Class #535

Resistance on the Mat

55 min - Class
402 likes

Description

In this Mat workout, Alycea Ungaro teaches us her "latest obsession," resistance on the Mat. If you suspend expectations of what comes next, then you will be able to connect deeper and push yourself beyond anything you ordinarily would do by yourself. Alycea is tough, precise, and unbelievably fun! We were all sweating in this one!
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights

About This Video

Oct 10, 2011
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Transcript

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How has everybody, anything I need to know about necks, knees, backs, overall malaise. Nobody's pregnant. Hangover. No. Stand up. It's good to start standing. I will ask you today too, I'm going to use the word suspend a expectation about what comes next. I may do a completely classical order, but we have all done plots here before and you have internalized for yourself in your own practice, some kind of rhythm. And I don't want you to use it today. I want you to wait and tried not to anticipate.

It may be exactly what you think it's going to be, but it might not. So I'm just going to ask you to kind of let go of like, Oh yes, I know the exercise, but let go of how you may always try to do it. So I'll stand toward the front of your mat. Um, and just to give you something to ground towards a theme. Today I've been thinking a lot about resistance and the flip side of that, which is actually become very popular these days. Suspension, suspension training has become super huge. But I keep thinking parties has all of that.

We have resistance and we have suspension. So I just want you to kind of play with those words as we go through our class today. Heels together, toes apart. Perfect. Plotty stance. If you will, rise up on your toes, hang out there for a second, let your arms hang loose and just make very teeny tiny little adjustments slightly back, slightly forward, not lowering your heels at all. Pull your abdominals inward and upward if you can. If it's comfortable for you, go ahead and close your eyes. Find your balance. And we do this all the time. We try to get off the floor, lift off the floor, try not to today. Try to ground down into the floor.

Stay this high and lower your heels bit by bit. Really pressing the heels together. So resisting each heel into the other one and now rise up again, but not till I say just bit by bit pushing away into the floor like you're drilling down into it to rise up. So drill down, down, down. Yeah. And the floor will push back to you all the way up, up, up. Stop at the top. Everything in and up. Good.

Now I'm looking at the top of your heads. I'm gonna ask you to lower your heels, but I don't want to see the top of your head go down. Don't change the level of your head. You're going to have to find space somewhere else. Your neck, your ribs, your waist, your thighs are touched down. Beautiful. Are you long in length? And I think maybe plus arms and legs, lower yourself to the map the way you will and come onto your backs and just hug your knees into your chest. Take a moment, settle into your mat. Nice deep breaths. Resistance happens externally in Palladio's with our springs that we use.

Resistance happens internally, physiologically within your body when your muscles hug towards the bones. So I want you to think about that as we do our hundred. Come into position for your hundred, taking the legs to your comfortable height and just stay there. I'm going to ask you to take your hands onto the mat today, actually onto the mat. Press your triceps down if you will. Take a breath, exhale out all the air and feel how elastic your lungs are. Inhale, exhale out all the air and actually crawl your fingertips forward down the Mat.

Seeing if you can scoop up just a bit more and inhale and exhale crawling up. If you will. Crawl, crawl, crawl with the fingers. That's it. You can come forward a little bit more. Inhale and exhale. Everybody feel as though I have my hand under your heels and press the legs down with resistance. Make resistance and breathing with sound. I want to hear your exhale. Ah, I love that. Breathing with sound.

Inhale. Exhale. Press down with the backs of the legs. You've just got a couple more promised. Inhale and exhale. Let me hear it. Oh one more. Inhale. Exhale, press down. Press down. Stay where you are. Changed nothing but your legs. Lower them a little bit and a little bit more and if that's okay on the back, take them all the way down to the floor. Beautiful awake, slightly [inaudible] mostly we remember that movie scene mostly dead. Bring the knees into the chest, give a little hug.

Just work that out a little bit. And actually why don't we come up and do a little rolling back instead of the full rollout. So I like to start from the top. I'm a big start at the top girl. So from here dropping your head, I'm going to ask you to come halfway back. So you come half way down. Just to your point where you might feel a little rumble. I'm okay with that. Stop there and hold for three. Hold for two.

Hold for one big exhale. Come back up. So internal resistance. Yes. Inhale and come on back. Bring the lower back down toward the mat. Squeeze shoulders together. Stop at your lowest point, maybe plus one more inch than you went before. And cold drop shoulders. Oh I love that.

And then exhale to come on up. Resist any tensing of the abdominals. I mean, no pushing out. Take it back. Push through your heels. Can you go a little lower? Slip the hips underneath you. Push through your heels. Everybody flare your baby toes.

Just flare them up like yoga toes all the way out. Out, out, out there. Ah, exhale. And come up. I got a smile up here. This is a good thing. Take two more. Curl it back. Nobody lays down today. Just curl to your lowest point and now with some resistance, stay where you are. Lift your arms, lower your arms, repeat, lift your arms. Don't come up. Lower your arms. Take one more. Lift your arms, pause with resistance. Press your arms down.

That's beautiful. Last one, take it up and with resistance pressed down, curl yourself all the way up and over. Say Good morning to your abs or good night and then lower yourself all the way down to the mat. Nice work though. Yeah, with resistance and suspension all at once. Put your palms down on the mat by your sides. Take your right leg up in the air. Stop right there. If I were to come around and push into your heel and you had to push me away, what would happen to that upper leg? It would really tense up, right?

