Class #1408

Upper Body Pilates Arc

45 min - Class
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Tom McCook brings us a well-rounded Pilates Arc workout that will challenge your core, arms, and back body. His simple but effective cueing will take you through Roll Backs, Bridges, Push Ups, Swan, and Leg Series, among other exercises. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Pilates Arc

About This Video

Jan 21, 2014
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Welcome everybody. I'm Tom Cook. I'm here at PyLadies anytime for an art class. We live in mountain view, California at center of balance. We're really happy to be back for another round, so we're going to start sitting on the, on the arc, so come to a seated position with your hips in the well and when you sit, have your legs bent with your feet about four to six inches apart and get right up on your sit bones and hold the front of your knees are a little below and we're going to just start with breathing, posture and pelvic core activation. So grow tall with your inhale on the exhale. Imagine from the base of your pelvis, your pelvic floor.

You're going to engage as you draw the lower belly in. Press into your feet, feel your inner thighs and just to feel that whole lower connection as you go to the end of your exhale. Inhale, grow tall, widen and lower the shoulder blades a little more as you draw the belly in and up towards the front of the spine. Let's do that for two more breaths and just get a sense of sensing your body, your center line with your breathing. And one more. Now this next one, as you start your exhale, feel like you're narrowing your sit bones and you're going to length in the lower back just slightly to the back and do a little bit of flection, but not all the way into the arch. Inhale, lengthen right back up on your sit bones and again, grow tall and then hollow back. Let's do that two more time. Start to feel from your feet to your hamstrings, to your pelvis, to your belly. And one more. And exhale. Feel the lift to go back.

And let's do you want to cultivate throughout all of the abdominal exercises and the spinal movements grow tall. Now reach the arms forward. Shoulders are low and wide. Feel that lift curl back just to your, feel your lower back. Touch the arch. Then inhale, roll back up. Arms will state the same height and relationship to the body. Exhale, curl. Okay. Inhale back up and get a sense of moving evenly with length.

Equal pressure into both feet. Ah, inhale up. Now we're going to increase it. Were you going to go all the way back into extension to keep the neck long and as the arms reach back, keep a line out the top of your head. Circle the arms as the arms become below the shoulders. Curl back up. Let's do three more like that. Nice and smooth.

Getting each part of the spine to touch the arch before what's above it? Reach and circle and curl. Feel like you're drawing your waistline into the arc to come off the arc. Feel the bottom activation. Curl back nice and smooth. Use The arc to open your spine. Turn on your core muscles.

Let's do one more exhale. Peel back breasts, bonds, softens, circle, nod and curl. Very nice from there, slide right up onto the lip of the seat and straighten your legs and have them shoulder with the part for spine stretch, so get right up on your sit bones active legs and reach your arms out at shoulder height. Grow tall on the inhale, on the exhale as you nod your chin, rather waistline back and up as you curl over. A beach ball, active legs, active arms, active core. Inhale the stack and let's do three more nice and fluid. Feel the lift through your waistline to go forward. Inhale the stack each time. See you can get a little more activation with the inner thighs and the belly.

That's it. As you stack, stay right up on your sit bones and two more. That's it. Nice long neck all the way through. Inhale up and one more time. Exhale fully and how to stack it up tall. We're going to go into side spine stretch, so take your outside arm up overhead, get read up on your sit bones. Inhale to grow tall and imagine your outside sit bone is going to stay weighted as you side bend on the exhale. There you go. Inhale, grow tall, switching arms. Exhale over. Go into the sit bone. You're moving away from inhale up active legs, shoulders stay low. Make sure you don't let the head drop forward, which has a tendency to do in this movement. Inhale up tall. Exhale over. There you go. Two more. Each side. Nice and fluid.

Imagine the shoulder blades are swinging out away from the spine, but the space between your shoulders and your ears and staying long. That's it. One word, each side. And last one. As you grow tall, slide back into the weld. Bend the legs for Abdominal Curl. So this time we're going to do the curl down with the hands behind your head.

Interlace the fingers behind your head. I bring the elbows wide and draw the shoulders down. Grow tall with the inhale. Activate your inner thighs and peel back into the well. Inhale into extension. Exhale, nod the chin, slide the breastbone and imprint the back of your waist into the Ark to curl off the arc. Inhale up tall. There you go. And again, exhale back. Nice and smooth. Nice and fluid.

