Class #1686

Mat/Barre Fusion Workout

75 min - Class
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Cecile Bankston returns with another wonderful Mat/Barre Fusion workout. She incorporates floor barre with Pilates exercises to make you aware of what's happening on the supporting side of your body. She includes many variations for core strength like Rolling like a Ball, Series of Five, and more. This is a fun and challenging class for anyone!

Because this is a progression of older classes, we recommend trying Cecile's First Mat/Barre Fusion workout and her Second Mat/Barre Fusion workout before taking this class.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hi, I'm Cecile Bankston and we are going to be doing a class today called Matt Bar Fusion class. Um, we have already, I have already done several of these on this site. This one kind of builds on those classes. So if you haven't looked at those classes before, I encourage you to so that you can see where we've progressed to in this movement. Um, this, uh, originally the idea of floor bar came from dancers back way back when in the 70s when I was dancing and we used it as a tool to be able to tell what was going on when you were standing and doing movements with your legs, you would be much more aware on your back what was happening on this standing side. If you're lying down, you're able to really, really tell whether you're stabilizing on that opposite side. So that's what this, that is about and that's what you're going to feel in this class is that there's a lot of core involvement even though you're moving your legs, it's a whole lot of core involvement. Okay. Um, it's not necessarily just for dancers. These two men up here are not dancers. Um, but they are doing the class and I have to say they are, have done it beautifully. Uh, so it's, it's, it's a great class for anyone. So anyway, we're going to start sitting nice and tall. Okay.

And we're just going to warm up the spine. Just keep the hands on the knees. And what I'd like you to do is just slightly pull in an up from the abdominals and round the abdominal so your shoulders are not really doing much of anything. They just follow you and sit up nice and tall. So inhale, exhale and round and come back up. So if you see me here as I exhale, it's coming from my abs and come back up and last one inhale and exhale and round and sit up nice and tall.

Now we're gonna get a little harder to get warmed up when your bring our hands forward. We're going to take a nice deep breath in. And as we exhale, we're going to roll down to just the lower part of your back. And you're going to roll to the side and comm center. Roll to the other side and consent here and rolled and sit up. Nice and tall. Deep breath in. Exhale, rule it down and inhale and come across. Exhale.

Inhale and come across. Exhale to come back up and send her two more times. And again, reaching down. Really nice and roll. Good. Good, good. And across. Yes, and I'm center and across. Beautiful Center and porous weight into those feet to come up.

Good. And sit up tall. Beautiful. Last time. And we're reaching down. Pull into the abdominal, shoulders away from the ears. Good. Roll to this side and come center and to the side. Nice and center and sit up. Nice and tall. Beautiful. Good. Very nice. Good. That was a nice warm on.

Okay. This next movement is one of my old favorites from master teacher Ron Fletcher. A circle in the sand. Um, so we're gonna sit up nice and tall. We're going to take one hand slightly behind us and we're going to reach it around as if you're drawing a circle around yourself in the sand. And then you sit up tall and open the chest.

So n l were you to the on fat. Exhale round around and sit up. Nice and tall and center. And again in Hail. So if I sit this way, I go back and sit up tall and center and again, reach that on fat and Nice. Pull into the belly, keep it round. Keep your seatbelt on. Come up nice and tall and come center.

You're good. Okay. Now this next one myths is a movement that um, Kathy Corey actually had designed for me actually because my hips were not level. Okay. And we were working on it one day and she came up with this movement and now we both began a lot of our classes with this movement. So you'll see this in her classes as well. What you want to do is first starts sitting on your hips, just sit okay.

And think about it. Just close your eyes for a second and think about if you feel one hip heavier than the other one or one hip more forward than the other one. Um, most people do have one side that they favor. So you're either gonna feel like you have a hip that's heavier or more forward than the other or water or something. So for me, my heavier side is this side. Okay? So that means this side is lifted.

My hip is lifted on this side. So I'm gonna go this way. So you go to your heavier side, and that's different for everybody. So you go to your heavier side. I don't want you all to go to the same one you know, to whatever your heavier side feels like. Good. All right, now you're going to Bryce. One hand here.

The other hand is bracing your Elba. You got put this knee down. I want your hip to lift off. I want that hip is gonna come off. Good. Now what you're going to do is press that hip down towards the floor and not let the knee come up and lift it for us. It down. So you're just pressing bone away from bone and come back up. Press it down. Good.

And come back up one more time and Horace it down. Good. And one more time. The key is keep this knee down. You're not going to get into the floor. Nobody is. And press it down unless you're gumby. And a good go to the other side.

Now you can see on me the difference already on this side. Okay. This hip is not nearly as high. So guess what? On this side, we're only gonna do three. Okay? So we're going to press down and come back up. So keep that knee on the floor, caress it, Dan, and come up. So it's just about the bones. It's not about your muscles, it's not about your abs. And come up and come back to this center and sit now see how you feel. You feel like your sit bones have kind of done this a little bit. It really kind of grounds you. Okay.

Now we're going to do the same thing with no hands. Okay? So we're going to come over to our first side. We're going to lift it arm up. We're going to roll through our obliques to the center. We go to this side. Inhale, lift the arm up, exhale oral through the old Blake's to the center. And Ah, take the Arma roll through the obliques to this center.

And Ah, arm goes off well through the obliques, the center. Let's do one more time. Each side up. Roll through the obliques to the center. Good. And last time. Ninth, Raul. Very good. Okay, good. Let's roll down to our backs. And I want you to just bring your knees up to your chest.