You'd have a lot of muscle work going on there, right? Switch legs for a second. Do the same thing. Just make the muscles hard. Make internal muscular resistance. So this position is active, right? Everything squeezing. Now take that like back down. So two legs are down. Two likes down. Stay where you are.

I'm just gonna ask you to make a tiny mini bridge. So press your hands down your heels down and lift your seat. Just your seat up off the mat. No bent knees. Just your seat. You're gonna make a teeny tiny mini bridge. I could just barely see you coming off.

See if you can internally rotate your legs. Super internal. I know it's agony. Just do it anyway. Come on down. Take a breath. Whew. How hard did that bottom? Like have to work on the mat like crazy, right? Lift up again. Rotate your upper thighs towards each other, towards each other.

Not turned out parallel. Oh Mama. Sita. Good. Take them on down. Good. Keep that action in your bottom leg. Float your top like up. Right, like up. Bottom leg is still down there. Pushing as though you're in a bridge. And now we do our circles. Cross a round. Stop at the top. Cross around. Stop at the top. Circle around. Stop. At the top. Circle around. Stop at the top. One more circle around.

Pause here. I need three more with resistance. So as though you're moving your leg through something big, sticky and muddy. Here we go. Circle down around, up. Circle down. Around, up. Yeah. Wait for me. Circle down around. Better switch legs.

Stop there a moment. What if I asked you to do that mini bridge here with just one leg up in the air? Ah, you don't have to execute it fully, but just feel like you're going to do it. Now. Step the hips down and repeat. Circle over. Down or round up. Cross down around. Up and circled down. Around, up. Crossed. Down, around, up. One more. Cross down around. Pause there. Thick and slow.

Here's my cue. No one part of the leg circle is more important than any other part. So go for that. Circle down, around, up. Circle down, around, up. Exactly. It all gets equal time.

Last one down around. Frees up there. Beautiful. Set it down. Hug both knees into the chest and roll yourself up. Let's do rolling like a ball. I love rolling like a ball. I actually believe now that everything is rolling like a ball, all exercises are rolling like a ball on the reformer. Everything is rolling like a ball head Denise, and stop there.

We won't roll just yet. Instead of falling back, I want you to resist falling back. I want you to feel like, oh, I'm just going to put my lower back down and then come back up. Okay, so curl like five inches and pull yourself back up. So pulling away from your legs, away from your legs, away from your legs away. But don't roll. Come back up and catch yourself. Do it again. Curl away. Make space from your arms to your thighs. Catch yourself. Come back up. Nice again. Roll a little, a little more. One more inch. Get the head down and come back up. I know it's tough. Take one more roll. Resist the temptation to fall hands low on the ankles. Please. If you can, thank you. And then come back up. Stay where you are with your head down.

Don't lower your feet. We'll do some tempo. So slow on the rollback and slow on the roll up. Here we go. Smoothly back just to the base of the shoulders. Smoothly up. Don't let anything go further than the base of the shoulders. Your Bra strap is a good gauge. Go back and come back up.

Yeah. So cut it short there. Roll back easy. Come back up, take one more. Roll back and come back up. Okay. Here's a thought. This time when you come up, I want you to slam on the brakes, roll back, and then I almost want to hear that roll back and then break break now. Ah, that's so much better. Go again. There's the resistance and now, sure. Yeah. Much slower. If you don't come up at all, you're definitely doing it right. Take it back and squeeze to come up.

Take one more and you're done. I promise. Go back and then squeeze to stop. Put your feet down. Scoop back and lie flat. Very nice. Everything's rolling like a ball. Hug One knee in for single leg. Stretch internal resistance with your muscles.

So curl yourself up. Head, neck and shoulders. And that bottom leg is the one that always gets kind of fly away out there. So I want you to use resistance. Yeah, really push against something. Stop going now. Push and push. Press something heavy away.

Reach and press and press. Nice and reach and reach and reach and switch. We could use a little breathing here just to get the lungs involved. I like inhale for two. Then exhale for to keep it going. Inhale for two.

I'm getting faster. Exhale. Four, two. Here we go. In, in, out, out. Kick it up. You've been here with like 10 minutes, right? [inaudible] time to cook with gas and out. Out. Take four and three and two and one. Good hug, knees and rest. Let's take a break from the classical order for a moment.

So Chris Cross always comes last and no one can do it cause you're pooped, right? So I'm going to be nice and say, let's do it now. Palm over palm hands behind your head. Let's wake up. Obliques. Turn to the right elbow to knee. Extend the opposite leg. Hold it there for three counts. Climb up higher on to twist more and look back.

See your elbow with your eyes one and switch sides. Look at that. You have all the strength in the world. Stay there for one. Look behind you too. It's not the Chris Cross. If you don't see your back elbow on three and now changed sides. Hold. Can you climb a little higher and then maybe another inch.

What if I pulled your knee away from you and you had to climb up and get it. Now change sides and lift and then lift. Come get it and come get it again. Beautiful. And now lickety split. Here we go. Twist and twist, twist and twist. Just two more sets. Turn and turn. Last one, turn and your done.

