Class #659

Mat for Baby Boomers

45 min - Class
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Risa Sheppard teaches a basic class geared toward the baby boomers. "The #1 complaint of most clients is stiffness, stiffness, stiffness. To remain youthful and vibrant, we must move with a spine that is flexible, articulate, and strong. Therefore, this class will focus mainly on correct alignment, balance, and flexibility. The ability to move gracefully through space, with agility poise, and inner power. " Have fun as Risa guides you through a class offering exercises that will get your spine moving and feeling flexible again.
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Hi, I'm Risa shepherd. I'm the creative, the shepherd method Palase and I'm here today to talk about [inaudible] for baby boomers, of which I am a proud member. One thing to remember you are as young as your spine is flexible and ancient Yogi once said, I can't remember his name, but it was a very wise saying, I have been teaching since I was 22 I am older than that now. However, this is designed for the person who is concerned with living in a body forever. That's flexible, that's easy moving, that has grace and articulation. We're not always interested in being the best beauty on the beach, but we do want to be able to move in a body that is comfortable to us.

So with keeping that in mind, these are classes that I would teach actually to a young person as well as to an old person. So their principles to always keep in mind. What we want to do is just think of keeping a nice flow of movement and working from the inside out, which is what Pele's I believe is about working from the inside out and not the outside in. That's the most permanent way to maintain fitness. Okay, so with that in mind, please stand. What we're going to do is I'm going to teach you about finding the body center, which is the main component of the Sheppard method. We've heard a lot about the core muscle groups and that's all fine.

We all need to know that. However, way before there was the core muscle groups, we talked about center and it's very similar to body and mind and that when we're feeling chaotic, what do we want to do? We want to set our ourselves and our guidelines when our bodies are out of alignment. What do we need to do? We need to center ourselves. So let's just sort of stand like the normal Schlep, okay? Which frankly, is the way most people are walking around these days. Okay? So we're going to find our center. We're going to put our feet down together and we're going to imagine that there's a laser running straight down the middle of the foot, all the way down to about China.

So that we would rather feel ourselves grounded to the floor than falling forward or falling back. We want to move up the body. We want to imagine that there's a plum line at the ankles and we want to imagine that this plum line continues up our calves, our knees, our thighs. Then I want you to pull the navel into the spine. We've heard that many times in Palladio's, but it's a definite wonderful idea to keep all the time and you want to make as much space between the rib cage and the pelvis as possible. This is what I call d clumping cause most people clump, right? I use very scientific terms. Okay, so, so what we're going to do is think de clump, make as much space from the rib cage to the um, pelvis as we can.

I want you to open up the shoulders, open up the chest, and I want you to linkedin out beyond the top of the hat. I don't want you to think the spine stops at your neck. I want you to imagine that the spine goes out beyond the top of the head and it is expand, extends up into space, and then the spine comes down the back of the head, the back of the body. I want you to imagine that as though there's warm oil being massage down your shoulder blades. Feel your spine nice and long. I want you to squeeze your buttocks gently as if you're holding maybe a silver dollar and your cheeks.

Imagine that plum line steel all the way down the thighs, the knees, the calves, and the ankles. Okay? Now I want you to imagine that there's a laser beam running from this far. We'll say that south to as far north running through your hips, and I want you to imagine a laser beam running about an inch below your belly button and an inch below, above your tailbone. Okay, now place your right hand onto your abdominals. You left hand on your back where those four points meet, where those two laser beams are running through your body from the sides to the front to the back. In the middle of your body, there's a little ball the size of a ping pong ball, but with the energy of the sun. This is essentially your mental and Physical Center for which all movement flow so that we're not lifting the shoulder. Okay?

This Mulu say most people just haphazardly lifting their arm and they're using their shoulder blade. What I want you to imagine is that the arm starts and extends from the center and lengthens out as far as you can. This is all about extending our limitations, which is the same thing that we try to do in life. Correct? So what I want you to do as you inhale, you use the air as resistance. And when I say as resistance, almost pretend like you're pushing through mud.

