Class #423

Beginner Series #2

60 min - Class
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This is the second Beginner level class in a series of 10 that will be taught by Niedra Gabriel. The Beginner series is designed to lay an instrumental foundation for all your Pilates mat work. Join Niedra for each class and notice the improvement in your exercises as you progress through the series.

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What You'll Need: Mat

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So good evening everybody. Today's lesson number two from the beginner series for the math works. So I know some of you have done a class or two and some of you are like, this is the first class. We're going to be going through all the material very nicely and slowly. So first of all, just to connect in with the powerhouse, I'd like y'all to lie on your backs and bend your knees.

So as an bring your feet together so your feet are touching, your knees are touching, your back is nice and long. Take the arms and slide them away from your shoulders. So your arms along, but no by a right way. Sandy, right next to the your hips. Now some of you, as you're lying here, your head is back. See if you can lengthen the neck a little bit more. So if your head is stilted way back, you want to put a pillow or book something under so you feel that lovely length in the back of the neck.

So this is individual and everybody else looks like they're okay. Megan, I'd like you to lift up as well. That's probably much better for you. So okay, so lying on your backs. Now take a moment to really lengthen out your spine. See if you can feel the back ribs flat on the Mat and squeeze your hips together so you'll feel the lumbar spine or the waist theory.

Get even longer and squeeze your inner thighs together so you're connecting up and connecting into your powerhouse, which is from hips, belly in and long back. Now, without anything changing, lift your right knee in towards your chest so you move the leg up without your powerhouse. We're rocking. Then put the foot back down next to the other one and lift the left knee up and put the foot back down and lift your right knee up, keeping your stomach in and put the foot back down and the left knee up and put the foot back down and the right knee up all the time, keeping this stomach in and down and the left knee up and put the foot back down. Now check again. Tight hips, stomach in backlog, and lift your right knee just the way you did a minute ago. Now keep your stomach in and lift your left knee up as well to both knees in the air. Squeeze your knees together, tighten your buttocks, put your right foot down, right foot comes down and left foot comes down and then reversing it. Left knee comes up and right knee comes up. Keep those hips down, left foot goes down and right foot goes down and keep your stomach in right Nikos up. Keep your stomach in as your left knee goes up, put the right foot down, put the left foot down and lift your left knee up and the right knee up and the left foot goes down and the right foot goes down. I take both hands, place them on your navel, one hand on top of the other and pull your belly in and you can feel the stomach drop towards the spine. You want that hollowed out feeling. Now squeeze your hips together, tighten your knees together.

Keep your belly in and bring both knees towards your chest at the same time to squeeze the knees together and lift the knees up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. If your belly popped out, pull it back in. Now tighten your buttock muscles. Yes, that's it. And then float the feet down to the mat and keep your stomach in and press your back on the mat and pull the stomach in if you lost it and pull your knees up again. Bring the knees up, pull the belly in, tighten your hips and float the feedback down, keeping your bottom tight and keep your back flat and long and lift the knees up and float the feet down. Keeping your stomach into your hands there to feel what is happening and lift your knees up. Keep your stomach way in.

Pull it in again here and then keep it in and float the feet down. Keep your belly in. Keep your belly in, keep your belly in and put your feet down. Very good. Lift your arms up to the ceiling, straight up to the ceiling so that you're working on the lower apps. Lift your head and chest up and close your ribs and reach your hands towards your ankles and look at your belly. So up. You come up, you can Megan there just to there, just as it just the shoulder blades off the mat and then float your shoulders and head back. So just upper abs that you're working on. Lifting up again, stretch your arms long as you lift your shoulders. Check that the shoe. Just tip to the shoulder blades off the mat and lower back down so you're just kind of rocking that upper part of the body and lift up again.

Close the ribs and stretch your arms long and lower back down so you feel the ribs gliding under your skin towards your waist. One more time to come up and just have a look at your own stomach. It should be long and flat and hollowed out and you're all doing very well and lower back down. Now same thing, bringing the knees up, lift up again, lifting up, bring the knees to your chest as well, so upper and lower abs working and then float the feet down and lift your arms to the ceiling and lift up again. Bring the knees in and keep you bottomed down on the mat and lower back down and lift up again and bring the hands parallel to the floor. So Wendy, a little lower, that's it. And lower back down. And one more time. Feel the upper and lower abs lifting you lifting up, lifting up, lifting up.

Very good and lower back down and bring your arms down. That was excellent. So that was the warm up to working the lower abs, the upper abs. You're connecting the center part of your body to lift the body weight up. So I have a quick look. Hundreds and next you'll start the same way you lift up.

You want to find the center part of your body and then extend the legs up. Now with you, hamstrings are really tight and you can't get the legs here. It's fine to keep the legs in a bed position. You want your hips down on the mat and you'll start pumping energetically with the arms. Taking a slow breath in for five counts and a slow breath out for five counts.

So let's start together. Your knees are bent team, the arms are up to the ceiling. We start the same way. So before you start, you set your powerhouse up. The stomach is in your back, is long, the hips up firm. And now use your powerhouse to bring your knees into your chest and curl your head and chest. Stop just the way you did a minute ago. Curl up Birgit into this tiny shade. Yes, keep the stomach in. Extend the legs up. So you're set to go. Start pumping with the arms. Breathing in for five.

