Class #610

Stretch & Mobility Cadillac

55 min - Class
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Description

Lengthen and strengthen with this intermediate BASI workout taught by Meredith. Featuring additional stretching and balance as well as loads of spinal mobility work. Treat yourself today and enjoy!
What You'll Need: Cadillac

About This Video

Jan 22, 2012
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Transcript

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Okay, so we're going to work on the Cadillac today. I'm going to work on the Cadillac with you today and we're just going to start at this end holding onto the bars, working or starting with a little bit of spine mobility, right? So finding the base of your feet, finding the head just floating over the trunk, inhaling and exhaling, bending the spine backwards so we round the spine back, drawing the shoulders down, away from the ears and just hanging back from the bars using the abdominals to press into the spine and find a stretch and exhaling from there. Rolling back up to standing and inhale. Exhale deeply.

Draw the abdominals in first talking the pelvis forward and then allowing the chest to reach forward towards the pelvis. We find the deepest flection of the spine that's available to us and then we left rounding back up and straightening the spine, working in the opposite direction, extending the spine back, starting with the pelvis, we arched the back, leaning back, finding a nice straight spine on the diagonal to the floor and then exhale from the pelvis rolling back up to standing. Inhale as the pelvis extends back the abdominal support, the spinal moving the body like a wave, reaching the chest down. Keep the head from dropping between the arms just between the arms instead and exhale or dropping forward of the arms anyway to come and lengthening back and rolling up. And with that coming around to the front, I've got my um, rollout bar springs hooked up to the, to the bar about three quarters of the way up to the top.

Moving onto some roll-ups, lifting the spine to straight. Today we're going to bring the bar into the chest, lifting the spine even. We're finding that nice back extension, reaching the bar forward. Feel the abdominals draw back away from the bar, finding x or establishing a curvature in the spine before moving and then rolling the spine all the way down to the ground. Inhale as the head and chest come back up. Exhale, we fold the spine inwards, rounding all the way, bringing the shoulders over the hips and inhale, bringing the bar into the chest to lift tall. And as the arms reach forward, draw the abdominals backwards.

Feel that the shoulders pull back as the abs pullback, but the chest is still working to reach forward, coming a whole of the way down and lifting and bending forward and inhale the bar into the chest as we elevate the spine and reaching forward, pressing slightly downwards on the bar to maintain a strong connection through the lats, reaching the spine all the way down into the mat. Inhaling to lift the head and chest. Find that nice strong flection and then curl forward with that intention and inhale to lift the back, bringing the bar into the chest. Two more to go. Rounding down lifting as the spine comes up, the abdominals hollow. So we use the springs to help us focus on creating a deeper contraction through the abdominals, lifting the spine to straight, reaching the bar forward.

And last time here. From here we're going to lift the head and chest, rotate to the left, roll up the left side of the spine. Find Center with a curvature. Rotate to the right. Roll down and find center. Inhale as we come through, center inflection. Turning to the right Xcel to roll up the right side of the body.

Find Center on the inhale, start excelling as you rotate and roll down the opposite side and finding center again and we go again. Head and chest in center. Turn curling. So I'm alternating the direction that I roll up each time and I'm moving down the opposite side of my spine and it's not a big rotation. I'm thinking about moving just outside the center of my spine, both on the way up and also on the way down finding center going the other way and and um, turning. This is our last one. Finding Center, rotating around, rolling down that side and coming to the center in, in the center to lift XL to peel the spine up, lifting the spine from there to straight. We start to arch the back. Tighten up the glutes here as you rise back, keeping the back arch as the head comes down, allow the chin to pull into the chest. Bend the spine to come up lifting tall, tighten up the glutes, lift up over them, extend the spine back, drop the chin into the chest. Feel the movement in the opposite direction as you start to come up.

And we do that one more time. We extend the spine back, pressing slightly downward on the springs to maintain that nice strong shoulder connection. Head comes forward, spine moves forward, inflection and finding stray. And we're going to reverse that movement. Now rolling down my legs, I'm squeezing them together, keeping them nice and act at back of the head. Comes down. And now I lift through the center of my back and rise up in back extension and then return to neutral to roll back. Inhale as I left and exhale as I roll back. So even in that nice extended position, we keep the abdominals very active supporting the spine. We keep the legs strong, letting the back undulate through that arch shape and back to neutral.

And that is the end of our warmup. Moving onto footwork. Take just a second to set up this spring. I'm gonna set my safety strap first. I'm going work with two springs, bottom loaded [inaudible]. So positioning myself underneath of the bar, my hair out of the way for a second, and we bring the feet up under the bar and place the heels underneath it. Take a moment to find where you can work through a neutral position in the pelvis and then just move quickly through our footwork.