Hug your knees and rest still with me. Okay, good. Come on up for double leg stretch. Not sitting up. Sorry. Just come up into your best abdominal crunch. Arms and legs. Resist everything as you open way far away. Spin the arms to the side. This is two and that's three.

That's what I said about the spending your expectations. We have three counts to do this exercise today. One, two, his arm. Side three is hugin with me. Take it back to his arms to the side. Three is hugged the man and reach one, just the arms.

Then everything. Take it out, just the arms. Sweep it all in. Take it out. Just circle the arms and and resist with the arms. Take them out, press the air away. Then fold in. Last one, take it out and sweep around. Hug in and rest your head. So funny. It's such a small change and it starts to feel like you're, you know, rubbing your stomach and fat in your head. Very nice. Hands behind the head. Palm over, palm both legs up, heels together, toes apart.

Curl up as high as you can off your mat. And now open your elbows wide and curl up another inch and open elbows even wider. I would like the legs to come down six inches. Okay, that's your ceiling. You're not allowed to go higher than that. Now lift your body two inches. Stay there. Nobody's going anywhere. We're hanging with it. Then we're going to learn about resistance. Resist. Resist the tendency to shy away from this move. Stay where you are.

Lower your legs, two inches. Come back to that spot. Two inches back to that spot. Never 90, not in my class. Two inches back to that spot. Two inches. Stop at the top. Don't move. Now I want you down. Two winches up. Only one, two inches up, just halfway, two inches down. So you're getting lower AAHA longer. Lower, shorter, lift longer, lower, shorter. Lift last one and bend everything.

Small but mighty. It's a little hot. It's a little hot in here. I'm going to go back to Chris Cross. I know, sorry. Let's try it this time. Table Top the legs and I hate the tabletop position. Normally I never teach it, but I actually just don't want your legs involved at all. So hands behind, head palm over pump elbows, nice and wide. Tabletop your legs and then halfway stretch your legs out between here and your hundred position or your teaser position. Good twist to the right elbow to knee. Stay there, look at your legs. If you can just glance at them a little bit. Make sure one need didn't shove back past the other one.

Come up in the middle and go to the other side. Okay. Everybody relax. Everybody relax. Okay, so I get a lot of this right? I'm here, I turn, I come up, I'm turning, I come up, I want come up through the middle. Turn around, come up through the middle. Turn around. Yes. Here we go. Turn to the right. Stay there for a count just to beat. And now lift up through the center. Turn around. Beautiful.

Lift up through the center and spin around and look behind you. Lift up through the center and turn and lift and turn. Take two more. Come up higher and back. Last one and up off the mat and there we are. Now rests so nice. It looks beautiful. It really does.

Come on up to sitting. Can we do spine stretch forward? Can we go old school like Joe? Put your hands on the mat. Every time I look back in return to life, I'm always like, oh my God, we've been doing it wrong. He didn't say to do that. Hands on the mat today. So we're actually going to crawl forward all the way and take your biggest, best, deepest spine stretch. Holds it there.

Look to the naval crown of the head towards the Mat and now come up for air. Ah, my favorite line. Go again. Take it all out. All the air goes out. Crawl the hands forward. Push the heels forward, pull the toes back, stay there. Where's the crown of your head? Cause it should be right into the stomach and then come up for air. Shoulders back, and take one more.

Take it out to three and here at the bottom, think about all that resistance, that internal resistance. Tighten your legs. Really charge up the quad muscles tight, tight, tight. You're allowed to use the mental Audis and now come up for air. Last one, all the way out. Breathing with sound all the way. Charge up the legs.

This is not a rest position. It's a full resistance body movement and take it all the way up. Okay, so open leg rockers. Next grab hold of your ankles. Let's play a little bit with some resistance. Take Your B, whatever's good for your body. I'm going to have you let go today and we're going to play a little bit so no hands. Take them inside. Make your own personal magic circle.

Resist your legs and have your own legs fight. Hold for five seconds. Hold for four. Push a little bit ladies. Three and two. Shoulders back. Make some resistance. Okay. Grab your ankles. Just hang out there a second. Don't freak out. It's just the openly rocker. It's just exercise. Bring your legs together.

We try it again. A little different. This time you're going to push apart. You can let go again. Your legs are together, but when you're making resistance here, so try to separate and don't let yourself hold for five. Chest up on four. Push your legs together. Push them and let your legs fight apart. Little more and good. Okay, come back to your original position.

Just stop there. Everybody comfortable with the rocker? We can try. Rock on back. Exhale it up. Remember before how we did rolling like a ball and I said, slam on the brakes to come up. Here's your chance. Go back and now slow, slow, slow, and again, rock back and slow it down. That resistance makes it a powerhouse exercise. Go again back.

Take it up. Stop at the top. You're only going to do three more. Let go with your hands. Put them inside. Yes. Make a little resistance and go back. Exhale up. It's almost over. One more back. Come up. And here's your photo opportunity. Stop at the top. Stay big, shiny smile and bend your knees and relax. Good.

It's a hard exercise. Even on a really good day. It's a hard exercise. Can we lie down and do a little corkscrew? Maybe? Yes. The corkscrew legs are up. Take your most perfect Palladio's position. Heels together, toes apart, and take both legs to the right on a diagonal. Let the left hip come up off the mat. Stop there. I didn't say circle.

Just reach the legs to the right. So starting with a bit of a tick Tock, come back to center. Go to the left, like you're pressing something heavy down to three. And now drag the legs up to center. Nice. Go to the right. Go a little deeper than you did the first set. Make it progressive and drag them back to center. Go to the left, sweep the legs over. Reach them out.

Let the hip come up. That's okay today and come back to center. Soften your knees just for a second. That beautiful resistance you guys did both ways is how I want you to do your corkscrew so there's not going to be a place you whip. Like I said earlier in leg circles, it's not one part is more important than the other. No parts are more important. Both legs up. Take both legs to the right and at that tempo.

With that resistance, sweep down to the center and sweep up on the left. Start to the left, resisting and pressing and pushing around to come up. Take it right down around to come up and to the left. Down around to come up. Everybody pause here for me. Up is not 90 up is shy of 90 take your legs down. Six to eight inches.

That's your ceiling promise. Do I have your word? Go to the right knee. Down around. Stop Short of 90 I know you want to go to 90 go the other way down around. Stay below 90 go to the right. Yeah, you need to keep the abdominals on. Stretch the holes. Time to the left, down around. Stop below 90.

Bend your knees and relax. Better. Yeah. If you stop, if you bring them straight up to 90 you let the abs rest. The exercise doesn't go on long enough to really get enough out of it. Swing yourself up for saw arms. Let's do this this way today. My Fun, most fun way. So it's harder to twist this way because all the twist comes from the arms.

Normally when we do saw, so I want you to twist from your waist. Don't let your hips move at all. Follow your back elbow with your eyes and then take the front elbow to the knee, to the knee, to the knee. When you're down there, twist more. Ah, when you're down there, look up to your top elbow. When you're down there, really open the top elbow. Oh my goodness. And then come back up straight and tall. Go to the other way, twist I. Now it's just misery and go forward. Hold it there. Think elbow to knee, stay there and spiral your rib cage more.

Nice. Stay there and open your top elbow. Really push it back. Push it back more. Open it behind you. Beautiful. Come on up for air and twist to the other side. Take note of that opposite hip. I actually want you to put weight on it. Actually fitting more on it.

That side that you're twisting away from that nice elbow to knee. Hold it. Elbow to knee, twist more. It's not static. Do we ever hold positions in Belarus? No. Twist. More twist, more open, more reach. Now come up for Ar. Yeah, if I see you stop moving, you're doing yoga. I think twist. Go forward.

Stay. The rib cage comes around and forward. Now Open the elbow up and back up and back there and come on up. One more set and you're done. Promise, twist and go rib cage around. So think up and around. Up and forward. Reach and come on up. And last one twist.

And let me see the movement breathing with sound. Go over open top elbow. Spiral the rib cage around even more. Open the chest. You have it. And now come on up. Spin around so you're on your bellies facing down on the mat. Bring heads to the center. Okay, so we're all facing each other.

You guys get to smile a little bit? Yeah, we do a little swan. Nobody's in any trouble here. Yeah, with the back things. Okay, so I like to go old school here too. Lately I do all kind of Joe thing. So arms out to the side. I'm going to take a breath and on the exhale just lift everything up. Just everything. Everything's in the air. Shoulders are back, eyes are forward.

Set everything back down. You got another chance at that. Inhale and exhale. Come on up. Abdominals. Brace against the spine, holds it there. Chest forward and come on down. Okay. The next time you come up you have to stay up and you start with no momentum from a dead spin and we go up and down for Swan. Okay, so inhale, exhale, come up and start from nothing. Rocking forward, up. Forward, up, forward, higher. Forward, up. Keep going up.

Take three and two and one. You're done. Sit back on your heels. Wowza. Yeah, without the arms. It becomes a very different exercise and it doesn't have to be forceful to where you're crunching your back, but it is the strength of your spine. So we need those muscles come on back out. Still a little isometric training. Single leg kick, elbows on the Mat.

I would love for this to be an upper body exercise. So I'm going to ask you to pin your elbows to the mat, make strong fists and then feel like you could actually physically slide yourself forward. Don't just feel like you could pull yourself forward. Chest is all the way up. The tricep should be shaking. Just doing this. Hold it for five. Keep pulling your elbows back more for keep pressing your chest forward on three. I need to see movement cause Belarus is moving legs together.

Tight onto can I see the shoulders squeeze more on one. Good. I want the triceps actually working the whole time. Lift your right leg up, hold it in the air and double kick in in and stretch it out. Put it back down. Left leg comes off the mat. Now Bend it in, in, take it out, put it back down, right leg comes off the mat in, in, take it out, put it down, left leg up in, in. Take it out, put it down, right leg in, in. Take it out and down. Left leg in. Take it out and down. Stop a moment. Relax. I learned this exercise with both legs in the air.

So actually thighs off the mat the whole time. I gave you a moment to change, but now let's not. So pull into the mat up with the belly. Start kicking. You don't have to take them both up first to start kicking and you'll find it's easier than keep the thighs off the mat in, in, in, in knees and thighs are off the mat. Go in and in. What happened to the triceps? They still working in. Just check in and last four and three and two and now you're done.

