Class #190

Focused and Mindful Mat

45 min - Class
18 likes

Description

Kristi attempts to link your body and mind to the ease of spirit that this group brings to class. Using a small, soft ball or pillow, intermediate exercises become more focused and mindful, and everyone seems to have a good time!
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball

About This Video

Jun 15, 2010
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Transcript

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All right. So what we're using the little squishy footballs or, um, vendor balls as another name for my k. W what does it say? Overhaul. Overhaul. That's the one I was looking for. Um, so we could be using a towel. So if it feels a little odd to you and you prefer a towel, you can have a towel or a pillow. I do have pillows. Oh, Helen. Um, so what we're gonna do right now is just put it between your knees. We're using it as our tool. They're a little bit squishy, they give a little bit, and we're not really trying to pop them yet.

Right now we're just trying to hang onto them, know that they're there and use them as a guide for the midline. So hanging on behind your knees, you know what to do. Just stack your spines. Feel the length to your body. I'll trade ya. I'll feel like that one better in here. Exhale, letting go. We got Amy in the house. Aaron and Aaron. Oh, just so you know, Aaron and Aaron.

So last time I confused you right by correcting one of you and you, Hey rob, I just might do that. I wrong. Okay. So can we start again sitting to a right, sitting tall in here and I'll start hugging the ball with the upper inner thighs and allow your pelvis to roll back away from it. Just a little inhale, come back up. So more or less, I'm trying to tap into the lower spine movement of the lower spine and good inhale, bring it right back up. And I'm going to suggest that we all find a little more ease. Right now we've got a good ease in our spirit, but let's make it match in our bodies and okay. Excellent. Inhaling. All right, so we'll make it a little bit bigger.

Exhale to roll back. What about midway? Midway. Helen, can I just move you a little bit? I want to see you just a little bit better. Just a little bit better. Hold. Inhale. I just want [inaudible] kind of move like that if you don't mind. Yeah. Okay. And then what? What you need me to tell you to breathe? If any girl can do it, it would do this crew Terry haunt.

We'll be with you in a moment. Exhale to roll. Okay, so that might be a good time to remind you that. Shall I forget to tell you to breathe. You are welcome to carry on. Inhale, exhale to come back up. All right, just do one more like that and we'll make it maybe a little more interesting. Inhale, exhale, hugging the ball to roll back. Eyes are forward. Collarbones are wide. Hold. Inhale and up we come. Okay, so that's easy enough. Take the ball now and put it behind your back.

Most likely it will be pretty close to touching you, but don't wedge it and you can adjust the ball at any point. There are all different sizes were different sizes, so let's just sort of, we want to be able to roll into it, feel it, and now you're going to try to pop it. Inhale, you're tall first may or may be touching it. Exhale, pulling the abdominals in fluorescing into your ball. Try to pop it with your low back. My Ball. My purple ball is a little bit bigger, so you may be a little lower than I appear. Inhale, start, exhaling. Press the abs into the ball and that OT almost automatically sends you forward and at the last minute you can straighten up. You'll probably come away. Inhale, arms are optional, either straight ahead or holding on. Exhale, scooping the belly, pressing into the pole.

You can allow for a little tuck of the pelvis. No problem. Use it. Inhale, exhale, send the abdominals back. That'll curve the spine and then lengthen up. Inhale, exhaling down, finding the ball. If it goes off, center on you, just adjust for it. Inhale, holding it there. Exhale, maintain contact with the ball as long as you can. As you reach forward with the spine and then stack changing it slightly. Inhale, exhale. We go down, deepen your curve just by drawing deeper into the ABS. That's not you. Don't push into the floor. Inhale, staying here. Just XLM little breaths.

Exhale. It's like the intent to press back into the ball. I'm doing five. Number three, exhale. Four hold five inhale and we'll exhale and come up and straighten your spine. Inhale, slight change again. Exhale, rolling back this big. Once you get there, I'm going to ask for a little bit more scooped, so for once I'm really asking for a bit of a tech. Then inhale, take the arms all the way around. Exhale and come up just like that. Warming up their shoulders. That's it. Doing it again. Inhale, exhale, roll back.

Getting even a lighter on your feet. Inhale. Once you're there, exhale to come round and all the way back to the top. Inhale, exhaling back. I'm feeling finicky. I don't know which prop I want. Inhale, take the arms back. The eyes are main phone. Oh wait, better sort of inhale or sorry, coming all the way up and this will be the last one like that. Filling up. Let the ribs expand in all directions on that inhale.