Again, nothing haphazard, just lengthening and down, but all the movement emanating from the center so that even when you're out there in the real world, I want you to move from the center. I want you to walk from the center. I want you to get out of bed from the center. I want you to brush your teeth from the center so that every exercise or movement you do is an abdominal strengthening and lower back strengthening. But it's centering your body and your mind for all activities. Okay? Does that make sense? So let's place the hands by the side.

And what I want you to do is do a nice breath as we use the errors, resistance, lift the arms up, lift the arms up from the center, and then exhale, lower the arms and try to extend those fingers way out. Inhale and exhale, sh and inhale, lengthen, lengthen and exhale down. And one more. Inhale and exhale. So it's almost like our body is a cylinder so that all muscle groups are being utilized as we're breathing, but we're always emanating from the center. Okay? So keeping that in mind. Also, remember that we want to, uh, a spine that's flexible, articulate, and strong. Those are the three things that we want our spine to do to in order to keep us young forever. And US baby boomers want to stay young forever.

So keeping that in mind, I would just want you to imagine the articulation of the spine. I want you to keep your hands here, keep your center intact, and I want you to take a nice breath. Inhale, and I just want you to take the chin to the chest, even if it's feels a little painful in the back. But don't let the lower back sink press out. Keep the lower back pressed into the abdominals and the abdominals into the back. And Inhale, lift the head and exhale down and inhale up and exhale down and inhale up. And one more time. Exhale down and inhale up. Good. Let's open up the feet a little wider. Now what I want us to do, again, emanating from the center, you going to do, you can watch me one time. Inhale and exhale, Chin to the chest contract. Roll it down, bend the knees and I want you to think like you're a raggedy ad or an Andy. If you happen to be an Andy and you want to roll up again, one vertebrae at a time, but from the center. So what we're doing is, again, we're taking this spine and we're starting to stretch it, but let me show you one thing. What we do not want our Frankenstein's, what's a Frankenstein? Come here. This is the way most people move, okay? Most people lift themselves up from their back.

They lift themselves up from their head. Most people walk from their head. What we're going to do again is learn to move from that center. So I want you to roll down from that center and I want you to roll up from the center. Okay? So the head is the last to come up. Let's do it again. Inhale and exhale. Chin to the chest. Bend the knees, roll it down. Exhale. Good Les, that had nice and loose. Now from the center, inhale, roll it up. One Vertebrae at a time. Think one vertebrae at a time. The head is the last to come up. Good.

And take a nice breath. Inhale from the center and exhale. Feel the shoulder blades pressing down the back. Let's try that again. Inhale and exhale. Chin to the chest. Start to fold up, pull the belly in. Exhale, make sure that neck is nice and loose and from center, roll it up. One Vertebrae at a time. Two, four. Okay, very nice. And inhale up. And you can tell a lot about how a person can move their body by how they roll up. Okay. Cause again, the roll up from their back or the roll up with one hip out the center.

The more centered you can keep yourself, the better and the more fit you are. Okay, so let's take the arms up. Turn out. Now we're just going to do a couple of plays. I want you to squeeze. Think of the inner thighs together. Do not stick the buttocks out and then lift up and exhale down and uh, and exhale down and a and z heel down and up. And exhale down and up. Arms down.

Let's take the right arm up. Turn from the center, press it behind. You. Turn with the arm up and front down. So what we're going to do is open up the shoulder girdle and press down. One thing we really want to do is keep, our posture is erect for as long as we can turn. Y'All were just lying in our, you know what up turn, press down, lift, yeah, that or won't matter what the posture is like up turn, press down, lift and press down. One more.

Up and press lift and down. Okay. Try to just move the shoulder. In other words up, don't look behind you necessarily. We just want to up turn and then we press it down so we're feeling the whole shoulder girl opening up and then turn the hand the other way. Lift up front and present down. Okay, let's do it again. The arm up churn and just press it back. Lift and press down. Let's do it one more time.

