Class #510

Flowing Mat Joy

60 min - Class
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Description

Amy leads you through a brisk high-intermediate Mat class with flow. Spending less time breaking down the exercises, you'll move swiftly through this full-body workout. Amy brings high energy and a positive outlook to this class and encourages you to keep moving, keep breathing, and enjoy the process of moving. Have fun and enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Aug 27, 2011
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Transcript

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Okay guys, I think I'm going to start with sitting tonight. So let's just have a seat. You can face each other and organize your feet a little bit apart. A couple inches or more in line with your sits bones is probably more appropriate. And let's go ahead and put the hands right behind the knees. Yeah, a lot of you know this is often how I do start class and it's a good way to get centered and to check that the ribs don't flare forward.

We really want to establish right away the sense of vertical line from the tailbone and the sits bones all the way up through the top of the head. And I just want you to pull and use your arms as an assistant to get you taller and open up the chest. You're trying to also create some space in your waistline between your hip bones and your ribs and being in that setup without tension or without, you know, grippy tension. So you want some muscle contraction in your abs, your lats and your back, but easy. So let's take a nice deep breath and just find the exhale. I want you to forget about all the other things that came up for you today and just try to bring yourself into your body, into PyLadies mat work in two in a class that might be new for you. [inaudible] this kind of feeling where your weight is sitting on your sits bones, hopefully even right and left, not back or forward, but you're right on top of your body feeling that oxygen fill up through the ribs. Let's take one more, just the preparation [inaudible] so next exhale, we're going to start moving the pelvis and I want you to pull your pelvis back away from your thighs, getting a little bit of c curve through your lumbar and then inhale as we come back up to sitting tall. Can you use the arms for a little bit of support?

But here we go again. Exhale and we're really wanting to wake up and charge up the low belly and inhale as we roll up to sitting tall. Try a couple more like that. I might add a little variation that's right away for the beginning of class. Just kind of letting me see who, who we've got, what we've got in our bodies right now, and exhale. Yeah, pelvis, pulling a back away from that size. All right, and inhale, coming up. We're going to do it again.

I want you to everybody to let your head and your chest round forward a little bit as you pull your hips back. Okay? It might just feel a little bit different, but I do want you to still think of abs and [inaudible]. That's the idea that our shoulders are right above our hips, but we're pulling back through the low belly, okay? And then up to sitting tall and again, exhale. And so you may even have to make your curve come forward this time with your upper body, shoulders above hips, and inhale as we come back up to sitting tall. The goal intended is to stretch the body, stretch the spine, feel those abdominals pool in. Erica, bring your chest forward a little bit more, little more.

There's your shoulder girdle above your pelvic girdle there. You feel that there? No, of course. That's why. And inhale up and let's take one more time like that. Exhale and cure. There you go guys. And inhale back up to sitting tall.

Just a quick shift of your hips cause I know you're going to need that and just reach your arms forward and let's go ahead and roll ourself all the way down, feeling that nice articulation of your bones. Pull those heels in a little bit closer towards your sits bones. And I think just because we are a little close to each other tonight, turn your palms face up, but a little bit away from your pelvis. Ruin a nice level position. Our feet are parallel and read. Bring your heels closer to you. Bring them closer to you. There we go.

Pelvic curl. So on an exhale, sinking those abdominal muscles peeling through your spine. So you're feeling that nice work. Now coming in from the back of the legs, I don't want you to go too high initially so that you lose your abdominal work that you just set. Take a breath there and on the exhale begin to roll yourself down from the middle of your spine. You're reaching towards your legs, towards your knees. Feel that nice sense of motion. Inhale at the bottom and again, exhale as you curl and I am, I'm a real believer of using the mat, so press your body into it to peel away from it to get that real relationship there. Breathe in at the top and exhale as we roll ourself down.

Here's another opportunity. Use Your Mat, press into it. Feel your body making, contact your bones, moving fluid. The inhale from a level pelvis, someone to take a quick look, exhale and rolling through. Keep all 10 toes down. I see a couple of toes curling up. Let's take a breath. Exhale. That's better guys enrolling down, so the use of the inner thighs. I'm going to have you just keep thinking, keep moving through this.

Use the line of your inner legs to draw the legs more narrow. You don't have to move 'em but just the muscles engaged that way is peel up. Again. [inaudible] one of establish relationship in middle inner thigh as well as the back of the legs. Take another breath and exhale again to roll ourselves down [inaudible] and to take it just one more regular. Up and down here, moving through the spine and exhale, curl the pelvis, sinking those abdominals deep into the back. [inaudible] take a breath at the top and exhale as we roll all the way down, feeling the work in the inner size. The feet are flat, shoulders are nicely open. And let's just pause right there.

Take another breath and exhale. One more. Peel up to the top. Well, variations are going to happen at the top there. So once we've established this bridge line, I'm going to have everybody step per chance for weight to the right foot and float that left leg up to your tabletop position. Just hold it there tonight. Really feel the back of that right leg, the top of the leg in toward the sits bones. We're going to do just a little press five times.

Think of going to Sutich higher one and exhale two and exhale. Three and hips are still level four and last time five. Step that foot down. Even wait for a moment. Now shift the weight to the left foot. Float the right one up. Okay. That right hip hasn't dropped. We've got five little pulses and we've got one.

