Class #821

Dynamic Mat

55 min - Class
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Description

Treat yourself to a dynamic workout taught by Meredith focusing on spinal, shoulder and hip mobility. Challenge your shoulder strength and explore creative uses for the band as well. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

About This Video

Aug 31, 2012
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Transcript

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Okay. So we're going to use the band tonight and what I want you to do is just stand, look down at your feet. They should be parallel right underneath your hips and then check out your knees. Are they behind your ankles? The answer should be hopefully no. So keep the shins just in front of the ankles and the weight evenly distributed through the feet lifts the band and we begin. So I want you to breathe in.

I don't have a lot of tension on my band at this point, but we're gonna stirrups the band and stretch out through the body. And exhale, feel the waistline close as the band comes back together. And inhale, feel the trunk open and expand. Reaching the arms out and exhale as we just close back. And one more time. Inhale. Feel the rib cage working as the ring works outwards.

Exhale, the arms come back together. We inhale to hold here and let the head fold forward. As the head goes down, start reaching the arms down towards the legs and then down towards the floor again, recheck the knees or the knees behind the ankles or just in front of. Take a breath at the bottom and exhale, lift back up. So rolling up through the center of the body. Plug the arms into the shoulder joints or in other words, stabilize, lifted the head, lifted the arms, bend the elbows wide into a goalpost shade.

My Band's coming just to the top of my head. You can go forward or behind you, but you can't stick your head forward to do it. And take your arms up and down and round down. Exhale. I just feel that there's a light pull apart, a light pressure outwards on the band and XLT roll up and that's encouraging us to stay broad through our back. Nice, nice and broad and their head comes up. Arms lift up, bend the elbows, bias towards elbow. Slightly forward of hands. Stretch the arms up, bring the arms down and exhale. We come all the way back down again. Okay.

It is focused on the elevation of the abdominal muscles, the positioning of the legs, they're strong quads are pulling up the knees and we pull back up through the spine again. Taking the arms up overhead hold here. Ah, one more shoulder stretch. Why not bend and reach? And now with the arms overhead, we're going to reach over towards the ocean. Pull down on the bottom arm, give yourself a little more stretch like that. Lift up the bottom arm and pull the body up with the right side of the way.

So the opposite side of the waist. Stretch up to go over. Pull down on the bottom arm. That'll increase the stretch. Let the bottom arm just rise and pull lightly floating upwards and reach out to go over. Take the bottom arm down, take the top bottom arm up and lift and reach out to go over. Bottom arm goes down, bottom comes up and we float back up. I'm going to turn, you guys can stay just where you are.

We're gonna do a little bit of leg work, so we'd start with the band just in front of us. We're gonna bend the knees, sit way back so the weight of the body is into the heels and we're in like a squat position. Press into the heels of the feet without even moving. Feel how that engages the backs of the legs and then standing up as you stand up, take the band around your legs, wrap backwards into a chest expansion. Lift the arms up, bend the knees and sit back. I've just decided I wanted a little more attention on my band so I walked my hands in. If you want more attention, you should do that to wrapping the band around the size, opening through the chest and in. He'll sit annex all the heel pressure guides us through the backs of the legs.

The band comes around the front of the size, the chest lifts an inhale, sit and press and again, sit and press. Not as we're doing this, can you check in with your own body? Decide if you're equally weighting both legs. Something I say all the time because it's something I'm worried about all the time. Bend and press. Good down. One more. Bend and press.

And now lift the arms up. Keep the spine up, stretch the band and take the arms all the way behind you. Lift the arms, let them float back up. Send them all the way back in front of you and lift the heels. Swivel the heel so that they touch together. Lower the heels down and we begin. Bend the knees, sit back. Exhale.

This time we're going to stand up. We're going to wrap the band around our size. As we do that, we float up onto the toes, the heels come down as they touch the knees, bend, absorbing that pressure. Stand up, wrap the band and float onto the toes. Just challenging our balance. A little bend, sit back, long straight spine. Press into the heels, feel the glutes working, feel the in scenes of the flies active. And again down go the heels, bend the knees and stretch up and rise.

And as you lower your heels, try to keep the length of the spine. So the idea, and it's an idea truly, is that once we find that elevation with the heels off the ground, can we create space? So much so in our bodies, but the head doesn't lower as the heels come down, the arms float up, the knees bend two more, we press flown and now the spine gets longer, the neck gets longer, the arms are light. Last time here, bend, stretch. And keep that ease in the body as the arms come in front and the heels drop down. Great job. Let's come to our mats. Take the band, wrap it around your feet, keep the knees bent for now instead of Nice and straight in your back. So we're going to add some arms and do some, some abdominals. So the closer you are to your feet, the harder it'll be on your arms and the easier it'll be on your abs and vice versa. So there's some information about where to hold the band lift to talk, create that same action, the back and down action with the arms.

