Class #2185

Magic Circle Exploration

55 min - Class
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Find new strategies to work the correct muscles in this Mat workout with Sharon Gallagher-Rivera. She uses the Magic Circle to gather your center so you can find oppositional space. She includes multiple versions of exercises like the Hundred, Rolling like a Ball, Swan, and so much more!
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

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Hi everybody. Uh, I'm Sharon Gallagher Rivera and we're going to do a magic circle mat class. So, uh, I'm going to have all of you, um, you recognize our Amy here taking class. I have also Jamie lions here with me lion and uh, Jackson Grantham and kill it Romaine who came, uh, from the bay area to be students in the class. So here we go. We're gonna put the circle between the ankles and we're just going to start out parallel with the part. I kinda like to start out, um, with checking in where your, um, your strategies are at. Before we get started. So the first thing I want you to do is make sure that your tro canters are lined up over your ankle bones, which is further back than lots of us want to be. And your shoulders and your ears are lined up with that.

All we're gonna do is inhale, bend the knees, and I want you to let your feet feel really grounded into the floor. That's it. And on your exhale, just lift up through that center system so the muscles in the legs pull up, not push back. And we'll do that one more time. And Bend. Feel the grounding energy of your feet to pick your center up. Beautiful. Now we're going to press down through the balls of the feet so much that the heels lift off the floor. Just notice if you have to shift forward a lot to do that and lower the heels back down. And we're, we're going to try to do with the help of the circle gathering.

Our center is try not to shift that much. So your tro cantor is going to try and stay back. That's at Jamie. Yeah. Feel how lifted those backups can be up, out of the pelvis and lower back down. And we'll do one more of those for us and lower back down. Excellent. From here and want you to just drape your head down. Good. Round your spine, down one vertebra at a time.

Feel how that support helps your belly sling up to uh, give your spine some support and then take your circle and your hands. Bring your legs all the way together, squeeze into your circle, curl the tail under and round your spine back up. Beautiful. So step to the front of your mat. If you're not there, you're going to cross your right leg over your left. Squeeze into your circle here. Nice. And you're going to bend your knees to come down to the floor.

See if you can place your pelvis down very close to your feet. Good. And take your legs up to straight and round down. Nice. Great. So we're going to start out with, with um, 101. I'm going to have you do those. Hug your knees into your chest and then take them up to the ceiling. Place the circle between your ankles, turnout, right, and then arms by your side.

So we're starting really picked up to the ceiling here. First I want you to imagine that your legs are like helium. Like they could just go up. Yes. And imagine you also have a little mini circle in your pelvic floor. So you're going to squeeze your little mini circle to squeeze your big circle and release. Good.

And find that again now because the legs are straight up. Uh, your low back is going to be lengthened into the mat. So I'm not asking you to maintain a neutral spine. I want you to stretch your low spine long. That's it. And one more time. Reach those legs up and out. Squeeze in. Curl your upper spine up. [inaudible] now you're going to drift your legs to the angle that you can support today and pump in x.

Use this to help stretch space between your ribs and your pelvis. So the breath is taking your ribs backward behind you for your shoulders, for your shoulders a lot this way. Good. Now you can add pumping your heels together and into three, four, five strong feet. Good one more like this. And Annex. Good. Squeeze and hold. Bring your legs up. Take the circle in your hands. Good. Squeeze your inner thighs together.

Turned out, drift your legs forward. Reach your arms forward and pump your arms into three, four, five x. Good in. Try to keep this a breathing exercise so you're still inflating those back ribs back. Come down a little. Come down a little yes. To counterbalance the weight of the legs and clap your heels. Strong feet.

Strong feet, right foot. Yes. Annex one more. So we're doing a 150 sorry. And from here, squeezing, lower your legs down. Nice and lay your head down. So there's different options of the circle. Traditionally when you squeeze a circle, it's gathering your powerhouse, gathering your center together. I oftentimes play with hooking my thumbs on the inside and pulling out and see if when you do that you can let the circle become a heavyweight.

Let that heavyweight feed your arms into the sockets and also help ground your back ribs into the mat. And we're going to do our roll up like this today. So inhale, begin to curl up. Use that back breathing to inflate space between your ribs and pelvis. Exhale where you need to to come all the way forward. Nice. And he'll begin to roll back. Reach into me. Keep reaching into me. Good.

And stretch those back ribs back. Nice. And again in, I want you to find your ankle bones. Yes. And exhale. Legs are working as close together as they can. If you can do all the way together, that's great. If there is compression in your back, when you do that, give yourself a little space. Right.

And then the challenge is to still recruit those inner thighs. So inner ankle bones. Yeah. Even if they don't touch, they're trying. Good. Can you let that imaginary weight, keep your arms plugged in? Yes, that's it. And back. We're going to do one more inner thighs together. Use your backups to stretch back. Nice. Stretch the spine back. That's it. Less, less shoulder. Yes.

Good. And roll back. Good. From here. Deepen the belly through the low spine to lift your leg straight up. Place the circle between your ankles.

Nice and arms by your side. So I want you to have that same reach that we worked on before we started where your legs are going up. We're pelvis almost lifts off the Mat. Let your legs drift forward with that support just to the place that you can support and then curl the spine to inhale over strongly. Flex your ankles. Good. Squeeze into the circle and exhale, peel down, and as you're peeling down, your pelvis is still thinking that it's curling over so that you can traction your spine. Good. All the way forward. Point through your feet. Stay with me. Inhale, curl the spine to go over strong. Flex. Good.

Try not to let your legs get heavy back here. Squeeze that circle and peeled down. That's it. Nice. We're going to do one more time. Once you go forward, point your feet, curl the spine to go over strong. Flex. Now stay with me. You're going to peel down slowly. The pelvis is still trying to go back through the circle.

You're going to stop yourself where you're an inch off, an inch off and reverse curl back. That's it. Point through your feet. Peel down. Now you're going to remember that strength every time your legs go forward, so legs will go forward all the way. Flex through the heels, reach through the back line of your legs. Nice endpoint. Good, and as you're peeling down, your upper spine goes down, but your pelvis tries to keep going over. Yeah. Okay. One more nice arms are as narrow as they can be to give you support. Excellent.

And then just stay here with your legs to the ceiling. Grab onto the ring, put your right foot in the circle, left leg down, all the way. Good. What do I want you to do to start with is press your right leg away from you coming to an upper curve, right? So arms straight, create oppositional space here. So you're using your hamstring. Depress that circle away. Good. Slide your low spine back and space and curl up.

We're going to do a version of climate tree here. Once you're all, all the way up, I want you to pick the circle up. Good dive your uh, not only your head fell off. Dive your spine into your leg. Good. And then keep your leg where it is as you peel the spine back down, reach through the back line of that leg to open up the back. Beautiful. We're going to do that two more times and find space as you curl up. So try to let that left leg do less. Can it stay down?

Good yourself up. Right. And then reach to the back line of your leg as you peel down. So don't let it come with you. That's it. Yeah. And as you get back then take your stretch, pull it toward you. Nice. One more time. And Corolla.

Create more space. That's it. Little higher with your hands, Jamie. Yeah, that's it. Gorgeous. And then peel down. Nice. And we're going to stay down and take a quick little three-way stretch. So flex the ankle here. As you anchor your tailbone, shoulders are relaxed. Good. And then from here, externally rotate the leg. It's still parallel in line with your, not, not turned in parallel, but uh, in line with your pelvis parallel. Good.

And you're going to go across your midline. Now only go as far as your pelvis doesn't lift. So I want you to imagine that that circle is a weight again and it's grounding. Yes. The weight of your leg into the pelvis and then you're going to take your leg open. Now if you really recruit the external rotation here, instead of that, your pelvis gets to stay long. There you go. Reach to the back line of your leg.

Yeah. Nice. Right. Good. So this stays long. Hair reached that way. Good. Excellent. Bring that leg back to the ceiling. You're going to lift the circle off. Scissor to switch that. So start by pressing your left leg away from you. Find Space.

So as you press away, curl your upper spine up right now. It's not about hoisting forward. How much space backward can you find? Stretch back. There you go. Find your hamstrings. Pull your spine tall, lift up taller. This can go higher. Hands Higher. Yes. And then peel back down away from the back line of that lag.

Try to find control through that. Peel down, and then pull the leg towards you. We're just creating links. Good. And again, curl up. That's it. Trying not to hang on your knee, right? So use this strength to stretch back. Keep your hamstring on. Yup. Good. And pull yourself taller. So pull that circle higher.

A little higher so that your head doesn't feel short. Yeah. Good. And then keep the back line of your leg long. So as you're peeling down, keep finding your hamstrings and stretch this back. That's it. That was our second one, right. Okay. One more time. And Push. That's right there. Keep finding this person to me. Listen to me pressing into me. Yeah, that's it. We had to work for it.

Lift up. Nice. And try not to make your neck short here. Make your neck long. That's it. And Peel back down. Good. Stay down. Take a little stretch. Flex your ankle. [inaudible] good. So we can pretend this as a weight again so that it's grounding the leg. Externally rotate. [inaudible] so when you externally rotate you, you want to really take the outside of that hip around.

That helps to create the decompression and then crossover. So, um, I always say it's a, it's not a place, it's a feeling. So you have to keep finding the feeling, right? You don't kind of get there and stop. Good. [inaudible] excellent. And then take your like open, right? So find your tail heavy. Good. Now this has to stay reaching. There you go. And then you lengthen through the back of your leg. Look at that.

Great. Nice. And now we're all ready for our single leg circles. So bring your leg back to the ceiling, take your circle in your hands, squeeze into it, and bring that leg down. Switch legs again, right like up. Make sure you're really recruiting that external rotation. So you have the decompression. We're going to do a long oval version. So pelvis, stay square. Inhale across and down.

Exhale up in x and that exhale really rebounds it back to you. Let that come from higher up in your center. One more so your back ribs can stay down reverse. You're going to go down across, up. Good. And keep finding that wrap underneath your butts so that you feel more space.

