Class #1123

Strength and Stabilization

50 min - Class
198 likes

Description

Ed Botha returns to Pilates Anytime with a full-body workout on the Wunda Chair. He teaches many challenging exercises to work on stabilization and strength in the body. He uses precise directions and cues so you can really go deep into the exercises.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair

About This Video

Jul 15, 2013
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

My name is Ed boater. I'm from Cape Town South Africa. And I'm going to give a Gian Maria one to two work workout today. So today we are using combination chairs, but a classical one, the chair chairs great as well, right? So what are we going to do is I'm going to have the two of them turned in facing their pedal and we're going to start with a very light resistance. So if you guys don't mind taking one spring off and you want something that you can easily push down, all right, we're going to start with a roll down.

So they standing on the front of the Mat and to take a deep breath in, right? Let your head be heavy and just slowly start rolling down, placing your hands on the pedal. Alright, and if I can ask you just to turn your fingers in straight. All right, so we're gonna just start pushing the pedal down, articulating from the top of the spine all the way down till the pedal touches the bottom of the mat. Take a deep breath in. And on your exhale, we're just going to gently lift the pedal up off the bottom, drawing in with the abdominals. Good. Keeping the knees a little bit soft. If you're a little bit, tighten those hamstrings and pause there for me and we're going to inhale as we press it back down to the mat. Let's starting to get a little bit of stretch in the back of the legs.

On the exhale, we're going to draw it back up, protecting your lower spine by drawing those abdominals at keeping the tail bone gently drawing until we get this lovely stretch in the back and we go down again, inhaled little press down. That's great. Exhale it back up. That's super. We'll do that one more time. Inhale a little press down. Okay, good. Hold it down at the bottom. We're going to slowly bend. The elbows are to the sides, bringing the pedal up so the pedal is coming towards the top of the head and gentle little press down, so we'll do that for five so it's inhale great.

And Xcel keeping the Scapula in Iceland broad just to stabilize those shoulder blades and exhale good. Twice more. Inhale and exhale. And obviously the lighter the spring, the easier this is going to be. And on this last exhale, we keep the pedal down, arms are straightened. Gently start rolling up. And I'm going to say you should bend your knees at this point just so we can really articulate the spine up, right? We don't want to give the spine any kind of shock off to that deep flection and roll it all the way up to standing. Great, right? And then you're gonna turn perpendicular to the chair.

So it doesn't matter which way you facing. We're gonna do both sides, right? And you want to be quite close towards the end of the chair. So your inside arm, it's going to be aiming to get the hand on the pedal with the fingers facing forward. So from this position, we're going to take a another roll down, just letting the head be heavy, softening the knees and placing your hand on the pedal, right? Then we're going to allow the back arm just to float up to the sky. So we want to reach the fingertips up to the sky.

And I'm going to take you j into internal rotation with that back arm. All right, so from that position we're going to start rolling down for me. So make sure you've got a good so that those hands right over the pedal cause the shape of the pedal. It's a little bit round so you want to make sure you've got your hand on IC there and we're going to roll back up slowly. Good. So we'll do the two more times there. So we're going to inhale, we're going to press down. Good and exhale, rolling it back up, keeping the internal rotation of that back arm one more time.

We're going to take it down. Inhale, get your little bit of stretch there. Can you guys hold it down at the bottom? Is that all right? I'm going to be a little bit ambitious. Let's see if we can bend the elbow backwards. So we're going to take it in a little bit of tricep press and three more presses. We go one inhale and exhale for two.

So we just continuously challenging and one more time there and three and roll it up all the way and just allow their back arm to drift down at the same time. Coming back up into standing. Just take a deep breath in and turn around for me if you don't mind. So we're going to repeat that so you're facing the opposite direction and we're going to take our roll down at the same time, allowing your back arm to reach up in internal rotation. Great. And again, just make sure that hand is secure on the pedal.

Rolling all the way down, taking the pedal down as far as you can. That's great. Okay. And exhale, scooping it back up. We'll go down again. Inhale, little bit of a press down there. Good. Exhale, draw deep into the middle. And again, you want to stretch your lower back. So this isn't just a hamstring stretch. We're getting that little bit of scoop in the abdominals, all about the powerhouse and bringing it up.

Just do one more for me and we hold it at the bottom. So we go inhale and hold it there. Exhale while you there. Inhale, Bend your elbow and Exhale, press good. So you want to try and keep that shoulder blade? Absolutely still so that we using the elbow extensor there. One more time and exhale, press it down and at the same time, roll it back up for me. One Vertebrae at a time. Excellent.

And all the way back up. Good. And just soften those knees a little bit, right? So we're going to add on quite a heavy resistance. So we're going to just use the, the pedal for a stretch. So if you could add on another spring, right? And it should be enough that you can support your own body weight on the pedal.