We're just gonna gently warm our legs up by doing some knee circles. So I just want you to bring your knees and hold onto them with your hands and you're just circling your legs. Just circling your knees to warm up those hip sockets going in and away from the body. Good for one more time. And Five. Good. Now we're going to reverse it. We're going to reach around and to, and re good and full. [inaudible] and five. Good.

Now I want you to hug your knees to your chest for me and I'll, your tail is going to come off a little bit. What I want you to do is take a deep breath in. As you exhale, I want you to keep your knees to your chest as much as possible. Lengthen that spine and try to put that tail bone on the floor and come back up and release it. And again, deep breath in. Exhale, try to lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Get that psych room on the floor and really and again, so you're getting a nice spinal extension, spinal massage, their reach, length and and resist. And last one [inaudible] very nice and come back. Good. Okay, now we're going to our please.

We are going to put our feet up to the ceiling. Now for you guys, I have my arms by my side because I'm on this table. You guys can put them out here if you want to. You feed her in a first position that's rotated out from the hip, a diamond as far as you can from the hip, not from the feet. We're going to flex the feet and Ben x, stand and point. And I want you to think about rotating those thighs and touching the backs of your thighs together, Ben, and expand an inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Well, he's never stops. Stop resisting the movement. Exhale and inhale like somebody is doing this to you. Exhale. Inhale. Last one. Exhale. Good. Now it should cross left leg over, right leg. Okay.

And same thing. We're going to bend the knees, flats and point. That's right. So as she goes down, she's resisting as if somebody's doing this to her. And as she straightens, as it's like somebody doing that good and Ben and extend and Ben and extend and bend and extend. Good and bend and extend. Really rotate from the hip socket and extend. Good. I don't know how many of that was a thousand but other. And I'll count this time and then and extend.

Beautiful. Rotate those. [inaudible] good and x, then yes, bend and extend. This is four and extend and fuss. So really resist that movement. Six. Yes, resist good. And Savane raises good. And last one. Eight. Raise this. Very nice. Okay, good.

Now we're going to do a movement that I've taken actually from one that Kathy grant taught on the reformer. Um, it's a diamond lift that we are going to do with our feet right here in this one position. I'm going to keep my diamond exactly where it is. Oh, I'm going to do is use my low abs to lift off the floor so my feet aren't coming towards my head. I'm not swinging it to get it up there, which means I'm truly using my low abs and I'm not going to go very far if I'm doing it right. Exhale and lift and what? We're the legs. Exhale, lift, release. Exhale, lift, release. And if you want to, you can let go with your arms to make sure you're not using your arms. Exhale and release. One more. Exhale, lift. Very nice and release. Okay. Now those in the muscles that you should be using for the next movement, which is rolling like a ball. Okay. So they you, if you've done that movement properly, it, you shouldn't have any problem doing rolling.

I could ball starting from down here. Okay. So I want you to put your feet just for this class and a diamond position. Okay? And we're going to put our hands on our ankles and we're going to start by just doing that little diamond live. And now we're gonna roll up. And then we roll it that it, act him and keep your round spine in and exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Now we're going to do one.

Would you mind the extensions? Um, we're going to do one. Now we're going to improve upon this movement. All of us have a place where we want to sort of rush through. And for some of it it's the coming up. And for some of it it's the going back. This comes from Kathy and I teacher. Um, we came up with this, um, so as he goes, he's going to go back and he's gonna extend his legs and now he's gonna go front and he's gonna extend his legs, which means he's not able to go from momentum either way. He's got to have total control. Okay. Alright, so let's try it. Okay, set.

We're going to roll it back and extend it and roll it up and extended. Keep your nice round spine and roll it back and extend and roll it front and extend. Beautiful Amy. Good. And Roll it back and extend. Good Nick, and roll it front and extend. Good. And you only get, here you go. Good. And Roll it back and extend one more. Roll it up and extend. Very nice. Okay.

We're all slow and downed. Bat to your back, right into our single leg stretch. So we're going to bring our upper body forward. Nice long chest, and we're going to go inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Make sure your upper body is curved. You see how high my upper body is? Yeah. Exhale bud. I'm not tucking my pelvis too much.

Their yes and inhale and exhale. Good. Inhale and exhale. One more time. Inhale and exhale. Good. Lie Down and relax for a second. Feet are in a slight diamond position. This is a modification of a double leg stretch, more of a dancer version. We're going to go out with both legs and arms.

Now we're going to circle our arms. Inhale, exhale. I'm just getting increase my curve and go back to that diamond. So exhale, everything goes out. Shoot. Inhale, exhale, and then Ben and again reach for yes in hand. Exhale, reach and increase that lower back doesn't come too far off and back.

Good. Last one, and reach forward and circle. Nothing moves in the rib cage in the ABS. Now increase your curve. Beautiful and relaxed. Nice. Okay. Scissors, so we're going legs up. He had his down first. Now we're going to bring our head, neck and shoulders floor, but I want our tailbone down guys. Okay. Now we're going to do a little pulse one and two and inhale and exhale and bring your upper body forward. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. N. L. N. Exhale and inhale. Now we're going to have fun. Now we're going to take a circle around and bring it up. Circle it around and bring it up. Tyler knew what to do and circle around and bring it up and circle around and bring it up. Come on. Keep those like stretch long circle.

Keep that upper body up circle and bring it up. Good circle and bring it up. The stomach stays. Absolutely flight's circle and bring it up. Relaxed. Good. Bend the knees. Wasn't that fun? All right. Now we're gonna put our hands behind our back or turn our legs out.

Okay, here we go. Now we're going to, you can, if you have neck issues or anything, you can leave your head down for this or you can bring it up. If you leave your head down, you're going to find that you're working more. Your lower the ABS. You bring your head up, you're working the rectus and the low abs. So we're going to reach up and forward and we're going to beat on two, three, four, five, six, traveling down. Eight one, two, three, four, five, six. Stay there. Eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Travel up to three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Traveled down. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And stay there. Two, three, four, five, six. Keepers come easy in and up to three. Yes. Amy. I love that. No hands. Tyler. I love it. Good. All right, good. Wonderful. Okay, very nice. All right, so now we're going to on onto our, um, modified criss cross, which I chose to do this modified because I see it done wrong so many times.

It drives me crazy. So, um, we're going to do a modified version and I'm not, you can do it. I'm not very good at this. I'm making him do it. I'm not particularly good at it. All right, so here we go. I'm no sir. He does it great. So we're going to just lift a knee and I'm going to have him reach. Now what you notice is that his back arm is really lifted off the ground. So I always tell people you're driving it with the back arm, but then you're also reaching with this one too. I mean, it's not to discount the one that's going forward.

What people tend to do is just crunched that, that one arm and they don't do with the other arm. Okay? So we really want to be aware that it's a role across the back and, and it's a, a twist from the entire body. Not just the elbows. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay, so we're gonna start just, you're just lifting a foot off. You're not, not even doing a bicycle with your leg. Okay. All right. Set. We take right leg off and we reach up and around and relax and other like too and worry and the re and roll across the bat and four and roll across the back. Nice and open that back elbow. Good.

And six. Beautiful. Close the ribcage and seven and breech last one. Add A and relax. Good. Let's go on to our stomachs. Good. Very nice. Okay, so going onto our stomachs and we want us to put, I'm going to do our swan. We're going to put our hands in front. Take a nice deep breath in.

If you have back problems you can separate your feet. I separate mine because I have a little hypermobility in my spine and so I have to be careful about how high I allow myself to go up. So nice deep breath in. Exhale. PRESA and lengthen him. Don't want to keep the stomach cold in and up and come back down.

So from here as I go up, I want to keep the rigid cage pull in and out. But then I stand my head at compact dam and again, pressing up reach, good and dam. And one more. Press it up for me. Beautiful. Beautiful. Pull into the rib cage and down. Good. Okay. Now this time we're gonna go up and today there for a second.

We're going to lift it up. Now I want you to take the, the arm that is closest to down there. I want you to take that arm off and lift it. Lift it nice and high. Yes. And literally put it down. Take the Yonder, their arm up like Ethan. Beautiful and down and relax.

And let's do that one more time. Pour acid up, lift that arm lifted high. Beautiful. And back down. Pull into those abs. So you're protecting your lower back. Good and down. Nice and relaxed. Now let's sit back on our heels for a second. Take a nice deep breath in. And exhale. Good.

And relax. Good. Okay. Go back onto your stomachs. Good. Okay. So now we're going to put our legs, um, in a cross a cross position and you want the uh, right leg over the left pointed feet. Okay? And your head is just on forehead on your hands. Okay. Tommy's pulled in and up.

I want you to point that leg up towards the ceiling, not very high. Take that one leg up. Flex and pull it in towards the other one. Point up, flex, pull it in, pointed up like so it's straight and point flux in and up. Flex it in and up. Flex N and seventh bullet and last one and a bullet.

And now we go sigh. This is hard. Keep it rotated and in and two Valerian and three, pull it in and four, pull it in. Keep it rotating from the hip socket and six good. Keep the tummies pulled up. Seven and an eight. Now I want to alternate.

Take it back and n and side and n and back. If you keep both hips on the floor, that would be really good. Back and, and, and side. And in, one more time. Back at n and side. And and good. Now let's take the other leg and change. Okay, so we're going to go back, flex in and back, flex in and three, rotate in. Four, pull it in, keep it rotating. Five and in six.

Turn it out in and seven and n at a now. Oh Sa sa. Pull it in. Good and sides to keep it rotated this way. Good. Sa. Okay. N and sod and pub. Lydian and Sa and good answer and an answer.

Well, I sat opposite hip. That's what's being on the floor is all about alternate one [inaudible] and sa and n and back. N and sigh and an n and back and n and side. Last one and back at m and t. Very nice. Good. Okay.

I would love this one if you would take both hands off the floor for this next one above your head. All right. Okay. Here we go. We're going to lift our legs off the floor. We're going to pull our tummies in and we're going to beat our legs together. Point two, three, four and flex to keep your head down in 0.2, three, four and flex to three or inner thighs working three, four and flex two, three, four and 0.2, three four and flex two circles and circle two, three, four, five, six, seven other way. And Circle two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Relax. Good. Bend your knees into a diamond like a frog. Okay.

Now it's really sad as a dancer my entire life I strive to do this and could never do it. And these two have never danced, are just hanging out there, you know? Yeah, I mean really. So anyway. Okay, those, uh, those of you that are dancers will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's really difficult to do if you're not rotated in your hands. Um, so now what I'd like you to do, if you feed on already on the floor, you're going to do slightly press them towards the floor and release it. Press them to the floor and release without letting your behind come up. Press them to the floor and release and press them down and release.

Last one. Press him down and release. Good. Okay, good. Sit back on your heels. One more time for a second. Good. All right, now back last few on your stomach. Go onto your stomach. We're going into our double leg kick, so we're going to put our hands behind our head. I mean behind our back and our knees. Bent head goes to one side, knees are bent.