Relaxed. Nice. Hands behind, back double leg kick. And we'll just toss this one away, right? Cause every couple exercises you just have to do one for fun. Drop your elbows way down. Bend both knees and tap three times in two, three. Stretch everything up.

One, two, three. Go again. One, two, three. Take it up to three. Come down and pause a second. Instead of getting there on one and losing it. Take three full counts to lift up. Okay, so tap two, three. Lift up. One more. Two. Highest three. Nice. And go to three and climb higher.

Highest and one to three. Take the full three counts. Last one, two, three. And lift up and up. Stop at the top. Take your arms out to the side right where you are. Don't smack your neighbor and now pull your arms all the way behind you and lift up higher. Do that one more time. Arms out to the side and arms go back and you lift even higher.

See if you can stay that high to float the arms to the side and forward. Now you're done. Set everything down and sit back on your heels. Excellent. Back of the body, back of the body, something we forget so much. Let's flip around for nickel. And again, I like to start from the top. I'm not a big coming up from nothing, uh, advocate.

So we start at the top, palms back, nape of the neck. And these are resistance tools as well. You want to use your hands to press the back of your head into, yeah, we're gonna keep the back flat. Go back to your lowest point. Chin is in. Back is flat. Don't let the elbows fold. We're not going to go around it all today. You're just high and hinge back.

Stop two, three, then round all the way forward. Inhale to come up. Start the whole mess again. Squeeze your seat, hinge back. Go to your lowest point and open your elbows more. Stay one. Stay with it. Two. One more. Count Three, drop your chin. Round forward. Come on up. Stay for a moment. Lift up, hinge back. Push through your heels. Tighten your legs. Make internal resistance in your mid section.

Push the elbows back and Chin in. Round forward. Come on up. Stop at the top. Just pause a moment and listen to my voice. Like don't rest. One of my favorite quotes this year has been Einstein's quote where he said, I'm not smarter than anyone else. I just stay with the problem longer. Lift up, hinge back and stay with the problem.

Open your elbows and stay there for five. Get a little lower on four. Close the ribs on. Three. Push your elbows back to be Einstein on one and round yourself forward to the knees and come up. That's plenty. Roll yourself down on your back. Really Nice. I just say what the problem longer. Just say what the problem. Bend your knees with your feet. Flat. Brush shoulder bridge.

I'm going to also ask you to stay with the problem here. This is a problem. Bombs down. Crawl your fingertips forward so you're really pulling the shoulders down. Lets have feet together for this today. Inner thighs squeezing like crazy. Press your hips up in the air.

Good stay and because I like movement, I want to see everything internally moving. Walk your feet together if they're not already, inner thighs squeezing. Now I need you to just imagine I'm there if I'm not already there. I'm going to put my hands on your shins. You push me away. Push forward with your knees forward with your shins.

You should feel your glutes and hamstrings charge up like crazy. Push forward. If I see you bursting into flames, I'll come round and put the fire out. Push. Yes, yes, yes. That makes sense for you. Squeeze. Are you feeling it? That's a resounding yes. Squeezing his eyes a little more. I didn't say I can't hear you, but I wanted to squeeze tight. Push forward. Push forward. Push.

Oh yes. That's the one. The grimace. I love it. Five. Hold for four. You're there. That's your shoulder bridge. Three, squeeze two. All that power and melt down your spine. Just milk, milk, milk, melt. Hug your knees and let it all go for a second. Resistances deserve some relaxation at the other end of it, right? So don't let your shoulder bridge be passive. Put your feet back down.

You get to do it again. Lucky you. Pick up your hips, send your knees and shins forward. This time drive your heels down. You should be able to freely wiggle your toes. If I asked you to because they're not driving into the mat at all. Right. Squeeze tight. Press knees forward. Take your right leg up. Hold it there. Can you still send the left knee forward? Yeah, maybe.

Good. Love it. Flex the top foot. Give me five kicks. Take it down. Throw it up. Take it down. Throw it up and down. Lift and down. Lift. Last one. Stop at the top gracefully. Put it down. Take the other leg up and stuck there to just everything. Sending your right knee and Shin. Way Forward. Ah, flex the top. Flip with resistance. Kick it down.

Don't throw it and toss it around. Press and lift. Press and resist. Squeeze. Yes. Much better. And up last one. And stop at the top. Put the foot down. One final thrust. Keep the hips high. Press the knees forward and melt your spine down from the top through the bottom. Hug your knees into your chest. Beautifully done.

And set yourself up. We have to do kneeling. Sidekicks today. I don't know why I do what we do. So, um, what's the best way to face here? Okay, so we're going to come face man. We'll be in the middle of the mat and like let's all start this side so that we go to one direction. These are a part hip with. I'm just going to fall onto that hand. Extend the other leg out.

Take a moment, put the hand behind the head, everybody stopped there and just lift the leg and hold it there for a moment and just make sure you're not all the way over the hand. There shouldn't really be a lot of pressure in the heel of your hand. It's straight down from hip to knee. Hold the leg up, chest is open. You know how we did a saw earlier and I had that top elbow really looking up there so you can just glance up at that and see what's going on. Make sure this isn't too turned out.

