Class #1289

Feel-Good Pilates Arc

20 min - Class
231 likes

Description

Your back will feel good after this Pilates Arc workout with Lisa Hubbard. She begins with a nice upper back release to warm up and then goes into core work and back extension exercises like Rocking Prep and Swimming. She finishes the workout with a leg series that will stretch and strengthen your legs at the same time.
What You'll Need: Spine Corrector, Pilates Arc

About This Video

Nov 21, 2013
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Transcript

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Hello and welcome. My name is Lisa Hubbard. I am back to do a Polonius arc class, a balanced body arc. We're going to begin sitting on the arc in the well with the feet and knees together. We're going to reach your arms forward parallel to the floor. We're going to just do a nice little release. We're going to inhale here.

We're going to draw the abdominals in and you're going to lengthen your spine, sweeping your arms, the overhead. Circle your arms around. Let your head rest into the, to the arc, and then draw your chin forward. Round your spine and roll up. Inhale here. Stay around it in that low back. Xcel reaching away from the knees. Sweep your arms up overhead. Get that beautiful stretch.

Open the arms circular round. Draw the chin forward. Exhale round, and let's do five. And again this will be three. Reaching your arms away. Now sweep them up towards the ceiling and back and around. Get that great shoulder release and coming forward. Rounding, articulating up, and two more. Reach a back.

Sweep it around. Curl at Ford. We'll do one more and last time. Roll back, arms go up and around. You can just stay here all day. Curl forward and roll up to a sitting position.

Now you're gonna move your hips off or to the lip actually of the arc. You're going to roll down and your, your shoulder blades are going to be in between the arc. So bring your legs, tabletop to start so it should be quite comfortable. So you're resting right there on the lip of your, um, sacred, sacred to the lip. We're going to start with the a hundred. So we're gonna start with the legs perpendicular. Reach your arms forward, draw the abdominals in. Let's go ahead and exhale everything out. Shoulders down. We're going to inhale pumps.

Exhale to exhale. We'll do 50 like this. Two more. Five out, two, three, four and five in lower the legs. I like this at, this gives you this support in the upper body, but you've got to really work deep. Draw the abdominals back last too. Yeah, that in out two, three, four and five. Bend your knees and release. We're going to stay here. We're going to go the hamstring series abdominal hamstring series.

We're going to go into hamstring pull one and three. So you're going to start with your legs perpendicular. If you can't get the legs fully extended, go ahead and just bend your knee. So we're going to start, we're gonna start with our right leg drawing in. We're going to lower the left leg and you're going to gently pulse the leg towards your chest. Exhaling twice.

Inhale on the exchange XL. Wow. And reach that leg up and overhead. Use a hand just to add that beautiful additional stretch. Exhale twice. Inhale, keep everything still.

It's just your leg. Moving in, in. Switch in, in switch two more. Exhale, lengthening. Get that stretch in the hip flexors and bring the legs up. Good. Now we're going to start with the next one, which adds the rotation so you can keep your knees bent if you like. Take your hands behind your head, you're going to lower your chest.

Take a breath, get that nice open chest, lift up. We're going to rotate towards the right leg, lowering the left leg simultaneously. Tediously and then draw in in switch. Yeah, and three more. Two more.

Last one. Legs in the air. Bend your knees and rest. Good. Now we're going to go into the teaser prep. So we're gonna start with the legs extended on the Mat. Your shoulder blades are just at the arch.

You're going to reach back all the way. So let's start here. You're going to inhale to prepare, reaching the arms and legs and opposition. You're going to hinge from the hips and shoulders. Exhale, lift the head, neck and chest as his arms and legs come forward. Take a breath here. Exhale and reach out and down. Now find that beautiful position. Exhale, lifted up.

Inhale, reach away, lengthening out. Exhale up. Let's do two more. I'm going to make a small adjustment. Reach out. Inhale, exhale. Pull it up to our last one, I think. Yes, take it up. Draw down, bend your knees and rest. Good. Then that exercise is going to be your side lift, so you're going to just turn to the side, extend your leg, your opposite leg out. Just bend this knee in. Lie All the way down.

Just go ahead and arrest down for a moment. Now interlace your hands behind your head. Make sure that your head is in alignment with your spine. We're going to inhale to prepare. You're going to exhale and you're going to lift up. Inhale to lower.

Let's do six and lifted up. Drawing in, you know this, deep in your obliques and three shoulders down. Inhale, lower last three, lift up and lower, and two. These are hard and one more up and lower. Go ahead and reach your arm down and stretch over. Go ahead now open out.

Find that opening in the thoracic spine and bring it back to center. Good. Press up. We're going to turn the arc around and do the other side. Go ahead and lie on your side. Extend your leg out in line with your hip. Reach over square hips off. Take your hands behind your head, drawing up in the abdominals.

We're going to reach out in, up as we lift. Exhale up. Inhale to lower. We're going to do six halfway there. Reach out enough. Exhale one more time and rest. Reach your arms out. Give it a nice stretch. Open it out towards the ceiling. Good.

And bring it back to center. Go ahead and press up and come up to sitting. Okay. We're going to do a couple back extension exercises, so we're going to bring this back a little bit. Are going to lie on her stomach. Tricky part is finding that exact perfect position for the bodies.

So I have my knees just at the lip of the arc and I'm going to give it a little test. Might be too far. So we're gonna go, Ooh, we're not going into a rocking a promise. We're going to just lift up into that. I'm rocking prep and then lower. I think I need to be down a little bit so I don't go toppling forward. That would be embarrassing. So we go in hill lift, exhale to lower.

You have a little bit of a rocket lift. Lift, lift and lower. Think I'm going to readjust. We'll do too. [inaudible]. Inhale up and exhale to lower. Inhale, articulate arch arch. Lift those knees, lift the chest and release.

