Class #402

Deep Mat Connection

55 min - Class
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Description

Go deeper into your body using the Overball for help. Meredith encourages the students to look for depth in everything from Chest Lift to Jack Knife. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball

About This Video

Mar 12, 2011
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Okay. Shall we move? Let's move. Um, here's how I want us to start. Just sit and you can, we're gonna use the, the small balls today, pillow, woodwork, towel, woodwork, should you not have a ball, but if you have one, that's what we're gonna do. So just bring the bottoms of your feet together. If that's not comfortable for you, you can lift your knees up, but finding the sitting bones and then finding the alignment of the spine. So think to yourself about the neutral position of the pelvis, the pubic bone, just underneath the front two hip bones. And why you sit here for just a moment, let's fill up with air. So feel the entire trunk expand and how's that?

Expand till your spine getting lighter. And as you exhale, start to let tension out of the body and just funnel that on the exhale. Breath attention just into the ground. And then inhale, maybe using the hands to gently guide yourself up a little taller, or perhaps just feeling a little lighter in your own body. And exhale, just support that shape. One more breath in here. And on the exhale, we're just going to gently start to move. So let the pelvis move out from underneath you. Keep your arms where they are, so the shoulders stay as is. We just really deeply squeeze the abdominals back, creating a c shape and feeling the abdominal start to work. Inhale, rise up. Exhale, feel the movement of the pelvis, a pubic bone are reaching up towards the chin. The eyes just go in that direction and inhale, guide yourself up.

I'm pressing with my arms just a little bit. Let's do about three more just like that. The more you hollow out your abs, don't lean too far back, but keep the shoulders over the pelvis. So we're really just looking to round and straighten the spine. Last two times. Shoulders over, hips, flection of the lumbar spine specifically, and inhale to lengthen the spine, sitting up, letting the eyes go forward. One more time like that. That's what the arms good this time curling backwards a little further. How low can you go with control?

Taking a breath and exhale, reach forward, kind of undulating through the spine. Lift the head, reach out towards the feet, lengthen out the spine and come back up straight. XL curving the back. Rolling. Inhaling to pause. Exhale, feel the top of the head. Reach forward. The shoulders are always being pulled back, reaching into a long back and with that long back, sit up tall. One more time like so. Reaching back, letting the knees just drift open, not a lot of work in the legs at this point. Reaching forward through the spy and lifting up.

Just reaching forward for your bar. Place it between your knees if you're going to be sit bones distance apart and we're going to reach forward again this time pressing into the ball, rounding yourself back. I'm going to try to go to the about my shoulder blades. I'm going pretty neutral with my pelvis at the bottom. Then I have to re it as I roll through the spine and sit tall and XL says let the pelvis move for. So anytime you're working to increase flection in the lumbar spine, you want to be able to move the pelvis.

Inhale to pause and Xcel to take this chest forward and then say one more time like that. Press into the ball just a little bit. Feel that that act action increases awareness through the abdomen and then rolling up. And if I could only just stop stuttering, we have a really good class. Paul's, when you get to your low position, just raise the arms to feel that weight of the arms. Just create a little bit more work through the ABS and the arms. Just float down and inhale heavy shoulders. Nice light or and exhale to reach down last two times.

Gently squeezing the ball and reaching back on one more. Yeah, in reaching back. And with that we roll all the way sitting up tall and again, rolling back. Okay. Guiding the spine down. Look for evenness in both sides of your body. Sometimes we'll feel one side of the abdominals working harder than the other.

Suggest tune your mind into your body and see what you can discover about yourself and what you can perhaps change in your movement patterns. We're coming up on this one oral and all the way and then sitting tall, taking the ball, bringing the legs together, the balls gonna go behind you, not right up against your back, but slightly behind you. You may need to adjust it as you start to move working again for Lumbar flection and reaching the arms forward. Guide the pelvis out from underneath you. That's going to set your back down into the ball. Don't go, just stay round through the spine and take a breath in. Once you get there, take a moment and just rest on the ball and feel the difference between resting on the ball and curling the chest slightly forward and the pelvis forward away from the ball. From there, inhale, exhale, draw the pubic bone up towards the ribs. It's a very, very small movement. And then release guide the belly button or the abdominals back towards the ball and just look for a little bit deeper reflection and release.

And we do that again and release. And one more time and release. We're gonna roll up, arriving straight, enrolling back down, curling. Yeah, adding a leg movement in here. So as you go through that same initiation into that post here, your tilt, you're going to just float one leg up, bring it up pretty high. Inhale, release it down, XL, initiate with the pelvis, and then deeply pull the abs and floating the leg in a allowing the arms to kind of float out there in space.