Don't shift this a ribs forward. Just pull down and back with the upper back and backs of the shoulders. Take the arms forward, Tuck the tailbone under, keep on gentle outward. Pull on their shoulders and roll back. Finding our way just to the bottom of the rib cage. The knees are bent.

We hold here, we start our exhale, letting it proceed our movement as we pull ourselves up and then as we elevate the spine, the arms again, just down in back growing the spine. Tall. Lean a teeny bit forward. Emily right there. Take the arms forward slightly, but keep that just outward energy on the arms. Press the feet into the band, guide the abdominals into the mat. Pause to breathe in and curl first inwards. Once the shoulders arrive over the pelvis, that's when we start to create the elevation in the spine and the outward pull on the arms. Let's do two more. Rounding down. The legs are consistent.

They're just bent and they're not straightening and bending it. Stay right where they are. Just doing pure spinal movement here. Lifting, reaching a nicely done hand last time, Deb, I've got something Fussy for you to think about when you pull out on the band. Try not to do it by turning your wrists. Try to do pure arm, shoulder work and no risky stuff. So right there. Look down at your wrist and straighten them. That's it.

And then take the arms forward and curl back again. So I want us to come down just to our shoulder blades. Now allow the band to help you a little there. It's holding you up kind of and curl. Just the tiniest little inward curl. Flattening the lumbar spine and down. And we do it again.

So challenging, right? We create the challenge. We work with the challenge and we work into that place in our bodies where sometimes can feel like no man's land, where most of us go around or have a hard time finding. We're going to do that two more times. Curling. Check in with your shoulders. Make sure they're not hunched. Two more last time. Lift your body all the way back up. Take the arms out in front of you. Sit Tall, bring your arm closest to me. Bend it, pull out on the opposite arm, getting a little rotation in our lives and stretch center.

Turn the opposite way. Bend one arm the opposite arm. Impulse slightly outwards and center. So the arm that's bending is now the arm closest to me. The other arm stays straight and pull slightly away. So you're just using the arm that straight just to create an opposition. Yeah.

So straight in your right arm. Yep. And Jim, keep your arm down the arm that's going to be straight is going to stay pretty low reaching. You got it now, but straighten your elbow [inaudible]. Yep, you got it. And Center and switch arm that you're turning away from stays straight. Low to the floor and center. One more time on each side. Don't even worry about that arm too much. Just once you get the twist, give it a little outward pull. That's all you're doing. That was better. Jeff and last one. Cherney fine.

Center start flexing the lower spine. Rounding back, keeping the shoulders over the pelvis as long as you can. Eventually, of course I'll have to move. Find your way down again here. Lower back, rotate if you would please your body towards me. Now just curl up that side of your spine just between the ribs and the pelvis on that left hip or on the side that you're turning to. It's hard for me not to say right and left, but we're not all on the right or the left. Pulling up and work your way down and pull up and work your way. Just one more. Pull up. Work your way down.

Find your way to center. Roll on up, up, up, shoulders over pelvis. This time Ben, both elbows as you lift your spy, take the arms back out straight in front of you. Start articulating backward through the spine, creating that nice deep lumbar flection looking for the lower spine too. Top the mat, rotate away, and a just this tiny eight little creating more of a curvature list, curling inwards and lengthening away. So if you create the idea of coming away from the pelvis with the ribs, then you can curl into the fall. This with the ribs last three or something to nice guys.

One, let's bring it all the way to home. Let's take it all the way out. Let's lift is the back and bend the arms. Yes, and now squeeze your bottom. Lift up through this by and just start to look up at the ceiling. Keep bringing back with the elbows, bringing back with the elbows, creating a little bit of back extension there. Take the arms out straight. Stretch the legs out, forward for a stretch. And while you're there, unhook the band from around your feet.

Roll yourself up so that you're sitting straight again. And then bend your knees when you get there. Just kind of walk your hips into wards your feet so your feet are nice and close to your hips. We take the band in our hands, we reach forward with the band as we create flection. Think about inflections, easier for you. Maybe this is the place where you sometimes get stuck. We're coming all the way down. I just want you to think about it. Think about it. Good. And then the arms reached just up over the shoulders.

Step your feet in for a pelvic curl. Perfect and breathe in. As we exhale, we start to articulate the spine lifting up, so right as the pelvis starts to lift up off the mat, start sending it forward into the shins. As you come up into that slanted, position the band onto your thighs. Pull down around the size with the band and press up with the size into the band and then let the band float up as we articulate all the way back to the pelvis. Yeah. Inhale, exhale. Feel the feet on the ground. Feel equal pressure in both feet. As the pelvis curls, we start to send energy forward towards the knees.