It's an inhale to bend the knee, feeling the hamstrings work as the bar comes down and we stretch. Inhale to activate the hamstrings as the bar moves down and XL to press up. The feet here are flexed actively and we're just working in healing on the bend. Exhale, the abdominals and the pelvis draw downwards as the feet just rise up. Something that works here for me or an idea is the feeling of trying to let the front sides of the legs relax, trying to drop the head of the femur deeper into the hip joint so that I can relax through the lower back. And last three here, most of the actively thinking about my arms, my upper back is active, pressing my arms into the mat without over arching through the middle of my back. And here's what placing the toes under the bar, working through plantar flexed feet, neutral position in the pelvis.

We inhale to bend and we press and feel the work on the way in and stretch [inaudible] watching here. This is a beautiful place to watch. The position of the feet can be responsible for actually seeing the alignment of the ankles, keeping weighted through all of the toes. Great and stretching, pressing the backsides of the knees towards the front of the Cadillac. [inaudible] last two here and one more from the top. I'm going to rotate inside of the hip joint, bringing the heels together. Inhale, I bend my knees, bringing the knees down outside of the ribs and I squeezed from the very tippy top of my thighs. As I pressed the bar up in here, we bet. Feel that active squeeze of the heels, keeping the inner thighs actively working and reaching up, so continue to challenge that neutral position of the pelvis.

It's hard for some of us, including myself every once in awhile, check in with the activity through the arms, through the backsides of the ribs. Thinking about keeping the ribs flat on the Mat and I'm going three more times reaching up. I only bend my knees to the degree that I can keep my pelvis reaching forward and down and last one. And then I'm going to take my feet over to the outside of the bar, putting the heel on the bar and my feet underneath of the metal bar, dropping the pelvis down, inhaling the knees, bend, squeezing the legs towards one another as we stretch the legs up and, and we work through the abdominals first and [inaudible] and especially working to drop the pelvis as the knees drop to the outsides of the body. And I've got four to go and last two and last time [inaudible] and then I'm moving to the toes wide vetoes feed in Plantar flection. Good alignment through the ankles, Eh, working for a fully extended knee without going into hyperextension.

So we support the knee by pulling the inner thighs towards one another. And by feeling that that we're trying to lift the kneecaps up towards the body as the knees straighten the knees, never go beyond the ankle joint. [inaudible] I don't do three more here. I feed her totally still once they've set themselves in space too. And one bringing the toes to the center of the bar for calf raises.

So I find my neutral position and I pull beyond the springs working through the anterior Tibialis to work deeper into flection and then point and in Europol and press and reach. And so I'm trying to pull the bar backwards and I'm trying to take my feet back further each time. All the while working with a straight knee, I supported me and two more and one more from the appointed position. I been one of my knees, but the opposite foot. The knee, the foot of the knee that's bent, continues to push into the bar and then we rise up. So both feet are active up and then down, uh, prince like motion and up and then down. And as we do this with the pelvis stays absolutely still. So there was no rocking back and forth through the hips, no hiking of the hips on either side. And we just breathe our way through.

Nice, even symmetrical movement. We're going to go three more times. Okay. And too, and what, I'm going to take a little bit more time here and enjoy the stretch and change. Take a little bit more time here to enjoy this stretch and change the Ben both of my knees and get rid of limb. Take my feet out to do it and get rid of one of my springs. Yeah, I'm going to do a little bit of single leg work.

I'm going to start with my right leg on the heel, adjusting it so it's just over the, the just on top of my sip bone. So it's not in the center of the bar is what I mean by that. And then we flex that foot and we bend the knee. Now as we straighten the right leg, we're going to bring the left leg up, pointed through the foot and touch the bar. So the right knee bends and the left leg presses away.

And then we press back up. And here it's like there's a great deal of awareness in the stability of the pelvis and up. And so we work the right hip extensors and we work the left hip flexors and and as that free swing light goes down, we work those hip extensors. This is my last one on this side. When I bring my like all the way up, flexing it under the bar, placing it on the bar and stretching my opposite leg away. Taking a minute, finding my alignment, bending, bringing the right leg up and just find the bar with that foot and bend and feel that right like reaching away and up and then keeping my left foot flexed to intensify the stretch up the back of that leg. And last too and last one.

And then I bring that right foot back under the bar, placing my toes on the bar, going into plant's reflection and taking the left leg away. The same pattern with a slight, almost the same pattern. We then the right knee as the left leg comes up. This time we reach under the bar, flexing it and bringing it all the way into the body and bend. And by all the way, I mean as far as you can without changing the pelvis.

Flex and pull and and flex on Paul and the just checking the hips, flex and pull [inaudible] don't forget the press down of that free swinging like and one. I'm gonna Place my foot here. Work the ankle into the correct position. Take my right leg down and we're off and running, bending the left, stretching it and bringing the right leg all the way back and push away. This is preparing us for an exercise we're going to do in just a minute. The single leg tower and reach and, and reach and yeah, and last time and placing the foot.

I'm going to bend my knees here, take my feet out from under the bar and setting up for the town. Adjusting the blocks of some just slightly to accommodate for fluff. Both feet under the bar on the toes held us reaching down into the mat, arms on them, on the mat, but also on the bars. Cutting, adjusted, looking for alignment. And here we go. The feet are pointed, the arms are actively pressed up. I inhale to prepare. Exhale, feel the pelvis rise up off the mat, reaching up into the bar, but also really pressing forward onto the bar to feel the hamstrings working. Hamstrings help to support the spine. I rise all the way up, bending the knees at the top, stretching the legs back up, and I peel my body back down, dropping the chest, the ribs, the bones of the middle spine. Then the lower spine and all the way down through the pelvis, flexing the feet, pointing the feet, starting the journey back upwards.

Here we're working the hip extensors. We'll also want to work that back extensors a little bit. Rising right up onto the shoulders, bending the knees, stretching the legs and coming all the way back down. I'm going to do one more here. Flexing, pointing, checking the backsides of the ribs, and we're rolling. Yeah. Nice high lift bending.

I don't bend much beyond a 90 degree angle there. I stretch back a nice strong legs and coming all the way down and to keep my right leg on the bar, I'm gonna drop my left leg to them here. That's a pretty intense stretch to the hamstring. They're in healing. Prepare. As I exhale, I start rolling back up simultaneously, bringing the left leg up into the air, into hip extension in the other right knee bends and stretches. The left leg comes back to the bar. The top of the foot touches the bar.

As I bring my spine all the way back down, as my pelvis begins to unwind, I start to press the left leg into the mat. Dorsey flex, the right foot plantar flex, the right foot, and here we go again. Rolling that left leg was reaching up into the air. It's a similar feeling to the Jackknife or to the control balance rising up through the spine, through the toes and all the way down. Oops, I didn't bring my foot back to the bar that I just stay and then the leg comes down and I'm going to Dorsey flex that right foot and plant our flex and change fee.

Okay, pretty big stretch for me here. We go in here and we're arising, sending the leg up into the [inaudible], working that left hamstring, working that right hamstring, bending the left knee, keeping the spine long, stretching your left leg, rolling the spine back down. I'm the hell like drops to the mat. Dorsey flex the left foot plantar. Flex the left foot, peeling the spine, reaching the right leg genetically away from the body and into the ear. Bring the right leg back to the bar. Oops, I keep skipping steps. Bending the left knee, stretching the Leslie, bringing the right leg into the bar and here we go. All the way down, all the way down and that right like drops.

How don't we flex and point? I'm going to bring my leg back under the bar and bend my knees coming out from underneath the bar, just seeing the springs getting rid of my bottom loaded spring. Okay. Getting rid of my safety strap and setting up one top loaded spring. Coming through an abdominal series. I'm going to place my spine. For me.

What works best is just placing the edge of the skull, the Occipital Ridge right at the back of the mat, so that edge of the mat presses into the edge of my school, like just straight. I'm checking for alignment. And here we go into the top loaded Rola. It's an inhale to lift the head and chest right here already hollowing through the abdominals. We go forward through the spine, keeping the shoulders dropped away from the earth, rising all the way up into a straight back, bending the elbows, stretching the arms. As I begin to come back down, I'm going to fly my knees through a bent position, working the hamstrings, coming all the way down. So I'm just lifted into that high flexed position. And from there, exhale, bringing both knees into the chest. Inhale, I tap the toes and I'm pushing on the bar from my last in the direction that my feet are reaching in. How to reach the toes down. Excellent. Too deep and through the abdominals. Bringing both knees up. Inhale, reaching the toes down and bringing both knees up. And last too.

[inaudible] and one more. Keeping the lower spine stable and gonna set my feet back down, stretch the legs away, lower the body all the way to the mat and I inhale picking up the head and just again rolling all the way, reaching up. Ah Yeah. I'm going under the bar and through to a straight back, bending the elbows, pulling the elbows wide, stretching the arms back overhead, guiding the spine back downwards. And as I do so sliding the knees back and right about the time where my low back connects to them. Once I get down, I float the Nisa, stretch the legs up externally, rotate the legs and I go down with the legs and back and in here the legs push away and the low back is absolutely stable and I reach all the way back to the bar and Dan [inaudible] all the way back to the bar and all the way back taking us through two more [inaudible] and one way and I know just one leg to them reaching in. One Lake reaches into bar and we switch. And as the legs change in space, we worked the stability of the trunk and we keep the body lifted but consistently lifted, meaning not going up or down, but just holding that Nice controlled lift, keeping the shoulders, reaching away from the ears, keeping the backs of the legs strong and too [inaudible] and one and one and now both legs up, bending the knees, placing the feet down. As I stretch my legs, I'm going to stretch my body to the mat. And one more time. Lifting the head in, chest hollowing through the waist. Rolling, uh, working, reaching the spine, nice and tall, nice and straight. Bending the elbows, pulling the elbows to the sides, stretching the arms overhead, sliding the spine down, hollowing the knees into the body. As the low back comes in, he's just float.

We take the legs in a frog position and we press out and we take the legs as low to the mat as we can and bend, reaching the toes into the floor and bringing the knees in underneath the elbows and stretching them out on a high diagonal. And taking them down, bending the knees, coming down into a low frog position and then hindering from the pelvis. One more time like that. Reaching out, pressing down the knees, bend the feet, drop towards the mat if possible without changing the spy and we reach up and now we're going to reverse that. Bend the knees, take the legs down, start to stretch the legs out, lifting them. A few. Need to bring in the legs all the way up, bending the knees, reaching down. I'm working to try to find the mat and stay on the mat that I have to lift. Just a little off in order to keep my back stable. And one more time we bent, we reached down Sturridge the legs all the way and bring the legs up, bending the knees, finding parallel, placing the feet down and reaching the legs out to come all the way down.

And from here I'm going to lift myself up. Roll all the way up to sitting all the way back. Finding that nice high left bending nams one last time, stretching the arms up and rolling down. Finding the low back, bending the knees from here, take the legs out on a diagonal, let the upper body come down. And here's the teaser. We lift the head and chest rolling into the body, into the body rising, keeping the legs nice and strong. Still in space.

We slide the spine back down all the way. The legs are still at that bullseye point and head and chest com and we roll through the spine, reaching up, up, up, up and [inaudible] and the breath is in heal up, up working. Although the springs are assisting and we hard part in my opinion is the down here stabilizing, finding it. And I'm going come all the way back. A rolling, rolling. Finding my balance. I didn't go holding, holding and slowing the legs with control.

Sitting all the way up tall and sliding the spine forward over the legs for a stretch. Okay. And that, that they take that spring down and for a stretch black, we're going to do the ballet stretches. So from here, I stand all the way on and I move my fuzzy straps just a little back and it looks like about eight inches or so to me. Okay. Starting with the left foot, I'm gonna bring it across the body into the fuzzy that's on the right hand side, working through an externally rotated position here and just take a little bit of time to make sure that you're nice and square through the pelvis. Good. Okay. So my hands are on the bar pushing down on the bar with my back muscles and then I bend my standing leg, my right leg and I squeeze from the hip and straighten and I inhale Tibet. So although there's a stretch involved, it's a working stretch and lift up and keeping the spine along the whole time.

Bend and reach up and bend and reach up and one way and reach up. And then I'm going to take my hands to the front of the Cadillac or towards the foot that's in the fuzzy. Rotating around, staying in external rotation in both hips, checking the pelvis. Yes, I know we bend and extend the leg, but it's a nice working contraction. And if you want to challenge this movement, you could bring your arms out to the sides and just balance doing about five repetitions of each position. Here's number three. Inhale, I pull down and exhale, press up in my arms here are pushing. Yeah, and here's number two, and here's number one. And then I'm going to bring my left hand, same side, hand his leg underneath the bar, taking my right arm up, rising up through the spine first, and then taking myself over into a nice, beautiful side stretch and come all the way back here. From here I allow my pelvis or my hip to rotate around forward.

Take my opposite foot and turn it forward as well. Now here I'm trying to keep that back leg real strong. I'm gonna hold with my left hand and reach my right arm through and then I bend my right knee, reaching back into the stretch and then I stretch that right leg up nice and strong through the right leg and bend. Working myself down through the stretch and up, trying my hardest to work through the back of the left leg, keeping the as straight as I can and reaching and bend and reaching and bent and reaching kindness. Okay.

I'm going to take my right hand to the bar. I'm going to reach across my body, lowering my left leg towards the floor, reaching into that Nice, beautiful rotated position. And from there I just slip my foot out, turn my way down to the floor and roll. Yes. And we turned around and we moved to the other side. So the right foot goes into the left strap working in an externally rotated position in the pelvis.