Inhale into extension. Feel the length of the spine. Exhale, nod, and curl. Feel the low shoulder blades helping you peel off. Grow Tall. And let's do two more. Feel each stage of the movement. Inhale to extend. Exhale to curl. Beautiful. One more. That's it. Hollow back. Nice and smooth. Sometimes that happens, and XL the curl.

Now we're going to take that into an oblique twist. So with the oblique twist, when you turn only come off the arc to the degree that the back of your waistline stays on it. So you'll inhale back the same way on the exhale. Forward slide the breastbone. Now turn without taking the big back of the waistline off the Ark. Inhale back into extension. Exhale, curl and turn. Feel. Feel your inner thighs, the pelvis stays square. There you go. Inhale into extension. Exhale, curl and turn for the wrap from the bottom of your shoulder blades on that high side. Inhale back. Exhale, curl and turn. Beautiful. One more each side.

That's it. And one more. Excellent. Curl in health to the center. And exhale curl all the way straight up to a seated posture. Now we're going to take that into low. Reach our warm Huh. Nice.

Now reach the arms forward and you can have your uh, sa arm closest to me. It'd be the movement for the first repetition. So inhale, grow tall, curl back straight. Now as your lower back touches, lower your arm and then move into extension as you look towards you on short breath. Now exhale, pull your waistline into the arch with sweep the arm forward and come right back up. We'll alternate sides two on three on each side. Peel down. Now you're going to go to the second side. There you go. Or not. There you go. The next sucker all back up. That's it. Nice and smooth so you can still stay aware of your inner thighs as you move.

So the pelvis doesn't rotate with you. Very beautiful movement. There you go again. One more each side. That's it. And last one actually one more cause that's an uneven number. Sorry about that. And next they'll feel that and it's sweet. Pull into your center. So that's called the low reach.

Now you're going to do the high reach, so you'll XL back the same way. Once the lumbar touches your reach high and then peel it back up. Now we'll start the same way. Exhale back. Once the lumbar touches, reach, look towards the hand that's reaching and extend as it comes forward. Feel the waistline you up. And again, peel, reach, feel that nice spring like quality of the middle of your body. That's it.

Nice and smooth. Two more each way. That's it. Smooth and fluid. Stay with your breathing all the way through. Awesome. One more each side. Everybody keep feeling the alignment of your pelvis to rotation is there rassic and up. Here you go.

And one more. Last one. Now from there you move into the reach. So the reach is you roll back at the same time. You'll slide your legs long, you'll lift from under your glutes as you extend, circle the arms, not the chin. Curl right back up to your starting position. And then hopefully you guys will stay together. So grow tall. Exhale, peel back, slide the legs long from the low glutes lifting. Extend the hips, reach back, open, nod and curl sliding right back into your starting place and cultivate that inner thigh connection all the way through. See as long as possible.

When you reach assets, circle, nod and curl. Very nice. We'll do three more. Very fluid. There you go. Yeah, the mat contend to do that. That's says circle and curl. And we'll do one more exhale. Back reach, lift, circle, and curl. Very nice. We're going to take that into a bridge series of slides.

Your Butt to the front edge and lets your back come down onto the arc. Now have your feet in line with your hip joints or your sit bones. And as you lift into a bridge from the bottom of your glutes, let your head come onto the arc. Now floats your arms up over your shoulders, widen and lower the show the blades and see if you can integrate your front ribs and feel the connection to your inner thighs and low glutes. Now just from that area, from your hip joints, and help to lower the hips towards the seat Xcel to lift from your lower glutes.

Let's do that for six and see if you can keep the lower back long and feel it's really hip extension coming from the bottom of your glutes as you draw the belly away from your inner thighs. That's it. And one more. Now from that high position hold, take a breath on the exhale. Stand into one foot as you knee fold the other. There you go. Inhale down, activate before you lift the second side. That's just the ticket's slow. Feel the activation of the back of the standing leg in your abdomen before the leg moves. That's it. Two, two more. Each side.

Beautiful Pelvis, staying level strong. Standing leg for a light lifting leg. Wow. One more each side. [inaudible] and one more. All right.

