Class #1300

First Time Session

60 min - Class
26 likes

Description

Niedra shows how she would teach a first time Pilates student in this Mixed Equipment workout. She starts on the Mat so her student can begin to connect to her powerhouse, then moves onto the Reformer to get her moving. Watch how Niedra cues and helps her client figure out the movements.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Mat, Mixed Equipment, Pilates Pole

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

So good afternoon everybody. Uh, today I'm going to give my good friend Maria, her very first PyLadies lesson. So she is genuinely and truthfully a first time client and uh, this is exactly how I would work with anybody who walked into my studio and wanted a session. They've never done pilates before. And I know Maria, I know that she does yoga classes and she likes to swim and uh, I always always ask a client before they start with a fitness background is because then I can, I know what their languages and what they like to do so that I can make their experience within the platas method. Something they can grab hold of. I'd never give someone who is a weight trainer and used to sweating and straining sunlight, visceral kind of workout because I want them to come back and keep them wanting more. So I kind of have an idea about her. Maria, if you would turn sideways just for a minute, I've also already looked at her body.

I know she has a tendency to be rather flat back to, she will have a pattern of tucking, which will be an interesting process to get her connected to her abs. But um, just normally I would have the person to your done. Maria, I would like you now to lie down on your back on the mat, on the floor. Normally I would put them on the Cadillac, but I'm going to do a little bit of math work just to begin with so she can get a sense of how to connect in with her powerhouse. So I would like you to bend your knees up on the Mat and we've just going to do a few floor exercises so you can find your center because every movement you do in [inaudible] comes from that in time. If you were doing, have quite a few lessons with me, these are exercises I would want you to memorize so that you start to do homework because it'll speed up what you do with me when you're together. They want you to turn your elbows very slightly out, have your arms nice and long. This is just, and just gently press down just to give you a sense of grounding. And I already can see that her neck is not comfortable.

I'm putting a little pillow under her neck so that there's not as much tension in your neck is not being too strained. Now I do want you to pull your stomach in which you are already doing nicely and do not over top of the pelvis, but lengths in it. So I want the distance from your pubic bone to rib to be long. So Maria, if you look at me right now, you're doing that. I don't want to do that. I want you to make it long. So nope, that's it. Send your pelvis long.

So your two hipbones and your pubic bone on the same plane. So the pelvis is long and then all of this is down, but it's down because your long, not your short. So this is excellent now. Now without anything changing here, gently squeeze your legs together. Ah, so you take your hamstrings and in a size you activate them and you're doing this really well because you're not talking. Now keeping all of this, lift your right knee up towards your chest. Just bring it up and put it back down again. So you keep your pelvis steady, lift the left leg up and put it back down and lift your right like ups and put it back down and your left leg up and put it back down. And this is very nice cause you're keeping your pelvis steady now just as a practice, lift both knees without anything changing in the pelvis.

Excellent. Now tighten your buttocks and put your feet back down. So just normal movement like mat work. But she's starting to understand how to hold the pelvis and put the legs down. Very nice. One more time like this and put your feet back down on the mat.

Now I'm taking the feet a little bit further out. Keep the inner thighs engaged and lift your arms to the ceiling. Yeah, just up to the ceiling right here. Arms to here. Yes. And what I'd like you to do is lift your head and shoulders up by closing your ribs. So if you lift your head and shoulders up just there. So you flatten this without working here. Lower back down again.

Lift up and bring the hands down to there and lower back down. So I'm at, we're starting to work your upper area of the stomach from here to your waist and lower back down. And one more time like that. Lifting up, lifting up, lifting up and lowering back down. So I just checked that she understands how to work her low abs and our upper abs. Now I would like you to lift up the same way. Lift up again with your upper body.

Have the hands come to here and slightly turn your elbows out cause she, they bend your elbows. Very bend them. Yes, there we go. Now bring your knees up, keep the shape, lift up the legs just to there. Now take a deep breath in and as you breathe out as Paul this stomach and stay in shape, he can deep breath in again and breathe out just the same way and breathe in again and breathe out. So she's learning to breathe without losing your powerhouse. Breathe in. Breathe out. One more time like this. Breathe in and breathe out.

Now lower your head back down. Lower your feet down and rest. Very, very nice. So in time this will become the hundreds. We just checking out the stomach engagement. Now stretch both legs out on the mat very nicely.

I want the hips narrow. See, you can get the same feeling of very stable, long, lower back. This is very good. And now you'll be coming up to a sitting position rolling up slowly through your spine. So lift your arms straight up to the ceiling, right. Lift your head up and look at your belly. Stretch your head right between your arms.