Up and press back. Lift and press down. One more time. Up and press down. Lift and okay. You see the difference again between just turning over so you're really opening up and you're able to move one part of the body without moving the other while the entire body is engaged. Let's do both. Arms Up, turn and press the arms down. Turn the other way.

Lift up and press down and lift and press back. Turn lift and press down. One more time. Lift up and press turn. Lift up from the center. Think of this as a stomach, exercise or movement as well as an arm and shoulder girdle enhancement. Turn up and down. Okay.

All right, let's have a seat. What we're going to do is put our feet and what we call the diamond position. Your soles of your feet are together, the knees are open. You don't want your heels too far and you want the defeat out. You want your hands at your ankles, your elbows on the knees, and again, I want you to imagine that spine a lengthening out beyond the top of the head, so it's actually going all the way out to many, many feet beyond you.

Okay? Don't break at the neck. I want you to take a breath. Inhale and exhale, stretch length of again, think, lengthening forward. Inhale and exhale. With each breath we just expand that spine. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale show.

It doesn't matter how far over you get and it's not a question of getting the forehead down to the feet, but it'd be long eight in the spine and reach. Now stay right there from the base of the spine as if it's a string of pearls. I want you to start with the lower vertebrae and slowly lift up one vertebrae at a time. So I just don't want you to plop up. There's a difference between a plop and appeal, okay? We don't pull up, there's no plopping employees only peel. Okay, so again, watch one time we exhale. Now we focus our minds on the bottom vertebrae and again as if it's a string of pearls, articulating the spine and lifting one at a time.

Okay, and one more time. Contract. Exhale and press the small, the back down and lift the head is the last to come up. Very nice. Lift the heels so that they're a little bit higher than the toes. The fingers are towards the knees. Shoulders are relaxed. We don't want them up by the ears. Inhale and exhale. Start to contract down and get about to the lower back and lift up.

Use the lower belly to lower and lift you and exhale down and inhale, lift. Open up the arms a little bit and then exhale down. And Inhale, lift and exhale down. And inhale, lift really length. And remember again this spine going up to the on the top of the head and exhale down. Bring the knees in together, had down.

Bring the knees into the chest. Inhale and exhale. Now what I want you to do is we stretch the lower back and lengthen the spine by bringing the knees into the chest. I don't want you to think, just bring the knees into the chest. I want you to imagine as though your line on a cloud or a bed of sand. So what we're going to do as we gently press those knees in to our body, I want you to imagine that the whole back is sinking further down into the cloud or further down into the sand and I want you to imagine all of the muscles around the spine being lengthened and falling deeper into that cloud and that kind of Nice. Okay, let's try it again. Inhale and exhale. Just think.

Press the knees down, down, keeping the tailbone down and yours sinky down into the cloud and inhale up and exhale down and each time we pressed down that spine as lengthens and lengthens again. Inhale and exhale. Okay, very nice. Keeping the knees into the chest from where the knees are. Extend the legs as far as you can. If you can only bend them a little bit, that's fine, but just try to extend them and keep the belly press to the floor, hands by your side. Flex the feet back towards your face, heels up towards the ceiling. Ball and point take to the ball the feet. Flex Ball, point ball, flex ball point.

Don't let the belly protrude and flex ball point, bend the knees, put the feet down by your side and slowly take the knees to the right while you keep your shoulders down so we can just start again. We're stretching that spine. We're creating the spine that's flexible, that will be creating a spine of this articulate in a spine that strong, but flexibility is really the key to longevity of wellbeing I believe. Okay. As my 90 year olds. Okay, now bring the knees back into the chest and turn the knees to the other side. Keep the shoulders down and think also as you stretch, you want to link. Then again between the rib cage and the pelvis because it's all about again, d clumping, it's all about lengthening and it's all about making yourself five 10 right? Great. You want to be, how tall do you want to be?