Okay, and how deeply can we pull in? How light can we feel? The leg, egg and crow, and let's say [inaudible] this one and then one more to each side. I remember that the flection of the spine is the most important thing that we're focusing on right at this moment, both feet down. Inhale, prepare and Xcel to reach forward and then lift, excelling as you roll back again, allowing the low back to come into contact with the ball. Take the arm closest to me, reach out the opposite arm is going to reach forward and then exhale. So if my arms are both straight ahead, now I just take my opposite arm in to reach it away. The other arm stays as if, so we know in him how challenging that this can be without holding onto anything or without something to rest on. But can you use that little support that we've given the increased challenge in the waist, so bigger rotation perhaps and back and a deeper abdominal contraction and real light and relaxed in the legs.

Last one to each side and no movement in the lower body. Lots of things that we can challenge and here's our last one. We'll come back to center and with that we're going to go oh, and then taking the ball, place it between the knees. If your feet aren't slightly apart, bring them slightly apart now and just rolling down for a pelvic curl coming all the way down as the head touches. Maybe adjust the feet as necessary. I'm breathing in.

Feel that the arms are reaching long and straight, a little bit of initiation into the inner thighs and we start moving wheeling the spine and Pasta Mat, reaching the knees forward over the toes. There's an inhale at the top, press into the arms. Don't let the shoulders change as you articulate through the spine, slowly in bone by bone. Maybe you'll find that all that flection ware has given you a little bit more release in the back. Exhale, so come up again, pressing gently into the ball in ham and rolling down to the spine travels. But where the work is is in the front of the body and again, guiding the spine up, letting the ribs stay pretty close are pretty heavy towards the floor.

I guess they're not really close, but they're definitely below the pall. This is what I was intending to get across. Let's say two more times. Just like so exhale to lift. Hold at the top as you, I don't know. Breathe. Reach your knees forward towards your toes. Feel that energy in the hamstrings. Oh, and roll down my neck. Cramping. Oh, go again. Yes, I know. Rolling. I'm just that energy genetic forward reach of the knees, the shoulders down and rolling down.

Let's call this the last one, excelling to come to the top. Find that little extra tuck of the pelvis, raise the arms overhead, reach them. Oppositionally to the spine as the spine returns into the ground and then spread out the arms into a t shape or a low v shape. Guide the toes a little closer to your body until you can without any strain in the lower back. Just float the feet up off the ground. Feet together. Knees are going to still be slightly apart. Ball in between the knees.

Inhale towards me for the spine. Twist annex also come back and inhale inhaler cross, so how can we use the ball to pay attention a little bit more to our inner thighs and to use that attention to feel a little bit more through the waste and email. Just gently guiding the spine from side to side. Shoulders. There's totally still on the ground. I was going to straight up towards the ceiling and the zero tension in the neck. How about one more to each side in here?

Annex Annex, but drop the feet down towards the hips and then place the feet down on the ground. Reach back behind the head, interlocking the fingers. Look for neutral pelvis position. Tailbone down. We breathe in for the chest lift. Exhale to curl the head in chest stuff. Once again, just press into the ball a little bit. Let the inner thighs help you, Ian. Heel intensify. Exhale, release back down, but work it. Exhale till left. Ribs dropped down.

The head is heavy and the hands, the eyes go just towards the ball. There's an inhale to bots and an XL to release down. Working, lengthening, stretching the back. Exhale to lift. Inhale to reach behind the thighs XL to guide yourself maybe a little forward, maybe a little higher, not a lot. Squeezed the ball. Reach over the ball with the hands, one on top of the other. And we're going to take the hands over the left knee and back to the center and over the right knee and back to the center.

So maybe the inner thighs will help you to keep the pelvis still here and back to the center. It is reaching over the top of the knee and and over the top of the knee and back. Last one, separate the arms. Raise them away. Back Refi. How did you, how far back can they go without you falling back? Put them back behind your head and with that lower your body down on the next exhale, we're coming back up again. Inhale, prepare ourself to curl. Once again, we're going to guide the hands behind the eyes. Exhale, look for a little bit more. Inhale, reach up and back behind the head with the hands. Chest lift with rotation, it's up to go over and inhale to center. Exhale up to go over and inhale to center and the shoulders down.

Avoid turning the head from side to side. Let the rotation of the body happen around the rib cage and back. Pelvis is very strong, very secure and back. Let's say one more to each side and back and one more to this side and back and inhale. Look for more. Exhale to good. Let's see that one more time. Excellent lift. Inhale, guide the hands behind the size. Exhale just a little more.

Let Kyle arms up and back. We're going to the right this time and it's twist and center and up and over and center. I'm going to change it on this next one. So we go back to the side that we started on. Stay there. Take the up opposite hand. Put it just on that side.

Can you saw the hand up towards that outer knee? Up and down. Now here's another challenge. Can you do it without just elevating the shoulder to do it? So it's a slight looking for more lift. Let's take the hand back. Come back to center over to the other side. Opposite hand, opposite leg, and you're just reaching towards that outer knee and Ah, and I'm tiny and curl forward and and forward and reach the hand back behind the head. Slide the feet a little closer to your hips.

Pick the feet up off the ground and lower the head and chest to the ground. Take the arms just over the shoulders. Raise the arms over the head without lifting the bottom side of the ribs. Keep the knees bent, XL. Curl the head and chest up. Lift as high as you can or as anyway as high as you can. And he'll come down XL to lift as you lift. Squeeze the ball.

See what it does for you in heel to come down. Yeah, cause I'll tell left. Feel the working stretch in the abdominal areas as you're reaching the head to the ground. Hold at the top. Stretch the legs, the fetal have to separate and me in here and it's an XL for the 102 three, four, five in, in and out. Two, three, four, five and [inaudible] and three biasing through the inner thoughts. Can You keep your trunk still? That's hard. You keep squeezing the ball and him. Yeah. Five to three. This is halfway breathing, six breathing, filling up and then completely exhaling.

Last three and two to three. Four or five and big inhale, belly flat. Last one, finish on the inhale. Oh Chris, you don't give up on us. Bend the knees, reach our around the knees and hug the knees into the body. Okay. Take the ball out from between the knees and put it in between the ankles.

Let's take the feet down onto the ground and slide them away from you and you're just holding onto the ball between the feet. The arms reach overhead. Heres comes with a roll lap. Inhale, lift, head, chest, squeeze the ball, exhale up, staying around, but long and haul it through the way it's at the top. We come down manipulating and articulating the spine, head and chest. Start Your exhale. Now as you curl through your spine and rounding down again, starting from the poet has maximize that flection. Hey, need [inaudible] to inhale, hollowing the abdominals and exhale.

So the feet reaching energetically forward. Can we keep the leg still and back? Let's say two more here then or and inhale to exhale. Last one, lifting to crow. This time we're going to reach all the way forward. Just stretch and give yourself a stretch. Flexing the feet.

No, and while you're, they just pick up the ball and slide the legs together for some spine twist. So let's just take the arms out like a pointer. Press the ball away from you. Feel the collarbones around and the chest cavity narrow. Then squeezable ball a little bit. Pull back so that you can feel your upper back muscles engage. We inhale, that's come towards me.

It's an exhale turn and then try to turn more and inhale back the space between the ball and the collarbones stays consistent. Debbie can sit lean forward just a little bit as you twist and turn and back and turn and back. So increasing the length of the spine, increasing the mobility of the spine, coming back this way in her whole there. Bend your arms, stretch your arms back forward and return yourself back to center. But I have a Stewart's inhale. Exhale, pull in, left in heel stretch and exhale back to center and Mouride across. Inhale, so letting the breath be our rhythm.

Feel the upper back muscles staying involved throughout in here and pull to reach. I'm just lightly pressing my palms into the ball. Most of the work I'm feeling is happening all right in my upper back and then reach, oh throughout my back I suppose. But the bending and straightening of the arms, the support from the ball, squeeze of the ball, that's all upper back involve. Last one, pulling and stretching and coming back and for the day, pulling in, reaching forward and coming back. Just to a point the feet, take your ball and push it over the top of your feet. So you're definitely stretching forward your hamstrings.

But if you push down on the ball with your arms, you can actually get a good stretch in your feet. And then rolling ourselves up. Let's just take the ball and rest it to the side. Flex the feet, separate them sitting up for the spine. Stretch. Inhale, arms forward. Exhale. Let the head go first. Pull the ribs back as the body goes forward, the abdominals pull way back into the spine, mark where you are and ev each time. See if you can go further and then roll. Sit and tall. Uh, do I want the arms lower? Shoulder Height? Let's, let me think about it while we move. Um, the arms will drop as the shoulders drop, so they do lower a little bit.

Just think of keeping them at shoulder level. So if they're, if your shoulders are down, they're down a little and then roll up. What I would have you do is maybe not just drop the head between the arms, so keep a little space above the arms and the between the arms and the head and then just gently pull the shoulder blades down. You'll feel that. I think that you can go further each time. Here we go. Roll at, and this is our last one. It's an exhale to reach forward. We're going to add the extension in here. Inhale, let the spine extend forward. Raise your arms to let the arms lead that had stays right between the arms.

We're going down and back up and we're doing it again. Exhale as we've been hippie [inaudible] curl. Then you'll feel lightness in your body. Feel the tailbone reaching back, the front of the hip, reaching forward. Exhale, diving down and articulating them couple more times. Excelling to reach forward and heal to create length had just between the arms, arms, nice and straight. Xcel down, Anna, let's make this the last one for now. Rolling down, stretching your arms overhead. Let the arms fall to the lengths wherever they land to. Just the arms.