Exhale, look toward your belly into three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, three to five. Exhale, three, four, five, four, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Very good. Bend your knees. Put your head on the feet and the mat and rest. So we did 40 we're going to do another 60 in a minute. Now as you start lifting your head up, your neck can get a little bit tired. If you find your neck is starting to get straight like that, it's starting to hurt.

Put your head back down on the map and keep on pumping with the arm. You can still work your stomach anyway. You're just starting to build, strengthen your core and also build heat in the body. So we start the same way. Your arms are to the ceiling. You pull your stomach muscles in, lift your knees up, lift your head and chest up so you connect into the small shape. Make sure your powerhouses engaged. Now lift the legs up to the ceiling and start pumping with the arms.

Breathing in. Two, three, four, five x, sail. Nice. Long arms, two, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, three, two, three, four, five. Exhale, very good. Four to five. Exhale, three, four, five, five, two, three, four, five. EQ Sale, three, four, five. Last, we walk by, take seven, eight, nine, 10. Bend your knees, head and feet to the mat and rest. Very, very good. Now everybody stretch your arms over your head. Nice big structures. Stretch way back. If your shoulders are tight, this is a very good movement to do. To stretch the shoulders out again, they can get pretty tight to nice reach and then the knees here and then bring the arms up. Lift your head in chassis.

If you can roll up to a sitting position. If you can't roll up, grab your knees and bring yourself up. Good. Suggest. Very nice. So just to reiterate, it's always fine to rock up. You can even bring one knee in and bring yourself up. But I don't want to see this. Oh, I'm coming up. Not Healthy for your back.

If you have trouble getting up, it's always fine to roll to one side and push up. So we're building towards being able to do this easily. So sitting with your back, straight hole behind the knees. This is roll back and roll up. So nice lift of the spine. The shoulders are down.

Lean back a little tiny bit and Tuck your tail under you. And as you roll back close your ribs, you make a round SAPE roll back until the arms along the feet. Stay down there, Tim on the mat and then roll back and sit up straight and roll back again and Tuck your tail under you. Roll, roll, roll, roll. Roll and roll back up and sit up nice and tall and roll back. Look down at your belly. Just halfway Tim, just halfway and roll back up, back up, back up. Now, same thing without hands. So with the arms long, Tuck your tail under you and start rolling back, articulating your spine. Just halfway down. Pull the belly in and use your belly to bring you up to you.

Stretching and lengthening your lower back. Strengthening your core, pulling the stomach and rolling back. Rolling back, rolling back and come back up. You're getting a plan and one motor. If you need to work the cramp out. Just work it out. One more time. Rolling back, rolling back, rolling back and come back up. Flex your feet a little bit. Flex your feet, see if that helps. Okay, so if you're getting cramps, it's fine to flex the feet now. So sometimes it's hard and the legs fly up.

In a real Palladio class, you will have a strap around your ankles to help you. So it's fine to put your feet under a cupboard if you are at home working on this. So now we'll roll two all the way to the floor now. So start rolling back and roll down. Roll down till you flat on your backs. All too much better. They Rebecca arms, go to the ceiling and then lift your head and chest and reach toward your size and roll up with or without the help of your hands. Yes, yes, yes. That's fine, Sandy. Good and roll back down again. Now as you roll back, you're looking to articulate the spine, pull the stomach in, pull it in, pull it in and roll down nice and law, and then lift your head and chest and roll up. If you need to, grab your size to come up. Roll, roll, roll to come up. And one more time. Rounding through the spine.

One bone at a time. Lift the arms up and then lift your head and chest and roll. Roll. Roll to come on up. Very, very good. Now this exercise progresses to a straight leg variation. So there's all these different progressions we're going to work on the next one.

If you cannot do it, you cannot get up with your leg straight. You back up and you bend your knees and you do the knee Bentley version. So there's always a level that's right for you, which you want to work on. So what will happen is exactly the same thing, but with the leg state. So stretch your legs out. Pilati stance means you very slightly separate the toes so you can tighten your buttocks more easily. So holding that position, start rolling backwards.

Tuck the tail on the young, pool the stomach in and roll down. Roll down, really roll over your bottom till your flat. Now take your arms all the way back over your head. Just nice long stretch here for a minute. Bring the arms back to the ceiling. Lift your head and chest up and see if you can peel yourself off the floor. And if you can, you bend your knees and come up. That was very good.

And roll back again with your legs. Long roll. Roll stomach. Weigh in, weigh in, roll down. Stretch your arms back. Lift the arms up. Head and chest lifts. Close those ribs and roll up. Bend the knees, bend the knees, bend the knees and bring yourself up.

Well ro ro one more time. Drop your head in. Roll down, roll down. So the legs are straight on the way down. Stretch your arms over your head. So the nice and long. Now bring the arms up and Wendy and Tim. Bend your knees, Bend your knees cause you know you're going to struggle and when they bring your knees in. Very good, very good. And here we are. Roll, roll and come back up. Very nice everybody. Bend your knees and roll down onto your mat for single legs. Circles the lying down on your back.