Think of yourself as tall. Linkedin. I have a 60 year old client that just told me that she gained an half an inch in height. So people that say the plot isn't work. It does and and, and the flexibility and the articulation and of the spine is really, is really the key. Okay. Bring the knees back. And so many baby boomers are many people, you know, I say baby boomers, but quite frankly I have clients very young that are complaining of what older people many years ago used to. And I think with the advent of computers and that's the lower back problem and stiffness I want you to do instead of just as I mentioned earlier, there's a difference between a plop and appeal. I want you to think appealing, putting your feet together, the knees together. Press the back down, tilt the pelvis and lift up just a little bit. Don't, don't lift up very high just about to your waist and then exhale. So you just feel the lower lumbar area, the lower spine and that I want you to slightly arch the lower back and then you press it down. What you do this very slowly and very carefully.

And if you do it every morning, it's really good if you have low back pain and stiffness as good way to get unstuffed without immediately just going into an intense kind of pelvic press. Lift up just a little bit and then exhale down low all the way down. Let the back go down and then press the pelvis. There you go. Then press it. You just, that little bit of a movement is enough just to get you and down in there you go and lift and press down. So if you're feeling stiff in that lower back, start the day with a few of these small little pelvic presses and depths and then when that starts to feel comfortable for you, lifted up a little bit higher, but again, think of peeling one vertebrae it off at a time and come on up now to the shoulder blades and then Xcel slowly roll down articulating the spine and you tilt the pelvis so that there's a slight arch in the lower back.

And tilt the pelvis. I mean, sorry, straighten the back out again. Tilt the pelvis and lift it up a little bit higher. This time. Good and exhale slowly roll it down. Tailbone and tilt the pelvis the other way, so that is a slight arch. Let's do that two more times. Feel the back flat. Tilt the pelvis lifted up and exhale slowly. Roll it down.

Watch the shoulders as well. Tilt the pelvis the other way and one more time. Tilt the pell was lifted up and roll it down. One vertebrae at a time and tilt and release and again, now feel the spine being impressed, imprinted along the pull the navel into the spine. Press the shoulders away from the ears and let's take the right knee into the chest and place your hands under the thighs. What I want you to do from where the knee is, you extend the legs slowly and then press it back down and extend the leg and release and take more that were stretching from the lower back.

We're really elongating that back as we're stretching legs extend. There you go. And then, and use the in the air as resistance extended from the center and extend. Now you're here. I want you to flex the foot again, the heel up towards the ceiling and then point and flex and point and flex and point and flex and point and flex. Okay, good and point and let's put the foot down and the whole time we're keeping the back Mike's and flat to the Mat. Imprinted right, bring the right left knee into the chest and I'm sorry, and from the knee, so don't move the knees all over the knees are in elbows or open. Extend and think of extending from the center and a long gate and I want that Cho going and out beat on the top of the ceiling and exhale, release and inhale, extend and release and inhale, extend.

Think from under the buttocks you're extending under the back and down and inhale, extend and release. And two more. You again, use the air as resistance and release. And one more time and inhale up. Lengthen, lengthen and exhale. Release. Okay, very nice. Feet down, arms above the head. Now what we're going to do, again, keeping this whole notion of working from the center and keeping the spine as strong, articulate as possible. What I want you to do is you're going to inhale the same simple, but it's very important.

We inhale and I want you to lower the arms and I want you to lift the upper body, but I want you to lift it from a seven. Add that come on back down so you just don't drop the arms and lift the head and day out. This is what most people do to do abdominals. It's not correct. Move it from the center fingers up. Extend the fingers up towards the ceiling. Inhale and exhale. Reach the fingers a long gate and keep the sense. Keep using the centers. You lower it down. Good.

And again, inhale up, reach, lengthen. Use The pacs pectorals around the breast area and take it back down. And one more time. Inhale, reach, reach and exhale down and lets us do arm circles. As we circle the arms, we really work again from the center constantly lengthening those fingers about an inch beyond where they're going each time. And it's important to breathe too.

Yeah, reverse one and lengthen. Feel your shoulder blades working as well. Feel the muscles in your back. Working round, up and down. Place the hands on the thighs, extend from the center, extend both legs and then release the legs and extend using the air again as resistance. Extend reliefs, extend, release, extend, release. One more. Extend and release. Endless. Elongating the arms up. I want you to reach with the right arm and the left and reach.

