Class #2719

Grounding Mat

45 min - Class
69 likes

Description

Why is grounding important? In this Mat workout Madeline Black explores this concept that is used a lot in Pilates classes. She starts with a section from her book, Centered, then starts to play with how it feels to be grounded. She also teaches movements that improve mobility of your feet as well as the stability of your body so you can feel resilient.

This class starts with a detailed explanation of grounding. The movement in this class begins at 7:39 minutes.
What You'll Need: Mat, Half Roller, Table Chair

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Hi, I'm Madeline black and today's class is going to be based on how to feel being grounded. We hear that term a lot. I did a lot when I was a young dancer. You know, ground more. You're not grounded in your life and you try really hard to be grounded. But it took years to really exploring what does it really feel like to be grounded. So I chose, um, grounding, um, from my new book centered, uh, which is the first chapter on grounding. So I want to read a little quote from the book cause it's, it's an important about the contemplate of awareness, grounded feet guide and centered the body in so many ways.

The souls of the feet touched the ground, functioning, feet move the body along the ground and the feet are a grounding source for the body. To feel grounded in oneself is to be standing on a solid foundation. But it's more than just the physical, the feet, you know, we will start working with the feet and we're gonna work through. Um, but why is grounding important? You know, why are you feeling grounded? It's something, you know, ask that myself, that question. And it is important because it actually stabilizes you.

And like in your life you can be more stable so that you're resilient to any kind of stresses or things that are thrown at you. And you can be less reactive and more resilient and move, like move through things as opposed to being like rigid intents and be like, no, that can't happen. Or you know, any kind of stress. So I'm learning to try to find that resiliency, which you can only have when you are grounded. So it's a physical sensation. So your feet are really, really important. So people with feet that aren't very healthy or functional, uh, do have problems balancing and do have, you know, it's, it's very, when your feet hurt and it's, it's really not happy thing.

And if you're not feeling good in your body, your mind can't be happy. I know that from when you have even a pain, you can control your mind. You can write the meditation is a way of grounding and you can sit and try not to think about things and just breathe. However, if you have discomfort in your body, your mind starts also. So it's a real balance of both things. So, um, I feel that it's a really grounding is necessary to move through life well. So I've used different tools to ground.

There's the physical practice is really important, whatever that might be for you, but keeping yourself physical could be walking walking's extremely grounding. Uh, it could be meditation, it could be a ritual. We all like, I don't know if people, some people forget about doing little rituals and rituals can mean anything. You know, it could be a formal ritual, like you'd go to church or it can be your own, which I've done. I've created my own rituals that I do at home for myself and breathing. So I laugh. I started playing flute, so I needed to work.

Not that I can play the flute, but I just wanted to learn to breathe. And when I find that I get that breath going, it actually settles me down into my pelvis. That's for me, into my legs. So your center of gravity is super important. And the center, most people's body is the sacred. So when your weight is in your legs and in your feet and in the pelvis, your center of gravity drops down, you know, uh, so that you can feel more grounded. So I think it's really useful to help get through our stresses of life.

So what does it mean to be grounded? What is the definition for you to be grounded? I mean, cause we ha, I've heard it. I don't know what it means to you. I mean to be grounded, there is no meaning to it. So meaning there is no intellect. So we have our mind, the intellect as I'm looking for a definition, it's not a definition, it's not logical. Actually. It's a felt sense. It's a feeling of being grounded so that there is no meaning.

Okay. That's how I feel it. I tried, that's where I think I was searching for a meaning for a long time and then I just had to let my mind go and go, what's my body telling? My body grounds me. Yeah. Not My mind so much. You're welcome. All right, so let's see. Stand up. Okay. So we're gonna have a partner and you could try this at home. Be Fun. So one person's gonna stand still. First do it with your eyes open.

So we got one body, and then what we want to do is introduce an unexpected force into the body and see how it responds. It's all about response. It doesn't mean you're grounded and grounded. It just like, how are you responding? Okay, we'll do it with the eyes open at first and then we'll try some with your eyes closed. All right, so all right. Who is the body standing still standing? Still standing still. Okay. Go for it. Unexpected forces. Yeah, have fun there. Don't let the don't. That's it. You're just trying to stand still. Let's see.

See if you can not be thrown off your base. Do what you need to do to keep going. Try. Try to knock them down. Yes. Okay. She's trying. Be grounded. Try again. A little bit more unexpected. Different rhythms. You got her. Nice. Okay. Now with now your eyes closed. Eyes closed. I know to just, I know it's unexpected, so don't see what your nervous system is doing. Can you yeah. Good one.

