or this side. That's really hard. One more for good measure and take it down. So here we go.

You're going to come up on your elbow, be toward the front edge of your mat. Hopefully you're not practicing on an elevated mat like this. Practice on the floor or close to it. Here we go. Start with the kicks are in a point, the top foot, the bottom leg is flex and it's right underneath. You're going to kick the top leg forward twice. Go little kick, bigger kick.

Reach the top leg back. You're gonna lift the elbow arm, or not the elbow, but the armpit and waistline. Repeat the exercise. Go kick, kick top, back hole again, go kick, kick, toughly back hold. If you want to make it harder, you can now put both hands behind your neck. Go kick, kick top like back. Hold one more time. Go kick, kick top like back. Hold. Now Watch this one for a second cause it's a little tricky.

Especially if you don't know what the heck a fan kick is. You're going to kick forward. Roll onto your back, lift your hips up, bottom leg touches down. Top leg is going to swing back and you're there, you are ready for the other side again. You'll kick, kick tufted back, hold kick again, go kick, kick type of back. Hold one more time. Kick, kick both hands behind the neck. Kick, kick and hold. Then kick, go fan. Kick and hold again. Fan, kick and hold. I'm going to keep going.

So the hard part is actually not the fancy leg. It's the standing leg. That right there, that's what's hard and fan kick cause if you get it then you can swing the top leg back. Now I'm just trying to show off apparently. Yes. Then kick, and then you gird your loins for some teasers. Set yourself up, breathe. And we're going to get ready for some teasers. Alright, so teaser time, you know, adjust if you need to. I'm going to get my towel ready for some stuff. Okay, here we go. So a little Cathy grant entry into the teasers. So sitting up tall again, the hardest thing you're going to reach both arms forward. Thumbs are extended.

Breathe. Inhale. As you pull into the chest, thinking of doing rural wing on a reform, or just find that sort of oppositional pole. Find the strong part of your tummy. That's mine. Thumbs go down and out to the sides. From there I'm desperately trying to curl the tummy and as I do a little lift of the legs, that's it. And take it down. You're trying not to take it into the back. By arching the back, you're curling.

That's it. Lower the legs again. Bring the hands behind you. Reach your head forward, intertwined the fingers behind the back. Inhale, bend. As you exhale, hands. Go down the back and lift the hands up please. Again. Inhale Ben, and as you exhale, enjoy the stretch. Lifting, lifting, lifting. Try not to twist in the elbows. And here's the hard part for me.

Inhale. As you exhale, gently separate the fingertips, reaching out to the sides to sit up tall. Let's do that intro entry into it. One more time. Going to full teasers. Inhale. Exhale. This time as you pull into the chest, thumbs go down. Now to the side, I like to point my feet. I do a little wrap of the legs as you lift the legs up, find your teaser position. Here we go. Torso goes down and say hello as you go down. Say hello as you go up. Hello.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Legs only. So the reason I said hello like that is Kathy would say is that how you say hello to someone when you meet them? So it really is that kind of hello. One more time. You want to bring those legs up slower than you went down. Grab onto the legs just for a little twist entry.

So holding onto the legs when you're with your left arm. Bring the right arm out to the side. A little twist. Come back to center. Bring the legs to the right, left arm, goes out to the side. Come back to center. One more set. Hold on with your left way to the body or the hips goes into the left.

Sitz bone. That's my hard one. Come back to center legs. Go to the right weight, goes into the right sitz bone and come back to center. Stay here for another breath, bringing the arms behind you. Get ready for the hip circle. So hands are behind you. Go. Three o'clock, six o'clock, nine o'clock. Pulse, pulse, reverse and pulse. Pulse, reverse. Exhaling. Pulse. Pulse. You go three o'clock it's six o'clock. Exhale, pulse, pulse. From here you're going to swivel the legs around. Swivel. Come onto your tummy.

Get ready for swimming. So here we go. Reach the arms forward. You can rest your head down for a moment. On the next inhale, lift your head, legs and arms. Stay looking down. Angry Turtle. As you start to swim. Inhale. Exhale. As you look up, turn out. Inhale.