Take the ban onto the thighs, wrap the band around your size, opening up through the chest. Allow the arms to lift back up and start articulating, undulating through the spine, so we use the front of the body to manipulate the back of the body there and again, lifting up. Okay. I feel a strong sense of inner thigh engagement. Wrap the band around the thighs. Press up into the bandwidth of thighs and now lift the arms and crawl your body down. Yeah, and we're going to do two more. So here we go.

Rolling. Wrapping the band, work it around the size, get the arms close together and down towards the Mat. As close as you can. Lift up all of the ABS and a roll down. Good. And here's our last one. We're going to add the little little presses. So we come up, find the band on the side, try to get the arms super close to the floor. Now as we lift up with the pelvis, we're going to pull down on the band. Here we go on and release and two as the pelvis lifts, it's trying to go deeper into a posteriorly tilted position.

The arms are working straight. Deb's got her wrist straight. I'm quite sure everyone check your risks. I think mine are bending. Let's do for work both sides evenly, three, two and one. And just float the arms and feel the spine lengthen further away from you than it was before. Keeping the arms where they are. Lift one leg and lift the other leg, supporting from the middle of your body. As you tilt both knees towards me, create an opposition force by pulling the opposite arms straight out and then exhale. The band releases the obliques kick in and we come back to home.

Inhale, as you tilt the body away from me, that opposite arm creates oppositional fourth, creating a little bit stability and XL as we released the band coming home and reaching over. If your hands are getting tired, sometimes it's helpful to just change what you're doing. You could hold with the fist for a little while and then you could hold with your thumb for a little while. Always. Okay to just change the grip a little and central, we are going one more time. Here it is. Reach across, keeping the knees lined up and back home and reach across and back home and abandon your hands. Now curl your head and chest up off the mat. Take the band without changing the knees and try to reach it a little further down the shins. Stretch the legs out and bend the knees in.

So there's the bare bones of the movement. We stretch the legs out and we bend the knees in. So now as the legs go out, let's take the arms and float them overhead and back and float them overhead. And as the arms come back, let's give that band a little stretch. Focusing on that upper back movement app.

Little stretch on the band and a little stretch on the band. I'm going to go three more times and we're going to keeping the lift through the body and back. Last one and back. Wrap the band around the knees. Hug the knees in close. Turn the head in one direction, looking over one shoulder. Come back through center. Turn the head and look over the other shoulder.

Come back to center. Take the arms once again, just over the shoulders. Bring the legs to tabletop. From here we once again curl the head and chest up. So now I want to see do that. The same thing where we slide the band down the shins a little.

Take the right set of toes and just reach down. Tip the mat and now switch, exhale and exhale. So really what's going on is trunk stabilization and hip disassociation, meaning of the legs change, nothing changes in the trunk. We reached down and reached down and reached down and reached down and I'm going to change it after two more repetitions. Here we go. So now as the leg comes up, I want you to reach across, pull down on the bottom arm and switch, pull down on the bottom arm and perhaps we can use that downward pull to allow us to challenge the upward lift. So that's just an idea for you reaching down and reaching down.

Good and again and again. Now instead of reaching down, we're going to reach up to the ankle or just so, so we're not just not pulling down on the bottom arm is what I'm getting at where you're reaching it further. Two more. Here's number two. Here's our last one and number one, bend both knees into your chest and place your head down. Take your band and hook it around your feet. Now there's two ways to accomplish what I'm going to ask us to do, which is take the legs all the way down to the ground. You can keep your legs straight and use the band for support or you can bend your knees to get there.

What I recommend is doing exactly what makes you feel controlled and supported through your spine. So if you start lowering the legs down and you get to a point where you can't do it without lifting your lower back, that's you know when to bend. If you can keep the lower back supported the whole way down we do. And then the legs touch and they're pressing together. Slide the shoulders down the back with the head and chest.

Curl yourself up for the that we bring the shoulders over the pelvis. We bend the elbows like we did with our knees bent, rising up into a straight back. Beautiful Windy, lean three inches forward. There you go. Stretch the arms. As the arms go forward, the spine is already moving. Oppositionally pull away from the band with the ams. Lie All the way down. Well if the head and chest slide the spine forward, curling inwards, curling inwards, curling inwards until the shoulders come over the pelvis, then easily lightly the back as we bring the elbows back and that, oh, the arm work can be quite challenging, let it be reaching down, but feel that you're not forcing our shoving your spinal extensors into play.

And again, just all ideas. How can we create strong work with ease? So here are why CZ spine. Nice, beautiful airing. You're leaning back just a little bit. That's it. Reach forward and roll down. I'm going to go this way for awhile. Go. You can keep moving. I'm just gonna look at you guys. I can escaped me over there. God, hadn't we come back? Huh?

All right. Curl and words. So it's all like your stomach is glued to the mat and it's reluctantly peeling away. Reluctantly peeling away. And now we lifted back, bending the elbow. Sign that. Nice. Beautiful. Straight back. You guys. Everyone looks so good. Take the arms out. Stray roll down. We're going one more time. All the way down.