It takes me just a minute to get myself nice and straight. The side, it's a bit harder for me. And here we go. Bending the knee. As you bend the knee, you get that nice hip stretch, hamstring stretch on that side. And then we use just stretch up keeping the spine nice and still reaching a, be aware of not leaning back or forward as that working like Benz, anticipating the stretch, keeping the spine stable and last one. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I rotate around towards that leg. [inaudible] well again, I want to first make sure that the pelvis is nice and stable. So most of us have to drop the stretching hip downwards. Okay. You could hold onto the bar. I'm going to work my balance by bringing my arms to my sides and I just bend. That's stretch actively working that less like an inhale and exhale.

Just making sure that the pelvis is not affected by that movement. Yeah. And reaching up and last to reaching up and one and up in the right hand comes under the bar, left arm reaches into the air, stretch to the side, dropping the right hip. As I stretch over the Paulus with my body lifting back up, rotating to the front, keeping that right, like as straight as possible. Right hand to the bar left. I'm forward and I bent down into the stretch and lift up. The right leg is strong. That glued is strong.

Trying to press through the back of that knee. Inhaling, keeping their ribs drawn back towards the spine, focusing on an upward lift in the spine last too. And uh, and one more and up. And then I take it my left arm to the nut bar and I keep the right leg straight as I reach over to the side over to the side. I mean that nice stretch when I bend my knee, bring my leg to the floor, turn the body, dropping the head down, squeezing the legs together, tightening through the center of the body. Rolling myself all the way back and standing tall. Yes. And now dropping down to the knees. Well, setting up for the cat stretch. I have my hands on the bar.

My fingers are turned slightly inwards at this point because they follow the line of my elbow. Okay. Checking out the alignment on my body. My feet are just behind my knees. Looking straight ahead of me. Breathing into prepare. I start pressing the bar down as I press rotating the hand slightly. So now that arms, wrists are straight in line with my elbows and shoulders and I continue excelling as I roll myself down into the ground.

Stretching the back out long [inaudible] in healing to hold excellently. Bringing the pelvis forward deeply, working through the backs of the legs and through the abdominals to keep my legs steady as I round my spine all the way back with straight arms and bring the elbows out to the side to lift the bar and exhaling to press the arms down and round forward. Folding the body in on itself. Locking and loading the shoulders. So don't be tempted to push the bar forward with the arms. Just let the bar move in. Response to the movement of the spine. It's all spinal movement here. Inhaling to hold excelling, to peel back the pelvis presses towards the chest, the chest towards the pelvis, the abdominals in between are hollowing towards the spine. We rise all the way up into that. Nice straight back and here, don't be tempted to just let the arms relax.

We pushed the shoulders down as we let the arms bend. So that last moment of bending the elbows and bringing their barra is part of the exercise. So important. Rolling down, exhaling, stretching the back. Here's our inhale. Exhale, bringing the bar back and all the way I last went one, reaching down, sending the body forward, yelling in a straight back. Excellent appeal. Tightening up the backs of the legs, tightening through the APPS, coming all the way up with straight arms and bending on. Now I'm just gonna sit bringing the feet up against the bars for the push through. So I'm sitting tall in healing to prepare. As I exhale, I work through deep flection of the spine, working to keep the feet against the poles throughout.

I continued to Xcel as I pressed the bar down in forward, taking care not to bend through the rest. I go down as far as I can and then I end the owl reaching the back into extension and I exhale curling back and I'm going to take us through the side reach here. So we find that deep flection through the spine. I'm going to go to the right first. The left arm stays. We focus on the flection and take the right arm back and back and back and back and maybe around a little reaching beyond. But I was, I do this, I'm really focusing on the right foot pressing down and here I'm going to exhale and come back to the bar and lift the spine tall breathing, breathing out as I curl the spine back, pushing the bar down and forward. Bringing the bar through as far as you can, but don't be tempted to push the bar again with the arms elevating the shoulder so it just moves forward as far as the spine can. Inhale and tobacco extension. Okay.

XL into deep flection through the spine, pressing both feed into the bars. The right arm comes off and now here I'm focusing on the rotation of my spy rather than the rotation of my arm. Arm just comes with me for the ride it reach way back there, way back there, and then it starts to bring the arm up towards the ear. Reaching now away from my left foot over to the side, looking for that nice laterally flexed position. Come back to the side, finding the bar and lifting back up. One more time through excellent to curve the spine and press forward in healing and to back extension.