You've gotta be calm. Yeah. You gotta just, you don't know where she's coming from. Excellent. You almost better with your eyes closed. You're definitely better with your eyes closed cause you can feel and write yourself. Okay. And arrests, do you notice a difference with your eyes close? You see there's your definition. You were feeling it. So with your eyes open, you're like, okay, where, where are they? Where's that coming at? In your, your mind gets in the way. So that's kind of a good clue right there. Okay. Now we're going to do is change partners so the other people get to push you around and you're just going to walk around and do the same thing.

So instead of standing still grounded, can you be moving and be in there walking? So stay within the perimeters of the mat and see if you can, okay. Yeah, that's okay. She's used to it. [inaudible] don't stop walking. Don't stop walking. Just keep walking. And then you're going to try to, okay. [inaudible].

Okay. You're adapting. Well this is great. It's an Improv. Okay. And rest. Yeah, so c moving, c, moving the energy through. You can adapt. So some of you like, you know, Amy, you look like you were doing a Doug Varone dance, you know, so you know you get hit and then you're like, okay, I can adapt, but I'm like, you still recover. So it's that recovery. So grounding is not necessary early. Erm, you know, this kind of thing too is like, can I sense my body and then can I find myself, you know, centering and grounding is very similar. Okay. So now we're going to go into a movement class so that we can feel more grounded in stronger after the class. So let's get some chairs. Several, you'll need a stool or a chair. All right, so we're going to sit on a chair or a stool and come forward to your sit.

Bones are actually on the edge of the chair, so we're not sitting back in the chair. And then just bring your feet forward. So we're going to start with the feet. So let's just pick up one foot and then I just want you to brush your feet. Just stimulate the bottoms of your feet. Your feet have so many sensory nerves that sends a message right to your spine that can help with adapting and grounding. Okay.

And then just give yourself like a little foot massage, spread your toes a little bit, kind of find little tender spot, maybe kind of get into the arch, kind of do a little needing. Okay. And then move the toes back and forth. Yeah, that's why. And then I'd like you to find the third toe and take the your hands on the top and the bottom of the third toe. And I want you to just press into the bone. Feel the third toe all the way, all the long bone of the third toe.

The third toe is really the center of the foot, right? Cause you've got two toes on this side and two toes on this side though, we tend to tell people to stand more on the second toe. Um, you know, in terms of the center of the foot, people tend to reference that. But literally the structure, your body weight falls through the foot. It's between the second and toe, depends how picky you want to get. But you frequent reference the third toe that is truly kind of the central.

Now go towards your heel. Okay. And press into the, the base of the heel here a little bit. And this is where the Fascia really is attached. So it might be tender. Yeah. Okay, good. All right. And then we're going to grab the heel with the palm of your hand like this and take the other hand on the top of your toes this way. So the palm of your hands going to be right at the base of the second toe and you're going to hold like this. So this is the Washrag foot.

So what you want to do is turn the heel up towards the ceiling at the same time, turn the ball of your foot, the bottom of the foot towards the floor. Yeah. And then untwisted so now twist the other way. So the bottom of your toes are facing the ceiling and the heels going towards the floor. So go back and forth to the heel towards the ceiling, toes to the floor, reverse stretching. So we'll go back and forth. So you're twisting a washrag and untwisting twist and untwist. Good. Great. And let's switch feet.

So if just feel the difference, actually take a second. Feel all the circulation and the foot feels spread. Yeah. Okay. So it's a different color. All right, so let's rub. Yeah, we've got some circulations. What I feel into the feed. So I'm rubbing just to stimulate the sensory nerves, kind of waking them up and then give yourself a little, you can spend as much time. I could spend 20 minutes on my feet, but we won't. So we just want to kind of get the stimulation going, wake them up a little bit.

And if you find like I find the first toe on the arch there, usually a little stiff. Okay. And then move your toes around different directions. Even wake them up, get into the bottom of the foot near the heel to little fashional attachment there. Go ahead. Okay. And then Washrag foot. So heel to the ceiling, toe bottom of the foot. To the floor, try it and then twist the other way, bottom of the toes to the ceiling, heel to the floor and twist and try to make it equal to you can actually push one more than the other. CV can get that heel is really hard to move.

So try to really work the heel gun and then place your foot def. Okay, so now lift your toes up and spread them out. And you're going to feel the big toe ball, little toe ball, but not as much as the big toe ball because it's smaller and there's not as much weight on it in the center of your heel. And feel the arch. Feel the arch of your foot really doming up. Make a high arch as you can. And then just relax your feet. And again, lift the toes, spread them, feel the dome. You can feel the energy in your legs, especially on the outside of your leg here. And then come back down. And again, one more. Just stretch. Good. And I like pushing down into the floor.

