Class #2667

Hand to Core Connection

60 min - Class
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Description

Breathe big and shed tension during this full body Mat workout with Rachel Taylor Segel. She continues the theme of using the hands to connect more to your belly so you can understand how it works when you are on the Mat. She uses cues to remind you to work less hard, to breathe with ease, and to move with efficiency. She also invites you to play a bit and to feel how your hands make a difference to your internal connection!
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights, Pilates Pole

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Welcome. I am Rachel Taylor Siegel from the Palati Center in Boulder, Colorado. And this class, this math class is going to be a continuation of some themes that we've been working on, both, uh, from a tutorial about hands and their usage all the way up through to the shoulder, turning on therefore the belly and uh, and how that works in Mat as well as it did in, uh, a class we've already done in as reformer. So we're going to start out gently with knees bent, feet flat, and we're gonna put, have them put, I'm going to have you girls put your hands on your rib cage anywhere you like, but with authority, with pressure, and breathe in against your resistant hands. So you're pushing. And then when you exhale, open your mouth gently and let your hands kind of help push your air out of you, right? And then keep them a little resistant as you inhale and expand your rib cage. So one reason we're doing this is to make for better breathing generally, but generally.

But the other reason is so that you can feel your hands start to be part of the rest of your body. So even from the tips of your fingers through the heel, your hands, every cell of your hand is involved in this breathing mechanism here. And you can change your hands to a different position. You can put them backwards, you could put them on top of your sternum, you know, they could go a lot of different places. And in doing so you would be squeezing different parts of your ribs and making different intercostal muscles work harder, expanding tight places, et cetera. But meanwhile, also the hands are starting to feel valuable, lively part of the rest of the arm and there as they breathe and start to shed tension, not only in the rib cage, but across the chest and in the shoulder. Then the hands become more accessible to the shoulder and the shoulder to the rest of the body. So the belly turns on better.

And we'll see that throughout the class. Okay, so then bring your arms down by your sides, ladies, then, and feel a breath without your hands. See how fast the air comes in, has swiftly expand your ribs and then pull your Tambien. Exhaling. Joe Said you fill an empty your ribs as if it were a bucket of water. So as you inhale, the diaphragm goes down, you fill from the bottom to the top, and then as you exhale, you spill the water out from the top. So even though we pull our belly in, the air leaves from the top first. So the sternum softens, right? And inhale, one more time, feel it come up and expand behind you armpits, rib cage, collarbones, and then pull your belly in.

And maybe about 20 30% of your start to fold your right knee up towards your body, right? So you've, you've tracked, you've engaged your gut to do that. And then as you inhale, the next time you lengthen, as the breath comes up and you put your foot down, Start Your exhale about 20 30% and use that contraction of your belly to lift your knee, right? So your training, your tummy, inhale the foot down. We'll do it one more time. Start Your exhale first. Feel it, use it. And then pick the knee up, right? And then inhale, feel the length, come up wide against imaginary hands and then pull the belly in to exhale and bring the left knee. Now leave your net left knee up there and inhale anyway and expand your cage against a second pair of hands and then pull the tummy into gently expel by 20 30% pick your right knee up to meet your left knee in the air. Nicely done and that, and bring them closer to you.

Like curla meant you make your belly work right. And then as you inhale the next time, put your right foot down, feel the length and tone and texture, and then start your exhale. Pick it back up. [inaudible] and then the same thing on the left. So we're playing with your belly and your breath simultaneously. Letting your back relax and trust the fact that your belly can do this and feeling that your tummy actually changes.

Texture and youth. Nicely done. Last time. Left hot. Exhale out. The mouth pulls. Beautiful. And then squeeze your legs together. Bring them in a little closer. So you're telling me really works nicely. Done Jen, and squeeze your legs together and then lower your thighs away from you on the inhale. Testing out that texture of your gut. And when you can't go any further, start your exhale and bring them back in. So you should not feel your back changing or your shoulders aren't pits tensing, but your palms are still pushing down, right?

So you feel the length of your body on your inhale. You keep that length and you deep in the belly on the exhale, really well done. So if we were doing this many times, each time your feet might get closer to the mat and by the time you were on the mat, your belly would have been warmed up and texturized efficiently that it would be no problem. Of course. And rest your feet down. Next time you come down so that you feel now that your belly has that technique and s and s, uh, that skill and that strength. So let's do Swayze. So as you sway your knees to the right, inhaling, you can pick your left foot up or not a little bit. Start Your exhale, about 20% feel your belly. Start to help, start to contract as the air leaves you and then make use of that contraction to bring rural you center and then your knees, right? And Go the other way.

