Class #537

Theraband Mat Flow

60 min - Class
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Description

Use the Theraband to stretch out the shoulders and open up the chest to start class. Move to the floor and use the band as an assist for exercises that will help you build strength for the intermediate Mat exercises. There is a subtle emphasis on the oblique muscles of the abdominals and the shoulders in this class but the entire body is addressed.
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Oct 20, 2011
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Transcript

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Okay, let's go. Any requests standing up? Obliques. No, I'm not going to work though. Does everyone have a band? Yes. You have to? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So obliques. So she wants to rotate. You want to rotate too?

I want, that's what I want. I want did you say extension or expansion? Expansion. Extension and rotation. We should do Palabra. Okay, so I'm just going to say, let's take the bands and have them in front of you. You're all going to be facing out the window. Ted Talk. Can we started? He asked the mirror. Yeah.

Alright. Ready? I don't know yet. I think I'm good. Theater parallel. Okay. And so as you look down at your feet and I suggested, you know, we're going for inhabiting our bodies. We're going for expanding. I want to just feel better really is all the main thing. Shift your body weight forward so you could almost lift the heels and just notice sort of what happens up your body.

Maybe you feel a little tension grabbing the back of the legs and then lean back slightly past center. So you almost have to pick up the toes. Look out the window now. Lean vote again. Just sort of finding this full body lean from the ankle. So I've leaned forward again and then back and then find what feels like center for you. Okay. And then John, just turn your heels out just a little so you're a little bit more parallel. Feels a little strange. I know. Okay. From here, your knee caps are pointed straight ahead.

I don't expect you to look at it but feel for it. You know, maybe think what? What does it feel like to turn them in a little? What does it feel like to turn the legs out a little and settle where it feels normal or not? Normal but straight ahead. All right. Standing Tall. Take your pelvis, your hips, hands on your hip bones kinda high up here. And just arch your back or the top hip bones are front hip bones.

Let them pour out the front, let them drop forward, and then bring them back to what feels like level and go the other way. So you get around did back or a tuck of the pelvis and then find level again. Okay. I need another one. Just loosen up a little with it. I'm arching to drop the hipbones forward, bringing it back and pass right through center and go to a rounded back, leaving the rest of the body where it was fined level again. From there, just lift your rib cage. I don't know how to tell you to do that, but just sort of think tall. Shrug the shoulders up, exhale and lift the arms. Just fall down. Do it again. Please. Inhale, we'll get there. And as you exhale and lower your shoulders, continue reaching the shoulders down a little further than you normally would. And think about lifting your chest so you maybe have a sense of you're about to go backwards last time like that, just lift up rather than dropping the arms, lower the arms and keep lowering them. So you feel the lats a little bit. Okay.

From here it's a standing roll down. So you inhale on your exhale, just going to roll the over, letting your head go first. Your upper back, your middle back. Don't go so far that you, um, start to strain in the legs. In fact, you can bend the knees quite a bit. I'm going to do it. I recommend it at least now, inhale and exhale. Start blowing out your air as you roll yourself back up. Eventually straightening your legs if they're bent, feeling connected to the ground, and we'll do a few more of those. Inhale, exhale. Let's just one vertebrae at a time, so your head, then your upper back.

Then your middle back. Let your arms Kinda Hang. Head down. Ted. Inhale and exhale to roll back up. By the way, these are, this is Ted and John. I always talk about them, but I didn't introduce you. Welcome Ted and John. Drop your shoulders. We're going to grab our bands on this next one. Inhale. Exhale. Take it forward.

Feel free to bend the knees, right. We're not going for a big stretch here. We're going to wake up the low back. Grab onto your band, take your big inhale, and then just roll yourself right back up and let's hold the band. So it's about, oh no. A little wider than your own hips. Put a little bit of tension on it. You're not pulling hard, but just enough that you feel that you're holding the band. So I told you my goal is expansion. In order to do that, you have to have an anchor, so we got to think solid somewhere.

Feet are probably the easiest place right now. Just feel your feet on the ground and maybe lightly engage your abdominals from here. Just raise the arms up just to shoulder height. Exhale, push them back down like you're pushing against a solid, so it's as if you're pushing from that upper arm. Do it again. Just lift up. I have a very light pole on the band and press down and imagine lifting your chest like you're going to do it back. Then lift up, inhale and exhale last time like that. Inhale and exhale. Go on up just a little bit higher. In fact, overhead. If you can. Inhale, take it all the way up. Exhale, press it back down to shoulder height. Inhale, lifting up, resisting the temptation.

Keep the breath pattern to change your spine so nothing else is changing. You're just inhaling and exhale. Press down. Last one like that. Inhale up and exhaling down from here. Take it up again. Then you're going to pull on the band and take it just to the back of your head. May Have to hold a little wider. That's not a big deal. Again, you didn't throw your head forward. Inhale, come back to the top and just relax the shoulders. Let's take it back.

I'm going to say inhale there, back of the head and exhale up. You pull as much as you want in here. If you need more of a stretch, you don't pull as much, right? Get right on the edge there. Good and think of opening the chest. That's the point. Big Key part of posture there and again, and then bring it all the way down in front. We're going all the way if you're up for it, so you may have to hold a little wider in Tana, take it up in here.

Pull on the band. You're going to take it all way back and down to your hips. Inhale, lift again. Watch your head. It doesn't move. You don't thrust the rib cage forward and come over the top. Just two more. Inhale can be done without a band. Exhale back and you're starting to open up a little.

Minimize how much you're pulling, right? The closer your hands are together behind you, the more stretch. When you get down to the bottom. I'm going to keep it back there so we're all ending up with the hands facing forward. Yeah, just turn the hands over and then find a way to hold the band. I just wrapped my thumb. Okay. From here. Simple, keeping the arms straight. If you can imagine you're against a wall first.

Reach the arms down like you've got to get something but you can't bend over to get it. You're just reaching down. Press the upper arms against that imaginary wall and pull on the van to the side of the room a little bit and release. Try and feel the back of your body, not just the arms. So I'm reaching down. I do have the band a little bit away from my body and pull and a little bit of a release. Subtle reach down. You basically already there. You just want to fire up the muscles again and Paul looking straight out at the water and to pull again. Shoulders down, arms out. Not much is changing in between each one, right?