As you lower the leg, lower the hips, bring your hands behind your head and curl yourself back up to a seated position. Okay. Now from here, you're going to come all the way up and slide your butt a little bit beside yourself. Instead of being all the way into the seat. Are All the way at the edge. Be Halfway. So this is for a hamstring stretch and teaser. So your back is on the arc, but I want you to imagine that your back ribs are going to be feeling as you want to feel like they're sliding up your back. Now float your knees and hold the back of your legs.

Now widen and lower your shoulder blades and activate your inner thighs on the exhale. As you squeeze your legs, straighten one leg and flex the foot. Ah, in health, the band Xcel the other side. Now feel the belly is drawing away from the legs and you're pressing your legs into your hands. That's it. Do that. Three more times. Nice and smooth. Two more. Each side. Creech through the heel. Keep the inner thigh connection.

One more. Ah, and now do both legs, but point the legs two more times. One more. Oh, this time. Hold it. Hold it. Reach your arms forward. Inhale, reach back into extension. Circle the arms and pull the body towards the legs. That's it. Three more times.

Inhale, back, circle, curl. Use your abdomen to dry the body towards the legs. Two more and curl and one more and curl. And then Ben in place, the feet down. Beautiful work. Now we're going to face this way for seaweed and decide work. So it's okay when you, when you do the movement to bend the leg quite a bit.

When you come up, if you're feeling any pinching in your hip as you go out the leg, we'll straighten. So start with your arms out to the side. Now reach out from the back, feel like the shoulder blade is widen, lower leading with your ribs sequence out. And I'll let the leg lengthen. And as you side bend, keep the top shoulder away from the ear. Now let the arm come with the head fall though. Come back up and side the other way in hell. Reach out.

Exhale over. Inhale, do arm the body follow and side. One more. Hi Sindh fluid. Inhale and exhale. And now hands behind the head. Lead out and hold. Now imagine the movement is going to be very small. Instead of a side bend, it's just a lifted straight.

So you're trying to prevent the top hit from hiking. So reach through the leg and turn on the bottom of your butt and your inner thigh. And even with the bottom leg, feel like you're holding the seat. Draw the shoulders down. Now on the exhale, just lift a straight line. Inhale, spy rolled down XCL side in health spiral open, but keep the hips still. Exhale side. Inhale, release and again, XL lift. Inhale, spiral down. Exhale, side. Inhale, spiral open. Exhale, side and released. One more time on the exhale. Lift. Inhale, spiraled down side, open side and release. Nice work.

Now from there we're going to go right into a side legs series so you can cradle your head with the bottom arm and we'll have a little coffee talk. How was your day now from here? Tough Ian on the, on the cushion. Throw your top shoulder down and energetically reached through the leg. Imagine you have a nice line from your shoulder to your hip, to your foot ribs you're integrated in your chorus turned on even before you move. Float the top leg up a few inches. Flex the foot. We'll go right into sidekicks. Inhale forward.

Exhale point and reach to the back. That's a nice fluid motion. Hipster stacks. Shoulders are stacked. Body's connected. There you go. Fluid motion. Okay, stay with the breathing. Last three, last two, last one. Now hold the leg to the back. Take it right into bicycle. Bend at the knee. Need a chest leg long to the front. Move at your own breath rate.

Feel your way through it. Keep the positioning of the pelvis and shoulders all the way through. That's it. One more in the direction you're going. Okay. As the leg comes forward on this next one, reverse from the front position.

Bandon reached to the back. That's it. Let it flow. See Yourself. He's stretching through the front of the body. You're activating through the back chain. Hamstring, glutes. That's it. And two more [inaudible] and one more, Huh? As you come back to the center, just lower the leg.

We're going to go right into a stretch. So from here you're going to turn your torso down, bring your elbows onto the arch and rest your forehand, your palm, your heels of your hands on your forehead. Now take that top leg and slide it back. Now as you slide it back, reach through your elbows and try to turn the torso down and see if you can find your top glute. Activate it. That's it. And feel like as you reach through the elbows, you feel that nice stretch through the so as and breathe low and wide into the rib cage. Ooh, asset, nice and smooth.

Let's do two more breaths. One more breath everybody, and then slowly release. Help yourself back to center and we'll take the second side. So we're starting with seaweed. You'll be upright. Light can be as bent as you need to and reach out of your back, leading from your ribs. Extend Out, extend out of the top leg side.