Just holding the position is working enough. Yes. Take a couple of lowers and lift. Lower and lift. Lower and stop. Now a big circle. Circle down around lifted. Circle down, around lifted. Circle down around lift. One more big exhale at the top with resistance kick front, front kick, back, back, resist kick front, front, kick back, back. Keep going. Kick Front, Front. Keep it hip. Height kick front, front, kick back, back. Come to center. Stop.

Give me five more circles with resistance up. Accent on the lift. Third one around up. Take final two to lift. You're almost done. Stop here. Put the toe down. Come on up. Both knees still with me.

Transition's going to be thigh stretch right here. Hands in front. Internal resistance. Nothing exemplifies it more perfectly than this exercise. Everything's going to squeeze. It should feel like you have a ball here and you're squeezing in and up together. So imagine in the ball, squeeze it up.

If you want to hook your thumbs, you can. You want to put palm over palm? You can or you can reach them here. A couple of options. Take it back. I like a pause. Hold for two. Hold for one and now just spring back up. So easy. Take it back. Squeeze Imaginary Ball or magic circle or something. Hold three.

Stay for two. One more. Count Spring back up. That's it. Take one more. Take it back and go squeeze tight. I don't want any rounding. Still keep the chest lifted. Hold it to hold it one and spring back up. Good. See, nobody lost a knee or any other leg goes out. You're over to this side. Elbow is up.

Just see yourself from the ceiling with shoulder over shoulder, hip over hip, leg extended nicely long, and take it up in the air hold. Just stay there. This is where you tweak the position from the front of the room. I should see your hip and your knee cap and the top of your foot. If I see your heel U2 rotated, so you need to rotate that that fast.

See that? What a huge change. Hold there. You're almost done. What about the powerhouse? Where are your abdominals? Take the leg and touch it down to the mat and pick it up. Tap it down and pick it up. Type it down. Stop at the top. Here are the circles. Circle around. Take it up. One circle around.

Take it up to circle around. Take it up. Three. You got two more. Take it up. Last one and stop. Here are your kicks. Take it to the front, front, back, back to the front, front, back, back. No swaying in the body. Hold strong. Kick, kick. Reach it back. Just two more. Last one, and stop at the back. Come to center. Five circles.

Circle down. Pick it up. I need to see it. Come all the way down and pick it up. Third one down, up. Fourth one down. Accent up. Fifth one and up. Tap it down. Come to both knees, upright, and sit down. Nice. Look, you don't have to do all those like 20 minutes of sidekicks. It's a beautiful thing. We're going to go to teaser, your favorite exercise, the quintessential PyLadies move. We're gonna blend this sort of taking a cue from the Yogis, sort of taking a cue from some Joe's archival work. So follow along, see what happens. Okay, I'm gonna have you just start sending up tip back a little bit.

Find your teaser and you're gonna balance for five counts. Holding it here, squeezing everything in, seeing if you can lift up into a nice, tight, high V, charging up your thighs, squeezing your heels together. That's it. That's all that's going to happen. Okay? Bend your knees and then as much as you can on these mat, stretch your legs, open them like you're going to do spine stretch forward and put your hands right in between. If you have rings on, just be aware. This is archival horseback, so we come up in the air. As much resistance as you can get. If your heels stay on the ground, that's fine. I'm telling you it's just pushed down through the arms. Stay two, three, four, come back down. Second set. Take your teaser and hold. Just five counts. Four accounts. Any hardcore yogis in the room.

Three counts, two counts, one count. Float your legs down. They can bend spine, stretch position, fists in between the body. Horseback, opps, scooping the belly. It doesn't matter if the legs leave the mat. If they do, that's the next level. Squeeze two, three powerhouse. Set it down. Last set. Knees. Come in, take your teaser, hold one. It looks great to fight for it.

A little three resistances in your mind to two heels together. One, load the legs and last horseback. Take your fists close to the body better if the fingers spacey each other and drive down. Use your arms. Make it an arm exercise. That's it. I'll take it. Good, beautiful hold. Hold that. Pick up the legs. One final try and put them down.

That was great. Super Lights come together. Spin onto your bellies. We can do a little swim. That was actually awesome. Yes. Let's take heads towards each other. Arms and legs. Come up in the air please, and just hold your balance. Head comes up. Take a deep breath in. Deep breath out, right leg up, left leg up, and start to paddle. Slow with pressure up, down, up, down, resist.

And now a little bit bigger please. Up, down, up, down. Make it strong and long. 10, nine, eight, seven, six. Almost done. This is four and three. Two and one. Set everything down. Sit back on your heels. Breathing. What's sound okay. Come on forward for seal.

And we did two rolling exercises so far where you had to slam on the brakes, right? Same thing here, coming up slower. Then you go back, use the resistance to deepen the exercise. So hands come around the ankles and you really should feel some pressure from your inner thighs into the arms so they're not out here. The other thing is if you ever have trouble getting up, the fee comes close to the mat as they can. As long as you're thinking, all my feet are gonna come here. You'll always come back up. Tap to three. Rock it back and resist coming up. I saw a lot of momentum. I didn't see that one. Let's try again. Go back, not looking. Come on up. One, two, three. Okay, and take it back a little slower on the up. Like I stopped you.