Close those ribs and come up an inch. Come up an inch can happen edge. Come up an inch. Keep your head down, looking at your belly and stretch forward. Very good. Wrap your head way down and then roll back down onto the mat and spread your shoulders. Spread them spread and that's it. So you keep the shoulders wide and you make that stomach work and roll through the spine. Very nice. All the way down. Head down. Arms over your head. Again, bring the arms up right here.

I want you to pull the shoulders away from your ears. Yes. Now when you lift, get these ribs in. Lift your head and chest. And now peel off the mat. Roll up, roll up, roll up. Keep coming up. Coming up, coming up, coming up, coming up. Now this is a tricky part between your hips and your ribs is the waist. I want you to lift, but bend over anyway. Go forward. But keep this lifting. Yes, but keep the ribs back, back, back, back, back, back. Good.

Now you will roll back down and I want you to spread the shoulders. Yes. Roll back. Roll back, roll back. Roll backs are one bone at a time. And a having a good look at her back as she does this to see what the is going on. Very nice. One more time. Maria, bring your arms up. Get your shoulders away from your ears. Yes. Now Peel off the mat, lifting your head and chest and put slightly pushing down with the arm. Yes, that's it. So you make the excellent, excellent work.

So I know she's a beginner, but I also know she's educated in her body so I can kind of ask technical things from her stretch forward and then roll back down. Rounding your spine, shoulders down, away from your ears, shoulders down. That's it. You don't use your shoulders to roll. You use your try and keep going down. Going down, going down. Very nice work. Very long back, long spine. That was excellent. Maria. All the way down.

Now bend both knees into your chest and just can you, can you come up to a sitting position? We'll hold behind the knees and roll up. Pull yourself up. Now we'll do something called rolling like a ball. So when you're sitting, I want you to think that from the base of your spine up to here where the spine usually goes in, you're going to go back, but you don't fall down. You just pull back. So you have this lift of the stomachs. You make your spine like a seeker. So grab here, see if you can back slightly.

So your ribs ago? Yes. Just the same feeling like you are on the floor. Now. Take one foot up and the other foot up. So you balance and everything is in here. Now without the shoulders coming up, let your head go down and look at your belly. So the neck is released. Now Roll back towards your shoulders and roll right back up. Roll back on your back so you roll back and come right back up again and up.

Back up again. Yes, keep round. Roll back again and come back up one more time. Good core work. One more time. Rolling back and roll back up. Now put your feet down for a minute, Maria. Yes, we're getting that stomach to work. Now this exercise is called rolling like a ball.

So you want to think of yourself like a little ball rolling back and forth and back and forth. So when you roll back, just going to grab the Mat. Just take your feet out of the way for a minute. Just move on. Just so I have, here we are just so you can see I've got this round shape. My shoulders are down, hands are here, and when I roll back, my bottom comes up and then my chest comes up. But if you notice what I'm happy, everything is staying in my stomach and you were doing this very well because your body's going to want to do that and you don't want it. You want to stay with this, the ribs and the stomach.

So everything stays like a little China doll back and forth. He learn to hold the power in the center of your body. Let's have you have another go. Come a little forward and round your spine slightly. It's all for you here, right in the low part of the ribs. You take them back, the elbows are up. Yes. And now see if you can lift your knees in the air, open your knees slightly and bring your feet together so you have a little v-shape. Good. Keep that shapes. If you can roll back towards your shoulder blades and come up again, back you go, come right back up and balance.

That's the idea back again. Have another go and come up and balance better. Remember Maria, look at me. Remember not to come straight to stay around. Have a go round here. Yes. Make that strong and back.

You go back and up better two more times. Back. You go and come up. Yes, yes, yes. One more time and come up hole that and balance. Put your feet down. That was excellent. So the fight is always the back muscles. The front muscles. Yeah. It's a new field. Yes.

Often in Yoga we do a lot of things very open here. We bring the energy in a little bit so that this part gets very strong and stable. So it's a good tool. Now we'll move on to this piece of equipment. This is called a reformer. There's over an hour of exercises that can be done on this. They're often in this machine. This one is a grotto piece of equipment.

We have four springs, but as Maria is very slim, I'm putting her on three springs to start the foot work. So let me show you how you're going to sit down. You will stand with your feet close, right to the front of the Pella. You hold your hands up in the air and you pull the stomach in all the way up to the ribs the way you did, and you bend the knees, keeping the weight with the stomach to sit down. Then you use your hands to lie back down on your back.

And we check that you're in the middle of the machine. So we want you to really pay attention to how to sit down because this is how people usually sit down. They fall. If you notice when you sit in a chair, people usually grab the chair, they grab the table, and now you're learning to gain a little bit in and you let the knee slightly open. So the legs take you down and the stomach and back support you. So let's have a go.

Sweet. That looks good. Hold your elbows. Pull yours. That's right. Pull your stomach in and bend your knees and lower your bottom down. Lower, lower, lower, lower, lower and come back up again. Stand up again. So did you feel when you sit down that you went like that way out?