I'm just going to give myself a little bit more tailbone back, ribs and abdominals in with that and with a really solid body. The arms just slightly reach and now they're going to reach back a little further and then in the pulsing motion it's just that little, that extra further reach and reach and as they go back, the belly pulls in so it's like the thumbs are pulling the abdominals into the spine. The chest is gently reaching forward and we're going three more times. Here's one and two and three sit up should be bit easier. Open your arms to the sides for the saw. Inhale towards me. Exhale, reach the back arm away from me. The front arm towards that, the inhale lengthen up and returned to center and we inhale, spiraling around the waist, diving down link anyhow and back and sit tall and then flex. Look for a bleak or look for abdominal work lifts and come back and turn.

Pay attention to the fee. We all know, hopefully that they should be real still. If we've got still feet that's going to indicate to us that we've got to still pelvis, which is optimal. As you reach forward over your legs, you should feel your abdominals not on your leg, but into your spine and ad and how about one more and he said dive down and the lift and come back here that last time to the back and range and back and come back to center. Bring the feet together. Point your feet, take your hands behind you. They hadn't into back support. I think I was facing forward. If it's available for you out to the side, if it's not just as lifted, engaging through the back of the legs, we pick the pelvis up, stretching the toes into the ground, looking for the shoulder. Stretch the hips. Come down the chest, lifts up, shoulders stay well away from the ears. Exhale, tilt. Reaching the feet down the top of the heads, reaching the opposite direction as the toes. A. Be careful here that when you lift, you're not just totally dropping your head back, so you want to just keep it in line with the spine in heels.

Just sit down and exhale to the left. Look for a sense of the abdominals pulling you back. It's not just the legs moving up and down. Let's do two more reaching out and, and last one, reaching out. Okay.

And take your body forward, reach around, hugging yourself down into the stretch and then rolling yourself up. Retrieve your ball from wherever it's lying. Can you do rolling like a ball? So what I want us to do today is just take the ball and put it right in the belly, right above the pelvis and underneath the ribs. And we won't be able to be, you know, as close as we normally would be for the, for this exercise, but it'll be good. All right, so as you're holding onto your ankles, try to draw the abdominals and it's like you're trying to pull the ball inwards into your own ways. With that, allow the feet to hover and here we go. The legs press into the ball, the ball presses into that and balancing at the top and it's an inhale to go back and excellent to go up, go head.

Then when coming back, so I'm finding for myself, this is one of the more challenging exercises for me personally and it helps me to pull the thighs into the ball as I pull myself up into that balance position. We're going to more time and last one and just place the feet down. Open up the feet, take a stretch forward, and you can just rest the ball in the middle of your legs for now. Roll all the way back up. Placing the ball between the ankles. Sit back just behind the pelvis. Lift the legs in the teaser prep position. I'm going to have us use our arms for the first maybe two.

So looking for still legs. Tuck the tailbone slowly. Start to roll your self toward your shoulder blades. Try to minimize armies as you. In fact, use your arms as much as you need to, but maximize abdominal work and minimize any movement in the leg. Just make it about spinal mobility. Sit and tall. Exhale, talk the tele guiding the spine into the ground. I almost feel like you can get more holding on or more precise so it's holding on. Feels like it's not enough work for you. By all means, let go. I'm happy.

[inaudible] n yeah. All right, let's all let go. We're all down and Roland, can you keep it as smooth? I can't and let's see. One more roll down. Yeah, and will that and then rolling down again. We're going to move on from here. Hug the knees in towards the body. Rest coming up for the double leg stretch.

If you ever want to just let the ball go, that's always an option. We're going to curl the head and chest up, so we're going to do a little ball transfer. The first movement, his legs out, arms overhead. Bring your knees and get the ball legs together. Arms out. Place the ball back, arms, legs, and exhale and in hugging the waistline to move the legs as you have to open your knees to place the ball between your ankles. Can you do that with a relatively minimal amount of instability in the pelvis? Sorry for the late talking. This is hold here.

Bend the knees, rest the ball over the left knee. Stretch the right leg out. Push the ball down and use that push to curl up and then we just che as you push it down on your knee with the ball, do it from your back. I'm pulling my shoulders and working the whole body. The legs are very tight. G, N or h and r, h last five, little faster. One, one. Still working in the back. Two, three, three, four, four, five, five, both knees and arms. Back to the points.

