Class #2706

Technique-Focused Mat

45 min - Class
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Focus on quality of movement in this Mat workout with Malcolm Muirhead. He works on technique within your level so you can build on that and progress with integrity. Many of the exercises will improve endurance and balance which will help as you add more challenging movements to your practice.
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Hello and welcome to polite is anytime and this plot is class. My name is Malcolm, your head, and the class today is going to be based upon previous classes that both Michael and myself have presented. So please refer back to those classes if there's anything I mentioned that you think I'm not familiar, go back to those classes today we've decided to focus on primarily the idea that you work with your levels, you work with your technique within those levels. So even if you feel that you'd like to try a level that's great, but then you know when it's not working and you pull it back. So the key thing is technique over levels, but we will be offering some new levels and we'll be building upon that. No, for the first section, just please the feet underneath the hips.

Now this is the hip socket, so it's inside the pelvis. You're both good there and relax. Now arms down. I'm going to use something that we use from a lady called Judy the Asin, and it's the feeling of pushing down through the feet. So if you push down your body weight through your feet, this might help you sense the lanes coming from the crown of the head because the force has got to go somewhere. So let it travel up through your body that think of that pressure into the ground, lengthening you up. Now with that happening, what we're looking for is that you don't let those knees locate.

The weight is not when you shift into your lower back. You don't feel that tension near, she keep that length in the lower back as well. The shoulders are melting down the back and what we call the soft vees. There's not a tension. It's not a force. It's a guidance of the shoulder blades down your back.

And what we're going to do today is that when you start with some breathing, now the plot is Beth from economically be very stressful. 18 wants to go somewhere else. So we're going to try putting your hands here, either side, knuckles onto the base of the rib cage. Great. At this idea of breath is so individual. So never let a breath force you into holding your breath. So why don't you guys think about taking your breath into just your left side.

I see to this side of your body and breathing n and I feel that a is drove. So you're trying to teach those muscles to allow the site to expand. Just that. Say you'd be surprised what muscles can do when they're asked. One more breath. Just this side and release. Now try the other side. So taking your breath into your right side all the time. Just thinking about Nice, even in a ninth and the breath not moving into the tummy.

So it's moving into the Lewis red. Now what do I want you think about here is p will slice together, note reading in, and what you should have found hopefully is that you've got a nice filler breath and you realize you could do, it's almost like we've checked the muscles into letting the wrath expand. So remember, whenever we do our these breath deepen white into the rib cage, not into the abdominal wall, we're going to control the spine alignment that way. We want to control the powerhouse that way. Okay, we're just going to do a little bit of censoring that. They're with us for the center, the power house.

We can work with either the pelvic floor or the deep about muscles. The transverse abdominis. Today I'm going to think about the pelvic floor so you can relax your arms and I want you to visualize your two sit bones, your pubic bone and your tailbone so that you've got your four points of reference and rather than lifting anything, what we're going ask you to think about is those points coming together. So it's a strange sensation. Try and make a sensation that those four points are leading in towards each other.

We've got quite a few layers of muscles there and sometimes there's a habit of just grabbing the top layers when you think of lifting. So we want to think about that contraction and we should get the connection to do all it will take time to know if that's working, but if it does work correctly, it brings along the deep belt muscle for the right. Last thing obviously is our neutral spine. We do work with neutral spine with our class today. So you're just going to move the pelvis forward and back. But as you do this, don't forget how we set up pushing down through the ground, keeping the spine leg along and rolling the pelvis forward and back.

There's a feeling of a gentle rocking chair. Yeah, keep it going. There's almost like a little mobility prep. Let your back tell you if it's feeling tight today and then find the middle point where the effort feels equal, front and back muscles holding that in place. We'll use going to challenge all of that now with a little bit of a balance, very simple balance. Breathing out, heels come off the floor. How high can you go? Keeping the weight behind the big tour. There's no about going highs, but quality holding it there for me and now two years finger onto the ribs.

So it can be a very slow movement in simply you can go up and down, which is a very familiar miss that. But if you stay out for me, put the thumb to the rib cage, little finger to the pelvis, and now you're going to do some walking action. One leg bands that the heel touches all the way up and then change. So it's not what, what? What will, it's bend an up, bending up. The goal here is that as you working, what we're trying to do is not have one side of the pelvis shortening the distance to the ribcage. So it's keeping everything nice and balanced across the mid back all the time.