Exhale, press to three. Those hip extensors in the back of that hip, four and five, place that foot down again. Once they're established, even wait, when everybody did reach their arms up and back toward the wall. That's behind you, but not all the way to the floor. Once again, their inhale. And here we go. Roll that spine down.

As you continue to reach long through the arms, feeling that lengthening through the whole back. And once you get yourself down to a level of pelvis, let's interlace the fingers. Walk the feet together and inhale. We're coming up for the some abdominal work. So taking the chest lift, here we go. Curl. Inhale, lowering back. This is your chance to flex that spine forward. There we go. Inhale and back. I'm gonna take a quick look. Exhale, curl.

You want to find your gaze. Looking right out to the center of your legs. Definitely not up to the ceiling, so once you flex that spine there, you'll Katherine look straight ahead, right? Inhale, taking it back smoothly. Roll up, exhale. Good. Inhale back. Two more little plain ones. Exhale. Ah. All right guys. Exhale and let's curl and hold. All right, let's take those hands back behind the thighs.

Now I want you to take your pelvis and give it a nice tilt. Walk your hands a little higher. Come up higher off of the back of your shoulder blades. Keep those elbows bent. All right, we've done this variation many times. Pelvis will. Now I want you to level it out.

Feel that pelvis reach towards your calves. The goal is not to drop the torso back when you're doing that. Now we're going to go back to a posterior tilt or the tuck. If you like that word better and then find a hands back behind the head on our way down. Let's ahead and level the pelvis back to neutral. Okay, we'll do it again. Let's take a breath in. Exhale. Here we go. To curl your in a level pelvis here. Now when the hands come around the head, you're still level pelvis. This is where we change it.

I want you to sink your belly deeper. Walk the hands up higher so you're maximizing some flection in your lower back. Elbows are a little bit bent. Your neck is easy. Now, length in your pelvis, back out to neutral or level. This is tough. Your back muscles very deep have to engage to help you level that pelvis. You're going to go back to a tilt. Stretch that lower back.

Reach the arms up once again behind the head and we're going to level the pelvis as we come back down. Now there. Inhale, exhale, curl right back up. Rotate your torso towards your right. The other right Mr. Reed there. You just want attention. Put your left hand on the side of that leg and now curl higher. Curl higher. You can use that hand to get you up a Len twist a little bit more, but press your knees together guys. Press your knees really firmly together.

We're going to pulse that little five times. The pulse is your ab contraction. Here we go. Exhale, exhale to. We're trying not to let the legs move. Three, four, five. Stay up their hand behind the head. We're taking Lee's. I target to rotate to the left hand on the side of the thigh. Press those legs together. So use that arm to help you get up a little higher.

Rotate a little farther. Five pulses on. Find that old bleak side to think in a twist. Three, open that side. Chest four and exhale five. Now return to your a front, hands behind your head level, pelvis of course, and you're coming down. Okay guys, arms by your sides. Let's keep it moving. Take an exhale. Bring both legs up to tabletop arms can just stay open lightly.

We're going to open the legs to go to your right. Everybody lean your knees to the right so you're tilting that weight over to the right hip. I want you oldest stay right there. Your ankles touching your knee should be at relatively, or if not perfectly same position here and your shoulders are open. Exhale, come right back to center. Checkout on two at the other side. Inhale as we twist, stay right there. Check into it, ankles together. Knees are bolted, the knees are pressed together.

Exhale as we come back to center, moving through it. Inhale to the right. We're coming back on the exhale and inhale over to your left and exhale. As you're coming back now to take a quick look, keep going. Could you go a little farther but not by disturbing your shoulder position. Exhale, rotate, center.

Nice you guys to your left and exhale center. We're going to add to a taking the legs to the diagonal. Inhale, twist. Now reach both legs out on that diagonal hold there again. Instead of coming straight across the ceiling, lower your legs down slightly. Make a little horseshoe. You're about 45 almost, and pull those knees back into tabletop. We're going to go to the left. Inhale, tilt, and exhale. As you extend the legs on your diagonal.

It's like a quarter horseshoe. Start going down. You want to not go so low, your back arches and then exhale. Bring the legs back to tabletop. Okay, four more of those with the fluid movement. Inhale, exhale, extend connecting all the movements together so there's really not necessarily a stop. Inhale as we rotate left, continue in. Exhale, stretch your anchors in the abdominals in against this. Fine. Full the knees in. Once again, each side, twist and stretch and lower the legs. Fold in to the left and twist. Extend the legs should lower the legs down and folding in just to your table top. Reach the arms up. Everybody get a good stretch of the arms back behind you. Again, I want you to press those knees together right here. Inhale, exhale, arms to ceiling. Bring the chest up. Bring the body up, up off of the shoulder blades.

Extend your legs forward the 100 and inhale. Three, four, five exhale, two, three. Nice modifications. You're always okay to put your head down or bend your knees. Anyone's feeling risky. You can lower your legs a tiny bit. I shouldn't say risky. It's if you're feeling good. I want to challenge your comfort level a little bit.

Nice, steady pump. Nine 10 exhale. Three, four, five. Everybody just hold a position. Hold a position, reach, reach, reach, reach. Now from the hip joints, you bend your knees. Let's bring the arms back overhead, feeling that warmth of the body. Let's extend our legs down nice and long for a roll up.