You want to lift your knees up off the mat and you want to hold a thin piece of paper between your thighs and you're going to kick one, two. Now you stand. Arms and legs and body and come down. But they had to the other side. Kick, kick, extend and kick, kick, extend and kick, kick, extend and kick, kick x. Then N, j, Kidd, eggs, n. P. K. X. Then last one, kick, kick x, then good. Now bring those arms all the way around to our swimming and swimming. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six.

Keeps at Tommy and then relax. Ah, roll onto your back. Very good. All right. You know that whole series we did. We're going to start with that, but we had to, okay, so we're on our backs. We're crossing one leg over the other and as you can see, I'm trying to rotate from my thighs. Okay. If I'm really turned out, I should have a really kind of a flat line here as opposed to the thigh sticking up here. You want it outward? Okay. I'm hyper extended so I have a really hard time with this.

I've got to cross my leg over, cross my legs really to get into a nice position. Okay, so from here we're going to take that front leg and it's a low lift. At first we're lifting it up, flex down and front flex down. It's low front, flex down and front and [inaudible] and front pull it in and front really low and and low. Good in and front to the side. Now watch what the opposite side is doing. Sigh who lit in and three pull it in and four polit in.

It's all about that opposite side and about the backs thing in place. And the stomach held seven good and eight alternate. Do the front, pull it in to this side. Polit in and front. Pull it in and side. Pull it in to the front. Pull it in.

Do the side and an and front and en and side. Good. Now go fond. I want you to circle it twice. Just short low and pull it in. Flex Sod circle twice.

Flex Palladian, front circle, circle, Palladian and sop. Circle, circle, polit in and front circle. Circle polarity and side circle. Circle. Pull it in one more time. Circle, circle. Pull it in and side. Circle, circle. Pull it in now. Front side, pull it in and front, side and in and front side and in.

Why more time and front side and in other side. Ah, bringing it front. Flexin and front. Watch the back and make sure you've got that stomach out front and in and fine. Pull it in. And six, keep that rotation in the thigh. Seven Palladian and eight. Good. And to this side.

And in two, this side it's all about the opposite side. Stang heel ty and five in. Good. All about that. Opposite side. Seven good. And a good alternating front. Pull it in and side. Keep it low and Fonte rotate it and sigh.

And in good front. Not too high sky. Good. Keep it real low. Good. There you go, ant side. Nice. And now front little circle and circle. Flexin and side. Little Circle. Watch that opposite leg. It's strong. Front circle, circle and in and side.

Two circles. Watch that opposite side can now front will carry it side and in front. Carry its side. Yeah. Front your right side and front. Carried side and in good. Huh?

Very nice. Not done. Okay. Alright, so now from here we're in our, we're going to be in our position with our heels together, but rotated out. Okay. Like that. Good. Okay. So now I want you to bring that leg, bend the knee, take it. Ah, flex. Bring it down. Bend that knee, take it up. Flex. Bring it to the floor, bring it up and flex. Good. One more up. Flex. Bring it down. Now to this side.

Bring it up and flex bullet in to this side. Bring it up high as you can. Flex. Bring it in. Watch what the other side is doing that. It's staying stable and the stomach is pulling in out. Flex. Pull it in. Now we're Brenna bring it to the front.

We're just gonna. We're not going to bend it. We're gonna. We're gonna bring it up straight. We're gonna carry it to the side without letting our opposite hip move. We're gonna flex and bend it up towards our shoulder. We're going to point an extended away from us further and bring it in.

So we kick it for Ron. We carry it side, we full acts it and bend it. Extend it further. Bring it into clothes, bring it foreign. Carry Psi to flex and bend. Extend and close it to the center. One more time. Front carry saw. Flex and bend.

Extend and bring it in. Nice. Okay, good. All right. Other side. So we been extend flex, pull it down. Bend. Extend for Lex. Pull it down. Bend. Extend. Flex. Bullet down. One more bend. Extend for Lex. Pull it down to the side. Extend.

Now Watch my opposite side is not moving. So that staying stable and in as obliques, that opposite leg are really strong and bend, extend and flex. Pull it in. Now we go straight to the front. No Ben, carry sign. I want you to bend it as high as you can towards your shoulder. Now like stand it further away and point and pull it in. Good Amy.

And so up to the front stray go side. Yes. Band. Extend further away. Pull it in. So we take it for front. Take it side. Yes. So there you bend. Extend that there. So it's all about this side. Good. And front and side.

It's all about that opposite side and extend and pull it in. Very good. Okay. Huh? Y'All feel some more going on in your legs now. Okay. All right. So now we are going to um, let's go to um, right leg.

We're going to take that right leg across our body line. So we're going to take that leg over and across our body like this. Okay. And what I want you to do is take that leg and then roll that hip off and roll it down. Roll it off, and roll it back down. Roll the hip and roll it down and take the hip all and the hip comes down.

Now swing that like down and around to the side. Now my opposite here up is staying right where it was. I roll that opposite hip all and then I roll it back in a way and stretch that like further away from me. I roll that hip off and then I roll it back down. Stretch that hip. That's right. And Roll it off. Stretch that hip. Good.

Roll it off and stretch that hip. Good. Now relax for a second. That's your circle. Okay, so what we're going to do with our circle is I want you to take that leg. I want you to allow the hip to go here. You're going to circle it down and around, but you're not going to let this hip cap, you're going to let it come off to this, this side.

You're not going to let it come off on that side. Okay. All right. So let's start with the right leg. Okay. And we're going to take it across the body and around. Open and up. Uh, corals around. Oh, up in Hail, eh.