So when you push firmly down, you'll feel your quads engage. Feel a little hamstring engagement. Yeah. So you're actually waking up the whole leg. Okay. And then relax. So now we're gonna come onto the balls of the feet this way and do a little heel circles going in towards the midline and out. Now try not to pivot, uh, your ball of your foot too much hailing, like no toes doing that. And this, just your heel. See if you can, this is called the rear foot and make sure the heel comes down. So we get into, so rear foot movement, Rear Foot and middle foot, actually not too much toe Tiffany. And now go the other way. It's interesting. And then you get little shakes. Yeah, yeah. Good.

We'll do one more. All right. And now you're gonna keep your heel down. Here's a hard one for me is you want to arch the ball of your foot so it goes towards one another and try to arc them away without turning your Tibia, your shins. So put your hands here. So try to arch your forefoot in and arc 'em away and scoop them in. So minimal, so minimal rotation. Like that's the knee. Yeah. So keep trying to arch. It's small, actually the forefoot away.

Forefoot good in a way. Okay. Now we're going to take a wide stance. Okay. And get right on the edge of the chair and kind of wiggle a little bit. So you feel your sit bones on the chair. Good. And have your feet underneath your knee. Not so much that you're clenching behind the knee, but enough that you feel like you could stand on them.

And if I asked you to stand up right now, you could. So you know where your weight is. Yeah. So a little bit up. Yeah. Okay. And so what I want you to do now is just let your arms hang and you're going to push down with your feet. Yeah. Push down. Good. And then relax. And again, push down. Yeah.

So you feel your legs feel the hamstrings filling you. So we want to integrate the feet and now the ground feel the ground. So we have a wood floor here, but can you go below the wood floor, go into the basement. Can you push down into the earth? Go down. We're going down. Yeah. And then the colludes come in. Did you feel that different than when you're just pushing with your feet?

So if I actually think I'm moving the floor downward, like an elevator into the earth, I can feel that my gluteals will kick in as well. And you'll start to feel a little bit here. So your transverse abdominous, that means your pelvic floor is going get the whole package here, but just by pushing your feet down into the floor. But that's going to be our strength. That's where the center of gravity is here. Okay. And now we're going to bring the feet in. It's easier to feel with the legs externally rotated than it is in a parallel position. Okay, so now we're going to have your feet under your knees. Again, you have to not have them too far out because we're going to stand up. Okay?

You're going to have your arms by your side. What I'd like to do is turn your palms out and I call this a skydiver arms and just feel the rotation. Have a your armpits kind of free so they're not clamped down. There should be space in your armpit, but your palms are out and we're just gonna lean forward. Now feel your feet. Remember the basement idea.

So you're going to be pushing your feet down into the, and then you're just going to push down and that's what's going to send you up and feel your back, your back body. Now sit bones wide first as the first intention. Sit bones wide, start to reach back with your sit bones. Let your body come forward and trust your chair is there and then sit. Another way to do it is to place your hands here. If that was too difficult, that's a nice way of doing it with the orange cause you have to control it through your back. But you can just push here and push with your feet and you lean forward.

So if I use my hands, you see I can push to stand up. That's actually a little bit easier now to go back down, sit bones, go back, push your thighs back. You see that helps spread the sip phones and it's a little easier. So I like teaching clients to stand up and sit down this way so that you push with your hands, pushing on your legs and then you're pushing and reaching back. But it's a little more strengthening to try to do it here. Same feeling though.

So imagine your hands are pushing then that make it easier to come up and then imagine your hands are pushing. Okay, so we're going to do one hover now. So we're going to come forward and I want you just to hold now. So you're low and hold it now the pelvic floor, that's Your Pee pee part. I want you to flick it as fast as you can. 10 Times ready? Flick it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and then stand up. Do we have to describe what flicking is? It's a very fast twitch fiber.

So we do a lot of pelvic floor holding. It's more sustaining, not fast twitch muscles. So you've got to turn, turn, turn, turn, turn. But it's more in the front. It's like your, your Reetha does quick flicking. Okay, so we call it the quick flick. All right, so where are we going to come back down again? A new hovering. Hovering. All right. Flicking. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 in the stand up. See, it's harder when you're in a squat because your legs are working and your hip joints working and your rotators are working and then you have to work the pelvic floor on top of it.

