Class #26

BASI® Mat Flow

60 min - Class
38 likes
Loading...

Description

A detailed level 2 BASI Pilates® class. A certain challenge for anyone!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Dec 27, 2009
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

[inaudible]. Hi. No. Hi Mary. Okay. Are we all ready to start? Okay. So just sitting tall on your mat, uh, feet about sitting ones distance apart, holding onto the back of the thighs. Just gently use the back of your arms to guide your spine up a little straighter. We're just going to stay here for a couple of breaths.

So as you inhale, expand your ribs laterally or allow them to grow wider. And as you exhale, draw deeply into the abdominals and feel just a sense of growing Tolo or creating space between the bones of your spine. Two more breaths like that. Inhaling, allow your mind to connect with your body. Yeah. And your mind and body to connect with your breath. Yeah. And with that one more inhale. One more chance to grow a little taller.

Exhale. Feel the tailbone move out from underneath. You start to round yourself down just basically until your arms go straight. So just rocking through the lower spine. Inhale, allow the spine to restock. Come back up to tall and as you exhale, curve or feel the tailbone tuck under or the pubic bone reach up towards the ceiling as you round down just to the bottom of the pelvis. Breathe in, look for a little bit deeper depth in the abs and Xcel to come up. I didn't do that. One more time. Mobilizing the lower spine, excelling to curve.

I feel a sense of inner thighs activating. Breathe in at the bottom. Start Your Xcel. Think of going first forward or rounding more, and then elongating up this time. Let go of your legs breathing in again. Exhale, going a little further this time, rounding down to the bottom of the rib cage, making sure that the low back comes into contact with the mat. Inhale, raise your arms up towards your ears. Exhale, lower your arms and come back forward again. The same curving of the spine forward and till the shoulders come over the hips and any long getting in the spine. Exhaling as we round down, finding the bottom of the rib cage first.

Breathe in the arms, float up in space. The shoulders. Feel heavy on the back. Exhale the arms. Reach forward and roll yourself up. This time as you sit tall with your spine, reach your arms up towards your ears. Grow in the direction of your fingertips. Xcel two more times. We round down, pressing just gently into the ground with the feet. Inhale, raise the arms, but feel the belly move in opposition. Start your XL. As you start lowering your arms, roll yourself up, and as you sit tall, the arms reach overhead. The upper back finds a little bit of extension.

Look up at your hand and exhale. Last one. We round down, dropping the arms down in front of the shoulders. Breathe in deep in the abdominals. Exhale, starting to come on. Lift the spine tall. Turn towards me, rotating the spine. Xcel round down that side of the spine. Allow the arms again to drop down in front of the shoulders. Inhale, rotate across to the other side. Keep the pelvis and the lower body stable.

Start excelling as you roll yourself all the way up. As you sit tall, your arms reach all the way up into the air, near your ears. Exhale round down that side of the spine. Inhale, come across center XL Rola, just getting all the movements of the spine. Exhale to round down. One more time around to each side, coming across through the middle. Look for no movement of the lower body. Exhale, roll up that side.

And last one, curling down, finding the bottom rib bone coming across your center. Flattening the low back into the mat. Roll up that side and unwind and center. Lower your arms down in front of you and we'll start rolling yourself down. As you round down, slide your feet a little closer to your body. Put your head down on the mat, preparing for the pelvic curl.

Adjust yourself if you need to. Arms are long and straight along your sides. Feet are pressing into the mat. Take a breath as you exhale. Feel the abdominals contract pressing the low spine into the mat. As you start lifting the pelvis, start contracting the backs of the legs.

Roll yourself up, reaching the knees over towards the toes. Take a breath in at the top, excelling as you start from the chest, rounding down bone by bone, creating space between the bones until you release all the way down into neutral spine with your tailbone down. As you exhale. Start again. That same undulating movement of the spine has a sense of the knees reaching forward over the toes or the heels dragging back towards the fingertips to achieve a maximum work in the hamstrings. Inhale and exhale to round down. Resist the urge as you round down of the shoulders, wanting to lift towards the ears. Breathing in and breathing out. So as you roll in both directions, the arms have reached towards the feet or the fingertips.

Reach down towards the heels. Hold at the top. Exhaling as you articulate back down with it. Yes, I'm going to do that two more times. Breathing in at the bottom, adding on at the top. Exhale to come up. Inhale, lift up onto your toes, creating just a little bit more room for your spine to move downward and exhale. Roll down again as you round. Shift the knees out over the toes, creating lengthening sensation through the lower back.

As the tail band touches the heels drop down. Exhale to come up again, letting the pubic bone be higher than the hipbones throughout. Higher than the hipbones. Higher than the rib bones higher than the chest. Lift the toes or lift the heels, sorry, onto your toes. Exhale, roll down through your spy. And as you tell one touches, lift one leg. Lift the other leg. Bring your arms up over your shoulders and just gently reach them out to the side. And as they go down to the floor, feel the shoulders moving away from one another or the shoulder blades brought on the back. We're coming towards the Cadillac on the inhale with both knees.