Go. Just think of her stretching the spine. Reach. Now let's include the legs as well. With the Rod. We reach forward with the right hand and the left leg reaches out as if somebody is pulling our leg and somebody reaching, pulling our arm and the other side and reach and reach and reach and reach and reach and reach and reach. Good and center. The arms are around. Bring the knees into the chest again. Bring the hands up and exhale. Bring the knees in and out.

Okay, very nice. Let's turn around on our stomachs. Now. One Nice thing that I learned actually just recently from somebody who studied with Cathy grant who was one of the elders. Um, that, and, and I've been using it a little bit to think in terms of your spine, to think the lower spine, the Lumbar, we can start to give them numbers. And this helps with the articulation. What I was talking about really keeping our spine as articulated because that's what gives us old, you know, that I'm thinking. But that's another thing. So if we keep young thinking and a young spine, those two things will keep us young forever. But it's a w uh, begin. It's, it's that stretch in linkedin. So if you, if you number of nine, eight, seven, six five, similar to yoga, the shock rose. But I have found that this has helped a lot of my clients so that when they are, let's say rolling down, they go 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five and so forth and up. This will help with the articulation of the spine.

Um, seeing it shows that you didn't, oh, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Cause I just learned that and I really like it. So I want you to keep in mind again that numbering in the articulation of the spine as we do a very slight little pelvic prep. I'm sorry, eight. Um, Cobra. The theater going to be together. We're going to extend the back.

We're going to slowly lift the upper back up and then slowly press it down. But literally thinks that we articulate the spine as we lift. So we can just lift 10, nine, eight, seven, six, four, three, two, one and then roll it down. One, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Okay, let's do that again. One, two, nine, 10 and roll down to seven, eight, nine, 10. Very nice.

So let's put your forehead on your hands, your elbows open, your buttocks gently squeezed. And I want you to press your pelvis way down to the floor. Keep the elbows open. I want you to inhale, lift the upper back. Don't break the line of the neck. Again, keep extending the head forward. Just lift, lift the elbows up to there. You go up, hold it, and then exhale down. And inhale up and exhale down and inhale up and exhale down and inhale up and exhale down.

Let's just do one more time and inhale up and exhale down. Very nice. Now placing your hands close to your breastplate once you to push up, come up to all fours up to the tabletop and the same kind of feeling that we did when we were lying on the floor and doing the pelvic press. We're going to do the cat eye but I want you to round your body. Tuck your pelvis under, so we're rounding the spine.

Now we're going to straighten the spine and we're going to imagine again that the spine goes out way beyond the tail bone and way above the head, the forehead, the tie, the crown and then do a slight little arch. Don't break the neck literally, but it is. Think of linkedin again and then straight and then round. Tap the pelvis under and then straighten the spine. Think the spine is going to be on the top of the head and be on the tailbone and then do a slight arch so that the tailbone is up, the head is up, but we're not questioning into the shoulders and straight and then tuck and round your spine again and straighten your spine and then articulate the spine by extending.

Oh, okay. Great. One more time. Let's straighten the spine. Lengthen and contract and around and straighten. Okay. Now you know another common complaint, believe it or not, which you will be or believe it is balance in something that we have to keep balanced throughout. So what we're going to do is I want you to imagine that there's a cup of coffee or hot water on your lower back. So we're not going to shift the hips out. You're going to adult think so much of raising the arm up.

Think of more extending out. You're going, let's do work. Actually first with the right arm, just extend the right arms straight out. And again, lengthening the fingers out, keeping those hips nice and even and exhale down and left arm. Extend and exhale down and right arm extends. Lengthen and exhale down and left arm extend.

Okay. Now let's do the same thing with the feet with the legs. The take the right leg and thinking of extending it out and Linkedin it from the hip without raising the hip. You want to keep the hips down whenever you have that cup of hot water on your lower back. And then bring the knee back in and left. Late out. Lengthen. Lengthen from the center, lengthen it from the buttocks muscles so you're just not lengthening the toe. You're using the whole body and bring it in.