If you have a towel under your head, make sure it's there so that you feel the back of the neck long and bend both knees up. So when the knees are bent, it's much easier to feel the length of the lower back. So it's a nice place to start and to connect in with a power half much easier to pull the stomach in. Much easier to stretch the arms down to the shoulders long. Now keep that position and bend your right knee in toward your chest and lift your right leg straight up to the ceiling. Straight, straight, straight up, very slightly. Turn it out right. Keep your right hip down. Now these are going to be small circles to loosen up your hip.

You take the leg across the body to the left. Draw small circle and pause with your heel opposite your nose and circle the leg. And up here opposite the nose. Circle the leg, circle the lake. Circle the leg. Now reverse it and circle the leg. Circle the lake. Circle the lake. Pause with the heel opposite the nose.

Circle the leg. Circle the like. Very good. Now hold your leg with both hands. Hold the hamstring. Give it a little stretch, but keep your head down. Heap your shoulders. Why? Nice little stretch in the hamstring and then put the foot down next to the other one. So bend the leg, put it down. Check that you set your hips up before you lift the other leg up.

Always double check. The hips are square, the stomach is in, the back is long. The knees are tie. Now Bend your left knee and then lift the leg up. Left knee up. Kim, keep the right knee bent, right knee bent. It'll make it easier for you at first, right? Turn the leg out slightly. Tighten your hips and raw smalls circle, small circle, small circle, small circle and small circle.

Now reverse it and circling up and circle and up and circle and up and circle and up and circling up. Now hold your hamstring with both hands and gently stretch the leg towards you. Keeping your stomach in and your shoulders. Why too, Tim? Get the shoulders. Yes, so your upper body is long. Put your hands back by your sides and lower the foot down so the leg is next to the other one right now.

Stretch the legs out and stretch your arms over your head. Nice stretch pool. Let your back arch a little bit. See if you can. You goal is to touch the floor and then lift the arms up to the ceiling and you're going to come up to a sitting position. So have the roll up with your legs straight or bend the knees and come up. Or if you need to bring your knees into your chest. That's just like that.

Then your knees in Tim, Bend your knees in, into your chest, it know into your chest hole behind the knees and rock up. One, two, three, come up. That's a way to come up. That was very good. Now relax. And the next one is called rolling like a ball. So bend the legs up and lift your feet and hold behind the knees. Now take your tail and Tuck it a little bit under you and see if you can close your ribs. So you have a slightly round shape. It's called a seeker. You're opening up your lower back and have your elbows out a little bit. Gently pull your feet towards your bottom, keep this shape and you'll be rolling back on your shoulders and coming back up to balance.

So have a first go roll back on your back and roll up and balance and hold it and roll back again. Very good. And roll up in balance and roll up and roll up in balance. And one more time and up and roll up and balance. Very, very good. And put your feet down in rest. That was very nice. Now when you do rolling like a ball, you're massaging the muscles on either side of the spine and you're also encouraging the spine to become flexible. Now often when we start out, you're not able to have that much range of movement.

So if you can even get up, it's also fine just to do rolling like a ball just like this, just that is going to be very therapeutic on your back. But everybody here was successfully able to come up. But this is what I saw when you were going back. There was a lot of this up and pull. So you using your legs to get the momentum and that's not your powerhouse.

You want to work the powerhouse to get it. So you're going to have a little bit harder time getting up this time, but you're going to be working more correctly. So hold the knees again, lift your feet up, slightly round the spine to pull your stomach in. And now squeeze the feet towards your bottom. Really Pinch your fingers. You can feel the pea fingerprints now keep pinching the fingers and roll back again. So don't let the feet move away from you and see if you can come up. Oh yes. And again, roll back. Keep that pinch.

Come up and balance much better and roll back. Oh, very good. Over there. Come up and balance. Oh my God. In one word, time roll back and come up and balance. Very good. And put your feet down a hundred percent better. There were no legs all over the place. So now let's take the next level where you hold your ankles and lift your feet up.

Pull the stomach in and use your hands to pull your feet even tighter towards your bottom and drop your head down. Now don't let the feet fly away and it's actually easier because your hands are holding you, but you're in a smaller ball. Little tiny ball here. See if you can say this tight and roll back and come up to roll to your shoulders and up. Very good. And roll back again and come up. Very nice and roll back and come up.

And one more time. Roll back and come up. Very good. Put your feet down on the mat. That was excellent. Stretch your arms out and slowly roll down one vertebrae at a time, articulating through your spine, pulling your stomach until you're lying long and flat with your hands by your sides. For the next exercise called single leg stretches. So squeeze your hips together, pull the stomach in and bring both knees to your chest nicely in. Bring your hands onto your shins.

Use Your Power House to curl your head and chest up so you're just like rolling like a ball, but you're on your back so your shoulders are off the mat. Take your left hand and hold your right to knee and stretch your left leg up and pull the knee to your chest. Really squeeze it in. Switch your legs and squeeze the left leg in. Switch your legs and squeeze so you really bend that knee in. Pull it, switch, change, switch and squeeze. Yes. Change legs and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.

Bring both knees into your chest and put your head and shoulders back on the mat and then float your feet down both legs together just to relax for a minute. And then because your neck has been working, roll your head to the right. Roll your head to the left, roll your head to the right and roll your head to the laugh and then back to the center. Next one is double leg stretches. Last one, you are alternating your legs. Now you'll be pulling both legs in at the same time. Stretching both legs up and out a little bit. So lying on the mat.