Exhaling into reflection and inhaling into the stretch going, going, going and bringing the arm back, excelling back to the bar and in healing as you're going through the rotational point in this exercise, take care of to keep the pelvis sta and kneeling to lift the back. Excellent reflects so specifically as you turn the side that's away from the side that you're turning to the oppositional side is the side that is going to want to come undone. If you just anchor that side, reach all the way over. This feels beautiful all the way back to the bar, to the bar again, and lifting the spine app. And from here I'm going to turn my body around, push through, sitting back, take a hold of my bar. I find my straight back checked the ribs and inhale, exhale, starting from the lowest lowest bone in the pelvis, like got cock fixed curl initial initially curling, curling. Here's my shoulder stretch. Inhale.

As I start to come forward over my legs, the bar reaches up and I exhale working the abdominals into the spine, lifting the Baca and inhale to press the arms down and lift the back and Xcel to curl the back, reaching the bar behind you and inhale. If you feel a lot of elbow stress here, it's probably because your elbows are hyperextended. So watch that. Try to keep them soft. Inhale as I come down to the bar and up through the spine. And one more reaching back, coming up and over lifting. That's my axial and down and all the way back.

And then just be careful as you take your arms away and keep one hand on the bar until you're ready to let it go. Okay. And I take those that spring off. I'm going to set up for some hip work. They do the sideline hip work series today. I take one spring and bring it into the center of the bar lying on my side. I like to line my body up, make sure I'm nice and straight before I get into the strap.

So then at once I get in, I know I'm ready. Okay. So my head is on my arm and it's in line with my legs and my opposite arm is on the bar in front of me and it's pushing forward. Um Hm. Let me say that differently. I'm not pushing with my shoulder. I'm thinking about pushing into the bar to draw my shoulder back. And from there it's an inhale to lift and Xcel, touch and touch and reach.

I'm working on keeping my spine still and stable touch left touch, left touch left touch one more and back and legs together. And here we prepare for some old bleak work. We lift the legs and this is the scissor taking the spring back, backwards. Exhale, exhale. Inhale. I want my body to be the center of my scissor, so I've got to be careful not to let, especially as the leg goes forward, the springs take control in healing as I matched the legs. And exhale, exhale [inaudible] and both legs down and forward circles.

Breathing in as a lake comes to the front, excelling as I work through the stretch, keeping the external rotation of the hip, reaching the lake down and back and in you [inaudible] and exhaling through the stretch as the lake goes behind them, trying to press the hips, forward opposition and up and forward and uh, and last one. And then I take the leg to the back and I don't allow it to lift yet. I just go into that hip extension and they rise up, bringing the leg to the front, bringing the legs back together in center and back again. I'm just doing five repetitions of each. Oh yeah, I'm back working the hit through, extra rotation through out.

And last one, making sure my head stays in line with my spine throughout finding center, bending the knee, releasing my foot from the strap and turning around. Once again, lining my body up right through the center, placing my foot into the strap, placing my head on my arm in line with the rest of my spine in external rotation. Nice Active Vac and in here and XL. Tap Front and top behind and tap friends absolutely goes behind. We've got to be real careful that the whole pelvis doesn't go with it, so it's a nice strong connection through the back of the leg. Yeah, fi's working through the inner thighs and legs together and here's my scissors working through the top waste as well as the bottom.

It's exhale and inhale and there's a double pulse and here we want to make sure that as the leg goes in either direction, we're not allowing the springs to pull it off. We've got to really fight for that hip extension on the leg with no spring and one [inaudible] and then forward circles. We take the leg forward and then up. And as it goes back, the pelvis presses forward into the stretch. And so in yelling, excellent as you rotate through the stretch. And again, keeping the neck aligned, the back active, enjoying that nice mobile movement in the hip. Here's our last one and back.

And then we go the other way back. Working through the hip extension, reaching them, actively pushing down through the bottom, leg and back. Oh, and forward and back and forward. And last two and last one. [inaudible] a nice symmetrical movement and back bending the knee, taking the foot out of the strap. I want to turn onto my back with a roll of my body. I'm just gonna take advantage of that to just have a small stretch here. And then we're coming up all the way and I come to the end of the bar.

Here's our arm series. I'm gonna take that spring away. Little arm strength to the bar. I set this bar up just about shoulder height. So I'm going to add a little bit of balance to these, some of these movements today. Not at all. I've got my handles waiting for.

Okay. Can we start with the chest expansion? So I take my handle's in my hands, I look for Nice, strong alignment through my body and one before I begin, make sure I'm right in the center of my springs and then it to find tension on the springs. I just start reaching down, bringing the spring slightly back there as my starting position. And from there it's a chest expansion, bringing my, I'm slightly behind my body. Exhale and reaching down and forward and exhale and down in Florida. I'm going to back up just a little bit. I'm reaching down and I'm going to do two more here and then we're going to add some balance. I need this one and now as I take my arm, I'm going to step my left foot forward.

