Class #1921

Power from your Center

30 min - Class
42 likes

Description

Feel your power and feel your movement in this Spine Corrector workout with Kara Wily. She teaches you to work from your center, yet allows you to let go in the movement in order to open the lower back and hips while lengthening the legs. You'll work through Leg Series, Should Bridge, Corkscrew, Teaser, Rollover, and more.
What You'll Need: Spine Corrector

About This Video

Nov 13, 2014
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Transcript

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Yeah. So we have four teachers today doing a spine corrector workout. Um, let's have everybody lay back and we're going to start by rolling back your bone by bone, drawing your tummies in, and then you're going to reach back to your shoulders and head are all the way to the ground. Good. One foot. And then the other if you like, that's it. Good. So what I want you guys do is grab the handles or the wooden part of the spine corrector and pull it into your upper back. And what I like to try to find is how I've got support against my ribs back here with the spine corrector.

And then let's just go ahead and bend the knees into the chest. Take a nice stretch. And that's everybody's Yummy spot, right? And then keeping your knees tied into your chest. You guys, I want you to go ahead and roll your spines down until your tailbone touches all the way into the barrel. Good. So we want to keep the whole spine connected to the barrel and let's go ahead and extend the legs up in the air.

And let's begin with just some nice big circles. We're just going to draw a big huge circles with the legs around 10 times and one good end around two and three. Good. And if you guys will loosen up your feet, then those hips can get into the action a little bit more. Good. And again, as long as your tail bones are staying touching, you can try to bring your toes way up to your foreheads and way over to your partner. So see if you can reach out and touch your partner across the room. That's it with loose feet stretching again. Good.

And I think we have maybe three more to go and all the time drawing your tummy muscles in and up. Let's do two more reaching and then one more and let's stay at the top and hold it at the top for a moment and then we'll reverse going the other direction. Reaching down and around and up and down and around and up. Good. Everybody reached down on the floor as far as you can stay here. So stride. Keep your heels together, coke, draw those stomach muscles in and out. That's it.

Pull the barrel into your upper back as you stretch your toes, but long right. And not just toes, I should say, but your whole lower half. Right? And then continue all the way around and up and then continue. We'll keep going. So I think that was three. So let's do seven more and for good and it gets tough, right? It's like, ah, should I try to stretch more or should I try to draw my stomach in more? And basically the answer is yes, do both and reach.

And when you get to 10 we'll stay at the top and hold it and pause. Good. Let's stay at the top and let's go into a little scissor kick. So I'm gonna have everyone start with one leg up in the air and stretch one leg down. We'll just the left leg down. Beautiful. Good. Now this leg is up in the air. You guys, we have these beautiful beams up at the top of our ceiling here. Can you reach up to it? That's it.

And drop your tummy down away from it. Gorgeous. And then again, stretch your opposite leg out to that partner. Good. And then want everyone to just check out their alignment for a moment that that leg is really down your center and that your hips are really squared off. Good. And then just change legs for a moment. Switch. And again, this leg is reaching up. Get me really good. And then go get Juliana. That's it. And still draw the belly in and up. There you go. So that's it. Take some power. Yeah, it's active. And then let's change legs. Kick, kick, kick, kick and don't overshoot that reach. I want to see you guys touch it. Beam.

Get me, get me, get me, get me, get me, get me up at the top. Up, up, up, up. Good is the Tomi drops. Deep, deep retreat and get your partner. So those legs are stretching across the room. Nice. Haley. And one more set. And then do that in a bicycle auction. So let's reach one and one. Good and two and two. And there should still be a stretch. Good. And for a moment, yes, a split. And when those knees bend again, they're bending right up in the line with your mid line so you don't turn out and you get that nice full stretch through the front of the hip.

And let's pause and then reverse. Go the other direction. Reach and reach and reach and stretch and lengthen and draw the tummy in and hold for a moment. Good. Now this is a misnomer and this is one of those things where I think that like in the dance world, you know, we were asked to stretch and this is where I think this idea comes to fruition. That will you reach your leg back here for me? Canvas. Good. That this is the goal for, for the bicycle, but it's not.

The goal is to get your leg up here and to love it eight above the ground and reached the ceiling. So your energy is up and stretching because eventually we're on the floor, right? And the Mat and we've got our hands up underneath our bumps and we don't want our risk to hurting her next to her and her shoulders to get all crunched when we're doing it. So we're trying to lift and stretch. Okay. Right. Oh my gosh, that's just changed your energy. Completely good. So do a few more guys with that idea of stretching up for the fans. Stretch and stretch this room. Got It warm fast, didn't it?

And then try the reverse. Go the other direction and reach and reach. Good. Haley, you stretch. And then let's take both legs in the air. Good, good. And bend the knees in per second. Good. And this is where I always ask myself, am I really feeling this in my stomach and in my bottom or am I feeling it in my neck? And if I was feeling it in my neck, then chances are I was moving my legs too big. So just make sure, again, that that barrel is pulled up underneath your ribs. Pull it under here for me a little more. Juliano that's it. And pull it. Pull it. That's it. Stay active. Right?

And let's take the legs up in the air again. Good. And Haley, you're gonna make sure that tailbone stays right, right, right. Cause you like to shorten that part of your waist. And I want you to keep it long. Okay, good. So now guys, we, um, let's turn out the legs and let's take a big old stretch out into, yeah, a nice like second position or straddle, whatever you wanted to call it. And then keep the feet pointed and just bend the knees and try to just pull the toes together in the middle and the whole back and keep the toes pointed. So now you can point you're allowed to do. Yep, that beautiful point.

And then stretch the legs away in the point and then flex the feet and pull them together in the flex. And now touch your heels together, Hayley. Good and right. And those thighs are opening, uh, and the time he is deepening. That's the way. And then keep that nice flexed foot and open the legs and go for a big or a stretch. And then one more time, let's point the feet and pull them together. Good. So I don't know the name of this exercise, but I was taught it by one of the Pleiades elders.

So I'm teaching it to you and then stretch him away. And then one more time, flexing the feet and pull them together and then keep them flexed and reach them away. Good. And then let's go ahead and take the legs up, one inch from that direction. And let's circle the right leg over your nose and the left leg to the center of the room and bring both legs up and then go the opposite leg and do a full circle. Rotating the other way and bring them both up. And then again, switch and full circle.

Cool. And both up and open and full circle. And up. Last one. We'll switch and full circle and up. Fold the knees in. Good, good, good. Let's bring your feet forward on the barrel in front.

Good. And try to plant the heels all the way down. Right? So now we're like in a a shoulder bridge, right? Oh good. Those heels down, right? That's a nice stretch. Yes. Good. And as your trying to lengthen your thighs and your knees to me, you're drawing your Tom, you muscles in and up. Right? So we can always kinda think of reaching down from the back all the way through our heels and then up connecting our legs into our bellies at the top. Good. And watch any of you dancer folk that you don't turn out that you're a nice and parallel. Yeah. Good. So now keeping that, that's a nice stretch, right?

It feels kind of heavenly. Yes. So sure that your ribs are still connected. Your tummy muscles are still drawing in and up and go ahead and stretch your right leg out to your partner. Again. Good. And that's it. Let's reach it low. You get a stretch and then give it a big old kick, cute up, flex the foot and reach the heel across the room and again pointed up and flex it down. We'll do five times and again pointed up and flex it down and pointed up and you can really send the belly to the barrel to give you power and then place that foot and change sides and then the left leg will extend and let's point it up and flex it down and kick and flex. Good.

And that opposite heel can really push into the barrel. That's it. And point and good. Tried to kick me. Get me bow. That's it. Good. One more time. Get me good. And that's it. And place it down. Right? Good. So sometimes it's nice like you know, like I'm really controlled, but I'm really moving too. And then I can feel my dynamics also in that motion. Yeah. Good.

And let's go ahead and fold the knees into the chest again. Good. And once again, guys, if you're Nexar giving you, you know, a tough time, give them a little shake out. Try to get those upper tummy muscles active a little bit. Let's take the legs up in the air once more and let's try a little corkscrews to keeping the tailbone glued to the ground. Let's take both likes to the right. We'll circle them down, around and up to the left and then reverse.

We'll go the other way around and good. Now, something that I love. Continue. We'll do three each way about the spine corrector is you get to feel your power, but you also get to feel movement. So you can let yourself go a little bit last one each way and keep those heels nice and tight, really squeezing and reaching. And last one the other direction around. And good. Now we all know we can get fancy and add a little lift, right?

So let's start to the right side again and we'll circle around. And at the end you can lift your hips in the air and then circle the other direction and lift your hips in the air. Good. And then the other direction again around and lift the hips. Let's have everyone hold it with the hips up. Good. Can you reach for me? Yes. Right now keep reaching for me even as you roll back to the barrel.

So you're trying to touch me and your ribs are trying to reach for the barrel, then go the other direction around and up. Right? There's like a yearning, right? So you're trying to touch the ground, right? The ceiling as you try to reach for the barrel. Beautiful. Around and stretch that way as Haley. Lengthen it out. Beautiful. Other side around, and then let's reach and, good.

Good, good. Let's fold the knees in. Take a little breath. One more little combination. This time. Again, I want you guys to make sure that barrel is really pulled into the upper back. Good. That's it. The legs are going to again start high. Good. And, and once you guys to draw a huge circle, maybe listen to me for a moment. The legs are going to draw huge circle. When they come to their low point, you're going to arch your chest and go to the top of your head.

So the legs start to open. As they circled down close to the floor, you're going to pop up. That's it. Go to the top of the head, Juliana, go ahead, lift your chest up. That's it. Can you pop it up a little bit more? Ah, that's the stretch. Now those strong legs are connected together. You're reaching for your partner again. Your bellies pinched your bottoms pinched. Then you're going to stretch and try to scrape your partner's toes to lift the legs. And at the same time, you put your shoulders and head down. Try that once again. Let's open the legs and draw a big circle.

And when the legs go low, you pop it up. Open the chest. Beautiful. Good, good, good. You Guys Lincoln outstretched to your partner to lift the legs and then find your shoulders and head at. We'll add the arms, the legs. Draw a big circle around and you pop up. Polled the arms are going to reach for your belly button first and then reach over your head. Draw a big circle back down. That's it. That's it. Continued back down to grab the barrel. You got it.

And now lengthen the legs. Lift the head one more time. Try to keep the legs together on the low part. So the legs open, your big circle around and you, and then you lift the big arms around, draws. Circles, stretch and grab onto the barrels and find your shoulders. Lift your legs. Breathe. Good. Not Bad, not bad. Jennifer, I'm gonna have you do one for me. So give me a big circle around and pop it up. Good. So one thing I should've maybe commented on before is I think that your upper back wasn't touching the barrel close enough. So bring those legs up.

Let's go back to the beginning again and you can feel it where you're not a good, um, you guys could follow along. Absolutely. Bring, bring that even closer. Yeah, I know. Good, good. So the more petite you are, the tougher, right? So hips can start down good. And then legs will open up and you'll rise up and reach. Hold it. That's it. Good. So now you got a little more support, right? Yeah.

So now if those legs don't quite go so low, right? Squeeze the heels together. Don't let me through here. That's the power. Then you've got some more connection. Now get this real heavy. Like I'm gonna boom. Pop you in the belly and your legs come up and your head finds it. Spot.

That's powerful. Yes. Yes. So you're connected in your center. So one more time guys, with all those ideas, we're going to circle the legs around and rise up. Good. And his legs are strong and those heels are squeezing. The tummies are strong and those strong tummies just lift you and float you up and you find your shoulders and good. So that's enough of that. Right. Good. Let's fold the knees into the chest.

Let's go ahead and push the barrels away from you and good. And then just lay the legs over the barrel a moment. And breathe. Good. Good. Yay. Nice. So such good circulation for the hips and the lower back and all kinds of things. And as we were talking about here, living here in La, you always have to travel. Like carpentry is like really not la. So everyone's driving for hours and hours and I'm sure around the country we're doing more of it too. So really good for people, you know, stuck in traffic and you got to, you know, open up your backs and open up your hips. Yes. Good.

So now I'm going to have you guys all sit up and you can just swing your legs to one side and let's have you guys come and sit in the barrels. Good. So I want you to go ahead and find that same sort of like nice little strong part of our backs and get it against that part that's rounded and supportive for the barrel. That's it. And then draw your tummies in. Find your nice c curve. Let's go ahead and hold the hands back. Good. And let's try to pick up the chest that a little. So we got a strong center, we got a strong c but we want to still be lifted in the chest.

And then we'll lift the legs up high. And let's draw just a small circle around enough and then reverse around and up. So keep it small so you really know that you're telling me muscles. That's it. Picking up your legs. Good. And then reversed around and up. And last one around and up. Good. You know what?

You guys are having dueling legs. You could slide forward a little bit more. Bring your tissue. Nope, this way too. Me Too. Me Too. Me Too. Me Too me. There you go. And good, good, good. So now lift yourself up from there. Good. What if you put your hands back? That's it. Yeah. Good. That's a better position for you, right? Yeah. So with her length, she's better here now. You could lift your legs here too, cause you've got long legs, Huh?

Yeah. That's a good place for you to work. Right? And then straws circle last one each way around. Enough. Good. Jennifer, keep that rib touching that barrel and lifted up. Good. You guys fold the knees in. Take a little breath. Ah, good. So you feel the strong centers. Yes. Good. Now let's try once again to lift the legs in the air.

Good. I'm going to have you move back a tiny bit. Yeah. Good. And reach your arms to me and come up and touch your toes. [inaudible] alright, that's stretch. Good. So you have to be lifting your waist out of your hips and you have to be a little late. Finding your legs out of your hips and then you're going to continue to lift up and reach over the barrel and reach all the way to the ocean.

And you're going to come all the way in. Scrape the ocean once again and roll up and keep lifting and come back up. That's it. That's it. That's it. And Ramona used to say, come on up and see me some time. And once again, rolling back. So reach everyone together and good. Lift your back. That's it. Healing. Good. Good. Good. Yes, yes, yes.

And then continue to rise up within reach and stretch out and lengthen. Good. Juliana reach. Could, can your arms come back and touch me, Juliana, isn't that fun? And then come back up again and scoop and lift. Lift. Lift your waist. Oh good. So try just a little bit, just a little bit. That's all I ask is a little bit. Great. And last one. Here we go guys. Rolling back.

Take a long stretch now you see why it was so important to lengthen those legs up to the ceiling before, right? And then come all the way up and keep lengthening and keep lengthening. And Go ahead and lift up and bend the knees and take a little breath. Excellent. How was that? Huh? Good. Spin yourself around face the other direction. We can do the same thing.

Once again. Good. This place is a little bit, um, more precarious because now you're going to arch back over that, that tougher edge, right? But go ahead and find your same nice c curve, your strong center. Good slide. A little bit forward to me. Little bit more like what's your bottom to tip under a little bit. That's it. So you'll have to be right. That's it cradled in there a little bit.

Good. I'm sorry. Nope. In the air. That's it. And same idea. You're going to come up and touch your toes. You're going to lift up. Beautiful. And then same thing once again. Now you're going to roll back and you really can touch your partners now and we're going to reach good stretch and then you're going to come back up and that's it. Don't want cause that's it. And good. Can you try it with your legs in the air? And then once again, you're going to roll back. Good jewel. Squeeze those heels. Reach.

Wow. Different exercise. Yes. Get my little back. Okay. And roll up again. And Scoop and good. Do you see when you roll back to your kind of favoring that one side? Yeah. So once again, squeeze those heels tight. So what if you just go to here? Giuliana just there is plenty, right? Yeah. And then bring your Chin in.

Send your belly deep and lift up and keep lifting up and keep lifting up. Right? Great. Yeah. One more time. Good stretch. Good. Just keep feeling like my hands are pulling on your fingertips and Great Haley all the way. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Rock on and bend the knees and take a breath.

Nicely done. Your reward for all that is now to sit in front of the barrels with your legs stretched the other way. That's it. Good. Good. So we lengthened your hips and your legs. We worked your center. So now we do everything all together. Okay. I want you guys to sit as tall as you can. Almost like, yes, you're sitting up against the barrel, but right. Like ideally. Exactly.

It's like that perfect spine stretch position or low neck polar, whatever it is that we study on the Mat. Yeah, let's squeeze the heels and give the bottom a little pinch. And even here guys, draw your time. He's in and up and see if you can lengthen just a little taller up out of those hips. Let's take all of the sticks that are by you good. And let's continue to keep the bottom. Pinch the belly lifted and let's roll back over the barrel and stretch the stick out overhead and just pause and take three deep breaths in and out. Good. And if this were too, too tight for the neck, and if any of you need, let me know, a little towel or a pillow for the neck, you could do it.

But a lot of times it's also what we need for the neck and the chest, especially us ladies getting all the clumps. Yes, good. When you're done with three breaths, make sure your bottoms are tight, your tummies are tight, stretch your stick out to the partner, out to the ceiling, all the way up and over your toes and take a nice stretch forward. And even here guys, reach your sticks forward, reach your legs forward and try to pull your tummies back to the spine correctors. So right, there's that two way stretch. Excellent. Let's keep the bottom strong. And once again, rolling back. I'm gonna SQLite this in a little bit to Julie on a cause. She can, she slid away and then continue. Keep your bottom strong.

Lift your way step and you can feel bone by bone reaching back over. And once again, take a nice deep breath in and out. And here you can feel your arms. Try to stretch down into your hips, the shoulders relaxing down, away from the ears. Good and everything again, down the back and out through your legs and then up through your, into your tummy, out through your hands. That two way stretch is still alive. Good. And again, long stretch through the stick will pick it up. Keep the bottom act of the belly active.

We'll reach out and lengthen over those legs and keep breathing. And I'm going to bring this to Hailey. Good. And she's still working. That's it. And she's, that's it. Lifting, right? It's not just a passive little thing. It's a working stretch. Good. That's it. Right. And then this time you guys, let's put the sticks to the sides. And once again, let's roll back over the barrel. Keeping the bottom active, the belly active, trying to reach each bone. So Jennifer, wait a minute, before the head goes down, this bone has to touch back, right?

And then this bone has to touch back. Oh, and what about these belly muscles that press those bones, right? That's it. That's it. That's it. Right? So you're really connected into that barrel, right? Just like when we work on the ladder barrel. And let's go ahead and draw some nice big circles with the arms around. And as long as they stay in your peripheral vision. Good. You're doing okay.

And breathing in and out. Good. I'm going to go ahead and give Giuliana a little towel here and then go ahead. See if now when you lay back better. Okay, good, good. So these steep inclines are pretty tough, you know, on, on the tightness in our backs, but we all have them somewhere. That's it. Good. And make sure your bottom is still active, your belly is still active.

That's the way. So even just this strength will help to support the neck as well. Good. Did we do three each way? Great. Let's pick up the arms over the chest and once again, activate your bottom, activate your belly. Beautiful to rise up and reach over the legs and lengthen out and stretch.

Good. Last one. Let's roll back and I'm gonna pick on you the way I did on Jennifer. So here we go. We're going to draw the stomach in the lift and lengthen, right? So don't give up on any of your length. That's the way to stretch out. Now you keep that connection with your back.

Good. And let's have everybody stretch their arms. Just straight up to the sky for a moment. And for a moment again, feel how your shoulders can slide down into your hips. Your bottoms are still active. That's it. Your heels are squeezing together. Yes, still a very active stretch. And let's just reach one arm overhead as the other arm goes forward.

And both will come up to me and change sides. And me and changed sides and me and [inaudible] change sides and hold. And once again, [inaudible] stretch. So pause a sec. That's it. You spot it felt that little lifting your shoulders, right? So activate this, activate this, looped, all of that. Right. So you don't stretch from here to do it. Yeah. Right. So this is still, yes. What's actively engaged? Okay.

Yeah. Good. Let's have everybody sit up for a moment. Good. So from the time we did the first one to the last one, did you feel better? Worse, the same. Okay, good. So you got some length out of it? Yes. Good. So really nice.

Sometimes just hang out over that barrel and just breathe. Right? Like open it up. Let yourself relax. Yes. Good, good, good, good, good. [inaudible].

Comments

Helena B
Enjoyed the information and exercises, but this is a very slow-paced class. Was expecting more rhythm and flow. Great for an end of day relaxation though.
Helena thanks for the feedback. It is always tough to judge how much to talk during these classes. Good to know I can talk less and let everyone move more. Thanks for watching!
1 person likes this.
Loved it! It's always so hard for me to keep the connection on the godforsaken spine corrector..this video was really helpful.
Nice, Kat! Thanks. I am thinking about one for home myself. Its tempting!
2 people like this.
I like your generous cueing and attention to detail, Kara. And the way you seem to be living the work as much as the ladies actually doing it ! Thanks :))
1 person likes this.
Great class. I really enjoyed the pace and cueing, which helped me correct my own work as I followed along. Thanks!
1 person likes this.
Very informatiive! You put so much positive energy into the work. It's amazing. Thank you so much!
1 person likes this.
Lovely class. thank you. very helpful to my classes. love it !
Thanks Anne, Randi, Avishag, and Maha! I really appreciate your feedback and I hope to create more workouts you like!
Susan B
1 person likes this.
I have just bought a Spine Corrector for home use while taking mat classes at my local studio. They don't offer Spine Corrector classes. So this is perfect for me !!! Your cueing is excellent and your enthusiasm is infectious. Thank you for an excellent class !!!
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