Let's do again the right leg, straight out and back and and left leg out. Okay, good. Now let's do the right arm and the left leg and extend. Hold it, stretch it. Good. And exhale back in and extend annex sail back in. Gosh and extend linkedin and Linkedin from the shoulder blade to think that shoulder blade going out beyond the good, the fingers and the toe outs to the ocean and bring it back and and extend.

Okay. Very nice. Both of you are keeping your hips nice and stable. Make sure that that hot water is not falling off your lower back and bring it back in. Okay, good. Let's come up onto the knees. You can face me. Arms are up by the side. Shoulders are down. We don't want to have the shoulders up to hear by the year. Call it Billy n we're going to reach over.

We're going to start to sit on the hip, but we don't, we use that center in the waist to lift up. Okay. And reach and up and reach and uh, and reach and uh, and re and uh, and really reach over from the waist and lift and reach and lift and reach and lift. One more time. Reach. Okay, good. And I think the arms in front and slightly lift just back. So you're going to feel a little stretch on the cows and then forward and back and forward and back and forward.

One more time and back and forward. Okay. Very nice. Now we're going to sit one heels in the center of your body. The other foot is behind you. You're sitting up as tall as you can. This may be a little advanced for some people. If it's hard to keep your knee bent like that, by all means, take it straight and keep it in front of you. It's important to keep your two hips against square. You don't want one hip out.

This is again for flexibility as well as feeling coordinated. No. Okay, but let's stretch the hip flexor. A lot of people are, as you know, very tight in those hip flexors. She's a simple take it forward and press it back as well as they're tight in those calves. You know, we've been walking forward for an awfully long time. Now we have to think of taking our bodies in the opposite direction. Inhale and front. Inhale, front, inhale.

Yeah. Let's say the arms out to the side, shoulders down and take the hip forward as your turn to the side. Twist, rotate the spine and back for us to hit down and turn and stretch and turn and stretch and turn and just [inaudible] pressed the hip down and turn. Make sure you're turning from the waist and put one hand down and lengthen again as the slot. The arm is stretching. You're actually lengthening from the center. Reach, reach and keep making yourself nice and long and turn. And what you're going to do is I call this the shepherd swoop. You come up, lift and look at the hand round and front and turn and up and round and front and turn and swoop and front and oh one more time and turn and lift and turn and front. Good and arm up. Okay.

Bring the knees in and listen to the other side. Keep the knee open as much as you can. You don't want to have it too close into the other foot. You want the knee open, which you want to get and keep those two hips stable. If keeping this knee, if you have a knee problem or if this is a little bit too difficult for you, please just take your leg straight out like that. Okay, let's stretch that hip flexor a little bit. Take the hip forward and press it down so you like the buttocks lifts up off the floor a little bit. And press down, lift and press down. Lift and press lift and press lift and press.

One more time and lift and press a 60 arms after the side. Watch the shoulders and turn as you lift the hip up. And then press the hip down. Turn, lift the hip, press down, turn, lift the hip and down and four and down and five and down. One more and six. Okay. And just stretch.

Feel that gala a space between the rib cage and the pelvis. Lengthening. Turn and rotate the spine as you swoop all the way around. Lift up, look at the palm of your hand. Good.

And then turn and open and turn and swoop and turn out front and turn and swoop and turn and front and turn and swoop and turn at front last one and turn and swoop and turn and front. Good and Fred. Okay, let's cross our legs and just stretch over again. Think that lengthening the head beyond the top, the hat and lift up. Let's switch legs and stretch forward. One, four, five, six, seven, eight. Very nice and lift up. I think the arms after the side, and just think of slicing your arms through space behind you.

One in front, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12. Inhale and exhale down. You know, posture is perhaps the one thing that that's most people, let alone baby boomers even, I'm getting calls from parents of teenagers now that are saying, please, the posture is getting so bad. So it's important to constantly keep the chest open and to be working the back muscles in extension as much as you can. And so even when we're slicing these back, we're just not pressing back with the hands, but we're pressing back with like the shoulder blades.