We're adding too many things. Breath to soft v the center as high as you can take it before you drop the other heel down, all the way up and change. Now if you're warbling, they'll go so high the next time finding that balance. [inaudible] I won't ask you to close your eyes. Don't wait. Finding your range. Okay, relax that back down. And we're just going to do a little bit of opening up the waist. No, that we've got it connected. So just raise your right arm. Left arm, I should say. Will. You've done that one. So I'll do this one. We'll go this way. Left, right? Never a good thing. Drop the shoulder day.

And this same thing of the rib case lifting up. So this rib cage is lifting up, up, up, up, not [inaudible], not the shoulder, the ribcage rather than bending. Think of reaching higher, higher and higher. And what you should be feeling as a nice sense that this area is opening out. You're getting anything in there. So yes ma'am. Yes, thank you. Opening that up there, Phil. Not Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach.

So it's rather than bending, you're reaching out that distance, opening at the waist and bring the arm back. Try the other side. So again, the shoulders dropped. It's connected. The arms almost incidental. Yes, the rib cage, pushing up, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. While you're doing that, I'm going to refocus that you're pushing down into that foot. So there's energy going up this way and there's energy going down here to opposing forces and bring it back through. We'll try it one more time, each side, and then we're going to add a little bit of a diagonal onto that. So the feeling is that you're trying to think not about bending.

Please just shortens one side. Think about lifting out of their pelvis all the way up. Feel that lengthening. You're getting La. The faces seem true. It's true, it's true. Up you go. There you go. Keeping the idea that you want to keep your body tall.

The more you can make room in your ribcage and in your abdominal wall, the more everything can work efficiently. Bring it back through. You're getting some sense of that. They are once they feel tighter than the other, so it looks minimal. It's not about how it movement looks, it's about how it feels in your body. You're trying to feel that lengthening up, up, up, up, up, up, opening, opening and bring it back.

So I want to show you what I want to do next. You're going to do that diagonal. The lift, lifting up. You should see the lateral and then keeping this hip bone back. And when do they reach diagonal? If you know your movements from the mat is like a saw, but it's not about twisting.

It's about just reaching from the shoulder up and away and then bring it back around and over. Yes, the habit is not to breathe. Make sure you take your breath when you do the reach. Definitely. Then I raffle help. Okay, well we start with this side. Sinclair, arm up, lift up, lengthen. [inaudible] I'm using my hand to get help and just give a guidance for you.

You don't have to use your hand. It's a sensation. So you're filling that, lifting out, feeling that stretch here. Think of this hip staying still and then reached diagonally. So you're reaching over this direction towards me here. Yes. Filling the spine gently flex the bottom root comes in a little bit and you feel it stretch and it should move into that deep lower back area. Not coming from the shoulders per se. Flexing a bit more for me.

Flex a new bit more retreats. Reach and you feel something moving into here. Good. Bring it back out into the last hurdle. I know over into the Santa other site. So trying to open out the back and open out the waste arm up, up. It goes up, up, up, up, up.

And this is going to help your Matt saw be better in the future, hopefully lifting up and then go for that diagonal reach. So you've got your stretch first and then diagonal reach. And I it, as I said, that's a good creating the shoulder. You want to feel that lane happening from the backside of the rib cage right through to the lower back. And there's a little bit of flection in the spine getting that feeling of the pelvis controlled all the time. Thinking of that rotational diag. I'm good. Bring it back around to the side and back up. Fantastic. Right? So we're gonna move into our first movement. We're actually going to do that, like to Prune. It's a very strong movement.

So I just want to emphasize when we start up, I'll be doing a version where you're going to, um, you can come onto your mats and face the middle for me so you can go to any of your match and come to the middle. I'm going to roll down happily any way you wish you can roll down. Take it to point. Attention, come onto the hands and knees. [inaudible] no, I want to show you this before you go down onto all the way down to the floor, you're going to come down onto the elbows, but when you come down, the elbows are slightly forward of the shoulders. Do you want to come down from your lane?