Squeeze your hips together. Pull your stomach in length and your back. Let's all do this together. The arms are nice and long. Bring both knees into your chest. Both knees come in just the way that we before reach up and grab your shins or your ankles a beer. Get, get your feet closer to your bottom so that makes a nice and tight. Pull your powerhouse in and up to pull your stomach in. And then remember, close your ribs a little bit as you lift your head and chest and shoulders off the mat. So check that the shoulders are away from your spa, from your ears.

You're not crunched up like this. But see if you can get up and up that the shoulders are off the mat. You really have to use the upper lower ribs. Now stretch the legs up and out and stretch your arms and then squeeze the legs in nights like a little tiny ball and stretch the legs up and squeeze the legs in and stretch your legs up and squeeze the legs in and stretch your legs up and squeeze like Zane. And one more time. Stretch your legs up and squeeze the legs in and put your head and shoulders down and put your feet down with control using your powerhouse and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left and back to the center.

Now very nice. Next one is called scissors. We will be lifting our heads up again, but usually as a beginner, your neck may start getting to hurt quite a bit. And if that's the case, you don't want to strain your neck, you put your head back down, you don't force that part. The reason your neck can start to hurt this because your powerhouse is weak. So you're not using the muscles of the trunk to lift your body up. You starting to strain in the neck.

So this is a personal area that you build up over time. So I leave this to your judgment, whether you want your head up or down, you can also put it down as we progress. So we start the same way. Knees and feet together. Bend the knees the up. Tighten the hips of squeezer. Innercise in your knees together. Pull the stomach in and bring both knees into your chest.

Put your hands in your shins and only if you want to curl your head, intense snuff. Extend both legs straight up to the ceiling. And then take your right leg with both hands and pull it towards you and double pulse with the knees straight. Switch your legs and pull the left leg toward you. Pals, switch pulse, pulse and pulse and pulse and pulse. Pulse switch, pulse, pulse switch, pulse, pulse, switch pals, pals, switch pouts and pulse and switch. Pulse and pulse. Bring both legs up. Bend your knees, put your head on the Mat and your feet on the mat and rest.

That was pretty good. Now, last exercise we did, the scissors, it's purposes to slow, lengthen out your hamstrings and the connection in the back of the legs. So if you have your legs straight and your knees straight, you're going to get a much deeper stretch. But the unfortunate thing is you won't be as flexible looking, but the function is to stretch the legs out. So have a look here. If you're doing it this way, you're not getting the same benefit as if you have your legs straight and you're pulling this way, even though it's going to be much harder for you to get the leg close to you because the muscle is being held at a longer place. So Jen, let's just have you for a minute, Wendy, I'm sorry. Bring your knees to your chest and lift your head and chest up and lift the legs to the ceiling. So when you take one leg towards you, take one leg towards you, I want you to stretch that knee a whole lot more. Oh, that's what I'm looking for. Stretch that knee. Yes.

Now switch your legs and stretch that knee. That's what I want. Very good. Bend your knees and rest. That was great. So we all think we got straight legs, but they're just another inch more. Opens the muscle up to be stretched much more deeply. So we're going to do five more, but we're going to do it.

Really go for it with those legs straight. So bring your knees to your chest, curl your head and chest up. If you want to lift your legs to the ceiling, stretch your knee super, super long and take your right leg and stretch that knee a lot. There you go. When the right leg hole, the right leg beer again, left leg out in. Double about pals. Pals, pals, switch, pouts, pouts, switch, pulse, pulse, switch, pulse, pulse, stretch those knees, pulse, pulse, strong legs, long legs, pulse, pulse, pulse, pulse, and last one pass. Pass. That was much better when the, I saw that legs together. Bend your knees, hadn't feet to the mat and rest. Lovely work. Stretch both arms over your head, stretch your legs out on the mat, stretch your fingers in your toes as far away as you can. Try to stretch those elbow sandy and reach.

So you're just long and lean and small for a minute. Then bring the arms up to the ceiling. Pull your stomach in, press the ribs into the map. Lift your head in chest and roll up. Or Bend your knees and roll up. Or pull the knees in and rock up. Up You come and rock. Excellent. One more time and relax. Very nice. Next one is fine. Stretch forward. So you all sitting with your legs like this.

Open them a little bit wider than your own mat. Just a little bit wider. Yes. Oh, okay. Now first variation in this position, I'd like everybody to bend their knees and sit up as tall as you can. So do you feel how you're high with the knees bent? That's because you don't have to stretch the hamstrings as much.

So the first time we're going to do it like this, just so you get that feeling, cause this is about the spine. So Nice. Lift in the waist and stretch your arms in front of you. Take a deep breath in and then drug your head and just stretch your shoulders forward so you round your upper back and then curve over a little bit deeper so your middle back is opening and then the lower back and pull your belly way, way, way in. I want the hands, shoulder height, shoulder height. So your head is diving way down between the arms. Yes and feel how will your stomach is pulling way back now roll back up again to his tall seated position. Lift up the top, the shoulders come down in the chest. If that was great.