I find that's more challenging than I can sit here and flick without really quickly. Better than being in a squat. When you're in that position, normally that's where you would pee. Yeah. Okay, let's go back one more time. All right, last set. Flick away. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and then come up. Okay, next set. No more flicking. Unless you want to. It's totally up to you. You don't have to let us know. Okay, so we're going to go back down to the squat and hold. Okay, so see, we're having fun. All right, so we're going to arc the tail now.

So you're just gonna arc your tail to the right and arc your tail to the left. The knees stay right where they are. Your ribs stay right where they are. Your knees don't change in their height. Don't be doing that. It's just, it's small back and forth. Field in the rotators. Yeah, this is great. All right. And come back to center and then come up. I call it the salsa chicken, chicken and come back.

See, I'm having more fun now. Arc little again. Let's go have some fun. One, two. Now remember your knees don't change. Yeah, it's a very small, we had some salsa music we can do a little quick or even just right. We want a little fast twitch so, but it was killer on the legs. Right? Okay. And stand up. Okay, next one. Funky chicken and go back. All right, now you need to go in and you go to the inner edge of your feet.

Two feet have to roll two and then you go out and you go in, but you don't go up and down. Your body stays right where it is out and in, uh, in a really date myself. But it's like the Hokey pokey. You daily from New York. It's a long island thing. See, we gotta see if it's a good distraction. Okay, now come back to the middle and then stand up one more and go back. All right? In and out. In, out and in. The trick is to keep your body at this level and then come back center and stand up. [inaudible] you feel, feel your legs. So I find when I really need to get more grounded, I try to do things that really challenges my legs. All right?

So I'm gonna do a little imagery for you right now as we take a little break. Okay? Meaning we're not going to work so hard there. So I want you to close your eyes and when you're feeling you need a quick place, a quick meaning to grounding. You can do as close your eyes and imagine the bottoms of your feet. You're growing an exquisite thick, deep root system. So start growing.

I think of multiple routes like millions of them coming out of my feet, like tentacles going down into the earth, finding big boulders down their way to this, towards the center, but now where it's too hot. And then wrap those tentacles and routes around a huge boulder way down the earth. And then we're going to add the tail and your tail is going to grow a really long route and it's going to pierce into the earth. Go down, find it's own rock and wrap around it. So now you have a tripod anchored between your tailbone and the bottoms of your feet. And then open your eyes. Feel pretty solid, Huh? You guys are all calm too. That's good.

So that's one like imagery that when I need to take a moment for myself, sometimes go into the bathroom, I might just do that. Okay, now there's another one, cause that doesn't work for a lot of some people, it doesn't work for them. Another way to look at grounding is thinking about what's above you, not just what's in the earth. Because we talked about the balance between levity and and groundedness. So if you can close your eyes now, now instead, go up through the top of your head and think about all those planets out there way far away, and take all of that plan it's and Hook yourself through your head with that and then draw it in through your body. Move it through the center of gravity and your sacred, through your legs, down into your feet, and then let it go into the earth.

So it's flowing as opposed to being like, I need a rock to anchor to. It's different. It's a different feel. So that's a different kind of grounding. Okay. And um, when I know personally, when I get nervous and I start feeling doubtful about myself, uh, you know, not so much self love, but I'm like doubting, I'll use that imagery and do what I call the doubt shout. And it really helps Kinda, yeah, doubt. Shout. So I'll do that sometimes in my room before I go teach, cause I need to just get that out.

So it looks like this and you're going to try it. Okay. But I'll, I'll do it once. So I'm doing that imagery of the planet's bringing it in and pushing it into the ground. So I guess kind of gathering up all of those planets that I can relate to, I'm going to pull it in so my body pushing it down through my body and then, oh yeah. And each one gets better as you do it. You're ready. You can do your own doubt. Shout. All right. So you can close your eyes and come up. You can do it on your own time.

I'm not going to queue it. Just pull your energy in, Huh? Hello. Okay. It doesn't matter. Whatever it is, do it again. I need more. Ho, Ho. Hello. And um, yeah, so pull it in. It wasn't very convincing. Hello. Better again. More deeper.

I want to be, get rid of all that doubt. Get rid of it all. We're just going to get rid of it all. Oh yes. So he didn't feel good. So it's crazy. But it's like these little things that I've been doing to kind of help help myself be grounded and then find that resilience. Okay. So now we're going to do some more physical movement and work into our calves.

So need the chairs for balance. So let's move the chairs parallels. Your back is to the camera and I'll get the half rollers. You can get a half rollers that are small, small in size, so you can do it by yourself or just use a half roller. So we'll put it on the floor here. So two of you are gonna share. Okay. So yeah.