Your position a turn towards me. Extend the opposite leg and guide the elbow past the knee and we change elbow tinny and all the tinny. Give that ball a little bit of a squeeze and all right, h. Okay, good. Breathing out as you turn in. Hilter return center last four, sorry. [inaudible] two and one. Bring the knees riding clothes. Place the ball back between your ankles.

Hug the knees into your chest as you place your head down. Turn your head and look over one shoulder. Take your time, look for a stretch back to center over to the other side, back to the centers and the legs out into a tabletop position. Stretch them on a diagonal with which you can maintain a flat spine. Inhale for the rollover. Exhale, we rollover flexing the feet. Just hug the ball a little between the thighs and then peel down.

Press into your arms. According to the fetus, the leg starts to lower. Breathe in as they come up. Exhale, real smooth. Transition into the rollover. Flex, squeeze and roll down. You're pointing to lower. One more time. Rolling over flex. Hug The abdominals even more and roll down the flies.

Drop towards the chest. Peel the pelvis down, taking us into the Jackknife. If you don't wish to do it. Do the rollover. Starts the same. It's an exhale. And then we go down and ah, think back extensors, abdominals and hip extensors. And then roll down. I'm going to say the same thing with different words. Legs down and up. And exhale over. Inhale down, up. Push your legs away from your body. Lift with your spine, press with your arms, and then roll down. Looking for control.

I'm trying not to wiggle my ball much so you to one lift and over and down and up. And then all the way down last time left rolling over in your down animal reach and exhale sacrum all the way back down. Bending the knees and turning over onto your side. Okay. I'm gonna do some sidekicks. I'm going to take the ball and put it just under the ribs.

Thank you Tracy. I'm not going real low. I'm putting it kind of right underneath the armpit. And then I'm going to bend my bottom knee. Nope, I'm not both like stripe. Okay. So we are propped up on the forearm. You can do your elbow if you want it to, um, opposite hand behind the head. So what I want us to think about here is first rather shoulder blade that you're balancing on downwards.

Then you'll feel how the ribs are kind of heavy on the ball. Try to lift them away and then if you feel that you're sinking, you'll know that you are pick up your top leg and it's a double kick forward on the XL and our single reach back. Okay. And back paying attention to the stability of the shoulder. [inaudible] so I like to just keep in my mind on how much my balls moving around and challenge myself to try and say we're all still over it.

This is our last one. Hold here. Then the knee, bring the heel to the hip, press the leg back in and stretch the leg out. For the bicycle. Reach Ben, the entire leg moves and then we stretch from the knee. So we've got hip extension before knee extension [inaudible] last to check in with the shoulder and hold back. Bend the knee, bring the heel to the hip, bring the knee right in towards the rib, stretch it out and then take it straight back. Then abdominals, pull the Fiat towards the body. We stretch and then we pull back. Three more reach and last two. The head is reaching into the hands rather than the hand pushing the head forward. Feel the hamstring contraction. Then abdominal support as a leg is traveling forward.

Go ahead and lower the leg down. Then both knees help yourself up off the bottom and just put the ball to the side for now. Cross the top ankle over the bottom ankle. Think we're going to go straight into the twist today. Ladies, you ready for it? Yeah, bring it on. Deb says, here it comes. Ribs away from arm, shoulder stabilization lifts, side plank position. As you exhale, pick up the bottom side hip. Press the spine, lengthen it out and flatten it out. Inhale as you come back and let's bend the knees to come down in to lift.

When you do for spiral the pelvis, dive under the body. Inhale to come back. Annex. I'll say bend, so either stick with the bend or keep the hips. Just hover the hips, so I'm coming back. I'm going to choose the hover for now reaching down and then I pull up from those obliques and I'm under again and back in one more. Hover and lift and bend and take the bottom leg out from underneath the top leg for the mermaid, both arms out to the side, sitting nice and tall through the body.

We go in the same direction towards that supporting arm, the handguns down. Imagine a ball and be in your belly as you wrap yourself around. Inhale as you open back out. Exhale to lift. Let that opposite arm come down and stretch it over the top. Use the oblique that you now feel stretching to pull you back up and then reach out and comes down.

Take it forward or up the abdominals back. Inhale out. Exhale up and over. One more please. Stretch. Hand comes down kind of light on that are kind of a light on the other arm that what's really working is all the space between the shoulders and the pelvis. We're coming up and over for the last time here and then up [inaudible] I think we'll just change sides now so I could pick up your ball.

Put it underneath yourself on the opposite side. All right, so we had both like straight. We had the ribs pulling up away from the ball to monitor that we were indeed lifted shoulders down top like up and it's a double kick forward and a single reach back and a double kick forward. Again, monitoring how much the spine is moving or the ball is rolling around underneath. Yeah, focusing on the center of the body as a leg moves forward. Last two times. Taking the leg forward. Again, we bend the knee, bring the heel to the hip, take that entire piece behind your pelvis and then stretch it out on a long diagonal. Send it forward.