All right. When you're holding onto the little poles and you'll see what I mean, I got, so we're going to do a little squat position. So from standing up tall, that's great. Yeah. Right. You're going to take your arms out in front of you. We're going to just push the hips back gently. Try not to go with knees over the toes and reach back. And then we're going to take the hands onto the pedal and see if you can sync all the way down to the mat for me. So we're going with the tailbone or the heels close to the sitz bones and you're just enjoying that lovely stretch of the lower back. All right, so keep holding onto the pedal for me and we're going to start lengthening the legs. So we're going to push up with the leg, straightening them up to the sky.

So you end up in a little bit of a forward bend again for me. Good. So you don't want to pull too hard on the chair. Great. You're either here or we're going to soften the knees again. So we're going to lower it down. Excellent. So we're just using it for a little bit of traction. They have the lower back.

We know that we go into this deep flection, we stretch out those vertebra and we're going to come back up. Oh lovely. A little stretch. Great. Now one more time. We're going to take it all the way down into a little bit of a stretch there. Super. Alright. And Are you guys okay to hold there for a second? What? We want to just be careful that we don't fall in with it with the knees there.

So we want to keep the knees pushing out gently just so we are putting some work on those abductors right? And then from that position you can just put your hands down on the mat behind you and you're going to roll yourself down onto your backs. And just to save a little bit of time, I'll take one string off for each of you and we're going to put the feet up onto the pedal, either on your arches or on your heels for a pelvic core. All right, so you don't want to be too close to the pedal. All right? Cause then you're going to cut yourself a little bit short in the knee flection.

So we're going to press the pedal all the way down to the mat, slowly melting the back into the mat and rolling the tailbone up off the mat there. One little bit at a time. Good. Using those arm extensors. Good. That. So that just takes a little bit of the weight off of the neck and slowly bringing it back down for me. One little bit at a time. Good.

And release the tailbone complete. They will do that twice more. So we're going up into a little bit of a posterior tilt of the pelvis. The lower back is melting down using the shoulder extensors and the elbow extensors. So the lats essentially, and the triceps and coming back and down. Good. And that's just supporting your neck while you're doing that bridging position there. Right. And one last time for me. So we're going to scoop it up, rolling it up. Excellent. And bringing it back down for me. That's it. Lovely scoop.

Release the pelvis all the way back into neutral. And that's pretty important for that pelvic lumbar stability. And then just allowing the pedal to come up for me. Alright. And hold that position.

So I'm just going to take it down just right to the bottom setting there. Alright. And we, we're going to do one single leg pelvic hill on each side. So you're gonna lift your right leg up to a table top or a little bit higher. And then we're pressing the pedal down with the left leg. So we're using the hamstring hip extensors and then gently curl it up for me.

So we slowly rolling it up. Control. And this is where you just want to look for the balance and the pelvis, right? So you want to see that you're two asi is bones on the same horizontal plane and coming back down controlling and particularly using the glute medias there. And He's good. And one more time. So we rolling up. And then what I'd be looking for here in Jia is that she's maintaining this length over here so she's not going into her quadratus lumborum or too much falling into the Bleeker and coming back and down. Good.

And then gently allow the pedal to come back up for me. And then changing legs. Great. Just a little bit of activations, stability work. So we're going to press the pedal all the way back down to the mat. Touch the bottom. Great. That's lovely. Rolling it up. So still focusing on that articulation. Beautiful.

Don't forget about those arm extensors. Good. That just changes everything. And then we come back down and sinking it down, down, down, down, down and release. And one more time. Now we're going back up. All right. Excellent. So keeping the length in the left side of the bodies and coming down and release and bringing the pedal up all the way.

So we'll change legs up there. Again. Right leg is coming up a little bit higher. They just engage gently with the left leg. So we pressing the pedal halfway down. Bring the hands behind your head, interlace your fingers there and keeping that little bit of tension on there. We're coming up into a chest lift, so we'll do that three times.

So we're going to exhale as we lift up. So we're using the hip extensors of the left leg. Inhale. Exhale, coming back down and take a deep breath in and exhale, come back up. Good little lift up there. Good. And take a deep breath in and exhale coming back down. So we using reciprocal inhibition here. So by using the hip extensors while we're coming up into this trunk flection.

One more time for me please. We're you trying to shut off their hip flexors on the left side so we take a deep breath in and exhale. Take it back down. Good. So bring the pedal back up when it's changed sides there. Excellent. So keeping the pedal absolutely still after we've pressed it down halfway. Good. Take a deep breath in there. Exhale, coming back up into the chest. Lift. Good.

Nice. Stability in the pelvis. Lovely. Inhale and exhale back and down and up again. We got two more to go. So a little lift up, drawing those bottom ribs down, keeping the navel drawing in deep into the mat and back down. That's super guys. Let's go one more time and exhale. Good. Can we hold that position without moving the pedal? You're gonna bring your left foot onto the pedal.

You're going to bring your right leg up into the leg changes. We're going to bring the right leg down. We bring the left leg up. So we're just doing a little bit of changes up. They are marching in the air switching and up. Good. So keeping that pedal. Absolutely.