So put the balls of your feet on the top of the arc and then bring your big toes together and your heels apart, and then your heels drop down. You'll get a stretch. Yes, very good. All right, heels apart, Christie. A little more. Good. Great. Now these are a little squishy. They make harder rolls like the black ones. So the harder is better because you'll feel your feet will slide a little and be a little squishy. So just adjust your feet if they start to do that. All right, you're going to do 10 heel lifts here, keeping your heels apart. Ready? So go up one and down. Keep your leg straight. Good too. Good.

And just keep moving. And three, keep it wide. [inaudible] over [inaudible] wide. Good, good. Seven could your heels wide? Eight. Great. Nine good. 10 and then stay down. If you need to step off, step off if you want or you just stay there and stretch. If you have to adjust your feet, adjust your feet. Okay, so now what you're gonna do, your heels are wide. You're going to keep your heels.

Why did you go up and without pivoting on the ball of your foot? Try to bring your heels together and down. So there'll be minimal. I don't want it a whole lot of pivoting. We're not doing hip joint like this. So you want to try to keep here, but bring your heels towards the midline and then swing them out when you go down 10 times. Ready. So we go up wide. Pivot in, down, narrow and out and up. Good.

So it's that heels circling. You're turning a little too much in your hips. Yeah, come up. Keep that here. Try to turn here. That's different. You feel that good. It's like what we did seated in the chair and up. You're counting 10 right? Good. And you're up. Now don't pivot your toes. Just think of your heels facing each other, the bottom. And that's it. That's a better cube at bottom of your heel facing each other. You get that?

So it's not a lot of rotation in the hip. There is some, there you go. But you're trying to turn your heel. Okay. And rest. And guess what? We get to reverse that. All right? So I'll start wide on the floor, right? Heels down on the floor. And then as you come up, you're gonna Pivot your heels so the heels are facing each other as best as you can. And then go, why did you go down? Why didn't you go down? Yeah. So we're going up narrowing. No, you have to go up narrowing. So let's start again. It's, I know it's dyslexia. So you're starting wide. So you're going to come up, your heels are [inaudible] swing in, and then as you go down this swing wide, the stip and then what we did, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Good.

And you're still pivoting and that's okay. And turn there you go and down. So we don't want to turn on the ball of their foot if you can. That's good, Haley. Right? She's got the heel action. Try to keep your weight though, I have to say and keep your weight towards that third toe. Remember I mentioned the third toe, so when you pivot, you're actually shifting your way to your little toe side. Too much. So a little false compliment there. It's not easy.

What I'm trying to get you to do. Yeah. Good. Yes, you're, this is what's beautiful about this is that it's working the whole leg. It's not just like standing there doing a whole bunch of calves that you're killing yourself there with it. Okay? All right. And rest. So my ideal is 10 10 and 10 right now, come back to your foot's more parallel. Think about that weight on that third toe. Okay. And you're going to hook your right foot, your left foot.

Yup. Here we go. All straight legs, 10 times. Just lifting up and down. Ready? Up, down. You don't have to go too slow too. Not Super fast. Three. How many can you do for keep your legs straight? Five more than five is actually good you guys. You're bending your knee, Christy a little bit. Good. You guys. One more. You got the burn. Yeah, and rest.

Actually 10 is good you guys. I'm doing this with more clients now and it's remarkable. I'm actually gonna encourage you to do this with your clients because the weakness is remarkable. I have clients who can't do more than two or three on one leg and then the other leg they can maybe do five. So it's really interesting. I think there should be part of, even if you tell your client to come early and go do this. Okay, other side, let's see what your other side's like. There you go. Keep the legs straight.

It's a little bit cheating when you bend your knee, right? You're starting to recruit other things. We want the whole back of the leg to work. Good. Give me an account. Five, six, 10, 10, seven. You guys are being honest. Eight good. Nine and 10 excellent. And then come off. Yeah.

And now feel your feet. And your cas. Yeah. Legs feeling good? Yeah. Okay. So now we're going to go onto the mat. So let's move the chairs and the rollers. I'll get the rollers. You get the chairs. Okay. So now we're going to do is we're going to start really firing and targeting our hamstrings and our gluteals on the map before we stand and do some balance.

Challenge answer. Okay. So let's lie down on the Mat. Okay. Right. And we're just going to simply do, um, what I call the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, there's a suspension bridge called the Golden Gate Bridge. I'll show you all know that. But let's flex your feet and slide your legs away from you so that your knees are barely bent. So it's a very minimal, so you might have to move back on your math, your heels on the mat. But it's very small bent knee, so long bent knees and Haley, separate your feet a little bit. There you go.