Keep the knees lined up, the feet just in front of the knees. Exhale, we contract through the opposing side of the waist and pulse the center. Inhale to reach across and exhale to come to center. So making sure as you do that movement, that one knee's not lifting higher than the other. Pelvis moves as in unit. Inhale, coming across an exhale, engaged deeply through the waistline to pull yourself back.

Two more to each side. [inaudible] I feel the shoulders stable on the ground, the head nice and still. Eyes straight up towards the ceiling. One more to go last time. And with that, bring your knees toward your chest. Reach your arms around your legs, like your knees into your chest for a moment.

Reached down. Put your feet down on the ground. Reach your hands behind your head. So let us take a moment and just let your arms be flat on the ground. Find a neutral spine, meaning tailbone down the pubic bone and the two front hipbones are on a horizontal line. Then allow the elbows to come slightly away from the ground. And as you do so, feel the shoulders draw down away from the ears.

Breathe into prepare here for the chest lift. Exhale, lift the head and chest. Feel that the head is heavy, like a bowling ball in the hammock of your hands. Hold as you inhale, look for intensity and XO. Work your way down or length in the abdominals as you come down. Breathing in at the bottom. Feel the ribs expand. Exhale, feel the ribbons draw down into the mat. Lifting up, resisting the urge to pull yourself forward with your face or your neck muscles holding here and exhale to release down, adding on, excelling to come up. This time.

Inhale is you reach behind your thighs. Use your arms a little bit more, so focused on your abdominals as you look for a little bit more height. Inhale, let your arms go and reach way back behind you with your arms without lowering your down. Re Bend your elbows and exhale. Lower yourself down onto the mat. East centric. Lee working the abdominals. Xcel to curl the head in. Chest up. Inhale to allow the arms reach behind the legs. Look for intensity as you lift just a little bit higher.

Then keep that intensity as you let go. Reach back on the inhale. Rebend the elbows, fingers all the way into lace and exhale to lower your body down. One more time, like so. Excelling. We lift up. Inhale, grab the hands behind the thighs. Exhale, curl a little higher. Let go. Reach up behind the head. Rebrand the elbows and this time hold. We're going to bring up the left leg on the exhale. Pull it right up. Focus on the abdominals, doing the movement. Inhale, reach down and touch those toes. Same late. Comes up. Exhale as the leg is drawn towards the chest, feel the chest.

Try to lift towards the leg two more times. Exhale, lift and down. One more. Replace that leg without a lot of movement in the pelvis. Exhale, pick up the right leg again. As the leg comes towards the body, intensify the chest reaching towards the leg. Two more to go. [inaudible] last one. Breathe in as lake goes down and breathe out.

As you work your way down to the mat. [inaudible] breathing into prepare. Exhale, lift the head and chest up. We're going to add in some old bleaks. Inhale once again and always for from now on, we're going to lift a little higher heading into the chest. Lift with rotation. Reach up. Take your hands behind your head. Exhale, turn the right rib towards the left thigh and inhale back to center.

Exhale, rotate the upper body. Only. Inhale back to center. One more time around. Exhale to turn and inhale to come back and exhale to feel that bottom shoulder stay lifted off the ground in the heel to come back and exhale. Make your way back down to the ground war. One more set. Exhale, lift your head and chest. Inhale, reach behind your thighs. Exhale, lift a little higher. This time, lift your left leg.

Turn your right rib towards your left hip and reach the right arm around so it's just over your left hand. Rotate your body towards that side and then bring the left hand behind the head. If you can bring the right hand behind your head. If not, reach it straight ahead of you and then just try for three little tiny lifts, one and and three come back around through central. Lowering the left leg down. We're going to turn to the right, lift up the right leg, left hand, and right hand. Go right on top of another. Behind the right leg you lift. Pull in, twist a little more.

Look for the back of both hips to be centered and stable on the ground. One hand behind the head, both hands behind the head or the opposite arm straight ahead of you and just three little lifts. Who's one? Here's two. You might not feel. See a lot, but you should feel that. Come back to center. Lower the leg down and lower the spine to the ground. Stretch your legs along the ground in front of you. Glue them together. Bring your arms straight up over your shoulders. Inhale, lift your head and chest. Feel the ribs draw downwards into the floor.

Starting your exhale, pressing the low back into the ground. We're coming up, ending with the shoulders just over the hips, the spine round. Breathe in and excelling as you undulate back down with Tuck the tailbone underneath. You fill one bone at a time. As the back of the head comes down, the arm starts to reach over the head. Inhale the head and chest. Come up the arms, reach down towards the thighs. Pull the abdominals in, curl through your spine. Do you want to beyond hip flexor Xcel to roll down? So maybe just do it with your knees bent. Lifting up. We'll do three more rolling through the spine.

Stay long or feel a sense of lengthening as you round at the top. Exhale to come down, Lisa. Just look a little forward. Rather than looking down back of the head. Touches the arm. Start floating and heel. We lift the head and chest curl again. The sense of length through the spine to come. Shoulders over hips. Last one here, roll all the way back down. We're gonna stay down here. Keep the left leg on the ground. Bend the right knee.

Stretch the right leg up towards the ceiling if you need to. Keep it a little bit soft. If you can straighten it all the way for leg circles. We're going to inhale into the body first. Circle Blake down around and up. Exhale, draw the same circle. Inhaling one breath for each circle.