Then reach animal length and Anagen bent. Reach on or lengthen last two times. Feel the extension of the hip before the knee straightens. And here we go. Hang out here. Refold the knee. Bring the heel to the hip, ring that entire shape for it and then stretch it out. And Paul and bet pull the abdominals in that side comes close to the body and we reached back and and hollow out the waist to stretch forward and pull back last two times here.

Reach and pull back and reach and pull back. That was that. I do believe. Take the ball and put it away across the top leg over the bottom life. The arm is away from the shoulder quite a bit. Heading into the twist, make sure you've got [inaudible] good shoulder stability. Here we go. It's a flat line into that side plank.

And then dive down first to the ankle and then keep spiraling. So the arm comes underneath the armpit. Inhale as you head back to side playing position and Ben and left and spiral. That bottom hip is now the top hip or at least even with the opposite hip and bed. You're trying to trip dead. Chrissy's trying to roller ball underneath. Yeah, and back.

Here's where we did the hover. You're going to do it. Here you go. Lift and reach under more weight on the top like then the bottom leg and back. Do the hover once more. Lift and bend. Well that was it. Tricks you both times.

Good for me. Okay. Both Times out here comes the mermaid, I believe there's three. So you go towards that arm that was supporting you. Let it go down to the ground or rotate around the waist. Maybe it'll turn your ribs a little more. Inhale open, back out, lift from the sideways and up and over. Go tall before you bend and then using that waist to lift up, bring the back hand up, reach across and, and then it's a big rotation. Take your time there and really look for beautiful strips.

There is one to be had, that's for sure and then it's just up and over and back. It's a bit hard. Last one, let me spiral and we open and it's a lift. [inaudible] okay, I'm going to come on or we're going to come on our hands and knees. Next. I'm going to leave the ball out of the equation for just a little bit and to do a little bit more hip extension. So it was a full series of hands. You can do this one of two ways.

You could either be on your hands or you can choose to be down on your elbows. I think I'm going on my hands for today, but yes, if you didn't want to be on your risks, the forums would perhaps what we shall see, the forums would be a better option if your risk get tired, but I think we'll all be okay. Take your right leg and striking it behind you and then just look down the line of your body and see that that right hip pelvis hasn't dropped down. Our first movement is to just lift that leg straight up into the air and down as the leg lifts. Reach it behind you. Focus on the contraction of the glute, followed by the hamstring and down, and a good place to check in with shoulder stability. Hold that. Can you take your opposite arm forward? If you're on your forms, it may not work, but since we're not, we're going to try this.

Just the leg and lift fi just to lay and for just the Lange three, two more times. Stay with the leg, bring the hand back down, bend the knee. The knee should be right underneath the foot and parallel. We're just going to press up to the ceiling. So as we lift, focusing on the back of that, like make sure we're not going into like a camelback body is real solid through the middle. Last two and last one, stretch the leg out. This is Mada a variation of the knee stretch, so we're going to round the spine.

Got around a lot to get clear the knee, stretch it right up to the nose and then inhale, lengthen. Reaching the leg out. Exhale, pull the knee in, really flex the spine and inhale to stretch out and pull the knee and in helps us stretch. Ah, maybe two more. So how much can you focus on your abdomen here? Staying there? Does little pulses in from the stomach and theory? Can you pull in so much and round so much that you perhaps get a stretch in your low back? This is it. Placed the knee back down. Um, I need to walk a little forward.

We're going to go into a plain position from here to slide the right leg back. Slide the left leg back. Now that was that same focus that we just had in the backside of the, they were going to point the right leg again and it's just going to lift for five, four, three, two. We're going to take it into an up stretch right now. So use the leg like a lever to rise up into a pyramid shape. Inhale as you reach back down, just top the top of the foot. Excellent.

As that leg works first, then the spine is carried through and back. Here it is again. Three Murray up into that pyramid and Dan to shoulders, reaching away from the ears. Don't drop the head below the arms. One more time. Take that leg, step it through your hands, placed the bottom me onto the ground and talk those toes. Reach forward finding balance, raising me.

Lifting the spine up out of the pelvis. It's almost like your upper body and your lower body are two separate segments. The lower body's heavy grounding you into the earth. As your upper body gets lighter and lighter and maybe now add a little bit more extension through the spine. Reach the arms back forward. Use them to help you lift up onto that heel, that front heel, stretching out the front leg and lengthening the spine.

You can good. I do. You could use your ball if you want to to get a little higher. Okay, so we're going to rebound that front knee. I'm going to slide it back and here we are back into position. Yay. But Dan says you got a whole nother leg to go.

So abdominal Zinn, don't just let your back sag. Keep the pelvis neutral. Take the left leg out. Take a minute, look down the front of the body sheets. See that the pelvis is in a straight line and then we just took the leg straight out. Focusing on the contraction of the glute. As the leg reaches back behind you feel the shoulder blades move in the direction of the foot. Last two. Yeah, and last one, holding the leg up. Take the opposite arm in. Reach it forward.

Lower the leg again. How does it change? The exercise shouldn't change it much. And to feel the strong center I you need in order to support yourself here we did five. So here's the fest. Fifth, they're my from New Zealand Bend Uni. Um, okay, so then these just under the foot, sorry, New Zealand and a little lifts up. So you're just working the back of the leg. The knee is just directly underneath the foot. I said that the ribs are in.

We got one more to go. Stretch to like back out. Curve the spine. As the spine curves, that knee just barely clears the floor and comes right up into the nose. Inhale as you stretch the leg back along straight line with the spine. Exhale, flex the spine first, pulling the knee up into the chest and inhale to reach back. Allow the head to just be effected by the shape that's being, that's happening in the spine. Last two times here. Scoop and pull and reach.

And then we brought the knee in and then we just did a little contractions. It's more like the back is trying to round more on that with sweat poles and Nian hurry and two more. That's it. One more than 70 back. Okay. Heading into plank position. Let's set the left leg back. So work in those hip extensors, right leg back, maybe it just a slight tuck of the pelvis and then the left leg points in, it reaches behind you and and to, and here comes up, stretch air, Bass. We were raise the whole body up, touch the ceiling with the toes and then reached top the top of the foot, shoulders down and lift straight line from the head to the heel and reach down. It's like that leg is trying to touch the ceiling.

And last two times and then dad and I, and here we are in our much needed hip flexor. Stretch and bend the knees. Step the foot flow word, drop the back knee gently down. Find your balance. I think inner thighs that helps reaching up, reaching forward and again, feeling the lower body rooted, anchored into the ground. Allow the upper body to lengthen, to feel light to perhaps extend a little bit more. And then we allow the arms to reach forward coming towards the floor and a stretch that front leg. Yeah, guiding the spine out straight.

Nice. So yeah, if you wanted to use your ball to help you get up a little bit higher in order to be straight, that would be a really cool thing to do with it. Okay. And then we're going to bend and we're going to take that foot out. We're gonna make our way down to our abdominals. Holding onto the ball with your hands. Press into the ball just a little bit. In fact, just don't really think about what's, hm hm. Losing my train of thought here.

Push into the ball as you're pushing into the ball. Don't make it about the chest. Make it about pulling the chest forward and using the shoulder blades, pulling down the back to put pressure into the ball. Everyone got upper back work. Okay, we're going to lift the legs just a little. They simply have are on the right knee kicks in and it stretches and the left knee kicks in and it stretches the eyes in this back extension or forward because the chest is forward.

If you can turn the movement of the leg into a really concentrated hamstring contraction, the body should stay pretty still, which is the goal and back and pull. Pull rage and Paul Paul rage last three. So one more to eat side and then both legs come down and then stretch the spine. Sorry, you can just move your bottle away from you for the moment. Okay. We're going to take it into another upper back exercise. So our an upper back exercise. I put the ball.

Can I just right on top of my chest or right underneath my chest and when I'm going to be thinking about when we start moving as first time just kind of relaxing over the ball and then in order to come into my upper back extensors, I'm going to roll the ball forward with my chest guide, the elbows and the shoulder blades back. The eyes turned slightly forward as we reach up into our upper back extensors and then just allow the chest to, I dunno, tempted to where the use the word collapse. That doesn't really sound like a good pull out his word. All right, let's see it guiding the chest. It's like you're trying to push the ball forward. Oh, it looks so good. 10 release energy backwards with the elbows and it's not really the arms that I'm talking about. Mostly it's mostly the shoulder blades and almost feels to me like a yawning sense so lightly into the arms, a little lightly into the upper back. Although it's intense. Can we find ease in the movement and release?

Let's say two more like that. Reaching out and release. One more time guiding the chest for the l was reaching back the eyes. Reaching slightly. I had hold there. Can you, without any more tension created, bring the arms out to your sides. It's okay to rest on the ball just a little bit. Raise the arms overhead. Then the elbows. Take them out into an airplane. Raise them overhead like superman. Bend them, pull them back, reach them out to the side. Bring them overhead. Pull them back, stretch them out to the side. Here comes our last one. Overhead. Sorry Deb.

Bend them. Put them down. And then you have to roll the ball out from underneath you and just let your back settle for a second. [inaudible] help yourself up with your hands. Find your way back to hands and knees. Oh, not sit on your feet for a second. All and now we'll go on. Hands and knees.

We're just going to go into the cat stretch here. So neutral pelvis position to begin are pelvic position. Shoulder blades down. As you exhale, press the shins into the ground. Curve. The lower spine. Just look down between your knees. So the head isn't totally dropping, but it is being effected.

You're trying to maximize the curvature of the lower spine, but the upper back doesn't round as much as it can make your way back towards neutral. Now press the chest. It's that same idea of rolling something forward with the sternum. Not a lot of movement, but should be a lot of feeling and Hilton, a fide neutral. Next level to curve the spine. So allowing the flection of the lower back to happen. You guys look fantastic. Inhale, lengthen out through the spine and exhale.

Feel that sense of chest pulling the shoulders, pulling down, but without actually letting the pelvis have anything to do with it. Inhale, come back. Exhale, two more big flection. Gently pulling the shoulder blades down away from the ears. Inhale back to neutral. Exhale, extend and you're back to neutral. And from there, just tuck the toes underneath you. Walk your hands back towards your knees. Gonna roll over your toes and press down into your heels. So it just going to do a little bit of a, it's kind of a foot exercise.

Try to feel wait in all 10 toes. Now most of us like to put more weight into one part of the foot of the other. And as you rise up onto your toes, keep that pressure all the way throughout the ball of the foot. Now the Pinky toe ball might not have as much weight cause it's a little lower than the rest, so don't worry too much about that one. Press the heels down. So as you press the heels down, lean into the heels a little bit to get a good stretch, and then rise up onto the toes and almost lift the chest. So you're really, it's almost a balance on the toes.

And then press them down and lean forward and then energy forward and up, pressing into the toes. And the heels are going to come down. We're going to come up from here, so we're going to press the heels down into the ground, fold the spine over. Just let the legs be straight for a moment. And maybe by drawing the abdominals inwards, your spine can come a little bit further downwards. Ben, just the right knee, letting the right hip drop and feeling the stretch to the left leg. But be careful not to overextend it or just push the Navy on straight. And then we're going to change.

So the right leg straightens in the left knee bends the forehead just goes right to that bench and, and we're going to do it again, but this time as the right knee bends, the right hand is going to go in front of the fee. We're gonna lift Celeste. I'm off the ground. Ends a higher role. The spy, not just out or around, but forward. So your very long through your back and then fold back forward. Exchange the leg that's bent, exchange the hand on the ground, the supporting arm, shoulder pulls way down as we reached that opposite arm out. And then take the body energetically to turn more and then take it back when you arrive down, bend your knees a bit, feel a sense of the hipbones sinking or pulling up into the hip joint, and then allow the spine to just cascade forward. Just cascade.

And that you have, there has to be a little bit of letting go, maybe not of the ABS, but of the lower back extensors anyway, and let's keep the knees bent as we curl through the spine, ruling ourselves, wheeling the spine through around position, letting the pelvis shift forward. And then we finished standing all the way up. Optimal alignment. Hips over knees, knees over ankles, shoulders over hips, arms to the sky. Lift the eyes, look at the hands, press the arms out, fold forward, reach out flat with your spine. And then hollow press the or out of your body. Is your arms drop to the ground? Let the head be heavy as you just roll up. Haven't been my knees again to come up, but you can do what you wish. Rolling.

Articulating. Reach out, arms overhead. One more time. The arms travel out to the side of the spine. Swan dives forward. Here's where we get to haul and it's like the arms dropping is what's pressing the air out of the body fully exhaling. And with that we were all back up. And with that we're done. Thank you for coming.

Comments

very good cueing. pace is slow enough to really concentrate on the moves. great class!
The word "depth" should be capitalized at the beginning of this workout. My abdominals know this was a new workout! The use of the ball in the side lying exercises offers great feedback. No cheating allowed if you follow Meredith's tip about not sinking into the ball. Makes me wonder how much more I would learn with real world feedback from a teacher. That's going to happen in June though! :)
I love your feedback Joni! I remember this class and think you described it perfectly! So happy to hear your going to work with a teacher in June... hopefully Meredith?
Thanks as always Joni!!! Are you coming here in June????? That would be so WONDERFUL.
Thanks Polly.
Meredith, I've been doing Pilates for years...started doing Pilates Anytime about 2 months ago and have seen a huge difference in my body...YOu Rock! You've brough me to the next level.
Wow Jennifer what a huge compliment. Thank you for making me smile today. Keep up the good work!
1 person likes this.
I really liked the kneeling sequence. It was great.
1 person likes this.
Great class...loved the use of the ball with the exercises. I'm going to try some of the ball exercises with my Tuesday class. Loved the pace and great cueing! Thanks!
1 person likes this.
nice flow.... like your classes Meredith !
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