Bend over the top with tone. As the arm comes, the side body engages and do a counter. Stretch the other way and again, reach out. Feel the line through your body. As you side bend, you're opening those top ribs like a fan and each and again, and you're coming up fluidly. Then from there, bring your hands behind the head. Extend out to straight line, side bend over. Now feel your line. Fill your hips or stack your legs active. Turn on the bottom of your button, your inner thighs. On the exhale, lift a straight line as best you can. Inhale, spiral down.

Back to side spiraled. Open hips. Stay stacked back to side and release on the next exhale, activate lifted. Straight line spiraled down. Side spiral, open side and release. One more time on the exhale. Lift spiraled down. Side spiral, open side and release.

Nice work from there. We're going to go right into sidekick, so you're going to stack prop your head up with the bottom arm. Now feel the line through your body and think of your using both legs even though there's only one moving so you can hold onto the seat with the leg talk and suppressed into the arc. Create a line now lift the top like a few inches with a flex foot. Inhale, kick to the front. Xcel point and reach to the back on that back motion. Feel your low gluten, hamstrings speed. You're keeping the waistline long, nice and smooth. That's a fluid motion with the breath.

Here you go. Two more. Three more. I think we did more on the other side. Keeping Track of myself here. Two more. That's it. One more. Everybody on the back range. Keep it back there and now bending at the knee with the exhale. Draw the heel to your butt. Knee to your chest. Like long to the front.

Yeah. Let's see if you can stabilize. Imagine the pelvic half as a wheel. It's rolling back as the leg comes forward, but the tail is counting and that the sacred, the tail is reaching back as the sit bone comes forward to keep the pelvis stable in the center. That's it. One more. Now as you come to the front, reverse bend at the knee and reach to the back.

You reach to the back for the long line through the front of the spine. There you go. Let it go. Let it reach to the back. There we go. Two more. I've gotten it complete. It happens to the best of us. There you go. One more. Nice job. There you go. And then as you complete breaths, let the leg Lincoln down. Turn your torso towards the Mat, towards the arc. Rest on your elbows and rest the heels here.

Your hands against your forehead. Now energetically from the bottom of the shoulder blades, reach through the elbows. Keep turning down as you slide that top leg back as you slide it back so you can get that sense of turning on your low glutes. Now start to find your breath. Breathe low and wide. Okay, that's it. Let your head be heavy in your hands, but keep your shoulder blades active.

Feel like you're reaching through them so you can feel a sense of even like you're doming in the front of your spine. That's it. Just two more breaths and one more. And then slowly help yourself back to the center. And then back up. Now we're going to do another oblique exercise on the hips. So for this one, you're going to want a pad. You can either use a towel or a pad for your hip. It'll make it feel more comfortable when you're on your side, on the top of the arch.

Okay? Okay, so the setup is your hip is right on the top. Your forearm is going to be on the floor side of the seat. Now the starting position is you can actually put your hand on the arch for support. And when you lift your hips, your goal is to try to extend the hips or smiths to open the front of them and create a straight line through the spine, through the bottom shoulder. Push the floor away and lift your bottom waist away from the floor so you're not letting your waste cave into the floor, which is the challenge to keep that lift. Extend your hips. Now let your legs straighten for a moment.

Now Bend at the knee and now see if you can get a sense of opening the front by turning on your low gluten hamstring in. Lengthen out your waistlines rather ribs. Now hold that line on the inhale from your pelvis. Lower the knees, opening your top waist. Exa from your top waist. Lift the knees up. Everybody feel that there you go. And how to lower. Now XL feel like it's not just your top waist, it's your low glutes and abdomen that are keeping your hips extended.

Just 25 more. Now just three more lift on the exhale. Then we're going to add something after two more, but hold on with your local roots. And so you're working your obliques, your hamstring, glutes, inner thighs. Now this time, lift and hold now from your low glutes and hamstrings, slowly straight in the legs. Keep the straight legs. Reach the top arm up as you lower the pelvis to reach the legs away. Reach over the top. Now as you lift the arm, lift the pelvis and legs and look towards your feet. Reach the legs away side. Then as you look towards your hand, yeah, lift, squeeze from your side body, inner thighs.

One more time. Reach and look away. Shoulders stay low. Side Bend and slowly bend and help self out and we'll take it inside. Very nice time of side too. So inside to again, think of your goal is to really sense your setup because it's an unsupportive position. You want to open the front of your hips so you're lengthening your hip flexors, you using your low glutes and hamstrings and a lot of oblique and also scapula support. So as you bend, hold on with the low glutes. Now feel that line from your head to your knees. Inhale, lower the knees, letting the pelvis side bend, XL lift and again feel it's coming from the middle of your body. And let's do two more. Lift and hold.