Feel look for stability in the rest of the body. The leg is free and easy, but the rest of the body is quite still. Last one or last breath cycle. We're going the other way. Breathe in and drop the leg to catch it. The action of catching the leg is preformed from just underneath the ribs or just underneath the belly. [inaudible] one more time.

[inaudible] bring the leg up, hold the back of the leg. Walk yourself up towards your ankle or towards just above the knee and just guide the leg towards you. Maybe that would have been nice to do before the, but oh well. Walk all the way down. Bend your knee, hold onto it with the other hand so the left hand holds the right leg and just twist to your left and look over your right shoulder coming back to center stretch. So the right leg back out onto the mat. Anchor it down into the floor, meaning that that leg is quite actively pressing downwards.

Stretch the left leg up or heading into circles going into the body first on the inhale, reach around and exhale. Feel the mobility generating in the hip. Last breath cycle here. Pause at the top. Go the other way. Although you're looking for perfect stability, it's not wrong to feel a little bit of movement in the pelvis.

It's natural. In fact, one more time. One more breath cycle. Reach behind the thigh. Walk up the Leng as high as you can comfortably pull your abdominals in just a little bit more in. Draw that leg towards your chest. Walking back down the knee or the leg. Hold the opposite leg with the opposite hand or right hand to left knee.

Twist your body to the right. Look over your left shoulder and then coming back to center. Bringing both legs up towards the chest. Reach around for both knees and hug them in towards your body. Heading in to the double leg, single leg and Chris Cross lifting your head and chest. Pressing your knees into your hands. Find the tailbone down into the ground. Double leg. Stretch the legs. Go out in front the arms reach up. Exhale.

Feel the arms push through space as you come back in in heel length in the legs up and exhale. Circle back in. Feel the spine stable on the mat, a sense of energy through the arms and especially through the upper back. As the arms come around and five more [inaudible]. [inaudible]. The legs are pulled in towards the chest from deep within the abdomen for as your hands come around for your knees, try to lift a little higher. Three, keep that lift as you bring your arms over your head. Two more [inaudible] and one more.

Yeah, hold here. Lift just a little bit higher. Stretch the right leg up key. Take both hands to the left knee and we just change the legs. Mic reach into one another as they pass one another or the inner thighs are active. You can push down into your hands with your upper back muscles or your lats specifically to try to help yourself up into a little bit of a higher curl. We're going for four, three, two, and one.

Bring both knees in and lower the head and chest. So let's get into the crisscross just a little bit differently today. Place both feet back down to the ground for a moment. Bring the hands behind the head. Pick up the right leg first. Lift the head and chest. We're doing what we did with the chest lift.

We're going to turn to the leg. Find the back of the leg or the outside of the leg with both hands. And then guide yourself up a little higher from that place. Stretch the leg that's on the ground out in space. Feel the toes lined up. One hand back behind the head. The other hand back behind the head.

This is the height that you want to look for. Let's do five here. Here's one, two, three. Well, sorry, w one more to each side. Now both knees in, lower the head and chest and lower the right leg. Lift the chest up. Rotate into the left side. Right hand below the left knee. Left hand below the right hand lift, pull, turn.

There's your position. Keep it this high. Stretch the right leg out in space. Hands behind the head. And five more, and I'll count correctly this time. Two and three and four and one more. And with that, both knees in and lower your body all the way to the ground. Once again, stretch your legs out in front of you, Candace. You can keep your knees bent and just either roll up from there, walk yourself up your legs. Um, we're just gonna come up with a roll up in heel, lift the head and chest and exhale to come all the way on.

So find the position and then reach beyond the position for the feet. Allow your head to drop down towards your shins. Can Use your hands as much as you want to to help yourself increase that forward stretch. And then you're going to roll up through your spine and sit up straight. Um, moving onto the twist. The arms are going to reach straight out to the sides, palms facing up, a long it through the spine. If you need to bend your knees to increase the, the length of the low back, feel free coming towards me first.

It's two exhales as you turn and inhale to come back to center. So there's a pulsing type movement in this exercise, but make it more of a, yeah, trying to look for intensity type feeling instead of a bounce focus on the old bleaks as you head in the direction of the twist, use the breath to allow you to go deeper, especially that second exhale. So you just go as far as you can and then look for more cause look, go ahead. Couple more. Last one from there. Lower the arms, bend the left knee, but the left hand down. Reach the right arm around towards the outside of the left knee.

Lift your spine and then just guide yourself with both arms into a rotation. I'll probably get a little further here with your arms, so use that to your advantage. Come back to center. Slide the right knee to bend a lot. Bring the left hand outside. The right leg, right hand just goes on the mat where it makes sense to lift up first and then twist, and then come back around through center. Stretching the legs back out this time. Separate the leg spine. Stretch forward, arms straight out in front. Knees are more than welcome to be Ben, if that works better for you. Taking a breath in, exhaling as you curl the spine, leading with the head, rounding down first and then lengthening out. Forward over the legs.