You did? Yes. So we want you more long here. Not Short. So here we go. Stop bending the knees and bend the knees, bend the knees, bend the knees, keep bending the knees, and you have to build up the strength at the chest. Come a little forward, but that was better. So there's a little it. Don't take time. Okay, now you will lie down on your back. You can let go of your hands and you will put your head here and your feet up here and lie down and wiggle yourself all the way up. And now the feet will be bent one foot and one foot.

So we start with foot work to work the legs and the feet. And you start in what we call [inaudible] stance, which is a very slight turnout with the legs of very, very slightly turned out. So the heel that together, your knees are the same distance as your shoulders. So everything, this is what we call them, [inaudible] the box. Everything's lined up with your own body and your hands are here for you. I want the elbows out a little bit so you can have this sense of pressing down. Now the pelvis is just like you did on the floor, the ribs a little bit down and I am going to have you lift your head a little tiny bit and put it back down so it's a little bit.

Now bring your chin up slightly. There we go. This will help you get your ribs down. Yes. Now squeeze my hat fingers a little bit. Yeah. Meaning I want you to think of bringing the calf and the Hams. Yes. And slightly squeezes muscles. Yes. So you engage underneath and without the heels moving, press out, keeping your stomach. And so you work from these muscle to push.

Push and now push with your feet or your legs will go to straight. There you go. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Keep going. And Bend your knees to come back in. Very good. And the same thing again. Your hips are tight. Squeeze your bottom right here. Yes. And press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press to straight and come back in. Now, this is the idea, one thing to look for out for when you're going out.

You're doing this a huge amount. So you're working in the pelvis. I want you to work more here. So knees are just in the short squeezes muscles. And now keep yourself beautifully long the way you are now and press out without any better. Keep going, keep going, keep going and make the legs. Do the work. Yes, Maria. Beautiful. And come back in.

So your pubic bone and hip bones don't move. They say steady and your back stays long. Presided again. Press yes, yes, yes. Make those legs and hips work and come back in. Lovely. And again, press out. Press or push and come back in. Very nice.

Two more times like this and press. Make sure those muscles are working and come back in. Just shoulder width. One more time like this. Press out. Make those hips work. Nice. Nice. Watch you don't over talk and come back. And you felt it now.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's a trick because you're strong in these muscles, but you're not strong here. So we want cute buns. Now, this next one is called bird on a perch. You know how a bird claws when they wrap their feet around. So it's the same thing. You're just below. It's the same feeling. But now we bring your knees together, you bring your hamstrings together and you take the toes and you wrap them down.

Like you're doing that so very long. But bring the heels down towards me. Yes, yes. And press down here now. So it's a funny feeling. The feet are doing this. We're getting a stretch across the toes. We want the hips tight and the knees together.

So everything is lined up with your nose and out. You Go, press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press and come back in. It's, it's hard, Huh? And go again. Press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press long. And come back in. And again, keep the toes wrapping down. Press yes, and back. So everything is staying together. So you're training your legs to be straight again.

You wrap these muscles and press from here. So squeeze your buttocks and yes, now don't talk. You just have to bring them together. Yes. That's it. Now present. Keep lovely, lovely, lovely. Press good. And back and two more times. Press, press, press, press and back. Excellent work.

And last time press press, press reaching long and come back in. Excellent. We move onto the heels. Pull the toes way up. So use any, like in yoga you spread the toes wide. Think of your little toe and your big toe up to the knees as best you can. The legs are together, your hamstrings eye together.

Your belly is beautifully in and your ribs are into the mat. Out You go again, press. And the feeling is from the stomach to the heels. Press all the way out and come back in. Keep your back nicely down. I don't know. Do you see how the very first thing you did you talk though? Yes. We don't want that typing. See if you can press out without doing that.

Ah, yes. Go for it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And come back in. It's better now I'm taking one spring off. So she's on two springs. Now. Squeeze out you go again. That is better. Yes. And back. Two more times. Much better now. I think the spring was so strong, it was hard for you not to go into your old beautiful cause.

Now you're getting this long back, long stomach, long legs with and one last time. Tighten those hamstrings and come back in. Okay, now we do tendon stretch. Now where you go up and down with your ankles, you move back into what we call [inaudible] stance. So all five toes on knees, only shoulder, height, buttocks, nice and tight. And press all the way out with your legs to straight, keeping your heels together. Go, go, go, go, go.

Narrow the inner thighs. Lengthen your pubic bone to me, Maria. No other way down. Yes. Yes. So your long in the pelvis. Even more down to me. Yes. So not like this long. So this is long. Now keep yourself there. This is a good wrap. Press your heels down towards me.

Yes. Bring. Bring the heels down. Down, down, down, down, down. Yes. And then up again. Now this is going to be tricky cause I want you also to keep your heels together so you can let the knees have to shift. Yes. You keep the heels together for you. Your knees have a tendency to go into an x so you can't let the knees go totally straight. We have to retrain your legs. I want your heels together and figure out how to keep lower the heels down and keep these muscles and your knee, your leg go, go, go. That's it.

Different. Huh? Those are those tight calves that you can figure out why they get so tight now you making them work differently. Yes. This is a monster machine and um, yeah and up and down and up. Fabulous. What you're doing. Keep the legs as close to straight it. Just like don't let them bend too much, but you're doing excellent.

And two more times, lower those heels. Lift them one more time. Lower the heels and lift them. And now bend the knees to come back in. Lovely, lovely, lovely work. And just bring the knees to your chest for a minute. Give yourself a hug just to relax cause you did well. No, I'd like you to hold these hands.

Keep the knees in and Ho just just like that and stretch your arms up to the ceiling. So this is right. Don't pull, don't pull yet. Now this is a thing, elbows for you slightly out. Maria's elbows are those zigzag type. Her knees are a zigzag types, so there's a lot of retraining of the muscles. So now I want you to stretch the shoulders and hands as high to the ceiling as you can. Lift your head up and look at your belly and look way forward. And now pull with these arms up and pull, pull, pull down, down, down, down, like you're trying to touch the window.

Do not straighten the elbows that way. Keep them like that. And I'll push long from your shoulders into your hands and then lower back and let your head drop back to the mat. That's the movement. So you'll be going up and forward. So lift up and pull head forward. So you make this work or yes, yes, yes, yes.

Close to you and back down. Very nice. And again, lift. Lift your head, look at your belly, stretch everything down. Excellent. Maria. And back. Two more times like this. Lift and pull. Pull, pull, pull. Push those arms down. Yes. And back. Last one.

Lift. Pull, pull, pull. She's on two springs right now and come back down. So we're beginning to train her towards hundreds. Excellent. Maria, that was good. Put your feet here. Take a rest. So putting on some strap extensions on the grafts. Three former to do frogs and leg circles, just so she can start to get a sense of extending the legs with from this, reaching them from the stomach. So this next exercise is not about strength.

It's about controlling all the movement from your belly. So first of all, just push out with your legs. Just no, keep the feet here and just push out. Exactly. You're helping me now lift one leg up. It doesn't matter because both feet will come in here, but I want one foot up. Lift. One foot in the air. Let's get it in. Yes, keep pushing to it. Bring the other leg up. That's it. Bring your heels together. It's like space, rocket science. Then your knees now and open your knees.

Open your knees. Open your knees so your feet are down close to your bottom. You see all these straps run right by the shoulders. That's exactly where you want to be. So this position is called a frog's position.

You want your knees just in line with your own shoulders? Nope, that's too narrow. You've got broader shoulders just like that. Your heels are together. Your toes are just a little tiny bit apart, little v, little tiny baby, so little space, but the heel stay together. Now remember that stomach, remember the buttocks like you did a minute ago. Now without from those muffled, I want you to push out to your feet. We'll go where my hand is. So out you go. Push, push, push and feel that you extend from the stomach. Good.

Don't tack but long, long, long legs. And then bend the knees back. Watch those knees not too wide there. Push again. And as you push you feel the stomach long out to where my hands are. Go press, press, press, press, press, press, press, and then come back again. So it's not about locking your legs, it's about learning to float them from your pelvis, from your powerhouse. Good. Again, press buttocks tight, not too high out. Push, push, push, push, push, push and back. Good. Bend your knees back and again, press.

So almost like you want to think of pressing from your stomach. Yes, you connect the legs to the stomach. Beautiful. And back. And one more time. Priests out. Just the way you did press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press long. I'm just going to do a little adjustment. This hip down. Yes. So we square your hips, your buttocks are tight. I want these little tissues strong. Squeeze your bottom. Good.

Now your feet. This next one is called leg circles. So you lift the legs a little bit, open them the width of the machine, tighten your buttocks and bring the legs down and bring them together so you do a little circle squeezing the whole time and pull down and together. So in a minute I will let go and you have to control your feet. They're going to want to do a big movement and you have to keep it controlling from your stomach and your back. And I'm lightening now. That's it. Make those legs work. Excellent. Two more times, you lift open and they have to be even right and left leg work in just the same.

And now again, up in the middle out, just a little bit down together. Now, totally on your own. Last one, lifting up, opening out. Squeeze your bottom to bring the legs down and lift your legs up again. Okay. Bend your knees in. Then put your feet here and now you will come to a sitting position and get off the machine.