As you look down and exhale as you look up. One more breath guys. Inhale, looked down. Exhale, look up Bri. Release from here. Tuck all 10 toes underneath you. Hands Underneath your shoulders and in my mind, excuse me, I'm trying to lift the heaviest part of me up before everything else. Here we go, or at least I'm trying from here. Ha.

Come up into your pushup position. Shift forward. Inhale, lengthen as you come back. The hardest part for me is to lift my post baby belly. One more time. Shifting forward and shift back. Stay here from this position. Head is higher than the ribcage. Hips are lower than the rib cage. Lift your left leg up.

Hopefully nothing else has shifted. Shift forward and shift back again. Shift forward and shift back. Change legs please. Right leg is up. Shift forward, shift back. Excuse me, shift forward and shift back. Take the leg down and let's just have a Neal. You can do yoga pose or the child, just a little stretch. If you wish from your child's pose, you can come back into a pushup and do a fancy transition.

We're not going to do that. And we're going to ask you to sit on your bum facing the other direction. Find your hands, cause I want to work on the hands a little bit more that I want that transition. So with the hands behind you, they can go straight out to the sides, a little diagonal or straight back. Try not to twist in the elbow. So soft dish elbows. Find the position that works best for you.

Lift your butt up and take it down. Let's do that again. Lift your butt up and take it down. So that's a nice alternative to this position. So with straight legs, lift your butt up and take it down. On the next one I'm gonna add the legs in. Here we go. Lift the butt up. Stay here, pushing the floor away. Lift up, starting with my left leg. First point up, flex down, point up, flex down, change legs up. Flex down. Point up. Flex down. One more set. Next one.

We're going to add a little Cathy grant variation, but up. Have a seat but down right leg, butt up but down left leg. Butt Up. Butt down. Right leg. Butt Up. Butt down. One more time but up but down. Butt Up. Butt down. Who hard part is to kick high with the butt down.

I'm sure you felt it cause I definitely am. Alright. So I'm sorry. Fancy transition. Here we go. It's not working. Towels, not working. Pelvic lift to transition to psychic meal, you're gonna lift the hips, bend your left leg, twist onto your left hand and left it left leg. Left leg and come to your sidekick kneeling position. So Sen hips away. Send the chest forward. Head is back. And this is plenty. So what we're going to add on, you're gonna lift the leg up to hip height and if that's all you can do, that's great. And take it down two more times. Lift up booty and take it down. Last one, lift up and stay here.

Kick forward twice. Go kick, kick. Swing the leg back two more times. Go kick, kick, swing the leg back one more time. Kick, kick, swing it back. [inaudible] left them behind the ear, reaching forward. So lean to the side stretch. That's part one. When you can't reach anymore. Oh Gosh. Hand down leg extends, regroup. So really be just on that big toe.

Find your starting position. Let me catch my breath here for a moment. Breathe. Inhale to lift up. Exhale down. I have to really send my hips away from this support hand and take it down. One last time. Lift up and hold it there. That's plenty. If you want to add on, go with me. Come kick, kick reach back and a kick, kick leg, leg, leg, leg kick, kick. Reach it back. Back, back. Okay. Let's see if I can do this. So from here, Kathy would sometimes challenge us and say come up on one leg. [inaudible] Huh? You know for kicks, why not? Alright.

So cause I don't think I'm going to do doing this anytime soon. That's not true. I'm going to follow along with me. All right. So um, from that, um, side bend position, let's go for, I'm sort of from that, we'll go for our side bend. So start lying on your side. Ah, so if this is a really hard exercise, and sometimes I'd like to break it down into just this, lift the waistline, lift the arm pitch, that's it. And take it down again. Lift the waistline, maybe the arm pit and take it down. You could add on, lift the waistline in the armpit and take it down. One more time. Just finding that lift is plenty for everyone and take it down.

Slides. He can come all the way up. This is work to. So from here I have not a lot. I mean I can take that hand away. I am lifting. The work is actually happening in my spine and the bottom thighs lifted from here. Extend the legs. Try to find your side bend position and hold. I want to let my book go back. I'm really gonna work at forward.

Chin to the top shoulder. Lower the calves. Lift up, lower the calf and lift up. Stay here. Reach that top arm over your lifting the hips up, lifting the hips up, lifting the hips up, lifting the hips up. Ring that hand down with control. Bend your knees again, faster legs, torso up, chin, lower and whew. And Lower and up. Reach over, lift the hips, bring the hand down, bend your knees. Then other side, so a little prep again.