Big Breath in and drop your head and round your upper back. You middle back, your lower back. Pull the stomach way in and feel the stretch in your waist and then roll back up. Roll back up the shoulders down and lift up nice and tall and again drop your head and round forward, reaching long with the arms. So good Megan.

Rounding the spine and then roll back up. Roll back up. Sit up tall. Press, shoulders down, lift the chest and then relax. That was very nice. Relax your arms. So now take those legs and stretch them so you have the leg straight. So same thing again.

Now if your hamstrings are really tight and it's impossible for you to sit with your back straight with the knees straight and you find that your here, no matter what you want to do, much better to bend the knees. So now I'll leave it up to you. If you're going to go for the next level or with have the knees a bit bent, it's fine to work with the knees bent cause this is about the spine. So Tin, keep the knees bent. Yes. So let's stretch the arms out. Lift the back up with either Bento, straight knees, big breath in, and then breathing out. Start around your upper back, your middle back, your lower back. Pull the stomach way into your very round and then roll back up and lift your spine up and stack up your bones and press the shoulders down and lift your chest. Take a big breath in and breathing out.

Round through the spine. Rounding, upper back, middle back, lower back, pulling the stomach in and roll back up. Roll back up, roll back up. Set up nice and tall and lift the childrens down. One more time. Drop your head and round forward. Reaching long with the arms, pulling the stomach in, making sure the hands are just the same height as your shoulders. And then as you roll up the shoulders, glide down to give you a very elegant, tall neck lifted chest. Tiny waist long arms. Get even taller. Pull the stomach and get even taller and then relax. Very, very good. Okay.

Bend your feet for preparation for open lake rocker and hole behind your knees. Now rock slightly back of your sit bones have closed the ribs and if two feet off the mat. So Tim, the hands underneath the knees, yes, shoulders are down. Yes, take your right leg and see if you can lift it, keeping your balance and then the leg back. Pull the stomach in and lift your left leg. Very good and back and lift you right. Like, so the whole time you're holding your stomach in and looking to keep your pelvis very steady so you don't rock and you're stretching the like a lot of coordination. A lot about balance. A lot of control. Very good. And down in one more time. Your left lay and down. Now keeping your stomach in. Can you take both legs?

Both legs. Go Up. Balance. Oh my goodness. You're so good. And down. And again, both legs go up. Pull the stomach way in and back. And one more time. Both legs go up. Pull the stomach way in and down. Super.

Put your feet down. That was so good. Very nice. Stretch your legs out for saw so the feed will be flexed. Nice flex. Pull the toes way up. Feel as though you're opening up the sole of the foot. Now take your arms sideways and let's do this. Megan, why don't you move back.

Okay, you two ladies moved back. Good. So you'd not, you don't know. Kicking them. Poking your neighbor. So big. Lift up the chest and you know what, Tim? Bend the knees. The same thing applies here, but flex your feet flexor fee. Yes. Now everybody take your right hand and bring it down behind you and turn and take your left hand and point the little finger towards your little tall.

Look towards the little toe. Pull the stomach in and reach forward and see if you can saw your little toe out. So reach and reach and reach and sit up tall in the middle. Arms to the side. Nice tiny waist twist to the other side to the left and reach toward your little toe. Reach one.

Reach to reach three and sit up tall and lift your chest and flex your feet. Strongly twist to the right and reaching. Go One. Reach to reach three and sit up tall and lift that chest. Then the other side and flex the fee and spread the arms apart. One, two, three. Set up tall and lift your chest. First side, twist to the right. Twist and reach one. Flex your feet, Rebecca. Two three and sit up tall and other side.

Twist and reach one. Reach to reach three and sit up nice and tall. Very good. When your legs together, stretch arms in front of you and slowly roll down onto your backs. Roll, roll, roll, roll rotor. You're lying on your backs. Very, very nice. Now roll onto your stomach. Now for preparation for Swat, I want you to roll over onto your bellies just the way you are.

You just roll over and take your fingertips, one on top of the other and place your forehead on your fingertips. So your lying down on your stomach, your elbows are wide. And check for a minute that your knees are together. And if you can, the heels are together. So the legs are long. Now in this position, tighten your hips and pull your stomach in. That's it. Some, sometimes you can even pull your stomach in so much that it lifts up off the floor. But the hips stay down in the buttocks are tight, tight, tight tie, cute little bands and long stomach. Now keep your hips nice and tight and see if you can live. Just the elbows off the map. Just the elbows. So they're off.

Now can you lift your forehead and your fingertips three inches off the mat? So you lift up and hover off the mat, very good and lower back down. And again, elbows are wide and lift up and hover, hover, hover, hover, long spine all the way from the tail to the crown of the head and down. And again, tighten the hips, lift up and hover. That's it. And lower down. And one more time. Nice tight hips. Lift up and hover.

This is very good for you and lower back down. Very, very nice. Now we're do next exercise, which is single leg kick so you're still in the same position. Keep your hips nice and tight and bend your right knee and see if you can kick your bottom twice. Kick, kick. Put the leg down and squeeze your hips together. Left leg and kick, kick and long and kick, kick and long and kick, kick and bottom. Tight and kick. Kick and long and kick, kick and long and kick, kick and long and kick. Kick. Very good and long.