Feel free to flex your feet. Feel free to bend your knees. Feel don't feel free to arch your back. Here we go. Arms, head and chest. Exhale and pull yourself up and over the thigh. Shoulders right above your hips again. And Lindsay, make a nice c curve. There it is. Take a breath and here we go. Rolling back.

Ah, so those sometimes those first roll-ups for some of us can be a little sticky. The objective is a smooth roll. Power and strength in the abdominals. Feel that nice c curve and you're stopping. Position is your shoulders above your hips. Read back it up a little bit, but bring your head up above your arms. Shoulder blades down. Breathe in.

There it is, and roll it back, guys from the ABS. [inaudible] okay, starting to warm it up. Inhale. Sure. Peel yourself up. Keep pulling the abdominals back. Head is above your arms there. Erica. Bring your shoulders down. Good. Breathe, and exhale. Rolling down.

All right guys, three more times please. Inhale. Exhale. So Nice. Long neck. Lower your arms. Just a little. Keep pulling back and rolling back. Sure. Two more. This'll help. Squeeze the legs in together.

Play with that. Squeeze them in in together and a little easy, nick. There's summer. Breathe the up. Exhale. These are nice ponytails, Bob around and we're going one more time guys. Nice. Smooth roll. [inaudible] here. Could back it up a little bit. Yeah. Good. That's it. You guys and rolling back. Yeah, let's go ahead.

We're going to take our arms up right up to the ceiling for just a second and feel your shoulder blades nice and firm. Kind of slap the mat a little bit so you really feel those shoulderblades there. Okay. Now I want you to take your arms just a little bit out toward the t position. You won't go all the way to the floor. In fact, I want you just to hold your arms there. You might have to stagger a little bit.

Uh, okay, good. Thank you. All right. Let's take our right leg into a little passe or toe to knee and leg to the ceiling. Just hold that for a second. I'm going into leg circles. Now with the arms here, it might feel topsy turvy, so just you want to work on stabilization? Probably most more than range of motion. Okay, to cross the leg over your midline. Inhale, exhale around, up and center. Cross it. Exhale round up and center and keep it moving. Concentrate on the back of your body.

The weight staying very equal. Last one, this direction. Let's reverse it out to the right, down across, midline and up. Easy shoulder blades. Three more. Open around and up. Looks good. Open around, up. Last one. Open around and lift.

Just bend that knee and stretch the leg down. Keep some energy in those arms and your lats and let's develop a the left leg, the soft foot at the top. It's slight external rotation. Pull your body closer to the mat. Here we go. Cross. Exhale. Round in. Lift. Yes, stable body, but a free leg. Ah, last one. This direction. Other side.

Your downward leg needs to be anchored as well. [inaudible] he'll some work in the right leg. Do more. I think I'm doing six tonight for some reason in a round and there's fine. Bend the knee and extending through. Okay. What everybody? Just with those arms on your exhale, lift your head, neck, and chest.

Bring your legs into your tabletop position and reach your fingertips towards your ankles here and just hold yourself in a very, very contracted country place. Here tailbone is down. Feel your last pressing. We're going to go into our double leg stretch. Big Inhale. Stretch it out guys. Exhale, circle around. Let's give a little more energy. Stretch and contract. Stretch and contract. Keep it going.

Stretch and around. There we go for more tonight. Nice Katherine and squeeze. Look straight at your legs. Nice work and too sure. Last one and around it whole. Now can you put your hands lower on your shins?

I'm at way down on my ankles now as you can see, my legs are not 90 degrees. My femurs, I'm gonna pull my body up. Nice, Erica. Now my femurs are a vertical. Depending on the leg length that you have, you may actually get your toes down. Feel okay. Kind of look at me like what's going to happen neck, extend your left leg forward. Everyone.

I'd love it if you can have that heel almost on the mat. Now this is a little different. We're not in tabletop yet, but we will make this like go to tabletop, but if you look right down your front, your pelvis is totally level. Let's just raise that Shin in line with the knee and just hold. So we've got that Nice right angle position here. Okay, check it out on the other side. Go ahead and lower this leg tonight. This one though, I don't want you to go any, any closer in towards you.

Then tabletop. Okay there. Let's exhale as we change who read out 10 of these one XCL and two you're allowed to put your hands in front of your knee if you need to to stop that knee from coming any closer than 90 degrees. Sure. Seven and eight little more flection in the tourists are. We're not resting on their shoulder blades.

There's our 10 hands behind the head. Keep it twisting and warm. Go into criss cross two. Exhale three. We've got to keep that tabletop position and five, six there it is, and seven and eight last one on that side. Next one is the last one. 10 come back to your tabletop. Don't drop it. Don't drop it. Hold. I know this is exhausting.

Hole hole girl. Higher curl higher. Now put your hands behind your lies. Roll yourself up. Okay guys, try not to do any extra adjustments right now except to just bring your heels in towards you. Put your hands on your shins again, lotions, and just hold your feet slightly above your mat. Getting ready for the rolling like a ball. Okay, so we tip the pelvis, we look down, we tip, we rule back to the shoulder blades. We exhale, we come up. We find that balance. Inhale, tip the pelvis, roll, hit, seal up and balance. It starts by pulling the pubic bone muscles up toward the navel, the same space from your thighs.