Two, three. Yes, I love the struggle is so good for you. Take it back. Come on up. Fight for it. Fight two, three. If it's easy, it's not exercise. Do One more. Go back. Come on up. One, two, three, easy upper backs back there. Last one. Take it back and slam on the brakes to come on up. And two and three. Good.

We're going to come on up to standing for a pushup series. So you want to be at the back of the Mat. I'm like a pushup Nazi. Okay, so here's the rules. There are no girl push ups in my class and I have terrible risks, so I don't care if you hold it or do elbow bending, but just don't put your knees down. Okay, arms up to start. Walk on down your legs, walk on out your mat, take your pushup position and we won't do pushups. To start, we're going to do some serratus pushup, so your arms stay straight. I just want you to squeeze your shoulder blades together and then come back out of it. Don't bend your arms, squeeze your shoulder blades together and come back up. Repeat.

Squeeze the shoulder blades and push off the floor. Use the resistance of the floor. Squeeze the shoulders together. Come back up. I'm not seeing it here. Squeeze two, three. Come back up. Last one. Squeeze to the rate and come back up. Walk yourself back to your feet. Is that okay? Alright, good.

You're going to come out. You get another chance. Come all the way back out. Five regular pushups. I'm going to count to five. You can hold the plank position for five counts or you can do five regular pushups. It's up to you. Elbows nice and wide. Starting now, lower and lift wide. Elbows, lower and lift. Classic pushups, lower and lift wide. Elbows lower and lift.

Fifth Count Lower and lift. Pike up your hips. Walk on back to your feet. Give yourself a little structure while you're there and that's allowed. You're going to have a little self-love. Arms up for the third set. Now we do triceps again. You have a choice. I'll count five. You take as many or as few as you need to this time elbows are into the side, so into the sides of the body. Push yourself up.

Bend into the sides. Push yourself up. Press it down, lift it up, press it down and lifted up. Last one and take it up. Pike up your hips. Walk back, stay bent over your legs. For this moment. Hands around the back of the ankles. Drop your head. Deep breath in. Exhale with sound. Ooh, I like that. Inhale. Exhale. Pull your head down towards your feet. Roll up and take a nice big breath.

You're going to put it all together. Okay. Three serratus. Three classic. Three tricep. Here we go. Walk down, walk out, be there. Ready to go. And Lower and lift. Arm Straight, lower lift, lower lift, wide elbows down and up. Open and up. Open and up. Triceps, back and up. Beautiful. Back and up. Last one. You are so strong. Lift your hips. Walk on back. Woo.

So good for you. Okay. Roll on up. Good. Come to the center of your map when we use our standing foot work. So cause we didn't do like many, many, many side things. We can face the front of the room, heels together, toes apart and just hearkened back for a moment if you will. It's the beginning of class where we did that rising up and that feeling of using the ground to push you away. You're not trying to get off the floor, you're trying to bore down into it. You know, heels together, palm over, palm behind your head, pulling up your abdominals, your powerhouses, so prepared for footwork.

So we go down till the heels naturally rise till you're sitting on them. If that's good for your legs today, if that's not working for you, just go as far as you can. Use Your abdominals to keep your balance. Squeeze two, three. Take your time. Keep calm. Lift two, three shows.

Exercise lower, lower, lower. Don't pitch forward if you can help it. Three more down to three. Exhale, two, three and lower. Don't fight to keep the heels lifted. They just come up when they come up and they go down right away. One more down and they just pop when they do and you push them back to the floor. Does that make sense? You're not trying to hold them up there.

They are pretty organically. It's reaching into the refrigerator drawer. You know they do what they do. Turn into parallel. Take Jeanie arms if you will. We're going to take a classic squat. It is his footwork, but it's a squat. So we sit low. Stay there. I'm going to spin around. I want your seat way back and your body, not here but up. So like I grabbed your hips and pulled you back.

It should feel like you're gonna fall. Hold three. I know you want to come up. Hold to hold one, drive your heels down and stand up. So I'm looking to see if your toes, knees, or thighs are doing anything funny. So you have to think in your mind's eye. Are they forward? I'm your mirror. Here we go. Take it down. And two, no bowing knees.

No knock. Knees hold together a little tighter. Chest up. Nope. Don't stand up. Just chest up. Upper back bend. Your upper back is going to do a back bend right there. Now stand up. It's miserable. Isn't it? So good for you. Drop low and two and three. Stay there.

Rock your hips back a little bit. Even more. No weight in the toes. Upper back bend. They are. Stand all the way out. Whew. Two more. Take it down. I'm sweating. Just watching you squeeze the shoulder blades together even more. What if you had to do a back bend right here? Oh my God. And then stand all the way up. Last one. Take it down.

Keep your elbows a little higher. No knock knees. Yes. Rock into the heels. Back, back, back, back and stand up. Shake out your legs. It's hard, right? I know. Somebody said to me, Oh, you know [inaudible] is scary. And I was like, if you've done a pushup, a squat, a wall, sit. You've done pilates. Not Scary. It's all like classic old moves, right? Jim Moves feet together. That was me giving you time. Toes up in the air.

Arms are forward now as a counterbalance. Same thing. Different position. Stay there and let me see the bottoms of your toes from where I'm standing because they're flexed up so hard. Hold it there. Where's the upper back? Bending and arching and squeezing the knees. Now you get to stand up. I could add weights, but I think we're okay. Right? Take it down. Hold it. Two rock back three like I literally pushed you back. Woo.