So you can choose how far to go as long as you can come home with control. [inaudible] and do you have a second pair of hands on your rib cage, which reminds your hands that are on the mat to actually be effective and do something beautiful. And you can feel the diagonal stretch even to your knee and definitely up the front of the ribs. Pull the belly gently in right. And one more time, I think. Let's go to the right. Let's stay over there. And as you start your exhale, maybe 30 or 40%, pick both knees up to your right shoulder, inhaling and then bring yourself to the center. And then exhale, bring your feet down to the mat and using your belly. So we're just building, we're building on the skills and every one of these, it's like the alphabet of PyLadies, right? So that every one of these things we do is in all the different exercises that come up. Let's go left. So you any out to the left, you feel you're from bottom to top. You Start Your exhale, 20 to 30% contracts your belly. It picks your knees up, pick them up, bring me from closer Laurel. Like get 'em in there.

Make your belly right [inaudible] and then exhale and put your toes down and your whole foot down. Nice girls. Okay? Does that make sense to you? Men T let's change and let's take your right leg and stretch it way down Outta your ribs and armpit. Inhaling, start your exhale and then pick your leg up in the air. [inaudible] and then inhale, lay it back down. Far Way from not only your belly, but your ribs in your armpit, in your lungs. And then drag your heel as you need. Bend into, so you feel a little hamstring, little inner thigh, a little belly.

So as left side, inhale lengthens your inner thigh, your hamstring, your quad are way from tummy into exhale, pushes your air out and lifts the legs so lightly, right? And then the breath from the bottom to the top as you lay your leg down even longer than you started. And then start your XL first and fill your belly contract and make use of it to bring your leg up. Nicely done. Let's do one more set a little faster. So you inhale slide and then in first to exhale and then inhale, lay it down long and then start your exhale. Right? Because I want you to be able, I mean, how often do advance people do this kind of work?

So enjoy the fact that you get this chance to take the time. Not that we're going slow, but that you feel your belly in advance of the gesture, right? And you can make use of it. Nicely done. That's great. So now let's use our arms. So turn your palms to face. You remembering that primarily what the mat class is going to be about is hands to shoulders.

And so your palms are facing your thighs and as you inhale, you lift them up above your head and let them go where they will. So even if your back arches a little bit, because you've texturized your timing with all the things we've done, it's strong. And circle out to the side, palms up and exhale down to your hips. And then palms face your thighs. And then do that again a couple of times more. Inhale, stretch your torso out of your waist and exhale around. So I'm not interested in stabilization. I'm interested in mobilizing you. So feel the arms. Pick your ribs up, your waist stretches out of your pelvis. We'll do it one more time.

This direction, right? And feel your palm even more than your fingertips perhaps. And now let's reverse it. So as your arms go out to the side, your blades go down, fill your poems, come up into the air above you. Nicely done. Did you notice how when you felt your prompts, your belly turns on more? That was beautiful. Laurel, go out to the side. Inhale.

Feel the length between your pelvis in your ribs. Exhaling, full and hot all the way down. Good. And this time as your arms come up, Elvis by ears, simply exhale and pick your head and shoulders up just a little bit. Reach your fingertips, pasture, knees as they continue their circle. Roll your spine back down. Bring your arms to your hips and start your circle again out to the side. Inhaling, feel the length, tummy index, hail, curl and ran. So simple, you know, so easy.

Lay your spine back down. Circle. We'll do it twice more. Don't make a big deal of it. Enjoy feeling your belly change and move your breath right. And again, last time and this time as you might suspect, will stay up and do the hundred, but stay there with your feet down and palms down and start your pumping and think that your palms are, I don't know, maybe against little magic circles or something or soft balls. So you're not working your peck so much as the arms are moving 10 inches up and down. Maybe bigger balls. Yeah.

And so that their balls give you a feeling of bounce, of rebound. And so you can let go a little bit where you might always move in your pecs and do you camp, but not bend your arms because arms are straight and palms are pushing. Even when you go up, the palms are pushing downish. If you can picture that and your knees. Let's take one leg or even two legs up into the hundreds.

If you like [inaudible] send them out there cause you already did knee folds. So you know your bellies, texture and length. Take your legs out, Laurel. You can do it right, but feel those arms pushing blood through you rather than just pumping because the rule says so right. And feel your palm even though your fingers are together. And that helps give you your palm. Come last time, all the way up past and through your pecs, your triceps to the posterior shoulders.

Bend your knees into your chest, put your hands on your upper shin and roll your spine back down onto the mat and stay there for a moment and breathe. So as you inhale and exhale, press your shins up against your hands, but resist it and pull your palms down a little bit. And what you should experience is that your belly deepens like a little pond and your low back lengthens and maybe even widens and then rest a moment. But then do it again. So press your Shin Up, pull your hands down, let your back lengthen and widen and deepen your belly. So this deep belly is what you will like to have and make use of. It's like your next step, next level, different font of your alphabet to do all the exercises with.

OK. So this feeling of palms making use against your Shin, helping your belly turn on. We're going to be using this quite a bit. Okay, so take your left hand and put it with your right. I'll put it with your right and then stretch your other leg out. Tummy in, curls your head up and you roll up into sitting. And we're going to do the roll up. So you put your ankles underneath here, black strap legs together, scooch back to your leg till your strap is really taught [inaudible] and then laid down as you will and 10 take your bar by your side and take that bar shoulder with straight arms and take your hands around it. Maybe even put your thumbs with your fingers since it's a very light bar, you don't need to have your thumb on the opposite side and and move your bar above your head and back over your chest and just play around a little bit. Like you can take your bar over your head on the inhale and fill the length between your hips and ribs similar to before and exhale, bring it up. Good.

