Class #196

Detailed Mat Foundations

45 min - Class
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Description

This class focuses on exercises that serve as the foundation of all of our Pilates exercises. Spend some time, learning the detail of exercises like the Pelvic Curl, Spine Twist Supine, Chest Lift, and Chest Lift with Rotation. The class uses an Overball (a small, soft ball) during a few exercises. If you don't have a ball, a rolled-up hand towel serves as a good replacement.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Okay. So I brought out the tools today. I don't know if I'll use them or not. So we have a theraband, these are just called overhauls. You could use these if ever you want to do something at home with the towel. Some of you are, those of you who are here last time we used the towel a little bit and I use them as a way of just trying to find where I'm trying to make contact. Where are we focusing? Okay, so having said that, let's go ahead and lie all the way down on your back. Um, and when we do, I'm just going to take a quick look.

If anybody feels like right now they want a small pillow for their head or to keep their neck easy, let me know and I'll get you one. Okay. Everybody feels okay in that position. You'll take Phil Yas. I was thinking, I think that's going to be now don't you go back to sleep after your massage lifted your head and see if that works for you. I can get another one and I just backed your water up so you don't hit it. All right guys, here we go. Bend your knees. So a quick reminder, we talked a little bit about breath before being something that we end up using as help but not meant to frustrate us and definitely not meant to be the only point. So I like what you're doing Michelle. Lets just rest your hands on the rib cage. The knees are comfortably bent, you're just laying here. Take an inhale.

At this point it doesn't really matter in through your nose or mouth, whatever's easier. Exhale like you're fogging up a mirror above you. Imaginary Mirror. Ha like you're whispering the word ha and inhale and again we're not trying too hard. Are we married? Good. Exhale and just relax. You might even feel a sense of deflation. Just inhale, filling up naturally. Nobody's got to try hard. Just see what naturally happens and exhale, let go.

Sometimes it's hard to let go it meaning we tend to hold it up there. All right now altogether, just inhale one last time and this time, exhale for as long as you can. So don't let it all out in one shot. Just slowly exhaling more, more. And when you think it's all gone, keep exhaling without straining in your neck. That's plenty. And relax. Did you feel the muscles continue to harden under your hands that keep going? Do it again. Exhale.

The reason I'm asking you to do this is there's the deepest layer of your abdominals that doesn't really do much. Go ahead. Exhale. If you haven't blowing out, it's that one we talked about that helps us cough, laugh, and it supports the organs. It supports our back, and that's the one we want to tap into. One more altogether. Inhale, I'm gonna fix that for Lori. Exhaling, feeling the abdominals just gently hardened underneath your hands and with that, stretch your arms down, long on your mat. In fact, reach your arms down on your mat so that you feel the sense of the shoulders coming toward the hips. Whenever almost whenever I say shoulders down, I'm all, wherever you are in space, I'm talking about towards your waist. From here, inhale on your exhale. Just roll your low back so it touches the mat. Just tilt your pelvis so it touches the mat. Exactly, Karen. Inhale, relax it back in. What we'll call neutral or level.

Start first and feel that hardening of the abdominals. And by hardening I just mean almost movement at this point it's not severe and release it in him. Good. And exhale to scoop the belly and sink the ABS and back into the mat. You can really roll the pelvis. So this time I'm going to have you go back to neutral. Inhale, and on your exhale you're going to roll that pell your hips so much that your butt just starts to come off the mat, but your low back is still down. Okay?

You feel your butt tighten up a little bit. You should probably and release it one more like that and then we'll go a little bigger and I'll start moving you a little more so you can experience the flow. All right. Inhale back to neutral. And this time we're going to roll all the way up to your shoulder blades on your Xcel. Let the abdominal sink, let the low back sink into the mat, and you're going to roll the hips up bone by bone. That's it, Karen. I'm balling you. Keep going. Keep going until you're at.

But the shoulder blades go them out all the way up, Michelle. Good, good, good. A tiny bit higher, right with your hips. That's it. Inhale, holding it there. Start. Exhaling. You're going to come back down, starting at your upper back, pressing your upper back into the mat, then your middle back. Keep going. Then your lower back, and then your butt back to neutral. Okay, let's do one more like that and then we'll start using the toys and he'll prepare. Start. Exhaling. The breath proceeds the movement. You exhale and scoop the belly. So rolls through every bone.

You've got 33 there. Good. And then what I'm going to do for you is we're going to drop. Go ahead and inhale. You're gonna drop down here a little bit and lift up here. So we're going to round your back and then start to roll down. I'll show you. Take the ball that's near you and put it right between your knees please.

I thought I fixed that for you. I didn't today. If you want Laura, you can turn so your head's not that way. Okay, so I want you to hug that ball a little bit. Okay. And there we go. Inhale, start. Exhaling. Reach the arms towards your heels as you peel up. Good. I'm just going to keep this close to you. Keep pushing with your head. Yes. This part stays down though. Okay? Yeah. Not just your hips. Go Up. [inaudible] this. Fine.