Feel that contraction and lower. One more time. Now lifting, hold this time. Hold the low glute contraction and slide the legs long. Take the top arm to the sky. As you lower the hips with control, the lower the legs reach over the top. Now lift now side is a legs lift. Use the side body. On the top is your reach your way. Sideband, lift and squeeze. One more time. Reach away side. Then reach, lift and squeeze Ben and slowly help yourself up and out. All Right, nice.

Now we're going to take the seat off, has to one of the benefits of the arc. It has many possibilities and we're going to turn it upside down and you can see you have a um, you have a sharp curve and a sloping curve. Have the sharp curve facing me. Yup, no worries. So you'll have the sharp curve facing the, the ocean. So going to turn yours the other way, Christie, think of, uh, this is the sharp, she'll turn it now turn it over again. There you go. Perfect. Okay, now from there, you're gonna put your hands on it right at these two points beyond the opening in the middle on each side. So let's start with in a kneeling position.

Just first feel how you can feature shoulder blades down and low. And you can lean, you can do a long access lean, but you're keeping your torso engaged so your arms are like kickstands in the shoulder blades or stabilized on the tourists. The shoulder blades are not swinging around. They're stable. Now this might be enough for some people. There's still work here. Inner thighs are on your lower glutes, just like the previous exercise.

Now from there, we're going to step into a plank, but I want you to feel the same thing and your legs. You did in the last exercise, legs and pelvis. Oh, that's enough from here. As you widen and lower the show, the blades, as you tip, think of it's a long axis rotation. The pelvis and spine are rotating together and there's a push from your feet to do that. Can y'all feel that?

That's a, now we're going to do, we're going to add a little courtyard or if you, so you're gonna rock one time to each side, rock right rock left to then hold the center without moving the arc to a pushup. And you don't need to go super deep. Just do like three more. So you're going to do a rock rock and oppress, but make the press really small so you can keep your scapula stabilize and your body line. Make it as small as you need to. You might even bend your arms just really small cause you want to maintain good form and connection to your shoulder blades. That's it.

That's it. Just one more time. Rock, rock and bend and press. Awesome. Float the knees down and we'll turn the arc around. Huh? That's telling. Huh? [inaudible] so, so the key thing, I think it's better to even just do a push up this big opposed to having a lot of crazy stuff happening in the shoulders. You'll build the strength over time. And you'll keep your joints healthy. So we'll take the second side.

This is a great way to clean up pushups on the mat. So first thing is you lean into it, widen and lower the shoulder blades. There's still a little side to side lean, keeping the lift through the app. And then low glute connection. Just get that connection before we step into a plane.

Okay, now you've got that connection. Shoulders are wide and low. Step into a plank. Now just do a few rocks. Do like three rocks to each side before you do one one and press for three. [inaudible]. That's it. Maintain that nice line through the body. That's it. Then do one one.

Now just do a small press breathing through it. That's it. I swear that was good. Small pushup. That's it. Than a rock rock and a press in the center. [inaudible] one more [inaudible] very nice. Float the knees down. Nice work you guys. Yeah, that's, that's, that's the issue because the sides, this, the, the steeper side is um, harder.

That's great. That's really good feedback for your body to have that. So that's really useful. And that's the benefit of doing asymmetrical stuff and doing unstable things. You get much more feedback in your body so you can work on your inequities that we all have. So now we're going to put it without the seat. Again, we're going to put it this way. So the steef arc is facing you and this is a plank to a side plank side lift movements.

You'll start with your hands and this will feel easy after that last one. So we're looking forward to the next minute of our life. Correct? There we go. So hands on the arch, step into a plank. Now you guys can take your outside and your hand that's farthest away from me. Take it to the middle and turn it into a side plank on the sides of your feet so you can turn towards me. Turn towards me.

Turn on the sides of your feet and zip up your legs like we did when we had the knees in the air top. Arm Up. Now lift the hips inside them, looking towards the arch. Come back to straight line, squeeze the legs and lower the hips. Lift back side. Then over top, back to straight and lower. One more time. Lift and reach. Back to center. And now back to plank. Take your second side, step into side position. If you need to rest, you can come down or come into it when you're ready.

Side plank now, arm up over the top. Lift the hips, look towards the arch arm comes up, hips lower. Look towards the feet. Lift up over the top. Use the leg strength. Scapula back to center and lower. And one more time. Hop over the top and reach back to center.

Now back to plank and gently float the knees down. And we're going to go right into swimming, swimming, and Swan. So we're going to want to put the seats back on so far with the seats on, set yourself up so the seat is far away from you. Now you have the choices of having your hands on the floor or your hands on the seat. So you're going to bring your hips towards the front or towards the apex, but a little behind it. And I'm going to put my hands on the floor cause I have really long arms.

So from here, extend out through your legs and get the same feeling of that extension of the front of the front of hips are open and you feel your low glute and hamstring connection. I just let the upper body drape down over the arc. That's a now all I want you to do is turn on your legs without lifting them. And on the exhale as you slide the, show the blades down. Reach the upper spine, forward the company with straight line from your head to your tail. That's enough from there. Extend that chest more forward to lengthen the arms. Now holding that shape, let the legs lift as you bend the elbows and tip forward.

Hold the shape then come right back up into swan and think if that's a continuous movement holding the shape the whole time, hold onto your scapular, hold onto that open feeling in your chest. Stay long in extension. Still feel the muscles under your shoulder blade to as you're going forward. And coming up. Do that for three more long. Fluid motion. Strong back body. That's it. And one more.

And lift. Now from there, as you're, as you lower your legs, slide yourself a little bit back, cause this time your arms are going to be out in front of you and you're going to fall forward. If you're not too far back. Now from here, let the legs be the arms me in front of you in a High v. Now this practice with the legs down, bring your torso first up. Parallel with your hips. Now the hands would be on the floor. On the exhale, float your legs from your low glutes without shortening the lower back. Inhale to lower. Do that three times widen and lower the shoulder glides.

As you do that one more. Now float the legs. Keep them floated and Xcel float the arms. Um, my needle reposition now on a smooth inhale. Inhale for opposite arm and leg beat. Exhale, opposite arm leg. Do that. Five breaths. That's it.

You just got to keep finding it. That's it. Smooth breathing. Yeah, that was slow. As you need to. One more breath. There you go. And then slowly release down. Nice work. Now help yourself back. Put your forearms on the arc with your knees bent, and just do a spinal stretch by flexing the spine and pressing into the forearms. Take a couple of fluid breaths.

Okay, one more fluid breath everybody. And then slowly release. Help yourself to standing. So now we're going to go into supine leg series. So you're going to come back to a seated position, but this time on the top of the yard, okay, that seated on the top of the arc, you want to be careful as you get down. So slide your hips a little bit forward to the top and curl down and hold onto the sides as you slide down and walk your feet up onto the seat and slide down.

So your upper back is on the yard or on the floor. Now imagine that you're not gonna have any neck tension, so you're gonna let your throat relax. Press into the back of the shoulders a little bit and just feel like you're holding onto that side ridge. And then float the knees up into tabletop. That's an f from there. Just get a sense as you exhale that you can hollow your belly towards the Arcs, you feel your lower back. Come more in contact with it.

Now take your leg straight up to the ceiling and with straight legs. Imagine the belly and the feet are pulling away from each other on the exhale. Lower both legs away from you to the degree that you can keep in the lower back, long open the legs a little wider than shoulder width and then up in together for double leg circles, reach down in a way that's incense that as your legs are going away, your belly is drawing away the legs. You're exhaling on the lowering. Inhaling on the lifting, two more in that direction. That's it. Nice and smooth and one at the top where reverse open reached down and together.

Zip up the legs and together that's it. Nice and smooth and let's do two more and one from there. We're going to go right into heel beats from the top, going to turn out and start to beat the heels. As you lower reaching the legs as far away as you can. Create an that nice line through the body and beat to come up. Feel the work is in the back of your hips, your inner thighs, your low belly. You're keeping the chest open. The shoulders allow. That's it.

Nice and smooth. Two more times down and up. Think of the legs and very fluid. You're working through the bones. Inner thighs are toned, but the quads are soft. One more. As you come back to the top, go back to parallel and now we're going to go into walking.