Now we'll move to the next level of the same exercise. I'd like you all to come up onto your elbows and place your elbows under your shoulders and make fists with your hands. Just nice fist. And now push down with the fit the arms and lift your chest up and pull your shoulders away. Now Tim, bring the elbows forward a bit. You're too far back. That's it. So you want this feeling of a nice lift of your chest.

I'll come over here so you can see. So you want to press down and lift and then pull the shoulders away from your ears. Now in this position, get the buttocks tight again because they have a tendency to go all floppy and then see if you can lift your belly up again. So sometimes it lifts off the map, but make sure the shoulders are down and you're looking forward elegantly. Not Down at the Mat, Wendy. But there you go. Now bottom tight and see if you can take the right foot and kick your bottom again, kick, kick and long and squeeze your bottom. Pull the stomach in, left foot, kick, kick and long and kick. Kick. Very good and long. So the hips are steady, kick, kick and long and kick, kick.

Keep your hips firm and kick, kick. That's the idea. And long and kick, kick and long and kick kick. Very nice and long. Now from this position, just to put your hands flat and either move them in a bit, but sit back. So you're here and sit back into child's pose. So you push up, pull your stomach in and come back. So your core head comes to the mat and your bottom moves towards your heels.

Now every time you sit back, the way you just did in [inaudible], you want to use it to really lengthen and open up. The lumbars finds it like all of you back in your stomach. One more time, lined up, put your hands under your shoulders, and then you're going to sit back just the way you did. But this time as you go back, see if you can round your back slightly like an angry class and start to bend the knees, lift your bottom up and pull the stomach in. And yes, talk you tail. No, don't stick you bottom out. You can move your hands in more when your hands Tuck tail, Tuck your tail, Tuck your tail and Dao. So make a very round shape in the lower spine.

Very good. Now next one is the side kicks. So let's have you all coming and facing this direction and let's have this line of people every year. Everybody lying on their right arm. So Tim, you're going to be facing this way, lying out this way. If your shoulder is tight, it's fine to be like you are Tim. I would like you to have the pillows under your head so that you can do this properly, right? And you can have the arm just in front of you and you have this arm bent in front of you like that. So the neck is supported.

If the shoulder is is a bit tight. Now everybody line up on the back part of the mat. So your shoulder, elbow, shoulder, hip and foot is making a straight line as a you though you're like right against the wall. Take the front arm and place it flat on the floor in front of you so that you, but you don't want to close it. You want it about 12 inches away. So if you lean into it very, very slightly, it gives you a place of stability. Now take new buttocks, pull your stomach in and lengthen the spine. Pull the shoulders down so you feel very elegant.

Lift the legs up and bring them to the front of the Mat and put them down with your feet. Flex so flexibly, strongly. So it's like you're standing, your stomach is in your back. As long your hips are tight, your shoulders are down. Nice flex feet. Take the top leg and lifted a little higher than your own hip. Pull the stomach in and lengthen the heel away from you and lower it down.

Imagine the leg is longer than your bottom line and lift your leg up and lower the leg down and lift your leg up. And it's only a little bit higher than your hip stomach is in long back. Lengthen and lower dental. That's it. And push the leg away from you. And down and press the leg away from you and down and lift and down. And one more time and lift and down. Very nice.

Now those are the low long lifts. Now high kicks, you point the top leg slightly. Turn it out and lift the leg as high as it'll go. Flex your foot and bring it down. Heel the heel, point your foot and kick the leg up and flex it down and kick the leg up and flex it out. So this is to loosen the hips a bit and down and lift and down. Very good and lift and down and pointed up and flex it down and point and down.

One more time. Lift and down. Very good. Now still with the leg, slightly turned out little circles with the leg. So you bring the leg slightly forward, up and back and circle and circle as you do this. Keep the hips steady and you want to be sure that the hips are stacked up. One on top of the other circle, small circle, circle and circle. Flex your bottom leg and reverse it back.

Stretch both knees and circle better. And Circle and circle and circle and circle. Very nice and circle. Now take your top leg and bend it up in front of you. If you can, you take your hand and hold the ankle and bring it up if you can.

Again, sometimes this is not possible for people and then you drop the knee down in front. So I think for you Wendy, better to have it this way right now. Bring the other hand in front of your chest in your case. Now everybody flex your bottom leg. Stretch your knee, lift the leg up so you work the ear high and down, and lift your leg up and down and relax his foot. Lift this leg and flex your foot and lift the leg and down and lift your leg and down. One more time and lift your leg and down a point your bottom leg. Lift the leg up as high as it'll go. And little circles here. Circle one, two, three, four. Keep the shoulders down. Six, seven, eight, reverse it. One, two.

Now keep the knee very straight so you really get into that inner thigh, six, seven, and a glow. The legs down. Stretch your top leg on top of the bottom leg. So both legs are straight. Have a look at your hips. You want your hips stacked, one on top of the other. Pull your stomach and tighten your bottom and lift both legs up in the air. Lift and lower down and lift.

Stomach in and down. Very good. And lift and down and lift and down and lift and down. One more time and lift and down. Very nice. I'd like all of you to roll onto your backs and roll over to the other side so you'll be facing this direction now. So lay yourselves up at the back part of the Mat, right? That's a to move the pillows backwards a little bit.

So you start out it as though you're lined up right against the wall. And if you can, you have elbow, armpit, hip, knee and foot in a straight line. Then the hands in front of you. Now this position, lengthen up the stomach and lengthen the spine out. Now lift both legs up and bring them forward and put them down and flex your feet. Pull the stomach up and double check. You want this part of the back long and that's why you bring the legs forward.

It makes it so much easier to get links in the waist area. Take your top leg and lifted a little higher than your hip with your foot flex. And then lengthen it way up or pull the stomach in and the tail under you, Rebecca. And that's it. And lift and down and lift the leg. Very good and down and lift. Push into the heel.

So remember the leg is only going a little higher than your own hip and lift just there and down and lift and down. And one more time and lift and down. Very nice high kicks point. You could turn it out and swing it as high as it'll go to the top. Rebecca. There it goes. Flex your foot and bring it down.

Heel to heel point and swing it up and flex it down and swing it up. Turn it down, little and down and swing the leg and down and swing your leg and down. Good. Megan, lift the leg and down and lift your leg. And down and lift your leg and down. One more time. Lift your leg and now check again that your hips, us. Stack the top.

It has to be right above the bottom hip. Your hands are in front of you. Shoulders are down to have a sense of elegant upper body. The feet, uh, temporarily flex. The bottom foot stays flexor whole time. Top foot is pointed. Now turn it out for little circles. Forward up in that circle and circle and circle and circle and circle and circle and reverse it and back and two and three. Make sure the circle goes behind the leg as well as in front of it. And six, that's it. And seven and eight. And put the leg down.

Take your top leg and bend it up in front of you. Hold your ankle if you can, let the knee come forward. Lengthen in the stomach, flex your bottom leg. Flex it to pull the toes up to the knee. Beer. Good? Yes. Makes sure the leg is parallel and lift your leg up so the inner thigh works and down. And if the leg is long, that sigh works much better. You want to get that inner side to work and down and flexor foot Megan a lot and down and lift the leg and and lift your leg and down and lift the leg and down. One more time. Lift and an a. Point your foot.

Lift the leg way up and little circles here. Circle one and two and three and forget that leg as high as you can. And seven and eight reverse it. One and two and three and four and five and six and seven very good. And eight. Lower the legs down.

Stretch your top leg out on top of the bottom leg. Very nice. Check that your hips are stacked again cause they, it'll tend to fall backwards. So when you bring your bottom yes, now pull the stomach up, pull the shoulders down a bit. That was very good. Now see if you can lift both legs at the same time, up in the air and lower down. Good and lift the legs and down and lift your legs and down and lift your legs and long legs.

So the knees are straight and down and can keep the hand in front of you and down so you don't roll back, lift and down and stretch your knees down. Very, very nice. Roll onto your backs for preparation for teaser. Okay, let's have you three ladies. When the and beer get turned around. So while facing with the feet inwards and bend both feet up on the meds and check that your shoulders are down, the back is law, the stomach is in and get the knees together in the feet together there Wendy. Yes.

Now in this position, squeeze in these tight. Keep the knees glued together and extend your right leg in the air. So the right leg go straight, but the knees don't come apart. So that's it. The knees have to stay together so you have a long right leg, long diagonal. Now lift your head and chest up and see if you can roll up and reach towards your toes. So you're going to roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up, Rola, and roll down to even if you can only go an inch off the floor that has come back to the mat, that's fine. And again, lift your head and chest and roll up. Roll up, roll up, and then drop your shoulders, Wendy and roll down.

Use that powerhouse. So this is very challenging because you really have to work the body to make it come up. And again, roll up, roll up. Good. Megan up you bro. Roll. Roll Up. You Come Sandy. Yes. And roll down. Bend the foot, put it on the map, squeeze your thighs together, lift the other leg up. Check that the shoulders are down. And again, lift your head and chest and roll and come up and roll down and roll and come up, up, up, up, up, up, good. And come down and by your side one more time. Lift your head in, chest and roll. Roll, roll up and then roll down. Roll down.

Roll down the Mat. Very, very nice. Okay. Now when you're doing Kiza prep, it's basic. Some of you can come up, some of you can't. That's fine. What's wonderful is it strengthening one side of the abs and the other side. And sometimes people can be very strong and come up with both legs, but when you separate it out, they find that one side of the stomach they strong, the other side is weak. So it's a real good one.

No matter how advanced you are to keep coming back to cause it puts you back together in a more symmetrical way. Stretch your arms over your head. Nice long stretch here. Stretch your legs out on the Mat. Just now. Let the shoulders come all the way up to the ears just for a minute. So you have a big pool and then slowly pull the shoulders down away from your ears. But keep the arms long. Now lift the arms up to the ceiling and roll up to a sitting position.

So remember you can bend your knees, you can rock up or you can use your powerhouse to bring you up. Very, very good. And the next one is called seals. So your knees are bent. Bring your hands together in prayer pose. See if you can get your elbows inside the knees and our lift the feet up in the air. Bring the hands inside and wrap them around. That's the tricky part. Yes. Right, right, right. Now, put your feet down again. That was nice.

Now not everybody can get here at first if that's totally impossible. It's fine to hold this way. If that's impossible. It's fine to hold this way. These are like the progressions. If you're having trouble and you can't wrap this around, but let's, all of us can do it. So hands in prayer, lift your feet, dive your hands inside under and hold your ankles. Yes. Now lift your feet up. See if you can get them in line with the knees.