And if your low back once to follow that bar with a little bit of arch I'm fine with that because I want you to be able to feel that your tummy, no matter where your spine goes, supports it. Your Tummy supports your spine. So next time you come back over, stay wherever it is you like and feel the length of you from soles and strap all the way up through belly, armpit to palms. Inhale, lift your elbows and ears at the same time like you did earlier. Exhale, curl and roll out over your legs with your torso. Roll the pelvis back and the lumbar back and the bottom rib. Exhaling your breath. You're going to fill the breath from the bottom to the top of the bucket. Eat x bell out and over. Now stay there for a whole breath.

Pull your belly in deeper shed tension, but palm that bar deep into your shoulder joint. You should feel a little more tummy when you do that. I'm hoping and let your pelvis come rolling back and keep pulling the bar, not by locking your elbows, but through your elbows into your shoulders, into your belly. Good. See if you can keep it that way. Again, as you inhale and keep your heels down as you act nicely done. Exhale and come rolling back pelvis, Vertebra by Vertebra. Keep those heels away out there.

Don't tug on the strap any further and one more time, a little faster in x and pull the bar in through your shoulders if you would, Laurel into your tummy. Nicely done. Exhaling your breath as you lay every vertebra down. Place the bar by your right side. Take a breath, pull your tummy in to exhale and bend your right knee all the way to your shoulder and put both hands on it and just squish it into your body. Go ahead and squish it in as close to it as it will go and just feel that feeling for a minute. Take dice, deep breath, shed tension and squish your thigh. Good. And then change your idea a little bit and take your palms and kind of pull your shin or your tight up towards your ears.

So you're still on top and you're still like, so you could, you don't have to interlace your fingers, but you can if you want, but you're pulling this towards your ear. So I want you to notice there's a difference experience when you do it that way, right? You feel like your back lengthens, you feel your sits bunk come up with your hamstring, you feel more belly. Place your hands behind your thigh. Gently push your thigh into your hands and feel your hands oppose that. Not just fingers but palms. Two as you gently straighten your leg up to the ceiling, foot pointed, and then bend from your shoulder. So straighten your leg, but bend your shoulders and elbows and bring that straight leg towards you three times. Release it away and see if you can bend your shoulder before your elbow.

What would that mean to you? Maybe we'll do four times. So you're trying to reach this part of your arm to the Mat. You won't, but you're asking and you're pushing yourself. And now try with your hands to pick your leg up off the mat as you keep your shoulders down on the mat or towards. So how does one use your hands to lift your leg up, but keep your back of your arms down towards the Mat, right? That should deepen your belly. It's like you have a little pond.

I could put a gold fish in and you get a long, low back and a hamstring stretch and that Tami and that hip hamstring hip tone is going to make the circles. So now you bring your arms to your side, palms down, and you feel like you're on a, your arms are on that moving walkway at the airport coming up past your shoulder to your ear. As you circle in hell crossover down around an XL center. Inhale and exhale. Go bigger, Jen. In an exhale, two more annex bell when breathe. What if you had your extra pair of hands and now reverse it five times. What if you had an extra very hands on your ribs? Come on Laurel. Breathe huge and feel your hands anyhow. Nice.

Good. One more. Now stay up here. Stay up here and breathe. Two breaths. See if you can split your legs up par, but shed tension. Get rid of whatever you don't want and deepen your gut to knee. Bend your knee to your shoulder. Put your palms on your Shin, slide your shin to your shoulder and see if your leg doesn't come in closer.

It does, doesn't it? And you have more stretch, more depth. Beautifully done. Ladies. Slide your foot underneath your stretch underneath your strap. Notice that you have started to transform. Pull your left tummy in and bring, fold your knee up to your body. Put Your hands on your Shin and just squeeze your leg to your body for a moment and breathe deeply. Shed tension. Snuggle into the Mat, right?

And then change your attack to have your palms kind of slip your Shin up towards your ear, right? And let it pull your left low back long. And your sits bones up your hamstring and your belly deep and right and enjoy it. She feels really yummy and keep that feeling in your belly as you transfer your hands behind your thigh and push your side gently into your hands as you straighten your legs. So you still have that same quality of deep, low left belly, and then starting back here at the back of your shoulder rather than your elbow bend your arms to pull your legs towards you and release the way, right? So you're strengthening the upper back. You're going to need that for the belly busters in a minute and the back of your arms. Beautiful.

And then add the fact that you're going to take your palms up. Bish so what if you put your hands higher, both of you and lifted your leg up and over your hairline, right? But not from the front but from the back. Nicely done. And you should get that wonderful deep low belly. Okay. And a lengthy low back and the, and the stretch and tone of your hamstring and your left tip. So you want to keep that as you bring your arms down on the moving walkway, which slides them constantly, ever.