So never using the springs or bans or whatever you're using for assistance to make the work easier, right? Instead, make it more detailed, more intense. And now lift the spine again. Okay? And now we stretch the arms out again, we're going to take the arm closest to me. We're going to rotate the palm up. So what I'm asking for is not just palm rotation, but a full shoulder rotation. Okay? So here we go. Rotate the shoulder closest to me. Bend the elbow back and twist or just reach the opposite arm straight out in front of you and then return and rotate the palm down there and reach out.

Good. And bring it back and we turn and reach to the arm. That doesn't have tension is that, that's fine for it not to have tension, but it just continues to reach out in space and back and reach out in space. It's almost in my mind as though that arms pulling the spine for it. Let it guide you forward. And then let's do three more road to reaching out and center and rotate growing longer and longer through the spine. Every time, every repetition.

Last one to each side. Rotate left back to the center, rotate, lift back to the center. Take a stretch forward. Adjust the band. So it's now only on your left foot and your right foot is free of it. And then lift out. So we're going to go into some leg circles here, but we're going to get there a nice special way. We're going to round down, so keep the leg on the ground for now and try to find equal activity in both legs, even though just one has a band on it. When you get to your lower back, I want the leg as a result of the spine, touching them at to start floating.

And then once you get all the way down, you can bend your elbows and bring them to the mat. Adjust the hand position if necessary. Flex the top foot. Point the bottom foot. Swing the leg inside the body around a and exhale. So we breathe. Um, one inhale and one XL for each circle. So what I want you to think about here is enjoying the movement, allowing for freedom inside of that hip joint that you wouldn't normally get if you didn't have a band to hold your leg. Let's pause at the top, recheck the shoulders, recheck the stability in that bottom leg and circle the other way.

Come all the way across the body, Ana and drop the leg into the abandoned catch. So the catch doesn't come from the hands, right? It comes from the abdominals. Feel the relationship between the movement of the leg and what they have have to do to stabilize the truck. Last two and last one. So now low and behold, we start lowering the leg down straight in your arms. As the leg lowers, curl the had in chest up. We're going to do a single leg tease or here so nice, strong, like push it into the band. Curl yourself up. Let the band help you if and when you need to. Start to bend your arms. All of us are going to bend our arms. Eventually I lift the back, opening the chest, and now reach the arms forward. Push the leg into the band.

As you pull oppositionally through your abs just to the shoulder blades. We go and we come again lifting up. It's all the bend inward that we do with both legs on the ground. And then at the last moment we slide the spine straight and take the arms forward. Push the foot into the band curling down. Don't forget that bottom like it's anchored.

It's still and curl again and lift. Still keep reaching that leg forward. As we pull back on our arms last tie, you go down and we come up curling, curling, curling, finding the long flat back. Nice long shoulders back. Straighten the arms and lower the leg. While you're there, you can adjust your band to go over your other foot.

And here we go again. So remember if you will that we didn't lift the leg up right away. We sat straight. That was the beginning, felt equal through the legs. And then we started rounding and the only place we started even thinking about not being anchored in that leg was as the lower spine came down. Now dig deeper in the abs and feel that response, the leg responding to the flection of the the spine. Flex that top foot, anchor the elbows next to your body, point the bottom foot. And here we go.

Circle inwards around and monitor tension as needed. Swing and catch. Inhale and exhale. And we'll do two more as the leg crosses across the body. Keep the pelvis anchored on the Mat. Here's our last, that was it. That was two. Let's go the other way. Reach all the way around.

Catch the leg at the top. Here's a challenge. As you catch your legs, see about drawing deeper in the then that brings a leg closer to you. Yeah, play with that. Are you going to do two more? I think yes. And one more. Okay, so now we push into the band.

We curl the head and chest up in the arms, straighten or they say, Ben, if you need the extra help. And then we just start articulating and again, find that feeling of being glued to the mat as long as you can. And then as you start rising off the mat, started stretching through the back. Bring me all those nice and wide and take the arms forward. As the arms reach for this spine flexes.

Oppositionally press a little down on the arms. Just feel a heaviness through the shoulders, just to the shoulders we go. And then curling forward, curling forward all the way. And then we reach lifting the back into the leg and the leg into the back. You guys look super and here we go again. Push that leg forward.

Keep it super strong. Keep it really active and up again. Yeah, I'm back on. Here's our last time reaching forward. Rolling back, rolling up. Make it your very best. Flatus beautiful spine. Bring the leg a little closer to you.

If you can lower your leg down and let the band relax. A little. Everyone's hands. Okay. Yeah. Good. Okay, so separate your feet. Now I'm going to do a little spine stretch with extension. Slash rowing. Slash. Fun. I know you're all so excited. You can hardly contain it. So here's, here's how we're going to do it. Don't, um, give yourself too much tension. So right here where my arms are straight, I'm pro, I don't have a lot of tension. Okay. And we sit tall. So as we start exhaling maybe a little bit more separate with your feet, Helen, if it's comfortable for you. Yeah. Okay. So now start the head.

The head's going to go down into the chest. Start to pull very lightly outwards on the band as your spine rounds. So it's like that broadening of the back as the abdominals pulled into the spine. Now Bend your elbows there. Start to keep curling your spine forward. Now here's the tough part. We're inflection. We're going to take the arms out straight.

And as we do that pulling on the band, we rise out into an extended spine. So the chest pulls forward pools for, we get nice and straight. And then we just sit up from there. And after that forward diagonal work, sitting up should feel easy. Let's do it again. Curl the spine forward and again, be really light, but create a slightly outward pull. Broadening the back as we work through flection.

Maybe you'll even get a stretch there. Then start bending the elbows to provide tension. Tilt the tailbone back, send the chest forward. And as this line flattens out, we press out through the arms, getting that nice rear deltoid work and then sit all the way out. And again, three more times. Exhale to move forward. Start Bending when necessary. Start extending. Make sure the extension starts in the rear of the shoulders, the shoulders stabilize. And then we straightened the Elba.

So it's not just tricep work. Not at all good. And sit up. Yeah, it's going to feel good. I love this one. Curling forward, reeling a little bit of outward pole on the band when you need to bend, that pulls you more forward into the stretch. And then we start, here we go. Stretching out, reaching a, pulling down on the arms to pull up through the chest. Hold that. Give me five pulses. One, two, gorgeous. Three, four, and five. Take it all the way forward and let your bed rest. Hmm. Yeah.

Come on up. Take your, um, left knee. Bend it in towards your right thigh. Rotate your body so that you're squared towards that right fat. And then just start to walk yourself forward over that leg. This is just a stretch pressing the spine Foad and then just keep the, the left hip oppositionally reaching into the mat.

So now take your right hand wherever it makes sense to you on your foot, on your Shin, on your calf. Hold on. Take the left arm in. Reach further out. Start then to spiral the left ribs around towards the ceiling. So you'll come towards me, Jen, it'll come this way and just open the spine out. Is it? Am I doing that right? Right, left, right.

So the right arms pulling us forward in the left arms, pulling us around, yes and no. Take it all the way back forward. Let the arms be easy as we roll ourselves up and let's switch. So right foot up against less ty spine. Nice and long turn first.

Then just start guiding yourself there. If you will, get to the place where you can stay stable through both sides of your hips and then hang on with your left hand wherever. Once you've got that start to reach your right arm forward. The rib cage is where the spiraling action occurs. The pelvis is super stable. You're just rotating the ribs open. Open. Oh Ben. And now go further forward as you dive back down and then come all the way up.

Yeah, and bend both knees into your chest, reaching around the knees or the ankles. We slide the legs nice and close or not right. We all know that we can modify by opening the position, not from their hollow or think of tucking more or less. Shifting backwards slightly to pick the feet up. So just holding that position should be an exercise in itself.

Then we shift back or rock back and rock up and hold and we shift back and rock back and home and shifts back and rock back and hold two more reaching back. Rolling. Pause at the top. I'm going to change it a little. We're going to do a modified rollover, so we're going to get there from here. Take the hands away, rock back, put your arms and head down and kick your legs over the top. Flex your feet. Keep them together, lower them towards the floor, if you will, or one, two, and then just start to articulate the spine down, stretching through the back, using the front of the body again to manipulate the back of the body.

As the pelvis comes down, we start bending the knees. We start curling the head and chest up. Take a hold of the Shins and Rocca. Yes, let's do it again. Rocking back. Arms are prepared to come down as we bring ourselves over and then flexing through the sea.

The leg see straight as we peel down, peel down. Once you start getting near your pelvis, you'll know it's time to start lifting the head, bending the knees and rock up. Find your balance. Okay, one more like that. Nice big backstretch. Rocking over. Kicking over, flexing through the feet. Sliding. They're rolling. Yeah.

[inaudible] bending the knees, holding me in. Cos stay here. Separate your knees. Take a hold of either your ankles or behind your thighs or your calves. And now start think easy. Think easy in the spine, easy in the legs. I'm kind of just, that idea of ease is all we need. Lift up the spine and then around just the lower spine like we were doing before. Rock back again. Rock up again with the lower spine.

Rounded and then ease the back longer. Yes. Gorgeous. Guys. Add a rock back and rock up and ease the spine longer and let's do two more. Rocking back. Rocking up. Let it just happen, right? Nice. Last one. Oops, I lost my mic. Up. Airy Chin. You're reaching. Now bring the legs together.

Bring the like see other. Let it be easy. Just let go. Let go. Keep the legs there. Just start floating the arms, floating the arms, floating the arms, bend your knees, Cross your ankles with them down. That was meant to be a really smooth transition, but I could make it happen. Turn this way, but the topical over the bottom can make it make y'all do the same ankle at the same time. Not In my brain anyway. Okay, let's go. We're going to do the side bend, but we're going to do it on our elbow with a little bit of a twist.

That's not important to me. You guys are good. That's fine. I don't need to say left and right. I can now say put your elbow underneath you and take your opposite arm and put it down on your body. Okay. And now push down with that upper arm, but push up with the ribs. So the arm and the ribs come together. I don't think I've ever said that before, but it sure works. And now lift the arm just floats up. Yeah, hold that. Now start reaching the arm as the arm goes.

It's like it's pulling your body into an arc. Take it back. And as you bend your knees, the Arms gonna push down. But the bottom ribs lift up. So those two things need in space. It's an idea, right? It's good. Lift up again and reach, reach, pushing them with the feet, lifting with the waist. Come back to the side, lift up through the bottom ribs. Meeting the arm as the arm reaches to the side of the ways. Nice.

Now we're going to do a twist. So we start lifting the arm. I mean to take that arm and we're going to reach underneath us. Go for, go for it. Stabilizing shoulders. And open ended. Do that three times. Reach underneath yourself, stabilize, stabilize, stabilize. You can do this with your bottom knee on the mat if you want. So the top leg would just stay straight your body and you would be supporting you and there you are. And then back.

And now we bend down and come all the way down. Bend your bottom knee, stay on your elbow, take the top leg lifted up and then push it away from you. So that's going to provide a little bit less than challenge on our arm. Swinging the leg forward and swinging the leg back and swing the leg forward and swing the leg back. Now swing the arm and leg forward and arm to the side as the leg goes back, arm forward, arm to the side as the leg goes back, arm forward, ready to work your brain arm to the side as your leg goes back, leg forward, arm back. Swing the arm forward, leg, back, arm, back, leg forward and reverse. Good. Three more, little quicker. APS and over working the shoulder and overhead, you're going in the reverse tip, ah, and overhead. But that's okay. Hold here, take that top arm, put it down, turn your body not a lot, just a little so that you feel there's a little bit of a stretch in the waist and then pull out in up through your sternum and then push back enough like you're pushing against a wall so you feel that glute turn on and now lift.

So it's like a backend up feeling. Don't try to go too far back if you feel like it's too much low back. I want it to be pure glutes and the lovely little front stretch. We're doing three, two and one. Bend your knee, push yourself up and swing your legs to the other side.

Yes, and when we do, we started on the elbow and we have the arm just starting here so that we felt as the arm came to the body, the little body lifted into the arm and that's the trick in the side bend to get a nice stable shoulder and and a good support through the way through. We ready? Here we go. We lift through the legs and the waist. Now we lift even more out of the waist. The arm stretches over. That's where the side stretch is. Come back. And then Ben go slightly away from the arm lifting the ribs into the arm that's coming down super and again now and now. Easy.

This is easy part or it's the hardest things is where we need to find the most ease in my, in my opinion and back and down. I think we did one more, am I right? I think I'm right up. Nice Job Helen. Good modification back and down. So now we did three twists but we stayed up and remember go ahead and come up but you can modify by just dropping the bottom me to the ground and then we reach under and unwind. Try Lifting Heron if you can with your bottom knee. Yep. Nope.

Okay. Okay. Last one. Okay, good and right word. Then we bend the bottom. Me and now we take the top like up and away, slightly away. Now we're going to start to swing and we just did nothing with the arm for the first bit and back and forward and back and forward.

And here we go. Take your arm to your side. Arm goes forward, arm comes to your side. As the leg goes back, arm goes forward, keep lifting through the waist. Arm goes to a side. As the leg goes back, this is all in preparation for later stuff. I mean it just make your brain memorize this last one and now the leg goes forward, the arm goes back, the leg goes back, the arm swings forward. So the arm and the leg are pulling in opposite directions. And swing man just goes to show you must listen. Okay, last sun guys back up. Overhead. Turn your body, putting that arm down. So create some rotation. State, think rib cage rotation and then spinal extension.

And then just turn that glued on. Yep. So I don't have a perfect place for the hands. I'm on one elbow and I just am touching with this hand and pulling my body forward with it. There you go. And now squeeze. Find that glue and push it back and up and backing up. And as the leg goes backwards, if we really hang into our abs, I feel like we should be able to get a little hip flexor stretch. Anyone, anyone getting a hip flexor stretch? I'm getting one. I hope you are.

That was the idea and a little bone work cause we all need that. Let's do three more and two more analysts time and then take the legs down in turn so that you're on your stomach and your band hopefully is available to you. So I want us just to rest the band in the hands. We're going to do a little playful shoulder work. Maybe we should do it down here a little.