That's it. Good. That's where you stopped. Then inhale. Good. And exhale to roll down. Lovely. You have had some modalities. Exactly. Ball. Keep that ball last one like this. Actually couple more. Leave your head down. Leave your head down at your hips that are going up. Yep.

That's your hips that are going up. Okay. We have to start over. Dear, didn't understand me. Didn't understand me. Okay, last one. Roll through for real. The last one, dad. That's it. Michelle. Keep going. Keep going and yep. You can go a little more. I just know it. Keep the ribs down though, if you'll feel your hamstrings right the back of your legs. Anybody good? That's, that's the point. And come down. Good. All right. Just keep the ball there. Take the arms out to t position. Palms are up, or you can go kind of low on the v. That's just fine. So, okay, good.

Meredith has chosen Martin. Laura, you go higher. Yup. And then stretch. Yeah, they're on the floor, but they're stretched. All right. Bring your feet in closer to you. Yep. So that you can be kind of on the ball of the foot. Exactly. And squeeze the ball. Yeah. So the heels are just lifted. Let's go towards the window. You're rotating your lower body.

So we go inhale to tilt the legs toward the window. That opposite hip does come off. Then exhale, come back to center, other side in hand to the back, and exhale. So it's kind of smallest kind of swaying. Inhale to the front. That's it. And exhale. So just touch your feet together here. There we go. And I'm going to catch up with them. So going to the back. Inhale, as we rotate, keep the feet together. Now start exhaling. You can feel the rib cage drop into the mat, the legs will fall.

Come back to center. So it ultimately is like swung palm trees, everybody together. Let's go. Inhale, fill the window, stay there and move. Stretch your waist like you're kind of reaching here. Then exhale, let the ribs go down to the mat first. [inaudible] Yup, Yup. And then the knees have followed back to center. Last one to the back. Are One more set. Inhaling over and tell you what stack your feet. So there we go. And now from here, press this part down first.

So there you go. Okay, we got an o so I gotta do another one. We got, oh, so here's what she did. You guys just rock yourselves up to sit for just a second. This is worth that. Maybe help yourself up. So what Karen just did over there was initially she was kind of here where the ball was there, but the knees were not lined up. Maybe I should show it this way. She was sort of here, disregard my head, and then what she did was she stacked the knees and kept the feet together and reached from here.

Then the real important part was get my head down here was when she came back. Instead of just bringing the knees back, she started right here and she exhaled. That's what I mean by pulling the ribs first. That's where the obliques are and really you can just think abs and as this part or this part, however you see it, tries to press back. It automatically pulls the legs with it so the legs are just sort of going along for the ride. Kind of start out, get rid of the ball.

I think that's messing it up a little bit. Just put your knees together. We'll just do a couple more. In fact, we'll make it a little more interesting. Take your legs into the air if you want a little more challenge, meaning they're going to be bent at 90 degrees, so you take your legs up like this. This is a position we often call tabletop, so you're going to hear that a lot. Let's go to the front wall here. Inhale as you rotate. Good. Now exhale and sink the ribs first. That's a deuter. Keep going. Beautiful. And then back. So hopefully you'll feel that.

Inhale over. I'm going to give you a little resistance. That's far enough. And then as you exhale, pull the ribs into the match. Last set. Inhale to pull. Let me pull on you. Just relax your legs. Yeah, and now you just tried to go back from where my hand there it is. We're going to get it. Yeah, it's coming. Last one for real and big exhales. All you have to think about, that's it. That's it. That's it.

And you're doing that when when you're, you're, you're, when your legs are away from you, that opposite rib is the, the area that it starts to come back. That's right. That's right. All right gang. Put your feet on the ground. Let's do some more specific ab work. Did it make a difference? She didn't get it. I think I got that last one. Tell on her.

Just keep telling her. Yeah. Okay. Lace your fingers behind your head. All right. We did use the towels last time. I'm going to try and not this time, but if you want we can. Elbows just off the mat. This is the chest lift. So comfortable feet. Inhale. On Your exhale, you're gonna roll your head, neck and shoulders up to look towards your belly. So just your chin goes towards your chest, your shoulders towards your waist. Looking at your belly. Just inhale and let your head drop into your hands. Exhale, staying here.

Sorry. Inhale, filling up. Exhale. Stay here, but sink the ABS. Watch them drop. One more breath. Inhale and exhale. Lengthen yourself back down. Inhale XL to curlier. Head, neck and shoulders up. Looking towards the belly. That looks good, Michelle. Very good. How are you doing, Meredith?

Is it in your neck right now? Okay. Inhale. Exhale. Hold it there. Karen, can you curl up a tiny bit more? Yep. One more breath. Inhale John, Katie, and exhale and let it come back down in. Helped prepare at the bottom. Let your Chin roll towards your chest. First. Exhale. This is where you've heard, and now drop your head back onto my arm. Yeah. Inhale. Exhale. Just think here. Good.

Drop your head back on my arm again. Yep. One more breath and come on down. [inaudible] any better when you thought about resting your head back. Okay. Okay, so now we're going to, I won't hold you up there. You're just going to be coming up and down, but it's still rather slow. Inhale, prepare. Exhale. Feel the breath first. That makes all the difference. Blow out. You'll feel those ribs press into the ground so you curling up. It looks good, Lord. It looks good. Karen, go ahead and inhale. Exhale back down. That's your breath pattern. Yeah. I want you to come on hold for an inhale.

Drop your head back in your hands and exhale down. I'm going to go with you. Inhale, prepare everybody together. Start exhaling and if we come, drop your head. There you go. And on your exhale down we go in him, start the exhale. Ease up on your forearms of it at all. Yes, it's all good. Inhale, hold at the top and exhale. Sinking to come down. Just one more time please and shoot. If you need to take a break for your neck, you should shake it out. A little XL. The curl out. That looks good.

Yes. Inhale, Chin Up. Just a little Michelle, just a little heart and exhale down and stay down when you get there. All right, it's going to come. It's coming and it's looking actually quite good, but I'm not convinced you're not feeling it in your neck. All right. Next thing is to take your hands one over the other, just right in front of you fingertips either either one on top or you can go side by side. That would be fine. All right, and it goes almost the same. Start. Inhale, prepare. Exhale. As you roll, Chin toward chest, you're curling up trying to touch your legs. Okay.

Then inhale, we're coming toward the front of the room. Just exhale. You're just outside your knee, just outside your, that's great. Theatre. Inhale, come through the middle to the back. XL, just outside your knee. Inhale as you come through. Center and exhale so it's more of a forward action than it is a big rotation. Inhale through middle. If you want, you can support your head.

Okay. It's fine. Inhale as you come through center and exhale. Good. Inhale as you pass through the middle. This will be the last to shy. Last one I should say. When you get back to the center, separate the hands and rest down. Okay. Yeah. Okay, good. That's exactly, I was hoping you would be holding Michelle.

Okay, good. Great. Alright, next thing. Do we need a little next stretch? Here's what I want. Take your chin slightly to your chest, just slightly, and look toward the window. Keeping your head on the ground. Just roll your head over looking over that shoulder. Yeah, and then when it feels right, look the other way and kind of play with what you need or I can't get that sun right for you.

Can I? Okay. All right. So next thing I want to do is as simple just teaching you about the shoulders, because we do so much where we need the shoulders down, but their arms are in space. So from your arms down by your side, all you're going to do is inhale. You're not curling your head up. Exhale, slide the arms further down just so you feel maybe your back muscles engage and then hover the hands and arms off the ground. That's all I want for now. Then inhale and exhale to lower and back down. Okay. In l sort of relax on this exhale, you slide them down as if they're taking off on a runway and then they hover off. It's going to be like a minuscule movement. It's not a big deal, but just try and feel that around the lats and then we'll make it a little more interesting. Perhaps come back down, spreading out the upper back.

We inhale, start exhaling. This time your head, neck, and shoulders will come up sliding your hands along the mat and eventually they're going to take off and hover right by your hips. As your eyes are forward. Look forward to come up a little higher. Dierdra good. Inhale, hold and exhale. We lengthen ourselves back down and in here. Start the exhale. Feel the shoulders start to slide their ribs. Fall the chin. Yes, you can rest your head on my arm. There you go. Inhale. Looks good, gang and exhale, working your way back down and you're off and back.

There we go, and in exhaling as we feel the chest far more here. Less neck dropped back. Yeah, that's just going to take time. That's a bit of a small habit. Inhale and exhale down. How are we doing? Everybody Okay and their next? No, if not, sit one out. Otherwise I'm going to go up and have you hold it there. Exhale to curl up. Good.

If I can use you, where are you going to do? Karen is inhale to raise the arms a little exhale. Press all the air out by pressing the upper arms down. That's right. Inhale, do it again and heal up and exhale. Pump all the air out. We're just staying up now. Inhale, arms up a little. Exhale, arms down. That's all they're doing.

Inhale up reaching and it comes from right under the arms, right there. Good and up last time and on this one, let your arms go all the way down and roll down to the mat. If you've got to shake your head out and do it. Now look over the shoulders. Okay, well it's looking good and that's half the half of it really is just getting the mechanics down. All right. Next thing we're doing is we're going back to, we haven't done this one yet. This is heading into what we call the shoulder bridge.

We're going back to a pelvic curl. So your feet are about four or five inches apart. Yep. Good feet slightly apart there. Good. I'm going to bring yours a little closer together, Katie. Cool. All right. Now feeling good after your massage. Do you want a little slope?

Do you want a little elevation? Oh, sure. Okay, good. So what I need you guys to do is go into a pelvic curl. So it's inhale, prepare, start, exhaling, scoop the belly and roll through your back all the way up to the shoulder blades again, just like before. Okay. If you can go a tiny bit higher, Meredith, you should in your pelvis. Inhale and exhale to roll back down.

Good and inhale. [inaudible]. Exhale to roll up. Katie, why don't you just rock yourself up or turn to the side. I want to give you this because I think it's going to feel better than that. What you have. Yeah, there you go.

Oh yeah. That's Kush. Come down a little. Steer your neck supported. Okay. Here's how we're going to make this more interesting in how prepare your going up. Again, exhale, rolling through each bone. It's almost like the pubic bone. The lower tip of this drum. Stay up there when you get there. Breathe however you want. Yes. Do you feel that you, oh, you want to feel length to both sides of your body.

This is good from where you are. Just inhale, Kirin. Bring your ribs down. Upper ribs down a little. That's perfect. Exhale, start to lift your right light up off the mat. Keep it bent. Just lift it up off the mat. That's great. Even if it's barely lift, inhale, touch down. Same legs coming up against. Start the exhale and lift it. And the object is to keep the hips absolutely still and where they were. We're four and lift up. Good and down.

Try and sync there. Yep. Last one. It's your low back. Okay. And we're gonna roll down in between. Go ahead and roll down in between. Inhale. Oh, you don't get to rest and down halfway. Exhale, go back up. Excellent. Now take a minute. When you get to the top, here's what I want you to think about. Or try. Inhale. You can breathe it however you want. Try and re lengthen or Tuck your low back or round your low back and pull your hips towards your heels just a little so you feel the back of your legs. Yeah.

Good. Lengthen the front. Read however you want. I just want this to come down a little to your ribs. There you go. And then it's like that. This is good. You don't need to do any more there and [inaudible]. And now if you just draw, keep breathing. You're all right. You're all right.

Tuck your pelvis more lorries. Starting a little, lose it. It says feeling that. Oh, you're fine. Inhale, get ready. It's the other leg. I think it does a right leg. I'm not sure. Exhale to pick up the other leg. Inhale, touch down. Drop those upper ribs. Michelle. Little and too. Same leg. So don't, so just think about it.

Just intend to end down, sorry, you were doing four total and three. That's great. That's a perfect way to do it. So if you don't want to, if you can't lift the whole leg yet, just lift the heel or even think about it. Last one for you and on your next exhale is when you're rolling down. Start from the top. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Hug your knees to your chest. Yeah. No, it's not easy. Especially when you're all lined up.

You know when some of you felt the hamstrings kick in, when you're all lined up like that, it's not easy, period. It never gets easier to only get [inaudible] and if you didn't feel it or if he felt it someplace else, you have that to look forward to. It's just going to get harder. It's all going to get harder. You are going to, yes, you're the target muscles are, you picked them both out abs and hamstrings? Yep. Not so much in the butt, but you'll get some there too. And I said Karen stretching her hamstrings. I love it. Okay.

Go ahead and just rock up. That's where we're at. Just rock up. Okay. Yeah. You've all got the little ball. Take it behind your back. I'm going to move your, yeah, I know. I forgot it was here. I forgot it was here. I would've given it to you earlier. You know, we try not to let our clients see that too early because then they're like, where's the bed? All right, so we're just taking the ball and replacing it pretty much right behind us. It may don't wedge it in close to you, but that's good. Yeah, just sorts there.

And if we, when you roll back into it, if it feels off center, you just sticks it. That's all. You just put it where it feels stable and hold on behind your legs. Sitting up nice and tall. So I have the feet apart. You're gonna want them apart a little bit. Yeah. Finding the sits bones. Now object of the game is to try to pop the ball.

Not with your feet driving you, but just to roll back into it so it's inhaled prepared. Looks like this. Start to exhale and without just start to press your low back toward it. Your whole body's going to upper body's going to move and you'll feel contact with the ball and you can try to pop it, but you don't need to strain to do it. No one's ever been able to just try hold, inhale, exhale. You're going to come back up. But try to maintain contact with the ball as long as you can, so you will be going forward. You will leave the ball, but you try to stay touching it as long as you can and then straighten up.

Inhale, exhale. Feel yourself pressing into the ball, rounding your back. You'll get heavier and heavier on it and you just push into it. Continuing trying to scoop. This is a scooping action, the sense of the belly button going down in the butt, almost coming up. Inhale, exhale. Keep that sensation as you come forward and you're welcome to use your arms a little, but I wouldn't use them completely. You know, you can be here all day. Inhale, exhale and sink.

Pressing into the ball starts to relax the shoulders a little. Karen and it's really quite good. Yeah, go a little further this time. Go ahead. Go ahead and now hang out there and just inhale. We're going to stay here for a second. Try to Tuck your pelvis in. Your tailbones come off the metal. Just like that, Meredith. That's it.

And yeah, don't go so far that you know, you fall, but, and, and then release the tailbone down. We're going to do it again. Yeah. Don't get so crazy that it's, uh, an inhale. Exhale tech there. You had, this is going to be good for you. Little scoop of the valley. Yes. This is what I'm looking for in you. And you did it from the low end this time. One more for good measure. Inhale. Exhale, do a little tuck. Is that Lori? Where is it?

And then on the next exhale, you get to roll up to seated. Anybody feel it? Good. Isn't that what you came for? Good. So the pressure's off now. All right. So do we, should we talk about it? How's your neck on that one? Fine. Okay, good. Let's do it again.

Let's do that again. Um, yeah. Good. Let's do it. Really reaching, reaching forward. I'm not kidding. I'm actually not kidding. How about hip flexor? Sometimes when you're seated, the hip flexors kick in. Everybody's good. Golden. This is my new favorite either. Let's just stick to what works holding on. Again, same thing in exhale, finding the ball.

Just notice how easy the neck and shoulders can be at while working the ABS. Inhale, we're going to stay here and just exhale and press into the ball. Whether you talk or not talk. I just want you thinking I'm going to pop that ball however I can. Inhale. Exhale, do it again. We're going for five breaths and I'll tell you what. Let's take out.

Some of you are kind of blowing out through straws like very pretty, but I mean you don't need, it doesn't have, I don't have to hear it if you don't have to hear it. You just have to do it. You just have to let the air out so it doesn't have to be dainty. Well, next exhale. Come on up. Nice job, Katie. Come on up. Yeah, that's what I'm liking. Now we're going to throw in a little rotation to it. Stay where you are for a moment. We're going to roll back in a second again and then I'll have you take the arm closest to the back and bring it towards the front. And from here we're going to just not really even using my arms, I'm just holding on so I don't fall. And, and um, that's all you were. Just exhaling, keeping the body that way so that we can start to focus on the obliques a little bit. Become aware of those as a major factor in strengthening your powerhouse.

So let's start from the beginning. Together we're upright. We're going to go ahead and exhale when it feels right to roll back, easy neck and, and get to that place where you really feel like you're trying to drive energy into the ball. The hand closest to the back is going to rotate your upper body over to grab onto this front, knee or leg. And that's about it. And it's almost like you're trying to pull away from your hands, right? Inhale, you can hold wherever you want. Exhale and just gently press belly button towards, into the ball more.

Inhale if you haven't, and exhale can you let go and do it? You don't have to, but you could like, you really want something over there that everything's going into the ball. Good. If, yeah, the guys are great on the next one. You're gonna roll up on that side. So come to me, Katie. Come to me. Yes. Come on. Come on. You can grab your legs at any point and then center yourselves off. Yeah, it's going to be a freight train this time. Okay, go on again. Yes. Talk to me.

You did great. How do you feel about shaking? It's not like you're not working, but you're shaking. I know the feeling. It's like, why am I trembling in front of these people and I don't even feel it. Um, you know, it's, there's a f several positions that you'll get into where you don't feel like you're working and, and sometimes it is just by virtue of where you are in gravity. But I would be surprised if you weren't working on that one. I'll check it out.

We're in the middle. We're going down again. Inhale, Xcel rolling back. You can hold on if you want to find the ball and for you Michelle, you're always going to be having to think a little bit more of a that take both hands to the back of the room. Yep. Good, good. Oh, not good. From there, inhale and exhale. Imagine just taking this part into the ball more. You're okay, your position's good. It's just literally pull your abs away from me on your exhale by exhaling more, more, more, more walk. Fantastic. And you let go it.

Some of you are going to want to let go and as you pull away here, reach for me there with your upper body. That's all. That's all good. Do it again and fantastic. On the next exhale, you're going to travel forward just right there and exhale coming towards me and then back to center. You got it. It looks like you did. All right, got it. It's what you said about fatality. I know, I love it. It's exactly what you said about [inaudible]. Well, yeah, the boat, it's, I mean it's seriously a towel would work on an actual pillow would work. It's just something to feel. So, all right. Um, we need to do our spine stretch. So here we go. Um, hate to say it, but we don't need the ball for this one. Do we, can I use the ball for anything?

No, not for this one. I'm going to suggest that, um, you're going to use it. Actually that's not a bad idea. It's actually not a bad idea. I'm okay. Tell you why. Yup. It's great if you're willing, you don't have to. If you're willing to. Here's why this is spine stretch and the action is meant to be at. And we literally say as if you're rounding over a ball, we usually mean a bigger ball, but whatever. Um, we're trying to round forward and why I think this is a good idea, Laurie, is because as, and again, you don't have to do it, but maybe even just the visual right now is as you do it, you want to pull the ball backwards. I don't mean the spine, by the way. I don't mean this at all.

That's just not gonna do anything. Here's an imaginary wall. And, and again, it might be too weird. I don't know. I haven't tried it yet, but I don't like it anyway. But now that you've seen that much, you could even put it, yeah, we, yeah, we need a bigger, either a really big one or not at all, but it was the visual. Good enough that are, you're gonna you're not going to back up. You're going to, if you had the ball, you'd be pulling it towards you to go over it. Okay, so come back to the start hands are on your shins. Your back is straight. Initially I like to flex my feet. If it feels better to flatten them, it's fine. I have a subtle downward pressure with my, actually my upper arm and straight arms. And if it feels long in your top, go around the side. Inhale. [inaudible] exhale.

We pull that ball in or the ABS and as you round down and forward so you continue to imagine you're pulling that ball in as you go forward. That's right. That's right. That's right. Now while you're down here, let's everybody just take the arms just outside the legs and press into the legs and press the legs into the hands and deepen your contraction. Did you feel what you just did? [inaudible] address? That was really good. [inaudible] train. Sorry. Katy. Inhale on your exhale, you pull the abs up off your legs and start rolling back up and it's, it's a good idea to actually create that resistance where I had you press in here and push out there. It just helps to find the ABS. So we're at the top.

Inhale. Exhale. We round forward pulling deep on the ABS. This isn't just hanging out. Just separate your feet more, Katie. Yeah, like wider, not longer out here that then inhale, hold, and then as you exhale, roll up the imaginary or if in fact you have my [inaudible] behind you. Push into me. Yeah, and you do that more with your abs. Next time. Inhale. Is it real tall deer, right over your hips and exhale down. You Go. Pushing into me. Yeah. Less with your legs and more with the app. Yes. Good.

Hold for the inhale and exhale. When you're ready to come back, it's your low back that presses into the imaginary Wolcott Lori. Good. Good. And feel the back extensor start to kick in as you come all the way. I'm going to do it again. Inhale. Exhale down. Michelle, when you go on your low back to be pressed into my leg. There we go. And keep it. Yep. Yep. Good. Inhale holding it there, Karen. Just pull your shoulder or relax your shoulders down a little bit.

The arms can still be straight. XL Roll back and you're going to feel me right here. Good, good, good, good. Yes. Chin down slightly. Got In here. The last one like that. Exhale too. Around forward. Chin first. Good. Yeah. That's a good spine stretch.

Holding it for inhale and I like what you've got going on except for this part. Just soften there. Yeah. I don't need the shoulders and Xcel to roll up. Good. That's a nice position, kitty. Okay. Okay. Another kind of hard one to find I think, but maybe you did and now we're going to add back extension to it. So what that means. Just hang on.

I'm going to have you go forward holding on somewhere, anywhere to then try and straighten your spine on the diagonal. So I'm using help here and then you'll re round and come back up. Okay, so kicking in the back extensors a little bit. So we start tall. It's an inhale to get ready. Exhale. Rounding forward, I'm gonna go a little faster this time. Just rounding forward. The arms are heavy, but sliding downward. Grab on somewhere.

It's okay if the elbows are bent, but the shoulders are still relaxed. Inhale, start unfurling the spine along your legs are right through your legs into a long flat line. Sticking. It feels a little like you're sticking your chest out. That's what I kind of want to see. That looks good. Meredith and Katie. Keep it. Laura. Keep it. Just breathed there for a minute. I want to straight. You're out of bed. Stick your chest out a tiny bit more. Chin down though. There's a good line. Does that feel okay? It's a lot of work.

Just keep breathing looking good. Karen. Just think of maybe stretching longer. It's a good position and for you, I'm going to bring you up a little bit higher. Yep. Keep coming at tiny bit more and Chin down. Yup. Now stick your chest out a little bit. That's a, that's a little too much actually. There we go. I'm trying to work those muscles right along. Um, your, um, shoulder blades are in between. So Laura, you can go a little bit straighter.

It's like, I want to do, actually come here. Let me have your head. It's like that. Is that okay? That's where you want to be staying with you. Just let me pull your spine a little longer like that. Is that okay? That's where you want to be. Okay. Keep that. Everyone's looking good. Keep it. Keep it. Keep it. Here's why. Yeah. He just, you know, you'd have to look at me.

You're gonna float one arm up by your ear. Nothing changes. Other arm up your ear. Pull the ABS in tight. Uh, if you can go higher with your arms, Meredith, do, you can go wider, but I want them almost behind your head, Huh? Good. That looks great, Karen. And now just gently pull the shoulder blade arms back. Five, four, keeping your heads up a little. Three. Good. Two and one pulling forward a little. If you can inhale and exhale.

Just round over and relax. How'd you do? Look good to me. Very good. Alright. I'm not waiting for an answer. Lie on your back face. Sorry. Lie On your side. Facing front. Hmm. You could have been now. Thank you. You can have the bed now. My princess.

That's my teacher. We used to say to me, I mean someone else. Okay. So I just don't know what I'm going to say to do with your arm, Katie. I'm thinking that's going to work for you. Yeah. Wow. You're like on the beach and Nice. The rest of you. All of you stirring. Not both legs today. Yeah. Cool.

And allow, and it looks like you've all done this already, but just a, maybe Deirdre, when you look down, you want to be able to see your feet a little bit. Just a little. It's kind of good. And then put your heads back on your arm. Now that you're there. All right. Top hand. The hand is going to be right here in front resting in front of you. Yup. So you're good. Karen, right in front of you. I'm back.

If you can get it right into your abdominals, do that way. You'll be able to feel a little bit about what I'm going to try to do. So just in him start exhaling like you have been all along and see if you can feel that the abdominals gently pull away from your arms. You're not sucking in your just by exhaling, it'll happen. It's subtle in now, get that arm close so you know what I'm talking about. Start to exhale and it'll just be just sort of a few more wrinkles in your shirt and [inaudible].

I'll give you a thought to it. Inhale, and now as you exhale and feel the abdominals naturally pull, imagine stretching both legs down the mat, trying not to tighten the legs a lot, but just to get even more. Next thing is going to be you're going to lift both those legs. So inhale, prepare, start the XL, consider reaching the legs down the mat, and then both legs lift up. Good. Continue reaching them. Inhale as they lower down. Exhale, lift again. Good. Inhale as they lower down and exhale, lift up. Nice work. You're doing good.

And then all I want you to start thinking about not letting the feet slide on themselves so they're [inaudible], they're down there together. They just stay that way it might limit your range a little bit. Good. And what you doing is you're working the obliques. Maybe you can take that free hand for a second and feel what's happening up here. Yup. And [inaudible] one more we'll do. Here we go. Feel the connection first and then the lift.

Keep both legs up when you get there. Stretch the top leg a little longer. Just the top leg. And now lift it 10 times one and two and three. Good. Four, five, six things long. Seven, eight. Looks good. Nine. And finally 10. Okay. Let the lights come down. We're going to switch sides.

So put your heads. Um, yeah. Put your heads in the center. Still facing out the window up here. Bring it with you. Awesome. Here, I'll give you a little more space. I know I probably, I think it's a massage pillow. So Santa Barbara Body works probably has it. Okay. You're long if I'm you. This is what you're doing. You're just standing with maybe a subtle side bend cause you're resting on the floor. But we're going to pick it up so you end up like I am. Okay.

So stretchered body long Lord, just bring your legs in front of you. I bet. Yeah, and I'm just trying to avoid, once you pick up the legs that you don't go into your back looking good. Anyhow, prepare. Exhale. Just lengthen. And I'm gonna go right into it. Actually lengthen and lift both legs. Excellent. Inhale as you lower down. Exhale, re lift good. And it doesn't need to be high to be effective. So don't think of that. This is really good. Try and keep those legs together and it's a subtle sense of I'm bringing my pelvic bone that way in my low back. Long. Is it feeling okay? It looks good.

I'm going to slow you down a little. I start the exhale. Let me hear that. Exhale first. And then the legs left. That's what they follow. So start the exhale. A split second before you lift the legs. I'm not really interested in counting if you haven't noticed, but I'm very interested in you feeling the top side or really any part of your abs. So you know what you can do. You're nice and strong.

I'm going to hold you like that. I just reach a little longer gang and then um, yeah. What'd you do? Start to exhale and just you won't lift as high as you done. That's it. Can you feel it? Cause not really. You then try to lift higher, but I'm going to prevent you from it. Go ahead. Couldn't go more than that away from here. And all you need to start thinking about now is relaxing your legs and then you'll, it'll take it there. Cause the legs really have nothing to do with this. They're just the weight, the weight. So Katie's right, let's go up and hold it if you can without dropping the legs.

Kind of relaxed tension. It's a difference between having your arm out like so and put your arm. Don't look. So just sort of let it be there. And now top leg lifts for 10 years. Probably done Katie, you started a long time ago. Topic list one and two. Three kind of reaching right out the door. Four soft legs, five and six ish. Happy Katie.

Then like 500. Okay. All right. Enough enough. Finally based down for back extension. Um, here's what we'll do with the balls and I kind of like what you've got going on here. All you have to do is back up and put this so that your forearms are over the top of that. I think that's going to be good. It might be too high and if it is, you'll tell me. Okay. Okay. Take the bowl and place it at your sternum. You might like the ball better. I'm not sure that, does that feel okay? If you can get your forms on the floor, it'd be even better that okay or pull into it, whatever it doesn't.

I just want you to comfortable in your low backs. Is that Okay Michelle? I'm thinking that's going to be good, but you have to tell me I want, I'm trying to, yeah. Okay. I'm trying to get us where we are. Getting the sense of pulling up away from the ball. So relax on the ball and then without using your arms, pull weight out of the ball. I mean you're, you're on your arms, but don't push into the floor to do it. That's great. That's great. You're a natural, you know that. So, so do that. That's part of it. That's the first part. Now, without sinking onto the ball, extend your chest forward or maybe it'll feel like you're opening your chest or pulling the shoulders backwards.

Okay. Yeah, that's good marriage. Just move your elbows forward. That's all I see. That needs to happen there. So you're kind of Spinx like right, you're just lifting and then reaching the legs long. Everybody. Okay. And from there we're going to inhale. Exhale to lift just a little higher. Just a little higher.

You might let your elbows come off by pushing into your hand. Sorry. By pushing in your hands, you let your elbows come up a little. That's enough. And then as you go down, reach your chest forward and set yourself back on the ball. Elbows on the ground. Inhale, get ready. Think of reaching the legs. Long. Exhale to lift up, trying to use more upper back muscles.

You can use the palms and then down, but all right. And again, drawing the ABS in to lift up. Keep the feet on the floor. Thank you. And then drag yourself forward into her. Excellent. And last one, like this lifting. That's it. Michelle and Michelle from where you are, just because you tend to hyper extend back. Pull the abs away from the ball more. Yep. And then as we go forward, imagine you're pulling yourself forward on your mat.

Is that a crack? Lift up. Just enough to get rid of the ball. You're good. Keep it there and come on all the way down. Resting your forehead on your hands. Yep. From here. Inhale. Prepare on your exhale. Just draw the shoulders away from your ears. Hover your head, your chest, and your elbows. So keep the hands at your forehead and down. Relax, back down. So basically you're going to keep the position you have and you're going to barely clear space between the ground and your arms. Inhale, get ready first, start excelling. Pull the shoulders down your back and hover the and the arms. Perfect. That's about it. Pretty teeny. Tiny. Inhale, hold. Exhale, end down.

You Go. Looks Great. The hands come with you. That's right. They do. Weird but true. Inhale. Exhale. Draw the ABS in. Shoulders down in hover. Nice. Michelle, is that okay? It's looking good. Inhale and exhale down. Yeah, it, you should feel really heavy and exhale to lift. Keeping the feet on the ground. The abdominals are gently trying to pull up.

Inhale and exhale down. Well done. Let's do last one here. Feel the shoulders glide to your hips. Feel the up and hover. Can we hold for one full breath. Inhale, stay up. Exhale. Inhale, and on your exhale. All the way back. Yeah. Okay. Resting at the ground. [inaudible] once your back feels like it's settled, just put your hands by your shoulders enough that you can push yourself up and either round back into what we call the rest position.

If that doesn't feel good to you, you can just come to a rounded back on the knees. If that doesn't feel good, you can lie on your back and hug your knees to your chest. In any case, we did it. We did it. Yeah, we're going to end it with that. Good job you guys. So we did. In any Polonius class, you're going to do full election. That was your ab work. We did spinal articulation, which was your pelvic curls and the rolling like exercises we did, oh, oblique work and rotational work. You did side work, which is more oblique work, but sort of in a unilateral way and then back extension. So that's what you're going to get in every Polonius class.

As we're starting out now, we're getting maybe one exercise of each, but that builds on itself. And so we get comfortable with these. We kind of start to learn the terminology and before long we'll be moving faster than this, but I think we're, we're well on our way, so thank you. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Comments

Clear instructions and not too hard for a very beginning student
Thank you ! I really appreciate the focus on breath and movement details. I have been trying to "get" Pilates for a long time now and I feel that with this level of instruction first I will succeed this time. Its coordinating everything all at once that is a real challenge. thank you again.
That was such a good class! i did it at 10pm when i was wanting to sleep but had to get a work out for the day.
it was perfect! relaxing and effective. Thanks!
This feedback is all music to my ears. Thank you all. Cynthia be patient with yourself. Coordinating everything all at once IS the challenge. It doesn't mean it will happen every time. The fun is in working towards that end while noticing the progress along the way. I have days when it feels like I have never practiced the exercises in my life, other days when I feel I've mastered them. I appreciate both days recognizing that my body is dynamic. It changes. It's changing all the time based on things beyond just diet and exercise. Coordinate what you can on any given day and let the rest go. You are "getting it" each time you come back to class. It will feel better all the time. I am happy for you and where you are in the process. Enjoy!
Amy T
1 person likes this.
Very nice! This session was relaxing and wonderfully designed for a beginner.
1 person likes this.
Great class - clear directions and great body cuing! I was very mindful of my core throughout the class because of Kristi's cues!

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