Yes. And pull the shoulders down. Good. And Clap your feet. Three times. Clap, clap, clap, balance, Timbre. And again, clap, clap, clap. So this is obviously balanced. Flexibility Coordination. One more time, clap, clap, clap. And then put your feet down to rest. That was very good. Not Easy to do. Just this. Just working on this is fabulous because it really gets these lower abs starting to work. Now gonna add a roll to this.

So just like we did rolling like a ball, your roll back on your shoulders. You have to roll back and find your balance and then you have to do the three claps so it will look like this. It's a lot. You Go, clap, clap, clap. Roll to the shoulders, roll back up. Find your balance and do it again. Clap, clap, clap. So if that's too much, you can work this way. Rolling back and rolling up.

May Be working this way and maybe just finding your balance because you can't, you're not ready to roll back and up. These a perfect level for each person in the world. You just have to know your level and work at that one. So lift your feet if you want to use you can hand hold your ankles or wrapping underneath powerhouses in shoulders or down. That's a hard part. Clap three times. Clap, clap, clap. Roll back to your shoulders.

Come up and balance. Yes. Beer. Good clap, clap, clap. Pretty good again. Roll back. Come up and balance, clap, clap, clap, roll back, come up and balance, clap, clap, clap. And one more time back. Come up and balance and clap, clap, clap and put your feet down. It was very good. This isn't easy. It takes some lessons to catch different parts of your body, flexible and strong enough to be able to do it. It's a matter of doing the work.

So fine. I love it when people fall over and, and, and I'm not able to do it cause that means you going forward. And I like that. So let's have you all standing up with your heels together and your toes apart. So in this position, take this, we've been doing a lot of work lying on our backs working to get this part of the body long. So see if you can really pull the ribs away from the hips and then very gently take your tail and lengthen it slightly down and take the hips and wrap them. So they're pulling together.

So you have almost like a sense of a slight core set going on in the lower body. So if you're stabilizing the connection of the legs and the hips, then nice lift up in the belly so the back is long. And then lift your arms up in front of you with your shoulders down. Shoulders are down. Bring the hands down, lift the stomach, check that the shoulders are down, and then bring the arms up again and push the shoulders down even more. So the neck is long and three little circles here. Circle one.

Circle to circle three. Reverse it. Circle one, two, three. Lift your belly up. And as the arms come down, feel yourself getting taller and longer with the shoulders. Why? Right now drop your head and your roll towards the floor. So drop your head and roll down. Rounding the spine, letting the head hang just like you rolled on the floor. Same thing until your arms. Fingers are above the ankles or as low as you can get them, but not lower than the ankles. Your head is hanging long.

The arms are hanging loose. Now, three circles here. Circle one, two, three, reverse it and one, two, three. And then roll up. Roll up, roll up to an upright position with the chest lifted the a wide. One more time if the arms in front of you and again three circles, one, two, three, reverse two, three and then roll down. Rounding the spine, pulling the stomach up, lengthening in the waist and feeling the arms going long way down. The head is long and loose and three circles again. Circle one, two, three. Reverse two, three.

Check that the arms are dangling. Check that your head is dropped right down so the head neck is long. They had like a dead weight and then as you roll up, roll through the spine, roll up, roll up, roll ups or the back is long, the tail is down, the spine is lifted, the shoulders are wide and just take them off to feel yourself standing on your feet. You want to feel the legs down into the earth, your hips over the center of your foot to not back on the heels a little bit forward. To have that lightness to just check. Are you light on your heels because you want to feel it's as though you're ready to walk out the room with elegance and grace. So then make sure the sternum is lifted, the chasses why take a deep breath in and breathing out. Let go. So you all did very, very well.

Thank you very much.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Excellent clear instruction, maintaining a consistent pace.
I agree with Jane's comments above - awesome class, supportive, motivating, consistent and very clear on what we are to do. Awesome - on to the next class tomorrow!!
I feel like I'm building a really strong foundation by taking Niedra's beginner series.

I am definitely going to finish it.

I love how clear & firm she is in her instruction but also is very non-judgemental.

4 people like this.
I am partially blind and I rely mostly on verbal instruction when participating in a pilates classes. Her instruction is so clear and descriptive, I did not need any sighted assistance to decipher the different exercises. This is the first pilates video that I've found, where I am confident in my form, because of the clear and concise instruction. Thank you Niedra Gabriel!
I echo Erin Vey's comments. Very happy with the first 2 classes in this series so far.
1 person likes this.
I am new and beginning Pilates this year so this class is excellent and explains each movement.
Niedra Gabriel
Hi Ashley, so glad you are enjoying the class - keep moving through the series.

I am just now reading some of the earlier comments and am thrilled with the benefits you are all sharing about this class. So happy you are all benefiting from this filmed class. Wonderful.
Welcome Ashley! You are sincerely off to a good start with Niedra as your guide.
Thank you Niedra for explaining the ins and outs of these wonderful moves! Your cues and modifications are extremely helpful. Love your energy and kind spirit!
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Rena, keep on with this series and I hope you get off to a wonderful journey with Pilates in 2013.
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