Towards your chest throughout this rolling like a ball. Inhale. Exhale. Two more please. I'm gonna Watch you. Beautiful. Last one. Excellent balance. Everybody. Hold onto it. Just do everybody. Just trick your shoulders. Some of our shoulders decided to help out.

We're going to pull those suckers down now. Once you lift your shins up, can put your hands right here by the sides of your knees or shins. And ideally, if we could get our shins again into tabletop. Wow, that looks so good. Okay. Can we let go? We're going to roll back to our shoulder blades and keep going into some of the series of five. Sorry, hip flexors. We'll stretch them out. Here we go. To roll back slowly. The slow word is a key word.

And if you could plunk your kerplunk cool. Oh, cases there. I want you to really get some stretch tonight. It's nice and warm in here. Chest lift, pull pool. So your objective is flexibility, but not sacrificing control. Eyes looking for me. Nice you guys. Chin. Relax a little bit for three, two, last one.

Now bring your legs to 90 degrees with your now your hands [inaudible] behind your head again. Okay. I want you to take your pelvis and try to curl it. Have a up, a little pelvic tilt. You're not going to see a lot in me. Ah, it's not that I'm not working in Ale. I'm coming to level pelvis. Exhale and curl. I'm thinking of reaching my legs straight up, trying to unweight my pelvis a little bit. Inhale, as we lower the pelvis down. Exhale, we're curling. That's the first piece of rollover as we know it, right? Sometimes we miss that because we're busy moving the legs, but we want to pull that pelvis up. Inhale, take it down. Two more.

Exhale. Pull it up. Does anybody see where I'm going? Inhale. Exhale. Pull it up. Okay. I'd like you to take your arms down. Yes, your head is up. We're about to do rollover. You're when you rollover. Don't let go. Haircuts lifted up. When you roll over, the head will go down. Ready? We're going over. [inaudible]. You can use your arms a little bit.

Flex the feet. Let your legs open your shoulder with breathe in. Exhale. Here we go. We're rolling down the spine, bone by bone. Keep a good flex in the heels. This is a pretty hearty crew. We can come down a little bit lower than 90 now lift your head up, pelvic tilt, peel up and roll overhead. Flex the feet. Inhale, let him open. Exhale and roll it down.

Oh, use that mat again. Press into it. Circle the legs. As the legs come up, the head comes up. Exhale, pelvic tilt and okay. Oh, overhead. Flex the feet. Take a breath in as they open. Exhale. Let's roll it down. Ah, two more. Just like that. Tonight I'm going to take a look. So it was your legs come to 90 your head comes up, your pelvic tilt. Yes, and you roll yourself over. Flex your feet. Inhale, open.

Rolling down a little higher. Rachel, with your legs there. [inaudible] breathing guys, lower the leg slightly. Good. Lindsay, when you bring the legs up to 90 head comes up and you roll the legs up and over. Now everybody, let's stay there tonight. If you're okay with it, I want you to Tuck your toes to the Mat [inaudible] so that is not an opportunity to roll back on your neck. It's just tuck it, tuck the toes to the mat. You may not be ready for that. [inaudible] take one arm around to the foot, the other arm around to the other foot. Softly point your feet. And once again, I'm going to have you roll down with your legs nice and close to your torso.

So nice hamstring stretch. Again, trying to roll slowly. [inaudible] you make her plunk, most likely. If you're kerplunk in the ball, you're going to Kerplunk in here. That's some lumbar region. Uh, probably tightness, okay? Once you get your pelvis down, keep your legs up. But I just want you to really, really sink your sacrum into the mat. Open up the shoulders. This is deep, deep stretching for way up at those attachment areas or the connection muscles. They're feeling good. Yes, it's delightful. We love our hamstring stretches. Okay, now just keep your legs reaching up. Let's go through a little teaser to get ourselves up. Okay.

Alright. We'll bend our knees. We're gonna reach our hips. Legs forward. You'll need to stagger on your mat. I'm going to take you through some saw. So this saw legs, your open mat width. Let's take those arms up. Open up the chest, squeeze your tissue a little bit. Let's go ahead and take our body to our right leg. Inhale there.

Turn that torso. Now let's go rounding over. I'm gonna take you slowly, once on each side, just so I can see you. I want everybody's feet flexed. Yeah, flex flexor feet. Feel the energy all the way down there. We always think it's an ab exercise, which it is. It's a body exercise, but don't forget the feet. You're on the opposite hip evenly. The back arm has a palm that's up and you're reaching both arms in opposite directions. You might even have your head turned so that you're listening to that front arm. Okay? Lots to think about.

I realize let's roll up tall in your transition to the other side. Flex the feet. I can't see you now. Someone else can. And flux. As you reach both arms are opposite in direction. Even in intensity. Your abs, your scoop, you're evenly weighted on that opposite hip. Now as we flow from side to side, we inhale up and exhale and we read. Inhale as we come up, and exhale is [inaudible].

Inhaling up feeling that nice fluid movement. Now, not any stops does it mean no detail? In fact, it probably means some more. Once again, each side. Exhale, seeing the feet. Good. Last one, exhale, and all the way up. Now guys, let's go ahead and just bring your legs together.

Softly point your toes and bring your elbows into more. What we often call our goalpost position. You can have your palms facing your head like speakers. Okay, breathe in. We're going through full rotation. Back to the right for three pulses. Here we go. Exhale. One, two, three to the right and left. Exhale two and three. An lift.

Keep going. It's your whole torso. Nice. See me? Beautiful. Is your wall torso abs back, spine. No. Hips up out of the hips. Is that vine image that sometimes we use you guys? This is excellent. I know. I can see more lift though. If you want to really go for it. Lift. Yep.

Bring your ribs back. Lindsey there. Once again, each side. Good summer. You guys have good forum tonight. Two and three. That's an easy shoulders guys. One, two, and three. Stay facing your legs. Take your arms out to the side and fingertips behind you. Or two pointing out.

I'm going to go pointing out tonight myself. You can, you know classical would be hands facing this way or traditional, I should say. I'm going to go this way just to open up my shoulders a little bit. Still, we want to focus on where this motion is really coming from is the back of the body, not the front in the chest this way. So those of us that have hyperextended legs or knees, be a little careful and maybe skip a soft bend in them. But as you're about to bear weight back on your arms, lift your sternums first. Squeeze your underarms toward your back. If that makes any sense.

You're active in your upper back and your lats. Take another breath and looked forward. Let your chest climb the wall that's in front of you. You're about to lean on your arms. Ready and lift. Now the work really should be coming from. Keep going. Your back of your legs, your Derriere, your back extensors, your shoulder extensors, your triceps. There we go. Now when you come down, none of that really goes away. You just bring your weight down.

Just bring your hips down. Let's breathe in. Going right back up again. Exhale. Now where are you? Look with your head. Also matters. We definitely don't want to look straight up to the ceiling or back. I'm more in. Come on down. I'm more of look forward and a little up. All right, it's really more the chest. Here we go and lift and lower and exhale and lift and lower. Two more times. Exhale and lift and lower cause I know she can. Last one.

She lifts up everyone's gonna lift. Now I have some candidates in here for leg lifts. Anybody? Your right leg would come up three times. It's a one and down and two. There we go. And down. Last one, three other side. Lift. Good. Naked left. That's it. Long leg up. Hold everybody.

Breathe and can calm down with control. Reach those arms up and once again, we're going to go over the legs. Stretch out those hamstrings if you can get your head on your knees, breathe. So we'll go out of order and bring us through neck poll. All right, so come back up to sitting tall in her lacy, l a hands, elbows nice and wide out towards your sides. They're not so wide.

You can't see them out of your peripheral vision. That might throw some of us into more of an arched back. So we really are flat. Okay, now squeeze the glutes. Press the legs in. All right. I want you to take that same body position you had a moment ago. You probably won't go nearly as far. It's with your trunk, right?

Goes where you want in your hand. You'll feel a place where you're going to lose your balance. When you decide you're going to lose it, you want to control the motion. It's a flection of the spine. You come down, come right back up. It's okay to bend the knees.

I want you to get your chest down toward the legs and pull that stomach back. Roll up to sitting tall and just hold for a minute. Lift up again. So my hands are helping my head lift a tiny bit off of my kind of a skull off my spine and leaning back. I'm squeezing my legs in. Inhale, exhale and contract.

Now as you're gaining skill with this good reed, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Don't give up on yourself. Go, go, go. As you're gaining skill, we are opening the elbows wider as we can throughout this, but you've seen me just now. Tonight I had to move my elbows in. I'm working with where I'm at, not tonight. Part of our work in Paez, we learn about what we're doing, where we are, what you can challenge, what you need to be safe with. Ideally, we'd have our elbows wide. As you're rolling through. Let's go a couple more. All right, but if you need to change that angle, you're allowed to. Here we go. Lean back, squeezing the legs in. XCL. Control them down and right back up.

Squeeze over. Let's everybody lift up. This is beautiful work and hindering back. You all can smile occasionally. Movements should be fun. I always say that should feel good, especially if you've done something. You know you're gaining skill and you recognize it. That should make you gleam.

Ah, all right, there we are. Let's come on down. Turn over to your tummies gleam. All right, I want your hands right here by your chest. Open palm legs together. Preferred if you want to space, that's fine. Take a second to draw that whole upper back down the abdominals up.

We're going to start slowly with some swan work. So guys, as we take our head and reach it out like a turtle coming out of its shell, your shoulders should pull away from that skull and it should just allow you to float somewhat of your head and your chest. I want us to come up just as high as you can, but your and forearms and elbows are still touching the mat, right? And we're all in a different place, but we do want our mid and upper back to be in focus and keep your ribs for now on your mat, the front of your ribs, right Rachel. So then because you're bending in your low Lobeck, get more upper back is kind of right there. All right. Now you're going to stay with that sense of length as you come back down all the way to the forehead. Here we go again. A couple more. These keep checking. The hands aren't pushing you up. Inhale, stay there guys. Exhale and coming down.

That's right. Remember that? And using of the Mat. So go ahead. As you reach that head and neck long, feel the mat underneath your chest. Press into it and peel up. Now I've got my hand behind Megan's upper back. I want her to press her back into my hand. Yeah, keep pressing against me with your back, not the head. You're getting it.