So there's a difference between just slicing or stretching and literally pressing. You understand? Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. All right. Let's open the legs. We don't, doesn't have to be too far. This is why did you feel comfortable? Okay. Sit Up nice and tall. We're going to do a little spine stretch. Chin to the chest and I'm just going to have you keep your hands down and rich.

Reach forward. Two, three, four. Think out and then walk it back to three and lengthen up and exhale to under the chest and reach out to three and four and then started again to walk back to three and linkedin up and she ended the chest. Work out to three whore and walked back six, seven and again when you link them up, use those numbers. Ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four. So it's a constant articulation of the spine. Let's do it one more time. Inhale and exhale. Tune to the chest out. Two, three, four and walk back. Six, seven and eight. Now if you can get your legs a little wider, that's fine. If not, that's okay too.

We're going to be 10 like we're ballerinas for about five seconds, maybe a little bit longer, but literally think in terms of taking that spine again and creating a lot of movement within your own body. From the spine. Arms are out to the side, lift the arm up and stretch over reach. This is a nice lateral stretch, but lengthen five, seven, eight from the center. Lift up and go the other way and reach two, three, six, seven, eight. Lift up from the center on over on six three two one, two, four, five, six lift up and other side and reach two, three, five, six and lift on four. Reach over. One, two, three, four. Lift up and overstretch. One, two, three, four.

Lengthen on to reach over and one to lengthen. Reach over one to linkedin on one route and linkedin. Again, reach and linkedin and reach and linkedin. One more time. Reach and Linkedin, arms up to the side. Turn.

Keep your feet flexed and stretch linkedin over towards the foot. Let the head down and think more like we're trying to just take that spine. We're not trying to get the head to touch the knee or anything. We're just trying to lengthen out beyond the toes and then lift up and turn and lengthen and stretch. I don't care how far over you can get and linkedin and turn and reach on.

Six and one, two, four, five, six and link the lift up from the spine. From the center. Turn and over and stretch. One, two, four, five, six and up. Shoulders down, resize. Say that myself. Turn on for reach, two, three for Linkedin and turn and overstretch to four and up. Center to the side again on to reach to linkedin up. Turn and reach two and up. Now on one turn and rich.

Lengthen up. Turn, stretch. Lengthen up. Let's go. One more time. Each side. Turn up front. Turn, reach and front. Arms out and release. Shake the legs together. Oh, very nice. Come on down.

I call these little pulses. Think the heels underneath the buttocks. Muscles. Keep the nose where they were to the knees, the hands on the floor, and straighten the legs and think the top of the head beyond the feet. Okay. And let's come down again. A little pulses. The buttocks did the heels. One, two, eight, hands closer to the feet if you can. No. So the knees stretch.

[inaudible] and let's come down one more time and stretch little pulses. Hands by the feet, nose to the knees. Hold it. Now I want you to bend the knees slightly. Keep that laser beam all the way up the body and start to roll up one vertebrae at a time, articulating the spine. 10, nine, eight, six, five, four, three, two the has the last to come up and take a nice breath. Inhale and exhale, and inhale, and exhale. Press.

Okay. And one more time. Up and exhale. Thank you very much. [inaudible].

Comments

2 people like this.
Such a great workout for beginners! Risa is a fantastic teacher and I don't even have to work with her in person to feel her passion for Pilates. Can't wait for more!
Thank you Kara! I love teaching!
Thanks Risa. Very good. It's nice to learn the concepts of the moving from the center.
Glad u liked it!
What a great class -- and so much fun! Loved the cues on spinal articulation, breathing and finding your center. Would love to see some Level 2 mat and reformer classes.
Thank you Kion ,
Centering is so important
Would love to do level 2 !



My clients aged 20 to 90 really loved this class and found the cues extremely effective! Would love to see more. Thank you Risa.
So glad they found it helpful! Thank you for your feedback
Write me antime
1 person likes this.
I'm 58 and sit in front of a computer all day. This feels sooo good.
That was a good class.
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