So just as a review, waistline is one waistline armpit. Can you even see it? It's subtle and down. Coming up on the elbow, waistline and armpit. Yeah, it takes me that long to get down. And again, waistline, arm, hit, maybe balance both hands behind the neck and take it down. Full fried up. I'm lifting my head, finding that under our muscle and here I am. No weight. Work, work, work, work, work again. Here we go. Legs, torso. Come up, find your side. Bend position. Chin to the top, shoulder, lower the calves and come up again. Lower the calves and come up. Reach the arm over. Lifting, lifting, lifting the hips. Inner thighs like crazy. Hand comes down. Control the lowering down. One more time. Legs, Torso, Chin, Caz, down and up.

One more time. Calves and come up. Reach over, lift the hips. Whew. Bring the hand down. Energy out of the top of the head as you bend your knees. Ah, so from here, um, we're going to try another Mr he's one, we're gonna go for his twists. Cathy would call this the twist boy cause she had a picture of a boy doing it really as a man, but she called it boy. Anyway, so from here you're going to start with your left leg. Fingertip, left leg, standing left toes are forward, right hand is down as well.

All the fingers are facing forward. My bottom leg is hooked and not resting. Top hand is holding onto that ankle. Inhale and as you exhale in my mind, my arm goes up and over and threads through. Let's see what actually happens. Here we go. Inhale. I like to start focusing down on that hand. And when you're ready, you going to lift up who and you might have to catch yourself as I did there.

Inner thighs and with control. This is the hard part for me is the coming down. One more time and lift up. And when you get a good one you just turn over to the other side. Just move on. You just go. Thank you very much. Start focusing down right leg. Left hand, foot and fingers. Hips are facing forward.

Come on up. Look. Nope. Yes. Come down with control. The other thing I really think of is that my butt goes up. Here we go. Woo. Sometimes two up. I come down with control. Oh, moving right along.

This is my favorite part because I think of it as the rolling end. So here we go. Boomerang. We're going to do six of them to just nice and easy. Roll that open. Close the legs right from here. Come up. Think about your teaser. Reach the arms around, lower the legs with control. One Bend and stretch. Gently separate the fingertips. Grab onto the ankles. Paul, use your Tommy.

Sit up tall. Roll back. Open, close. Roll through. There's my teaser. Reach and stretch. Separate Grad. Whoa. Mr Pilati, south China. Lift the legs up for a moment. Whoa. Wow. Open. Close. Do you see me with the legs?

One Bend and stretch. Circle around. Grab on pole. Sit up tall. Whoa. Yeah, I grunt. Come on up. Say right here. Can you intertwine? The fingers behind you. Stretch, lower the legs down. Stretch again. Let's scoot back just a touch. So from here we're gonna do Corollas version. These are my words. Who teaching it? You're going to whoosh. Forward, whoosh.

Roll back and try to stay in that you position. You get it open, close. Come back up. Find your teaser. Swan Lake and whoosh. Like I said, it's my words and roll through Swan Lake and woo. Who after the boomerang, the seal. So you're gonna Scoot that just a little bit. Chris. Cross your ankles. I thought you sold to the feet together. Hands go in, hold on to the outer part of the foot. Just balances enough.

Or if you want to add on, you're in a collapse. Two, three, roll back. I can do it. One, two, three. Roll up and a one, two, three rollback and one, two, three. Come up. One, two, three, rolled back. One, two, three. Come up Chris. Cross the ankles. Hold on over the foot. Grab on this as plenty. Roll back again. Roll that Chris. Cross legs. Come on up. You're going to come up onto the knees and curl. In theory, your head actually touches down and you would stretch the back of the neck like so, but there's not a lot of weight on that head roll back, Chris Cross. But if you don't want to go down on the head, this is plenty of work.

This is a stretch, which is why I like it. Another variation rollback. I'm going to borrow this from rail. You're going to come on up on the knees. [inaudible] one more time. Roll back, grab the ankles, feet switch. Come on up. Stretch and have a seat onto your tummy. Get ready for the rocking pants up. Here we go.