Inhale, big long. Exhale. Inhale. Shh. Well I, that's what, and Ham, last one, not the last one. And Hey, on and up. Last one. And in him and beautiful other side. Good. So now we got to do our hip rolls first. So take the leg up and over. And if you want to, you can do like Tyler's doing and he's got his hand on his leg and giving yourself a little downward pressure. Okay.

Roll that hip off and then roll it back onto the floor. Roll it off. Roll it back onto the floor. Good. So roll it off and now I want it to stay where it is real. You hit back down. Good. Yeah. And Roll it all and roll it back down. Good.

Now swing it down and around to the side and we're going to do the same thing, which is incredibly difficult, really to the side. Yes. And so as Amy is doing, she's rolling it off now as she comes down, this is just staying right where it is, which is beautiful. Yes. And Roll it back when you feel that nice openness in the hips and roll at that. Now bring it front and let's go into this circle. So front across, down and around and up. Front, across, down and around. And inhale. Big. Exhale. Yeah.

Good. And in here. Sure. Good. Two more. Inhale. Watch those yet. They're going crazy. Yes. Only one is lifting. Uh, the other one's things still good.

Last one. Beautiful. Yes. And I did not result reverse the circle. You could, uh, okay. I just, I just did. All right, so now we're going to let our legs and to a diamond position quite close in to the center here. Okay. So I'm gonna want you to just, um, you can hold on to your knees if you want to. All your, I actually, I don't hold on, but if you want to hold on, you can hold on underneath your thighs. Um, you're going to flex your feet and kick one, two. Now what I want you to do is keep the upper legs still and just expand the legs out. So we're gonna go [inaudible], kick, kick x, stand and point, and kick, kick, extended point, and kick. Kick X in. One more. Kick. Kick X, Dan. Now kick, kick. Extend the legs.

Now he'd take them to the top B bead eggs. So we kick kick x, Dan, and B, beat eggs. Then add kick, kick x, then n B, v x last one, Kik, Kik, x, and v. V. X. Then nail singles, kick ones expand. Don't be just touch and open. Kick and stretch. Just touch and open. Kick and stretch.

Just touch and open and kick and dread and up and open. Relax. Good. Let's roll up to sitting. Very nice. How was that? Good. All right, so we're going to do a spine stretch, but I would like you to open your legs wider than you normally do. Okay, so for me, I can open them fairly wide. That's not everybody. Okay. We're doing this just because it's a, it's a bar file. I asked. That's why it's this wide. Okay. And what we're going to do is sit up nice and tall, nice deep breath in. As we exhale, we're gonna round forward, pull into those abdominals and we're each, I'm keeping my seatbelt on that I'm still reaching as far as I can and then I come up. Nice deep breath in and exhale. Well, reach and coming up.

Now the reason I'm not falling off of this table is because I'm sitting on my hips. I'm not letting my weight carry me forward. Okay? My head's quite heavy. If I wasn't sitting on my hips, I would fall forward. Okay, one, two more times. Reaching forward, reach and coming back up. Last one, and reach and up. Beautiful arms up to the ceiling. Now lengthen. Stand up as tall as you can.

Then to the side as if you're trying to put your ear on your knee and come center and other sun and Center and Sur and center and SA and center and side and center and side. Beautiful and lengthen and side and center. Last one as a and center. Very good. Now you're in a close your legs here into a position that you would do your twist in, except we're going to do it in a ballet way.

We're going to take our arms up to the ceiling. Okay. We're going to twist to the side. We open the arms, close, calm, center, twist, open, close and center. Twist, open, close and center and exhale. Great. And Oh, close and center with O. Open close. Two more to go and twist open. Was that the first side? The second side? Is this the second? Thank you.

Good. I thought so. Just making sure. Good. Very nice. Okay. Stay nice and tall for me right here. Arms go for Ron. Answer, add, front and side and front. And so I keep them very strong. Don't let the head get involved or the [inaudible] back and side.

I'm front and side and front and side and front. And so I karate chops back. Two, three, four, five, six, seven pounds up and one, two, three. No head getting involved. Six, seven, eight circles. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Reverse, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Relax. Oh, because you feel your arms. Yeah. Okay, good. All right, so now let's go to a diamond position. Okay.

Now this movement can be done. The easier version would be to do this on your elbows. You can do this on your hands or you can do it with no hands. Whatever you choose to do. Okay, so we're going to start in a diamond sitting up nice and tall and we first just close and open and close and open and close and open and close and open. Now I'd like you to pull into those abs rolls slightly off of your tailbone.

We're going to lift those legs up and low and and low, and then and lower and lift and lower. Now we live close, open and lower. I lift too close to open and low. Lift to close, open and lower. Pull into those abs. Lift a lows. Open. Beautiful. Now stay up there.

Left close, open, close, open, close up, and Gaz. Open. Close. Stay there. Open. Now we lower the legs in the body and we live. We lower the legs in the body and we live way the legs. On the body. Ou lower the legs and the body and [inaudible]. Good. Beautiful guys. I was really hard. Very nice.

Good. Uh, okay. Sorry. I know that was hard one. I know that was terrible. All right, you had to put your hands down. Now it's terrible. All right. Okay. So lying on our sides. Okay. So we're gonna lie at ourselves up with the back edge of our mat. Okay.

And feet or just ever so slightly in front of you. Okay. Turn them out now. I would love it if you can do this whole thing with no hands. Okay. And as Eve gentry used to say, because I'm away, um, you want a breath of air underneath you at all times. Okay? So no matter if you have to hold on to do that, that would be bad. That's fine. But you want that breath of air there. Okay? You want that held. Okay. So our first movement is our devil, a pay side. So we're gonna lift that leg up, up to the side, flex it down, lift it up, take it side, select, sit down and lift.

Take it sa Lex, eh. Take it up and flex. Good. Let's do one more. Lift up and flex. Good. Now we're going to circle for run sa back and hold for sa back and hope for side back. Try to keep that lift front side back.

Keep the rotation here for one side back. Last one for a beautiful, hold it there to the back. Touch to the back and two and three and four and six and seven and eight. Now for one and two back and two full run and two back and two for run and two back two and front. Two and back. And two. Good. Now bring your knees and bend them.

Le Arms are still, well you can put a hand down if you have two here. All right, so the first thing we're going to do is I like to keep my knees slightly back. That makes it harder. If you are having trouble, you can bring them slightly forward. One, if you want to put it where you feel it in your right and your glutes. Okay. Right in the glute Medius Piriformis. Uh, your external rotators. Okay. So we're gonna first just lift and lower and lift and low and lift and lower and lower and lower and five and lower. Six and lower at seven n lower n eight n lower.

Now we lift. Lift the legs. Both legs. Extend. Good. Ben and vise down. Lift. Extend. Then place down to lift. Extend then and down and lift.

Extend then and down. Good. One more left. Extended. Stay there for me. Bottom leg one and lift and two. And the three left. Four, five, six, seven and eight. Good, nice. Relax. Okay. Before we go to the other side, I give you a rest. Not really arrest, but we're going to do something else before we go to the other side.

We're going to roll into our backs. This is a fun little combination, but actually, Tyler, you should do this for me. I have, I have a neck issue from a car accident recently, so I'm not gonna roll over. So, uh, so we're gonna roll up into a bridge position. Okay? In a way to know where you are for that is to put your hands on your thighs and you're going to go up to your hands. Okay. Right to where he's got a nice diagonal line right there. Okay, so his movement is going to be this. He's going to reach his hands, his shoulders down this way, and then release his shoulders and release and his shoulders. Emily's four times. Then he's going to roll down.

Now he's gonna bend his knees like his arms up over head roll those legs up and over. He's gonna Circle legs around, arms are still off. Takes them with him to circle up and into a teaser. Now we get to bend our knees to come back down. Okay. All right. That was beautiful. Thank you. All right, so we're starting with our bridge, so we're rolling up and get up to your nice high position.

Keep the butt tight and the hands go by your sides. Just float them off the floor and you're going to reach your shoulders away from your ears. Reach towards your heels and release and reed really reach, release and reach. Release. Now roll the pelvis down, roll it down, roll it down, take the arms up, bend the knees, take the legs up to the ceiling. Rollover. Nice. Pull into the ABS, roll over. You may have to hold on if you need to. And then open the legs. Nice. And watch circle. I'm around into a beautiful teaser, taking the arms with you. Don't get on your tailbone. Pull into those abs. Nice. Band your knees to come into that. Roll down to that bridge. Beautiful.

One more time. So bridging up. Nice position. Good lift and tighten that seat and shoulders. Region one and release two and release the Rory and release and for and release. Roll it down. Beautiful. And now we roll over.

Good and circle. Beautiful and roll up into that Nice, beautiful teaser. Hanging onto those abs and bend the knees and come down. Our last one, instead of our arm reaches, we're going to roll up now instead of our arm. Rachel's, I want you to lift your seat up on and release. Let the seat and release. Let the seat, and then they send that this c and release. Now Roll it.

Damn good and sign thing. Bring the knees up and legs up. We're all lover and circle around. Ruining them in to a nice teaser for me and hold it. Stay there, hold it. Beautiful.

And bend the knees and come back down to the other side for our whole side series. Isn't that fun? All right. So on this side here, yes. So your turn our legs out and we start with our breath of air here. Okay, I have a microphone. So uh, but I still have a breath of air.

So here we're going to lift that leg up up and flex it down and lit it up and flex it down and lifted up and flex it down and lift it up and like sit down and lift it up and like sit down and look it up and it's like sit down. Now we circle for sight that I hold onto those out for Ryan, Sam, Zack, hold onto the ams for one side back. Hold onto the ABS and the ribcage. Front side back. One more time for me for sign backstage. Do the back. We just touch tight.

Three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Now lift it front to lift it back to and front and two and back and two and two. Back to Ann last time and back and two very nice. Now bend the knees and we lift. Open and close and open and close and open and close and open and close and open and close and last one and clothes.

Now we're going to open and we live and extend and then and put it down. You have to kind of take your legs slightly front if you need to. Yeah. Good and down. This is actually from Lolita, San Miguel, extend and Vin and to lift extent [inaudible] and down to lift. Asked him and Ben and last one. We're going to lift it extended.

Now that bottom leg goes down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down. Keep breathing and down and up. Relax. Oh, wasn't that excellent? Good. I know. It's terrible. It's terrible. I know. I'm okay. All right. We're going to sit up. Okay. We're going to do our open leg rocker prep.

So we're going to start here and we're going to take our leg. I for the preparation, like didn't grab my feet, but, but you can take your ankles, whatever you want. You're going to extend one leg up and bring it in. Take the other leg up and bring it in. Take on like up. Exhale. Bring it down.

Inhale and exhale. Now both legs, Ben. Good. Eh? [inaudible]. Good. Now here's the hard part. Grab onto your legs and go here.

Now what I'd like to see my shirt is probably in my way. Okay, so we're here and we go, sorry, I'm making y'all stay there. We're going to lower and pull into our ads and then we're going to lengthen. We're going to lower use your lower ass and like I lower and lengthen and I lower and I lengthen. It's that add that Ab curl that makes you do that role. Now here we go.

Roll it back and roll it up. Roll it back and roll it up. Roll it back and roll it up. And one more. Roll it back and roll it up. Stay there for me. Close other than clothes and clothes and gloves and flows and have an end.

Close and open. Beautiful clothes and place the legs down. Hands go behind us. Cross one leg over the other. I only lift a Chester hands can go back or forward whichever way you want. All right, here. Where are you going to point up? Flex. Yeah, and from flex and lift. Shoulders away from the ears. Sh s six seven [inaudible] and eight. Good. Now take both fee flax, reach forward all over those legs.

Okay, good. Now the one that was working, the one that was going up and down, swings around to go behind you. The other one goes in front. Okay. Now this is advanced from what we've done before. This can be done this way as we've done it in our previous glasses. Okay. We're doing it a little bit harder today. So we're bending our backne yes, and banning our front knee and we're going to try to lift that back leg up off the mat. Ben Lifted up and Dan, lift it up and down. Lift it up and down. Let it up.

Good. Lift it up and down. It's terrible. I know it is lifted. And Dan, you can do it. Lift it up and down. Now pause it to me. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight n one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Very nice. Swing that leg around into a pretzel position. Now sit up. Very tall. Cross yourself around. Yes.

So yes, you're here and you're gonna really cross. Yeah. Now what I'd like you to do is lift that hip hop and lower it down. Lift it up low or that hit Dan. Lengthen the spine. Lifted up. Lower down. Yeah, like the DHA and lower damn. Good. Other side.

Yeah. Here we go. Eh, lift it up. Point for him. Flex down. Two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Okay. Bring the legs together. [inaudible]. Good.

Now the one that was underneath is the one that's gonna gonna be the one that that swings to go to stretch. Okay, so the, the one that was in front? Yeah. Is the one that's not stretching. All right? So we're, as I said, the modification of this exercises to do it sideways like this. Okay, so you guys are lifting up and down and up. So this is, I'm doing the modified up and down and up and down and, and lower. So that would be the modification and lit and lower and and lower. Now we live and we pulse. Two, three, four. Try to keep your back as lifted as you can. It's almost impossible. Two, three, four, good. Five, six, seven and eight.

And then you're going to swing that leg that was behind you around. Sit Down into that Nice Pretzel and get a nice twist. Very tall. Now from here, you're going to lift the HIPAA up and roll it back. Now lift it up, rel it back down. Well, lift Duda roll it back down and lift it up and roll it back down. Very nice. Good. Okay, very good. Alright, now let's go.

We're going to stand up, I believe, Huh? Uh, well, yes, we're going to stand up the right way. So we're going to stand up like this. So we got our hands. Barneys. Yes. Now we're going to band and extent. So we're going to straighten the legs. Drop the heels down, bring your head to your knees. Now Bend your knees, lift your heels.

Yes. Now try the same thing. Let's try taking the hands off if we can and we go straight and, and Ben. Beautiful. Test your stomach balance out. Drop your head and go Ben. You got it. Good job. And one more time. Straighten. Now Roll your body up. One Vertebra at a time. Beautiful.

Very, very nice. Good. Stand up. Nice and tall. Okay, now let's turn, um, work. Stand all. I like to stand off my mat, but those are sticky mats are not squishy. So it's up to you. Okay. Um, but we're going to be this way. Yeah, face me. Yeah. Face me. Then in your back, behind your mat, you can face me if you want to. Okay. So we're going to start here. Okay. And we're going to put our hands wherever you want them.

I like them out to my side. You can put 'em on your hips. You can put them behind your head. You can put them here, whatever you want. Okay. And we bend our knees and we're going to lift our heels. We're going to use our ab muscles.

We'd been working in our inner thighs to squeeze and come down on two eggs then. And not crack that. Let that egg here. Squeeze your inner thighs. Now you gotta use your abs, low or slow, then lift and up and low or last time. Yeah, lift up. Beautiful Low.

Now reverse it up in acts house. Inhale. Exhale, squeeze and lift and ask him and he'll press those Achilles tendons down. Shh. And I had been and x Dan last time. What you want to watch is that you're standing on all five toes, bend and extend. Very nice. Good.

Now from here we're going to go to lift and lower and lift and lower. What I always tell people is, think of it. Think of showing your heel to the front of the room. Then your heel. Good. So you're not lifting from here, you're lifting from under here and and Dan, that's it. [inaudible] and down one more.

And and down other leg and lift and low and there you go. Lower. So if I did it wrong, it'd be this way, right? Lifted my hip. Don't lift your hip and low and lift and lower and lift and lower and lift and low. One more lift and lower. [inaudible]. Good. Okay. Stand in. Open position. Same thing almost, except we're adding one thing. We're going to start by just been and stretch and bend and stretch now and these are coming out over my toes.

Stretched and been and stretch. Now stay down there Ben, and give yourself a little pulse too. I like to press my thighs open four by six, seven ae again, get those inner thighs going or five, six, seven and eight. Straighten up to Ben. Lift the heel and roll. It's slow. Yes, Ben. And extend slow.

Then lift. Extend low and been lift. [inaudible] and lower. Now rise up. Reverse it lip to Ben. Low and squeeze and pin to lower. Now squeeze those high inner thigh. Lift. Bend.

Good. Now really work on it. That nice position. Squeeze those inner thighs. Yes. Listen, boss lift last one. [inaudible] and squeeze inner thighs. Good and lower. Very nice. Good. Okay. Now stay there. We're going to from here, this is going to get hard. We are going to go from here. I want you to kick from this position.

I want you to kick that leg up. We're going to bend and sacker. We're going to go to the other leg. We're going to bend, we're going to go to the other leg. We're gonna bend and other land. And then I don't know how many times we will see. I don't know how many times we're going to do. Would just say, all right, here we go. Ready man. Do your knees and kit. Bend your knees and, and then come on, stretch his legs and then they extend.

And Ben x. Then good. And Ben. Extend two more to go Ben extent and been asked then. Beautiful. Awesome. Okay, let's go into this position. Okay. We're gonna lunge. So guys, you don't have to be as turned out as me, but you're going to be in a lunge position. Okay? So everybody, yeah, there you go. Right? Everybody can go the same way right there. Okay. So what we're gonna do from here is I want you to get your weight on your front foot, okay? And I want you to lift the back foot up.

I'm keeping both hips forward and I'm lowering down, keeping that in hips, that keeping the hips forward, so lift and lower. I'm never really settling on that back leg lift and load and lift and low and low and low, and lift and lower. Now we're going to reach up and down. Now we're not settling back down. Reach up. We're not settling back down. Reach up our legs. Our weight is still on our front leg.

Reach it up and down and reach it up and down. Last one, up and down. Now Bend your body forward. Good. Straighten that front end of the acne point the back foot. Now you're gonna lift your back leg up high as you can. Drop your head and kick it up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, or five, six, seven, eight.

Come down for a second. Bring your head up to rest for a second. We're going to do the same thing. We're going to do it on relevant. We're going to keep our front foot lifted, our heel lifted. Okay, now we're ready. All right, I didn't stand up here cause I don't want to fall off and kill myself. All right, so from here we're going to get here and we're going to lift both the, the front eel up and we're going to kick one, two, three, four. Keep your head down. Five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Now I want you to flex both feet so you lower the bottom heel, flex the top of you and lifted higher a point for Lex and [inaudible] and Paul [inaudible] and point last ones like Sandlin and for me, good. Come down other side. Wasn't that fun? Alright, here we go. Oh there's that right? So wait and never really settles on that back leg is the key here. Okay, so you're here and you're going to lift and low and lift. My weight is still in the front way. Lift and low and low and lower. Good. Lift and lower. Last one, lift. Beautiful. Now bring it up and Burnett, bring it up and bear. Good up, nice and back. Bring it up and back.

Bring it up and back and ah, and that. Good. Now you're gonna bring your head down. Point you back foot. Straighten your front leg. Good. Right now I want you to bring that leg up to the ceiling and I want you to kick it up. One, two, three, four, five. Stretch that leg. 7:00 AM, one p three. Good. Five, six, seven. Good eight. Now bring it down. Come up for a second. Rest. Get your blood pumping. All right, back to your head.

Go back down last time. Last time. All right, here we go. And we're going to lift it up. We're going to lift up the other leg if you can, and go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Now Flex your top foot. Lower your bottom leg. Flex your top foot, lower your bottom leg. Flex your top foot below or you bottom leg come up like top and good. Calm down and relax and up. You're almost, Huh?

Cross one leg over the other for me. We're going to bend over to the side and stretch long. Nice, long and come good and worry and stretch. Good. Now let's reach over. Let's bend the knee. You can put your foot like this. If you want to bend your knees just a little bit, straighten and go further and come up other side. All right, so the first ones you can be here or you can be here and you're going to reach over and come up and reach over and let that hip slide down and ah, and reach over. And now if you want to change your foot on this last one, reach over, sort of bend your knee. Now extend and try to get further into it.

Nice and come up. Nice. Alright. Hand feet together for me. Take the hands up. Now I want you to lift your chest up to the ceiling, circle your arms around and come down. And again, bring the arms up and lift. Lift reached high to the ceiling, lip and come down. Beautiful. Last one, lift it up. Inhale, exhale, lift the chest. Very good. Thank you very much. Good.

Comments

As an ex professional ballet dancer, I really love Cecile's class. She has fabulous energy, wonderful, clear cueing and demonstrates so beautifully!! I feel that I have learned lots of new exercises for my dancer clients. Thank you Cecile!!

Sincerely, Rachel Parker
Erica V
3 people like this.
My name is Erica and I teach Pilates on the mat in The Netherlands, for 9 years now. I use Pilates Anytime since six months as inspiration for my classes. I watch the instructors teach and I learn a lot to use in my own lessons. Today, for the first time I actually participated in a class: in your class! I really enjoyed it, it was playful and surprising! Thank you!
PS really liked the Shoulderbridge/roll over/Teaser combo...
Thank you all, I love these mat barre classes, as an ex dancer, they feel so good to me, but I think they are fun for everyone! glad you liked them!
I'm glad to see you back Cecile. Thanks for another great class!
Lots of fun while working hard! Thanks so much. Got many good ideas for my Barre class also!
Such a great class Cecile, so happy to see you back!! Love all the nasty similarities between dancer instructors. ;)
Hi Cecile,
You are a legend in town. I heard you are in south FL. Is this accurate or Lab school rumour?
well I am glad i am a legend! Yes I am in Florida I live on 30 A right past san Destin. I co own a two studios here Pilates by the Sea and Pilates By the Sea in the San Destin health club. I am in and out of Baton Rouge all the time though!
1 person likes this.
That really did the trick. Love these mat/barre classes taught by you Cecile. Hope you can come back soon!
Great class, Cecile. My ballet students love their floor barre so this will be a welcome addition
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