Then as you press into the ball, we take the arms around. We're not coming back up on this one. Just hold and hang out. Inhale, taking your right leg, exhale, scoop the belly and just let the leg float up kind of close to you. Bring it in, bring it and bring it in. Inhale, it will go almost down to the floor and the same leg will come up again. Exhale, try and feel that the breath or the attempt to pop the ball is what's lifting the legs. Your intent is forward. One more on that leg. Exhale, scoop. Ease in the upper back, changing sides. Inhale, exhale en good diarrhea. Just let your foot come a little higher so there's not much knee change.

There we go. That's exactly what I meant. And two more. Yeah, it's like a, I don't know. I see it almost as an arking motion. One more and then the foot goes down. You inhale, check shoulders is XL. Press back to go forward and I did mean that and straight and it happened. All right, take the ball, place it once again between the knees and we're rolling all the way down this time. Inhale, exhale, rolling down. You may need to adjust your feet just a little closer to you. As you slide down. Arms that go down by your side. Inhale and getting ready for a pelvic curl.

Use it deeply. It's the same action. Exhale, we roll up, hollowing the abdominals, adjusting the arms toward the hips. As you find your way to a long flat spine. Stay here. Inhale, and on the exhale, do five short exhales feeling the entire body come toward the middle one. Inhale, exhale to if you put your hands on your ribs, you might feel them pressing inward three and four and hold five. Inhale, everything's parallel. It's not a huge squeeze at the knee. We're going back down. You might want your arms down. Exhaling, reaching down, melting down, opening up the upper back and chest to the floor.

Inhale, exhale. We dig it up. Minimizing your feet for the moment. Start maximizing the hamstrings, the back of the leg. Feel almost a stretch to the front holding. Inhale, and here's those little breaths again. Everything come in midline. One, midline, two, three, four. Get one more out of it. Hold. Inhale, exhaling down and John, go on Baca. Yeah, if you cramp, you just got to shake it out and there's no way around it. Rolling. We'll change it at the end of our five. Take a second look down. Feel for the whole line of the body coming in word and it goes Xcel and a sense of ease around the chest.

Two and 34 whole five inhale on the exhale. Extend the right leg, the knee. Stay together, reach, reach, reach, retreats. Squeeze that ball. Inhale. Rebend the knee. Tap the toe on the ground and go again. Exhale all the air coming out. Whale. Slow down, slow down. You'll enjoy it more, I'm sure. Exhale. Three, don't anything. All right. You said arms not, and we're changing sides, but here, here's what you want to watch. Keep the hips level left leg on.

You can squeeze harder at the ball, but again, make sure it's coming from the whole leg, not just at the knee. And three and four. We'll put the leg down, check your positions, inhale and exhale. We'll go down, right. Walk the feet about two steps away or just slide 'em out a little further. Curl your head, neck and shoulders. Then roll yourself up from there.

Yeah. All right. Once again, take the ball behind you. It's like musical ball and replacing it. Maybe not right at your low back, but a little bit higher up. Mine's going to look a little funny. Good. Yeah, a little bit higher up. It's probably going to be mid back I think. We'll see. Inhale. I may change my mind. Walk your feet together please. Exhale. We'll roll down and what I'm hoping for is you get a sense of a little bit of scope, but then we're going to slide the legs out to straight.

Yeah. Inhale, exhale and press red under the chest is where you're leading this one almost folding forward from there and then in fact you do keep a relatively long spine just to the top of the roll up. Inhale and exhale. We'll roll back finding the ball as soon as we can by reaching with the abdominals. This time we'll let the arms just go up. The eyes will stay forward. Inhale, start bringing the arms forward a little bit. We'll come up the same way. Finding the point of sort of, I don't know, hinge or pivot right below the chest. Inhale, exhale. And we go.

Now if you get back here and your ball just feels like a chair and arrest, you know, consider it bad queuing and adjust it lower should have to or if there's space that's fine, but just press into the space changing it will go down, finding it, finding, let's leave the eyes forward, the arms back a little bit and we just exhale. It's pretty small. Again, just trying to feel the whole center. Long one good. And two. So my goal isn't to move really. You will, but it's not that. It's more like full in and down and down. Good feeling. Everything just sort of tightened in the front and maybe lengthen in the back.

Good will come up on the next one. Keep it smooth, taking it forward, let the arms come down to shoulder height. I'll change it again. Inhale, exhale, go back. Let's leave the arms forward for this one just so we can keep everything that way. Allow the legs to turn out. Okay. From there, inhale. Exhale, lift the right leg, but start the exhale first and then the right leg just sort of eventually lives with one inhale. It almost touches the ground and exhale. Feel it through the trunk. The leg, you can kind of disregard. It's a bit high. Aaron Lardy just so Pitt, what are we calling you again and put it down. Get ready for the other side. Think to almost tuck here. You don't really need to, but hang onto the ABS. Number two on the other side.

It's a sense of reach, I hope, and putting it down. Inhale. Exhale. We come up. Yeah. All right. Sitting tall. Take the ball out again. Lace it this time. For starters, just police it at your knees. Roll down. Take a needs to tabletop. Just wanted their initially hands on the knees. Inhale. Exhale, curl.

Chin to chest in a roll up, checking your bony landmarks and by that I mean your low back. Your whole back is resting with the exception of the lower tips of the Scapula, shoulder blades and up. Take the ball, put it between your ankles or feet. If that works better for you, extend the legs forward and we're just holding the ball. You're not pumping the ball. Just hold it lightly and it goes in Hilti. Three, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, five in and out. Yeah, so our awareness isn't really meant to be on the ball here. Rather keep it high as if you're holding the ball at your upper inner thigh.

And Five, two, three, four, five and six. Can you feel where your arms connect to your back? Yeah. Can you take your legs any lower and still keep the back along? One more breath cycle.

Draw the legs in. Take the ball out, place it behind the right thigh on the floor and let your head go down for a moment. You can adjust the ball, but what I'm trying to get you to do is press feel something to press into. We're getting ready to do the leg circles pressing into that pole. Hips are square [inaudible] other leg up. Flex the top foot. Yup.

Arms out to a tee or a low V's. Fine. All right, so you're anchored with that little like cross midline, you know it. Inhale around and [inaudible]. Yeah, and exhale. So the ball is again just helping us sort of define where we are. One more full set.

Inhale and exhale going the other way in. Hella around. Exhale around in here, looking for stability of the trunk. That's what this is all about. It's not just, it's not torque the leg at all. This is the last circle here. Hold it at the top. Bend the knee and take a moment just to crossover for a stretch.

Was that a pop up too? I just heard. Hmm. Yes. Pilati is and more. Alright. Roll rollbacks to the, hopefully the ball's in the same spot. Grab on behind the thigh. That was just sort of twisted over your body holding their roll up. Just two chest lift. Good. You're pressing that lower leg down.

Let's keep as much of the shape of the leg in the air as possible and start to roll up. You can push into your hand all you want. Just keep the shape. Oh, that's just not even nice to me at all. Is it? It's the benefit of being the teacher in charge. It's like, I think I can do that tonight. So I was going to do it again, but that would just be mean. So switch legs, that would just be cocky, but we do have to go down the same way. So find the spot and my suggestion would be to push the sigh that way, but not just that. Take the hipbone the opposite way. I know. Big Bang and then we're down the position or tee position, checking your lengths, checking everything's involved. We crossed the midline.

It goes Ian Hill around. Boom. There's a bit of a rhythm to it, right? Inhale down. Up. Yeah. Trying for a parallel leg. Yeah.

Last one here. Changing directions. Take it around up and exhale. The breath can help you here. In terms of stabilization, we're getting a little fast though. Let's slow down a bit. And inhaler around. Boom, XLR around. Boom. Was that at one more just for because and point the toe bend the knee and crossover.

Not as much drama on this side. Okay. Yeah. All right. Come back. Try for the uh, leg over the ball. Hold on. Um, if you know you don't want to do this, we're getting up for rolling like a ball. You could pick up the other knee and do the same with it. Otherwise you are drawing your chin to chest as if that's all you were going to do and you help yourself up again.

I am pushing but don't let it pull your shoulders off. Yes. Oh well now you know I didn't see it so I guess it didn't count. Alright, situating, I think we're good, but if you want to move forward to, um, that's a great idea. Find the ball and place it between the knees. Now I'll take the big ball like I know what else I'll go get. All right, so bring in clothes tonight. I mean, I mean go really, oh, that's nice. Here. You can do that. You can put your forehead on that ball and keep contact the whole time with your shoulders down. Point the elbows to the side and you have time.

I like it. I like it. Okay. I was going to say something profound but I forgot. So let's roll. Here we go. Inhale back. Exhale up and hold and inhale back. Exhale up. Yes, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I think your next step Aaron, rather than going any smaller is to go easier. Keep it but go easy. Meaning maybe almost let go your hands. Inner thighs matter. That's why the ball should help a little bit. Yeah.

One more. Okay. Take the ball. I'll do my best to cue this. We're heading into double leg stretch with the arm circles. Okay. It goes like it's, don't worry, I'll tell you slowly roll down or just lower down however you need to. Your shins are parallel to the floor and you're just holding the ball mostly in your right hand and we do need to go right hand or we will have collisions.

So we go inhale, extend. As you reached the ball around, grab it with your left, change hands and come around. That's all it is. No right hand again, inhale, just circling around and exhale. Now don't think about it too much so that you can focus where you really want to focus right around and pull it and [inaudible] and pull in on more time that way around. Pull in, pause, go on the other way. So the left arm takes it around and around at Oh Aaron, speeding up on us and our email open and around two more war and war and put your heads down in case you were thinking cause that's the sure neck one if you are thinking. All right, next piece of it. Easy, simple. Exhale. Actually no, we'll make it fun. Take the ball. I am going to tell you wherever we place this, you're probably going to have to adjust it, but I'm thinking near my knees but in my calves still so it's not right at the knees. It's just a little bit lower.

We won't be able to do a full single leg stretch, but in fact start at tabletop. Curl yourself up. It is an inward press. And if anything, I'm going to raise my ball higher than lower and inward press eyes are forward and just extend one leg pressing on the ball and then drag it back to middle until they line up. And then the other one. So they both are working there. Yep. So the feet won't line up quite how they normally do. And press three and your intent is like you're about to get up, right? Make any adjustment. You need to and back.

And so when you hear us talking about as if you're sliding your legs across a piece of glass. So it's keeping the attention in the middle. One more per leg. Reach and back and reach and back. Take the ball out for the moment. Put your head down, look out the window, pick a window, any window, and then do the other way. Go the other way. All right, for the crisscross. Hmm, let's do this one. It's kind of like the double leg stretch, but with a little fun in it. So back at the ankles with the ball. Then let your feet drops. So you get a little rest.

Their hands are behind your head, fully laced, elbows slightly off the ground, going back to the point of the exercise so they'll don't let the ball make it, you know, lose the real point, which now is abs, curl up, head, neck and shoulders and it's going to go like this. You're going to inhale as you stretch the legs out. As you exhale and rebound, the knees twist toward this front, mere our window. Pull the knees in and twist toward that side. The lower body is absolutely centered. Inhale, everything comes center. Go the other way with the upper body.

As you pull the knees in and we now we got it. Inhale out and rotate. Inhale out. If it feels like the ball is too far away to deal with, just put it at your knees so you can keep your connections. Inhale out and up and out and I'm trying [inaudible] curl up. Everybody just not a lot higher, but just more of a fold. I'm asking for two more and two the and out and to the back and out. Well done. Just take the legs straight up, hands down by your side.

At any point, you can get rid of the ball, otherwise it stays where it is for the rollover. Inhale, exhale, hollowing the abs to reach up and go over. Inhale, just flex the feet. Think of squeezing the ball from the sit bones almost right at the base of the pelvis and roll down. Exhale, finding those mat marks. Lower the legs only if you can. Keep the back down. Inhale, exhale up to go over. It's a long spine though. It's curved. Inhale, flex the feet. Feel the midline of the body. Feel the glutes a little bit that matters and down.

It's not the point of the exercise, but it helps keep the point of the exercise point and inhale. Exhale, flex. Imagine sending the bottoms of your feet still out the opposite. You as you roll down, it's gonna say out the window because there's a window over there, but you may not have one last one up over flex. Squeeze. Feel those ribs pulling together in the front, but the back almost feels like they're opening up, I hope. All right. And then bend the knees, take the ball out, set it down anywhere off to the side. Alright. And with that, rock yourselves up to seated low spine stretch. Just leaving the balls off to the side. Okay, well I forgot to do it your way. Is the Aaron after all I have, I'm telling you, I ended up giving you credit for a long time.

I sort of act like it's mine now, but it is a thanks to you that we have learned to do it this way so that we all can feel the sense of traction of listing. Okay. Bend the knees if necessary. Aaron Lardy just lean back a little actually. Yeah. And a tiny bit in Europe. The ribs in the front. Perfect. Really excellent. Right here we go to the front. What are we doing to spine stretch down we go.

I forgot for just a second and right here for if you glance slightly forward, you'd see your elbows right there, not up behind you. And then for now, just roll right back up. Roll right back up. Cause we want to feel that imaginary wall like it. Inhale, exhale, Chin, upper back. So there is a sense of vertical going down, but also starting to reach out. We'll do that same way. Again. Inhale, hold and exhale sliding back up. It starts low. It's almost like you're squeezing your inner thighs together as you lengthen to the top. Inhale and exhale. This one we will add the back extension, so it's going to start at the base of the spine. I actually on the first one or two, I'd like to bend the knees if I don't stay this way.

You're almost sticking the tailbone out, lengthening the spine on the diagonal, but also trying to get the hamstring stretch so there is a forward lean to it. Yes, XL, extend the arms right alongside the ears. Beautiful. Inhale as you rebound, think of growing the spine longer so the arms don't have much to do with it. The spine gets long and then we'll exhale round and ruler. Okay, and I realize how slow I'm going on this, so if you need extra breaths, take it. Inhale, lengthening, exhale working. Squeeze the glutes a little for help.

Here. Inhale, you can press the heels down into the mat or the ground as you eat along gate. Exhale, arms, tiny bit of upper ribs. Mary. Inhale, refold but here's where the spine is growing. Exhale, forward and in exhaling. Inhale for your length, the head, his last head is last in this part. Good. Okay. You're okay to keep it and exhale the arms. Beautiful. Inhale.

Rebend feel those shoulder blades drawing down and now you know you're good. You're good. No, go ahead and hand it back. Month on thought my fault. Yeah, I'm trying to tell you how good you are and your changing it will give you another one. Here it is. Inhale, exhale, roll. I don't know. It's one of those things you try. They tried hard not to do for years. Have you always been this flexible? Inhale, flex your feet a little bit. Keep coming up a tiny bit. Go ahead guys. I'll catch you right there. Perfect. Exhale arms. I'll catch up with you.

Go ahead. You inhale rebend and exhale down. Nice job. Nice job. Next one. We'll add the little pulses, but they're going to be really small tonight and exhaling down. I'm going back for you, Debra, coming back for you. Inhale, finding your line. Challenge it a little bit, you know, kind of Cru there. Exhale, extending the arms. Not a lot of movement on the arms tonight at first. Want you to think of going forward like just from the base. Yep.

From there. Gently encourage more energy in the right between the shoulder blades. But what we don't need to see as a big thrust forward. Cause you're all in great position. Now you're good here. Good, excellent, excellent. Think longer. Now less are moving. A couple more. Like you're being pulled right out of your hips. Inhale.

Refold the arms stay here. Exhale, rotate to the window. Up Front. Don't go so far that the elbows change. It's just you get inhale, come back. Hips don't change. Other side. Exhale. Um, Daria just barely pull the hip. Front. Hip bones back. That's it. That's it. And he'll come forward. And so as you rotate, one elbows aiming maybe even toward the outside. Me Maybe to the middle, but I doubt it in hill center and Yup. Good. Nice. Really good. Come back to center. Reach the arms forward enough. Oh boy. Oh boy. Exhale round.

I think we deserve to hang out for one second or you do anyway. And then help yourself up. Okay. Draw the legs em. Just to go forward on your map for open leg rocker. My suggestion, get just behind the tailbone. Now bring the feet in close and like you're rolling like a ball.

Like you had the ball that grabbed the ball. Wouldn't want to buy my big one off. Alright, so draw the feet, the ball, whatever closer to you. Now this is kind of, they're, they're all a little small, so if you want to get rid of it, do, you can still go narrow. Now again, forget the fee. Let them be soft and loose for now. Squeeze the ball not from where the wall is, but for more of the ball isn't. Inhale, exhale. It's the subtlest tuck. Easy. Aron, easy. Make it look easy. Yeah. Here we go. Inhale back. Exhale up and Gra and inhale back thinking glutes.

Maybe apps, everything stays the same. And Eh, inhale back. What's going on back there? She's doing it. Oh No, don't say that. Excellent. And back. It's amazing what a little tool can do, right. A towel pillow. Just to make you aware and an ease sometimes if we don't try quite as hard. Give yourselves one more good. Huh? Don't let your head touch the ground. Anybody stay there when you get there.

Wow. Well done. Just hold the knees and bend them and get rid of the ball. That was really nice. Really Nice. Um, turn to face front please. Sorry. That was great. That was like, I know you gotta pull these out more often. Exactly. We've got to invest in more of these. All right, so we're going to go, we're pretty good on energy. [inaudible] alright, so let's, let's go right into, um, sideband and what I'm going to offer in case you don't want to be on your wrist is the, it works just as well on the forearm. Okay.

So just give that to yourself if you want. I will probably throw in, no, I won't. Not yet. I'll do it later. Okay. So let's do away from the floor. Great. And then I'm thinking it. Yeah. [inaudible] okay. And when you get up there, make adjustments if you need them. Top foot is in front inner thighs together. Here we go. We're just inhaling to lift up. Aaron, I think you're gonna need to stand corrected.

I actually do move your feet down a little. Yeah. Now the pressure hips towards Daria. That's awesome. From there, lift up and bridge. It's going to feel like maybe this is shorter. Nobody's rotating. Nobody's rotating. Maybe at your neck. At the most. [inaudible] elongate. So feel that stretch. Bend the knees. Come down lightly.

Touch to your, yeah, good. And up. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. The longing and Ben to come down looking good. Inhale to lift up. Exhale. It says if someone came underneath you. Beautiful. I'm just going to say maybe a little more there. Inhale, read. Open. Yep.

And the last one, inhale. Come right. You're good. I'm just as perfect. Inhale back to the side. Listen Up. We're gonna put the lower knee down. So are you just have to come up to it. You'll just have to come up to your [inaudible] and then up. That's right.

Exactly what I meant. Maybe go to your fist if you feel like you've been on your wrist a long time, but whichever you do, you are reaching as if you're all gonna be going opposite each other that way. Yep. Okay. Now, then just check your own hip here that when you look down, it is not piked. Okay. You want it long. Even if it means the legs down here. Okay. It can be higher. Okay. Okay. It can be higher too, so don't let me limit you from there.

Allow the leg to come forward. Body stay still. Allow the light to go back. You like that? The word choice. Do it. A flex point. What do you want? I've usually, it's flex forward, forward, back, forward and back. Kind of relatively relaxed at the knee, but still straight and from there. Hold it slightly to your, to the back.

Double-Check you have an arched your back though and sometimes do you have to look and we circle back. One, two, lean that way. Never before. You might need your hand a little closer. Five change directions and one, two, three, four and five. Bring that knee down and just stretch toward the hip that you worked. Yup.

How long is it to not be on the knees if it's a shoulder. Okay. Okay. I'm going to think of something for Ya and I think you're getting transitioned to the other side, so whichever one you've already done, still facing front. How did that feel when I made that change on you? Okay. No second. Okay. If it feels insecure, you know, trust yourself more than me away.

Okay. Yeah, I would. I'm trying to change was this difference. I'm looking here, which is fine, but for you you can do it where you're about at 90 as opposed to whatever angle that actually is. It's fine. It's stable and you were so you could be there, but let's challenge it. Okay, here we go. Yeah. Inhale, lift up. This, this, this. I'll find it yet. Perfect. It just lower your hips a half inch, Aaron, and you're there. Okay.

Now we can lift them in, up and over. That's it. So modified by lowering the knee. That's a great way. And then come back and down you go. And inhale to lift. Exhale, lifting weight out of the inhaling to come back and to add nailing up we did for exhale and just showing the modification. It's kind of working for me at the moment and down.

Last one. And then we'll do the lower knee. Inhale length, get solid here. Like no, you could stay here. We don't want to pass through that part. That's almost the hardest part I think. I think it is. And Ben, the lower leg, take some weight out of it. Out of the arm. I mean top leg is up parallel and forward. Check your hip, etc. It looks good. And we'll see forward and back and forward kind of addressing just where the leg attaches into the hip, keeping the rest of ourselves still and [inaudible] aim for high, however, not at the expense of a big pike. Next one. Take it to the back, hold it to the back. Can you imagine that?

I came by and I'm going to, so hold yourselves and did that. Good. And then did that and did that. And now your circles on pick a direction doesn't really matter too through you're right from the hip for change directions and one, two easy leg, three, four and five to stretch. You hit yes. You get stuck in your neck, in the position or in this stretch. What were we just doing? Alright. Um, what you can do maybe is, um, you're talking about any one of these is to, you know, sometimes we put the hand here, I don't know where I had it just now.

Maybe it was up, but is to take the hand on from the bottom end and just hold it cause this doesn't really hold it. Yeah. So you can plus that you can know if it's dropping. Yeah, sometimes I'll do that. It's not very pretty. But anyway, okay. It is time or we're going to do a little back extension. So let's go face down. Take Ball. Actually, can I use yours for just a second? We're going to take the ball and place it basically right at the sternum.

Maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower. And the idea being that you're going to lift up have very little pressure on the ball. Now easier for some of us than others if you don't have much going on up there, but do the best you can, right? Yeah. And also can assist you. Right? You can, you can push into it but you just don't hang out on it. Alright, now use that opportunity that you have with the ball there to gently guide the upper arms backwards towards backwards. Alright. Alright. No, sorry. You're still here. You're still here.

I'm just not going to use my vault cause it's too big on that marks. All right, from there, reach your legs. It's so much that you almost tuck your pelvis or pull the hipbones off the floor a little or try, that's great. Shoulders down a little more and you have options with the hands. You can fist it a fist knuckles together or palms flat or I like to lace for some reason and we're going to go kick, kick, kick, kick in Hilti three. Now if it's too high, move the ball forward. That's absolutely fine.

How about inhale, two, three, four, and exhale. Two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four, and exhale two, three, four. So the top foot is pulsing. Pulse, pulse, pulse, pulse. The bottom leg is reaching, not quite making it to the floor. Give it one more cycle and out. Two, three, four.

Okay. From there, just lift up enough to get rid of the ball for the moment. Come all the way down for devil aid. Kick turning your heads toward the front. Your hands are laced behind, or at least behind your back. You can either lace, you can grab a couple of fingers. Anybody want a theraband or a towel or a ball? You can even use your ball, right, right. Okay. To stretch the shoulders, which is probably good for all of us.

Take the hands as high up on the back as you can and then let the elbows carefully be taken over by gravity. Pull the ABS up. That's good. Stretch the leg so far the feet hover and maybe the kneecaps. You should be feeling your glutes already a little. Here we go. Kick the feet to the glutes. One, two, three. Straighten the arms and legs and the length, thin change sides, bend everything.

Kick on and drop those elbows to three and stir and one, two. Let me get up. Can you press into the ball like that and yes. We'll love it. And one, two, three, and one. I'm going to hold you down just a little and go ahead. Go ahead. Keep it down a little. Pull up more here. Like you're going to tuck almost there. Okay. Okay. And I'm waiting for them to just stay here. Keep reaching.

Just keep reaching wholly adds up even more. I should lower you a little and go for it. Let's make this the last one, right. The second last. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And with that let go of arms and rest and rest. When you're ready, press your hips back over your heels.

[inaudible] yeah, you have. You're so able to come high. That's why I wanted to hold you back. In fact, I would want to hold everybody back in a way because once you get in line with gravity, there's no more back extension for Ya. All right. Rule yourselves up. We're going to just do one little thing here and that is to come into a hip flexor stretch. To wrap this section up, it doesn't matter which like he chose to put forward, just do one and make sure the foot that's in front is far enough in front that you can easily get past the kneecap of the down leg.

Maybe sink the hips forward a little and then honor the relationship of the sternum and the pubic bone for. So for those of you who want more of a stretch from where you are as you go to lift your chest, not only up but forward and up, you bring the pubic bone with it. Okay? It's never going to be this, the just the chest because then you drop into your back and you don't even get the stretch we want. So you bring it with, that's great. Curious first of all, her locks of hair and can you keep that but shift forward easily. Just like rest in it. That's all you can keep your chest up even. I was just looking for hip sinking. That's great. That's fine.

Plenty if it's too much. Don't do it. Am I flexible? Daria? You're not just hanging out on your joints. Are you? Okay, good. Let's allow the hands go down. I am going to use this forward like push my hips back. I actually lifted off that kneecap to get past it to come into a long, that's fine. Put your hands on that. Yeah.

Looking for a hamstring stretch. Now it's up to you. If somebody begin to feel more comfortable with a foot flex summer, you won't. It's up to you. Rather go for a flat back. Yup. Flat back. Bent knee would be far better. So then this knee a bit. Yeah. Then there you go. There you go. You have the hamstring stretch, don't you?

Okay, good. And Dari, I'm just gonna Shift you quite a lot actually. I'm going to go like pick this hip up toward the, sorry. Yeah, more of that. More of that. Then take your sit bones right here and stick them out towards me. Other way. Yep. Hm. Hmm. And Are you okay on this knee? Like that? Yeah. Good. Do you feel it yet? Fantastic. Good.

All right. Carefully help yourself to the other side. Yeah. Good. So stepping forward, finding sort of some sense of the landmarks in your body. Um, once that foot is placed, you know the tendency sometimes is to let the hips or swing out to one side. So we do our best to keep them together. And then if you're going to lift the chest, do it by thinking you're going to open the chest but also length in the upper back. So it's never, this is dropping in, it's an up sensation.

And you may find as you sit here and breathe and kind of relax a little into it, uh, that you might be able to transfer weight forward. And by the way, I do have weight in my back, Shin, right? I could lift, it's not all forward here. It's, there's some back there. Well then that may not just may not be a good cue fuse. You don't have to push into the shin. What I want to make sure you're not doing it.

Actually you would be a good example of someone who could do it better than I am, which is just a sink all the way forward and have nothing going on back there. I'll tell you what, if you don't want to put it in the Shin and Matt, take this, then Nate, you guys can transition. Transitioned your hamstring. I'll be right there. Squared. I think she's good. Maybe think about as your hips want to go this way. Think about stretching this thigh bone. That way it's all, it's like I can't so much of this as intent.

That's why we called or he called it [inaudible] ology perhaps or that's the mind part of it. That especially for someone like you who's flexible in this situation like this. For some of us it's like, no, I already feel it and then a half a millimeter and you're really feel it. So here we are with square hips. As Sarah said. Yup, come check it out. Can't be. It's like, please help me. Not really.

No. And then I'm just going to see. I don't think you are that. I want to go like that, but that's about it. Was that it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's good. That's really good. Doris got her hips. Okay. Loving it.

Maybe you can get a little more anterior tilt. I know you never hear that. You never hear that. Probably. Go ahead. Go ahead and stick your butt out a little. Okay. If you're good. Alright. Help yourselves out of that and just curl his toes under old yourselves in half.

Can we just imagine we have a ball between the ankles? We have a ball between the upper inner thigh. It's a little smaller this time we have a ball between where? Hmm. Abdominals and ribcage that we're hanging onto and a ball between the biceps. Each bicep, head hangs and shoulders are still up. Yes.

Are Up, I should say down depending on the perspective, but down toward your hips as we roll up. Yeah. Stacking, lifting, still hugging the ball. Finished place in the hips. Over knees, one half of a roll down, down. Inhale, exhale and start to take it down. Kind of letting go here. Stay. That's plenty. That's plenty, right?

Wherever you are is plenty, unless you want a little more, but just stay there and now just get the little swing of the arms going, just a little circle of the arms, and then let go. Nothing to do. Just easy. Take them the other way. And then one last time, just roll up. You're tall and you're lifted. [inaudible].

Comments

Great class. I didn't have a ball so I used one of my dog's stuffed toys. She didn't seem to mind!
Oh boy! My dog would never let me get away with that! Way to be creative!
Kristi-I think you teach a great class....fun, creative, and with excellent cues. I would love however to see a little more flow and a little less set up!
Thanks!
Thanks Jamie. It's true I am one of those teachers that believes "set up is everything." Perhaps I underestimate my students sometimes. I'll give it my best tomorrow night. Thanks.
I have been on PilatesAnytime for about a year and a half and just found this great class. Your imagery and cueing are so wonderful! I love your classes and wish you posted more of you!
Thank you Sharon! As the person who gets to choose who comes on PA, I'm sure you can see why I sometimes sacrifice my own classes to bring in another.... and I really appreciate you saying what you did.
Like everyone else I eagerly look forward to new classes being uploaded. So much so that sometimes I log on before bedtime so I can anticipate my morning visit to PA. Today though was a step back in time .... I was beautifully rewarded too!
Joni, you are a dream... I came home from vacation tonight with that nagging sense of needing to hurry and "catch up" after my indulgent week of restoration to your comment here. Now I feel "beautifully rewarded" too. Thank you.

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