So onto the tummy. You're can just bend one leg and the stretch is option number one, but if you're going to go for it, let's go for both legs. So here we go. I'm going to hold onto both legs and hold. Thighs, stay down. Inhale, exhale, lift up. Inhale, exhale down. One more time. Inhale, exhale, lift up. I'm desperately trying to not twist my elbows, really keep my highs down and come on down. Sitting here. Size up.

Okay. Dies down. One more time. Thighs up. Add the torso through. Very deep belly breaths. Rest almost there guys. Roll back onto your back for the control. Balance.

Both legs roll up and over the head. Roll back. Circle arms around. You're trying to hold onto one ankle with both hands. I don't actually let the full foot touch the floor. Hopefully you can see my neck and then I pull and I'm reaching up like crazy.

Through space change. Oh, change. Reaching up and trying to stay parallel. Oh yeah. And a belt on. It's a lot. Last one. [inaudible] reaching. Come on, come on. Okay. Ah, there it is. From there both legs over your head.

You're on a roll up to standing. Ah, okay. Pushups. We can do it. So from here you're gonna reach down to the floor and when you reach down to the floor, try not to let your butt go back. Kathy would say, don't go to the bathroom. It's a lovely image. Actually. I'm going to go this way. Why? I don't. Oh yes, you don't see my arm. I wouldn't want to ruin my line. So from here, as you reach for the floor, try not to lock the knees. I'm lifting. And when you don't lock in the knees, you use your tummy.

Walk out into your push up position. I'll take three push ups. So push up position as first heels are lower than the knees, which are lower than the hips, which are lower than the rib cage. Head is highest three pushups. Sorry, two and one walk back again. Try not to lock in the knees.

I'm using my tummy to come up to standing from here. I'm going to walk forward. We're going to do a little trick, Kathy, of how Mr Plot is used to make Kathy do this and she was a neat person. So let's try it. So you're gonna roll backwards and come up to standing fast, both legs over the head and stand again. And I use my arms to come up. Let's try the next one. So single leg, both legs over the head. Oh Huh.

Her other side. Here we go. I use my arms both legs overhead. It may not be pretty, but I came up. I think I should finish there. Actually, that's not true. Let's end with just a little traditional thing. So you're gonna start reaching twists to face the left leg. Grab onto that right ankle, bre, twist, my hips are thanking me right now.

Unfold back to the x as I twist to the right. My right leg bends. All 10 toes face forward. Grab onto the left ankle, drop the head bre, unfurl, unfurl. Ah, and breathe. Thanks guys. Thanks for coming and I hope you were able to just move through it and have some fun. Thanks.

Comments

2 people like this.
Fun advanced class with Blossom Leilani's great sense of humor. I often find classes which incorporate mainly traditional Pilates exercises as not very pleasant for my body because they are mainly done in supine position with head lifted. This class was however totally different; it felt well balanced for my body. With some variations of exercises which were new to me I felt like doing a few extra repetitions in order to master the exercise more - with the pause button this is of course easy... ;)
1 person likes this.
bravo you are amazing
1 person likes this.
Thank you kindly Ma'am for sharing your years of experience of the matwork with such adroitness and dexterity.
Outstanding.
oh wow that was amazing!! Great!! Thank you!!!!
More please!!!!!!
sandyjgrant
Blossom you are so beautiful - you demonstrate so beautifully and teach so humanly...you make a level 3 class so accessible with your teaching style. I don't normally do level 3 classes because they go so fast and there is so little cueing to get the move right. Loved it...again!
Thank you all for the lovely comments. Sandyjgrant, I am so glad you did this level 3 class. There are great Matwork exercises that are available to us.
How inspiring! I love Blossom's classes! Come to Melbourne and teach us more please please!!
Blossom: you bring this work to a place where everyone can find something, even if they cannot do the work to its fullest expression. As always your humour brings this back down to what can we each achieve for ourselves on given day, and be proud. Thank you. Keep it coming.
I adored this class ..I need a teacher like you in london!!
Taghrid K
Absolutely fun and great class, loved all the preps and Kathy Grant cues. Especially loved the teaser and shoulder bridge preps and variations. Thank you so much for this amazing workout.
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