You don't have a huge release. Let's do one more and there we go. From there, unwrap it like you had it. Bring it back up over the top and down. I want to hold on just a little closer for this. Next thing, putting your feet together. Just feel a little more open hopefully. Okay, so we're back to here. Take the arms up. Alright. Without leaning, think about getting spaced between your ribs and your hips are going to inhale and reach the upper body over to the right. That's it. Nice.

Take your head with you, John. Yes. Inhale. Exhale. Come back to center. Good. Same thing. So you lift up your head stays frame. That's it. Exactly. Oh, a little harder on that side and back one. More like that. Lifting up, finding our center so that we can stretch away from it and back home and up over to the left. Squeezing the inner thighs together, finding that connection. Keep the arms still. Press the hips to the left. Your upper body is going to compensate a little, no big deal, but I'm not trying to lean. I'm just pushing my hips over. Okay, now press the hips back to center. Okay. Take the hips over to the right.

Keeping the arms pretty still. I'll get there in a minute and put it back. Okay, so now we'll do what you wanted to do, which was this. I'm going to say lift up and go over to the right with the upper body. Now push the hips. Make it look like you're just being held up by a man. I don't know what. Whoa. And are using the hips to bring you back. Center all in one shot. Upper body first, then Perez, both legs to your right.

Strong arms are reaching and come back to center again. Inhale, we'll do it in one. Inhale over prs. The hips. Exhale brings you feel like you're so [inaudible]. You know, give me the hips. Press the hips. Press the hips. Breast. They have that said, actually. Nice job. And last two swaying. You got to connect to the inner thigh for help here. I don't. One, one more time looking good. I feel the side of your body, hopefully. Excellent and Walla. Okay. Arms down. Turns to the palm.

Ozone please. Yeah, and then taking it about shoulder height. If you get neck tension though, you should lower it down. Okay. You still get what we need here for now. All we're doing is pulling apart. Okay, hold it there. Doesn't matter how far you go. If you can go all the way. I'm not going to say hold back a little then this is going to be subtle. All I'm trying to do is lift my chest up over the band, so I'm just, if I were here as an exaggeration, I'm lifting it up and you can even look up a little bit and release it back to in from just the arms first.

You don't have to pull the shoulder blades together. Now we lift the chest, keep the glutes the button little tight as you go up and return. So what I'm hoping to do is just arch the upper back, not adding more of an arch to the lower back. Here we go. Looking up. Oh, come on. Tell me that to the Phillies. Advance a little bit and return last one and we're working the back of the shoulder, the arms looking up and release. Okay. This one's kind of fun. Sort of your right hand is over the top, so your overhand grip left-hand is out. Let me, let me finish with the right. Her right arm is low and just held just strong. It's not gonna move exactly.

Left arm. I Open my hand. Just, I don't know why, but I do. You don't have to. What are you going to do? Just let me turn this way for a second. You're going to drop that left shoulder and pull up and back behind you for the first few. So the action isn't coming so much from the hand. It's the shoulder dropping that propels the arm back. Other than that, you're just pulling. Ready. Here we go. So the shoulder drops a little. You pull up and back. If you don't have tension, you gotta go hold higher or on the lower hand and bring it down. Good.

Here we go. Little quicker now and it's up and back. If the band hits you just hold the arm out away from it and back. That's what I do. It's a very, it's almost like you're pressing your armpit forward right there at the end. One more time, sort of a change and on you. Now it starts the same. So you can do the same thing. Get up there, then look at it.

Keep pulling that top arm. Just looking from your head, right so you're not turning everything and then come back down. That's excellent. Excellent. Here we go again. You pull first, little low. Keep pressing that armpit forward and bring it back. Three to go. Shoulders down, body long. And then look back on back and return. Last two. Pull to look.

Returnal. Here we go. La, la, back and changed sides. So left hand goes down, right? Palm is up to the ceiling. Anchor anchor. So from there that lower arm doesn't move. I keep it out away from you. And partly there's nothing wrong with holding it close, but I'd rather you stabilize that shoulder too, rather than using your body. Okay. Right shoulder drops a little. You pull up.

We're not looking yet for six one and leave space between that right ear and shoulder and 34 it felt you. Oh, it's a big one. Now we look. So we pull up. Take your time. Look back. Keep Rolling. Keep balling and return again. Get there. Keep looking. Nice. Mandy. 30 to go.

That's it. Now let go. Go, go. One more. Right. All right. Almost there. Step. Why? Just kind of like one we did earlier. That's for your bleep. Okay, so here's the deal. Your lower body is your anchor. It's not to move.

Okay, John, you can go a little wider. It'll feel better for you. Yeah. Okay, so lift yourself up. You're going to take your upper body to the right, far as you can with the idea of reaching, rather than just going down. Lift yourself back up. Good hips didn't move the other side up and over, stretching out the door. And it's as if you're in between two plates of glass. So it's going to be tempting the further you go to turn one way or the other. I don't want you to have, try and feel that in your body again up and go over feeling that seem stretch. Great. Great. Let's go a little faster, but no less precise so it's over.

Exhaling up. The exhale just kind of helps you reengage at the ad. So it's its inhale, start, exhaling more. Inhale, exhaling. I don't think the clock works. It's only five 32 so someone's going to have to tell me, Oh, oh, I don't know. I think six more sounds good. One, two left. Keep going there. Re lift, keep going. Or I turn you like that. [inaudible] last two. There you go. It's okay. You got time. Perfect. All right, you can let that go. Let's take it down to the mat. Keep your bandwidth. You. So you're gonna, you're all going to be facing inward, right?

Wrapping your feet with the band so you know, make itself feel secure so it's the soles of your feet or the ball of the feet, something you can push into your feet together and holding on relatively close to the ankles I suppose. And you can adjust as we go. I want your arm straight though. Okay. From say your butt bones, find them and set right up on top of them. Squeeze the inner thighs a little bit if that's too uncomfortable always you can make that a little better. Say for the front of the hip is to move your feet out or you can even separate your feet a little in the band. That might help. We'll see. All right, so we're tall, tall as we can be. Pull the shoulder blades together. Your arms are still straight though and then let the shoulder blades go.