So let's go a little further away from us than we normally would be for say the single leg kick and just a very, very light grip. So I'm resting on the ribs, lift the hands and now just turn the away from one another. Creating a, just so I'm pulling the band now left and right, trying to create that rotation in my shoulder. Is that good for your shoulder? And then release and let the arms come down and you can play around with like B, having your elbows more underneath you if that works for you. I think it's easier to find. Let's try that. It's easier here.

I was thinking less back extension might be better, but it's easier to find the shoulder work. So just a little, and it's not, I'm picking my hands up at all. Just letting them hover and now the turning action. What's moving the hands is happening inside of the shoulder joint. Now hold that. See if both sides are working evenly. Chances are they're not. Check your risks. And really that's pretty intense.

I have not done that before. Let's do it again. Anyone? Yeah, you like it. Okay. So you lift and then risk strong on the forums or the last thing that you're thinking about moving the shoulders or the first good and relax and not just one more. That's crazy intense. Um, rotating. Rotating. You got it, Jim. You got it. That's super. That's excellent. Okay. That's enough. That looks like for, what do we do? Four or five.

That's crazy. You guys said, well, everyone feels shoulders good. So here's what we're going to do now we're going to stretch our shoulders a little bit and this is how we're gonna do it. Take your being hands behind your back. Now if you're a real flexible with your shoulders, you can go pretty close with your hands. If you're a little bit less flexible, it's a great idea to give yourself some more space. K, the band will allow you to do that. So turning the head to one side, take the band up pretty high on your back, but in opposition, drop the elbows down than Oh, that's a stretch already. Then stretch out and hover the legs up.

And then we're going to do a three kick process. One kicking, two kicking through. And I want you to stretch your band and as you stretch your legs, your being follows your feet. Yup. And you lift your spine so you can live just, yeah, you're good. You're good. Curly reaching out on the band and now we turn the face the other way and we kick one elbows arresting on the mat. Here's number three and wait, reach, reach, reach. Nice. Jim, just keep your chin down a teeny bit and switch reaching one, two, three and maybe make the band a little bit less tight and see how that feels. Even if you didn't think you needed it, it feels good and sweet. One, two, 3:00 AM reach on it. Just do that one more time. Here it is. One and which, and last one, one, two, three and reach a lot of the lakes to come down.

Let the band just rest on your legs. Pop yourself up and come all the way back to sitting on your feet. Okay. And then come up all the way. Just set the band off to the side. We may or may not use it probably well, but in a little bit. So we're going to play around with a little bit of kneeling and spinal flection and extension. So if you please take your hands and find them just underneath your shoulders and then feel that the knees are just underneath the pelvis and the feet are just behind the knees and it's worth it to check it out.

And then what I want you to do is I'm mapping in terms of movement, but in terms of energy, I want you to feel a backward drag, like you're trying to pull your arms towards your body and an inward drag like you're trying to pull your knees into that empty space. So nothing really moved, right? But everyone feels work. Is that true? Good. And then release that, lift up on the ABS, create an inward drag with the knees, a backward drag with the arms and just tightened through the waist and take that away. One more time like that. So we just feel that that oppositional force enables us to lift and feel our work strongly in our center body. And let that go just a little bit. So now take the right leg out behind you. Let that rest on the ground. We're going to keep it straight. Create that same backward force with the arms in that slight inward force with the knee that's on the mat. And then take the left, excuse me, right leg, the free one, and take it up. So lifted up nice and high and down.

Just doing a little pure hip extensor work, but keep really focused on your shoulder stabilization work there. And we're just going to do three more up, two more up. And one more. So now here's a challenge. A big one. Can You keep your hip extensors working and flex your spine? So can you round your spine, but keep your leg lifted and then allow the knee to respond and bring it all the way up into the nose, pulling their risks back towards it, and then take the leg out again. So the first action is keeping the leg up, but trying to round the spine away from it. That's tough.

And then allow the leg to follow through and back. So what I'm trying to prevent us from doing is just moving the leg right away, right? Keep the leg up as you try to really use your abs. So bend the spine and then the leg just finishes that. Take the leg up. In fact, put your knee down for just a second and take your arms one step forward. Forward one hand width forward lift right leg again, and then shift forward so that you're more over your hands.

So I've made a longer than 90 degree angle in my bottom leg. We're going to do a pushup. Are you ready? Our leg is going to help us. So I want you to lift your leg into the air and lower your body down towards the Mat and then push back and lift the leg into the air as the tor hand lowers to the mat and pushed back. Feel how the leg, the movement of the leg allows the arms heavy, a little less challenged. Should we do one more? Okay. And, and let's take that knee in and then readjust the hands.

So they're just underneath your shoulders. Does anyone need a risk break? Take one. Okay. Yeah, definitely. But don't you feel like it's easier when you don't have like all your weight on yourself? Okay. So what do we do? We took the left leg out, we found the oppositional arm back, knee forward action, and then we lifted the lay or working hip extensor. So just make sure that as you're taking your leg up, that you're not bending your spine. That goes for now and in the, I guess the spine does been slightly more in the push up. Let me just reach out and we just did two more like that.