So you have to take both feet, swing them to the side and come to a sitting position first of all. So see if lift your head and swing up to sitting both feet. Come here, make sure your bottom is all on the mat and you will stand up the way you did. No hands stomach. Get strong bottom and see if you can sit and stand up [inaudible] and come up. Good girl. Okay. Now we did everything.

You can relax your arms. We did everything lying down. You'll do just a little bit of legwork again, but now you do it sitting. So up to now, we've also been working to find the stomach when you pull your stomach in and learn to contract here, you making lengths in your back. So we're changing the pelvis, changing and strengthening the deep stomach muscles so that later you upright. This next one is called stomach massage. I'll just demonstrate it quickly. You'll sit down the way I did a minute ago. You did a minute ago. Swing your feet around, pop your bottom up and bring the tail slightly under.

So you come and then you bring your one foot up and one foot up and see if you can get your shoulders over your hips. So do you remember when you did rolling like a ball? It's the same feeling. It's exactly the same feeling where you hold your trunk. So once you're here you'll just be pressing out and coming back. Very nice and rounded.

This is here because your slide a little bit. Let's have you. Same Way. Strong, long waist. Oh yes. Beautiful. Lift and bend your knees. Sit down. Nice, Maria. Okay, good. Now you can undo your hands. You swing around in first. Just put your feet here. Now make sure you're in the middle.

Lift your bottom up very slightly and instead of sitting on top of your bottom, slightly under. So lift your bottom up and Tuck it under lift and bring it under. Sit. Sit down like that. Now you get to have your bottom like that. Bring one foot up, one foot up. So you have this Little v, and now bring one hand forward and one hand forward and look down at your belly.

And also with your elbows you pull, that's it. But You keep the stomach lifting as you going over. Shoulders are down a bit. Lovely. Now keep that position and press out with your legs as though someone's pushing into your belly right there. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So they come to straight and come back again.

Hmm. And again, press, push, push, push, push and wrap these muscles around. Stretch and come back. Excellent. And again, priests out push and back. Excellent. Maria. No, you're doing that. So we're at, well, I'd like you to go faster. So push a little faster. Press with control and come back and press with control. Push and come back. Excellent.

Two more times and push and back. And one more time like that. And Post and back. Very, very nice. Now you will put one hand behind you on the rest the other hand. So up to now you've been rounded.

Now is the first time you get to sit up tall. So use the hands and stretch your back up. The only thing is I want the shoulders here so you very broad. Head is straight, belly is in. You feel strong and long.

But I want the hands here just to you. Stay wide. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So lift your face and out you go. Push back and nice, big, broad [inaudible]. Keep those heels together and come back. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And out here, beautiful work. Lift that back up and to keep those shoulders down. Very nice. And again, feel the lift in the belly. Yes. And three good. Yes, the lift is in the stomach and off the shoulders. Yes, that's it.

You get power down below two more times and long through the crown of the head and down. One more time and press lifting up, lifting up, long back. Beautiful work. Come back in. Very nice. Swing your legs off in front of you. Hold your elbows with your hands and stand up. Very good.

Now we will be moving onto a series called round back. I mean short box. This box when it's sideways, it's called the short box. When it's like, this is the long box. So you're starting with the short box. So you noticed in the last exercise we did around shape and then we did a flat shape or straight shape. This is over and over and over. Getting Pilati is all different exercise you do round to work, the stomach to work the back to work, the stomach to work the back.

So coming up I would like you to sit with your bottom here and your feet in front of you under this strap. So you'll have your legs in here. You want your feet nicely flex. So you have to pull the toes up. So they are flying in space and you measure where your bottom is by putting one hand behind you on the box. So you sit one hands with from the edge, not like that sideways. Now move your bouts a year.

This is the NGO bottom has to be right here. So we go back, we go wiggle, wiggle. Yes. Just like that. That's where you sit. And now you can your hand back to your belly. Now the reason you sit like that is you'll be rolling back and we want your lower back on the box when you go back. So it's supported and this is your safety net. So you always keep your feet here because otherwise you fall no, just straight and you can slightly bend the knees. So you feel the stretch here.

Now what you'll be doing, this is round back. You roll back just the way you did on the Mac where you roll down very slow and then roll up again. So hands are here just to help you get the feeling of your belly in head is down. You looking at your stomach and you are already rounding. Now your bottom will be tight and start to roll back and you press your tail. Then you're sacred room strongly in just to hear.

Keep your stomach in and roll up, pushing your stomach in. Very nice. Roll back again. Head is down. Press your waist under. Go roll, roll, roll, roll. Roll. Just to there and pull the stomach in and come up round. Yes that it's you really articulate your back. Roll back again.

Bottom type. Press you back into the box and roll back up. One more time. Like this. Rolling back. Keep the knees slightly bent so you pull on the strap. Good, good, good, good. And then pull the stomach into, bring you back. He, yes. Very nice. Now this is fun. Let go. Hold behind your calves. Let your head hang down and just be like a ragdoll.