Here's the balance element. As I go through that chest expansion, I'm going to arise up through the left knee, coming into hip flection and inhale, reaching Mil, lay down. Nice strong spine, Nice easy leg movement. So I focus on drawing the leg up from the abdominals. The arms, continue to reach down into the floor. [inaudible] press that leg away from me and I lightly pull it up.

And that was five repetitions. I'm going to change sides. So stepping the right leg forward, finding the center, preparing, and exhale, lift and inhale, reaching forward and exhale, feeling the back of the body so strong and reach. [inaudible]. Try not to rotate at all as the like. Let's try not to lean to one side or the other. He goes, my last one and I had stepped down and turned around for a hug, a tree.

My arms come to the side and then I'm just gonna check myself. Make sure I'm in the middle arms reaching to the sign. So here as I bring my arms across the front, I'm gonna dive into the springs and then I'm gonna [inaudible] control it back. And I'm going to dive into the springs, pulling my shoulders back away from my hands and in here. So even in this fo, this back position, I'm still slightly forward and exhale. And in here, working through the upper back, that's where trying to focus the most powerful energy. My last one and center and I hold my body still and I just bring my arms across and then I feel that beautiful scapular rotation as my arms reach back towards my ears, drawing my shoulders down. My abs are very much in my legs are super strong.

The arms come across, the palms rotate down as the arms reach back just near the years. Beautiful movement through the shoulder blades and together. And what I mean by the shoulder blade movement is not that they're lifting or lowering their down, but that spiraling action as the arms come from the top to the sides and spiraling upwards an hour and together and one more. I'm not lowering my arms much beyond a t position. I'm going to take it in the opposite direction in healing out and there's that spiral again and exhale to press down from the lats and inhale through the stretch. There's definitely work there but that's what I perceive as the stretchy part.

I love this exercise so much cause it allows you to focus on the stability of the shoulder blades whilst at the same time challenging the mobility of the shoulder joint. Last too and last one [inaudible] taking the arms forward, bending both arms and I take one I'm forward and the arms pass one another by for punching and there's a slightly downward press in the shoulder joint. It's my arms just past one another by bodies. Nice and strong, not moving at all. And last time and both of us been bringing my body back up right and take a pretty big step forward from my bicep running the arms back behind me, lifting the arms nice and high, but just making sure that there's no elevation in the Scapula. Once again, I find that slightly and inwards. Nice, strong, like I connected to my back muscles, my lats and I bet making sure the elbows aren't inside the springs, they're just in line with the springs and out and pulling the shoulders down to bend and pulling the shoulders down as I straighten. So although it's a bicep exercise, that's not what I'm focusing on personally. Most.

I'm focusing on the lat work here cause that's what's going to enable me to really find that beautiful functional stretch to the shoulders. Just checking my elbows again, make sure the elbows don't go inside to the springs. That's super common. [inaudible] last time [inaudible] I'm straightened and set back. I'm going to do a couple of butterflies, just the regular version and then I'm going to add it another balance, so I start again in my hug, a tree position, setting up nice and strong. Inhale as I rotate into lateral flection, exhale at the top.

Arm reaches up and forward. I'm flexing through the center of my body, bringing my back arm up and back. Inhale back to lateral flection and exhale to the center and inhale, just tilt and then we reach forward into flection with rotation, keeping the back arm active and lifting and inhaling and exhaling. Yeah. Okay. This exercise is moving.

It's nice and it flows so nicely from one position to the next. I'm going to do one more here. Exhaling using lists in my lateral flection block and across [inaudible] and center. Okay. So the balance element is going to be as I go through rotation, I'm going to pick up the inside leg, the leg I'm turning into. Be careful with this one. Um, it's not super easy, so make sure you're ready for it and in control.

So I go through my lateral flection and as I reach across I start to pull that leg up into my body and I place it back on the floor as I find lateral flection and I find center and inhale, exhale, turning the body floating that bottom line up. Whoa. And inhale back and center [inaudible] [inaudible] making sure that the shoulders are stable, especially that top arm, the one that's reaching over the top presses down from the back of the [inaudible]. [inaudible] [inaudible] is that okay? So for my back extension, I'm going to bring that why John Stop again, kind of where I started. About three quarters of the way up and instead of the handles, I'm going to put the bar back on the roll up. Bart [inaudible] and coming back around. Lying on my front. I like to always make sure I'm nice and lined up. Okay, let me just take a hold of the bar. My forehead's down.

I'm backing up cause I want to have my hands just in front of between those two bars. Okay, so at the moment the springs are pulling up on my arms. I'm not really doing anything about that. It feels good. It's a nice stretch. But I'm going to start by engaging the legs like I'm going to lift them off the map but not quite lifting them off the mat and then I engage my abdominals and from there as I gently draw the shoulders down and back, pressing lightly on the springs, I allow my head to float up above my arms. As I continue to press downwards, I'm going to drag the bar towards my body, rising up through back extension, taking the bar back, allowing the spine to undulate forward, keeping stable through the shoulders, dropping the forehead down and then letting the springs bring my arms up and finding that stretch again. Backs of the legs, abdominals on shoulder blades drop down. I start to put pressure on the springs. The minute I do that, I start lifting my head and then I drag the shoulder blades down.

That's what's moving me. And you can make this as big of a back extension or as small as the back extension as you want. I'm making it fairly big for me right now and then and then Dan floating the head. But for people who weren't quite ready for that, you could just make it into a very, very small list folding from just underneath the ribs, which for me feels just as good. It's quite different, but definitely more in control for those who who don't have the capabilities to do the bigger back extension work and then I reach up. So for me it's almost better because my back is so flexible to work in that small range of motion. I'm going to do one more small like that.

Drawing the shoulders down towards the head, floating the head between the arms pressing lightly on my springs. The springs are too heavy here. You can adjust them by lowering the bar as much as you wish. Lifting the body, lowering the body down and lifting the arms. I'm going to take that one more time through, but I'm going to go big again. So allowing the head to come up, bringing the tip of the nose for the chin.

So I extended the cervical spine. I don't skip through my thoracic spine. I find a lot of work there and only once I've done that, I can come up as high as I want and then I take my bar down, reaching forward, controlling the movement through my shoulders and allow the bar to come up and enjoy that little stretch there. Again, we'll let the springs go. Pressing off the four hymns, lifting up onto the hands and knees. Yeah, finish with just a couple of cat stretches here so I can start with a nice straight spine breathing in. Exhale, folding the lower spine into flection in healing to come to neutral. Exhale, holding the pelvis steady as I arise through upper back extension and in Hilton neutral and XL, bending through the lower spine. Yeah, inhale to neutral and Xcel reaching out through the upper spine and in Hilton neutral.

And now as I exhale, rather than focusing on the, the separation of the spine and around the entire spine. But I'm still gonna put all of that work and finding the flection to the lumbar spine first, taking that Nice, beautiful stretch to the back and coming from here all the way to sit down on my seat, stretching the arms forward, ending with just a few breaths in rest position. [inaudible] well, I in the pelvis to sink down towards the feet, allowing the shoulders to melt away from the ears, having a couple of breasts has to finish the practice. Take a moment or two to relax. Maybe the only moments of relaxation you'll get in your whole day. So take advantage.

And with that, when you're ready, we just peel the back up. Rounding up [inaudible].

Comments

Paola Maruca
very nice class Meredith. Loved the single leg work and the abs section in particular. As always, you move beautifully....:) thanks
1 person likes this.
Meredith, this workout was so welcomed! After a week of stomach flu and couch sitting my muscles were screaming for something just like this. I had to omit some of the ab work due to obvious reasons but the transitions , fluidity, and your amazing cues were spot on. Your such a wonderful instructor and I thank you.
1 person likes this.
After a week of recovering from stomach flu and alot of sitting and sleeping this was just what the doctor ordered. My muscles were screaming for something just like this .I couldnt complete the ab routine for obvious reasons but the workout was beautifully done and i thoroughly enjoyed this routine. Thank you Meredith for always delivering an amazing session. You are one of my fav instructors on here! Jamie
2 people like this.
Very nice combinations of strength, balance and flexibility. Well done Beautiful background sceenery. Thank you for spicing up the movements.
1 person likes this.
Thank you....such great variations on this one. Plan to adapt to the Pilatesstick...wish I had the fuzzies. Love the balance pieces. Thank you again....
Thank you so much everyone. So happy to be here with you all!
1 person likes this.
This workout felt amazing! More like this please!
1 person likes this.
Beautiful class, Meredith! You move so perfectly! You inspire me. Thanks!
1 person likes this.
This is indeed a lovely class. I suggest possibly re-leveling it though. Single leg tower and butterfly with balance are not level 2 endeavors I feel. The ab work with push through bar was fantastic and pacing superb (as always). Meredith is a gem. Thank you!
I believe you may be right Kailey...thanks for keeping it real. And a great big thanks to all!!
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