Class #1065

Matapalooza Magic Circle

20 min - Class
125 likes

Description

Niedra teaches the fourth class for "Matapalooza." She uses the Magic Circle the entire time to help create beautiful legs and arms. She uses challenging Wall Exercises as a warm up, and then keeps challenging you through the entire class.

For "Matapalooza," our regular instructors came together to share their knowledge and different styles with each other and our members. This series is about sharing the love of Pilates, friendship, and moving to feel good. Make sure you try the classes by Amy, Adrianne, Monica, and Meredith as well. You can do them by themselves or put them together to make longer classes.

You can find all the classes on the Matapalooza Playlist
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

About This Video

May 28, 2013
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Transcript

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So I'm really, really excited because I have all these wonderful peers of mine and we never ever get to get together and we're going to celebrate and workout together. So this is a lot of fun. And what's a beautiful celebration is also that we come from different backgrounds but we all love [inaudible] and it's really ultimately about moving, making our body feel good, being healthy and friendship. So this workout is to celebrate power, friendship, and being a goddess. This is everybody. Yes.

So we are going to work with the power goddess magic circle to get beautiful legs and beautiful arms. So first of all just test out, you want your legs far enough that if you were to slide down the wall, your heels are right under your knees and you can have a long flat back. That's where the foot position is. And now ladies that have come back up, reach the magic circle out in front of you. Place the magic circle right in the fatty part of the palm with the fingers extended. And I have the elbows slightly soft and lengthen your back up against the mat and just squeeze and lift the powerhouse up and just feel your inner thighs squeeze, squeeze even more. And then release. And again, squeeze again and feel yourself getting even taller as you squeeze and then release. And now squeeze and Swat down that wall till your thighs are parallel.

And hold this position, lift the powerhouse up, feel the size going straight forward. Squeeze at magic, circle even more. And then slide back up. And hopefully you have a wall because I don't. And then squeeze and slide down again and press that magic circle. Feel that chest lifting, feel the broad shoulders and then come back up. And now slide down. And as you slide down, lift the arms and squeeze and then come back up.

And then lift the arms up and slide down. And now put the magic circle between your size and squeeze and have the hands and dancer position and press one arm on top of the other. Squeeze your size. We want strong ties. And then hold that magic circle with your hands and slide back up. And one more time. Live the power house. Slide down.

Place a magic circle between your size and reverse your hand. If you remember, push one hand and one hand up. Squeeze a circle even more. Lift your stomach up. Whole. Get a length in your, in your back. And then car, grab the circle, come back up. And we're done with the wall. So let's go. Let's come onto the mat. Stand in, get your seven pole in your [inaudible] stance and place of right magic.

Circle on your right hip and place your other hand on your other hip. So you have an attitude. Roll the shoulders down. You know, lift the elbow up so both shoulders are down first and as you squeeze, the most important part is [inaudible] gaging the back of the shoulder into your back with the elbow slightly lifted, but the shoulders down. Squeeze and lift that powerhouse up very long. And then release and press down to every time you squeeze in the stomach lifts a little bit more. The back, its longer you lift up through the crown of the head and then release. And now we'll pulse and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.

Keep that chest lifting up and seven and eight chain side. We have to have an attitude on the other side, so nice lift of the chest. Make sure your shoulder is really down, the elbow is slightly lifted with a stomach long and the hips, sperm and then press down and see if you can get a little color squeeze and get a little taller. Squeeze and get a little taller and then release. And again to pull the inner thighs, you narrow the hips, you lift out of the lower back and then release. And then we'll pulse and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.

Squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. Very good. Bring the hands together. The hands are low, so nice broad collarbones elbows are lifted. Innercise a tight and you pulse and pulse and lift those arms right up. Halo in your head and down. Two, three, four, five, six, one eight again, up to three, four, soft in the elbows, but lifted up down. Two, three, four, five, six. Nice long spine. One more time. Lifting up, up. Get that sense that the spine is long and down. It's really a singing lesson here. Four, five, six, seven and eight. Very good. Come to the front of your Mat, Cross your feet, squeeze that circle.

Get the powerhouse lifting and sit down on the map, squeezing that circle on the way Dow. And now take the circle. Place it between your knees and you want your feet together. If you can, and maybe a little bit further out. Meredith with the feet and lift the spine up nice and tall and squeeze that circle and see if you can lift way about of your lower abs. Fill up your back ribs. Broaden the collarbones in.

Squeeze a little bit more so you really wake up the innercise and get very sluggish for us. Ladies sometimes, and then release. What can I say? Bluff now, but we're changing that. So squeeze the left, pull out of the lower spine, lift up through the belly. Can you get even taller, even tighter, even more narrow. And then release. Very, very good feet, hip width apart. Squeeze a circle again, nice tall spine and then scoop the belly and start rolling back.

So as you roll back, you want to see if you can really tap the tail and get the sacred down and just up to the waist only to there. Hold the position you can keep holding a sa is squeeze a little more, roll through the spine and then come all the way up and lift up. Release the magic circle tall, lifted back and again, squeeze first and then narrow down. Roll down halfway down, see if you can get back. So the waist is on the mat, but everything else is off.

Squeeze a little more to the adductors. Really work. Roll forward and release the knees, the knees. So the mentoring circle is given a break. Stretch your arms out in front of you. Squeeze and get taller. And this time roll all the way down, all the way down. Roll all the way to the mat, lift the arms to the ceiling and then roll all the way up and then reach the arms forward as though you're reaching with towards a teaser position.

And then scoop the naval. Squeeze and roll down. Roll down, roll down, release the knees here, and then squeeze the knees and roll back up and lift. Long diagonal position of the arms. Shoulders are down, and then roll down again. Rolling. Lift the arms to the ceiling, release the knees for a minute and then squeeze again. Roll forward and lift up. And now lift the arms. Release the knees, but lift the arms all the way up so nicely.

Lift out of the lower back. Fill up the back ribs. Squeeze the magic circle and see if you can hinge back. Long, long, long spine, reaching out, and then roll all the way down to the floor. Release your knees, squeeze again. Roll forward, squeezing that circle and lift up. Keep squeezing the circle and then release your knees. And again, squeeze.

Get even taller, and then roll down articulating through the spine. Whoops, I forgot that long. Flat back. I'm flat. Release the knees and against squeeze roll forward that kick you late through the spy. And then lift up. And then, because I forgot we need to do one more time and squeeze lift way up, hinge back, squeeze that magic circle and that articulate through the spine to flat. Release your knees and squeeze one last time. Roll up, pull up, roll up and lift and then relax for a minute. So obviously we're working on our legs.

Take your circle and place it with your knees on the inside. So now we work this outer line of the thighs. So first of all just sitting nice and tall, spread the thighs wide to really push from the knees to the hips and then release and again squeezed because often we'll hugging the midline and we activate the inner side of the leg. And this can be rather sluggish. So press out. Do you want to feel the widening from the hips as you roll down?

Keep widening the knees and you'll have more space in your sacred wide, wide, wide size. And then arms to the ceiling. Release your knees so the knees relax. For a minute. And then from the hips to the knees wide, and again, you can feel the sacred getting along, scoop through the powerhouse and then roll up, keeping those knees wide. So this is good. Sometimes when you have people with really tight lower backs. And one more time, widen the knees, scoop through the spy roll, roll, roll. Keep pressing into the thighs and then release the knees of the arms.

Come up, press the knees wide, scoop the naval and roll back up to an upright position. Very good. Take the magic circle. Rely down on your back and place it between your feet. Four double leg stretches, fun, polite way to play with this. So in this position, squeeze the circles slightly. Lift your head and chest up and hold your ankles. So deep scope of the powerhouse squeezes, circled.

Stretch your arms and legs out and pulse three times. Paul Paul Paul's big circle and wrap your head back to rest a minute again, lift up, squeeze a circle, stretch out. Paul Paul Paul's big circle. Grab the circle and drop your head down. Stretch out with the arms.

And Paul Paul Paul to don't do a circle but come back and drop your head down scooping lift, pressing that circle. Stretch the arms back. Puff Paul Paul, bring the hands back and lower back down to the mat. Very good. Let's have some side leg work so you're going to be lying on your side. Um, okay. Will. So if you're bar facing this direction, whichever way you want to work on your side, one leg on top, one leg beef underneath. Make sure that the back feels as though you're against the wall. So the low, low, the back is long and flat.

The legs are slightly in front of you and reach the legs away from you and then squeeze and hold and hold and hold. Release. Pull the power house up in. Squeeze and hold and hold and release. Nice and squeeze and hold and hold. Release. Last one. Lift that navel up in. Lengthen through this lower spine three and come back up now.

Pulse and two and three and four and five. Keep those legs reaching out and eight. Now squeeze and lift and down. Release. Squeeze and lift and down. Release. Squeeze and lift and down release.

Now you'd roll the leg back. Uh, hopefully you don't have fancy pants and then you get your bottom end and you should be lined up. So this top, like Meredith is still on the top, both legs along. And check that this top hip is lengthened and away from you. There we go. And you press down again and up and down and up and down and up and down and up. Get it inside and up. Release and up. Release. So very slightly externally rotated. So you're working the wrap. Now press out, hold and see if you can live and down. [inaudible].

Press out and lift, squeezing and back and lift and back and lift. Hand back, get the leg on top, roll back. Bring the other leg underneath so you get back on your side. Whoa, everybody did it. Good for you. And then onto your stomach with the knees. Very slightly bent, but the feet in the air. And let's have everybody stretch your arms out.

So the forehead is on the Mac. So your knees touching the floor. The legs are in a long but bent position. And from your hips. Squeeze that magic circle so your butt and your hamstrings are working. And then release and squeeze and release and squeeze and release and squeeze and release and squeeze. Now fast and pulse and pulse and pulse.

Pulse and pulse and pulse and pulse and pulse. Bend the knees a little bit more. See if you can lift the legs off the mat and squeeze again, reaching those arms and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and now fast. Then Paulson, two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Bend your knees and grab the magic circle with your hands.

Sit back into your heels and distract your back out for a minute. Lengthening your spine out, giving your bottom of break. What was it? We want the bottom to be the bottom and off the behind. And let's turn around and do the same on the other side. So other leg on top.

[inaudible] yeah, either you can be facing with your back to me, I'm fine with that. Or you turn around the other way. So you want to make sure that your legs are on a diagonal. Very slight wrap of the hips, a very slight external rotation. So from the very top of the hamstrings, all the way to the legs, you want this connection. Long legs squeeze down and hold.

Okay. And release and squeeze down and hold and feel the spine. Nice and long. Release and squeeze. Release and squeeze. Release and squeeze. Release, squeeze. And now fast. Then Paulson, two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

And squeeze and lift both legs and down. Squeeze and lift both legs and down. Squeeze and lift both legs and down and squeeze and lift both legs and down. Now roll the top leg back a bit. And how did I do this?

Take your bottom like get it inside and come back up. There we go. So the top like is still on top. Press your bottom leg down and press down and press down. So every time you're pressing down, you want this leg going longer. Feel that you're reaching the leg from your waist and you're lengthening both hips and down. Now take the leg inside.

So now both legs are inside the magic circle and press up there working that outer line. Press up and check that that top thigh is nice and long and press and press. And now we'll pulse and Paulson, two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. And lift both legs up and down and both legs up. Reach to them long. So from the hip through the toes you get that sense of length and the stomach and the back is lifting in opposition and squeeze.

As you lift or press apart I should say. And one more time, press and back. So now we transition back. So you take the top leg and place it back on top of the magic circle role slightly back with the top leg. You get it underneath you. Bring the legs back and see if you can roll onto your back and bend both knees in so you're in arms over your head. Stretch the legs out, squeeze and roll-ups for Keizer. Roll up and then roll back down and roll up again. Wrap your magic circle and roll back down. Arms over your head and roll up.

Place a magic circle between your legs and roll back down and roll up. Reach that magic circle with your hands. Roll down and lower the legs, lower the legs, lower the legs, and Dow and I will come up to a standing position. So Bend your knees n Cross your legs, lift your bottom slightly and see if you can come to a standing position and up. Turn to flex. Face each other. I'm take a bow. Yay. Yay. Thank you. Ladies.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Lots of fun and great exercises!
Niedra Gabriel
Great Sherry, glad you had fun.
1 person likes this.
Beautiful class !!!
1 person likes this.
Love your classes Niedra! Very inspiring and fun!
1 person likes this.
Loved this class!
1 person likes this.
Good class...would like to see more with the magic circle.
1 person likes this.
Thank You for a Super fun class and I'm actually looking forward to the thigh soreness I know is coming :)
Niedra Gabriel
Just reading all these comments - thank you and glad you enjoyed this fast quick and fun event we all enjoyed doing together.
1 person likes this.
Thank you, Niedra! I'm enjoying a lot your Pilates classes.
Niedra Gabriel
How great to read your comment here Marianela, I feel like it was just yesterday you were driving me to the airport - it was! So happy you are enjoying this website - welcome to other part of my life, Pilates!
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