Hold onto it guys on. It's a lot of work in the body. Breathe, feel okay and exhale and come all the way down. Now. If you want to take yourself to have more full swan, let's go for it. We're not going to lift our shoulders to do it. Exhale. Here you go. Let me see. Start going through, so if you're going to straighten those elbows, your shoulders are going to stay down, down, down. Nice, pat. It's okay to keep the elbow slightly bent when you're at the very top of this ribs up and in. Feel how nice and long your legs are behind you.

You guys, you could balance a book on your head. You're all in a really nice place. Breathe. Then the elbows that those joints soften as you come down. Let's go for that full swan. Once at least maybe twice more. Exhale and start fundamentally lengthen through the head.

How high can you get without having to source those triceps and you decide you go for it. Your up, your upper back is pulling back. Inhale, exhale. We're coming down. Bend the elbows back there we go. Long Front to chest. We're taking one more and explore the stretch of the chest. Feel the work in the muscles along either side of your spine. Let's breathe in.

We're going to do a little preparation here for the rocking swan or the dive. Let your hands go. We'll catch your hands underneath your chest. Excellent. And again, sure. I want to watch you and release. Have Fun. Don't think about Nice Lindsey. Yup. So reading is doing something. If you'd like to thank you. Shoot. Go for it.

Shoot your arms forward. Pull them under, shoot your arms forward. Pull them under two more guys. Yep. Lift your legs up, legs and oh right. Stop and rest. Nice Erica. Okay guys. Now when we come back into our rest pose tonight, or a little cat stretch as your hands come by, your chest, use this as actually a little transition like a pushup. So can you start to push now, pool those abdominals up as quickly as you can and instead of going all the way to a child's pose where you're just passive, pause in this cap back. Okay.

I'm going to looking at my knees actively pulling my tailbone under. I'm going to take a time right now to stretch. There's some hip flexors before we come through for teasers and some other things. Okay, so guys, bring your left foot forward and let's just go through a very classic lunge stretch. Okay. Just a very classic lung, so you're taking your right leg and getting very long from your hip to your heel. Your left knee is above your ankle. Anyone wants a little more challenged? I think some of you do. You can bring that arm up on a nice diagonal. Don't have to go here.

This is going to change a little bit more of your balance as well. You've got to bring those abdominals up. [inaudible] one more time and let's exhale and put the arm and leg down. I'm going to have you transition. Take the front foot and move it back, back leg, and move it forward. Nice easy leg, knee above the ankle.

If you want a little more work working your balance somewhat, just bring your arm up side to the ear. Keep thinking of link back through that back heel. Your stomach is up. Sure. Feeling Long. Let's take one more and exhale. Everybody come on down. Now I want you to take your right foot, put it back, and let's just stand in a nice front support or plank position and just hold right there so our elbows are not locked. We've got a really long sternum. Trust yourself. There you go. Keep breathing. Keep breathing.

Good shoulders toward pelvis. Now take a nice exhale. Come up to your up. Stretch your pike position. Do your best not to adjust your hands. Okay. What adjust is the reach of your sitz bones? Yes, up toward the sky and wall behind you. You haven't released your ribs. Those abs are still very active. They're [inaudible] a little higher, I think for Reid.

Take an inhale and exhale from your shoulder girdle. Start pulling yourself to your front support. Lower your hips, reach your stern and towards your partner across from you. Breathe in, going up and down. Two more times. Exhale. Let's lift. Stay there for a full breath in and out. Can you get your sitz bones a little higher? Inhale, exhale, and shift yourself down. Once again, inhale, exhale, shift, and lift up. Full breath there. Inhale, exhale.

Let's come on back down. Shh. Okay. I think I'm going to keep us here for a second. On the on the wrist, everybody bring your right thigh towards your chest and just hold it there. What? Hold your leg. There could be your hip flexors probably. It's also your tummy. Lot of ABS. Pull your shoulders down towards your hips. Your knees, Hubbard. Yep. Now when we step the foot back, we're trying not to push our hips up. Other leg. Exhale, bring it in.

Good. Heavy breathing. Going on. Feeling at work. Guys. Thigh in, shoulders to hips. Pull. That's it though. Right knee is not touching down. Yep, and that stepped up foot back. Now Bend your knees. Jump towards your hand. Good. Okay. Let's sit back down and choosing to come back to open. Like rocker to stretch out your back is right now. Okay, so bring those legs up and after some of that balance work in prone or front support, then you don't know if you might have better balance here.

So everybody, just hold yourself for a second. Why don't you to have your arms straight and look at something, stare at it could be a black object. Who knows. Now we could hold like crazy with the arms or you could hold that crazy with your stomach area where your thigh bone just meets the joint. That's where I want your strength to happen. So your hands can actually get lighter.

Ready for a rolling back. Inhale. Now come back up with that same connection into the hip joint. Inhaled tip, the pelvis roll. Exhale up. Inhale, tip and roll. Exhale up. Pull into those hip joints. Now I want to have a, maybe try three with no hands.

If you're courageous, even if you're not, there are two more. If you fall, you fall. That's a journey. It's all about learning what you can, where you're at. How'd we do? Okay. Little one. Fumbly fumbly bring your legs together guys. Bend your knees. Open up and just come forward. Let it go. Not for long though. We're going to come back around onto our stomachs again.