Nice and loose and you get to have a massage. So this is sugar. After you worked hard, now roll up to a sitting position again. And so this last one was around back. Now we do flap back where the spine is now straight. So I want you first of all to hold this, just the width of the stick.

So you're nice and tall and without anything changing, just float the stick up. So if you're looking straight forward with your eyes, you can just see it, but it's just above you. So take these. The head stays normal. Head stays normal and the arms come up. Always in. Always. Yes. Now bring the arms down again Maria. And I want you to think of your shoulders down like your face is a beautiful picture.

So as you come up the picture stays because really the power is here. Not here. Suzie, I make the elbows soft for you or yes. Now see if you can lift. Ah, better. Yes. Let's practice. Take the arms down again. So we member when you go up, only here.

So it's in front. Na. Yeah. So lift up, lift up, lift up. So nothing's changing here and back too far back, too far back. Can you see the stick with your eyes without looking up? If you look straight ahead, right? So you only want the stick. If you're looking at me, you want it in your peripheral vision. See the stick here. It's too, I can see anymore.

Now I can see that's how high you go at at, at beginner level. Just about, because you don't want to strain the shoulders. You just want to have practice lifting your arms without anything happening in the back. Yes. Lifting shoulders down. That's it. Yes. So the neck. Beautiful. Good. And now this next time I wa lift again and just stay there.

So you lift. Yes, yes. Look straight ahead. Now bottom tight, lift here without anything changing. So the power's here. So everything's long and strong and now you keep that and you go back just a little bit straight back, back. You go just like that. And then you come up again. Yes. And again, lift here and back. So it's not the shoulders, it's the stomach. So this is flat lift long. That's it. And back one more time. Big Lift up, up, up, up in the lower body and long back and come back.

Very nice. Always remember to flex the feet because if you fell that they, and now you bend over sugar time, you get to relax, relax, arms, relax your shoulders, relax your spine. So you work and then you read blacks and you work and you relax and you work and you relax. Come back up again. So we did round back, we did flat back. Now we go side to side, all the different directions his spine can go.

So first you start the safe. You have a long body, so you lifting up the hole. But when your arms come up, they say shoulders are down and you just look naturally, normally forward. Nice. Now tight. Lift up, down below. And I want you to stretch off to one side. No, not twisting, just like this. Over, over, over a little bit. Not the arms, but the waist. Come back. Look in my direction. Maria. See, look. So it's not this, it's here. Oh yes. So you have to find space in the this and back and lift.

Arms should be in front and over to one side. Reaching from here and back and lift. Keep those hands. Shoulders down. Yes. It's all down here. So it's not going to be a big movement at first until you figure this out. Yes. One more time.

Lift and first side and back arms, a little full. Shoulders down, right and other side and back. Pretty good. Bend forward. Hard work. Little moves. Once you break, now you get sugar town. I had a client once years ago who named this part sugar and it stuck ever since for the last 15 years at the end short box. We all get sugar with my sugar. I don't even eat. So they'll go figure. I'm not a sugar person, but Maria, you come back up, I should call it honey. Right?

So now we did side to side. Now you'll do rotation. So you'll be twisting the, this is a thing again, the shoulders, it's from here to here that the, you figure out how to make it happen. So we'll see what happens. Bring the arms in front, get a sense of a long back, long stomach and just float the arms up. This is getting better. Yes, yes. That's it. That's it. Now, bottom, tight and strong. And now just twist to one side, twist towards the ocean and feel all the way the stomach and the with.

Nice. Come back and back to the middle and other side. Twist and back. Very good. And now, big tiny, long waist and first side twist and back and lift and twist to the other side. Shoulders at Dow, twist and back.

And one more time. Lift in, twist shoulders a Dow. Nice and back. And last one, twist, twist and twist and back and bend forward. Relax down. Let yourself let the shoulders be soft. The neck be soft, the back be soft and the legs be soft. Very, very good. Now come up. I'd like you to take the stick.

We no longer need the stick. The stick just goes there. Now sit a little bit back cause you wiggled forward. No, take your bottom back a little bit. So the feet are not on the wood. This next one is to start to stretch the hamstrings cause we've already worked the back. Now in this position, I want you to round yourself back a little bit so you roll back of your bottom. So roll back a little tiny bit. Then they stay there for a minute. It doesn't matter because right now we're just setting you up for the exercise.

Does the little tiny bit. Now take one knee Maria, and bend it in. You take it out of here. This foot has to stay flexed. Flat. Yes. Now how close can you bring your knee to your chest? There is your position. So you have a slightly rounded shape, but your thigh is right in here. So you have a very curve. Now you're, you keep your holding your side in and just easily re lengthen the leg and bring it back again.