Pull them together again, I'd squeeze your butt too if I were you and back. It's not going to look like much. You may not even feel like much, but give it a shot. Shoulder blades pinch and then they release shoulder blades. Pinch, knowing that they can move without the elbows. Bending one more, but in fact we can also bend the elbow. So let's do that. Shoulder blades now, bend the elbows and keep pulling straight back. Elbows very close. That's it. Keep going John. Way Back, way back. Way back with the Elvis. Perfect. And Return. And again, let's just do ten one I'm just wanting to bring your attention to your upper back cause I'm about to go into a lot of abs as you know, and we don't want to forget the back of our body.

So maybe now if he thinking glutes, upper back tall, about four to five more and feel those shoulder blades feel the chest rising. You don't have to look up. All right, one more then leaving the arms straight. Inhale, are you going to do is once your arms are straight, it's exhale and Tuck the pelvis roll back to I'd say the top of the hips. Good. Stay there. Press the shoulders wide so they're not reaching up around you. Inhale, start, exhaling, oppress the abdominals downward.

You could just come back up. Nothing changes in your body until the very top will sit tall. Inhale, exhale, roll back. You're moving the spine. The arms don't do anything. They're just holding that band. They're in hell. I'm going to stay here for a few breaths. Look at your abdominals and on your exhale like you're whispering the word, Huh?

Watch the ad sync toward the spine. There's one. Let's do three. Inhale, exhale, blow out there. Don't be afraid to hear it again. Inhale on this. Exhale. We'll come up blowing out as you come up when you get shoulders over your hips to straighten your back. Inhale and exhale. Down we go. Okay. Imagine pushing into the band with your feet. You're not going to move the legs, but push into it. Staying here. Inhale, three breaths and exhale. Press whole. Collarbones wide, a little bit wider. Do we have two on the third breath?

Exhale three. We're coming up. Keep pulling the abdominals backwards or think of tightening up tall. Here we go. Exhaling down to where there by four. Three. You're about mid back for keeping able to straight. Inhale. It will come up on the Xcel right now. Exhaling up and straight back. Inhale. Exhale, drag it down. Good.

No sense of collapsing. I have a little tip for all of us. Inhale, squeeze the inner thighs. Exhale, we come and sit. Um, think about leaning back when you go back, cause I'm seeing a little bit of this. Just take a quick peak. I'll exaggerate is when I'm, when you go to Tuck the pelvis, the head kind of stays behind. So I think if you thought of leaning back with the upper body, I'm still rounding my low back, but I brought my head with me this time. Nice. Helen. Alright, let's go. Inhale. Exhale.

The lower backgrounds with the upper body, just laying it back. Let's stay down here. If it's too easy. Well you know what to do, but bring the feet in a little closer. Hmm. Inhale. Exhale. Come on up. Straightening your spine. You'll lose your tension. Inhale. Exhale. Down we go. I'm going to stay here. All right, so at this point I'm just straight.

Your whole back is resting up to the lower part of your shoulder. Blade said, now ted, you can go a little bit lower. You to hell, Helen, a little bit more tucking your pelvis. There you go. A little bit lower down in joy. Okay, from here, inhale, we're not going anywhere. Just exhale and pretend you're going to get up. Literally like I'm going to get up and you change your mind. One. Inhale. Exhale. Think about getting up a change in mind. Two. We'll do five. Exhale. Three inner thighs. Press strong. Arms or light for, I forgot how many.

I said five. We better come up then. Oh good. Hold the band in your the hand closest to the window. So both sides in that front hand. I still have both feet in though. I still have both feet in. I just backhand went to front. All right, other hand behind your head, please rotate toward the window and down we go. There we are. So if you just looked at your upper body, you are in a rotation. Yeah, your hips are still level, so get down there on your back a bit.

Don't be so high that you can't feel it. Let go of the arm and reach it. So it's crossing that other wrist or at least near that other hand. That's right. And now slicing forward once tiny little breaths to just sewing off three go a little lower ted for start from a lower spot right there. Five even lower. Stay there. Six. I'll do 10.

Seven feel that connection hopefully or look for one. We'll be coming up on this one coming up. Put the hand behind your head still in rotation. Okay. Yeah. Center and change hands. So the hand closest to the window or the front is behind your head.

I'm just kinda holding the band out away from me just so I have some resistance there. Rotate towards it and I'm not pulling any tighter on the band when I did that part and now that's it John. Good rolled down. Now try to get almost to the shoulder blade or do get to the shoulder blades. That's it. Now that forward shoulder is good. Or go ahead and just reach the arm like we did before. Like you're crossing the wrists and exhale, press in one. It's so small.

Press two, three. You can think of rotating each time you breathe. Fuck good. Keep the knees events. That's right Sam. Nice positions. Eight and nine. We're coming up on this one, but put your hand behind your head.

Challenge you a bit. Lovely. Back to center. All right. At this point I'm going to do a few more with the band and you can let it go too, but I think it'd be a good idea to keep it. Um, I'm just doing roll-ups. So legs are straight. Okay. If in the upright position, well actually we're going to be around it so it doesn't matter. Tuck your pelvis but try not to collapse to do it right.

So it's just a little bit of pulling those front hip bones backwards. So your back is rounded. Exhale, we're rolling all the way to the back of the head. You touch and then you inhale. Pick your head, neck and shoulders up. Look at your feet, squeeze the inner thighs. Start exhaling and leave the low back on the mat as long as you can.

Even though we are in fact going to pick it up, you can just stay rounded here. Inhale, exhale, we roll down. That's the exercise all the way. Spread out the collarbones to the point, to the front and back of the room. Inhale, head comes up. Exhale, press the low back into the mat as you peel yourself off and inhale. Good. Exhale down and touch. Inhale, lift and exhale.

Do you want to try it without the band? Let it go. Leave it there though. And inhale. Exhaling dams, exact same thing. Only you'll take the arms back overhead if you're not using the band. Inhale, bring head, neck, shoulders and arms up. Looking forward. Start exhaling. Now pressing that low back end. You've got things that will help you is to start the exhale. First. Inhale, so right here. Blow out.

Feel that kind of like a explosive contraction that lets you go back and I'm going to stop you of F this. Inhale just to make it fun. Inhale, looking forward. You're here. Start exhaling, and then if it takes longer to get up, that's all right. You're working. That's great. Ted. Much better. And one more. Inhale to exhale and roll back. Find the intricacies, right? Let's take some of this that I'm slowing down a bit and find intricacies.

We're coming up [inaudible] and then from here, scoot yourself forward. We're going into a rolling like a ball. For those of you who know it go super tight tonight and I'm going to cue it more open and a little bit easier for anyone who doesn't know it. So in any case, you're just behind this, the tailbone. So you're in that rounded scooped position holding on underneath the knees. That's how I'm going to do it. We're going to keep the feet relaxed and hanging.

Inhale, we're just going to rock back and exhale rock forward and we're just rocking. Those of you who've never done it, for those of you who have your pausing at the top, either position, you don't want anything to change. There's no kicking of the legs. Right? Remember your hold that Tuck. Um, Helen, that's what, when the size get closer to, that's when you get the flat spot cause you don't have that tight of a back. I know it. How about two more? Here we go.

And then whichever one you ended up with, put your feet down. Let's take actually no roll all the way down without the band [inaudible] and pick your feet up to tabletop arms out to a low V or a t if you have room t position a either way, palms up. Okay, looking at your knees, they're lined up together. We're going toward the front of the room. You're going to pick the back hip up or keep the knees together and take your knees forward. They keep the opposite shoulder down. Start exhaling and just allow the legs to float back to center, to the back. Inhale over. Start the exhale and pull back up.

Now the trick is is don't let the knees come apart if you can help it and if not, we can put a towel between the knees. That makes it a little more doable. Keep going, keep going. Inhaling and exhale so everybody together to the front. Inhale, just hold that right between the knees you go and it's nice for you to relax to the back. Inhale, excellent. And exhale. Inhale. When you come to the front, hang out there for a second. Can you imagine that ribcage closest to the back and feel it sort of melt as you start excelling? Just let it go and then let the legs follow last time.

Did the back with the knees. Let the rib cage fall or melt and exhaling to bring it back to center. All right, feet come down to the ground. Slide your hands behind your head, lacing the fingers fully. Elbows are wide, but I suggest you be able to see them a little bit so you can see if you're looking straight up, you can see your elbow points. Inhale to get ready. On Your exhale, you're gonna lift your head, neck and shoulders curling up. Hopefully high enough that you can relax your low back, meaning it's in the ground so tiny bit higher. Helen Ho Bang. Cue.

You think I don't watch an inhale. Stay here. Press it back your head into your hands, but don't lower it all. Blow out your air. Thank you. Inhale and exhale. We'll go down. It's somehow easier. It's a hard thing to do, but it's easier to work the ABS if you keep your head pressing backwards. Little exhale the girl out. Now, if in your highest position, you can't press your low back into the mat, you should tuck your pelvis a little bit anyhow and XL. We take it back down.

I'll add the variation for us. Inhale. Exhale, we roll now. Inhale, grab onto the back of your legs. Just grab them. Yup. Exhale. Pull yourself forward towards your thighs. Yep. Elbows out to the side. Maybe with the shoulders down, let go, but don't lose your height at all. Reach up. There's a big inhale in there somewhere. Hands behind your head and exhale down. That's it. We'll only do four.

Inhale starts like before you just curl up on the exhale, flowing it all out so you fill the ABS in here. Grab the back of your legs. When you exhale and pull yourself forward, press the ABS into the floor. Let go, but keep your height. Inhaling arms up, put them behind your head and exhale. Lengthen your way back down. You get two more. Inhale. Exhale, curls. You up a little higher, John. Little higher first. Then there you go. And he'll grab the legs. Use your arms. It's fine. Exhale, blow out all your air there. Prove it to yourself. Nice head. Inhale, keep that arms float up way back now ted, reach back, reach back, reach back. Thank you. Now put the hands back and down. That was three, right? Good.

Last one. So if you need more challenge, we're going to reach way back like Ted just did. Exhale to Curleigh. Inhale, reach for the legs. Exhale, pull, pull, pull. Then inhale, reach as far back as you can. Hands go behind your head. Let stay here. Exhale, rotate toward the front so that back shoulder reaches to the front hip. Inhale as you stay high and come through to the other side. Blow out. Inhale, and we're just keeping it moving. But slowly inhale through the middle. Now exhale to the back. Inhale coming through the middle. Exhale from the breath methods you have. Don't worry about it. Just make sure you're not holding it.

Like to challenge you to come higher as you come through the middle. So lift up through the middle. Inhale, lift up through the middle. Let me see it. Yes, Deborah. And even higher. I'm pretty sure I'm stealing this from Alicia. Young girl. Oops. Right before she gets aired, I swore I wouldn't do that. Oh, well it's hers. Back to the center. Reach to the back of the legs. Pull yourself forward. Did you blow out your ear?

Arms up on an inhale and just reach everything back? The arms are straight. Good. And let's see if we can roll up like this. Stretch your legs out though. They're on the map. Just like before we inhaled to curl up, looking at your feet. If you need a little extra help, bend your knees and grab your thighs. Otherwise exhaling up. Well done. Okay. Take your band and your little stretch out of this and put it. Um Hm. These are thin bands, Huh? Like, like nothing, but there, there.

Oh really? This is why I'm rapping. Really? Oh, I know. I wasn't gonna say that at all. Okay. Okay. Well then, um, let's do something a little different. Can you deal with it for a scratch? Okay. All right. They're, they are new. Maybe that's why their boundary. Okay. Cause they're definitely not latex.

They're kind of funny with them. Okay. So I was gonna do something different, but instead just put it in the middle of your foot, you know, or where it feels secure and that you can, hold on. We're going to lay down. Okay. And then you're going to want to go ahead and wrap now if that's what you need to do and put the elbows on the mat. I do have other bands. If somebody would prefer, let the top or the leg be bent for now. So the, the foot is to the ceiling. And then just for a quick second, pick your head up and look at your hips. Probably the leg, the hip of the Ligonier is hiked up. So reach it downward or take this butt bone and reach it to that straight leg.

Knee. All right, then head down, elbows on the mat. I see what you mean now. Okay, well from here you bend the knee quite a lot right into your chest on an exhale, head towards straight. Don't force it. Now what you can do, you can bend the lower leg if your hamstrings are really tight, that's a good alternative. So let's do that. [inaudible] bend and excelled. If you did bend the lower leg, do try to straighten the top leg and let's do three more. Bend and straighten the wall. Inhale, bend. Keep that foot facing the ceiling. Good. And two, one more time and way.

Alright, I'm thinking we have to unwrap to do leg circles, but if you can't hold it, tell me. So unwrap it so you have enough room for it. Especially you guys. Long legs without moving the hips. We're going to make a circle with the legs. Inhale around, stop at the top. Same direction. Exhale, step. Inhale, full circle and exhale full circle. That's right in here. One more set here and exhale, changed directions. I'll make some longer ones for us. Inhale and exhale.

And it's the idea is that you let the leg float freely in the hip joint. One more of the cycle. Inhale and exhale. Okay, take the band in the opposite hand. So if it's in your back leg, you're holding it with the hand closest to the window, both of them other arm out to a tee or low V and you're just going to cross the leg over. The hip can lift up off the mat. So just a stretch. If you can get the elbow on the ground, that would be helpful. Yeah. At this point you're gonna want that lower leg straight probably.

And then allow yourself to really push into the band. Not to lower it to the ground, but just to let the opposite hip lift. Then for the fun part, do this slowly, that hip that's in the air. Gently guide it back toward the Mat, but leave the foot where it is. All right, that makes sense for a stretch across the hip and then bring it back up. We'll change sides, cover the other foot. Check your hips before you straighten out that bottom.

Like if you straighten out the bottom leg and then we've been the top knee, so I'll do the stretch at the end. Let's do the work first. So bend the top leg. I guess this is a stretch two and then press the sole of the foot to the ceiling one and bend it gradually working your foot over your face too. And Bend and press three. And as the foot reaches up, the tailbone kind of guides itself toward the Mat. So there's your sense of opposition. And I'm going for one more, although that may have been what I called there. Okay. Leg circles, right. All right, here we go. So maybe lighten up on the band a little.

We're crossing the leg around, down, around up stuff and it's as if you had um, what heavy something on your hips so they don't move just to like, you know, and one more cycle. Inhale and exhale. Take it the other way. Looking for a sense of freedom and are and inhale and exhale and inhale to excellent. All right, from there, grab with the other hand. So both bands are in that hand close to the back room. Take that leg over the body or their arms there for counterbalance.

That's right John. Just switch what hands holding the band. There you go. And the other one balances you. There you go. Then once you've gotten as far as you're going to go, you just push into the band like you're going to put resistance on it and then start to pull the hip back to the mat. I never quite make it, but that's the direction I'm pulling the hip is my leave my foot where it was or try to. All right, bring it back and let's release the band off to the side. Alright, from your grab onto your right leg, hug it in close knee bent. Curl your head, neck and shoulders up and as it's hugged and very close, put downward pressure on your shin. Okay. You can maybe hold, I dunno.

That's fine. Then press the thigh away from your book. Go with it so it brings you up a little. Perfect. That's right. So you have keeping my Neagle on that way I'll pick up the lower life and just change legs. Hold it there. Take a second. Push the knee away and make your arm strong so that you go with it a little. Then we're going to keep the body absolutely still from here on out.

Change legs and one change. One and two, two. So the breath. I'm just exhale. Exhale. Taking that little inhale in between. Let's go press, press. Trying not to turn the knee out much, right, so the knee doesn't come so close that it has to pull away. Give yourself just a couple more here. One, one. Here's two, two, two, both knees in. Take your hands behind your head, keeping the knees bent like they are in nail. See about touching the toes to the floor. Upper body stays up. Exhale, pick them up. Upper Body doesn't move. Now inhale, you start to lower. Exhale, lifting up. The trick to this one is not letting your back move. Ted, you can curl your upper body up a little higher. Yes, and exhale, pull. That's a good pace and falling. Mandy, Ian, nail down.

Keep your upper bodies up. You look good. John, you could probably bring your upper body a little higher though. [inaudible] how about one more and then let everything go down the Mat. Let's take a little break. How are you doing? Okay. Seems quiet probably cause I'm thinking too much. Okay, so from there, same idea of bring the legs back up to the same position, curling up to it. So maybe you could look at belly button and keep your focus there.

So you'll start to know if you're falling back, the knee closest to the front of the room stays up, the other one's going to touch down, turn into that means that you're reaching towards it with body switch side. So you're switching legs to twist. That's right. Change. And if you want to do the full crisscross, if you know what you can, I think this is often more effective and will go a little quicker now to the front. Oh onto the back, one to the front, two, two, three, three. Last time you should all be facing the window. Hold it there. Take the backhand and pull yourself up however you need to. Grab the leg, pull yourself up and twist yourself a little more.

So you're really almost looking out that window. Hold the height, hold the twist, hand goes back and we're just going to do five pulses of breath here. You can draw the knee in a little more. One XL Su, just trying to intensify. Three press for change side. So the back leg comes up, twist as much as you can around them. Use your arm to help you get up there a little bit higher and rotate. Yeah, that's right. Then the hands back behind your hand and let's do five breaths.

One breath, two, three each time as an exhale for one more time. Put the leg down, let your arms come down by your side. Feet are slightly apart for the shoulder bridge, which is a pelvic curl, so your upper body splayed out. We inhale, get ready on your exhale, roll your hips up off the mat, so you're going to come into a slant board position. Keep rolling up until you're at your shoulder blades rolling up. High enough that when you look down your body, it's a straight line from your shoulder to your hip. That's good. Inhale, we're going to come back down for now. Exhale, starting at your upper back, pressure upper back into the mat. Press your middle back so you feel the rib cage.

Your low back is still off until about now. And then finally release all the way down. Inhale, exhale up. We come. Rolling one bone at a time. Drawing yourself up. All right, staying here for a second cause I want you to feel the back of your body. Before we move on, can you think about tucking more so it'd be like your pubic bone going higher or more toward your face, a little bit back long. Then squeeze your button, press everything a little bit higher still without letting the knees turn out to the sides. Picking up the back knee straight up.

Let that leg stretch up. Hips are still level. You're going to lower the leg down the one flex and bring it up and lower down too and bring it up and lower three and up down four of six. One more time, down and up or turn the leg to the start. Recheck your pelvis. You don't feel like your low back is doing it. That's good. Other side comes up and we kicked down for six whole one bring it up to the rest of the body. Still the Ri. Here's four, five back up or turn your leg to the start. Big Inhale.

You should be nice. High Slab Board and rolled down from your upper back again. All right. Walk your feet out a little bit. Curl up, grab onto the back of your legs if you need to or just roll up [inaudible]. All right. We had an oblique request so we'll do more. All right. Listen Up. Come on Chris to get it right cross. Let's say right like right leg over, left, right ankle over left. Sit on your left butt cheek. Yeah, this one's okay for you, right? For the mark. We'll find out. Okay.

So I'm just going to face you. So just [inaudible] right, like over left, sat on my side. Boom. If anything. So this side of the room is all reaching towards me, right? So come towards me with your Armstrong. Yup. And we're all right. Yeah. So you're going that way. Good. All right, so it might be worth holding on. You're going gonna roll down. Yeah. Yeah. And what I'm doing. The trick Ted is to for now is to press the ankles, like lock them into each other, knocking. It's not gonna make it easier.

Let's hold on, grab the like somewhere and come back up. Use the legs. Like get that lock going. Eventually you figure it out and you don't even have to do that. Well, sometimes good down to go. That's it. Just to the shoulder blades. Big Inhale and exhale up. Yes. And take an inhale. If you haven't exhale helps you back up.

[inaudible] it's a little easier with your feet lower. Just so you know. Inhale, exhaling up. Well, you're making it look easy. Last one right on the side. Let's stay over here and little pulses again for five oh one just like you're thinking. You can get up to three. Here's four. We'll come up on the next one and five.

Very nice. Let's change to the other side. So, uh, I guess I leftover right. Sit on that right by chick and getting really twist, right? For those of you who want the obliques, if you think your knees are pointing straight up, you're not twisting. They may come up a little. That's all right. All right. Push the ankles into each other. That's your first trick. And now we go, damn, that's right. That's right. And inhale, start the exhale. It's always easier. Trust me. Trust yourself. It doesn't matter if you don't get up super fast and down and typically one side easier or so. Just expect that. And when you need to use your arms, rather do that than uh, strain too much in neck or back.

Inhale and exhale to gum up. Keep that rotation. Yep. And you don't have to come all the way up. Meaning you don't have to get upright on your butt bones. You can stay behind it too to go. Yeah. Nice job. But we said earlier about the head.

Don't leave it behind. Make it come with you. Ah, good. Press your knees toward the window. Ted Moore. Get off center there. There you go. Now enjoy it down. Good. Now we stay here and we did their five presses. Well, one, you could support your head if you want two to three, here's four. And we gotta come up. Use Your hands if you want. Ah, lovely. Okay. Uncross the legs sitting tall.

I'm going to do a modified spine stretch first and then if you know the regular or if he knows you want to go into the regular. Now do. Otherwise we're going to sit with the knees. Bent your arm straight. Press into your legs, but don't let the legs moves. Okay, so the feet are about as wide as your mat. Yeah, and it's okay if the toes come up, that'll come. So you're pushing into the legs and then the legs are pushing into the arms, so it's going both ways so you can get some peck, right. Make your chest work a little.

The action is going to be literally just to spiral down or roll down, sliding the arms forward as you need to. Then I'll have you inhale into a flat back. I'm still doing the PR pressing, although my arms had to change a little just to accommodate my straight back hopefully. And then exhale and we'll roll back up. I'll say it every time, but it's just a nice way to move the spine. So we start upright. There's like two parts to it and he'll get ready on the exhale. Put that little resistance and roll down. So it's just like that initial standing roll down.

You get to go forward a bit too, but we're not resting on the thighs when we pull the abdominal back. Inhale, hold up. Sorry. Inhale into a flat back. So you're laying on your legs almost. In fact, you're kind of between them, but you look for the long line, so look out in front of your feet. You can even hold onto your ankles and pull us a tet. Yes, keep doing. Keep doing that. Keep lifting, lifting, lifting. There you go. And then exhale round and just roll back up.

I think this might work a little better if we go straighter in the legs. They don't have to be totally straight, but let's go a little straighter. Inhale, exhale down. We go. Rounding or back, going as far forward as you can, but rounding the low back. Now hold onto your shins or near your knees and inhale. Lengthen your back on a diagonal line. Nice and long pole with the arms.

Good. A little more chest forward. Chin down though. Good and exhale round and we roll back up again. If you know the other way, please feel free. Exhale to round when you're ready. Yeah, and find some place to hold on. You're going to feel the hips roll forward a little like you're sticking your butt out a little bit. Shoulders are pulling down and you've hopefully feeling a long line through your back muscles XL round and roll back and you know last too. [inaudible] sale. Rounding forward. Great postural muscle exercise right here.

As you feel free to bend the knees, but you're helping yourself into a flat back on this diagonal line. Chin is down. Exhale, round [inaudible] and just roll back like you're sitting against a wall. One more exhale. When I get into the forward or you get into the far position, we're going to hold it there. Inhale, find the long line. Good. Staying there for a minute. That's right.

I'm just going to force something on you a little bit down. A little dare. Okay. From there, float your arms up by your ears. Good. Lean forward a little. John, you're looking at Helen and then keep your body position, but lower the arms down. Good. Again. Inhale, arms go. Good, good, good and down. Keep those knees pointed straight ahead. Good. John, if you bend your knees a little bit, it's going to get even straight on the backup. Good and down. Nice. One day. One more time, lift and down, and with that round yourself over, just stretching a little bit easy and we roll it all the way up. Bending your knees sort of like we did before. There are still a part hands behind your head as if someone came by and pulled you almost right under your ears to lift you up. Rotate to the front.

This is your inhale. Take the hand from the back. Grab the forward leg, exhale and sit a little taller. I'm using this downward pressure to help that. Inhale. Return the hand. Exhale, center to the back. Inhale, opposite, hand to knee. Exhale and grow tall or not more of a twist. That's it.

That's it in how return your hand and center. Good. Inhale, rotate. Exhale, grab toward the front and twist a little more. Getting Taller, more important. Inhale, hand back and center to the back. Inhale, allowing yourself to rotate around. Exhale. Give yourself the assistance. That's it. Nice. Shoulders down though. Inhale. Maybe they are and back. One more. Each way. It's tall.

Find it. Exhale. How much could you do on your own? Inhale. Return the hand and center. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. And now you got it. And exhale. All right, I'm gonna leave our backs. I'll tell like that. Let's turn onto our sides and lie all the way down.

So you're just, your heads are on that end. Your heads are on that end and you're lying on your upper arm. Good. Exactly. Good. So as you now look down your body, you basically want your hip stack, your feet stack, but probably want to be able to see your toes. If you can do a perfectly straight line, that's okay too. All right, so now you keep the legs together just as you have them, but they're not going to tighten, hopefully any more than they already are. In fact, take two fingers anywhere on your abs.

Push kind of hard. Inhale, exhale. For as long as you can until you feel something hardening under them. Can you feel? It doesn't have to be much, but something that is meant to be there right before you pick up your legs. So it doesn't take that long to get it. You could do it just by thinking about it later. But here we go. Inhale, get ready. You can put your hand down if you want. Start exhaling.

It just feels sort of compression. And then float both legs off the mat. Good. Inhale, reach him down to touch. Start exhaling. And then they lift again. That's it. Inhaling down. So you're working Obelix blinks again. Really? All of the ABS lift. And that's right. And lift.

So theoretically you're working both directions, so it's not just a relax. You gotta look good though. Push and lower and lower. We're going to go up one more time and stay up there. Take this top leg and let it reach a little bit longer. What feels a little longer? So not a lot happening there. And then lift just did two and three. Still more interested in the abs than the leg. So get that little puff of air two more.

Then you'll hold the top leg at about the height of your hip. That's good. Bring up the bottom leg one. Make them touch two. That's right. Try for ankles. Two, three. Nice. Cool. Still thinking abs.

One more time and hold it there. Get a little longer. If you can lift the legs a little higher and set them down. Okay. Let's flip other side. So heads come to the center. Same thing all the way out. Hips are stacked almost like a little banana shape. Not quite that exaggerated, but your toes are lined up. Yeah, that's good.

Okay. Hi. I think it's a good idea to feel for the abs at any point in the exercise, but certainly to set you up when you're ready. You inhale, start the exhale, feel some sense of it coming from the middle and then allow the legs to just float in how reach and further down than where you pick them up and start the exhale to lift too. As if the breath, we're doing it. Inhaling down. And three good. Um, there is a tendency for the low back to take over on this one. So kind of check for that and you may have to buy us more towards a tuck one more time holding it up there. Stretch the top like a little longer.

So you're kind of out of alignment now and it's out in, up on for 10 to three. If you touched your abs now would they be working? Kind of a hard thing to find, but once you do you won't lose it. Seven eight and the top lake holds up to about the hip height. Make sure it's not too high, you won't be able to reach it. And the bottom leg lines up one [inaudible] three real squeeze 'em for, for us. Fuck the inner thighs as it turns out are really key to working the powerhouse effectively. So you're always going to hear that hug the midline contraction. Oh boy. I want to say that was nine or 10 Tim. Okay, good from there. Lived a little higher not into your low back. Right?

If it is you want to lean back probably a little to you, figure that part out and down we go. Okay. Turnover on to your abdominals and your forearms. But for now, no for now, let your forearms be out in front of you a little bit by a little bit out in front of your shoulders is what I mean. And then from there, if you check this out for a second, cause I don't know how to say it, is to let your elbows go a little bit wider. It's kind of have room then and that's actually a good position to have. But for now we go a little more forward with your hands. Yeah. Okay. And then from there it's as if you're pulling yourself forward.

You're not going to actually move. But if you, if you could, you'd be, you'd travel. It's coming from those shoulders. All right. Looking forward probably, I don't know, few feet at least. Okay. Then as if it came by or someone didn't pull you by your feet, you've got the rest of your body going the other way. Float the knees or the thighs off the mat. Great. Shoulders down more. Yes, keep that from here.

You're going to go kick, kick straight. You bending a knee. Other side, kick, kick straight and switch. Kick, kick, press both sides. Stay off the ground. The hips still level and press. It's kick, kick, stretch, kick, kick, stretch, kick. Okay, now we're thinking about the legs cause this chest are starting to sync. So look proud and kick. Kick straight again. Kick, kick straight. That's fine. Coming all the way down. Turn your faces to the front. Okay. And your hands are going behind your back. Okay. Now depending on shoulder tightness, um, your hands may be low or they may be really high.

Aim to get your hands up as high on your back as you can, but you also have to rest the elbows down. I don't have to touch, but that's the goal. Okay, that's great. Legs together. If you can at least toes. Float the knees off again. Feet too. Sorry. Details. Okay. From there you're going to kick yourself three times, just like you did before, both legs. One, two, three. Stretch your legs out, stretch your arms out and hover your head. And chest. Looking down at the floor slightly in front of you. Good.

Turn your face the other way. Bend the elbows and knees. I'm going to go slow at first. Kick three, one, two, three. Straighten arms and legs in. It's just like you're in a long flight. Beautiful and change. Looking forward. Kick, go. One, two, three. Stretch the arms and legs and switch. Kicking one two's dot call. Devil, I kick and stir.

Ash legs are nice and low but long last two and kick. Go. One, two, three. Nice work and stretch. Thinkable opening the chest. Excellent. Last time. Get those elbows down on one. Nice job, two and three and stretch long holding it there. You can let your feet go to the ground that looks great, John, and then bring your arms around and just relax. Hands by your shoulders. Press yourself up into a rest position, meaning hips back over your heels. That's not okay on the knees. We could go to your back just as easily and get that.

The point really though is to get the low back to around. So if you're flexible or if you separate the knees too much, you might miss that. So allow yourself to get the tailbone to tuck underneath you. But even if you have to push with your arms, okay, we're going to go down to our forearms for the front support tonight. So what that means is you're going to bring your elbows down below your shoulders where we're getting there, I'm assuming that clock is right now. Okay?

Extending one leg back and you're going to curl the toes and and put weight on it. But before you put the other leg on it, you want to know that this leg is tight. You can do this very easily without using that leg much. So push through through it so you feel your butt tighten up a little bit. Then put the other foot in place and by that I just mean few inches apart is fine. Then we're going to straighten out. So you're going to probably feel like you're being pulled forward a little bit.

So you're in a nice long plane. Your Butt is tight, your abs are in, your heels are pushing. One way. Your head's reaching the other and you're just breathing. That's it. No Movement for now. Hips up a tiny bit, Helen. There you go. And look down a little bit more on your perfect. Good looking good. John. Maybe straighten your knees a little. Uh Huh. Feel your buns.

How about one more breath, Ashley, if looked down a little good. Okay. Let your knees go down carefully. One a time or both and just stretch back. Hips over heels again. I'm going to do it again and either you'll stick to that one or we'll, we'll pick a foot up for fun. All right, let's go. Coming back. Elbows underneath. I won't go through all the set up again, but yeah, I promise you it's so much easier if you leave, your knees kind of bent and your ads kind of lose.

It's just harder on the upper body, so disperse energy through you like a rocket. Good. You can go slightly low with your hips and slightly tucked. All right. If you want to play, pick up your right leg. Keep the toes down and lift it up. One, you can point it actually. And two, we'll do five. Three here's four. Change legs.

Animal one. Nothing else moving. Nice. Long like two. Good. Don't thank you. Get to bend it one more. All right, we're going down. Bend the knee. Let's go all the way down. Arms next to your body. Forehead on the Mat. So exactly for this one, we're gonna keep it simple. You're going to leave your feet on the ground, just so you know. Okay. It doesn't mean they're not active. Not your legs aren't active. They are.

So it's like the chest lift in reverse. You're gonna Inhale, get ready. On Your exhale, just start to lift the back of your head. Let it lift your chest a little bit. As you slightly look forward, reach your arms towards your knees. Yeah, and then inhale and exhale back down. So it's an articulation. It's not very high, but it is. Inhale, get ready. On the exhale. Start to feel the short, the hands. Alumna to say, touch your thighs. Meaning palms to thighs if you can.

As you reach your shoulders and arms down, that's when your head starts to look forward and you pick up the front of your chest and throat. Reach the leg so it doesn't go into your low back. Inhale, exhale down. It's fine to use your body. You should use your buddy. Inhale, exhale. Feel the hand sliding down the legs as you look forward. Good. Good. The ribs are still on the mat. Looks Great. Inhale and exhale when to lay back down. Very good.

And email. Do you want more out of the lots? You got, have those upper arms. Go ahead. Exhale, lift up. Very good. Keeping the feet on the ground. Might as well touch your butt back there. It should be working. Make sure it is. Inhale and exhale down. Yeah, it's there. It's the anchor. It really is going to help you. Last one. Inhale. Exhale. Takes you up.

Oh, that's so pretty. And inhale, exhaling down. [inaudible]. All right folks, we are going to, when you're ready, press yourself back. Take a quick little rounded low back again. If your band is not nearby, let me make it so it is. And then let's just curl the toes under so that we can stand up here in a second. But before we do, we just have our feet, four or five inches apart. Knees can be bent. I recommended at this point.

And then we're going to just roll up to bring your band with you the last little bit. You actually don't need a band for this, but it's sometimes easier to feel the first time or to face front. Let's look out the window again. We're done. I just want to leave you this one. So much of our, um, life is forward, right? So inevitably all the things we do, the arm gets rotated forward and that lends itself to postural issues, not to mention neck and shoulder. So what I want to do is just for a second, focus on turning just the arm bone outward. So if you're just hanging out here, we're just going to be turning the arm bone out. That's it out. Try few. Cause what's tempting is we, we kind of think we need to work more and we tend to pull the shoulder blades together. It's not what I'm asking for. It's just literally arm bone that way.

Arm Bone that way. Okay. Uh, just wrapped a stir. I don't even know if I'll use this now that I'm thinking gang about it. Um, cause that too obvious. Oh, whoops. Okay. So here you are. 90 degrees. Yeah. Um, the neck. What's going to be tempting here is to pull the elbows back so we're not gonna do that either. Literally just take them out.

I then I know an n your mount, hold it there. Take your elbows forward. Ted. Good. And lower your risks too. There you go. Fill that a little bit. Kind of Sorta, not really kicks that. Go a little further, but don't move the elbows back. Just the forearms. So the elbows are going forward. Out The window. It looks great. Good. Okay, so that's what we're going to do. The band is just pull, but you're not using your back muscles at all. Okay.

If you have like, you know, recovering from a shoulder rotator cuff injury, it's, you probably already do these, but you don't need the band really. Cause I'm, but let's do it just to feel it. So I'm holding a little wider. It's not very tight at all. And now same thing. Pull apart, goes as far as you can from here. Send the elbows forward, but the hands backwards a little more. And release. Let's do 10 I'll go faster now. One and two and three don't. Yeah, just don't pull back at all. There you go.

And if you find yourself all of a sudden doing a risk exercise, let go with the band. I don't know how many that is. It's gotta be eight. Nah, hold it on. 10 pull out just a little. Bring the elbows back to their waist. Lift your body up, fill out again. Elbows get pulled back in. One more time. Nice. Let the band go. I felt it and I only did three. Let them hang. And you know, I'm not going to do a roll down.

I was going to, but I'm kind of in this what I'm seeing. So let's just take the arms out, inhale and exhale. I feel what that is to have that openness. What at least looks open, arms easy and exhale. And last one for the day. I get a big one, a long one, a deep one. Rejuvenated one. Hopefully. And you are free. Thank you for coming.

Comments

Thanks Kristi-terrific teacher great class. Love working with the theraband!!
Great workout for the whole body. I feel a few inches taller!
Terrific Karine!
F B
You are such a great teacher Kristi!!! I am a big fan of your teaching method. It's fun, clear and and your cues are so accurate for every exercise. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Wow! I am impressed. As a new member this is the first time I have tried an exercise all the way through. Great for my ailing body. Loved it!
Thank you Fabiana And MaryAnn we're glad you joined us. Congratulations on completing the class. Sounds like you are on your way to healing your body. Fantastic! Welcome!
jas
jas
A great workout! Very energizing.
after this I'd love a class dedicated to reversing bad poster. Open easy shoulder and an open chest.
all-joy cross ~ check out this class from Lolita San Miguel on Postural analysis. Lolita learned directly from Joseph Pilates.
Lolita's Postural Analysis
1 person likes this.
Kristi I really enjoyed your class I always feel I want to jump on a plane and join your class! Thank you!
Monica (uk)
1-10 of 22

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