So just back your hips up, back down. We go for some, um, single leg kick. So we have our elbows bent, elbows right underneath their chest and our underarms. Let's have our hands flat tonight. And once again, just sink into the shoulders. Get that out of the way. Pull yourself up. Lift your sternum. Now, extend your legs behind you with energy in the hamstrings and wants you to consider this exercise. This is about pelvic stability, right? It is a lot about the pelvis, not doing any bucking or shifting right or left.

So when the hamstrings contract, sometimes that stuff happens. Lift your sternum and your use of your back extensors and lengthen your legs back. Okay, let's breathe in first. Right heel comes in, we've got pull, pull, reach back, left side, pull Paul, reach back, pull, pull, reach back. You can flex the foot, you can point the foot, you can do one of each. If your knees are bothering you, your modification is not to come in. So close looking good. Here we go. And kick, kick, reach back. Kick, kick. I'm changing. Tempo. Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. Sure going in. For sure.

Three chest is up. Sure. Last breath cycle. Now reach the Labor. Hold yourself there. Hold yourself there. Lift your sternum, turn your head and lower that chest with the legs extended. Now take those hands and stack them. I don't want you to interlace tonight guys.

Stack them behind your back. Lower your elbows to the mat. The legs are still extended. Take an inhale, three beats with the heels. We come in, one, two re extend. Now the arms just right by the sides of your legs. More like the flight position. Turn the head, bring your hands to the back.

Exhale. Two, three. Inhale. So the arms are right by your sides. Broad in the chest. Turn the head first. Hands up. One, two, three. Inhale, we reach Karen and we won two, three and he'll get a little high or oh wow. To three. Inhale, reach other side and yeah, and reach. Now come to the side. Now interlace your hands. The one who started with the hands interlaced. So we kick one, two, three.

Open those shoulders. My hands are sweaty. Lift her arms a little higher above your back. Squeeze those legs. Lift your legs. Just a titch higher. Turn the other direction. And once again, exhale one. And here we go. Whole yet upper back. Extend those knees. Now keep your legs up. Everybody released your hands.

Once again, put them right here by your shoulders. Lao, lower the legs. Tuck your toes. I'm going to push yourself up to a front support. Ready. Push. Once again, just hold your position for a moment. Bend your knees, jumped your hands. Two feet, two hands. Get your hands in front of you. Now more everybody, shift your weight into those arms. Shift your weight forward. Now, not everyone's knees are going to love this, but I want you to see if you can keep your knees pretty low to the Mat and get your body weight right over those hands with a pretty rounded lower back.

God, your stomach is active. You're round another seeker for summer. Ooh, okay. Shift off the hands two more times. Shifting forward to right a stay low. [inaudible] shoulder blades [inaudible] and reaching back off the risk. One more guys, and coming forward and back. We go. Now I'd like you to straighten your legs. We're not quite done.

Let's give those hamstrings a little love there. Bend those knees back down again. Now if you want to or you can step or jump your feet back onto your front support and then just turn to face me. You're going to be on different hips. That's fine. And just get ready for a little side bend on your wrist, on your hand, right in here. And then take your legs.

I'm going to have you have your top put forward. Have your bottom foot, the other arm out to the side sink just to get it out of the way and press up. Let's do that two more times. It's okay. It's actually a natural thing to do is just drop the weight a little bit and then progress. And one more time in drop. I'm impressed. Okay, so the press down where we want to stay. You guys know that shoulder down toward pelvis. Inhale there. Two things.

Your straighten your legs. This arm is going to come overhead and just find a nice kind of a flat line for right now. Yeah, so I'm going to just, I'm looking, this is good. Rachel, bring your inside hip down a little and Lindsey bring your in height. Yeah. Yeah. Linkedin. This waste if you can. Yeah.

Inhale, you're going to not like this. Turn and look to your top hand. You guys might like it without bending your elbow. Can you lower your hip down to the mat? It's a stretch for that waist. This is brutal and up we go again. Now this time we are going to Bend Ben and look at the bottom hand.

Lift both waist up to the ceiling. This is side bend you guys and over arms up. I said the top hand, you're lowering your hip without bending the elbow. Let's take it one more time. Press up side Ben. I know and flat line, bend your knees and down. Okay. Swivel to the other side.

I know hard, very hard. When it's slippery and sweaty it's even harder. So if you need to, you know. All right, so let's do the arm to the side. Drop that shoulder for a moment carefully and press and carefully draw. Sure. Modification maybe would be to not do it on the wrist, but just be an assigned plank on your elbow if anyone's interested. Okay. Now as we go up here we are extend through the legs first, start with the arm by your ear. I didn't say the first side, but I want everyone to squeeze the legs together. Squeeze the inner thighs.

Okay, now look up. Take that top arm down as it's coming down. Your hip drops, but you don't bend your elbow if you can help it. This is very advanced. Press up over. Now look at your bottom wrist and lift those hips up high like a rainbow. And then if we come to facing front, bend your knees. Lower your hip. Okay, one more time. Now bad exhale. Here we go. Up First, find that same side bend. You can look at the bottom hand.

Look up toward the top hand lowering the hip. It's a stretch for that inside waist to hip. This is string through or here. And Press and find your big, big side. Bend and level that waist first. And Bend your knees. Everybody come down. I know. Okay.