Breathing in there and as you exhale, articulate back up. So just draw the abdominals back. Imagine stacking your spine up in a flat space or an imaginary wall until you arrive. Sitting up straight from here. Just for one moment, everyone bend your knees for just a second. Lift, a little taller, push your arms out in front of you. So this is a feeling that that you want to try to avoid from there. Just it's not a squeeze together of the shoulder blades, but it's just a sense of the collar bones opening.

Try to keep that feeling in the in the chest and shoulder area. If you want to go back to straight legs, do so now. Breathe in. Nothing in the shoulder area changes as the spine moves, head goes down, so almost a feeling of the shoulders pulling back as the spine reaches forward. Inhaling at the bottom and exhaling, ruling back up, contracting through the front of the body. Feel the work in the front more than in the back, although both places are working. Inhale at the top and exhale.

We go down this our last one like this. Inhaling at the bottom and Xcel starting from the pelvis. Feel the Pelvis Move Upright. Then building the spine bone by bone until you arrived. Sitting up straight, adding on the extension. Exhale, it starts the exact same way round down from your low position. Try to feel that your tailbone is reaching back, that your lower back is trying to arch or extend.

Send the chest forward towards the knees. Rise up into a long diagonal position, allowing the arms to come up near the ears. Inhale, pause, and exhale. Fold back forward to articulate the spine. Backup sitting. If that feels crowded in the shoulders, you can bend your elbows or you can keep your arm slightly in front of your eyes. Let's go again excelling as you roll down, so modify the exercise so it works for you. Wider arms is also a little bit easier, lengthening up, exhaling to reach forward and articulate up.

We're going to do that one more time and I'm going to add onto it a little. So breathe and get a little taller. XL. Start from the head round forward. The further the body goes for the more the abdominals have to work to pull into the spine. Inhale for the long back extension. Exhale, go further in the direction of your fingertips or just look for intensity.

Reach just your arms down and grab where they land. Pull forward or arch the spine a little bit more and then let go and feel the arms float up near the years. The arms will just make the position heavier. Inhale, reach down, grab where you'll land. Exhale, increase that back extension. Inhale, lengthen up. [inaudible]. Exhale, go a little longer. Inhale, reach down. One more time.

Pull a little bit more forward. Oh, lift the chest. Pull the ribs in. The absent last one here. Guide the arms up near the ears. And with that, just five little pulses back. It's a very small movement. It comes from in between the shoulder blades. Feel the thumbs going behind the head or aiming behind the head. Two more to go. One more to go. Go all the way back down. Rest.

Take a moment to just allow your back to settle, to breathe. [inaudible] and then come up bending your knees heading into the long back stretch. I think we all need a little bit of a hip flexor stretch. Put your hands behind your back if hit. Um, ideally your fingers will face your pelvis. If that doesn't work for you, bring your arms out to the sides or your hands out to the sides or go onto your fists. So from here, just push into your arms a little bit too to increase the length of your spine.

Inhale as you just hover the pelvis so that it lifts up maybe a quarter of an inch. As you start exhaling, start moving in a pelvic curl, like feeling roll yourself up. As you get towards parallel to the mat, your knees will stretch out over your feet. There's an accordion like feeling as the spine opens up, press with the back of the leg so the front of the legs can a stretch. As you exhale, start coming back from the chest. Keep the pelvis Hud's a feeling of trying to push the pelvis up towards the nose. Continue curling back, curling back, curling back, and only at the very last minute, allow the spine to lengthen back.

Inhale again. Exhale. Start the movement forward field like a pelvic curl. The sense of the heels dragging towards the fingertips. So we really want to look for those hamstrings. Stretch out the knees, reach out over the feet, look on inhale, exhale very much contracting through the abdominals as you curl down through your spine. Keep the curl as long as you can. Push up away from the ground energetically. Lengthen the spine down. And one more time. Exhale to articulate forward. Good.

A lot of inner thighs working, lengthening up through the chest, feeling the stretch in the shoulders, maybe a stretch through the front of the hips and exhale to come all the way back to [inaudible] and then sit down. Walk your feet a little closer to you. Hold on Sierra ankles, lean back. Lets getting hot in here. Huh? Make sure you have enough room to safely rollback without running into thing or rolling off your mat. Rolling like a ball. So as you scoot your feet right up into you, lean back just a little bit from there, pull inwards in the abdominals and allow that to help your feet float. And from there we just rock back on the inhale and exhale to come up and balance Oh last hit and inhale, roll back and exhale to come up in bell couple more times using the breath to find the upward position.

We'll just do that two more times. One last one. I'd put the fee 10 on the ground, open up the knees, shift back or forward so that you're comfortable in that stretch and then just walk forward with your hands while your neck to relax downwards. Walk both hands over towards one side and then both arms over towards the other side and then coming back towards center and articulating the spine up. Oh, we're going to do the open leg rocker prep, followed by a couple of open leg rockers. I'll do my best. I can't promise good results today. Sit a little bit again, just leaning back behind the tailbone.

I'm holding onto the legs and before you even lift your legs, feel that you're trying to pull your spine upwards and slightly forwards with the muscles in your upper back. From there. Let the legs come up to a parallel to the floor position and with that keeping the chest broad round the lower back, roll back towards the shoulders, rule up balancing just behind the tail end. Use that same feeling of upper back extensors to straighten or Elongate the spine. Curl back. Inhale and exhale rolling up and the lift one more to go. Rounding back, really not.

So you have the option of sticking with that x with the prep or you can reach for one in color at a time. Extend that leg, find the other ankle, extend that leg again, that same feeling of upper back and the chest reaching forward is what you want to look for. And here we go. Roll back, roll up and it's the upper back that puts the brakes on or helps you find the straight back. Inhale, the just the lower spine rounds. Exhale to Rola and lengthen and just a few more times like that. Let's do three more. Rounding back. Don't worry if you don't find it at the top, you will. Next time. Last two, rounding back of where the shoulders creeping up into the years at all costs. One more lovely, excellent job.

And then from that upward position, just look for a little bit more length. If you can let the legs go carefully lower your legs to the ground and as they lower your spine hinges up, bringing your arms out to the sides for the saw. So let's lift a little taller. As you inhale, turn to your left. Exhale, reach your right arm towards your left Pinky toe and push your left palm behind you like you're trying to reach around for your right hip. Inhale, feel the spine grow a little longer as you sit up and unwind. As you exhale, we inhale to turn. Exhale, both arms pushed their push oppositionally and to help you increase the rotation of your spine. Inhale, lengthen the spine on the diagonal upwards and Xcel to come back. And let's do that one more time. Kind of slow this time as the right arm goes, use the left hand on the ground to just help you increase your range forward. Then let it go and reach it back and lengthen upwards and come back.

And last one like that. Reach down. Use the right hand. You can put it on the ground and help allow it to help you increase your range of motion forward. Then let it go. Reach it back as your opposite arm reaches forward. Lengthen up and unwind. We're gonna do that three more times with the breath in Yale and exhale a little quicker. Allow your breath to create the rhythm for the movement XL center.

Breathe in, turn, breathe out. Stretch, breathe in. Lengthen and come back. Okay. It's a feeling of mobility in the spine, shoulder stability, I mean healing up and exhale. Last one. As you breathe out each time, feel all the air go out of the body so that you refuel a refill with fresh, clean air. Come back to center. Last one. Reach and lengthen and bring it all the way back home.

Bring the arms behind you. Once again, walk the feet close together. I'm going to do the back support. If the back support, you know, doesn't work for you, it works just as well with bent knees, um, works with just as well with bent knees. So fingers facing in or out to the sides. Lift up through the chest and as you exhale, press into the heels, start to feel the legs activate, and then lift the pelvis up again. This is a place where you're not wanting to arch your low back too much.

Just look for a straight line and then he dropped the hips down. Send the chest forward so you stay straight through your spine throughout. Exhale to lift. If you know that you arch your back or you head towards an arch, low back, pretty consistently. Think about tucking just the littlest bit as you initiate the upward movement.

So drawing or looking for a little bit of depth through the abs is a different way to say that. And sit down. One more to go. We exhale to hinge on [inaudible] and inhale to sit back down. And then with that, reach your arms around forward. One last time. Take a stretch. [inaudible] bend your right knee in towards your left. Sigh. Set up for a moment.

Turn your body so that your chest reaches over the middle of the left thigh and then just go forward into that same forward flection. Or you can hold onto your foot or your ankle or wherever your hands comfortably land. And from there, keep your left hand where it is. Reach your right arm further forward so you increase the stretch even more. Start to turn your right ribs up. Your arm will follow the movement of your spine just reaching into a side stretch, opening up through the chest, excelling as you come back forward and rule yourself to sending the right leg out straight. The left leg comes into the right thigh, so allow a gentle rotation of the spine. It's not definitely not the Max.

Just look for the chest to be right over the center of the leg and then start to walk forward. Taking a moment there, let your hands just land wherever they land and then use them to see if you can intensify the stretch. Keep the right hand where it is, reached the left arm further forward, and then start to turn the left ribs towards the ceiling, the arms just going to come around with you. Opening up through that left side waist. Okay. Looking in the direction that your attorney full back forward and come back up. Yeah, Ben Janiece.

Reach around for the tops of your legs and then just shift yourself back a little. Lift your feet up and gently roll yourself down onto the mat with as much control as you can find. From there, just lay all the way down. Hug the knees into the chest, stretch the right leg straight down along the ground. Bring your left leg up towards the ceiling. Slightly bent is always fine. Straight is even better. Uh, reach your arms around just the, the edge of your calf fingers facing upwards and guide the leg a little closer to you. Hamstring pull one.

You want to feel the bottom leg anchored into the ground. And then with your abs, try to pull the leg out of your hand and closer to your body. Let the leg go. Bring the bottom leg up. That top leg reaches down and then it's just a double like another double XL. As you draw the les closer to you, the body stays stable as the legs pass through one another in space and then pulse.

And again, bottom line anchors. It does not post just the top leg. See if you can get a sense of the Polson coming from the ABS, not from the arms of the bottom leg. Reaching very much away from you and helping you stabilize by anchoring into the earth. One more time. Bring both legs up. Reach behind the knees, lift a little higher. We're going to do the hamstring pull too, so bring your hands behind your head.

If that doesn't work for you, the arms can reach straight out in front. Lower one leg and pull again the top like a little closer to your body. Okay, good. Modification. Candace, turn towards the leg in the air for three hamstring pulls. Three feel the inner thighs working as the legs come past one another one more to go. Bringing both lakes up. Bend your knees and rest your feet down on the ground.

Bring your arms once again along the sides of your body, heading into just a pelvic curl. As you exhale, rolling yourself up, starting with the abdominals. Of course, let the pelvis leave the floor. As you roll through your spine, field and knees again, reached through space towards the toes. Inhale, let your hands leave the mat. Reach up towards your ears, but hover your arms away from the Mat and as you exhale, feel your fingers reaching oppositionally as you roll downward through your spine bone by bone. Inhale, bring the arms just above the shoulders. Exhale, roll back on again, guiding the pubic bone higher than the two hipbones higher than the rib cage. Inhale, arms overhead, and exhale, just feeling the difference in the stretches.

The arms reach further behind you and the spine releases to the ground. You can bring your arms all the way down next to your sides. Again, we're going to do the shoulder bridge. Exhaling as you come up. Yeah, before we lift a leg, just let's take a minute to find an optimal position. So if you can feel the ribs draw or knit together and the pelvis trying to press upwards so we're all nice and stable through our lower backs. Pick up the left leg, either keep it bent or stretch it up.

Those are choices. Exhale, take it as low as you can without changing the position of the spine and bring it back with a flexed foot. We point down and come back and down the hill back of the free swinging like should be very active as a league moves down towards the ground. Shoulders should be reaching away from the ears. Last three, two more and one more. Lower the leg, two knee level. Bend it, replace it down. Take a moment. Let's roll down in between. Exhale all the way down. Feel the arms stretch in the direction of the tailbone in healing at the bottom. Exhale, come all the way back up again.

Take just a moment. Excuse me, to feel that the ribs are knitting together, that the pelvis is trying to Tuck a little bit to support the lower back. Pick up the other leg, stretch it up, and then we exhale to lower the leg and bring it back. And so it's not just the supporting leg that's working hard, challenging the stability of the spine. Last four, I'm three and and one. Lower the leg down, folded in and slowly move your spine down to the ground again. Don't lose sight of what the arms are doing.

And then as you come all the way down, let the pelvis rest. Cross the left knee right on top of the right. Bring both arms up towards the sky. You're to drop your knees to your left and allow your arms and your eyes to move in the opposite direction. Allow that to relax into it a little. And as you exhale, contract through the waist, come back, go the other way. So let it be a stretch, but also support the stretch and come back and uncross the left leg. Put that on the ground.

Cross the right leg over the left. We're going to go to the knees, to the right eyes and arms to the left and come back and other side and come back. And with that uncross your legs. Just reach behind your legs, lift your head and chest and just gently rock back and forth a couple of times until you can rock yourself up toward the city. Turn to face me please. We're going to do this side bend, so the excuse me that the top foot is crossed over the bottom foot. Your hand that's on the mat is not right under your shoulder but but slightly further away.

The most important thing in this exercise is that you're supporting in the shoulder and in my mind that easiest way to do that is to pull away from the hand with the ribs with the oblique on that side. Once you create a straight line from the shoulder to the waist, then draw the shoulder blade down. The back opposite arm comes just down towards the feet and here we go. We're going to straighten the legs and lift up. As you exhale, lift through the bottom side of the waist, create an arc light shape. Turn your eyes downwards and reach the top arm over your head. Inhaling.

As you come back to a straight line with your body. Look forward. Exhale, bend the knees, lower the top arm go down. As you continue to stabilize the shoulder, lift up, reach up through the waist first. Then just the eyes turn. As the hand reaches overhead, come back and bend the knees. Go slightly away from the arm as you come down. One more. One more time. Slippy on sloppy too. Okay. Are we good for one more? Yep.

Carry this so we're not going to come all the way down this time we're going to go through this side. Ben, look down, come back, find the straight line. Drop the bottom knee to the mat before you take your straight leg off the ground. Take a moment to to kind of press the pelvis forward or Tuck the pelvis a little bit. Lean away from the arms so there's not a ton of tension on that hand. And lift the top leg up and do the side kick. Bring the opposite hand behind the head.

Kick the leg forward and bring it back. Try to keep the leg as it swings forward and back as consistently as high as you can. Look for the spine to not round or arch. As the leg moves forward and back, you can always put your hand down on your hip. If that doesn't feel good on your neck or bring your arms straight up into the air. Do four and three and two.

Oh, take the leg back, let it go slightly further back. Energize that glue just a little bit more. Let go with the left hand and reach it forward on the diagonal and just turn and stretch in that direction. I'm back. Bend the knee, the leg that's in the air, the right leg. Sit down at a diagonal into that hip and let your left arm reach towards your right arm. Just take a moment there to stretch and then just slide onto the hip that you're stretching your legs.

We'll shift over to the other side and we'll begin again from the top right. Five hands if you need to cross the top and call over the bottom. Ankle top arm is reaching down towards the fee. Again, the most important thing to think about in this exercise is the pulling away of the arm or keeping that bottom bottom of your spine nice and stable. Here we go. We stretch the legs. Bring yourself up into a sideline plank position. Lisa, lower your Publix, just a little spit that's perfect there. Then lift up through your waist. Bring your arm over your head and just look down at that hand.

Inhale as your right arm comes back, lower your spine to straight. Exhale as you bend your knees. Just kind of hover yourself down. Inhale, come straight back up. Exhale, make a rainbow with your weights. Turn your eyes as your arm reaches overhead for the stretch. Inhale, come back to side. Let little or Lisa right there and we bend last one. This is the one we're going to stay up. Exhale, stretching over in me. Now coming back to a side position, side plank position a lower the bottom lane. Stay for a moment.

Reach the top leg, reach the straight leg away from you a little bit, and then try to Tuck the pelvis, keeping as little pressure on that bottom arm as you can lift the leg. Your hand either goes behind your head, straight up into the air or on your hip. And we're going to swing the leg forward and reach it back and swing it forward and reach it back. So as your leg moves through space, you want to try to stabilize through your spine as much as you can. Again, you might feel a little shifting back and forth of the body, which is a natural movement. There's no rounding or arching of the back. Last two one way.

[inaudible] he that leg at the back, lifted up a little higher. Take the right arm and reach it forward on the diagonal. As you reach the arm forward, reach the back laid back. Look for [inaudible] stretch. Come back, bend your right knee, lower it towards your left. Sit down at a diagonal into the right hip, reaching the right hand around towards the left hand. And then with that, let's come. Just make your way onto your hands and knees.

Can I do the leg? Pull off a back light pole. Friends accuse me. So find yourself with your hands directly under your shoulders. It's worth it to have a look, um, neutral spine or a straight back. Slide one foot back and place it on the mat before you take the other leg back. Look for a little bit of a Tuck in the pelvis.

Stabilize the shoulders by drawing them down the shoulder blades towards your hips. Send the other leg back, pause for just a moment and feel the strength of the abdominals, the strength of the legs holding you up in this position. From there, let's point the right foot and reach up for six, six and five and four, three and two and one replaced that foot. Pick up the other one. Working on stability, working on abdominal work. You guys look gorgeous too. Three, four, five, six. And with that gently come back to your knees and take a stretch back towards your feet. That's not comfortable for your shoulders. You can widen your hands or you can move your hands down next to your knees and your elbows. Lots of things to help [inaudible].

Well then coming back forward into the quadriped head position or on the hands and knees. Take a moment to assess that your knees are just under your hips and your feet are straight back from the knees. Hands are just underneath the shoulders. Spine is long and supported. When do the cat stretch and know that in the cat stretch we're trying to move the upper and the lower spine separately. So as you begin to exhale, lift up through your abs and allow the pelvis to start moving towards the thumbs.

It helpful to engage to the back of the legs a little bit to look for a little greater movement. Don't round as much as you can through your upper back. Just make it as focused on your lower back as possible. Inhale, find neutral spine or a straight as you exhale, attempting to work just the upper back. Keep the pelvis very stable. Feel the shoulders, reach down in the chest, go up and forward. There's a sense trying to go further forward or longer forward in my mind. Inhale, come back. Exhale, start from the pelvis, tucking the tailbone under, letting the head drop just a little bit so it follows the movement of the spine.

Inhale, find a neutral spine position or a straight back. And as you exhale, send the chest slightly forward towards the Elvis and the head forward towards the ocean or for constants. The back of Candace, the back of the room. Come back to center. And one more time through. Exhale, curving through the lower spine first. Anyhow, coming back to a neutral spine position on furling or unwinding. And as you exhale, extending through the upper spine, look for intensity, but try not to arch the lower back. Inhale, find a neutral spine. And then this time, exhale, curl all the way. So round your spine as much as you possibly can. And with that, like you're being pulled by a rope around your waist, sit all the way back towards your feet.

And then when you're ready, I'm start to bring yourself back up. When you do the single leg kicks. So make your way down onto your mat. I'm on your abdominals and there's a capital of choices as far as the arm position here. Um, you can send your elbows a little bit forward, which is going to be easier on the lower back. They can also stay just underneath you, which is a harder position and requires more back extension. If neither of those work for you, you can just put your head down on your hands.

So pick your arm position. Your hands can be interlaced, one on top of the other or, or just side by side. Um, just to set up, once you get your elbows where you're going to put them, pull your Donald's up away from the floor so you'll feel your pelvis perhaps get a little heavier from that place. Keep that shape in your lower back, but try to send your chest through your arms forward, letting your gaze go forward. And without changing any of that, hover the legs just a little. We're going to go slow it for us. So I just want you to bend one knee and stretch that same way. And Ben, the other knee. And stretch that same leg. Now if you are focusing on the contraction of the back of the leg, the contraction of the hamstring, your spine should stay pretty still as the legs change. And then we're going to speed it up so it's okay. Yeah, for two kicks on each side. And exhale. Exhale.

Inhale, keeping the legs trying to hover off the mat. And let's do two more. Inhale and exhale, and exhale. Stretch both legs out, gently lower both legs towards the ground and then stretch yourself all the way down onto your mat. Interlock your fingers behind your back. I'm gonna do the double leg kick. So very much like what we just did. If possible, your hands are as high as you can up towards your bra.

That being said, do what works for your body. So it's the same feeling. First of pulling the abdominals in and feeling the pelvis go a little heavy from there. Hover the legs. It's not about getting them high, it's just about engaging the back of them. Then kick towards your hips for three kicks. And then inhale, stretch the arms, stretch the legs. Exhale. As you turn your head the opposite direction, your elbows bend, your hands reach high up and you kick similar to the single leg kick.

If you focus on the contraction both on in the lengthening position and the bem position of the hamstrings, your spine will stay stable. Continue moving. I'm talking too slow. Here we go. Kick one, two, three and stretch. And let's do one more to either side. One, two, three. Any long gate reach. And last time if possible, try to get the arms to reach up away from the hips as you go into that long position. And with that, go ahead and lower yourself down. Let your back settle for as long as you need to. Then put your hands just next to your chest. Help yourself on and sit back towards your hips again.

[inaudible] okay. And then, um, come up. We're going to do just a little bit more back extension, but we're going to do it from a seated position. So sit down. You can sit cross legged, you can sit with your legs out front, you can sit with your knees bent. Um, basically just find a position that's comfortable for you, for your body. So again, looking for the upper back extensors. Bring your elbows just outside of your shoulders.

Make sure that your head's just on top of your tailbone or you're sitting up straight from there. Externally, rotate the shoulders. So you're going to bring your fingers back and your elbows forward. As you exhale, stretch your arms up. Try to feel that the arms are very, very light and space and the heaviness or the work is happening in the upper back. Wider arms is going to be easier and forward arms for you. Lisa might be more appropriate. From there. As you inhale, you're just going to press the arms back and lift the eyes and the chest a little. Then feel the upper back working even more so as you pull your shoulders back down, bending your arms, and then return your spine to neutral as your palms drop down towards the Mat.

Uh, Andy with some breath. Inhale, rotate. Exhale as your arms work towards straight your shoulders, reach down, feel that you're just growing longer in the direction of your arms. There's no arching yet, it's just the movement of the arms. And then as you inhale, just send the on slightly further back, letting the eyes lift up so there's where your upper back is going to get a little bit of extension or work revenge or Elvis and as they've been, feel them trying to stretch away from one another and return the palms down and the spine up straight. One more to go rotate or is your neck okay? Make sure to come forward if you need to stretch up again, just a sense of getting taller or longer.

Allow the arms to move just a little bit back ribbon the elbows. Feel heaviness in the shoulder blades like sand bags reaching into the ground and then release the arm stat. I lower them down and put your hands in front of your knees and just shift back a little bit. Giving yourself a stretch through your upper back. Relaxing your head down, no shift yourself back up. Cross the opposite leg in front. Do One more point. Bring your palms to face one another.

So this time as you inhale, turn again, rotating in the shoulders, turning the palms outwards. Keep the elbows slightly in front of your body, excelling as you again, lightly allow the arms to float out in front of you. Having this in the back, I feel like there's barely any difference between their air around your arms in your arms, and then inhale as you bring your arms back behind you. Lifting your chest up just a little without any movement in the pelvis. Exhale, one arm will cross over the other arm. Hold onto your shoulders and drop your chin towards your chest. Remember which arms on top we're going to go the other way.

Next time this slide, the arms down, elbows a just slightly in front of the ribs, eyes or forward. Inhale, rotate the shoulders. Look for opera. Back muscles are extensors. Stretch the arms out. Feel again, heaviness in the back, a sense of getting taller and the entire spine. And then inhaling as you just, it's not a big shove, it's just a gentle pressure backwards with the arms as the chest and the eyes look up or move up. And then the opposite arm crosses the front and the head drops down into the chest and then allow your arms to come down. Um, just rest them on your knees for just a second. Push into your knees or, or onto your legs, wherever you're comfortable. Just push in and get a little bit of extension through your spine.

And then round in the opposite direction. And one more time pushing into the arms as you press into the palms of the hands. Feel the pressure coming from right in the middle of the back as a chest in the eyes res. And then rounding back away from that. And one more time just looking for a stretch in the back and then finding your way back to a straight back. So while your arms to reach down next to you and inhale, we're gonna stretch the arms up towards the ceiling.

Feel the spine growing in that direction. Time to just let everything go here. Exhale, circle your arms down and perhaps slightly behind you looking for a little bit of a stretch. Inhale, sweep the arms out. Grow long and tall through the spine. Exhale, bring the arms down. This time just to the sides of your body as your arms reached down and touch the mat. Take your head over to one side. Try to just move the head without moving the whole spine.

Bring it up and bring it over to the other side and bring it down towards the chest. [inaudible] as you lift it up, you're free to go. You.

Comments

really lovely, balanced class. nice stretches scattered throughout, but still lots of good work!
Thank you Laura!
1 person likes this.
A very good and classic mat work out.
Alex thank you!
Heather
1 person likes this.
Perfect back to basics challenge.
Heather thank you for choosing an oldie!!

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin