Class #1775

Mind-Body Connection

30 min - Class
87 likes

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Monica teaches a Mat workout focusing on connecting the mind to the body. She works on the details of each exercise so you can perfect your technique and have better control. Creating this awareness throughout the class will help you feel strong and long when you are finished.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Alright, so Juliane Sarah, we just finished a basic reformer and now we are going to go and do a matte. You could do this mat completely standalone on your own because we're going to read you the hundred. But if you did do the reformer already, then you could skip the hundred and just do the rest. But let's start with our same connection. We're gonna keep the theme going of our mind, connecting to our body and practicing that control. So we're gonna start with our Pilati stance with the weight of our body, more on the ball of our feet. You could lift those heels up if you want.

You're drawing a line from one hip onto the other. Beautiful Sarah, and you're gonna keep your belly behind that line, but not just in, it's going to be lifted, right? We're going to put one arm on top of the other, like an I dream of Jeannie, probably really dating myself right there. And you're going to cross one foot in front of the other. Good. And now without making it super stiff or unnatural, try to use your belly to pull in and up as you lower yourself down with control. So just pulling in your stomach, pulling it in more and more and more and more and more. Fantastic. Put your hands behind you, kind of like in the middle of the mat, and then lift your bottom back and lower yourself down one bone at a time.

Let's get ready for the hundred. So you're going to bend your knees into your chest. We're going to be doing an intermediate mat. Bend your knees in good and using your powerhouse. Bring your head up to look at your belly. Good.

Reach your arms up at hip level. Just right there. Thank you. And lengthen your long, beautiful legs away from that tight stomach. And let's go into three, four, five, exhaling. So you can think of 5,000 things right now to work on in the hundred, but the only one I want you to think about is can I get my stomach to pull in more? I want to really warm up my belly. If I on a scale of one to 10 I want it since we've done the reform already, I want it at a 10 already. But if this is the first thing you're doing, then a five is fine.

Slowly by the end of the a hundred at least a seven and in with the air and ex-CEO, pulling it into the mat. This is a great level for your legs. But if your belly needs more challenge, you can lower your legs a little lower as long as your stomach does not look like a loaf of bread rising in the oven. Yeah, not a good look. And last breath in with the air and exhale scooping it in and hug your knees into your chest. Great. Go ahead and lengthen your legs on the Mat. Good. And reach your arms up to the ceiling. And then to keep with your spine nice and anchored. Reach your arms back.

Good. So what we're going to work on here on this exercise is using our belly to articulate our spine. So arms up head and now upper back, middle back, lower back until you reach almost for your ankles. And Rolling back. You're going to roll back your lower back, then your middle back and your upper good. And we're going to do one more at that tempo and arms up head and articulate one bone at a time. That's what you're really focusing on. And we're reach.

And let's roll it back. Lower back first, middle, upper. Now let's double time that tempo. Arms head and curl it up. Reach for the feet, start rolling back in. How to start. Exhale, rolling all the way down and it's inhale to start up. Exhale to scoop it all up. Good. And inhale to roll back in. Exhale to roll all the way and in with the air. And exhale. Very good. And inhale to start using that belly.

And two more arms. Head, stomach curls. Yes. And keep your belly in as it pulls you back. Yes. And one more time. Arms head in, some McFalls away from your thighs as you reach your head forward and rolling back. Good. And stay down Juliana. And there you go. There a great. And now arms press by your side. Good. And Hug in your right knee to your chest.

Straighten the leg up and give yourself a good stretch by putting your hands behind the calf if you can behind your thigh if you are not able to. Okay. And drop your shoulders into the mat. Good. Now you both are very flexible. If you couldn't have this leg straight, you could always bend this knee so that you can do this exercise. But because you're flexible, we're gonna keep that long leg down the middle. All right, I want you to work on keeping this leg just a little turned out today so that your knee and toe are pointing more to your right shoulder than they are to your chest bone. And press your arms down by your side. Press your arms down. Good.

So let me see that turnout. Okay. Just a little turned out and I want to see you focus on that today. So bring it up towards your nose. The leg cross, the body hold is it still turned out? Reached down as low as you can and then pull it back up. You can open it. I like that. Normally I keep it smaller for right now, but you can open it because you did not move that hip at all.

But keep that leg turned out and you're going to take it all the way up to your nose, all the way to your shoulder. Circle down and up. Good and cross around, up, picking up the tempo. Keep that turn out. Let me see that leg work. Yes. One more. And Go the other way. Reaching crust. So as you cross that knee is going to want to roll in focus. Don't let it roll in. Oh yeah. Two more. Last time.

All the way up to that shoulder. Yes. And Hug that knee. Good. Switch legs. Right leg down the middle of your body. Left knee and left leg up. Stretch. Bring this right leg. Yes. Just a little more down the middle of your body. Okay, good.

And now arms press by your side and make sure that needs a little turned out because now your hips are square when you do that versus when you roll in that hip lifts. So we're going to, okay, so all the way up to your nose, crossing over. Good. And then down around up and four more. Cross around, up and cross around. Kicking me over here. Yes. The up is really important. Kicked me. Yes. And one more chorus. Surround and reverse down. Don't let that NIU roll in as you cross even a little more.

Yes. That's hard to do. One more. Very nice. How'd that neat in and lengthen that leg down the middle of your body. Good. And you're going to inhale, lift your head up and exhale. Curl into yourself. Put your hands by your hips.

Lift using your arm muscles. Good. And your pelvis is basically tipped towards you. See if you can keep your stomach like that as you balanced with your feet up. See if you can keep your pelvis and stomach like that as you grab onto your ankles and Tuck your head as deep between your knees as you can. So this is like stomach massage. Good.

I want a little more space between the bone, not your stomach, but more. Yeah, like that. Okay, good. All right. So right now I want you to focus again on articulation, just like you did on the Rola. So use your lower belly to roll back your lower back. Go back, use your upper stomach to roll up your upper back. So lower belly, upper belly. Inhale. [inaudible].

Exhale. So your ribs pull in and squeeze out that air in with the air. Exhale, get as tight as I'm all for me. Two more in with the ear. Exhale. Last one in with the air. Upper stomach gets your ears back between your knees, yours, knees. Well, AH, rest your feet down though. Wheels were turning. It was happening. Okay, so we just put our feet down.

Put your arms behind you with knife, strong our muscles and powerhouse. You're going to lift up and back. Good. You're gonna bring your right knee with you for the series of fives. Who you're going to brute your right hand on your ankle, left hand on your knee. Good.

And now I want you to really focus on not moving your box at all and switch left and right. Good. And keep it going. So if I was looking at just the shape of your box, I wouldn't even know you're doing an exercise. Right. And you're doing that with absolute stomach control at last left knee. Bring both knees in and hands on your ankles and double leg stretch so the arms reach one way legs the other and pull it altogether and in with the air and exhale and in with the air. And exhale. Same thing in with the air. And exhale vows.

Looking at your hips and your shoulders. I wouldn't know you were doing an exercise. Last one. And exhale right leg goes up, left leg forward and grab onto the right ankle. Left leg forward. There you go. And now switch left and right. Good and switch. Same thing, but I want you to focus more on your stomach here.

Really feel that stomach. Pull the leg up and pull it up and pull it up. And it's a quick switch. It's right, left, right, left switch and they're flying through the air. Yes, last set. And now both legs up, hand over, hand behind the head. Good. Lower the legs where you can keep your powerhouse in and pull up and reach, reach, reach and pull. [inaudible] still focusing on that nice box, not smooth and up and down with this. I love it. You guys are moving at all to more reaching and scoop and last one and now bend that right knee and twist the left elbow too. It reached two, three and switch and put, pull back your left elbow for me.

There you go. And switch. Twist around a line. There we go. And you only have one more. Twisting around. Beautiful. Hug those knees in. Nice job. Hug those knees in from a Juliana and you're going to go ahead and sit up and you had those nice boxes. I want you to put your heels in the middle of the box and sit up tall with your arms up at shoulder height.

Pull your belly really in and lift up through the crown of your head and exhale to bring your head down and curl into yourself. And then inhale to roll up. Good. And for more focus on articulating so the head, especially for us women on the upper back. So rolling up in a row like this here and now, right through here. Really work all of those fantastic bulling in and head.

Good shoulders. Excellent. Exhale, exhale, exhale. And then rolling up through each bone. Beautiful. Give me one more lift off your seat a little bit there too, Juliana. There Ya go. And Rolling. Nice curve. And starting from the bottom, you're going to stack your spine up.

Really important through here. Love it. Okay. So see if you can pull back your pelvis and you're going to let your legs float up to your hands. Is that sound okay? Pretty good. Yes. Yes. Now you're going to do that with your stomach in though, and you're going to put your feet down and I know you can. That's why she might've gotten a buy there. I didn't see what she did. So you're going to rock back, pull it in. That's it. And pull up those legs.

Beautiful. Ooh, Sarah. Nice. I like it. Great. You're gonna pull in and up and stay just like that. And still work on your articulation. So lower back rolls back first, you're fine and upper back. So you press your waistband down to rollback. You exhale breast, your bra strap, or the bottom of your shoulder blades in with the air. Exhale in with there. Exhale.

Now hold it up. And Ramana really love to say, don't hang out back there too long. Come back up and see me. So as soon as you're back, come right back up. Roll back and right that gun. That's it. One more little tempo, a little difference. Stay right there and squeeze your legs together. Good.

Leave your legs there and roll down away from them. Lie Your head down and hug the knees into your chest. So now extend your legs up to the ceiling and press your arms down by your side. Okay, we're going to do cork screw, a little bit of a [inaudible] stance, and I want you to feel your spines on the mat right now. Write your upper back, the back of your ribs and your weight span. Look out. See how far you can keep your spine down as you reach your legs. To the right.

Circle the legs as low as you can. Keep that back flat all the way to your left and pull center. Good. And go to the left. Good. And reach down, pulling into the mat and center. Beautiful. And to the right. So we keep going the opposite way around and center and to the left.

Reach down around and center. And one more set to the right around pulling into the mat. As you circle around and last time left, it's like you're stretching your spine by the weight of your legs. Now go ahead and sit right on up and open the legs onto those boxes and arms out to the side. But just in your peripheral vision for me, Julian, a little more forward. Good. Pull into your back, not out and tall. Twist to your right and exhales. You reached your baby toe.

Inhale, wall up your spine. Twist your left and exhale. Reach for your baby Cho. Good. Inhale, rolling up and hold it here. Right there. Do you feel both sit bones down? Good twist to your right hold. Keep your left.

Sit bone down as you exhale down. So you got to really pull in your obliques, your waist muscles to keep it down. And then inhale up, stack in your spine, twist to the left with your belly in, in yes. And keep your right. Sit bone down by pulling your belly right behind that he, yeah, let be a wonderful and inhaling up and twist to the right and exhale your left obliques pull right back. Beautiful. Yep. And inhaling up one last time and stomach hugs in. So you keep the right sit bone down. That's what we're focusing on here. And inhaling up. Good.

And we're going to squeeze your legs together and then you're gonna flip over onto your stomach. So you're just going to flip over and hands right under your shoulders. Ready to go. Legs are together. If you have a tight back, you can bring your hands a little forward and wide. Otherwise elbows straight back towards you. Good. Pull your belly in. Squeeze your glutes. Okay, so this is the first time that we're flipping over onto your stomach in our mat work. And you have to fight gravity now.

So let's see if you can do a back bend without letting go of your belly. So roll up your head, your chest, you can start straightening your arms, puling, keeping your belly in. So hold it right there and just a quick check is your stomach. And then look over your right shoulder. Circle the chin to the chest to the left and forward again, stomachs in.

And then left. Circle the head down around, forward, lift with your belly and then come down, lengthening your spine. Good. And one more set. And I want these shoulders a little more lexo though. There we go. Stomach and we're going to come up with our head and our chest and that is gorgeous. Now look left first. This time. Keep lifting here. [inaudible] around. Chin to the chest and right and forward and reverse it, right. Circling down.

Good and forward and hold the before you go down as your stomach like taught, taught, taught and come down. Wonderful. Bring your elbows forward and push your knuckles into each other. That's it. Elbows underneath your, um, just a little bit back there and push them into each other. Excellent. And a little under you so you can really lift your chest up. That's it. Squeeze your legs together.

Still feel like the shape needs to be there so you can push your forum into the mat and lift your chest up more. Can you [inaudible] that's great. Stomach's in. All right. Now I really want you to think of your hamstrings and glutes here, so try to lift your legs up off the mat using those muscles, hamstrings, and glutes. Good. And you're going to take the right heel to your seat. One, two and switch left to good. The other leg does not go on the mat. Ears reaching good and right to left to right to left to lifting up your by. As you kick lift it towards you, lift it towards you. Get up of the mat high. Would that ne one more set? Really getting the hamstring glute legs down. Nice.

Hopefully you still had your stomach and it's always important, right? Facial cheek on the mat. Hands behind your back, as high as you can between your shoulder blades. Good. Ideally, you're just holding a few fingers instead of lacing. But there you go. Good. Squeeze your legs together. Let me see how much light you can have underneath your knees.

So squeeze your legs together, lift your legs up as high as you can. Okay. And her three kicks. Heels to your seat. One, two, three. Very nice. Legs down and pulling up, up, up, and switched chicks. That was beautiful cause you didn't slide forward. Excellent. And lifting up, up, up and switched chicks. Get those legs up higher for me. Thank you Juliana. And stretch. Stretch last one. And kicking in, knees up as eyes you can and stretching up to three enough.

So to transition, you're going to go into child's pose. So you're going to put your hands here, pull up in the powerhouse, round your back and sit on your heels. Great. Go ahead and turn over onto your back. Good. And since we have this strap, we're going to use it. There's a strap right here. You can put your legs under a couch if you wanted to do this at home, but they're going to be wit hip width apart.

So make sure they're able to be hip with the park. There you go. Good. And sit up tall with one hand over the other, behind your head. Good. And I want, there's these two bones, the bottom of your skull. You guys know that they're your occipital processes, but you can feel them right? And you want basically like the poem where it goes to your thumb to cup underneath that bone and pull on your neck.

Because this exercise is called neck pool. It's not called Netball DePaul on your neck, on the weight up, but it's to stretch your spine on the way down. But in order to do that, you always have to pull in your powerhouse. So pull it in and now with your belly in and up, pull on your neck and start rolling back your pelvis as you lengthen your spine. Pelvis. Yes. And then that waistband touches first. Pull your belly in more and more. Yes, yes. And we'll all the way down.

Inhale to lift your head up and exhale. Roll into yourself. Curl into yourself. Yes. Until you kiss your niece and then use your belly to stack up your spine. And now that your belly is in, we're concentrating on pulling on that neck on the way down. So pull your belly in to lengthen. That's fine. Tall, tall here. You got it? Yeah. Hey Rebecca.

And exhaling, curling into yourself on the way up. Roll up to a tall back and then we'd stay tall on the way back. So pooling in and tall and pulling on your neck, pulling in the s yes, yes. And two more in with the air. And exhale, curling into yourself. It's beautiful. Inhale, roll up your spine and focusing on pulling your belly into Linkedin, pulling on your neck, pulling on your neck.

And we're gonna do one more in with the air and exhale and inhaling up. And you both are doing it really well where you're pulling on your neck, but your back goes down in the order it should be going. So it's still going down. Lower, middle and upper. Fantastic. Why on your right side, on the back edge of your mat for sidekicks so faced that way. Did I say that wrong? Left side. Yes. Thank you.

And slide all the way back until you're on the back edge. Good. Bring your feet forward. Good. Since we're intermediate, we're not gonna use that box, but just bring your feet just in front of it. And if you have an okay knack, I want you to go ahead and rest your head on your hand. Bend your elbow and wrist. You're good. And probably slide back two inches with your whole body.

There you go. Good. But bring your feet forward. Wonderful. Alright. Right hand goes in front of your stomach to remind you to keep your belly in our right. Lift your feet forward just a bit more. Bring your right leg up till it's a level of your hip and turn out that leg. Good. So I'm going to give you two things to focus on right now. One that your box isn't gonna rock and roll at all, stays perfectly stable and still and the other that you keep that leg slightly turned out like that as you do it. So we're going to do 10 kicks, kick forward and kick back. There we go.

And full and kicking back and forward and keep it turned down as it goes back and forward and not a single movement here and forward and back and kick it and squeeze it back and to lose and squeeze it back and two and squeeze it back and one and squeeze it good and legs together. Take your right hand and put it right here on your hipbone like you're pushing it away from you. Good. And I just want you to feel the outer thigh really having to work in the first extra first rep without moving that right hip bone. So I don't want this hip bone to come any closer to your shoulder. It's going to stay right there. Lift your right leg up an inch. Good.

Now kick it up to your ears high as you can without moving this hip. Good. And now squeeze the inner thighs. You fill your outer thigh there. Good. Now put the hand back in front of you and still use those muscles, but you can have more freedom initiate from the outer thigh and then squeeze and three in. Squeeze into more. And squeeze and last one and then hold that leg working in long and circle it. One, two, three, four, five, reversing it.

I love how you're keeping your body stable. That's what I want to see. That box stable, rested down. Lie on your belly and make a small pillow for your forehead with your hands. One over the other. Pooling in your belly. I want you to squeeze up those legs. Okay?

And I want you to think inner thighs. So open the legs about the width of the map and see if you can bring, use your inner thighs to bring those heels together and do that one more time out. And an inner thighs. Can you feel one now I want you to double time that tempo. One, two, three, four, five. Inner thigh. Inner thigh. That's all you're thinking. Squeezing my inner thighs. Toning them like crazy. Really squeezing them all with together. Four, three, two, one. Enough.

Roll to your other side. So you're rolling, Huh? And your whole back is on that back edge. Good. And then bring your feet to that front edge and rest your head on your hand. Good. And so what I want you to focus on is that none of this beautiful frame is going to move.

And I'm adding on this one that your leg is just a little turned out. All right. 10 kicks, kicking it forward and back and forward and back. Beautiful. Stable. That's what I want to see. Nice. And fall and back and really gig it forward. Challenge yourself forward. Nice frame there.

Keeping it right. A HIPAA. Yes. Give me one more and now that left hand is going to go on that left hip on. Bring the legs together. [inaudible] and push away that hip for the first rep as it kicks up. Yeah, and in squeezes Daddy, put your hand back and squeeze down and up.

Don't let it move to start. Yeah, and then you can have more freedom with it. Soon as that outer thighs engaged. Gimme one more and inner thigh squeeze all the way together and those legs are working in. You're circling. One, two, three, four, five, reverse. Tried to kick those heels together. You're even trying to think that your heel can go into arch two. One enough lie on your back.

Bend your knees into your chest and shake out your legs, legs up, and shake them out. Go ahead. All right, so earlier we did our reformer and we did tree. I'm going to center you. Yes, good. And in tree, it's the preliminary four teaser and I want you to think about how you worked that. Okay? So reach your arms back and reach your legs up to the ceiling with your belly in your back. Might not be able to stay flat. Turn out those legs. Well, you're going to lower your legs down to a 45 degree angle. Just keep trying to pull your belly in. All right, now I want you to think about articulation and curl up your back and reach for those legs. Good. Great. Hold the legs at that level. Arms forward. Yes. And now roll away your lower back. Beautiful. Middle and upper and come right back up again.

Yeah, it's coming right. Beautiful. I am not even holding you. And one more, Juliana, I'm leaving you all on your own. Articulating upper back, middle back, lower. Okay. In with the air. And exhale. Yes. Good. And roll down your waistband first for me. Yes, middle back. That's so beautiful. And that's enough. Hug the knees in. Good.

And now I want you to sit up and you're going to lift your bottom forward for seal. So we're gonna again, the pelvis is already a little tilted, so keep it like that for me. See Con, Aha. But bring your bottom forward all the way almost to your heels. Yes. Balanced. With those heels up, bring your arms through and hold under your ankles. There you go. So what I want you to focus on on this exercise, feet are almost an inch off the floor for me, Sara. Good is that your belly is holding your pelvis back like this when you're up.

I don't want you to be forward on your tailbone. I want you to be almost a little on a few of those vertebra in your sacrum. That makes sense. Okay, so you're going to clap two, three, and inhale, roll back and exhale. Roll Up. And that's what I want you to hold. Yes. Clap two, three and roll back and exhale and hold. Good. You can let your legs go a little more free on the way back. Yes.

And rolling up. But that's what I want to see is that lower belly. Yes. Three more. And exhale. I'm going to have you guys both stop. Sorry. And put your feet down and lift your bottom back like six inches. And then bring your feet towards you because we're gonna roll to a standing position after this. So we're gonna do three more.

Pull the your pelvis tilted a little bit more away from you or towards you, I mean, and three more. Inhale to roll back. Exhale, come up. Same Sarah. You can let your legs be a little more free. They can reach back towards the ocean here. That's it. And Roll Up. Hold in that pelvis almost. I lied. Let's do two more. Roll it back and come coming up. Good. So on this last one, you're gonna let go of your ankles, cross him and we'll all the way to a standing position. Stretching forward, forward. Beautiful. Spin around face that way. Good.

Pilati stance. Arms up to the ceiling. That was a beautiful roll-up ladies. And roll off an imaginary wall until your hands are on the floor and walk out into a pushup position. What I want you to focus on here is your stomach. I don't care what your arms do, technically they should be bending straight back to graze your ribs, but I want you to lift up in your pushup with your powerhouse. Okay? So go down, dip down and pull up in your powerhouse and four more down and find your stomach to help lift and three down and pull up and too, and pull your belly up with you. And last one and up and walk back.

Remind me never to do push ups side by side with you ladies and roll up looks beautiful. Arms up to the ceiling. I need one more set. Keep your energy going. Arms up and rolling forward off that imaginary wall. Gorgeous. Walk out and new first. Hit that plank position. Your seat should be tight also, but really have your stomach and five more down, up one, pulling up, down, up to down, up three, pulling up with your belly down, up four, down, up five. That's because you just showed off so much the first ones, and now you're going to pull back up. I mean, they're really incredible push ups and roll up articulating and with your arms up, I love for your heels to be together. Yup. Good palms out. Take a big breath, and then exhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale. And I want you to inhale as you push down the earth, lifting in your powerhouse. Exhale here, and you're all done. Awesome. Really good.

Comments

Awesome class, Monica!
I love monica! x
Maria M
really great class
Monica Wilson
Thank you! Any requests?
Great Monday morning workout. Thank you
Karen M
1 person likes this.
Great basic mat workout-still challenging. Loved it Ty.
1 person likes this.
Enjoyed the class. Challenging but manageable.
Enjoyed the pace but don't see me getting to lie down from standing or vice versa!
One of my favourite for a quick morning workout, thank you :)
Jill R
Too much talking. I was disappointed . Intermediates don't need everything explained ....
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