So somehow and you go right. Inhale, toss around an exhale, center and Axion. Now you have an extra pair of hands on your ribs and you're expanding in ex belling. Nicely done. Good. And then we'll reverse it. Work less hard. Circle your hip like a catcher's Mitt is holding your leg right? And you're picking your leg up with some magical second pair of hands last time.

And stay up here. I don't know if our accounts were good or not. But at any rate, stay up here for like three breaths and breathe. Because when you breathe, you're constantly moving. And so split your legs further apart. Come on, you can do it, but as you do it, shed tenge. Let your back rest.

Pick your leg up out of your hip and over your body. Nicely done. And then knee, bend it towards your ear. Put Your hands on your Shin and pull it in towards your ear. Hopefully it comes closer. Hopefully it feels easier. And the right leg is lengthier and stretchier and blah, blah, blah.

Use that deep left low belly to crow your head and shoulders up and roll up and come rolling up. First we're rolling like a ball. So let go of your black strap and put your hands behind you and bring your sitz bones to your heel bones. You knew I was gonna make it hard, right? Bring touch. So when you touch, you're going to be on your sacrum probably. Okay. So get those heels and sitz bones touching. Can you do it as close as humanly possible today? Okay.

So then Tommy and quickly take one hand and wrap it around your and the other. And don't wait. Go. Inhale, roll back. Exhale forward. And inhale an x a girl. Less tension in your neck. More breath, more hands. So feel your shins. Push against your hands and vice versa.

And breathe sooner. Nice and longer. Nicely done, Jen. Last one day. And notice you rocked forward pretty far. So scooch back just a little bit. Put your feet out two and put your hands behind you for a minute and fingers back and like push the mat away. Open your chest and take like three breaths and breathe really deep. Yeah.

And don't hyper extend and over-exaggerate. Just take your breath in there. You've got your second pair of hands, you're pushing against them. Come on now. I am. Exhale. Now change your arms to be strong, to pick your hips up behind them on the mat and stretch your legs. Stretch your legs out long. Fill your belly deep.

And because of it, not neck but belly. And then roll back for single leg stretch. And when you get to single leg stretch, push your shin against your palms. Bring that knee to your ear. Push your palms against your shipper. Don't work so hard, right?

Come on and change in heel left then right. Exhale, left den, right. Inhale. Exhale. Little faster in Halen. Don't work so hard. Please breathe and use your hands. What are your hands doing for you?

What are they doing against your Shin? Can they bring your Shin up to your ear? Yes. Does that make you use your belly better? Both knees in exhaling. Stay here in. Press your shins up gently, not your feet, your shins. Yes. And take your circle arms. So bring your elbows to your ears. Inhaling, circle around. Exhaling and press your shins into your palms and vice versa.

And do it again and around an exhale. Gorgeous. You too. Every time you circle, you should feel your ribcage expand further the back of your arm, up to your shoulder and the waist between hips and ribs. That is gorgeous. One more time. Hod now stay here and roll your spine down onto the mat. Press your shins gently into your hands and vice versa.

You should feel less change, right, because you have been using your belly better throughout. So keep that feeling as you use your tummy to lift your head and shoulders up. Stretch both legs to the ceiling and take both hands on your right shin. Now pick your right leg up off the mat with your hands, not your packs, your not your fingers. Yes, your Paul. Let's do with your palms, right. Split your legs to the other.

Matt other leg comes down. Go once and twice. Switch one sen twice. Sen X, hailing two legs, then in nicely done. Now pick it up over your head, elbows wide, right so that you feel that same sense of feeling, not from the pacs, but from the back of the shoulder, from your palms to the back of the shoulder. Nicely done. Last set. Exhale both legs that pants behind your head and truly hold your head in your hands so that you feel it in your shoulders, which makes you feel it in your abs. Inhale, double leg. Lower. Exhale hum. Inhale, stretch your tummy. Excellent. Nicely done.

Ah, good length in this left side. Two beautiful. One more time. Very nice. Now Bend your knees into you. Twist your left elbow to your right knee and extend your left. Now stay here for two breasts. Let go your left quad. Fill your do and bring that. Bring that knee to your elbow. Come on, bring it in.

So your belly works. Nicely done. Change sides. One, two and change again. Two, two and change again. Good. And what are you changing with? But your niece way belly muscles. Okay. So feel those diagonals. Good. And one more time. Your stay here. Breathe two breaths. Open your elbows wide, twist more. Let go your right quad and get that left knee in, in, in, in, in, and lay your legs down.

Lay your arms down above your head and breathe and swivel your wrists and swivel your ankles and enjoy that you're done with the belly busters. And then tell me in Lis your arms up and come curling up into sitting for your spine stretch. And if you want, let's use, let's take the thought of um, our hands, our poms primarily because usually we think of fingers, arms are up. Uh Huh. And have your elbows by your ears knuckles up, right? So see if you can keep your elbows by your ears, almost behind them, but not by thrusting your shoulder, your chest forth. Take a big breath and then exhale. Keep those arms behind you a little bit as you round your spine, exhaling forward. That is gorgeous.

Lift your throat up a little bit and take this apart nicely done tummy and rolls you up. Keep your arms narrow shoulder with, keep your palm, your weights behind you, a little as you crow your spine, not your neck or not your head. But yes, yes, yes, yes. That's it. Laurel. Good fight, good. And come up. Inhaling. Look twice as fast. Like once you get going, it's the same thing. No matter whether you're rising or lowering, it's your tummy. So your tummy changes. Texture just like it did in this, you know, beginning Alphabetic, uh, exercises.

Yes. So you breathing out and inhale up and exhale over easy. Right? Because it's this, not this day down there. If you would stay down, if you would, Jen, let go. What you don't need. Pom handles higher, not risk them higher palm. Higher. Nice.

Do you feel more Tammy when you did that? Good. Could you find stretch further breathing. Nicely done. Put your hands on the nat for a moment. Push your, keep hold of your um, I'm sorry. Keep hold of your handles but kind of roll them just a little bit for her but not because your shoulders disengage off your body but because your belly pulls in more and spines you over. That is gorgeous. You too Tommy and rolls your handles right up towards you.

Circle them out to the side if you get up to the top and then bring them down to the side from the side. That's the tricky part about being the first class. The only class that you take here with this at this thought and put them down by your sides. Very nice. Now we're going to do open leg rocker in case a tummy and bar and we going to take the sweat off of us. And Tammy and and brings the souls of your feet together.

Now as your palms surround your ankles, keep your arms back and your shoulders. Not that that tense is your spine, but that it allows it to be free and press your right Shin into your palm with a little resistance of your hand. Just I'm going, I use the word resistance, but I really mean control and bend and do the left side, right? So when you press your Shin into your palm, you're actually hip extending, I hope. Good. So as you press your Shin into your palm and resist it a little bit, what happens is your thigh goes away from your Bali, right? And you feel more tummy because of it. That's what I'm hoping. And then try both legs next time. [inaudible] and it should feel not Paki and shoulder, neck e or whatever, but it should feel deep belly rounded, spine and bend. And same thing like as your shins, push your hands in your hands, kind of resist it. It should feel more belly and hey, Aha.

And then you're going to roll back to your blades. Inhaling and exhale. Full. But don't work so hard. Inhale, roll back, expel. Nicely done. Inhale like your breath is going to fill your spine like you're blowing up a mattress. Nice to go out on the ocean and hell x less efforts even yet.

Nicely done. One more. Only bring your legs together. Place your hands by your sides and roll your spine back down onto the mat by Vertebra, by Vertebra, and feel as if your palm is not only pressed down into the mat, but they're almost pressing behind you all the way to your shoulder. We're going to do corkscrew with your hips down so your feet stay together. Whether you've chosen [inaudible] parallel, you and heel to the right.

Lengthen your oblique muscles so that your sway and exhale come home and reverse it so you feel that oblique. Change that diagonal Annex Bell, right? You have a second pair of magical hands on your rib cage that you're pushing against with your inhale and they're helping you to exhale. That is gorgeous. Yes. And you're back and armpit fingers are eas will there, there Paul pulling down onto there, coming behind your ears along the mat next to your side to lengthen your waist that is gorgeous and tummy and curls you up and sets you up. Nicely done.

Open the legs for the saw so we won't put the handmaids in your hands. But remember that feeling of when you had the hand weights in your hands and how it kept your wrist straight and it turned on the posterior shoulder to pick up the weight with your palm. So you're out here and you twist, right inhaling and you exhale. You take the back weight down and up and you reach your weights apart. It's true, but you twist your ribs. Yes. And then the tummy lifts you up and Hailey and twists you left and exhale.

Good Neff. Start with your hands. Lifting the weights to rise better and right and x bell. Stay here for an extra breath. Shed tension and deepen your guts at your hips down and ruby twist. Then start with your hands. Hands lift your arm pits.

Rib Cage. As you inhale, rise up. Nice Jen, twist and exhale. Stay there and shed tension. Wrap further, sit more, and then use what that created to rise up. Beautifully done. Rest. All right. So we're gonna do the Swan. So sweep your legs around behind you. Put your hands in under your armpits.

Elbows narrowing back and high and feel this whole upper arm bone back here in the upper chest, shoulder with your palms down as you inhale, eyes, nose, chin, chest forward. Feel this arm behind your body. And exhale, come down. See if you can squeeze your legs together gently, but you don't have to use your butt. Eyes, nose, chin, and chest. Lifted this bone and lift the blades off your back. [inaudible] keep them off your back as you exhale, come down gorgeous floral.

And again, lift your blades off your back. No Tush, just inner thighs, right? And Start Your exhale. Keep no Tush, keep blades off. Bad luck. And one more time. Eyes, nose, Chin and chest. We're going to stay up here and breathe out and in for three times to strengthen. [inaudible]. So this bone is pulling your blades back off.