Still using the hip extensors to press the pedal. One more change. Are we going to bring it up? Good. And we can bring both feet down and just allow the pedal to come up all the way and lower your body down for me. Great. So you can go along and just stretch your legs over the end of the pedal. Reaching your arms up above your head, preparing for a roll up so the legs are elevated, makes it a little bit more difficult. All right, but you'll have the of reaching for the pedal up at the top.

So we're going to go inhaling, lifting up head and chest. Exhale and curling up. All right. These ladies don't need any help. They do. Beautiful Roll ups. Take a deep breath in. Just allowing those shoulders to draw down a little bit. Definitely. And slowly sinking back down onto the mat. Great.

Reaching the arms out all the way and lengthening. So now we want to stretch out those legs. So very try. Go a little bit further for me. Beautiful. Okay. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. And you're going to come up all the way just to roll it up. So your breath patterns for your roll up. I'm not too fussed about it.

And then just bring your head up a little bit there for me Jack. Good. And take a deep breath in and exhale coming back and down. And what I really want, you know we've done a lot of bridging now so when we've used those shoulder extensors in the mat and now we need to give them a bit of a stretch. So we're gonna to lift up head and chest and obviously continuing that deep abdominal work, articulating the spine, inhaling and then exhale coming back and down. Great and sinking back.

So we'll repeat one more time. So we're going to bring it inhale, lift up, head and chest there. Exhale, scooping up deep through the middle. Great. And hold that position. Just relax your arms for a second there. So what we'll do is if you can just take your right leg off and put it down on the floor for me. Bent leg position and you can put it on a chair to give yourself a little bit of room. Excellent. So we're going to take the arms up in a table position.

They were in the genie position there are we going to roll down halfway for me? So we're going to take it down. Exhale. So will you just deepening that abdominal work and pause so you don't want to go point of no return. So we get a hold to take a deep breath in and bring it back up for me. Exhale. So it's a little teaser preparation there. Alright, so we take a deep breath in.

Good. Exhale coming back down until you're going to rest that leg just on their pedal. Then inhale and exhale. Coming back in up. Are we going to repeat one more time and then we'll change. So take a deep breath in. Exhale again. One Vertebrae at a time.

Sinking the spine down carefully. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, bringing it back up. Alright. And all the way up to the top. Pause for a second. We just got to do three rotations. So without moving the pelvis. So we both going to go to the left hand side. We've got to rotate and inhale back to the center and to the left and exhale a little rotation. Good and back into the center. One more time. Exhale across, bring it back into the Sante and relax. Change legs there for me.

Super excellent work. And you might find those legs starting to shake a little bit up there. That's a good thing, right? Okay. We're going to bring those arms up over there. Great. Then you're trying to relax your legs, so it's obviously being supported. Yeah, that's the advantage of resting it up on the pedal.

So we take a deep breath in. Exhale, roll it back down for me. They just want to have fun with it. Take a deep breath in. They pause before the point of no return and coming back up. Good. And then we will obviously try lengthen the spine up at the top again. Get a little bit of back work and back down scooping and [inaudible].

Okay. Deep breath in at the bottom. Exhale, bringing it back up. Beautiful. Nice, long, tall spine. They'd take a deep breath in and exhale. This is the last one. Pause. Inhale, exhale. Bring it all the way back up. That's a great try.

Keep the contact with the pedal. Then we're going to do one more time, right again. So what I want you to think is actively actually use your hamstring and your gluteal of your extended leg. All right. It's a little bit counter intuitive there, but press down in the pedal. So well let's go one more time. So we're going to go down, try, keep contact with our pedal. If we pause there, take a deep breath in our press down onto that pedal. You've got it. You've got to just to deepen that work and lifting it up.

Tool three rotations to your right. Exhale. Inhaling. That's it. Good. And you want to keep your eyes really following the center of your forearms there so the head and shoulders are moving together, so we don't want to rotate beyond and back. Let's just do that one more time and exhale. Good. And bringing it back into the same to super and relax. Good.

Both legs back on the top of there for me. And we going to just roll it down onto your backs one last time. So we take a deep breath in. Exhale, roll it all the way back down, Greg, keeping your arms down at your sides, bending your knees to a table. Top Position. One at a time there. So they're coming up off the pedal. Uh, we're going to do the spine twist supine just twice to the left, twice to the right. So we'll start to the left side. Inhale, exhale, bring it back into the center and then pause in the center and then we go to the left again. So we go across, so we're not alternating and exhaling, bringing it back into the center and then twice to the right side. So we go inhale across and exhale, bringing it back into the Santa's good.

So we just finishing off with our rotation warmup. We take it over, inhale and exhale, bring it back into the center. Perfect. Take one leg down to the mat. Put your hands behind the leg that's at the top and just use that leg to kick yourself up to sitting. Great. Alright, so you can stand up for me. Alright, and on the top of the platform of the chair, I've got 'em too. Sticky mats or I do, you don't need these, but they do help if you'll pan slides slightly and we might use them later for a little bit of an ankle cushioning.

So I'm going to go ahead and put a moderate setting on a medium setting. So I'm going to go to springs two from the bottom. Mary, that's great. That's fine if you want to keep that. And we're going to have a seat facing obviously outward from your chair's feet on the pedal for some footwork, right? So I'm going to just have you sitting on the front end of your chair. All right, hands just reaching down to your sides there. All right, great.

Feed Dorsey flex and Joe, we'll get out on the heels position. They first day adducted. Great. So we'll go for 10 little pumps. Are you taking a deep breath in deepening your powerhouse. Exhale, we press one, inhale up, lengthening the spine, and exhale for two good and four, three [inaudible] so we don't have to go very far for what I'm really looking for is this, or five the stability of the pelvis. So we don't drop into the lower back there. Six good. Four more times there. Exhaling for seven good and eight pressing down.

Inhale up. Nine. Good. One more time. Pressing down and bring it all the way up. Good. So I push the pedal down halfway from you get a comfortable position on your toes in the parallel position. So we're going with the toes on the edge there. Bring them a little bit closer to the end. The back end of the pedal. Right? So guys, what you've got to remember is that when you're working with the toes, that if you go to the front end of the pedal, the feet have a tendency to slip off, right? So we're going to take the hands, we're going to interlace the fingers, right?

And we're going to flip the palms up and bring the arms all the way up to the sky. So again, we challenging the flexibility of the lats, the shoulder extensors there. So we're going to press down from there where we pump and one inhale, deepening the middle. Exhale, two. Inhale, exhale, four, three, good. Inhale, exhale for four and five. Good. We've got five more to go and for one, exhale for two beautiful work and three drawing the shoulder blades down in a way. Four and one more time, five and bring it all the way up to the top and you can just simply split the arms, bring them out to your tee position, they touch your heels together, keeping the feet plantar flexed and we're going into our small V and exhale and we pump one and in breath and out breath for two and three. Again, I like small range, three, four but stability of the pelvis, five and in-breath and exhaling six and exhaling. Seven good and eight last two, nine.

One more time and exhale 10 and bring it all the way up and you guys can just relax your legs over the end. If we give them a little shake loose, right? I'm going to take it down one spring. All right, I'm going to work on some single leg work, so I prefer to use one single spring. They're putting your left foot up on the peddle. Your right leg is going to be extended in front of you. And let's start on the heels guys, if you don't mind.

So on the heel position there, the right leg is extended out in front of you and an external rotation and slightly bent, right? So we're trying to work the medial line of the leg vein. All right, so a little bit of inner thigh work there, a little bit of surface work, right hands go behind your head. All right, so small range of movement. Again, I'm looking for stability in that leg. It's in the top and the pelvis. We don't want any rotation of the pelvis, so let's go for it. Or we go one inhale and two. Good and breathe. And three good exhale. Four. Good little lifts there. Five, five more. One good and two, not too deep in the push there. And three. Good.

So we keeping stability for one more time and five and change legs for me. Great. So remember the leg is extended, slightly bent, externally rotated using the medial part of your leg there and little pumps. There we go. One. Inhaling and exhale to and a little bit shorter. They married a three. That's a great and four perfect.

And five good lifting that extended leg. Five, six. Exhale. Seven good. Three more times. One. Lovely and two. Excellent work. One more time and three and bringing it all the way up and relax. Give those legs a little shake loose for me.

And you're going to walk around for me to the back end of your chair. And we're going to do a standing pike reverse. So normally one spring I use one right at the top. I'm pretty heavy and I can get away with that. So I think we are perfect over them. But before we do that, if you could just step your left leg up onto the platform for me.

So it was right up onto the platform for me. They are great. And you're going to just scoot your right leg back a little bit and just give that fire a little bit of a stretch on that back leg. So we just deepening into a little bit of a hip flexor stretch there. Obviously they worked pretty hard in the chair position, the front gluteals getting a little bit of stretch there. Excellent. Then you're going to take your front foot and we're going to turn it out to 45 degree angle knee as well. So sorry, I'm going to bring it out a little bit there. Okay, so they're good.

And then you're gonna take your left elbow and we're going to bring it down to the inside. All right, so we're just doing a little modified runner's lunge there. So we stretching some of the external rotators. We're stretching a little bit in the groin. Again, it just feels really good to open up that hip off to those exercises. All right. And then bringing it back up and we're going to change to the other side first in the parallel position. So you're going to have your right leg up on the platform and just gently leaning into it and you've got options. So let's just explore one of them.

One is just to put the hands on top of the fire there, that's a z just pressing down into it and it helps if you take the pelvis into a little bit of a poster, a toto, in other words you tucking the tail, Andy, you slightly great. And then you can take the arms up above you as a lovely variation for additional stretch. And again, stretching shoulder extensors. And then we'll take the foot and we're going to turn it out to external rotation there. The knee points out slightly to 45 and then your elbow and your forearm just like that. Groovy. Okay, so that's a lovely stretch there. Excellent. That's opening the hip joint.