So you want to feel from underneath and back? Yeah, isn't good. Lengthen. So what? You're doing this so well and down. So you just go back and forth without letting the knee push back. So you really open up in the lower legs, upper legs, right up there. You're doing so well. Lift and down.

Now one more time. Lift just like this. Keep your leg there and walk your hands to your ankle. Hands come up and flex and point a few times. Just the stretch extra. Yes. And when you flex, I want around you. That's it. Special effects. Very good. One more time.

Very good. Now your hips are steady. You will bend this knee and put your foot here like half loaders like we do in yoga, but you don't change your bottom. Now put your hands one hand here, one hand here on the side. Feel yourself nice and even and just bend over like you did a minute ago over your leg. Just to give a little bit of a stretch in the hips, but you stay very even here. So the spine is nice and even excellent.

Come back up and you'll change legs. You do the same with the other leg. So put the foot in, move your bottom back a little bit so you sit. Sit more back. Good. Remember first you round, you stay on both hips and you round back now without anything moving here. Bring this knee in and hold with both hands underneath. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're correct. Right there. I want this in a bit. So you're like in there and now pull this knee in.

So the hip [inaudible] square, the shoulders are squared, the belly is strong and without anything keep the Niklos to your chest. And if the leg up so you want to feel from underneath up, bend it back down. And again, lift and back down. And again, Lyft, very nice and back down. Bring the knee in more and lift the leg. Feeling from underneath the stretch. Yes.

And Dow good. And one more time. Lift and down. Very nice. Now lift your leg up again, feeling from underneath. Walk your hands to your ankle and flexing point a few times. Flex your foot, point your foot, flex your foot, point your foot you. And keep your shoulders down. And yes.

And 0.1 more time like this flex and point. And now bring the foot to half Lotus. Check that you're here. Even with the hips, put your hands on the side of the box. Even to everything is always even. And now you bend over even.

Yes. Oh Kay. Come back up and step off the box. So you get to the floor just above the machine. Very good. And next one is called knee stretch series.

So this is to work into your quads. So what you'll do to see how I have my foot really flexed, both legs really curled under as the legs aligned. Now round shape again, the stomach comes in, the bottom is under, and I'm making this very round shape. My hands are pushing into the ledge and you push out and pull the legs in. Push and pull. Push and pull.

So it starts to work. The thighs. Yes. So you will kneel, get the toes under if possible. All five toes. Yes. Knees in line with your feet. Good. Now how round can you make your back? Yes. Now can you get your bottom almost to your heels back, back, back, back, back. And your head is in there.

Now you just push with the hands, keep this wide and don't just the middle of your feet. Squeeze your bottom tight and push out with your legs. Push and pull the carriage in. Good and push. Keeping the sander and pull. And can you push out more? Push, push, push, push, push and pull those legs in and push and pull the legs in and push and the knights in. One more time and push, push, push, push, push and pull the legs. And no more than that. Very nice. Now step off the machine. That was very nice.

This was an ex you liked it. Yay. Remember how you were lying down at the beginning? I want you to lie down the same way again. So you turn to face sideways. When you bottom come close to me. Hold your elbows. [inaudible] and now you sit down, you sit down and make the legs work and make this. Yes.

That's it Maria. That's a little better. Good. Now you can do your hands and lie down on your [inaudible] back. Yes. Feed will be up here, but you need to wiggle down a bit. Very good. So this next one, your feet are here in the middle. I've got her on two springs. I want those elbows out.

Yes. And the shoulder. Can we go up? So you right up against the shoulder rest? Yes. Yes. Just push yourself up to the shoulders are right up there. Yeah, you may not be able to hold here. There we go. So that when you push out, yeah, you push out those shoulder sh kind of block you. Now the other nice thing on this machine is it's like a grid. I want you to lift your head up and look at yourself. Are you in the middle? Just look up and see if you about symmetrical.

And you also look at your feet here to see. Are you in the middle? Much better. Yes. So you're always checked cause we always about you always make sure you're in the middle. So the machine helps you become more symmetrical. Lie Back Down. Now what you'll do, you're going to push out a straight and then you will bend one knee and one knee. So you, you, we call this running, but you don't do salsa dancing. You have to hold tight. So let's have you. Nice, nice stomach, nice buttocks. Push out with the legs, the stray push, push, push, push, push. Long. Excellent. Not Too much like this, Maria. Less push your pelvis too.

We member. I don't want you too much like this. Take your pubic bone and lengthen it towards me down. Think of you about this a little bit. Yes, yes. It's like you're, it's too much up. Even more down. That's it. To get you back flat. I don't want you here.

I want you here that they are. That's what we're going for now. Nice. And for me, you're very good. Bend one knee and push this heel down, down, down, down, down. More, more, more, more, more. Go all the way. Big stretch and then come back up in the middle of the push ups of both knees are straight.