Yeah, your inner thigh is going to really try to stay to the ceiling the whole time and nice and scissor. Your legs to switch. Here we go. Inhale across, down. Exhale up in right. Can you find that from higher in your center? Yes. So the backroom, stay wide and reverse down across. Up Wrap underneath your butt to go across. Up. Yes. Inner thigh to the ceiling.

That's even more than that. Yes. One more nice. And from here, lower that leg down in one motion. I want you to curl your knees into your chest and come up onto your sacrum. Balancing on your sacrum, right. Squeeze the circle. Reach your circles more forward than your feet. So try not to let it touch heels on your butt if you can. Here we go. Inhale, curl from the low spine back. Exhale, balance.

Initiate from underneath you, right? Like the tail is trying to touch the heels and back. That's it. And lengthen out of your neck if you can. Yeah. Good. So the low spine is doing more and one more like this. And good. We're going to do two versions because I'm, I love them.

You're going to take one pad underneath your, uh, like, uh, everybody did the same thing. One pad goes underneath the heels like this and the other pad is going to go under your sip phones. Or I usually feel like I have to get it a little higher up on the sort of the center of my thigh. Right? Place your hands on your, um, ankles. Pull your heels to your sit bones. All the way. We'll see. Pull your heels. I would get that higher up. Yup. So let's see. Ringer's higher up, Jackson, a little higher up on your thighs, right? Pull your heels all the way to your siblings and Jamie, don't interlace knees open a little bit. Here we go from the low spine. Inhale, curl back. Exhale. Yeah, this is a good version for you.

I thought it would be. Yeah. Inhale and Nice Jamie. That's it. And that happens. So keep your heels close to your butt. That's sort of one of the ways that we often, um, leverage from somewhere else. So that's what I love about this version and beautiful and balance.

Take your circle in your hands again. Arms forward. Good. Knees are still bent and you're going to bend your elbows to a 90 degree angle right now. Take your right leg forward. Good. And you're going to peel back as you squeeze into that circle. Knee comes all the way into your chest, right? Keep your upper curve. Oh, all the way in. Nice. Here we go. Inhale, switch. Inhale, switch. Exhale. Exhale. Slow down. Jamie in, in x.

X. That's it. So use the squeeze. Try not to make it about your pecs. Just let it Zipper your upper center together. An X. Good. Add acts. Nice. Both legs forward, both legs. In. Exhale, all of your air. Place the circle between your ankles, hands on your shins. Curl your upper spine up. Nice. From here, you're going to inhale your arms back by your ears. Legs go forward.

Deep in the squeeze of the circle arm. Circle around, and exhale all of your air. I want you to fold in your tightest little ball. Inhale, reach less about the neck and more about that oppositional space. So give yourself space here. Curl. Yes. Inhale, reach back. I'm gonna stay here. Circle around. That's okay. Alright, good. And Inhale and circle all of your air out.

One more. That deep fold is really helpful. Really important. There we go. Enhance in the circle. Take your arms up to the ceiling. Good. We're going to do the thumbs on the inside. Shoulders heavy. Take your right leg up, left leg forward. Reach your legs out in space. Inhale, pulse switch. Exhale, pulse. Let the circle remind your shoulders to stay heavy, but ritual lags up and out of the pelvis. Good. Keep your legs a little higher and I just want you to work that. Yeah, stretching back. One more set and nice.

And then put the circle between your ankles, hands behind the back of your neck. Now pick your elbows up so that your shoulder blades or all the way wide and up off the mat. Nice. Inhale your legs away from you as far as you can stabilize. Exhale, curl the spine to bring them back in. If you do two inches away, it's really, really hard. So if that's what's going to give you something new, keep it small, right? Why didn't you shoulderblades yes, just there and Curlin. One more. Eat your elbows up. That's it. And Bend your knees into your chest.

Do you guys need to break for your neck? Take a break. Keep your knees into your chest. We're going to do two versions of the Chris Cross, so that's why we needed a break. Here we go. You're going to curl up, hands behind the back of your neck. And whenever you're placing your hands behind your neck. Sometimes we get into this like resting ab curl.

Keep refreshing how much your elbows are reaching out so that your neck is long on the curve of your spine. From here, you're going to inhale your legs away from you and on your exhale, twist to the right. Squeeze your knees in toward you. Inhale, center legs go away. Exhale, twist, left. Inhale, exhale. Now your angle is where your low spine can stay on the mat, so wherever that is for you, go ahead and come on down. Take a break and curl back up. Exhale. Good. So now you're going to inhale here. Exhale, twist to the right. Send your legs away. Inhale, center curl tighter in your ball. Exhale, twist left. Nice. Let that circle remind you where your center is as you're twisting so the legs are remembering where center is good, and come back in and lower down. Excellent. Take the circle in your hands. Bring your legs down. Actually take it back.

Bring your legs up to the ceiling. Good squeezing into your circle. I want you to roll up like you're doing teaser roll-up, find your teaser good. Separate your legs, place them down on the floor for spine. Stretch forward. You're going to take your, um, your pad onto your sternum. Vertically. Yes. Good one hand and then the other hand are pressing in. Good.

I am going to have you scoot back a tiny bit, Jackson so that you can widen your stance a little bit. Good, strong flex with the ankles. So ground your pelvis, your inhale, sit tall. Exhale, take your spine up and forward all the way. Your circle will probably go down to the mat and then I want you to keep using your spine to full, deeper curl. Yes. Inhale into your back to lift you back up. Good and exhale. So you're isolating that spinal movement and see if you can keep going.

So pelvis is heavy. Lift. Good. And inhale back up. Exhale, press it down even further if he can. That's it. Good. Inhale up. One more exhale. Pelvis keeps grounding as your spine picks itself up out of the pelvis and staff back up. We're going to do just two more with the circle in front of us.

So take your hands in front, squeeze into the circle without losing your shoulders and see if you can find some of that information from the last exercise. Exhale, go. Pelvis keeps grounding as the spine lifts. Inhale into your back to stack back up. Pelvis goes down as you exhale. Full word. That's it. Nice. And inhale yourself back up. Excellent. From here, you're going to do a little scoop. Then journeys.

Place a circle between your ankles and legs up. Yes. Just like this, right? Squeeze into that circle. Now think of your tree legs. Reach those legs up so you're balancing a little further back. And here we go.

Inhale back and find your tree leg to stop your momentum to keep you a you at the bottom. Inhale back. Yes. That's it. Try to keep your you at the bottom. Yes. So as you're rolling up, thank you and think legs up. Beautiful. Yes. Two more and, and one more. And find your balance. Take your arms in line with your legs. Like teaser. You're going to squeeze into your circle. And pulse. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Squeeze it in on eight. Stay there. Rule your spine down away from your legs. Good. Now once your spine is down, arms go firmly into the mat. Head down. Good.

Lift your legs up and over for corkscrew. Unless if your back is a little irritated, you can just do small circles without going over from here. Twist, go to the right, down and around. As you squeeze that circle, inhale up, come down on the left side. Exhale is the legs are furthest away from you. And inhale as they're closer to you. Good. And again, down and around and up. Let's stay here for a second and coming down on the left, down and around and center. Stay here. We're just gonna do two reps today of that one.

Squeeze into your circle and peel your spine down. Stretching that low spine. Good. Roll up through your teaser. Nice. Grab on to your circle. Take your legs apart and come for saw. You're going to take your circle m horizontally placed on your sternum.

We're going to do a so lower like hell. Amy has hers. Yeah. Elbows wide. You're gonna ground through the pelvis. Inhale, twist and lift to the right. Good. Squeeze into that. And as you exhale, you're going to feel that pad come to your right sigh and keep using your spine to finish folding. Inhale, stack yourself back up. Twist to the left. Exhale, ground the pelvis, right. And the pad can come to your thigh so that you can go further. Right.

Inhale up one more time each way. Like this, twist. Keep the pelvis grounded. That's it. Feel both sip on, sinking through the floor. Lift up and beautiful. Good and up. Take your circle in front of you. Good. So this is um, a version I love of Sal. You're going to inhale, twist to the right. Now let go with your right hand. You're going to turn the Po, the pad to the floor. Press Down and press your right arm up. Good. Stay here.

Inhale into the left side of your back. Press Down with your arm. Lift the spine to give you that press. Good. And one more time. Inhale and your back. Give yourself that decompression. Good. And lift back up. Both hands on the circle, twist to the left. And here we got place on the outside of your foot. Press down, inhale into the right side of your back. Exhale, press down a little further.

So the spine is going up and forward. That's at inhale. Exhale a little bit further. That left palm is pushing the ceiling up. One more time. Connect the shoulder together and exhale and stack back up. Nice.

Bring your legs together and let's do spinning around so that everybody's head is to the center of the room. Good. So there's a couple of versions here. The pad is going to go down on the floor and you're going to go one hand on top of the other. If you're somebody with really tight shoulders, uh, you can grab on the outsides of the circle instead, right? Or if you need a little more width for your shoulder. So I'm going to have Jackson do that.

You could go probably a little higher up to give you more lift, but just so that it's wide from here, activate the inner thigh line, press the hips open. Good. And on your inhale, pull your chest forward enough, Jamie, find your arms into your back. That's it. Beautiful. Now keep your chest coming forward. Try to keep squeezing that circle down as you come down, until you're close to down all the way, and then lifted up. Nice. And again, press down. Pull the abdominals forward, right. That's it. Good. And pull your chest forward to come back down. Lovely.

Let's do two more of those. Inhale, pull down. Lift. See if your belly can feel like it's on a conveyor belt. So you're pulling it shoulders into your back. Maybe that is a little, yeah. Good. And come back down and one more time. Pull your shoulders in your back, Tammy. So you're arching your upper back. Yes.

Lift your belly up off the mat if you can, and come back down. Nice. So we're going to do a little inbetween. Turn the circle flat ways. You're going to hook your thumbs on the inside like that. Like what Keela is doing here. Exactly. Forehead down. Press your hips open into the mat. Go ahead.

What you're going to do is lift your straight arms up. So you're pulling outward on that circle. See if you can keep it flat and bend your elbows behind the back of your neck. This is preparing you for your shaving. Inhale your arms back forward. Lift your chest, lift your belly, lift your head everything and come back down.

One more time. Keep your forehead down as you lift your arms up. Try to pull those elbows wide. Good. Bring that behind the back of your neck. Inhale, arms forward. Now lift your chest, lift your belly, lift your legs and come back down. Excellent. Uh, we're going to do one more thing.

We're going to do swan dive with the circle between your ankles. So bend your knees. So this is a little tricky because it cuts your range, right? You can't get as much of a rock going because the circle is going to bump into the floor. So go ahead and straighten your legs back. You're going to feel the circle on the floor. Nice.

Straighten the knees all the way. We're going to take the hands under the shoulders. So this is the version we're going to do. Wrap your shoulders into your back. Good. Bring your head, eyes and chest forward enough. Now you're going to pull your belly up as far as your extension allows you to.

Good. And then you're going to lift your legs and let your hands come underneath your shoulders to rock and go, right. So underneath the shoulders, like Amy's doing here. Yup. Right. Instead of arms forward underneath the shoulders here. Good. Now once you get going, take your arms out like a t and keep going, right? Good. Straight knees. If you can, straight knees, reach back through those legs and one more. And come on down.

Take the circle away and press back into a rest position for a second. Good. Nice. And then from here, press back out onto your belly. The circle's gonna just go flat on your mat. Squeeze your hands toward each other, propped up on your forms.

Is it for your inner thighs together? So you're gonna take your, um, Swan with you in this exercise. Your belly is pulling forward through your chest. Try not to hang on your frontline from there. Float both legs a little bit off the mat. You're going to go right. Heel kicks your butt. Pulse. Pulse, which pulse, pulse switch posts, posts. We're going to go a little quicker.

They're going to switch to the air and kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. Good. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. One more hips open, hips open, and come on down. Nice. Come all the way down. Laying on your right cheek and your circle's gonna come behind your back.

So we're gonna, uh, alternate between squeezing into the circle when we kick, when we kick the pelvis and hooking the thumbs on the inside and reaching apart as we come up into extension. Okay, so you're going to start with that is high on your back as you can get it and let your elbows come down. But keep the heels of your hands, uh, able to press float both legs. Up three kicks to the butt. Kick to three. Hook your psalms and inhale two, three left side and kick to three. Hook your thumbs. Then inhale, come down and pleased to squeeze the circle. Three. Inhale, reach up, come down, and pos hips open. Come down. Good. One more. Set each way. Try to keep your hips opening to the floor as you kick. Inhale, reach up. Last one, and pulse to open your hips, Jackson a little more. Yes. Inhale up.

Nice and come all the way down. Move your circle, press back into our rest position. I love that one of that feeling. Excellent. Curl your tail under and rule your spine back up. Good. So come around. The circle is going to stay flat like that.

And you're gonna squeeze in with your ankles flexed for neck pull. Good. So you kind of have to get it in the right position. It's really heels that are squeezing into it and sometimes it feels a little awkward on the inside of the heel. So I always feel like I have to scoot it out a little further than I think. Strong flex. Good. Now your hands are going to create traction for your neck, so you want to make sure your hands are not on your skull, but are on your neck and pulling up underneath your skull. That's it. Great.

From here, inhale, lift those back ribs out of the pelvis to hinge back. Go as far as you can go lengthening out and then flex through your spine round. That's it. Squeeze into your circle. Inhale, begin to curl up, round all the way forward. And when you round forward, make sure you're not shoving your head down. Your head has to meet your hands. Elbows high and wide like you're shaving right now. Pull your torso longer towards your feet, right? That's it.

And then curl the spine to lift back up. We'll do one more length and out of the pelvis. So keep your chest dropped even more than that. Keep a chest. Yes. Yes. So it's flat back though. And all the way down. Excellent. One more time curling up.

Yes. Pull your crown taller. Right, without letting your head drop to the floor so you can round your spine. Elbows wide, preparing you for shaving and stack back. Good. I guess I lied. We're going to do one more hinge back. Good. So keep your head back in line with you, but take your hundred curl with you a little more. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

That was longer though. Okay, good. From here, bend your knees. Good. Take the circle in your hands. Now this is going to be a little wild. Stay with me here. Okay. Actually we're going to do the one that's not so well first. You're going to place the circle too in your knees, so it should go above your knee joint, inner thighs. Good.

Bring your feet hip width apart. Parallel. Nice. Squeeze into the circle so your knees are parallel and press up into your bridge right now. When you're in your bridge, try not to roll off the inside edges of your feet, so we're going to let this circle relax a little bit. Let your knees, yeah, open. Now press your pelvis up, squeeze in, feel the hips, lengthening through your knees and again, soften your knees a little bit and then squeeze back in. Good. Feel the hips lengthening through your knees. Good. And one more time. Soften your knees, self and apart. Squeeze in, keep squeezing in and traction your spine down. So just think your chest. Good. What if your sacrum is being magnetized to the front of your mat? Beautiful.

And then relax your inner thighs apart. Nice. That's one version. Now the next version, you're going to take the circle in your hands. Good. Press up into your bridge. Your feet are going to be as close to your pelvis as you can. Yeah. Now take the circle underneath your back and here's the tricky part.

You're going to turn the pad of the circle down into the mat and you're going to squeeze it so that this pad of the circle goes on your [inaudible]. So you have to use your hands. It goes length-wise goes this way, guys. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to squeeze it down with your arms to get it in position. Okay. Once it's in position, I'm going to help you here. Once it's in position, I want you to let your pelvis settle into it a little bit and then press with your legs and just feel how it gives you some buoyancy and settle into your pelvis a little bit. Stand in your legs and lift back up to open your hips.

Right? So your, your blood doesn't have to squeeze a ton. Your legs have to work really hard, right? Sometimes if we squeeze the body compressive and down and find your legs. I mean the glutes are working, press up, press up. Yeah. Good. Excellent. So from here you could either keep your arms down by your sides, keep your hips open, or you could go into your shoulder bridge arms where your hands come underneath your back. It's a little bit more like a backbend.

Keep your thumbs with your fingers and make sure that that the circles giving you that really high pelvis as if you're doing a backup bench. Don't let your pelvis change. Reach your right leg out and up. Exhale, flex it down. Inhale, I lifted up. Try not to let your pelvis drop, so keep, yeah, finding the buoyancy and up. One more time. Let your heel touch the mat and drag it back and then refresh your pelvis. That's it. Slide your left leg up and point up. Beautiful. Flex down.

Nice. Feel how hard you have to work through your hamstrings to keep your hips open. Nice. And one more time. Drag that heel back. Nice. So from here, again, your hands will come out. Your hands are going to push the circle down to take it out.

Stay in your bridge, arms to the ceiling with the circle. Thumbs on the inside, pull out, let the weight come into the circle again. Stretch your spine down to the mat as your arms go by your ears. So find the, uh, like breathing right on the Cadillac. Find the simultaneous movement of that. Inhale, arms up as your spine curls up. Pulling apart, uh, sorry. Pelvis, pelvis. Yeah. Good. And exhale.

Peel the spine down as the arms go by the ear. Stretch apart. Sink your chest all the way when you go. Yeah. Good. One more time. That's it. Curl. Nice. Settle the shoulders and traction the spine apart as you come down. Excellent. Good. And from here, bring your legs all the way together.

Slide them out. Straight. Arms to the ceiling. Inhale, curl your upper spine up. Good. And the rest of your spine. Sorry. Oops. Stack up tall. Squeeze into your circle. Good. So we're going to try three different versions of spine twist here. Squeeze in, but don't let your arms reach, suck them back a little bit more.

Yes. Inhale and exhale. Twist around to the right all the way. Exhale all the way. Inhale, center. Exhale all of your air as you twist around to the left. Good. Hook your thumbs on the inside, arms up by the ears. Exhale around. See if you can let your shoulders settle and make your spine twist you. Inhale Center. Exhale around to the left.

Good. Inhale, center. Last one, squeezing in and exhale. Let your shoulders stay heavy. If you can, squeeze in from the back of the shoulder if you can instead of the pex inhale center. Exhale and center. Good place to circle between your ankles. Good. Straighten your legs, so you're going to feel the circle on the mat as you straight this way. Squeeze in legs are a little levitated. Good arms reach forward.

Good. You're gonna roll down. As you pass through your low back, you go right into your [inaudible] arms. Go down. Inhale over, lift up, stretch pelvis through the circle is your upper spine peels down. So keep curling your pelvis back as your upper spine peels down, right? And then legs go forward. Inhale over up. Good. Exhale, bring your pelvis towards me as your chest sinks down. Keep going. See if you can find that tail curl toward me one more time guys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. One more time. Inhale, press up. Good. And keep reaching as you stir Rach back down. Nice. Hug your knees into your chest. Excellent. Take your circle in your hands. You're going to turn and face. Um, so you guys will be on opposite legs. Okay.

You're going to t turn and face this direction. Line up against the back edge of your mat. Good. And you're going to place the circle between your ankles turned out nice. Good. So from here, legs can go a little in front of you for balance. Good.

From here you're going to squeeze your left. Oh sorry. Your top leg down to your bottom leg. Reach it longer and bring it up. Good. And pull down. Find space through your legs and your hip. And come down. If it's more comfortable, you can take your head down all the way on a straight arm.

Since the circle is keeping your legs a little more elevated than they would be. Good. And one more time. Pull down, reach the hip and good. And we're going to pulse. Pulse it down. Two, three, four, five stabilizing seven. Hold it on eight and release. Good. You're going to rock back so that you can slip your bottom foot inside the circle. [inaudible] and then your top foot inside the circle. Good.

And if you need to bring the circle back a little bit and we're pulling apart. So now top leg pulls up. Lengthen it out and release it down. Good. Press up when you lengthen it out. Try not to let that happen from your back. See if you can find it from the leg. And good. Two more. And lift apart.

Reach out. That's it. End Down One more time. End Up out. Good. And now we're going to pulse. Pulse up to three, four, five, six. Hold it up. [inaudible] good and down. Now squeeze both legs apart. Lift both legs up.

Up and down, up, and don't feel that bottom leg pressing into the circle too. Up and down. One more. Up and down. Good and rock back. You're going to switch that inside leg to the outside again. Good top leg and bottom leg. [inaudible] squeezing in.

Lift both legs up and down. Try to stay turned out and squeeze and lift both legs up and down. Sometimes this is more comfortable if your head is lower, if you want to take that arm down, see what works for you. And one more time. Stay up there and pulse. Pulse. Two, three, four, five, six. Hold it in on eight you're going to roll to your belly. Make a little pillow for your forehead, right straight legs as please. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, holding on eight bend the knees.

Bring your heels close to your pelvis, lift the thighs up, straighten your legs all the way back and lower the size down. One more time. Then Denise, press the thighs up, reach back to straight. Good. And then you're going to roll to your other side. They sing me nice. So the circle is between your ankles and you don't have to kickstand that bar. So that bottom leg is down, just turned out right.

And from here you're gonna pull down, lengthen and right. Pull down. Lengthen Paul though, lengthen and up. So you have a little bit of a sustained contraction there. Yes, that's it. And pull down and pulse. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold it down on eight unreleased, you're gonna rock back. Switch the positioning, right.

This is always the trickiest part and your leg goes on the inside. Excellent. And here we go. I forgot to say that this one is parallel. I should have said that on the first side, but now I'm saying it parallel now. So you're going to keep your bottom leg down. Press up your top leg, reach it longer and down. Press up your top leg, reach it longer and down. Two more. Good. And one more.

And pulse up two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And release. Both legs are going to pull apart. Lift both legs up and down. Reach your legs, out of your pelvis and down to more. Right? That bottom leg is lengthening and pushing into the circle and one more and will lift and down. Good. Do that. Quick transition to switch there. Like on the outside. [inaudible] squeezing in, lift both legs up and both legs up and down.

Try to make that bottom like length and a little bit more out. Yes, and one and down. Excellent. You're gonna roll onto your back so you may need to adjust a little bit, right. And the circle is still between your ankles. Take your legs to the ceiling, arms by your side, and we're coming up for teaser. Inhale yourself up, arms up in line with your legs. Keep reaching your legs at the angle they're at and just roll into your low spine and keep your small and right back up. Try to keep your tail curl and stretch your lows. Find down and right back up.

Good. And one more and up. Good. Now take your arms. Keep your arms here. Actually squeeze into that circle. Lower your legs and lift back up. Now if your upper body moves back, you went too far. Don't let your upper body move back and space as your legs go away.

Keep yourself curled in and nice. Now arms by the ears. You're going to roll all the way down so the arms come all the way down by the ears, right? And then curl yourself back up, arms come forward. Keep that as your arms go up by your ears. Reach out through the back line of your legs to control yourself down. And one more time. Good.

So from here we're going to take up that last one. We're going to do teaser for. You're going to cross your arms to the right legs, to the left. Arms go up through the ceiling. Legs go down through the floor. Go all the way. Full Circle. End Center. So it's like two half circles. Go the other way. Arms slice, left, arms go up, legs go down. That was gorgeous.

And stay here. We're going to take the arms by the ears. I want you to roll down to your low spine. You're gonna roll to the right side. Roll all the way to your right side. Roll to your belly. Roll to your left side. Keep going, Jamie. You're gonna get run over and come onto your back onto your back.

Teaser up excellent. And our your ears roll them good and roll to your left, to your belly, to your right and back teaser up. Take the circle in your hands. Squeeze your inner thighs together. Squeeze your arms, arms by the ears. Roll down. Try to stay controlled. Don't try not to bottom out. Roll to your right, to your belly, to your left on your back. Squeeze into your circle. Come back up.

Take your arms up, roll down as you squeeze that circle and roll to your left belly right back. And you can tease her up one more time. Sure. I was going to give you a break there, but uh, okay. And then from here, roll down the ice and take a break here. Excellent. So let's see. Oh yeah, that's right. So cutting some things out here, but this is actually a really fun version.

I'm going to have you guys keep your heads at opposite ends for this. Put the circle between your ankles and roll over onto your belly. Okay. Now when you straighten your legs out, you're going to feel the circle is down on the Mat at first. Take your arms forward, reach out, lift your chest, lift your legs.

We're going to do swimming. So your legs do a little swimming as your arms do. A little swimming keeps squeezing into the circle. Yeah, right. It's just a little bit smaller movement maybe than you're used to for the legs. Squeeze. And that's at Jamie. Yes. Straight knees if you can. And let your shoulders relax down your back as your chest pulls forward and come on down. Excellent. And we're going to do this out of order. Bend your knees.

Good. Bring your heels close to your butt. Reach back, grab your ankles. This would come much later, but we're going to do it here. Squeeze into your, um, circle and lift up. Lift your chest. Good. Lift the thighs, lift the chest, come back down. Pull your heels to your butt. Keep your hips open. And we're gonna come up one more time. And if you would like, you could do a little rocking here.

Lift right. And with the chest lifted thighs. Lift the chest, lift the thighs, gorgeous. Excellent. And come down. Pull the hills to the butt. Nice. Take the circle in your hands. Roll over onto your back. And we're going to do a boomerang and seal. So we're just going to do two sets of boomerang. It's a little tricky to not lose the circle.

So you're going to come all the way up to sitting up. The is going to go on top of yours. Let's say that the left legs on top to start with. So you're going to go right like down, just like this. Yep. Left leg goes on top, uh, on, on top.

Actually on top. Top. Yup. So your left leg has to squeeze down. Hands go by your side. You're gonna roll through like a split leg, teaser moment. So he inhale, roll back. Find that moment rollover. Now you're just going to twist your circle so that you come to the other leg on top. And here's where sometimes it loses connection and come up to your teaser.

Arms are forward. Good. We're going to keep the arms narrow. So pull the elbows narrow back behind you. Interlace your hands. If you can lift your arms up to dye forward and then lift those arms up and around like you're doing rowing. Excellent. And Stack back up. Good. Press down with your right leg. Inhale, roll back. Good. I think we'll just do one set of these and rotate. Yeah. Nice job.

You guys not losing the circle. I know that's a hard thing. And then curl back down. Yeah, it's okay if you lose the pat, just squeeze the circle teaser moment. Bend the elbows through, reach behind you. Now see if you can dive your legs before your legs land. Good. And then lift the arms up and around and stack back up. Now grab the circle with your hands and we're going to do seal. Here's the tricky part.

The feet are going to go into like a prayer foot position and the circle is going between your feet like, uh, like Jackson is doing. But the circle is going that way and your feet are trying to go pointing up as much as you can. Yes. Dive your hands under and grab underneath. Yeah. So the outer edge of your foot has to really work to squeeze into that circle and let's go. Feet above the knees. Yes, from your hips, you're going to go squeeze. Two, three. Inhale, roll back. Pulse, two, three, x Halen, pulse two, three. Try to control where you're going when, so see if you can go a little slower.

Rollback pulse two, three. So you get your pulses in the toes are trying to point to the ceiling. So it's like really like a prayer turned towards your nose, toes to the nose. If you can. This way. One more and excellent.

Grabbed the circle in your hands. Cross one foot over the other it to stand up without placing your hands down and all the way up. If you're going to put the circle between your ankles, standing right feet, hip width apart. And we're just going to tune into those lifts that we did at the beginning. Find the power in the balls of your feet. Good. See if you can keep your three-dimensional core supporting you and press down to go up. How little can you shift? Uh, so it's a lifting up Jamie. Yeah, right.

And keep your lift as you lower your heels back down, right. Stand through the balls. You the feet. Feel that center challenge channel of the legs and the core going up. Nice you guys beautiful and lower down. One more time.

I want you to stay up there and your high foot. Take your arms up by your ears. Press your palms together, keep lifting your energy up. Go into a high back release. You're going to take your arms out to the sides, lower the heels without lowering your center and come on down and you guys are done. Good work.

Comments

Excellent and innovative, as always, Sharon!
Sharon Gallagher-Rivera
Thank you so much Holly. I'm glad you enjoyed the new class.
1 person likes this.
Awesome Magic circle class Sharon
Sharon Gallagher-Rivera
Thank you Stephanie. I appreciate the positive feedback .
1 person likes this.
Love seeing new ways to challenge with the circle. Thank you
Sharon Gallagher-Rivera
Thank you Pat. I'm so glad you enjoyed the class.
1 person likes this.
Hi Sharon--when you say "low spine to the mat" are you asking for a posterior tilt?
Sharon Gallagher-Rivera
Hi Mickey. Thank you for this question. The answer really depends on your individual uniform development, meaning we are trying to balance our bodies with this work and you should self cue to that. But in general terms, when I use that cue I do not necessarily intend to move from the pelvis. It's incredibly strengthening and lengthening to find a spine flat to the mat without much of a posterior tilt. It depends on how you're initiating it as well. I try to cue lengthening of the pelvis away from the rib in those flat to the mat moments. Sometimes moving from a posterior tilt shortens the pelvis backward in space. I try to say "curl the tail up" instead of "tilt your pelvis" which initiates more from spine than pelvis and tends to encourage more length. I'm not totally positive which exercise(s) this was for either, so that may help me clarify better. Thank you again for such a thought provoking question.
2 people like this.
I so enjoyed your class. Kudos for maintaining a natural conversational tone to your instructions that is the mark (in my book) of a confident teacher who believes in herself and her message. I like that you did hands on corrections. We can all learn from each other's cues and corrections. It was fun to see your innovative exercises with the circle. Hope to see more of your videos.
Sharon Gallagher-Rivera
Wow Cheryl. Thank you so much for all of the thoughtful compliments and feedback. It is nice to hear how the various layers of information are received. And yes I agree that every teacher must also be an eternal student. Thank you for that comment about learning from each other.
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