You can almost feel the wind behind you, right? So you have that strength. And then on the next exhale you go down, Aha, eyes up, chest up, blades off. Right? Nicely done Tommy. And sit your hips back on your heels, take a nice deep breath and then come sitting up and flex your feet underneath you so your toes are facing forward and flare them Ma. So your big toes are trying to touch your heel. Bones are trying to touch.

Yeah. So I'm going to add something that we don't usually do, which is clear as cast and nets and partly it's because of the theme of the class. It's for our hands and partly it's to distract you from that wonderful stretch that the sole, your feet are feeling. So your palms are facing up like you have a little pond of water in your palms, elbows wide kind of balletic maybe it's really us castanets and you're going to take your little fingers to the inside of your palm and stretch them out behind you and then forth and out. And third and add. And second and out in thumb. And don't worry if you get lost, breathe deeply, shed tension and try as best as you can to make your hand, your fingers move independently of one another. Okay, so you're breathing [inaudible] and you're trying to touch the pad of your fingertip to the center of your palm. And then flick it as far away behind your wrist as you can.

[inaudible] and then right about now we're going to go fast. We did three sets that we're going to go fast, round arms breathing, palms up and rest. Whew. And then you can point your feet gently. Ah, flare your toes nevertheless back there so that the outer foot is down on the mat. Big Toes are trying to touch, heels are trying to touch, even if your ankle bones in the way, knees trying to touch so you feel very supportive from below. Take your arms behind you. So now you're opening your chest.

K, you're stretching the front of your shoulder, upper arm, and they're lowish. So you're bent, but not hugely bent and you can't see, but you're going to breathe. Then you go inhale little finger out and forth and out in third and add in second. Then thumb, reverse it. Breathe. Feel your imaginary second pair of arms here on your cage. Expanding. Yeah, like elastically good shedding tension, lengthening your elbows, opening your chest, feeling the back of your arm and all the way to your shoulder, right? Even if you lose track, but you have as best you can, one finger at a time. [inaudible] and then three times swiftly. That's the cast net part, I think.

And then relax. Good. So now you should feel very Tinguely warm in your hands, up your forearms, maybe even all the way up to your shoulders. So let's take those four arms and come forward for single leg kick and really press your fist and forearms down because it picks your belly up so you don't have to fake picking your belly up. If you push your fists and forearms down, it does it. Then you're going to lift your thighs just to hit just a hair up and the right knee and go one sent twice and left and twice. Then right then place them left. Good for two legs and exhale for two legs. Good.

And as you continue from the fist to the forearm, going down gives you your belly. And you might also try to take the upper forearm, upper arm is what I meant. And lift your blades off your back so that you have room to breathe. Nicely done. So your cage is big. Not that you're going to fake lifting your backup, but you're going to kind of look across the room.

See somebody else pushing their arm bone Bakish which picks their blade off. And you go, oh, that's what that looks like. Nicely done Laurel. That's beautiful. One more time, right and left. And then layer legs down on your right cheek and clasp your hands high up under your blades. Elbows wide and down. Okay. And take a deep breath. Exhaling, bend both knees kicked three times one, two, three.

Lengthen all limbs and look forward and pick your blades off your back so your tummy tones. And then exhale, come elbows wide and down as you kick, kick, kick an inhale up to three and change and x two, three and inhale up. Good. Lift your elbows less and lift your blades more and down to three. And the humorous bone picks the blades up off your back on the inhale. Yeah. Feel your rib cage is getting bigger. [inaudible] you arch bigger or that I don't know.

Or that it's harder work. You're just opening. Nicely done, Laura. One, two, three. Last one from the left and down. And exhale. Try not to budge. Who? Beautiful. And last one. Good. Fill your blades. Rise. Stretch your arms. Legs. Lift your because your belly will lift automatically and lower down. Good. Tommy Institu back on your heels. Take one deep breath and roll up. And we'll do netball.

So place your ankles under the strap hip with a part of favorite. So push your legs out so you get to abduct and feel those legs and hips. Okay. And let's leave the arms down by the side. Feel your thighs with your palms. Okay. So as you roll back your can watch your strap and where your heels are.

Roy, your pelvis back. Don't move your heels or strap. Don't move them. Smooth your spine. Nicely done. As you inhale, slide your hands along your legs forward and roll up and don't move your strap or your heels and exhale round over. Beautiful Roll from the Tummy. Lifting, expanding in your second pair of hands on your ribs. Tip back. Don't move your strap or your heels expelling your air. That is gorgeous. You too will gringo faster in men x and in X. Chin down a little bit.

Now don't get fancy. K, just breathe. Inhale up and round. When you sit up, it's not your back, but your Tommy tip back. Crow your tail hair. But don't move those heels and straps that is gorgeous and rest arms down by your side. Bend your knees and plant your feet hip width apart for shoulder bridge.

Now feel your palms thumbs, fingers down. You're on that moving walkway at the airport that's taking your arms ever so slowly, but continuously up out of your armpit and towards your ear so you feel your whole spine lengthening and you can breathe better as you curl your tail and roll up. Inhaling Vertebra by Vertebra as high as you can go and exhale. Start at your throat and come back down. Yes. And we'll do that two more times. So you really just enjoy moving your spine, curling through. [inaudible] feel your feet facing forward, your knees out over, but you're moving walkway. Chin down a little bit, Laurel, eyes down, right?

And third time we'll stay up. So curl and roll and reach forward out over your feet. Now we already did those leg lifts at the very beginning. Same thing. So inhale, stretch your right leg down the mat and lift it up and exhale down. You can point and flex if you want, but delay the moment of up so as you hit the mat, delay up and feel more tummy on the way up instead of thigh. Nice. And then knee bend, drag your heel, plant your foot and lift your hips higher.

But press your palms fingers together and down along the moving walkway. So your throat is long and collarbone. Easy. Left leg goes out and up and exhale down. Good and in. Heal up and resist up [inaudible] so that when you're inhaling high up into this beautiful rib cage, that is an hindered.

You fill your so as lift your leg, not your quad. You delay the moment. You feel like that, that nicely done, Jen. Yes, exactly. Laurel knee bend. Drag the heel. Plant the foot or from top to bottom. But keep your shoulders away here. Nicely done.

And let's lay you on your right side facing this way for some sidekicks. So we did leg sweeps and we're going to do leg sweeps again. Okay. Draw your humorous bones up into your both shoulders, both of your shoulders so you're not perched on your right elbow, but you feel the power of your abs. Lift your right leg, flex your foot maybe hip height, so a little bit lower and sweep it forward once and twice. Sex, hail and back. Lift in and X. Good and inhale. Now add some spinal gesture. So when you go to the front, next time, flex a little. And when you go to the back, stand a little shoulder girdle and hip girdle.

Stay perpendicular. So put your left hand down. If you would, Laurel and push or section, keep your left shoulder back even as you suction the palm. Nicely done. And feel it in your tummy instead supporting your back. Nicely done. Everybody last one to the back and bring your legs together. Turn it out at the hip and keep your arms pulled up. Yup. As you inhale up, flex and down.

See if you can stop flex and down so that you build strength in your hip. Inhale up, flex and down. One more time. Flex and down. We're set. And as you get up higher you can turn out more so that you can bring that left heel a little bit in front of your right. A cool, maybe not today, maybe not this rep, but soon. Good job. You too. Last one. Nice. Bring it down.

Bend that left knee and slide it up the mat in front of your thigh. Planted toes facing the same way and press your left knee way back, back. And you can even put your left hand on it. So put your left hand here. [inaudible] keep your foot in front. Put your toes this way and open your hip. [inaudible] okay, so you feel this nice length and you feel this nice work and you lift the bottom leg up and down a couple times to get your feeling of your inner thigh coming up, your so into your tummy.

Stay up and make some circles like maybe three or four in one direction. Breathing in and out, very round and the other way and lower it down. Nicely done. Lay your left leg down and turn over onto your tummy for the grasshopper now. Okay, put one hand on top of the other and your forehead gently pressing into both hands and see if you can ever see it. Gently lift your elbows.

Just a teensy [inaudible] fill the bet. Not that that's the rule, but just so that you feel not only those muscles working, but that they're picking your blades off so your rib cage is so big. See if as your heels stay together is she can lift your hamstrings a little, little bit higher than your toes. And then clap your legs in two, three, four, exhale, six, seven, eight, go slow. Or Laurel and feel the outer and the inner forehead down so it doesn't budge you upper arms up. So if you feel that power in the upper back, big breath, hot exhale and lower your legs. Nicely done.

Other side. So you're on your left side, you draw your left elbow into your shoulder joint, you push your arm down into the mat or maybe suction the mat up into your palm to feel, not your arm pit on the right side, but your shoulder [inaudible] and that should make you feel your low, right tummy as you lift your legs, sweep it forward. Inhale front and x to an n, [inaudible] and x. So as you [inaudible], you push down, even if your arms are a little short, you pull back and you try and lift your blade off your back, even inflection. That's Kinda tricky. Good. And when you bring your leg forward, don't let it drop x Bell, [inaudible] and, and, and then our cheer spine a little bit and flex. Good and ah, arch and flex and let that help your breath. [inaudible] or let it just help the movement of your spine. And Oregon's good.

Try not to roll for death, right? Last one, bring your legs together after that and turn out and then up stop. Flex and down. The higher up you go, the more you turn out, right? And then you bring that leg forward. But the arm backwards [inaudible] so that opposition of your leg and your arm should give you your tummy. Nice. Good. And then reverse it. And as you lift your leg, you try and rotate in your hip so that the heel comes forward in front of. Nicely done. Bend that knee.

Plant the foot in front of open the hips so you feel, and lift your bottom leg up and down a few times. Feel how your tummy lifts. Sit. Feel how your right arm is back. You don't have to put it there if you don't want to, but you feel back here. And then make some circles very small, very round v very round, and reverse it. Breathe in with your extra pair of hands on your ribs and lower it down. Nicely done.

Come sitting up and put your feet under your strap for the teaser. Good. Take your uh, knees to about a 45 degree angle. And then the hardest part about this exercise now with your feet under the strap is that you've got to keep your knees at the same angle no matter where your body goes. So if you had a mini barrel underneath your thighs or something, it would guide you to stay there. Let's take your hand weights and today just for an experiment, hold your weights up in your palms and roll back.

Exhale to your blade tips and inhale, put your shoulder joints forward through your arms onto your palms as you roll up, like let them lead you up. Nicely done Jen, and roll back down. So as you roll down your palm, you're holding up your offering to the gods, your willingly hand weights, and then put your shoulders like a Dixie Cup was coming forward from the back onto your humorous bones. Nicely done. Bend your right knee and take it out of the strap and lifted out straight to knee. So you're squeezing your legs together one time. Roll back to your blade tips and inhale, roll up. Lift your shoulders forward. He EP and change back and bend both knees and stretch your left leg, foot pointed and rural back. And inhale, rise and curl and bend and round and lift and bend your knee and put your foot down. Good. Put your hand weights down.

Sweep your legs around behind you for actually less Neal. So Neal, and bring your arms up above your head and let's just do the upper body for swimming. Okay. So here you are. You're going to take this whole upper arm and you're going to try and get it behind you without, you know, without unduly throwing your ribs back or ribs forward. So you're going to paddle your arms. [inaudible] big time from here. Straight elbowed. Yep. Bigger?

Yeah. Breathe in. Huge hot. Exhale. Nice. One more. Come back here and hit me. Come on. Nicely done. And rest. Good job. Okay. Then this seal. So bring your feet out in front of you.

Reach your hand on your palms down underneath your heels and really hold the weight of your whole leg in your palm as you clap. Two, three, roll back, clap, clap, clap and up. And don't Ricard breeze. Yes, fill your back with air, expel it all, every Adam. So the way you can do that is by holding the leg weight in your hands, palms in your palms, not your fingertips maybe. Right? And feel your humorous bones up in behind your pex, behind you. Almost reaching your blades to the mat before your spine.

Not quite, but almost, maybe. Yeah. And exhale. Nicely done. And rest. Good. And then let's finish with a pushup. Okay. So why don't you stand to the right of your math just so we feel the hands and on against the floor, up into your shoulders, giving you your belly. Okay, one more time. So you're in Polonia CV. Let's lift the heels like half an inch. Don't wait, come back.

If you would please lift your 10 toes up. Now lift your heels a half an inch, just half an inch, just a little, right so that you feel inner thigh. I'm hoping inner thigh and Absa right now. When you take your circle to the side, have them lift your blades off your back and behind you. Feel that humorous bone stay behind your ears as you swiftly round forward.

Exhaling swift, and walk it on out. Inhaling and keep your heels up in high in the air as you shoulder man. Before you elbow Ben, what would that be like? Not Played. Squeeze shoulder bend. One more time. Keep your straps. Why good.

And then curl your spine inside your arms, reaching your nose for your an hyper extended knees. As you keep your arms be above you to roll up, lower your heels and open your arms. [inaudible] nice you too. So when you stand up there, I'm hoping what you feel at the end of that is that your arms are holding themselves up and you feel like you're standing on a trampoline of your arch, the tripod of your foot, so your tummy is ever so slightly turned on. Not because you're pulling it in, but because it's already toned. So you have this feeling of standing effortlessly.

You can breathe big with that. You know, overusing your upper traps to lift your cage. You're not forward in your quads and your arms. Don't pull on your neck. SORTA. True. Yes, we were successful. Thank you.

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Comments

2 people like this.
well done
beautiful class
perfect cues
thank you PA for bringing me the Taylor´s sister.
2 people like this.
Rachel this was a great class. Love the reminders to shed tension and find the connection somewhere else. My goal this past year. I could see the visual connections your we making when your cues changed the bodies. Lots to take away. Thank you for your thoughtful and curiosity for movement.
Patti
1 person likes this.
Another enlightening bunch of information from you. Rachel. Thank you. The "Bucket" is a great image. I use a related image of asking my students to "prime the pump", that is, get the exhale going and then do the gesture.
1 person likes this.
So much fun and enlightening. Thanks Rachel!
1 person likes this.
Loved this Rachel! Thank you.
Enjoyed this class! Thank you!
Super class, great to take time and break down the exercises. Loved in particular the use of abdomen to lengthen and create space in leg stretch and circles.
1 person likes this.
Lots of gems in here....thought there would be a bit more use of weights. Regardless....loooved the draw of shins to ears, opposing pressure to fire up the abs, RLB to ext (yum), "don't work so hard" w OLR, castanets, grasshopper, and the continued reminder on arms!!! thank you
Thank you Rachel, I remember my Body, the work, it was a great feeling!
Florence P
What an amazing class, so clear calm and intense. Love the cue to create Space between scapula and ribcage. You are a Master dear Rachel!!! Thank you for your sharing🙏🏻
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