[inaudible] catch back in that position now, what was the guys when you're working at home, the idea is correct in yourself, which is hard to do so I'm going to be trying to help a little bit with the precision here for likes the feet for me, the moment there you go and just not quite as far as that there that I here is often that lower back feeling a nice length and that lower back but it pelvis, just tucking under a little bit. Keep the shoulder blades down the back, chest open. Fantastic. Now in this position, if you've got that connection happening to the center, you should feel there's more muscles coming along as well. We're going to lift up to our first level where the pelvis comes up off the floor, but you're pushing away from the shoulders rather than just up good height. Perfect. Keeping that nice length there, kind a little bit higher from you. The law you are, the more you're going to feel the lower back getting compression. Now you could stay here, Lakeville Prune as a stamina exercise that you then add movement and talk.

So this is the prep version we're working on. The stamina, stamina means you could have a conversation with me while you're doing this movement. Yes. So what are ways? Yeah, a nice conversation. Keep the neck long. They were looking to go longer than this, so I'll do this next option from this position here. What you're able, it's called the toes under and then one leg at a time straightened out and don't move the pelvis up and go to the straight leg position. They always been slightly forward. Means you're pushing back into the heels. Stretching out attendance. Well done. Good. Fantastic technique. News, Layman's November. If you start at that struggle, what are you going to do with it? You take it down a level.

If you're fighting the movement, you want to try going up a bit for me? No, no, I ain't gonna keep them there. Straighten out that leg and the other one not going to happen. There we go. So you see that as not going to work. You can feel the difference and you take it down. When you take it down, you don't relax, you stay focused. Keep it long and you go back to the movement. Where we're looking for over time is about 90 seconds. It's 20 breaths. Now when you go up, do me a favor, don't rush the levels when you go up to get there. And again for me to the knees and keep the covers lifted.

Keep the knees down. There you go. So you do it once slowly go through the levels, Lenten, one leg at a time, one leg, then the second leg and that should help you keep a focus on the center. Better. Good. Last one and take it down and just pushes it up into hands and knees. I'm going to do a release to the lower back in case you wondering, you might feel your low about, it's on a bit of work shoulder girdle as well, but rather than doing, sitting all the way back, can you take your bottom halfway back and in really tuck the tailbone under as you place down onto the mat with your hands and you should feel it moves lovely into your lower back. Good. That's what we're looking for rather than just sitting all the way down to your heels.

It's a lot of people can't even do without stressing the knees like nice stretch come down onto your elbow facing me and again we're going to walk in the shoulder girdle and this time we're going to work with the side bend and that's a very modified side. When we're going to start with the legs are going to be bent. We're working with a modified one so we can add in some rotation. So both legs are bent one on top of each other, the feet, the sacrum, the tailbone or against the wall. The elbow against the wall could use the mat. You cramping up. Just play with that as much as you need to until it feels okay.

If you need to straighten that leg a little bit, it's okay. Sure. Drop the shoulder down. Now here, there's the temptation to let them be a dip in the waist, so always think ribcage connecting to the hip as we did when we're standing. Bring the elbow under the shoulder. Make sure you're set up. There's no ready. Even in this position, what you should do is if you touch a little waist, you'll feel the muscles working so you can even stay there. But we're going to add the movement.

We have to do the full lifting before we can add the rotation. You're going to take the arm up, pitch the HIPAA where this direction and that direction, and I was up opening up the waist like we're trying to do when we're standing. So think about that year also amps the water over the year. To hit this a little bit, just start it and then take it down. Try and just touch the floor. Don't rest. Yeah.

If you need to raise rates but try not to collapse to get up, aren't you? Get down so the arm comes with the movement so the fluidity helps up and over and over and just sit up for a second and to ease out the shoulder. So what I'm going to show you is we're going to do a rotation so when you're sitting there from me, two seconds, you're going to take it up and when you're there, hand comes in and rotate. But you're leading with the shoulder and then the rib cage and all of the pelvis a little bit. Bring it back out and die. Yes. Okay. Could then you come.

Anything we add the choices to leave off. If you're losing the quality, you feel your fighting. I says all the time. If you're fighting the movement, if it feels like a little bit of a battle, you've lost the message, you need to pull it back to a level where you can show the control, the precision of this technique, good quality to start up. We go breathing out. That was a good alignment and then looking up to the ceiling. Follow the palm, follow underneath the armpit throughs. Close the floor, bring it back around, open up and take it back down. If you need to rest you rest. But ideally doing two more of those for me. Good. You're fine.

And then come up to the ceiling with him and then follow the palm and rotate around. So you're rotating around from the rib, controlling the pelvic. She feel nice. Rotation through the spine. Bring it back out and take it back down. One last one. We always say that one last one. Just when you go in, please stop over. You go and round through. So trying to rotate the spine from the mid and upper back pelvis will follow rather than lead to get back down. I handle, along comes the bad news. We have two sites swinging the legs around. So now we've got this wonderful view of me.

So I suppose I should do it with you this time. We didn't normally. Right? So remember that feeling of lift that waste out. That means that elbows are last thing. You correct. Underneath the basic setup is important, not crunched up. Feel nice and open on both waists. Good, very impressed.

I don't see that easily by the way. Ready? And we go breathing out. Remember that out-breath is important. It's going to help you with the center. Come back down and we'll do two or three of these. Just feeling enough kissing the match with the hips.

I always say it's the grandmother Kiss, not the love her kiss, touching the mat. The last one we'll stay up and thread through and rotate. We're looking for that rotation. Certain days I might even find my back when a little bit of click, click, click, click and come back down. It comes down and you come back down and keep going. Couple more of those for me.

So we're not doing many reputations of anything today. Of course you're welcome to stop if you're watching at home. So the video playing and do a few more repetitions, but we're never looking for a lot of repetitions. Quality over number as well. Five bad ones. No use three good ones. Perfect. Last one always was that last one.

That's the last one that you should be working to or the best. Trying to open that top waste, that little bit extra and in the third you need to know and we're gonna move on to the next one. Bring yourself around on to your knees. Obviously if you need your own issue, you can pan them up a little bit. We're going to do psychic kneeling prep. We're all going to go over to this site. So take the leg out and the hand down. Now I'm going to turn side onto the camera, so I'm going to turn it this way because what I want you to see is the pelvis does not sit back over the calf. You've got to open up that hip.

So when a change the leg here, you'll see you've got to open here. Yes, so it's a tuck under that pelvis. The goods perfect asset, so the fingertips on the floor. We're not putting the weight here because we want to work the trunk arm up to the ceiling rather than behind the head. I want a nice long neck. All we're going to do is bring the leg off the floor. [inaudible] am I exaggerating the breath so you can hear when it happens? Finding your height. When you find your height, stay there.

Circle one, two, three, stop, change direction. One, two, three. I need you to, you don't need me to hold you. I'm just guiding you. If you are finding the floors, there's a little bit too far away for you. You can always use a yoga block. Next time I can maybe get ahold of one of them later. I'm bringing Darren and entrain to center other side. So again, it's that idea of getting into the position, being in the right position, leg, eye opener head.

That's going to really make sure you work the trunk muscles, arm beneath the shoulder. Try and move to the fingertips. If you've had wonderful long nails, you're trying not to break the nails. So it's almost a balance. Yes. Just like the stability wheels on a child's bike, find that length in the lower back. Much better this time. Good light comes up and done. Just go up and down a few times. Find your range. Good shoulder and neck.

And then when you find your range linen that make a little bit for me, hold it there and the circle, it can get bigger. But for the moment nice and small work from the head rather than a fruit. Think deepen the hip socket and then change direction. [inaudible] fantastic. And I'm bringing it back down. Are we okay there?

You should feel that into the hits. But again, it's not about how long you're there for us, but getting that alignment correct here. We're going to move into the hundred movement there. So listen to what I'm talking through. I'm going to give you lots of choices. So we'll take our heads to this end and what I do, what was the lay down on my side first normally. But you can transition that way anyway you want for the moment, but you can lay down on should say to make it so you can keep focused.

And then we're in our base position, our base position, the legs are not too close in, arms are down by your side. And the way we work is we really work with the focus on neutral spine. Um, our focus is getting that sign which have muscles front and back, and then we work on the center as well. If I do it with a strong flection, it's very easy for some people to switch into the front muscles and not let the whole body work as a unit. Also the neck and head. So we want to teach the flection version first so you actually get a sense of flakes and we're looking for, so if you bring your head and shoulders off the mat and you beat out, so the base of the shoulder blades touch the mat, arms off the floor, your gaze is to the mid thigh, not to the ceiling. Now that position there, what you know, think about is keeping the rib and hips wide away from each other. The box, not in neutral, but neither is it pushing hard into the floor. How's that feel for effort? While you're there, connect to the center. Remember that four points of the pelvic floor and hold it there.

Depending on your postures, you might find that this is the position you're in daily forward, so you might not want to be doing here. Also, you've not developed the strength here to stay there, so we're going to take it back down. If you come back down, we set up the neutral again. Make sure the lower back isn't natural. Curve shoulders are down the back. The key thing here now is we're going to add some Lord. We're going to use the weight of the legs, so think about the pelvis being completely stable, resting in the sun, not just starving the sand. You're going to float your left leg up first into the tabletop right-angle position, knee above the hip socket, neutrals in place.

The idea here is with one leg which you could see at, you can focus on just the deep muscles, not the superficials, but we're going to give the option of the Tekken leg. But remember the breath into the center. No, there's not dominoes. Use Your own body. Use your hand to check where your breath is going. Breathing out. Second leg comes up and joins the first. How could it, you don't wait. You don't. What about looking at anything? Now in that position there, you want that control of the abdominal wall, the control through the center.

But think pelvic floor here rather than thinking of tensing up. When I feel that length in the lower back and the movement coming from the center, how are we working there? You're good. Feeling any tension in your lower back, right? So if it's too much work and it feels it's not happy work, then you take it back down to one leg. Okay? And you stay with that one leg. We're going to stay with that for you for the moment.

If you're okay at this level, you've always got the option of taking the legs longer. But if you go there, bring the flaxen in for a second and take the leg longer. Hold it there. One, two, three, four breath. Figure back in until the hinge. Shoulders down and stay there for two or three breaths so you're not getting carried away. So the first leg, so now you're going to take this one down and focused on this one coming up. Obviously, if you're working with just one leg, which is perfect for core work, to that deep center to work efficiently, sensation is not great.

You don't get a lot of feedback. So you might think you want to take the leg a little bit longer, but if your quarter sets, you find there who you are, if your quadriceps are taken all the work and the hip flexors are giving all the focus, bring the leg back in, make it about challenging the center. So we've got a feeling there will be two breaths, no more than two. He started with two when he did this movement and not a hundred but not pain, I say and hold it there. And again, this isn't a rest position. This is a focused position, so don't be afraid of staying in the base position with the legs bent and make sure you get this here. There's no up to the ceiling if you add deflection.

No, that's because you want to lengthen those back muscles. If you know your posture well enough and knew that that's not what you need to lengthen and it's here, you need to focus on you keep it back down. It's not a competition to be up. It's about the body. There's lots of versions of this movement where the head and shoulder do not come up holding it, their last breath, last version and take it down when I get the time to take it down. One leg, second leg brings stuff onto your side facing me. And from here you're just going to sit up.

We like to roll to the side before we set up, until we're in turn more progress classes with the legs. We're going to do a spine twist. Some people love the straight legs. A lot of those guys blow straight legs as an issue. [inaudible] and lower back. So just try this position for me. Drop the knees out and it should allow you to push the sacrum up so you're not forcing yourself up from your mid-back. You forcing yourself up or helping.

It's about from the state commedia yes, and we're going to check dams out to the side. Drop them down. There's feeling are on a washing line. No tension in the shoulders, that softly. And then let the fingertips touch, step, touch the sternum, and again, trying to relax that. We're going to work with the breath here. You've got the familiar breath. Breathing out is you turn breathing in as you come back to the center. Yes.

So let's start that way. We'll go this way then that way a couple of times breathing out, but remember that term you keep going. Do not from you guys. Remember that turn. Keep it moving. Don't hold it. Turn and back to center. Turn another way. Make the movement come from your lowest rib. Try not to make it about the head and neck.

Make it about my fingers on the last rep helping you turn from there. And that's where you're going to get the best movement into your spine from the head and neck. Turning is not going to give you the best movement. You feel the connection a little bit more to the trunk. Okay, one last one. Shoulders are good. Spine. As long come to the center, we're going to add the little percussive breath. In a sense, we're going to go to the position where you turn to and stay there and then take another in-breath. And when you do the out-breath, you're not pushing any further. You're letting the body tell you if you can go further. Yes, so again, when we start this way again, breathing in, breathing out, turn from that base room, holds it there, redone.

Feel the length of the spine as you breathe in and as you breathe out, let the little kids relax and see if you go any further. It could be a millimeter, it could be nothing. We then hold it there. This is not exciting in the sense of visuals. I also polite is never sells itself visually. It's about how you feel. Last time I breath and then bring it back to the sensor on the in-breath.

Did you go any further? Little bit, but without pressure, without tangent, without straining other side, try closing your eyes on this one. See if when you breathe out you can just imagine that rib cage relaxing. And if you can just, I want to change a hundred positions for you. Slightly wouldn't be the hands here because I want this to relax a little bit more. Not Look so tense when you read out, drop them and you'd be then lengthen. Really the ribs draw. I didn't bring it back to center.

Perfect for combating that daily sitting posture, keeping that length one more time inside. [inaudible] it should help you feel you've got your shoulders a bit more relaxed. No. Yes, good. [inaudible] you're not forcing anything with the breath. You're keeping the center connections from that pelvic floor. Those four points. Perfect for why you're sitting last time on this side.

[inaudible] and fantastic. Bring it back to center. Then we're just going to do a little bit of a stretch the stretch. However, when you try and make fluid, so if you can come around our face this direction, but you face in and you've confused and for me our name, what we're going to do is from the all fours, bring the leg further, so away from me forward now and this position, your hands can be here for stability. If you find you're getting wobbly, good days, bad days, you can all sit the hands down, but curl back towards behind you. This comes from the reformer cds. What we're looking to do is try and move further forward, further forward, further forward. Move the whole foot for me. Don't just move the out in the knee. That's it. And you should immediately feel a bit of a stretch happening here. Well, let's exaggerate that. Squeeze those glutes.

It's going to turn the glutes at the same time. Yes, you've got that feeling. Now think of the pelvis not going up. How were you about taking the back leg out straight? So I'm going to help a little bit here. Give me your hand and you can be, I'll be a rock. Yes. So you could use a chair in a class. You could use your chair at home, but the feeling is trying to straighten that back. Like are pushing to me.

You use me. I know you've got the strength enough for Badass it, but 90 the pelvis down lower there. Take the knee down, tight the floor with your knee. Don't rest. Take it back up and I, and, and remember chairs. Anything you want to give yourself. Stability. You can hands can go die. Okay. Balance is important. So what happens when we think about the coordination is we forget the balance. So when you're doing that movement, you want to think about control from the center, keeping this long changed.

Have you changed legs? I'll do this one with you to start with. So even the beginning, think about the center. I mean that food further forward for me. Yes. Pushed the pelvis a little bit. There we go. Nice squeezes glute muscles that features that bit more.

Yes. And you should feel the stretch already. Fire up those glute muscles. Really make that so the glute muscles firing up. They're going to help open the lower back. Give them some help. Work from the center. Are you ready while I come in, knight in shining armor? Well, you know it's called sweat. The shining is that this side doesn't work. So just hold that there.

And think of the, the weight being not too strong in the knee. It's about finding a label. So they're just think about a little bit more balance. So essentially not wanting to take the knee up, put your hand there, put another one there and just think, press down. Stabilize and lengthen. Yes. And take it into movement. For me to stay static.

You can, but make sure a good, oh, so good poster here. The shoulders are great. This comes from the former. So if you'd done a farmer stations, if you look at the reformer, you'll see a loan's push stretch. I'm on the reformer and that one is going to we what you're aiming for. Yes. It cracks in the knee a little bit. As long as it's not pain, then he's going to be happy. Right? Bring it back through. Good. Okay.

Now bring yourself around feet to the middle. I'm going to do a roll up. Now this ruler is become a little bit of a pit movement for me because I see so many through ups rather than roll-ups or if it means a graphic, but you know what I mean? Um, those bags, the moments as I'm not going to interest in taking it to the floor. And when you have a progression and it's a like a progression for neck pool if you know that movement. But we're going to work a little bit and again, softeners are okay to completely fine. If soft needs help you with the AA station here, we're going to go for it.

The other sliders with arms up. People have a habit of help me. Yes. So shoulders day. Now here if you're looking at each other, you don't want to see any sign that the rest of the body is working from the upper body. So this is beautiful up top. Yes. And you're going to Tuck the tier one under so it's not all leaning back. It's Tuck the tailbone under. It's literally as if I'm there holding you back.

Stop, hold it there and do an extra tuck from pelvis so the treatment won't back on it. The sad dog, the sad dog tail coming up to the legs. Hold it there. Talk a bit more, take it a little bit further. Stop, Tuck, hold it there a little bit further and really tuck there that there was a millimeter of a difference cause I should've been admitted. Difference in the feeling here and then roll it back out over the hips, over the hips and then lengthen up nice and tall. Shoulders down. Remember that Sophie, we're talking about open this chest area and now if you go again, so the movement is not from collapsing the ribcage. The movement is from taking that tailbone up between the legs and talking back.

You stop after a little bit of a journey and really do an extra focus on the pelvis, getting the actual little tuck and then adding another little range of movement. If you go too far, you're going to be shaking and struggling, so that's too far. That tells you make the movement smaller the next time, that little extra tuck there, you've got an and breathing out. Bring it back up. Keep the body in a lovely curve until your weights and top of the sit bones and then and only then Lens. Now we're lengthening up because we're setting plates all day long.

We need to open the lower back without compromising the upper back. Yes. So again, one last time. Tuck from the tailbone. Really make it a feeling that it's coming from that pelvis, the car seat, turning small movement. Keep breathing. So the breathing here is just keep reading. When you do the little Tuck, you feel the difference in in the back. Now it's very subtle. So when you're doing this at home, it should be a sensation you're looking for rather than a sign of big movement lengthening up. That was your last one. Okay.

So I need to show you feel the difference. Quite shown movement. It's not about a big ruler that can come later, which will be coming along in the next classes being a little shit. No, cause you wouldn't, you'd be, you'd lose. Yes. So we're going to go to a swan dive prep as one dive is virgin NAMIC. We could do this one sitting, but we've changed to whether you're fine going into the store, but watch for two seconds you'll come down onto your tummies. And again, we'll put the heads in the middle of the floor and come down into this position, what I call the capital eat. And the idea here is lengthening towards the wall rather than thinking of going up to the ceiling, right? So the focus is that and what you used to do the rest.

So swing your legs right again at home, you just turned to face whatever direction suits, arms go out to this site. So remember, it's like lovely capitally position. Bend your elbow for me. [inaudible] so I'm trying not to get into personal training session here, but just think of these corrections they could be for you as well. Always there's a habit that we don't listen to our body in the set up, shoulders down the back. Feel that length in the lower back that lance is going to help you connect into your deep posture muscles, those deep core stabilizers.

Now in this position here, the upper body, shoulders gliding down the back, a lovely soft v sensation. Then we're going to lengthen the Ziff. Almost your two magnets are the crown of your head drawing each other to each other. Yes, so you breathe out, lengthen through, feel the length in through the crown of the head. Feel the connection into the muscles here, but don't let that belly press harder or lift more from the floor. Breathing in, take it down, but keep long. The feeling is the forearms are resting on thin ice.

You're not pressing through the ground. We're trying to isolate, breathing out. Keep going from you guys. So breathing, I watch you do the movement. You're trying to isolate movement. Just to hear. The very frustrating thing is if you're looking for a big movement, it's not going to happen. If you're looking to try and change your viewpoint, it's not going to change you. You still be looking at the floor, breathing out. You connect through here, not overworking the lower back. Ideally, this is the movement which I get most of my clients and I do most of my group classes because everyone spends all day sitting.

We get up and sit at the lights at the breakfast table. We get to the office. Whatever the car I did is opening up these back muscles, working them by contracting opens up the spine. The Ne we've got that visual wrestling under the navel is a butterfly. You don't want to squash the butterfly or let it fly away. It's a controlled center reading act.

This incision is what we're looking for, not the visual one. Last time [inaudible] come back onto the hands and these pictures have up. Bring the hands in. Fish back up into the hands and knees. You remember a little stretch we did. If you haven't done it with good new, good enough protection of lower back by not thinking about the center. You just need you to a little sit back and stretch at the lower back again for me. Okay. And then what we'll do is working our p shot.

Come to oh fours, last movement and all forced position. Take your hands off the mat for me. So where to go for a white hand position. But in this position we're looking for a box with neutral. We've got that there. We're good, right? The feeling here is I'm a chocolate freak, so incentivize incentives of chocolate for if it's fruit, go for it, but a forward of your hands, quite a way forward. There's something you want, money, chocolate, whatever. The key to the best house you've ever seen in your life and this position here or love, whatever works for you today, you're going to go forward.

Breathing out to take it forward rather than down. Breathing out, pushing away from the floor. Come back to the neutral, curl the toes under. Walk the hands back. Take the fuse of the hands. Here's the feet to the floor. Hands onto the knees, bend, roll up. So we want to do that. Press up as part of the fuel. Pull out his movement. We're just going to do twice as a full movement.

But you see the idea of going forward, we'll you should have felt the connection through to here initially and the whole chase working. Yes. Rather than just going down between the arms and just arms. The arms are working in here as well. So enjoy your role, dime that mobility of the spine. The shoulders are relaxed but connected. You take it to your point of tension. That's the lower back. You can stop and take it onto hands and knees moving into your box position. That box is a square box.

There's not one strange battered box that's come through the postal service badly into that box position. Shoulders down the back. Nice position. Just hit the hands a little bit for the back from here. There you go. And then you're going to push forward with the pelvis, soften the elbows and take it forward to the hands. The original p doesn't have to be a big movement. The very fact you, if you're feeling that way, tells me you're doing it right because you're not shooting yourself. You're taking it forward. The feet, stay on the floor, breathing out, push it back and enroll back up. So you do one press up. If you do one of these, it's enough. You don't need to do three or four while you're down there.

Curl the toes under, walk the hand back, use your center, connect to your roll up through the spine. [inaudible]. Obviously those are all have development options but it's always that feeling of going off center. We'll do that one last time. One last time. Best one yet. Not the biggest. The best roll down [inaudible] tension again, if it comes from the legs you can soften the knees but if it comes into the back, you know that's when you need to stop. Don't push through the tension box position again, I don't, I'm not interested in going further forward.

I want to be in a very definite box cause it's going to help us take off center. Taking it forward and I do breath is energy. Go forward and out, helping you connect to the center. As you push away, curl the toes under again so it's quite fluid that you are aware of the challenge. Rolling back up. I come together now Kinda nice and told you, remember what we did the beginning of the class down standards the ground. Lengthen the spine. Guys, can you come into the middle of the mat? Actually come around again and face me here.

Come off the marks and fiercely here, just took you out to live an empty space there. So we're good. We're fine, thanks. And Tom to just give yourself a second, close the eyes and give you polarities breath. Then naturalize it. Make it normal a little bit, Tommy, a little bit of chest arms up. Open out. Now this is soft circle, but we're going to try and make it dynamic. If your shoulders are telling you they're happy, keeping the body controlled, let's get some circulation going and let's get some ventilation going. Yes, a couple more of these wonderful tool to release tension in the shoulders. As long as your shoulders aren't complaining, that usually do it. Relax, check it out. And thank you very much for joining us in class today, and thank you very much. Do you guys okay.

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Comments

2 people like this.
Lovely class, Malcolm , thank you !!
2 people like this.
Love it! Thank you, Malcolm, my favourite Scotsman!
Samantha L
1 person likes this.
I really loved this class and the cues. Thank you.
2 people like this.
Lots of great teaching points in this class x loved it!
1 person likes this.
Great class! easy to follow, important point reminders, perfect timing.
1 person likes this.
A wonderful, calming class. So many nuggets of wisdom embedded throughout. Especially the many different ways Malcolm focuses on movement quality as opposed to quantity. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
I am doing a free trial and I must say: I haveloved your class!!
Krista
brilliant! Did I hear him call her mom? So sweet. Such an intentional and precise class. Loved his version of the roll up.
1 person likes this.
Awesome workout. Loved his attention to detail and loved the slow deliberate pace.
2 people like this.
Great reminders for technique. I would recommend this class for post natal women as well.
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