So keep strong through the front of yourself and here's number one. Now from there, try to round the lower spine, but try to keep the leg up. It's like almost your body won't let it happen and then just let the leg almost flowed in. Challenge, challenge, challenge the abdominal connection there. As the leg reaches out, the spine extends or comes just back to straight. Try it around the spine with a leg lifted off, then bring the knee through and then bring it forward her back and find this straight back. Let's do that one more time around trying to keep the light high, high heart, and then the leg drops and finally bent and then we take it back and then allow the knee to come to the mat again. Just one hand forward with your hand.

Same left, same leg out. So in shifts now, creating a, uh, more of a longer angle at the bottom knee, and then lift the leg into the air as the elbows bend and press back up. So there's like a rocking action here. You go forward into the pushup and back away from it. Keep the leg up, high out, even on the back. And two more and, and one more. And uh, and then we're gonna bend that knee and to keep both knees on the mat, but around the spine, around so much. So pulling back with your waist, not sitting down, but start to drag. Think about your abdominals working, dragging the hands towards the knees, dragging the hands towards the knees with your stomach until your hands. Find your knees and then press your arms into your thighs as you were.

Lean back, coming through a gentle side. Stretch enough. Do that again. Take the arms up, reach the arms forward as the arms go forward. Start to curl away from yourself. Curl away from yourself. Strong, strong ABS. Find the tips of the fingers on the floor. Support that and then start to pull by rounding the spine even more. The hands come back to the thighs and then press your thighs into your arms as you lean back into your thigh. Stretch and now up and let the arms come up and around. One more. One more.

This is it. So arms and haves. Oppositional reaching so far back in the answer, we haven't sat down, right? It's like a pike or a, what would it feels like tendon stretch to me almost. And then the tendon stretch turns into turning on our hip extensors.

Hands to the thighs. Press the pelvis forward. You can go as far back as you want to into your thigh stretch. But don't let the ribs come through the arms. Keep the body nice and straight. That's it. That's it. Let the arms come all the way up and now reach for the skies.

Neil up and dropped the arm Zan and stand up the last minute. Grip. Bring your bandwidth here. We're going to do some shoulder stretching. Huh? I feel like brand new person. You do. Oh my mic. Um, Stan, how you'd like, I'm going to stand in just the kind of easy, small Vichy, take the arms, a bit bit of tension on the band.

And then in the way we started the feel a little easier and it's easy. Let it go. And I don't know about you, but I feel like more expansive somehow. Now Nisbett n easier to find. And this bed. And now let's do that one more time. Stretch. Lift the chest to the band. Bring the band, just wrap the band slightly back around the chest and then just let it balance away. One more open. So find the arms first and then keep reaching.

It's not back with the arm so much as it's out with the arms at eastern West. And then the spine. The sternum just comes up to kiss it. Yeah. And let it rebound. And last, let's do a full circle backwards. Yeah. And a full circle up that's come all the way down the full range of motion up without leaning back. Don't change anything in your spine. Just move your arms.

And uh, we're going to do one more this time. I want you to feel your body move as the band goes. Let it go forward a little, not lean. Just just feel energy and just feel what you can do in your own body. Think about it. As the arms come up, we grow up into the band. As the arms wrap behind, we don't have to lean back. We keep growing upwards, expanding through the front of the body. As your arms go back, there's buoyancy forward and upward.

Feel the upward pull of the spine up all the way into the band. I know, and and now take that. Yes. Enrich your life. Thanks for coming.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Wow! This was my third class this week with you. I've taken all your newest ones and feel strong enough to move a house! I am now ready for the long weekend. Thank you Meredith:)
3 people like this.
Meredith-
I enjoy your classes tremendously- with or without props, your cues are clear, your pace and transitions excellent. You work on strengthening all body parts. Thank you!
2 people like this.
Happy 100th class dear heart!!!!
2 people like this.
Just counted and I've taken 63 of them!

Pele
3 people like this.
This one is my favorite. Absolutely seamless and fluid. Very well balanced workout. I usually don't like standing foot work... to me it feels a bit geriatric even with the right muscles engaged.. but your variation with the theraband was worth it.
4 people like this.
Meredith your classes are terrific and I have borrowed and used many of you ideas and cues with classes and clients. Thank you and congrats on 100 classes!!
The class went blank after a few minutes...an audio/visual problem :(
1 person likes this.
Congratulations Meredith !!
I have Truly enjoyed taking your classes and look forward to the next 100 :)
Elsabe D
3 people like this.
Wonderful class. Thank you for all your wonderful cues, suggestions and 'thoughts'!
1 person likes this.
Excellent workout! Video played well with Auto-detect.
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