Now we're going to go into the next back. Exercise the swimming. So go ahead and lie on your stomach prone position. Reach your arms out legs. Let's go. Inhale five and exhale five in three, four last time. Hold Andy, release. Go ahead and just rest back, pushing into the arc. Reach away. Go ahead and give yourself a little bit of arrest into that low back.

Take a big breath in. Start to roll up to a sitting position. And good. Okay, for the next exercise we're going to go into a little bit of additional legwork and you can use, um, you can use leg weights for these or not, I won't be using them today, but we're going to bring the arch here and you're gonna sit on top and we're going to just roll down just to where the shoulders are on the mat. I want to start with the legs perpendicular. You can hold on here. We're going to start parallels. So we're going to take one leg in and one leg away.

So let's go ahead and take the right leg forward and the left leg back. So it's just an exhale. Exhale, inhale, center. Exhale, exhale. Find that beautiful stretch in hell. Let's do five, so I need to stabilize a little bit better here. Let's go. Exhale, make it fluid. Using your inner thighs fully, extending your knees, striking the back of the leg last time. Exhale.

Inhale, Xcel. Xcel n inhale. Good. Let's go ahead and go into opening. So we're going to go. Let's go. Point your legs open. Flex up, point open, full Lexa. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale, reach out. Exhale up. Two more in and last one in and out. Let's stay extremely rotated.

You're going to scissor and helicopter around. Let's do five in each direction. Reach out, flexing the feet as you circle pointed at the top around. Bring it up and around. Let's reverse. Take the left leg forward. Reach out, circle, flex point as you come up, reach around and lift. Last two, last one, and bring it to center. Good.

Now we're going to go into the bicycle, so you're going to scissor the legs and your bottom leg, lowering the opposite leg and just sweep it up. Inhale, exhale. Let's do five in each direction. Fully extending all the way. Reach out. Find that hip flexor. Stretch. Keep your legs parallel. Let's do one more and then we'll reverse the bicycle and let's go up. So we'll reverse. We'll scissor bend the top leg, lengthen it down, brushing the lip, sweep it up, and alternate one. Let's do five and three.

Three stretch it four. Reach it out and left that and bring the legs back up. Good. Now bend journeys. [inaudible] we're going to take it into a rollover. So you're going to extend your legs out. Lift up to 90 peel away from the arch.

Flex your feet, separate your legs, just shoulder width. Now lower your toes to the floor and now you're going to roll down. Keep your thighs close to your body. Keep those feet flex until the legs are perpendicular. Point and circle together. Inhale up.

Exhale over. Reach it so you're parallel to the floor. Flex separate. Lower your feet and massage your spine down. Keeping your thighs close to your body. Point and circle. Let's do two more. Inhale here. Exhale over reaching away from your arc. Flex separate and roll it down. Exhaling.

Use Your abdominals to imprint your spine into the arc circle one time. Inhale here, over reach, flex, open, lower and roll. Roll, roll, roll point. Circle together. Now let's just add some circles. Exhale, reach out. This feels good on my low back to let's do six. Reach out.

Ah, one more and around. Bend your knees and release. Good. Now you're going to carefully take yourself off of the arc and we're going to just end with the pelvic curl. So we're going to lie supine, feet parallel and hip distance apart. Let's just move that a little bit away. Lie All the way down. Arms Resting at your side. Start neutral. Take a big breath in.

Draw all the air out. Exhale, curl your tail under. Don't do what I just did. Keep that still. Keep that arc still. You're going to roll up high as you can. Keep your ribs connected. You should feel those hamstrings activating. Take a breath here.

Lengthen your shins and knees away as you imprint your spine slowly into the mat. Find your neutral position. Take a breath. Exhale, draw in. Hello. Roll it up all the way. Get that beautiful straight line. Take an inhale here. Articulate down, soften your throat, your sternum, your upper back, mid, low back and neutral position. And exhale, peel it up. Okay.

Rolling through the back. Inhale here at the top and roll it down all the way. Good. Let's just do two more big breath. Exhale up. Arms are pressing down. Open your shoulders. Hold it at the top, and Whoa. Exhale and roll it down slowly.

Hello and neutral. Oh, I'm going to pull that guy back and take a breath in. Let's do one more hollow PLF. Roll through your spine in hell. At the top. Articulate down. Exhale, find your neutral position and release. Go ahead and hug your knees in towards your chest. Give it a rock. Inhale and exhaling, and let's roll it up to a sitting position and you are done. Have a great day. Thank you.

Comments

Karin
3 people like this.
Thank you Lisa for this enjoyable start into the day!
Karin
Lisa Hubbard
Hi Karin, thank you for joining me for the workout & happy you enjoyed it!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful way to start my morning! Thank you:)
2 people like this.
Now I know what I want for Christmas- an arc. I can't wait to do this one!
1 person likes this.
Really Great Lisa! Nice deliberate flow and lovely demonstration on the Arc.
2 people like this.
Hi Lisa

Loved the mat arc work... Have you ever thought of a class incoprating it with the reformer?

I teach a series on the reformer with the arc and would love to a class in actions, by a instructor at Pilates Anytime.

Thanks, Tiffany
2 people like this.
Thank you, Lisa- these exercises on the arc give a great feedback on where the body needs to be at all times. Wonderful alignment awareness!
Thanks for the inspirational routine.. I've been looking to purchase this product but can't find one in London... Any idea of where I can find one?
Tiffany ~ Here is a Reformer class taught by Lisa, using the arc as a prop. Enjoy!
Heidi ~ Here is a link to buy a Pilates Arc from Balanced Body online.
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