So why don't you to just walk with the fico about a foot apart and walk down with the legs and then walk back up. Since you can keep the pelvis level. Okay. Breathing smooth. I just in fluid. That's it. Two, two more for we take it into bicycle.

[inaudible] that's it. And one more. Now as you come to the top, I'd like you to reach one leg down and hold the other leg up. Now from there, focus on the down leg. Start to bend at the knee like you're gonna s scrape the seat with your foot and let the other leg reach away. Moving into a bicycle stroke. Focus more on the down leg than the up leg. Imagine you're keeping the lower back long as you bend that lower leg, working through the back chain of that side. That's it.

These are tracking right over the hip joints. Your breath is smooth. One more in the direction you're going. And now reverse band and reached down towards the seat and then sweep that leg up. Let it sweep up from the control through the middle of the body. That's it. Nice and fluid. There you go. And just two more and one more from the top of the movement. Straighten both legs straight up.

We're going to go into the rollover. So let the legs move away from you. Like the first leg circles on the inhale that the legs come up to 90 now exhale, peel over. So the legs are parallel to the floor. Inhale, open the legs, flex the feet. Now sequence down through the spine. As you read through the legs, has the legs lower. Keep the control through your mid line, up and over the top. Open, flex and lower.

Make sure as you rolled over that you don't roll up onto the neck, that you're controlling it through your abdomen. The weight is more on the back of the one more open. Flex in lower. Nice. And now we're going to reverse for three at the bottom open. Go back, close, flex and sequence down. This time if you want to get a bigger hamstring stretch fully straighten the legs and keep them as low as possible on the lowering. Two more abdomen, inner thighs, and one more open reach.

Flex and sequenced down. Now we're going to nice work. Everybody went to finish. The sequence would rolling in and rolling out. So I'd like you to bend your legs into a tabletop position. Now imagine because you're lifted, you're not going to have any momentum of throwing the hips off. You guys will, I don't have to remind you of that, but that's for everyone watching. So what I'd like you to do is take your knees and your pelvis like a pelvic rotation away from me.

Now curl the pelvis off the arch slightly, but the knees swivel across your chest and then a roll down on the second side of the spine and do that same direction for three and feel like you're massaging your kidney area into the arch. Your lower back and the inner thigh. Stay toned all the way through shoulder. Stay Square to the floor as you get to the middle of the one you're on. Reverse peel, rotate across the midline and lower. That's it. And two more while you're finishing your session with a nice massage for the lower back. Yeah, you're getting that sense of ironing out any tension that might've been built.

That's it. And as you complete the one you're on, then your legs in place, your feet on the arc. And I'd like you to gently slide yourself back so your whole body can be on the floor from your hips down. Slide it out from under. You. Notice, rest your feet on the arc for a few moments and arrests for second. Before we have you come up, just take a few breaths. Let yourself soften around your neck, around your jaw. Now we're going to complete right there, everybody, so thank you for joining us.

I hope you enjoy it and hope to see you next time applies any anytime. Thank you.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Beautiful workout. Spine feels so much longer! Thanks so much.
Loved this class. I just got an arc for Christmas. There are lots of creative moves.
1 person likes this.
Loved the oblique work...especially on top of the arc. Thank you Tom and PA!!
Very creative and clear! Great instructor!!!
Could you tell me what is the purpose of the Arc. I have no experience with it at all. It is something new for me.
3 people like this.
Hi Michele, The ARC is a lighter, more portable version of Joe Pilates small apparatus invention, the Spine Corrector. It's a versatile tool for spinal mobility, alignment, strength and full body conditioning. It gives you many, many options for working the body, at times adding support and others, reducing leverage making a movement more challenging and isolating. The ARC has more options with the removable seat and the option of using it upside down where it can rock and become unstable. It's a GREAT tool, The Spine Corrector in not new, the ARC is a updated version of it through Balanced Body.
Lovely flowing class, Tom. I could listen to you recite the telephone directory and still learn something for your gentle, precise cueing.
1 person likes this.
Great class. It felt great and I used some of it with my students. I can get stale because I work mostly be myself so it really helped kick in my imagination. The rotation movement was such a good addition. Thanks Tom and PA, you keep me inspired to teach!
Thank you Tom felt great after doing the class , oblique work was challenging and had a nice flow to it.
Tom, great class ! Loves your verbal cues! Can't wait to try some techniques with my students! Thank you so much ... Love your energy...!!!!
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