Face your legs just for a second. Shake the wrists. [inaudible] seal. Alright, so seal the open. Those knees, hands will be underneath the ankles. And on top of the ankle here. Now a couple of you can do more than this elbow. Meet the knee, meet the back of the knee. Right? Cool. Then maybe the hands would interlace right and the index fingers could touch or yes.

If you're getting that much full at least yes, we're working maybe to get hands to the tops of the feet. Okay. What this demands a lot of is hip flexibility. So this where dancers come in. Okay, it's no problem, but is the stability. Everybody flex this part of your spine. Try to balance there. Okay, now we roll back to the shoulder blades. The feet, do a little clap, clap, clap. One, two, three, come back up and we clap, clap, clap.

We roll back. Clap, clap, clap. We roll up, clap, clap, clap. And we roll in back. Clap, clap, clap and it up. Clap, clap, clap. Now if you're not working at deep fooled, you're okay. It's fine. Ah. [inaudible] this is about rolling evenly back through your spine and cooling your body off a little bit. A couple more. Ro, clap, clap, clap and up. Clap, clap, clap. Take it back in one clap, clap, clap, and up.

Now everybody balanced though here. Okay. We're not quite, we started a little after the hour, so I'm going to just keep it going for a minute. Bring those legs to your teaser. Yeah, release your hands. Keep your legs relatively if not exactly where they are.

And we roll our back down. Rolling down. We take the arms back overhead as if we would be getting ready for a roll up. And we do. We bring the torso back up. Exhale, reach your arms a little higher back down again. Reach towards your toes and roll your spine down. Nice Kathryn, and lengthen the legs. We'll take one more. Now establish your upper body position. Lower your legs and inch.

Bring them back up that inch. One more time. Down and lifted. Everything's going to go down. Arms back, legs down. But the legs are not going to touch the mat. Guys, keep the legs up. We roll back up. Show up once more. Resort your toes. Roll back. Legs aren't gonna touch them.

That beautiful roll back up and we lift. Open your arms out to your sides, bend your knees, come in for a second and just do this beautiful stuff. All right, so similarly, it wouldn't be class without swimming either. So shift yourself back around onto your tummy. Stretch your body long. Extend the legs back again. They're not on the mat.

I want you to hover your head, your face. Really it is your chest, slightly arms, legs, and just hold that position and make sure your stomach is up. You're not pushing it out. Okay? Now if you can get your chest to swan a little bit, little more swan with your chest. All right, we're paddling the arms now. Some are beautiful. Nice one, good, Rachel, Nice and steady. Four lift the chest, two and Shin down. Read. Hold everybody and bring everything down to rest.

So lie those hands back again, right by your shoulders. Tuck those toes one more pressed to your front support. And as if those little wrists didn't have enough, two or three pushes. Here we go. Bending down and exhale, press bending down. Press. Let me watch you bending down. Ras. Now Pike, those hips up.

Take a good breath, you guys holding that position. I want you to walk your feet forward towards your hands still hanging upside down, letting that head go. Feet pretty close together. If not zipped up all the way and just feel the weight come forward into the hands. Again, it's not a ton of weight bearing on the wrist, but just enough that you're unweighting your heels a little. Okay. And if you can keep that head down.

Yeah, yeah. You just three times rise up to irrelevant or tippy toe. Let it come from the stretch that's happening in the back of the upper leg, but also that relationship of the low belly. All right. Now when you lower your heels, you still keep that relationship, that scoop here in and up, and again, lift the heels and lower your heels. One more time and lift your heels and lower your heels softly bend your knees everybody and just hold that for just a second. Drop those heads. How much? Just unroll up to standing from there tonight.

Just easy crawling all the way up. Establishing a nice pedestrian posture for a second. Okay. Did you travel somewhere new? Anybody explore unknown or known territory or haven't seen it for awhile.

It looked as though there were some my ventures going on. Nice work. Thanks. Bye. [inaudible].

Comments

You know it's great class when my face is turning pink at the end!
Thanks Aliza......me too actually! :)
Great pace.....love this quote- know "what you can be safe with and what you can challenge" Gonna use it, but will give you credit! Thanks.
Hi Jennifer....thanks for your support, it's truly appreciated! :)
Thanks Amy.....It makes me want to go back to watch your reformer class....to see how you teach knee stretches (cat with knees off mat)
Hi Loretta! Ah yes, knees off the mat....well, are you wondering where I position the upper body? I've learned it many ways----shoulders aligned above the wrists as well as shoulders not aligned. I always look at to see where the person is going to be most supported and stable. How about you?
Hi Amy, Thank you again. I agree with you. Either Keep shoulder aligned above wrists (easier on shoulder) or with more challenge way - wrists in front of shoulders. I will keep remind myself - :"to watch where the person is going to be most supported and stable". Any plan to teach more reformer class? i.e. for the person with shoulder issue (weak on shoulder) or with other issues.
Fantastic class, Amy. Still one of my favorite instructors. This really challenged me, especially since I did upper body strength training the day before. Thanks.
Amy,

Really like the fundamentals that you get in there to make the exercises new and adds the body learning to moving.

Thanks.

Pat
1 person likes this.
Glad you added your comment Pat! As a longtime student of Amy's here in Santa Barbara, that's exactly what I love about her teaching most. She connects the fundamentals to advanced level exercises, so that there is alway more to discover! And it makes it more challenging too!
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