And then stand all the way up just to help you lower down. Throw the arms up to the ears. Yes. Hold. I think this is a yoga pose. Hold it one. Hold it to hug your ears with your arms. Yes. And then stand up. Lower the arms in front of you. Two more. Take it up. You're almost done.

Squeeze your own head hold and two and three and stand up. Last one, take it up and two and three and you're doing take it up. Very nice. Come back to that first exercise we did, which is really just the footwork for right hands. Go back behind the head and now you rise up to three. This is going to come up higher as you lower to three so I shouldn't see your head level go like this. Right?

You come up and then you go higher to put your heels down. Yeah, go lift two, three. Let me see you grow taller to lower the heels. Beautiful. Take it up. Squeeze your heels, your calves, the backs of your thighs, your glutes. Now Lower and two and three and lowering them doesn't mean releasing those muscles at all. Lift up, squeeze to three.

Wrap the backs of the legs so I don't see any day. And now lower and lower and lower. Take two more. Rising up to three. Stop at the top. Squeeze like crazy and lower and lower and lower. Last one, take it up and up and up.

Is that your highest point or is that just where you're comfortable? I could take another inch. Sold now lower and lower and lower. Okay, so standing in your plots position again, float the arms up and hold them strong. Good. Everybody's gonna lean a little forward. If you don't have weights, it doesn't matter cause you're gonna tense and charge up your muscles.

If I come around and put my hands between your arms like you did earlier in the open leg rocker, you have major muscle tension, right? Everything's working like crazy. Rock. A little forward towards the toes. A little forward. Can I stretch? Ah, Nice. Resist. And now we bicep curl, folding into the body, resisting out. And I should be able to see the shape of your muscles tensing to come in, resisting out. And if you are holding weights, don't rely on them to make all the weight. These are light. Make more resistance.

Resist and press out like you're folding your arms through Jello. Press in and now resist on the out as well. It's easy to get caught up in the in, but what about the out push, push, push. Take it in two, three. Push it out. Two, three in, two, three and out. Two, three. One more. Two, three. Take it out. Out. Stop there. Float the arms to the side.

Take them up to the ceiling and we do salute right from here. Just check your posture. I see a little bit of the splay. You always want to be up and over something. So opening wide, elbows to the back. Resist on the lift. Take it down to three. Resist on the lift. Use Your hands layered.

If you don't have weights to press into each other and open nice and wide. Make your muscles tense so I should see them. Yes, and up to three, take them down to three all the way up to three. One more down to three. All the way up, up and stop at the top. Open the weights a little bit. Make a little circle. Resist, like you have to push something together, tense your upper shoulder muscles and your biceps. Resist. Resist, start to lower as you circle lower, lower, make your muscles pop up. I want to see them squeeze.

Push something heavy together. This is five to lower all the way down, even more to the hips. Reverse direction up and two, three and four. Circle out. Now it's resisting to the outside. This is great. You guys lift and lift. Take three and two and one.

Take it down. Just one more set. That's all we'll do. Circle and circle with resistance. Are you using the air? You know the air around us is water. It's just a different form. So push through it, push, push and lower. And now we're at the bottom. Take it up and up.

Circle and circle all the way with pressure. Every direction of the circle. The down and the out and the up and the end. Last three and two and one. Put your weights down. Separate your feet. Last thing.

So we had all that resistance and resistance. Suspension just for breath. Just like Joe did. Arms Up. We do. I'll show you one. We just do three bounces and then a big recapture your breath just to let everything go. So it's one, two, three. I'm really catch your breath and then let it go. One, two, three, and I want to hear that and go to three.

Let inhale up and drop it out. A two, a three, and inhale up. Catch your breath. And last one oh one, a two, a three. Swing it up and take a bath. [inaudible] thank you. So Hi Miss. No, it's really you. I didn't do anything. We're a little shy, but.

Comments

3 people like this.
Thank you Alycea! I love your laugh and I love that pilates can be fun and effective.
1 person likes this.
awesome class! loved every minute of it, thank you!!
Ann S
2 people like this.
This is one great class...great cuing, fantastic visuals, unique but simple concepts...I loved this class and can't wait for more. Alycea, thanks sooooo much for sharing!
Thank you ladies. I still enjoy teaching after all these years - it's the highlight of my day. Susan - my laugh gets me in trouble sometimes - alas!
Just lovely! I agree, all the cues just really connected so well. Nice flow.
Marlisa E
Great class! I had to keep starting and stopping to make notes...awesome!! Always good to find ways to feel "familiar" movement in an entirely new and deeper way. Thanks!!
I enjoyed this class and you so much during your visit Alycea. You got me to challenge myself in a way I hadn't in a long time. It was tough, simple, and totally invigorating! Thank you!
Fantastic! Loved the resistance in the exercises and such fun teaching! Great
1 person likes this.
I enjoyed this class and have added to my list of favorites. I"ve used some of your cues in my classes with astonishing results. Thank you so much. There in nothing like taking a class from a terrific teacher to inspire one's own teaching. Thank you PA for everything you do for us!!
Beautiful.
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