Good. And let's not forget while we here, are we going to stand up and we're going to stand facing the pedal still from that position there. And we're going to walk the feet a little bit closer. So you, they were these combination chairs. We got the wheels. I always just say they, I take my toes in underneath the wheels without actually touching the chair or we going to, generally you're going to roll over without touching the platform initially. Placing the hands in parallel on top of the pedal. All right. On an inhale we're going to start extending the spine.

So we just pushing the pedal away and what I'm looking for is a really nice flat back position. So we working in that hinge of the hip joint and then an exhale, we're going to stretch out the lumbar spine. Rolling backups. Likely a good, keeping those shoulders away. So you definitely want to watch for that shoulder depression, keeping the shoulders down. So we're going to roll down again there for me. And in fact it's obviously it's coming from the Scapula. And exhale, rolling back up. And again we go inhale. As we pushing away, I'm going to just control the ribs a little bit there because you've got this flexibility. So we want to contain it slightly and softening the elbow slightly. Exhale coming back up. Great.

So let's do that one more time. So we're gonna go inhaling length and Ingrid, careful of the neck. Drop the chin slightly there. Good exhale, bringing it back up. Alright. And then just make sure that your arms aren't too wide apart. I'm going to bring them in a little bit. Narrow for the next one and you're going to take your left arm and we're going to bring it out to a airplane arm. All right, just over there and exactly the same thing. Keeping the shoulders square with a pedal and with a platform we're going to inhale, pushing away gently so you need a little bit more shoulder strength there.

Good exhale, bringing it back up an old and inhaling and pushing out. And obviously great work here for the rear deltoid. Exhale and up and change hands for me. So we switched to the right arm, goes up to airplane position, Scapula staying broad and we're going into extension. Inhale as we pushed the pedal away, getting some length. Good.

Just watch the rib cage. Exhale coming back up. And one more time and inhale. And then for most of you who are out there, if you're not very flexible, then obviously we're not going to get this extension and exhale rolling it back up. So we're going to get a deeper stretch. Put both hands down on the pedal that both these ladies are very flexible in their hamstrings and we're going to roll back up for me one vertebrae at a time. Excellent. And scooping up. Great. So you can walk around for me to the other side.

I just add one spring on the same setting. All right, you can place your hands onto the platform. You're going to step both feet up onto the pedal and we're going to play around with the Pike, right? So we're going to bring the hands to the front. Fingers are facing outwards and that's just putting the shoulders into a little bit of external rotation. So we've done a bit of internal rotation, so this helps with a little bit of external, but there are variations where people have their fingers over the front as well. Not a problem. So what I want you to do is go into deep lumber flection for me initially.

So before we even start and we are looking for deep lumber flection over here, and then I'm just going to bring you up a little bit the edge and then bring your weight slightly over your ponds. All right, so, and then we're going to keep that position. We don't want to move off there so we can take a deep breath in. And on an exhale we're going to gently scoop up and what do you want to think up? You coming up into a handstand position, deepening your contraction in your abdominals as a drawing deep in those flexes and inhaling coming back down. And we're going to take the pedal all the way down, but we're not going to kill the pedals down at the bottom, so it's just barely touching the mat there and XL. So we just want to find and explore the little points of contact they of the pedal. And we're going to take it back down. Inhale.

So we're going to do that twice more and exhaling and scooping up. And you can see Jess, she's working in external rotation of the heels of the hips. They're not a problem at all. Meredith's in parallel. Both are perfect in this exercise. One more time and scooping it up and deepen your contraction. They lovely and then bringing it back all the way down down and just hold it just off the bottom there. Just off the bottom, just of that bottom position. Now keeping absolutely still we're going to bend the knees so it can be an external there. I want you to keep that whole there and press one.

We are going for five. Good, so we're going to bend and press too. Good and inhale and three. And they're both stabilizing beautifully in their shoulder base for one more time. Last one. Inhale. Exhale. Press down and take it all the way down to the bottom. All right, why don't you just stay right there. Great. So we're going to step the left foot up onto the platform, right?

Definitely in a parallel position. So for those of you who are working in external, we're going to stay parallel. Fingertips up on the edge of the pedal or platform. Sorry about that. And we're going to just gently, we're going to hover the pelvis just up. That's it. Good. So we, I'm looking, I'm going to bring you up a little bit, Mary.

So we're getting a little bit more of a 90 degree angle with that friendly. And then you want to keep your away back with your knee over your heel. Keeping on the fingertips. We're going to bend the back knee five times. Inhale, exhaling for one and two full stretch of their quadricep down at the bottom there's three exhaling for four, exhaling for five holds, five stair writer. Good. Folding the arms in front of you. Back up at a diagonal pose. Just that. So we don't want to go any higher five times.

We're going to bend and straighten for one. Inhale, exhaling for two, keeping those ribs connected there. Three inhale and four, four and one more time there and five and take it all the way down. Beautiful change legs for me. Great. So we call her backwards, step down, or some of you may be familiar with the mountain climber, right? So fingers on the end of the platform start hovering the pelvis. So we lifting it up a little bit. Great. Hold that position there. And we're going to bend the back leg for five. Exhale for one and two.

Beautiful. Get full extension of that leg, three and four and hold it. Five good. And arms folding in front of you. Beautiful. So diagonal back, their ribs are connected, bending the back knee. Inhale and one, two, three [inaudible] and four and five. Good. And bring it down all the way and relax. Cool. So we're going to take the foot off and we're going to gently bring the peddle back up for me. Excellent. So the way it's great, we don't have to change anything. We're going to turn around onto all fours. All right. With your feet facing the pedal.

So you're in a quadruped position there to me. Excellent. All right, so you're gonna take your left leg extended up behind you, pressing the toes down into the pedal there and you just want to make sure that you nicely connected there under the toes. And we've taken up into a front support position, stepping the other leg up and back and trying to stay as quiet with the body as possible here. You're going to push up out of those shoulder blades a little bit there for me. And from there we're going to start lifting the hips up to the sky, taking it into a little bit of an upstretched so not too far back because we're at a bit of a diagonal and we're going to bring it back down into France support position. So here we are looking for an hinge in the hip joint.

So we lift up sitting bones up to the sky, but still staying connected in the ribs. Good. And exhale, bringing it back and down. Excellent. Good. And we're going to lift up. And really, you know we always talk about abdominal work in PyLadies. There is no better abdominal work in holding this front support position. And taking it back down. We really connecting one more time for me please. In the, so as all right, deep hip flexor muscle that supports the spine and the rectus abdominis and bringing it all the way back down and bring one leg back in and the other leg back in. Take it into a little wrist position. So stretching back, sitting bones going down towards the heels.

Yeah, so we're going to repeat that position one more time. So we go back into the quadruped position [inaudible] and obviously being a guy, I do tend to put a lot of focus on the upper body work. All right, it's not going to do any of you any harm to build up a little bit of strengthen that upper body from that. We're going to go into that stretch one more time. So we're going to lift it up. So make sure you've got nice grip with your left foot and the right leg is going to go straight up behind you. So we taking it up vertical lovely. And we're going to bring it down to the ball for three.

So we go down to the ball and up to the ball for one. So we working some hip extension, bringing it down carefully there. Exhale, four, two, lovely. One more time and exhale and three and bringing it back down onto the pedal. Good. Front support legs off one, two, rest position. Stretching it back all the way out.

Right this time you're going to sweep your arms over both arms as you are. Take them right down to the left hand side so we just stretch over. So what we're doing mode at the and perfect. I just want to give you a little bit of assistance there. Yeah, there we go. So you're getting a little stretch across the side, buddy. Good.

That's an excellent. So you just want to really open up that right side of the body and it's sweep it over to the other side. Good. And the, these ladies are doing beautifully. Okay. This is an easy work. All the support on the upper body, we're going to bring it back to the all fours position. They're all quadruped fico back up onto the ball.

Okay, excellent. Back up into the up stretch. Great. Left leg comes up, straight up behind you, as high as you can see you reaching. But what they're not doing is they're not turning those hips out. They're doing good. They keeping the hips absolutely square. Let's take the leg down to the bar. Inhale and exhale. Hip Extension for one and exhaling four two, trying to reach up to the top. One more time.

Exhale for three reach, reach, reach, and bringing it back down. Back into your friend support position there. One leg, other leg sitting back and down. Great. Hm. Okay, that's awesome guys. Tuck your toes under. Rolling yourself back up to standing and all the way up, right. So we're going to walk back to the wheel side of the chairs. All right, and what I'd like to do, I'm going to take it into the torso press. It's, I'm continuously trying to work opposite.

So we've doing forward shoulder girdle. Then we're going to take it to the reverse. Stretching, open the pecs. So we're going to have a seat on the top of the platform. Their hands are going to go onto the pedal. Turning the fingers are if you need to. Okay. Preferably.

All right, perfect. Yeah, and the legs are going to come up into the table position so long. There we go. So scoot out there so and when I talk about a table, yeah, it's as long legs, so just long legs. That's great. Okay, super. All right, so we need a little bit of strength in those hip flexors. Now again in the core, but we just challenging it from another direction. We're going to press the pedal down. Inhale, trying to find a long line. You have, you got enough it support that. Let me take you there and exhale, bringing it back up. Good. I'm just giving a little bit of hand.

She needs a little bit more buddy whites on this thing and we got to inhale. But that's not a problem. All I do is I give her a little bit of an assist there. Marie, you good there and exhale as we bring it back up. Keeping that downloads engaged one more time. So we're careful that we're not popping the ribs, not putting the spine into any hyperextension and then bringing it all the way back up, up, up.

Bring the legs back down and relax. Good. And up into standing super. So we're going to walk around to the side. We're going to do a lateral flection exercise. So what I'm doing is I'm loading up two springs up second from the top and that's just enough to hold our body weight. And we're going to go into a side bend position or a modified side bend on the form.

So let's start both of you facing or both of you on your left forearm if we can do that. So Jay, I'll come around and put you into position. So we're on the left form there. Perfect. Your right leg comes up onto the top of the pedal. All right, and your left leg is just reaching underneath and we're on the, the lateral edge of our foot there. So great. So Meredith's are it, she's so excited. She's already up there and let's go to you and we're going to hold that top position. Now pushing up out of that bottom shoulder blade, lowering your hips back down to the mat. So we're going to go inhale, taking it all the way down and you can touch and then exhale, bring it back up. So we're going to do that four, five.

We're going to bring it all the way down to the bottom. Inhaling, exhale, bringing it up, good lifting up, bringing it back down, and exhale, bringing it back up. Good. Pushing the pelvis slightly forward there. Good. One more time down to the bottom, bringing it all the way up to the top. Now it gets a little bit tricky. We're going to bring the bottom leg up to the top league, so we're going to lift for one. Good inhale and exhale for two. So again, those inner thighs are getting challenged and three, but at the same time we've got to be strong in the core and four and one more time and five holding it up, up, up, up, all the way.

Let's try touch and bringing it back down. Great and relaxed for me. Take a risk position for a sec. Okay, so let's change to the other side. Excellent. I mean this is tough and we're going to put the top leg over the top of the pedal. Bottom leg is under on the platform of the chair and pushing up into her side plank or modified side bend or some of you may see this as the star and we go back down onto the mat and actually touch your hips down.

Give yourself a little breathing. Exhale pressing up. So we lifting up. Lovely exercise for shoulders, stability, taking you down for abduction work. If you pressing that bottom foot down into the mat so we'll know where the abductors are and exhale, press up. Good. And coming back down. Let's do two more on the side and really that good. Inhaling Jude, just bring your head back a little bit in line with your spine and exhale.

Now Hall did both of you slight posterior tilt of the pelvis, bottom leg to the top and we touch on. Good. So think of bringing you to medial Malleolus is three your ankle bands. The Tattoo teller and four for up, up, up. One more time and five hold it there. Good. And bringing it back down and relax. Okay. This is going to be a great time.

We're not gonna take the race position, but we're going to come up and do it. Side stretch over the chair, right? So we need one spring. Let me do that to see you there. One spring. So we'll start. Let's start facing the front of the room. Jay, you're going to face me.

So your right leg is hooked over the end. Perfect. Top leg is reaching long and we're going to put the hand onto the piddle just in line with your shoulder or your hipbone and you want to sit, think of sitting on the side of your legs. I'm going to just test your hip a little bit in underneath you. Perfect, right? Reaching your leg down into the mat arm long in [inaudible] palm position. So we turn the palm so we get a little bit of stretch there and we're going to go four, five.

We're going to inhale as we press the pedal down in breath and exhale as we bring it all the way back up for one good. So it's just that simple side stretch there. We're going to take a down inhale, little stretch down, exhale, coming back up for two. Excellent. Now what I'm continuously thinking is reaching down with this hip and exhaling three. So this top leg is pretty active there. Let's go twice more. Inhale and exhale, keeping the ribs in and all the way. One more time and last side stretch and then we're going to hold it but push it down as far as you can. So we thinking of stretching here, okay, this is the best part. This is the reward like we said.

Now from here we're going to rotate without moving the pelvis. The hand is going to hook over the pedal and then you're going to scoot your outside hand a little bit further away to give you some more space there. You're going to push in with that outside hand. All right, so push down and pull with the opposite. So we are pushing and we are pulling it. So we're getting a rotation. So pushing a pool, pushing a pool. There we go.

So just creating a lovely stretch there or I'd keep the connection bringing the left for Meredith, the right arm, Fuji or back in and rotate all the way back into your start position and come back up and all the way up. Well we're not done there. So let's go into the hip rotator stretch. So this time you're going to scoop your, your foot right back up on it was that figure four stretch you wanted to do earlier. There we go. And we just take it right over the pedal, right? So guys, remember there's a couple of things that going on here. We can either stretch into the lateral rotators. So we're looking for gluten media's TFL and some of the deeper rotators of the hip. And that happens particularly when the leg is slightly abducted, right?

If you bring your leg, just experiment and bring your leg a little bit more through your midline. So if you cross the leg over and then we're going to get into that performance. All right. And we all know that that performance, when it's tight, it can be a nasty little muscle. So this is just a little bit more remedial, a little bit more beneficial for those rotators. Lovely. Good. And then coming back up for me. Lovely. So we're gonna change round other side please. It's, I remember the leg is hooked. Perfect. You're sitting on this side of your hip.

Top leg is reaching out. [inaudible] palm position. Inhale as we press the pedal down and have a little bit of a stretch there. Exhale, bringing it back up and then just think of bringing the ribs down towards those hip bones. Good. We'll go again. Inhale, we press down. Lovely. Get your stretch. Good and exhale, bringing it back up and keep reaching with that top leg. We take it down again. Inhaling. Beautiful. Exhale, bringing it back up.

Good. And always just trying to come up to that diagonal. We don't need any more than that. We just want that long line. Inhale and breathing out and bringing it back up. One last time please. So we're going to go in hill and we're going to hold it down at the bottom.

Keep the middle connected, then we rotate without moving the pelvis and sliding your hand out a little bit further. Excellent. Pushing with that same arm and then pulling with the other arm. So we creating the stretch mirror. You're going to push with your right pull with your left. So we're getting that rotation.

Push with the left and pull the right edge. Yeah, so we're getting that stretch over. We're opening up the Rhomboids, they're getting, getting a lovely rotation in the spine. Obviously just be careful with your spine. If you have any kind of injury, we're going to bring your left hand back towards the center. Meredith, your right arm, rotate open again and bring it all the way back up. And we're gonna turn to our stretch. So first experiment, just feel the difference. So you can see gs, knees and abduction here. She opened up on your hip. All right. And lean over. Just feel a little bit of a stretch. Therefore, just hold that for a couple of seconds as are we thinking a little more in the glute Medius, TFL possibly in this position.

Back hip flexes getting a lovely stretch. Okay. Then both of you bring it up again. So let's go for that performance stretch again. So now I want the knee. I'm looking for that need to be in the midline and when I lean over, it's almost towards my opposite shoulder. All right, that's deep. And we want to hold this one a little bit longer just to release into the performance. Good. Hold that little stretch there. Excellent.

Mary, try and turn this left hip. Oh yes, there we go. That's magic. That's all right. More. No, that's great. That's awesome. Just there. Good. Cool. And then you're gonna roll it up from there. All the way up and standing.

Good. Still facing wheels. Same spring. Putting your hands on the platform and we just going to finish off with a little extension. So hands on the platform, bending the elbows, placing your hips down gently onto the platform. Hands onto the pedal. One at a time. All right. So that's just the safest way for us to get in there. Pressing the pedal down to the mat and then just adjust yourself. So from this bottom position, I'm always slightly back, slightly back.

Good. Just there. And then legs are abducted. All right, now bring the pedal to Ahava. So we're gonna lift it up a little bit. Excellent. If you too far forward, then we tend to go a little bit too deep into the lumbar spine. Marie started coming up a little bit higher there and pause. Excellent. So we're gonna start with a little bit of a reverse articulation. We're going to inhale, we're going to start lifting up from the crown of the head, lifting up through the upper back, mid back, lower back, and taking it into extension and hold it there for me. And exhale, bring it back down and pause at the bottom.

And let's do that again. So we're going to go inhale, lifting up, keeping the scapular stability. Inhale, lifting up, good without the legs dropping at all. And exhale, bringing it back down. So for some of you might want to put a ball under the legs. All right, so just secures the, the lower back so there's no so much effort in the lumbar spine and inhaling coming back up. Go ahead and hold. Okay. And exhale coming back down. And one last time. Inhale, lifting up from the crown of the head all the way up through the upper back, mid back. Hold it there. Good abdominals. So we just want to double check that we zipping up over there and then bringing it back down to hovering the pedal again so we're not completely flat yet and hold there. Just create a little bit more lengthy. Married. Good. That's it.

Bring the ribs up slightly. Beautiful. All right. Now without moving the pedal. All right. Without moving the piddle, take your right arm and just reach it out to the right hand side. Good. Right now we are going to move the pedal. You're going to bend the left elbow into your side, so if, see if we can do it. Yeah, in close, just for a tricep press. And we pushed out four, five, one.

Inhaling and exhaling two and this is a great place to look for scapular three. Inhaling and four. One more time and five and change other side. Great. Keeping their pedal. Absolutely still lost one. And here we go. Inhale and exhale for one and exhale for two good.

Keeping stability there. Three, exhaling four, four and last one and four, five hands down and allow the the pedal to come up. Legs down onto the mat and rolling yourself out of this position. So we're going to scoop in deep, deep, deep abdominals, rolling yourself all the way up, hands onto the platform and rolling up. Good. It's just both of you. Take a little bit of a step back there from me or we're going to just finish a roll down. It's the final stretch out.

Standing up tall shoulders nice and wide. Take a deep breath in. Exhaling head becomes heavy and just allowing the back to stretch out. Okay, that's it. All the way out. Softening the knees if you need to to just to take the pressure off the back. Inhaling, deep breath in and exhale.

Rolling it back up. Beautiful work. Thank you guys. Excellent.

Comments

2 people like this.
This is brilliant! Outstanding teaching, thank you Ed!
Thanks Mialy!
That was really amazing, challenging and fun. I'm so glad I had time to do this class. Im going to share w/my students and tell them about you. Really thank you Ed. Hope to see you in more classes .
Hope your students enjoy it!
I love the extra upper body work....this is a great workout for men for flexibility and upper body! I love push ups and planks and agree there is no better abdominal exercises!
outstanding! love the transitions from one exercise to the next and the detail instructions,of each exercise. wish I was there!
Thanks Diana!
Beautiful class! Very challenging. I loved it. Thank you!
Wonderful class, Ed! Loved everything, especially the stretches. Thank you!
Thanks Ed i had the time to enjoy this beautiful class,very challenging i loved it!!
1-10 of 24

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin