Class #2213

Athletic Core Conditioning

45 min - Class
321 likes

Description

Portia Page delivers an athletic core conditioning class that promises to "kick your assets." The class taps into key components of traditional Pilates exercises, including basic movement functions we all need like balance, getting up and down off the floor, and having fun! You'll work from the crown of your head to to the tips of your toes in this well-rounded, skill-building workout. Enjoy the variety!
What You'll Need: Mat

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Alright, hello everyone! My name is Portia, and with me today I have Miss Amy, and Miss Erica, and we are going to delight you with a very athletic core conditioning mat workout that is guaranteed to literally kick your assets. Okay? So we will begin with the feet in what I call the number 11. I'm gonna have the ladies face me. We are on a mat, so that they have some cushioning for the knees, and what we are working on here is some functional movement that we do in everyday life, and we're just gonna start off with some very simple knee bends.

So just bend the knees and straighten. So right now it seems very easy, yes? Keeping the torso upright, we want to feel that engagement of the abdominals and the nice length through the lower back, and then we're just gonna roll the shoulders up, back, and around, keeping the leg movements going, so we're also working on coordination of upper and lower body. Now we're gonna start to make the arm circles a little bit bigger. But we don't make the knee bends any more.

We want to keep the feet in the number 11. I think I really liked being 11, because I like that number. Good, bigger, good. Now we're gonna start to add an elevation of the heel. So lift up, and down.

Up, and bend the knees as we come down, keep the torso upright and tall. They're really doing a good job. This is not easy, by the way, because as you push up onto the metatarsals, you've gotta push into the mat and find your balance. Now, stay elevated, up, lift the shoulders up, and down. Keep the length of the torso.

Lift, and lower. Now as we lift up, we're really working the backs of the calves, or your calves, it's the back of the body. Three more. It's alright, if you fall down, you just come right back up. Last time, stay up, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.

Create that space, and then lower the heels, let the shoulders lower. Good. Now a knee bend, with lift up with the arms. So just lift, good, two more. Add breath.

Good, now arms side, same knee bend. And feel like you're pressing down something between your hands. I know Erica likes to use a clutch purse. I don't really like purses that much, so just something between your armpit, yeah? Whatever it might be.

Two more. Now can we add a heel lift? Lift, and lower. Lift, and lower. This gets a little tougher.

Don't let the shoulders lift, just press down. So this is just a knee bend and an arm lift. Are your arms getting tired, ladies? How about the ankles? Stay up, arms stay down.

Now turn the palms to the back, inhale through the nose, and exhale through the mouth. This is standing hundreds. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Working on that nice ankle support, it's alright if you lower down, just come right back up. Feel a nice broad smile come across the collarbone, maybe even touches your lips, and we're gonna do two more breaths, ladies.

Inhale nice, contraction, oh can I hold onto it? Uh oh, inhale, and exhale. Arms come out, soften the elbows. Go back to the knee bend, stay there. Take your right leg out in front, so you find the balance on your left leg.

Foot is still flexed. You're gonna bend the knee and draw the fingertips together. Point the toe, flex. And point and bend. And point, two more.

Stay. Now reach, and come back in. And press out, so we're finding that nice stability on our standing left leg, my right leg, but their left. Stay out this time. Now close, but keep the balance on the left leg, and reach, and close.

And reach, your elbows can soften. I want you to keep the same length of your right leg, that legs that's moving, if you can. But I don't want you to shift the weight. As I say that, I go right into a weight shift. Last time.

Now, turn your thumbs out, and it's like half of a hundred with the leg. It feels a little funky. Do you feel like a penguin? Do you feel that work in your standing leg? Good, now tap out.

Bend, and straighten. And bend, you do want your feet as parallel as possible. Yup, so this is still a little knee bend. Two more. This is just like a little reprieve, by the way.

Good. Stand up, step in. Amy's like, "I know, I know, I know." So, now we're gonna bend both knees. Bring your left foot out. Keep the stability.

This is my harder side, I'm just gonna tell you right now. Okay? Good. So we're ready, and lift point, lower flex. Bringing the knee up to hip height without moving the hips. Tough work, stay! And reach, and bend.

And reach, and bend. Feel like you're opening and closing. And two more. Stay out. Find the floor, find the floor, and bend, and straighten.

Ooh, got some nice cracks out of that one. Starting to get warmed up, ladies? I'm so happy. Are we ready for our hundreds? Last time.

Up, point, bring it in. Turn your thumbs out, that way it'll open your chest. Now see if you can lengthen out through your left side, just a little bit more. Can you feel it through the back side? Hang on to that balance, Erica.

And three, and two, and one. Little roll down, just to release. Soften the knees, bend, reach for the floor, and roll back up. These are a little faster. And chin over the sternum, belly button, bend the knees, reach for the floor, feel the lower back stretch, and then roll back up.

Two more times, chin to chest, over the sternum, over the belly button, over the pubic bone, bend the knees, heels stay in alignment behind the metatarsals, and one more time. Okay. Now we're ready for some real work. Oh yeah, what was that, they say. Arms out, thumbs up, soften the elbows.

Bend both knees. Keep the balance on your left foot. Reach the right leg back, and side. And back, and side. And focus, and two more.

And stay right here. Now, bend and reach. And bend, and reach. So you should feel a little bit something happening in the left leg. Yes?

Stay. And press and press and press. Don't they look really good? Four, three, ow, yes. Touch down, bring the foot in, roll yourself up.

Bend the knees, reach the arms up, shall we go for the other side? Okay, so you ready? Good. Foot back, and side. And back, again this is my harder side.

So what we're looking for is that there's no internal rotation of the femur, so keep that hip pulling back. Good, now stay. You ready? And down, and up. Keep the front heel down, back heel up.

So talk about a functional movement. How many times a day do we do this? Good, and pulse. Stabilize, draw the belly in, focus, feel it, and step in, and roll up. I think we might be warm.

But we're not quite ready to start yet. Plug your arm bones back in, soften your elbows, soften the knees. Now using just the deep inner unit, I want you to curl the tail under and then bring it back. If you were to touch your buttocks, you would not feel anything bringing the pelvis forward, right, ladies? Or I should say, posteriorly tilting that pelvis.

I want you to feel all lower ab work. Because we're gonna need this when we get down to the floor. We're getting there, four more. And now as you curl under these last three, I want you to feel the pulling with the elbows, drawing into the arm bones. Hold, and release.

Alright. Now, let's bring right foot out. You guys got room on your mats? 'Cause your shin's gonna be touching down onto the floor. We're gonna be focusing on strength and balance in that left leg before we come into our ab series.

Taking a curtsy behind you, take a deep breath in, exhale, reach behind, and up. And down, with grace, building power in your left leg, and agility, lift. Two more. Up, and hold. This time, we're gonna come down all the way to the floor.

So you guys will turn in and face one another, yeah? So come down, and I'm just gonna come this way, good? We're gonna find ourselves balanced between the sacrum and the sit bones. Lift up, and we're gonna tap down and lift. And down, and lift.

And we're looking like this is taking no effort whatsoever. So no further flexion in the hips, just the toe lift. How's that feeling? Now keep the toes up. Now, remember the little tuck under that we did standing?

Now can you get a little bit of glute engagement, yeah? I'll let you do it now, because we need it a little bit. And Erica and Amy, you both might need to move a little more forward, 'cause we're gonna go into rolling like a ball. I want you to have room. I'm gonna do the same.

You get a brief break, it's alright. Now, without holding onto the legs, the option would be to hold onto the legs, we're gonna do rolling like a ball. Slow and controlled, keep the head off of the mat, we roll back with an inhale, and we roll up to balance with the exhale. Stay curled under with the tail, and inhale. And exhale.

Can you keep the same space between the thighs and the chest, and the heels and the buttocks? Go back to single leg stretch, draw your right leg in toward your chest. Reach, and we go. And we switch, and we switch, and three, and switch. Look right down between the legs.

Lower back anchored, upper body lifted, I've lost count, but I think we're gonna keep going for two more sets here. Right leg comes in, and one more set with the right. Good, bring both knees in. Rest the head back. Brief break, knees directly over the hips.

Lower back feels anchored. Anchor the sacrum down. Maybe there's a little space there, so you get that nice neutral spine. Lift up, head looks between the thighs, arms reach, double leg stretch. Without moving your head, inhale and reach, exhale come back in.

Inhale and reach, exhale squeeze the inner thighs together without externally rotating. One more time. Stay right here, sweep the arms around, inhale, two, three, four, five. Look at your heels. Four, five, in.

We'll finish our hundred. Three more times: in, and out. How are we doing, ladies? In, reaching through the toes, and out. One more time, in, and out.

Draw your knees in. Place your feet down. Palms flat. Find a neutral spine, and we're gonna go right into a neutral bridge. Take a deep breath.

As you exhale, press the arms down, lift the hips up. As you lower the hips, lift the arms to above the shoulders, straight down. And exhale. Two more. Now you're gonna leave the hips up, the arms down, but turn your palms up.

That way it gives you a nice openness across the clavicle, and we're gonna march the legs starting with the leg that's closest to me. Lift up, lower down. Other leg lift, pelvis stays stable. So here we give a little bit of a rest for the front side of the body, and we work the back side of the body. Good.

One more set. Now, this time, take your arms up and over. Tops of the hands go to the floor. Palms up to the ceiling. Take a nice deep breath, and I'm gonna let you roll down.

Get a nice lengthening along the spine. All the way down. Lower the sacrum to the mat, draw the abs in, inhale, the arms come up and over, exhale, lift your upper body up, look right down between the thighs, hover your heels and toes off, and now, listen carefully. So the arm and leg closest to me comes out and reaches away, and now we switch. Now, I know you can see your own shins, so try to make them parallel to the floor as you come back in to bringing the knees above the hips.

So this is a variation of single leg stretch, and double leg stretch. Kind of like a little combination. We're gonna do one more set, leg closest to me, and leg farthest away. And reach your legs out this time, externally rotate the legs from the hip bone, inhale, two, three, four, five, and out, two, three, four, five. In, reach through the toes, reach through the heels.

Three more breaths, and exhale. And inhale, can you get a little more squeeze through the heels? And exhale. One more breath. Ladies, how are you doing?

Yes! Draw the knees in. Alright, so now the hard part. We have to actually get up. What I want you to do is take the leg that's furthest away from me, just lift it up a little higher. You're gonna roll up, and turn to me.

Yup, so we're doing okay here? Now, can we come up? Are you and I gonna kiss? Okay, just making sure. So reach, oop, we did kiss hands.

Good. Take a seat back. Roll to your balance, and roll again, this time try with no arms. And then we come back down. We find our balance.

Woo, that's a tough one. And up, shoulders down. Doing alright there? One more time. I know, sometimes you don't quite get back straight, do you?

Alright, now from here, just down, and up. And down, and up. And down, and up. Down, stay, step back to your mat. How are we doing, ladies?

We're gonna do another ab series coming up, but we have to do the other leg first. Do you remember how we got down? Kind of. So we have to go down to that, yes, it's gonna be to your right side, okay? So we're gonna balance on the right leg.

Good, arms come out, this is a nice way to do this 'cause we get nice balance here, and you're gonna come down, and lift up. And down. What's that? I was starting to get comfy. Were you?

Don't get comfy yet! Let's go down one more time and stay down. Roll, and now you guys face one another. Good, I'm just gonna come down to this side. Good, and we find our position. I want you to take the leg closest to me and just lift it up.

Other toe stays right here, so we're gonna keep this little position here, so the toe is lifted, the leg is reaching out, and we're gonna do rolling like a ball in this position. Ready? Inhale, and exhale. And again, inhale, and exhale. Two more.

One more time. You know what's good for one side is good for the other, so just flop the feet, and here we go. Are you having fun yet? I could make it easier by letting you cross your ankles, but I'm not going to let you. But I certainly want to on this side, 'cause I really kinda don't do this one as well.

And, roll back just like this. So diamond legs, lift up through the chest, and we roll back again. Inhale, and exhale balance. Three more. Woo! It's tough for me too.

If that's any consolation for you guys, and last time. Extend your legs long. Sit up nice and tall. Let's squeeze the inner thighs together, toes pointed. You know, lift up off of your sit bones, pull your belly button away from your pubic bone, roll back about half way.

Are we doing alright? A little bicep curl, and reach, palms down. Palms up, and palms down. Now try to broaden through the clavicle, and just turn the palms in and out. Inner thighs squeezing together.

Doesn't this feel grand? Now stay here, and roll down. And up, and down. Everybody okay with low backs? I want you to keep that deep, deep scoop.

You're not coming up to flat back. Now we're gonna add a little bit of shoulder flexion, and extension. Lift, oh! Two more. All the way down. Bend your knees, bring them above the hips, arms above the head.

You're going to exhale, extend the legs long, reach the arms towards the hips, and then bend the knees, arms overhead. Four more. And inhale. It's almost like you're serving a platter with the arms and the legs. One more time.

Stay up, right leg towards you, left leg away. Inhale, inhale, exhale, switch. Eyes look right down through the toes. One more set. Now both legs up.

Fingertips back by your temples. Here, I want you to actually make a little diamond right in front of your thighs. Inhale, lower. And exhale, right back up. Smile, and lower.

This is double leg stretch, just a different position with the arms. What I want you to feel is that connection underneath the armpit, helping you to keep the upper body up and stable. One more time. Inhale, exhale, and release. Alright, and now from here, we have to get back into our getting up position, ladies.

So you're gonna cross the back leg over the front, and we're gonna roll to this position. Use your hands the first time, good. Hello, hi. And then come back down. Good, and we find the balance point, I know.

Back leg over front, oh, I'll move over a little bit for you, Erica. There we go, good, and then we go down. Find your balance point. Oh, you know I hate to say this, but I'm not very good at this side. It's nice to know that we can all be humble.

Do you see how I'm not quite getting all the way to the side? Ugh, sorry ladies. If I had done this right, I would have done my bad side first. Ooh, one more time. Just the other side, not your bad side, right?

Oh, oh yeah, right, okay, yeah. Just the other side first. Okay. Now, we gotta stay up. Make that look graceful, oh God.

And down, up, down, up. Let's touch the floor, come up, let's touch the floor. One more time. And... Alright.

Now, step to the back of your mats onto the floor. Number 11 with the feet, take a nice deep breath in, you would think we were starting over, but we're really not. Exhale, you're going to roll down with control. So keep the arms up overhead, curl up and over your thoracic spine, draw up through the abs and feel the strength come through the back of the legs, up into the abdominals, and bring the weight into the balls of the feet. Touch the floor.

Now, fingertips cup the floor. You're gonna come into a deep squat, bend the knees, pick the heels up, look up. Okay there? Lower the heels, lift the hips. Inhale bend.

Curl in tight. Exhale. Good, three more. And inhale, and exhale. Now can you try this last one without touching?

So hover the hands, curl in. Control, now lift up. Lift the heels up, keep them up, keep them up, keep them up! I know, I know. I'm not doing it either, Amy, don't feel bad. Now, lower down one more time.

Stay there. Bring the knees onto the back side of your mat, hands, if you want the cushion for the heel of your hand, go ahead and put it there. Otherwise, place the hand onto the floor, bring the shoulders right over the wrists. I want you to keep your toes tucked under, ladies. Knees hip distance, we're gonna feel that connection right into the scapula, back of the neck nice and long.

Draw the belly in, hover the knees. Lower the knees. Hover the knees. Now, you're gonna lower them, but not touch. Inhale.

How's everyone doing? Good. Can you feel the work across the metatarsals? Feel the stretch, two more. Now stay hovered.

Lift your hips up, and then lower the knees. So lift, it's not quite a down dog. I don't want you to come into that much shoulder flexion, so keep your chest forward. Straighten the legs, bend. Last time, now lower the knees.

Pick up both feet, heels towards your buttocks. We're gonna do a double tail wag, so look to the right, and look to the left. I love tail wag, it's such an easy movement, but it's beautiful for spinal mobility, and it gets a nice little internal rotation and external rotation of the femur bone in that hip socket. So important for hip mobility. Alright, now, last time left.

Come back to center, lower the tops of the feet down. A little bit of sternum dropping, so that we get some building up of movement around the scapula region, and finding some stability through that region. 'Cause we're gonna need it for some plank work that we're doing later, just to let you know. Now find a neutral position. Take your right toes along the floor, extend the leg straight back, hip stays nice and steady.

I'm just gonna do a little turn to the side. Okay, you guys go to the side, and I'll stay here. Good, so you've got your right leg behind you. Now, level the hips. To do that, I want you to take your left hand to your right hip.

Find that the hips are level and even, and then take your left arm out to the side. And you're gonna take a big inhale, and lift both the arm and leg. Lift, and lower. Lift, and lower. Now feel how your anterior and posterior slings have to work to balance the torso between the right arm and the left knee.

Stay right here, up, now, knee to nose, elbow into the knee, and inhale. And breath the exhale. Inhale, two more. And last time. Now keep the arm and the leg up.

Now we lift, and we lift, and we lift. Flex the toes down to the floor, heel up to the ceiling. Four, three, two, one. Lower, hand and knee down, one cat stretch. Give me a big exhale, curl the tail, let the head drop, feel the spine reach for the ceiling, and push the floor away.

And one cow stretch. Bend the elbows, bring them back towards your heels, lift the tail, look up, and enough of the nice stuff. Come right back into that neutral position, with the spine long through the tail out through the head, extend your left toes along the floor. Right hand lifts, level the pelvis. Feel the squeeze in the back of the hips to help...

Feel that? Right fingertips out to the side, left arm is straight but not hyper extended, and we lift, and we lower. Back of the neck nice and long. We've got the arm moving to the side. We've got the leg reaching straight up behind the hip.

So it feels a little odd, does it not, ladies? And two more. And hold up, and up, and up, and up. Feel the reach from the back of the leg, from that glute fold all the way down to the heel, three, two, one. Knee to nose, knee in, elbow in, and reach.

Keep your left hip from dropping. Two more. Last time. And feel the reach. Lower.

I hear a whimper? And curl under. Tuck the tail under, feel first the low back. Keep the upper back pretty neutral right now. I just want you to feel that stretch in the low back.

We're gonna do this a little bit different. Angle the elbows in towards one another, lift through your sternum without extending, and just keep the tail tucked. Feel the floor push away, you feel that? And then just back to neutral. Twice more.

And inhale, neutral. One more time exhale, and back to neutral. Now we start the work. So just bend the elbows back. Oh, no, no, no, you're gonna stay in this position.

So, I like to start push ups by doing these nice little all-four elbow bends. It just helps to get us into position. Last time. Now, you guys keep moving, but you're gonna actually take your weight forward and up. You bend the elbows, but now the weight comes forward.

So it's a little tougher, but still a little bit easier than a normal push up. That was the last time. Walk your hands a little bit forward, then readjust by extending the hips and bringing the chest between the two hands. So you guys just stay right there. Actually, I'm gonna come this way, okay?

There we go. So now we're in a modified plank position. Lift the sternum between the shoulders, and from here, let's just do a few push ups. So down and up, 'cause I know that we're strong. Yes, beautiful job.

Press through all of your fingers. Last time. Keep the hands there, sit your hips back. A little stretch, release through the wrists, look underneath your armpit, look the other way, good. Come back, we go back to that modified plank.

Now, we're gonna continue our work here by walking into the hover and then back. So the chest stays right between the two hands, hips stay extended, you're gonna lower down, down, back up, up. Down, down, up. Now our goal is to keep the torso steady, so you don't want to rock like this. You want to keep nice and steady.

Last time, stay low. Now we hover, because we can. Sternum lifts, back of the neck long, tuck your toes. We're gonna lift first one leg, doesn't matter which one, lower down the knee. