Class #1137

Powerhouse Strengthening

60 min - Class
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Description

In this Mixed Equipment workout, Monica focuses on strengthening the powerhouse on the Mat, Wunda Chair, and Cadillac. She adds the Magic Circle on the Mat to help pull the powerhouse in and up and then transitions to the Wunda Chair to teach exercises like Reverse Swan, Horseback, Pull Ups, and much more. She then goes to the Cadillac for more powerhouse work and then Breathing and Half Hanging so you can get a treat for all of that hard work.
What You'll Need: Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Mat, Mixed Equipment, Towel, Magic Circle

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So today we're going to go over all the exercises that I enjoyed doing. Really strengthen your powerhouse. So going over, pulling it in and up. Um, we're going to use some props to help out today. Magic Circle Really, really helps out when our quads are strong or our back is stiff, helps you really pull in your powerhouse. So we're going to use that a lot and um, we're going to put this under your head just to make sure that you're nice and connected with your spine on the mat. So go ahead and lie down, start off. And we're also gonna be doing some one, two chair.

So we'll do our map going into one to chair and then we're going to finish off with some fun and um, nice treats on the Cadillac as well. So I'll go ahead and put this down here for a second. Uh, go ahead and bend your knees and feet flat on the map. Great. Good. And just rest your arms down by your side. So you are a real strong Pilati students. So we do want to keep it nice and strong, but even when we are strong and super advanced, sometimes we can start kind of barren through our exercises and just using all our strong athletic muscles and not really feeling that in and up.

So we're going to work on that. So I want you to just take a big breath and exhale, pulling in your belly. Good. The last time I was with you, I use that image of a mattress button. So taking a big breath and exhale like a string is pulling your belly button down into your spine. Nice job, beautiful and big breath. Good. And exhale. Very, very nice. Good. And I want you to go ahead and place the hands behind your head, one over the other. [inaudible] good.

And I want you to inhale and look at your belly and exhale and try to pull in your belly more. Good job. And now roll down your neck. Good. Inhale, lift up and look at your stomach. Exhale and say push it out. Pull it in, pull in in. Nice and roll down with your stomach. And so think of a corset. And how you want to really pull in your ways.

Big Breath and exhale scooping in your ways. Beautiful, beautiful. And rolling down your back. And then just stay there for a second and go ahead and place this between your inner thighs. So you're going to place it between your inner thighs. Nice, very good. And now put your hands behind your head again. Good. And rest down your neck. [inaudible] and without tilting your pelvis, I want you to just try to strengthen those hip muscles and squeeze that circle and hold it there. Very good. And I want you to inhale looking up and exhale, scoop in your belly. And I'm going to use scoop because it's like I have an ice cream scooper and I'm just hollowing out your stomach and roll down with your stomach hollowed out like that. That is really nice. Good. Let's do that one more time.

Inhaling up and now exhale. Scooping in. Good, good, good. Stay right there and lengthen your arms by your side and keeping that connection of your lower back pulled into the mat because your stomach is pushing it into the mat because you're stretching your back. You're allowing it to stay stretched. Big Breath for a hundred exhale, scooping it in. Great Energy in that neck. I love it. You're not tensing it. Good. Keep squeezing that circle and see if you can let your knees just float up towards you so your legs are in a tabletop position. Awesome. Good. Now the biggest thing with your powerhouse in [inaudible] is that you pull your belly in and up.

So for the last 30 I want you to pull your belly away from me as we squeeze those legs straight. So we're really pulling your belly in and up. Kind of like your six pack is a rolling sidewalk going under your chest bone. It's Roland. Good one last. I'm going to let go. I want you to end with the air and exhale, as long as you can, pulling in and up away from those legs and reaching, reaching, and put your hands under your knees as you lower your head down to the mat and rest your neck. Use those hands if you need to and sit up. We're going to keep the circle right there. Good.

And we're going to bring your feet in line with your hip bones. Good. Maybe a tad closer to you. Awesome. Does that feel okay? There's a lot of lymph nodes through there that don't feel so good when you squeeze it. So good. Now I want you to look down at your belly and round your back so that your shoulders are directly over those hip bones. We have a nice round, lower back. Good.

And we're going to try to scoop your belly in and up and get your waistband onto the mat without letting your hands move from underneath the knees. So keep your hands here, take a breath and exhale. Breathe into your back. Trying to open it up, trying to scoop into it and do that one more time. Big Breath and exhale, really pulling in and dies. Now keep that waistband on the mat as long as you can and roll forward curling into yourself. Really, really nice.

Great stopping when your shoulders are over your hip bones. Take a breath. Exhale, scoop in, squeeze with your hips and roll down the lower bat. Good. Good. Hold it there. Take a breath. And this time exhale, come forward as you scoop in your belly. Beautiful. Keep scooping. And we also tried to create a big letter c, a capital letter c rather than a squished mushy. Okay. And we're going to do that again, squeezing your hips together, rolling down, articulating one bone at a time.

But this time we're going to advance and we're going to go down your bra strap, keeping that scoop. Take a breath, exhale, scoop in the belly and we're going to come up those legs squeezing, help you to stabilize that lower body. Good. And we're going to advance again, we're going to inhale as we start rolling back this time, but we lead with that lower back. Can we lead with the waistband? Nice. Beautiful. Going down, hitting the Bra Strap, rolling through the neck. As soon as the head touches you, inhale and lift it to look at your belly. And now exhale, keep your waistband down, but curl up your bra strap. That's it. And then curling the waistband up when you need to. Nice. And let's do that again. So we're going to take a breath as we roll back. Right through here. Now exhale, rolling through each bone.

Get that waistband to really scoop into the mat. Nice. All the way through. Good. Inhale head. And now exhale. Just the Bra strap comes up. That's right. Keeping the waistband down. Beautiful. Big Letter C, kind of lifting in and up and good. And we're going to rule the head again, leading with the waistband, creating as much space between these two as you can. Good scooping, scooping, and this time take the circle away and put it between your hands and you get to slip your legs under the strap. Good. And we're going to do a plotty stance. And just like you were squeezing, I want you to squeeze by wrapping those thighs.

You're squeezing the Mat Swedes in the magic circle. So now you're going to just stabilize with that. I want you to pull your belly in. Watch those hyperextending elbows. Lift your head up to look at your belly and squeeze that circle between your hands as you roll up one bone at a time. Good. Good. Using that strap to help you. Nice and relaxed.

The circle as you stretch please. I'll circle between the heels of your hands would be better. Yeah. God. And now squeeze a circle as you pull in, pulling in. Good. Keeping it right here. Let's get that waistband down. Pull, pulling in and up, right. And then keep your waist pulling in and up as you reach behind you. Raging. Gorgeous. That's what I wanted to see.

Arms come up and let's do it to temple. Scooping in. That's it. That's it. And we're going to do a big lift as we stretch and pull it in. Squeeze that circle length and really pull that waist long and really pull it as you can. Give me one more arms head and scoop that. Sit lifting in that waist and stretch and rolling back down. Good scooping scoop. Get that little lower back. That's it.

And reaching back. Nice work. Go ahead and bend the knees and we're going to put the feet flat and now we're going to bend the right knee into your chest. And then the right knee in. Good. Actually, I'm going to take this away for second and we're going to go over leg extensions, which I think are so important. So it's a little bit of a [inaudible] type of exercise, not as long arms, but you got had that long way succession when you reached your arms back. I loved it.

So I want you to keep that and I want you to just bring the right knee into your chest and give it a hug. So from that sentence, stretch it. Hug It in [inaudible]. Yup. Either one either underneath the thigh or on top of the Shin. Yeah, it wasn't sure I was saying that correctly. Put your foot down and let's do the left. So scooping in your belly. Good. And making that connection every time. That was fantastic. I'm putting it down.

Now we're going to add something else. We're going to bring the right knee in. Good. And Go ahead and straighten the leg up to the ceiling. And we going to put your hands behind the thigh and give a little turnout in that leg. Good. Stretch it to you as much as it feels good. That feel right there. Good. And now bend the knee and place it back down. And we're going to scoop in always to bring in the left knee. Hug It in, then straighten it. Good. And a little turnout. Nice.

You even doubt your thought, your hips, and bend the knee and put it back down. So here's the part where I really want to focus on. Now we're going to pull in and bring the right knee in. Good. And then we're going to straighten it and turn it out a little bit. Good. And I want you to keep your belly scooped in and your hip straight across as you try to touch my hand up here.

So you really are thinking of creating space in that hip joint. You're trying to reach that thigh up to the ceiling, out of that hip joint. And now we're going to lower that leg down the middle of our body, reaching the thigh out of our hip and we're going to pull it up, reaching it long. Good. Again, two more times reach. And I love how your waist is lifting and pulling it up. Nice and one more reaching and pull it up.

Now keep that feeling as you cross the body. Go down and pull it up from your stomach. That was fantastic. And for cross around up and three and lift and two more crossing around up and one more time. Cross around reversing it for five as well. Go and cross that left thigh. Cross the left side. Pull it up to your shoulder too. More cross over here and up to your nose.

One Marsh, get up to that shoulder and that's enough. Bend the knee, place the foot down. Let's do the left. So same thing. We're going to start off with the bent knee, extend the leg, turn it out. And now three reaches down from here from that long way. So that's awesome. Reaching that powerhouse is pulling in and out. Good. Now we're going to keep the in and up and we're going to cross your right shoulder, sweep down and pull it up from your stomach. Nice.

And from the back of that lie, that's really nice. And three or round up. Good. Trying to keep your waist pulling in and up the whole time too. No, that's five isn't it? And reverse and reach around and up. Good and cross almost a kick me with a slight turnout in your knee. Yes. And I think this is the last one. And hugging that knee. Good. Alright, now roll up. Good. And we're going to lift your bottom forward a little bit. Good.

And we're going to do the hands underneath your knee. Let's put them actually right underneath your knees. [inaudible] and do almost a roll back again. So what I that's exactly right. Let's bring your knees together. Good. And roll down your waistband. Super important to understand that when you're rolling back, you use, if you had a six pack, you want to picture your lower set and now when you're coming off of the mat forward, you always use your upper set first, then your middle, then your lower, so we're going to say that one more time to roll back and rolling like a ball.

You will use your lower set first and then your middle and then your upper and on your way up. It's the reverse. [inaudible]. Great. Now hold yourself there scooping in and I want you to balance with your feet up off the mat. Good. You did that so nicely. You can also do it one foot at a time, but you were already really deep into your scoop. All right, I'm going to let you warm up your spine by rolling with your hands under your knees and start by using your lower set. Let's roll back.

Exhale to come up. Upper set. Inhale, roll back. Exhale up are very good. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, hold. Now bring your knees closer to you. M hands on your ankles with their fingers reaching towards each other. Good. Elbows out a little bit and the heels come closer to your seat. This is a little more challenging when you're this tight and lower set. Inhale, roll back. Exhale up, upper set. Nice lower set rolls back.

And really feel that scoop, scoop, scoop, and inhale back. And I never even have to say it because you do such perfect form, but you never popped the back forward. One more. You're holding yourself with your stomach, not with your back. Stay here just for added challenge. Put your hand one over the other behind your head and bring your elbows to your knees.

Let's just make sure that upper stomachs really work working. So lower stomach rolls, you back. Exhale. Get those elbows to the knees. Nice job. And two more. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, scoop. Yes. One more lower set. Exhale. Hold the scoop and rest your feet down. Acts Job. Huh?

Let's lift your bottom back. Say you're more centered. Good. And then lie down onto your back. Good. Alright, so we're going to do a series of five. We're gonna bring the right knee into your chest. Nice, right hand on your ankle and left hand on your knee. Good. Pull your waist in and up to lift your head up and look at your stomach. Good. Roll down the base of your shoulder blades more, right?

A little one more inch down. Nice. And this knee is going to come in in order to make sure your stomach is pulling in and out. You want to make sure that the knee, the ankle is always at this height, not down here, because then that arches your back really easily when your is your neck. Okay? Okay. And now we're gonna use more of the outer thigh and glute to extend the leg down the middle of our body. So you have that opposition. Nice and switched. Left, right. Good. And switching, keeping the bottom of the shoulder blades down. So roll back into here more. Good, good.

And bring the legs up a little higher so that we can maintain this goop. Probably like right here. That's it. You can still crow your eyes to look. Curl into yourself working on this curve. Ooh, I like that right there. Getting a little adjustments going. Last set. Bring both knees in, grab both ankles, rest your neck for one moment. Good.

And we're going to go into the double leg stretch. This is, I'm going to keep you for a second, the most important exercise to really feel the in and out. Okay. So I'm going to be behind you as much as I can to really pull on your arms and feel your waist reaching there. Okay. I'm going to start with your legs though. So go ahead and bring your head up. Now I'm really scooping in. Good. And reach your arms up to the ceiling and pull your belly away from me. Loose legs and then good. And then pull into yourself. Nice.

And you can imagine yourself in a pool of water. And I want you to circle your arms back to your ankles for Nice, good. And pulling away from me. Fantastic. Good. Do one without me. Good. And now inhale, reach and really scoop your belly into my hand. Reach out, ratchet. Reach out. Yes. And in, but do that with your belly. And next time. Keep it. Keep it.

Keep it good. And one more. And scooping your belly. Belly. Belly. Good. And now right leg up to the ceiling. Left leg forward. Yes, you got it. Hands here and look at your belly and switch. Remember how we lowered one leg and switch these? Fly through the air. Now it's flying. Good. Good.

And we want to always create space to keep your hips healthy, right? Keep space reaching. Scooping up with that scoop. Last set, right. Left both legs up, hands behind your head. Good. And we're gonna keep the scoop and lower down and pull up from here. Good. And down and up. Turn your legs out a little more. Squeezed my back to the inner thighs there to help out. That's it. Good.

Two more. And we lift the waist up. Good. One more time. Pulling up. Good. And now bend the right knee and twist to it. So your hands are one over the other. Behind your head. You're right. And we're going to just twist in a straight line and switch. Good and switch.

Scoop scoops. Pull the stomach in and bring the knee into your chest. [inaudible] and last one. So you use this to pull that knee deep into your chest and hug both knees in and rest your head so that series never gets easier. And at the end your back starts to tighten up and it's really hard to keep your stomach in even when you're working it. It's like really hard. So that's why I put spine stretch forward here.

So you're going to sit up and put your feet against these poles and we're going to stretch out your back. Good. So I want you to have your hands right there. Good. And I want you to get this out of the way here somewhat. [inaudible] okay. And I want you to pull your belly in and I want you to lift in your waist as you push down on me. So push down on me and lift in your waist. Lift, lift, lift and relax. Good. Scooping in, shoulder blade, slide down and you push down on me as your waist lengthens lengthens. Good. And, and one more time. Stomach scoops and push down.

Now bring your head between your arms and try to keep your belly button lifting up towards your chest as you try to touch the crown of your head down to the mat and stretch. And now rolling up one bone at a time. Stacking your spine. Good. So now we're going to stomach in, lifting the waist. Good. Pushing down. Now head between your arms. Good. And now keep your arms shoulder height as you reach forward. Good. Good, good, good. And Rolling.

Now we're gonna change this a little bit. I want you to keep your hipbones directly over your sit bones. So imagine I'm there. Pull your belly in, lift in the waist as you push down on me, and then head to your chest and exhale down, down, down, down. Good. But we're keeping those hip bones and rolling up. Stacking your spine, relaxing. One more time. Scooping in.

Good and pressing down on my imaginary arms. As you curl into yourself, the goal here is to touch the crown of your head to the Mat, that actually between your inner thighs. And now I want you to keep your waist in and I want you to give me your arms and pull your belly in and extend from your ways ice and relax. Very good. So we are totally warmed up. Now how do you feel? Good. Good. And we're going to come over here for the push down.

We're going to do one spring in the middle. I always prefer to work with um, grots. So we're going to stand right here. Might feel a little different than maybe what you're working with, but you just talk to me. Okay. So I'm gonna move you about this. It's kind of about a frame away from the pedal. Start with your arms up to the ceiling. Nice job in a Palati stance. Good. Voila.

And I want you to scoop in and lift your hands from your waist. Nice. I'm going to stand behind you, Emily. So you don't stick your bottom out behind you. You're going to keep your hips right over your feet, right? And we'll often imaginary wall. Head down, rolling. Oh good.

And now you're starting to lean back with your hips. Use your waist to tip your powerhouse, to reach forward to the pedal and the heel of the hand is going to be on the pedal with your fingers together and soup. Keep the pedal up, y'all. There you go. Good. All right. Now keeping your hips right here. I want you to push the pedal down with your stomach. So you're going to pull in and up and push down.

Taking your body as low as you want. Go for it. Go, go, go. Good. Now to come up, you're going to start from here, so we're going to pull the Bedell pedal up. Tailbone goes to the mat. Good. And do that two more times. Go in down. Beautiful. That's it. Reaching. And now scoop under your tailbone. Pull in up from here. Nice. Nice, Nice. One more in and out. Really reaching forward.

Now stay there with your body, but bend the elbows to the side to lift up the pedal. Good. And as you push it down, scoop into my hands. More. Beautiful. Two more. Bending and scoop. That's it. One more. Bending and scoop. Now keep your arms straight and roll up from your waist, squeezing the back of your inner thighs together.

Your hands come off the pedal and you roll up until your arms are up to the ceiling. Very nice. Good. Bring your arms down. Nice job. So now we're going to go into the swan. I want you to come over this side and I want you to lie down with your ribs off that edge and push the pedal down and your shoulders should be right over your hands. Nice. Very good, nice and straight. The belly is scooped in, so it's really easy to have a scoop in and up when you're in a round c curve. Very hard when you do a backbend. So we're going to stay straight for now and bring any elbow straight back.

Try to pull the pedal up to you, opening those collarbones and push down the pedal. As you scoop in your belly, bend the elbows. Open your collar bones. Good. Love the scoop. One more. Now keep your arms straight and with your stomach, lifting your head and chest bone. Open your collar bones. Look out to that beautiful ocean view. Open, open, open, and then push straight down again. We're going to stay here and do three more pumps. Again, bending one, pumping two and three straight arms scooping in, up. Open those collarbones more. Yes. And one more set down and pull those back. More.

Slide into here more. Yes. One more straight arms and head up and scoop. Open those collarbones. Fantastic. And come on down to get out of this, we slide back towards our feet. Then once our feet are on the mat, the pedal comes up. You can bend your elbows and then hands here and always pull back with your powerhouse until you're over your feet and round your backup. Okay, good. So now we're gonna do what we call the reverse one, which is the teaser.

I'm going to help you though. So we're going to turn around and face that way and you're going to sit down. Perfect. Slide a little forward and you're going to bend your knees into your chest and hold underneath them. Good. And now from here with your knees up, I want you to make sure you have a hands with distance between your bottom and the back, but with your knees up. How's that feel? Good. All right, we need to slide over. Just a hair towards, yeah, thanks. Good. All right, so now you're going to work on your flexibility and try to extend your legs into a teaser position. She's like, Yay.

So we're going to reach them. I just don't want to throw you off balance. Good. And now I want you to reach your hands. [inaudible] chores to your feet. Actually, this is one of my favorite exercises. You're going to bend your elbows past your body and then place the hands on the pedal with your fingers facing me. Good. Including your thumb as your thumb with your fingers. Great.

Now we're going to look at our six pack eyes on your six pack and you're going to keep your arms straight and use your lower set to start pushing the pedal down. Good. The middle. Set the upper set until it's all the way down. Now you're gonna use your upper set to curl into yourself, the middle set and the lower. Look at that Nice ripped belly. Love it. And two more down. Lower set. Good. So your legs are always trying to reach and your stomach's always in and up. And now, upper set, upper upper, upper curl middle. There you go.

Get that depth. One more lower set. Really pulls in from those reaching legs. Good. And we're going to come up with the upper set first, middle, lower. Fantastic. And then keep that scoop as you gracefully reach for your toes. Take your hands off and at the same time arms circle around and reach for your toes. Good job hugging those knees. Perfect. Step on off.

And we're gonna do the mermaid. So you're gonna sit down right here facing that way. [inaudible] and actually both legs are going to go straight forward and we're going to cross the left ankle over the right. Straight legs. Yeah, scoot over just a little bit more though. [inaudible] good. All right, so this is kind of like short box and I want you to imagine that you're doing the short box on the reformer and we have a bar that we're lifting up just in front of us. So lean a little forward in front of those hip bones. One more inch, that's it. And from your waist, lift your arms up to the ceiling. All right, stay a little more forward. You tuffle.

Now just let that left arm hang down and it'll eventually push down the pedal with the fingers pointing that way. Okay, it's gonna get there. But first you're going to squeeze your seat, pull up in the waist, and now go over to this side. When the hand gets there, continue it by a nice stretch. This hip stays here reaching and our stomach pulls in and up to pull up with that waist just to there, keeping the hands and two more lifting in and up, away from this hip, really scooping and coming up. And we're going to do one more scoop it in and up, reaching, reaching, and now work this outer hip, but mainly the stomach and relax. Good. Go ahead and step off and we're going to turn around for the others.

So now you're gonna face this way. Good. Slide back. Just a hair more right ankle over left. Love it. So now beautiful. The shoulders are just in front of the hips, both arms. I like to lift up at the same time. So scoop in. Now we're talking now your back looks fabulous. Good little bit forward there.

And the right is going to reach down, fingers pointing towards the ocean. And we're gonna squeeze your bottom, lift off of it, and then reaching over. Good. And you're gonna push him down. Down the arm goes as close to your head as you can. [inaudible] and now from your waist, pull up, staying a little forward.

Two more reaching. Good. Really Nice. And pulled into all here and pull it up. Wish I was doing this on one more. Reaching, reaching, reaching and scooping up. Up, up and rest. Nice job. Okay, go ahead and step off. And we're going to do the mermaid now. I mean, not the mermaid. That was a mermaid. The horseback.

So you're going to stand right here and you're going to send your right leg over straddling the chairs and face that way though. And you're going to take it forward. That's it. Good. And then go ahead and just sit down. So your bottom is going to be kind of hanging off that half moon in the back. So it doesn't need to be on the mat and your legs.

Normally we put two pads, but this is pretty padded, this chair, so I don't think you need it, so I hope you don't. Okay. But your legs are going to be forward in front of your hips, Butt Straight and flexed while you're sitting down. Then I want you to put one hand over the other right here, cause we're gonna end your bottom. Needs a slide over. Just a hair to get centered. Great. Okay. So we're going to pretend we're on a saddle and you're going to push into the saddle. As you look at your belly, press your hips together and lift into a c curve.

You're going to try to lift your bottom up with your waist and you're gonna point your toes as you do it. So come up a little bit more with your seat. We're gonna come up and up and up and hold right there and now rest flexing your feet. And we're going to do that one more time. Try not to get that involved. There we go. And we're going to scoop in as you squeeze with the inner thighs. Lifting, lifting, lifting. Good. Keep coming up. So we really have this gorgeous scoop here.

Now try to hold yourself there and let your arms come up forward. Good. Now place the hands on the pedal. [inaudible] thumbs with fingers. Heel of the hand on. Yes. This is not an easy exercise. Now we're going to keep your pelvis right here, but you're going to scoop in and push down the pedal. Yes. A reaching this bone away from that one away from that one goes low as you think you can. And start with your lower set. Always curling your tailbone under you and rolling up. Two more.

Go down. That's it. So your belly stick keeps your pelvis where it is and squeeze or the inner thighs and hips and come up using your lower belly and you just got one more in down. That's it, Emily. And then press and scoop it in. Pull in, pull and keeping those legs in front of you. And then go ahead and sit flexing those feet. Fantastic. Swing that right leg over in front of you. Good. And stand up.

All right, we got three more here. We're going to do the pull up. So the pull up is the ultimate powerhouse exercise. Okay. Because you can start off with really a lot of assistance and we're going to start off with um, mediocre assistance here or, or the standard of assistance I should say, which is one top, one bottom. And then we're going to see if you feel like stepping it up from there.

But we're going to come on this side. I always liked setting up my clients for success instead of being like, oh dear. Yeah, you could do that. Let's, let's take a step back. So let's put your hands right here. Good. And your feet are on the floor and put a foot up on the pedal and we're going to bring it down all the way and then bring your other foot up on the pedal and then you want to walk your toes back a little more. And uh Huh.

And a nice Pilati stance. Your hands are going to go to the front edge now and they're going to face forward to and only about shoulder with apart. That's it. Now we want your shoulders directly over your wrists. Good. That's right. And I want you to look up out that way and let your back hang.

This is, I always like my clients to do this because it's exact opposite of what I want you to do in this exercise. I don't want any part of your back hanging. In fact, I want it to look like it's rounding up to the ceiling. So we're gonna bring your head to your chest and you're gonna push your hands. Ooh, you're almost coming up already. Push your hands into the pedal, into the chair so that your chest can really pull up into here. Your ribs can really pull into here and that scoop. Of course. Now I want you to wrap and squeeze, which you're doing already and I want you to as if there's a balloon wrapped around your waist. Make this part of your back float right up to the ceiling.

Don't go to forward all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. And now push it down as if your tailbones leading, then the next bone, then the next bone. Good. You did that really nicely. I would just like you to keep your shoulders right here, man. One more inch. There you go. And Scoop in and lift. Curling your head between your arms too. There you go.

Pulling up in that lower belly and now down with that tail bone first. Good. Good, good, good, good. And one more. Scoop it up. Gorgeous. And down you go. Now to get off, you're gonna put one foot to the floor and control it up with the other. Sorry if I step on your toes and bring that foot down. Beautiful. We're going to step it up just a little bit cause it was a little easy for you.

So the last we're going instead of doing three pumps, so I'm going to bring it down to two bottom instead of one top, one bottom. And we're going to just pull it up and stay up and work on our lower belly lifting three times. So we're put your hands here, one foot on the pedal, bring it down the other foot up. Good hands, they're nice. And you're going to bring your shoulders forward, head to your chest, curling. And again, really use the opposition to pull your chest up into here. Stomach and wrap and squeeze.

So you're going to come forward maybe another inch. And now pull up that pedal all the way up. Staying up, scoop it in, up, up, up, up, up now lower an inch and pull it up and an inch and up. And one more. And now with grace, lower it down and control. Very good. One foot to the floor and we're going to control it up with the other. Nice job. Good.

And we're going to now turn around and we're going to do the table. So part of doing, I'm going to put this one in the middle. Part of doing a really good powerhouse is you have to have really strong hamstrings. So go ahead and sit here and face that way. Good. And put your feet on the pedal toes, I should say. Good.

And you want to imagine like your feet are on a physio ball. Hands are right here. Good. And if you would try to lift your bottom up while your feet are on a physio ball. The ball would just roll away from you if you push too much on the ball so that pedal shouldn't move. It should stay up. Can You keep it up? Good. Heels together and Pilati stance and said pushing down the pallet.

You're going to squeeze like crazy and lift your bottom up into a tabletop. So you're going gonna be a straight line from shoulders to needs. You got it. Lifting, lifting, lifting. Bring the pedal back up. Pull it up. There you go. Lift your bottom up to my hand. Two, one more inch. There you go. Now try to keep your bottom here and push the pedal down and squeeze it up and up and up. So you're gonna keep pumping it and seven more. That's it.

Don't let that bottom go. Now stomach scoops in. You got to get the Combo bottom up to the ceiling, belly into your back. Three more, three and two and one. And sit on down. Nice job. Go ahead and step off. Very good. And now the last one here is extremely challenging.

We're going to go back to one middle and we're going to do pumping, kneeling. So you're gonna kneel down where? From where I am right on top and face the ocean that way. Good. Eventually you're going to do this solo knees a little bit, close forward, somewhere in between. Maybe a tiny bit back and together. Good. But for now I'm going to hold on to your ankles.

Do you have any ankles or Shin problems? Okay, so we're going to pull in our waist and lift our arms up to the ceiling. Okay. Keep that scoop and you see how your bottom is right over your knees. You don't want to sit it back. So you're always going to be squeezing your bottom forward and your belly always pulling in. I'm going to hold here and like a candy cane. I want you to start curling forward. Arms good. And keep curling, curling until your hands go onto that pedal. Good.

Heel the hand on the pedal and go down with the pedal. All right, so your bottom went a little too forward now. So take your bottom back. Good. Now squeeze your seat, curl your tailbone under and pull up that pedal and go down. That's it. And squeeze the seat and scoop. Scoop, scoop and down. Head between those arms and schoolies. And let me see that lower belly pull in, pull in, pulling. Keep pulling in with that lower belly and come all the way up. Curling your tailbone arms up to the ceiling. And Voila. Nice job.

That is enough for our one two chair. So now we're going to come back over here onto our Cadillac and we're going to start off with our push through. How's your stomach feel in an up a lot. All right, good. So uh Huh. Hamstrings always need to talk when we're doing our otherwise, if our quads are sore, not as good. Hands on.

And we're going to hold on probably like so. Yeah. Shoulder with apart. There you go. Keeping the heels there. Bring your look down and we're gonna pretend like we can get our waistband on the mat. Arms and legs. Stay straight. Pull the bar down with you as you try to get your waistband dance scooping, scooping. Good. Now think of your upper stomach, your upper set as you push the bar down. Great job and stretches forward as you can.

Go ahead and you're flexible enough so you can go ahead and enjoy that. And now you're going to slide those shoulder blades down with it. Yes. So that your in your shoulder girdle and the lower back is rolling back first. Good. Push your heels into those poles. Now hold it. We're going to hold this down here and get into that. Lower back a little more.

Yes. And now lift up that bar from your lower back. So go ahead and reach it up and from here, push that bar up to the ceiling. [inaudible] lifting, lifting, beautiful. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Good. And two more. Rolling back ribs in, scooping in. Good from here. Go ahead and push down that bard. Nice job. Beautiful Scoop.

And then go ahead and stretch and scoop back, controlling that bar with those shoulder girdle muscles. And then coming up and extending that back from your beautiful lift of the powerhouse. Nice. One more. Pull back from here. You can get back into that. Sit. Good. Awesome. Stretch and rolling back. Now get into that lower back con scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop, scoop.

Get God and lifting. Nice. Good job. All right, now you're going to leave that bar right there and go ahead and lie down on your back. Yeah. Are you sure? All right. Now and we're gonna um, put your feet up on here. So bend your knees or whichever good and put them right there.

Nice and parallel and not quite on your toes, but not quite on the ball of your foot either. Good. So this is called a shoulder roll down or the Shari talk about hamstring work, glute work. It's great and it's beautiful exercise and it's absolutely delicious. So the whole reason we're doing this exercise, I'm actually gonna take away the pillow. Do you mind or the Pat, um, for this one, um, is because I want you to get the leg extension from that powerhouse so that when we do our legs spring series, you really feel that. So arms a little closer to your side. Good. And I want you to go ahead and um, squeeze your hips together and then curl your tailbone towards you.

Good. You can drop your waist, your belly button a lot more. It's tightening, but it's kind of pushing out. That's it. And keep curling up your bottom. Beautiful and curling up until your a straight line from your knees to your shoulders on this. You always want to make sure that your knees aren't hyperextending cause if they are, then you'll cramp up your toes, your cast. Now take the right leg and try to double kick all the way overhead one, two and back and left one too good. And really get that hamstring stretch. Go for it.

You can do a full split if you want and left and stay there. Now hold the feet there and sink into your upper back. Really enjoy articulating, stretching into each bone, and now really solid waistline on the mat. Bend the knees [inaudible] and push the bar down in a way from your waist muscles. So that powerhouse pulling in and up and really stretching this way as you push away that way.

So you feel that extension and now drop back towards you from your belly. And we're gonna let the legs straighten before we lift and squeeze your seat and roll up one bone at a time. Good. All the way up until your straight line and we'll start with your left leg first. You're going to double pulse one, two, and right. Two and LE. That's it. Nice and right into here. Good.

Both legs up and now melt down into your upper back. And really a long gate too. Yeah. Stretch them out. Reaching, reaching. And you're going to bend the knees and you're going to push him out or do one more set. So do it with a right and a left and coming back. Good. And we're going to school. Ease the hips and rolling up.

Good and you're going to do the right, always pulling in your powerhouse. That's it. And left right powerhouse and left and hold and melting down, scooping, scooping, scooping. Nice. And you're going to bend the knees and do it one more time. Stretching out from that waste, elongating from that waste and then drawing it back in from the waste. That's what we're looking for in this exercise. Good. And squeeze those hips and curl it up.

It's your last one on the left. Beautiful. Rolling up. And you're keeping your hips even without me even saying anything, which is just so nice. That means you're right now your right hamstring and glute are working. And now your left hamstring and glute. Beautiful. Hold it there and melt down elongating and rolling down one bone at a time.

Scooping it in. Nice job and end with the lengthening too. So bending and from that waist length and now good, good, good. And then bending the knees and you can go ahead and hug the knees into your chest. And I got the bar. Nice. All right, so now we're going to go into chest expansion. So you're wanting you to kneel down and face this way. So in chest expansion, you want to be an arms distance away from those pulse.

Good. And your knees are about hip width apart. Good. Your bottom is working really hard to squeeze almost in front of the knee. So that's always pushing forward. The stomach's always pushing back one more inch forward with the bottom. That said, try to get your shoulders to come down. Good.

And now using your belly, pull that bard towards you as much as you can just towards you. Good. That's a big breath. And you look right, left forward and exhale as you release. Good. And again, so scooping in and you're gonna pull in. Inhale this time look left right forward. And exhale. One more set.

Try to get those shoulders to pull down. That's it. Look right, left forward, and exhale. One more. Scooping it in. And you're going to look left right forward and exhale. Nice job. Now slide back a couple inches. Good. And we're gonna do chest expansion.

Put your thumb on one side for me for added safety. Good. Look down at your stomach. Good a little straighter line through here. There we go. And using your waist. We're going to hinge back from the need going back in a straight line. Good. Keeping your head right, looking at your belly.

Lift the arms and inch and come up leading with your hips. Good to me. One more like that. Looking. We're going to warm up for a rolling in and out. Good. And we're going to lift up the arms and hips. There you go. Now we'll go into a backbend once we're back there. So we're going to scoop in. Really feel this good.

And now go ahead and open the collar bones and had nice head to chest and continue scooping in to lift up the arms and hips. One more like that. And Lean. Squeeze forward. Good. And going back straight line straight. Keep straight, keep straight, keep straight. Now you can go back, head to chest and close those collar bones and up you go. Arms Up. Bottom up. Good. Now we're going to rake it really hard and going to rolling in and out.

So you're going to come forward with the hips another inch, and you're going to slide that bar down to the mat, into your backs, a tabletop. Use your stomach to pull it to your knees. Now Start Bending your elbows. As you shave off your bias, you're going to pull it into you. Go back into a back bend, extend the arms, beautiful arms long, and you use your bottom to squeeze up. Stay in the back extension. Good and squeeze up good and head to chest.

Lie down that said, pull the bar to you. Start shaving up those legs as you go back into a back. Then bending the elbows simultaneously. Extend the arms and up you go. That's it. One more in this direction. Slide it down. Pull it into using your powerhouse. Hinge back from the knees.

That's perfection there yet go extending and hips. Now we'll do the reverse. Here we go. Emily, squeeze the bottom forward. Head back to the mat. Pull it into your chest. Shave your body off as you lift your bottom over your hip. Knee, knees, and hips over the knees. There you go. Two more hedging back. Pull it in using your powerhouse head to your chest.

The bottom tries to squeeze over those knees. Hamstring starts screaming. Good. One more time. Thumb again on that other side if you don't mind. And head back. Good. Had to chest and start shaving off the body as you come down. Very good Emily and rolling up from, that's it. Awesome.

Hit all those important points. Really good. How you doing? Good. All right. So now we're going to go into our legs springs. Exactly. So just turn around lying on your back cause we did the um, shoulder, the shoulder one or the Shari, however you want to call it. Shoulder prep, push through. So now we're gonna fuse that back extension and we're gonna put these on your legs. Here we go. Ready?

Bend your knees, both of them. And when we put them both at the same time, Voila. And hands are going to be bent and on your hear. Good. And we're just going to do it with bent arms today. Okay. I'm sure you can go to straight look straight arms, but I just really want to feel, and if you don't feel it, if you need more of a challenge, we'll go to straight arms. But we're going to use the back of the legs and the glutes to go out to a 45 degree angle for our circles. Good. And it's all coming from here. Good. And we're gonna do circles.

So we're going to come up a little bit open and reach out from that waist and squeeze. And this is the tempo we're going to do. I'm going to let go three more. There you go. And scooping. That's it. And reaching. And one more and reverse. Good. I love that. Scoop. Two more. And bend the knees and restaurant and stand by your side. Good.

And we're going to go into walking. So hands back and you're going to extend up actually to here. Good. Let's try that again. Bend the knees and we're going to, before we go out, we're going to get, the scoops are going to scoop and then we're going to go forward. Good. And now using the where the hamstring hits the glute. You're gonna walk down. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and now up to three, four, five, six, seven, eight and down. Two, three, four, five, six 70 and up to four, five, six, seven, eight and down.

Two, three, five, six, seven, eight and up. And the last one set. Really focusing on lengthening. Stretch my springs. Reach them as long as you can from that waist and up to three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bend the knees and rest your arms down by your side. Really Nice. Now we're going to put your hands back and we're going to do beats. So you're going to extend out to me it's waist going up. Good.

Squeeze down one inch and give me 10 beats. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Hold really rapping and squeezing. Go down one more inch and give me 10 more. You don't actually have to click the heels together, but come close to it. Maintaining the springs integrity like that. Yep. And hold last one, scooping in, lengthening away from me, and give it 10 to three, six.

Keep this reaching and hold tie and bend the knees in very nice restaurants. One last time. And we're going to do bicycle so your hands are going to go back again. Good. And you're going to keep this scoop and we're going to keep one leg. Let's keep the left leg in the other one. There you go.

And reach the right one out and then pick up something at the edge of that mat. And then you're going to bend with the knee out inside, outside, outside of that spring. So let's try that again. So scoop, reach out. Good. And as this knee bends, it starts to reach up. So you're going to simultaneously start writing your big wheel. That's it. Good. Down in the middle of your body from your waist. Bending. Good. There you go.

I just like to imagine that I'm picking up something with my foot at the very edge of the Cadillac and bringing it to me. So really work as a long, getting as much as I can. You're doing one more on your left. Good. And now we're going to reverse it. That's it. The reverse is a little tricky. Great Waist. I love it. That's the focus. I could almost care less what you're doing with your legs.

I want this focus right here. This in and out. Good. One more and one more left. Bending that one too. And finishing off with that one. And bend both knees in and rest. Good. We're going to slip these off. Good. And I want you to slide down with your towel so that the top of your heads about right there.

Okay. And I grabbed some palm springs for you. Slide this down to the right level and bend the knees. Feet flat. Probably. Um, two or three more inches. That way she was strong girl. All right, we'll see how that plays out. I want your arms to almost be the s the tension to be pretty good. So maybe a couple inches. There we go. Did I pull on your hair there?

You're right. Okay. Feet together. Knees together. Good. And now you're using those arms still from the waist than those shoulder girdle muscles. Slide those shoulder blades down. Good. Beautiful, straight line in the wrist. And I want you to almost imagine that you're pulling the springs with your shoulders. So pull the shoulder away from ear as you bring the arms straight down to the mat, pool in Poland and bring those arms up. So you're strong, but you haven't got re-engaged your powerhouse to take a big breath and then exhale and we're going to keep yes. And now pull down with that.

That's fabulous. And resist those arms coming up and from this strong powerhouse and that's it. And controlling it up and three. So it's all from that waist, reaching those shoulders and up and two more powerhouse scoops in and up. Yes. Yes. Scoop, scoop, scoop and up. And one more.

And we're going to scoop in yes and good. And bend the elbows for a little break. Good. So all that power comes from here. Yeah. Arms up like we were on those three things. I know they're all grown up. They just add my ground springs to the Cadillac and we're going to pull straight down again from here. Pull down the arms. Yeah.

And now open as you circle up and go straight down again. Pull down and just stay in front of me. Don't go quite so far back. It's keeping that tension. Two more stomach poles. And that's what I'm talking about. One more stomach scooping him. All right. And go into the reverse, Emily.

Right open up and from here and pull it around and scoop a little narrow or with the range of motion. So yeah, good job. And two, one more. I want to see your navels a little more. Give it all you've got. That's it. And bend the elbows just a little bit. Good. Okay. We have one last arm exercise. We're gonna do straight arms up and we're going to pull those shoulders away from your ears scooping in. And we're going to pull the arms straight down to the mat. Supple straight down. Now keep the triceps and elbows there and bend your elbows and use your triceps.

Depress down. And we're gonna do five. That's too good. And scooping in all ways. Yes. And give me two more. Scooping on your last one. Keep your arms straight and then come up with arms straight and we are all done with those. Nice, nice job. Okay, so now we are going to do some the roll backs sit on up and your feet are going to go right here, the last three or rather your treat. So we're going to do the roll back.

Hold those hands. They're good. And you're going to bring your head to your chest, shoulder with yeah like that so that we don't lose it. Head looks down shoulders and start by scooping in and roll out your body God. And now bring the head up so it looks at your stomach and stay down right there. And the great part about this exercise is you can kind of hang out in your stiffer spot. So you're right where my hand is.

You can kind of come up a little bit slower and now come up at a normal tempo. That's it. So you can really enjoy getting that stretch. Good. And just two more. Scooping and pulling back from here. Always from the in and up waste, right? It's not an arm exercise. It's always a powerhouse exercise.

And in her head up and exhale all the way up. Keep lifting and scoop and beautiful. And one more. You make it look easy to keep your heels on that bar. So you're really working your seat to push your heels into that bar.

And that's fantastic. Inhale, lift up your head and then exhale, curl really pulling in and up. That's it. That's it. And that beautiful lift. Awesome. Good. All right, we're going to go ahead and let go of that bar there. And I want you to stay there for a second so I don't step on you while I add the trapeze part for our, um, breathing, you know by that name that we're going to do breathing here. So you're going to spin around now and lie down on your back lower and ice. And yes, your ankles are going to go in there. Ideally this hangs, it's on.

Yeah, your ankles, you're gonna hang it straight down. So probably like one inch back so that it's not hanging out an angle. There you go. All right, we're going to work hard with this bar. It's pretty stiff. Okay. But we're going to bring the arms straight down. Yeah, so, um, the exercise, we're going to lift your bottom up so that the ha exactly. But to me a really quick tempo when you lift up.

So you'll lift it up on the count of one. Your hips are up and your arms pull straight down to your hips. Kay. And then we're going to keep trying to inhale for five. Let's go for five. So one, two, three. Let's lift up and pull, and inhale. Two, three, four, five. Now slowly melt down. Exhaling down three, four, five, again, up to three, four, five. Now let's look at that powerhouse. Let me see. Go in and up and really melt into each bone.

Let's go for six this time and inhale up to get your belly to pull in and up. Even as you inhale and exhale, rolling down the upper back, the middle back, the lower back. Finally, the tailbone. Give me one more for seven and it's inhale up. Two, three, four, five. Inhaling, exhaling, and exhale. Slowly really curl. Really articulate. Lengthen it out and done with those. Now let go the bar, hugging your knees to your chest. Good.

And now I'm going to take this off and we're just gonna finish with half hanging, not full hang. And you can hang out right there for a second and a brain down these fuzzies. I know you're used to doing them all for yourself, but I'm just going to do them for ya. I'm gonna slide this away a little bit. Get it Kinda our outweigh.

And it's basically of the measurement is a little bit past your elbow work. So how tall are you? Well that's pretty good. Okay. I'm not that tall, but all right. And then once you're up here, you're going gonna or down here I should say.

You're going to tell me if they look, even if I need to move them at all. So go ahead and just lie down with your head here. Good. And I want you to put your hands right against these polls and push out to straight arms. We're going to pull your body just a teeny bit. That's enough. Good. And now, how do they look? Are they really off? Or they even, okay.

Bring your knees into your chest. Good. And we're going to curl your tailbone towards you. Good. And Yeah, you can kind of rest on my Shin and we're gonna reach this leg. And can you lift up a little more to get, there we go. Does that feel secure? Good.

And then reach through Bala and now arms down by your side and you get to just haying into that lower back and just let it be in heaven. That's wonderful. You're not holding any tension, you're just letting that lower back hang like a hammock. Looks really, really good. And that's just the end and your treat for working so hard with your powerhouse. I'm sure you're great at full hanging, but we're just going to leave it at half hanging today. Does that feel good? Good. Good. You did really, really good.

We'll let you hang for just a little bit more. Hmm. Thanks for working with me. Go ahead and bring your knees towards you. And this is a cool, you like, just slide right out. Like better. Okay. So just letting me stretch you since you've already done all the work.

So I'll just go ahead and melt you down and press always down and up and then a little circle for ya. That right on your hips too. Usually my clients talk back to me a lot more. You're very quiet. All right. Thank you so much, Emily. Yeah.

Comments

Kinney F
Beautiful. Very clear, helpful cues for deeper work. Excellent selections and nicely balanced. Appreciate your knowledge and experience. Thanks for sharing it.
Excellent class Monica and beautiful movement from Emily. Liked your mermaid variation on the chair.
Monica Wilson
Thank you ladies!
Monica Wilson
Yes! Emilee is a beautiful mover!:)
Great Class Monica! Great flow into each exercise! Loved this class.
Great class! Excellent challenges and cues:). Thank you!
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