It's more challenging actually to stabilize your legs if they're a little bit apart. Great. So this, this is a suspension bridge. So what you're going to do is push down with your heels and float the pelvis barely off the mat. So you're hovering. Really, it's a little hover, like you're a little hovercraft and then sit back down. Good. Now I want your lower ribs to actually stay on the mat. We're not doing a pelvic tilt, so this is more about hamstrings. So your top of your pelvis, it comes up as high as your pubic bone.

That's good. And come back down. Place your hands on top of your Iliac crest here, right in top of the front of the pelvis. Good. And elbows off the floor. Now as you start to lift, push into your hands first. Push into your hands and lift. Push into your hands and lips. See, that's different. Your pubic bone was coming higher than your, what we call Asi. That's it, right? It's just a small lift. It's not huge.

We're going to do bigger ones later. Yeah, I want it more on the Asi s there so that you're pushing. So come back down. So when you lift, you think here? That's it. It's a little different. It's more about hip extension. Can you feel that it's hip extension without curling your spine? Yeah, it's killer on the hamstrings. I don't do too many cause we're going to do more. Good. Great. Now you're going to straighten your legs. Okay, good. All right.

Straighten your legs and flex your feet. Yeah, and again, hip with a part, not together. It's he a little bit easier. You can keep your hands on your pelvis just to monitor it, but this time it's going to be bigger so you'll feel more gluteal. So you're going to push down with your feet and you're gonna lift the pelvis up. Great. But still try not, yeah, very good. Much better in the pubic bone. In the Asi. Good. And then come down. So straight legs.

He has to see the difference between when the legs are slightly bent versus who had. That's it. That's good. So we get the quads. You feel the quads working too. Haley, try to keep the knees straight that that means the quads are working at the knee. There you go. And the glutes and hamstrings are working in the back of the hip. Very nice. Nice straight legs. You don't have to go too high. It's not about arching your back. Yeah, it's just firing up the glutes.

That's it. One more time. Okay. And then relax. Okay. Now what you're going to do is take your right foot and put it over your left ankle. Right? All right. One legged bridge here. Straight legs. Let's just do three. Ready? Yeah. Uh, I dunno if you change. Good question.

You did cheat a little bit. Keep your legs in that alignment and just cross. That's it. Good. There you go. And here you go. Try to press up now. Can you feel both sides of your [inaudible] the same height. There you go. Ang, back down. Very good. And again, pressing up. Feel your pelvis. Press into your hands. It's helpful, actually. Good and down. Very nice. And one more pressing up. Good. You guys.

And back down. Let's switch to the other side. You certainly can do more repetitions of that. Like five to eight if you want, but we're doing three and press again. Good. And you can feel the difference between side to side. That's what's really remarkable about that. And again, go ahead. Does three very good and come back down. Great.

Now bend the knees and now you get to stretch your back out with a regular rolling bridge or normal basic [inaudible] rolling bridge. We'll start with your pelvic tilt. Feel your feet though. Can you push your feet into the ground, into the basement again? Feel your roots. Reach your knees over your toes and lift the pelvis up without arching the back.

So you really get a good stretch across the front of the hip. Standing on your feet. Could take a breath in, exhale and roll it down all the way down. Good. And again, we'll do three and inhale. Exhale, reach your knees. Feel your feet first. Find that third toe. That's it. And I see Allie good. Find that third toe. Reach your knees over and lift the pelvis a little bit higher. Put your hands on your ass again on top of your pelvis and push up into him there. You feel your feet go down and your pelvis lifts. Very good.

Little more glute there and roll it back down. And we're going to do one more. Rolling up. Good. Feel your feet. Think of the third bone of the toe, the whole length of it. You'd traced it while we were sitting on the stool. Good. Inhale, exhale and roll it down. Very nice. So now you're going to bring your knees to your chest. Give yourself a little hug. Whatever's comfortable.

Put your hands now in the back of your thighs. One Hand on top of, yeah, on the back of each thigh. And then just start to rock a little bit. And I'd like to see if you can find a way to rock and come up into a squat if you can. So get your feet planted. So take your time to roll. Yeah, find it and then stand up or you can hang there if you want. That's good. That's all right. Rolling. Good. And stand up. So now we're going to stand at the edge of your map, but not too close. Give yourself a little bit of space. We're not going to be, we're going to be coming forward into the skydiver squat. All right, so have a good width of your feet.

Now you should feel really energized in your legs from all the work we just did. So I want you to think about your sit bones first. And I want you to think of them going wide first and then send them back. And that's our sitting into the stool. And we're going to sit back here, okay. And we're going to hold it and let's just do another 10 flicks here. And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and then stand up and sit back again.

And now hold it here. And what I'd like you to do is curl your back. So now you're gonna roll through your spine. Looking down, you can place your hands on your thighs and kind of press into your back. Just gently and then extend through the tailbone backward. Widen your sit bones, extend the spine and lengthen through the top of the head. And we're going to do that again. Curl from the sip bones.

You're going to feel them start should feel the lower back, nice and open kind of reach. You can pull your legs a little forward, feel your feet, that third bone of your foot. Good. And then send the sit bones back. Keep breathing and length in the spine. And we're going to do that one more time. We're going to curl back and arching for whatever feels good and then stand up. Okay, now we're going to go to the back edge of the mat.

So we're just going to test our stance here. So what I want you to do, without thinking about perfect form or anything, just step forward and see how you're balancing here. And then step back and just do that a few times. And it's different doing it on a mat. It's actually less stable on a mat than if you were to do it on a wood floor. So when you're on a surface of the floor, you'll find, so if you're struggling on a mat, get off your mat and do it on the floor. Okay, good.

And now we're going to take that lunge and we're going to stay there now and I want the back leg bent. So your knee is actually, so you may want to shorten your stance a little bit so that your knee is straight down to the floor and the knee is underneath you. And so is already doing arm strategy, which is good. Sometimes we need you remember how you were adapting when somebody was pushing you? So you had different strategies, maybe arm head. Yeah, it all. That's interesting to notice. Okay. And step back. So go ahead and use your arm strategy.

Maybe you need to do something like, imagine you're on a surfboard and then come back right now. No. So let's put the hands here now. No arm strategy. See if you can nail it. It's a little harder, isn't it? Not to have your arms assisting. Good. Okay, so one more and we're going to stay right and make sure your spine is upright and you're looking straight ahead.

All right. And what we're gonna do here is arch your tail like we did earlier. So arc your tail left and right to pay off. It doesn't matter each way. Good. The ribs are stable. Damn, we're working the obliques. Can you feel that? Oh, obliques are working. You're working, you're rotators of your hip joint. And now come back to center and we're gonna step back and again, other side down. Get a good position that knees straight down.

Pelvis up. All right. Arking the tail right and left. You've got to feel your feet, don't you? Yeah. And keep breathing. Keep arguing the tail. Yeah. And yeah, let's see. I don't want the going. Yeah. Okay, y'all. We need music. Okay, lunge again, another different kind of force. Can you balance here and now the knee down here, we're going to ab Dr, which means bring it out to the side and bring it under you.

So out an n without put pivoting too much on the foot. So it's all in your hip joint. Add doctors and AB doctors. Good back long. You can do skydiver arms if you need the reminder and then push back. Oh, and step forward strengthening. Okay, here we go. Knee out and in.

Good. Okay. And come back and step forward. Oh, okay. Shake your legs out. That's good. Okay. All right. So now we're going to take another step forward, but the back leg, this time is going to be straight. So it's more like a lunch. So let's use our arms at first. So do what you feel is a good strategy.

Do you need to have your arms out to the side or do you need to have your arms forward? Yeah or no. Arms is great too. Now I want the back leg. If we can straight. It's hard to do that if we can. You can straighten it once you land, but see if you can get, so it's a wider stance. Yeah, and it's, and you have to reach back with the opposite leg, right? So you have to be aware of not just the going forward, but you have to be aware of what's behind you. So you gotta, you gotta ground that back leg in order as, that's it. Kristy. Nice. Yeah. Ground that back leg so you can land. Good.

Excellent. Okay, good, good challenge. I mean push yourself. Falling over is okay. You just know that you went past says great. All right. So we're going to step forward one more time. And guess what? We're going to just quickly do our little sway with the belt. With the tail. Okay. Lunch. Now this time the leg is straight bodies up. All right.

And just see if you get, the arch is much smaller because your hip, the back leg is in a bigger stretch. Yeah. So it's a little bit smaller. Feeling good and then pushed back. It doesn't feel any smaller. Okay, here we go. Feel your back. Feel your back leg good. And then did a little arking. I feel this really, it's wonderful for the back hip. Yeah. Kind of opening up.

That's so as they're good. And then step back. All right. Little lateral body. So I'll show you what you're gonna do. Are you gonna come forward again? Get grounded. Now you have to adjust a little bit with your feet. And I want you to turn sideways. So your stance might have to, okay.

And we're going to do a squat in a turnout and then you're going to pivot down here, switch your legs back to the lunch on the other side. And then step, and then you have to step back. If we're going to face the same way and then front and then here and then here, and then it's a step back. Okay? All right, your turn ready and step forward. Now turnout, adjust your feet so you can really feel the knees open and go low in that wide squat and turn your back leg in and shift your weight to the lunge back, legs straight, and then step forward. Now you have to step backwards. Step backwards. Ground your back foot. Turn out. That's it. Good turn.

Ground your foot and stand up backwards again. Backwards is hard. Really ground good and turnout. Feel your legs and change your legs. Good. And step up. One more and backwards step, turn out. Good pivot and then come up. Okay, we can do one more. Set backward, turn out. Now stay in the turnout. And what I want you to do, you can listen.

You don't have to watch. You're going to shift your weight onto the right foot and have your left foot come off or just toe touch the floor. See if you can toe touch. The floor and then come back squat. So we're just transferring the weight. Transfer Your weight, toe touch. You don't have to have your foot off. You can even use the foot if you need to for balance. That's on the floor.

Now Haley, keep your body upright. That's the challenge and the hip joint. So you're trying to stay with your center line through your spine. Good been years since I've done something like this, but I've come back to doing this for my strength and my hip. Good. All right. And then stay in the second. Turn to the right or towards the parking lot, right lunge and then step up. Excellent.

And now we're going to go back to her skydiver squat. All right. And when to put our hands on the floor, we're going to go out, go down to a plank because part of grounding is also grounding through all four limbs, your head and your tail. So you have your arms and your hands grounded cause that's what's in contact with the floor. And you've got your heels grounded. Now you're going to reach your right heel back further than your left, which gives you a little hick hip hike on the left and shift. So now you reach the Achilles back on the other side and keep reaching one leg longer than the other. Keep going and your Peltier, you're not shifting quite so much in your rips. Good.

And bring your head up and in alignment. Good. This isn't moving. So the very small legs are very straight. There you go. That's it. And you feel the old, don't jam your back. Okay. And then push back into like a downward dog. So your hips come up. So you can just rest for a second. Bend your knees and walk yourself forward.

Jump through whatever you'd like. Come back to sky diver, come back to skydiver and then stand up. Okay, so try not to be being, it's not loosey Goosey everywhere. All right, I'm just trying to get hip joint lower back with it. So we'll do it again. I'll show a variation on the knees, which is easier than the plank. You guys can do it again. So here we go. Skydiver hands. To the floor, come back into your plank, and then you guys reach your heels back and forth. If you're doing with your knees bent, you'll cross your feet and you can do archiving of the tail here. So it's a similar action of archiving the tail.

You can also add pointing and flexing your feet if you wanted to get into more feed action. And then push back can walk your hands back a little bit, bend your knees, either walk forward or jump forward, right? And then stand up into skydiver. Open your legs up if they became narrow and stand up. Great. We're gonna do one more. And skydiver hands to the floor. Back to your plank and obliques reaching back and forth.

Reach your heels back and forth. That's it. Great. Good. And try not to shift too much in the rib cage. It's really lumbar side bending. There you go. Feel the oblique stare. So we have the stability there. Great. And then push back. Good. And then jump forward again and stay low. Okay. So jump forward and walk your feet through your hands. Bend your knees. Okay.

And you're going to hug your knees now. Just whatever feels good. Just drop your head if you want to be wider with your feet. Okay. And just hug and drop your tailbone down. And if you feel like it, you can go ahead and straighten your legs and then bend them. He's your path. Keep reading. Okay.

And then stand into your feet and stand up. Good. Alright, so now let's switch partners standing still. So the person who was, so you will push her, right? Cause she pushed you and then you will standing still. The first one. First one. Yeah. First one. I'm going to change. Well, I guess if we want a true test, we should keep the same one. Let's keep the same one. Two test. Eyes closed.

Okay. So you introduced an unexpected force and see if you can feel the work you just did and how that helps you stabilize. Yeah. Find the strength in your feet and your legs. Yeah. Okay. Get the baseball bat out. Yeah, no. Yeah. Do you feel a difference though? Do you feel like you can, yeah, she feels more solid. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, that's good.

You're really staying with your feet. Excellent. Okay. Excellent. All right. All right, so I wish you good grounding experiences in your life. Yeah, thanks.

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Comments

I can't get any sound on any videos any more. Help!
Kelly ~ I'm sorry you are having trouble with the sound. If you are using the app, I recommend making sure the mute button is not on. That will cause the sound to not play with the video. If you are not using the app, I recommend checking the settings on your device and on the video to make sure the volume is up. If you continue to have trouble after trying this, please email us at contact@pilatesanytime.com.
Cynthia G
I've discovered I dont have a 3rd toe!!!. Oh no.. I hope I can coax it back to being part of my foot again. thanks as always

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