Now the other leg goes down, this knee comes up, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, push, push, push, push, push. And then lift up straight. First leg again. Push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, rats and up and other leg, push, push, push, push, push. Yes. Knee, right to the ceiling and lift. And again, push that. Sit. You've got the feeling now. So keep going from buttocks and a little faster. So you start to go and one up, one and one. So no salsa dancing. Remember, this is not salsa time.

This is very Joe. You're German. This is German. Nothing moves, just our knees, just our feet and press and press. So what you're building is a lot of stability. So the lower back is strong, the stomach, the back of strong and the legs. Learn to work correctly so that you have a good healthy body. Then you can go out and dance and do skiing and salsa dancing as much as you like no back problems.

And one more time and press and press. So you're still wiggling a little bit, but this is lesson number one. So it is okay, come back in. This next one is called pelvic lift. Your beater on the corner. So your knees, your feet, you're liking this funny v now I'd like you to, your hands will be like this. You lift your bottom up and put your hands under your bottom. So lift, measure, that's the height and not too just like that long.

Now your bottom stays there. Not to like this long. Lainson here. And then put your hands down so you, you stay up in the air with your bottom just long. Now you go out and and like that. So your pelvis doesn't move and you come back. Keeping yourself steady in the air.

Nothing moves after the figure out how to hold all of that and to and press and three and press and for and press and five and press and six and press and 7:00 AM press and eight, two more times. Then press and nine and last one and press 10 10 and now roll down. You're done. Oh yes. Roll. Roll, roll, roll, roll. C and long. Very nice. Bring your legs together and just come to a standing position so your legs will come to one side. You sit comfortably on both sides. You get your hands in front, nice firm belly from buttocks and stand up with the lengths of the legs and come up very, very good. And relax your arms.

Now you've done a lot of rolling, a lot of working with the legs to finish. We'll do something called wall that's also part of the mat work. I'll show you what you will do. You'll be standing right here with your back to the wall. So just like lying down from your hips to here.

You will try to be long without being too much like that. But maybe your head will be up, you know one oh there you have a little pillow here you, there's no pillow. We have your knees for you a little bit bent and then you roll down just like you did on the floor looking to peel yourself off the wall with the stomach from and then you roll up looking to see if you can get a sense of length through your back all the way up because we're taking your spine and you're making it free. Getting it long and open. An intelligent, not stupid spine, but smart spine. So you will have your stand here. Your feet have to be forward. That's it. Even more forward for you. For now.

Yes. So you start just with a nice sense of vertical. Good. I'd like your heels together. Feet a little closer and just slightly bend the knees for now. What this does is it lets you have these muscles. Yes.

So we start to change how your knees are good. Now drop your head, drop your arms and start to roll down, pulling your stomach in, lengthening this part of your back. So everything is being stretched from your tail to your head. Just like that. And now you roll up again. Get this in right there. That's it, Maria. Yes. Now, especially the lower ribs. Lovely.

Shoulders are down. And then somehow inside the middle of your body, I want you to feel beautifully, not shoulders in the middle. Under shoulders. Yes. One more time. Drop round, roll, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Lovely. The arms are nice and loose and relaxed. Natural arms and then roll up again. So tail is under sacred. [inaudible]. Nice lift in the waist. The ribs go long and wide. That's it.

This is down. Shoulders are down. Yes. Head is beautifully lifted. So you feel all this strength. And now just to finish calming, stancing, push away from the frost. Stand on your feet and test. Take a moment to feel this natural. So with you, you there, you want the arms not too far back, just natural hanging.

The strength is here and the head is naturally up in relaxed. So everything is relaxed. So you did very, very well for your first lesson. That was the range you experienced. Yes. So the first lesson, people really just figuring out the exercise. I firmly believe in working the student a lot. Make them more card, have them, ha, make them have fun, and they'll come back for more, which I hope she will. Thank you.

Comments

Great video! Thank you so much. As a new instructor this video was explicit in language and reassuring as well. Super cueing!
Loved everything you had to offer,
Niedra Gabriel
So glad you found this helpful Maureen.
1 person likes this.
I know this is an older video, but the first time I've seen it (my Apple and Roku don't pull up all videos in the apps?).

At any rate, WOW. What great cueing to make sure you engage the Powerhouse. I found this practice wonderful.

Niedra you are one of my favorite instructors on here in thoroughness and personality.
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you so much for your comment Stephanie, as always I enjoy getting feed back on the videos and am thrilled you enjoyed it and got insights from it. Enjoy your journey - always.
Svitlana V
Beautiful ladies! Love all your videos, Niedra. Thank you so much.

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

Welcome to Your Pilates Era

Experience Your Joy

Let's Begin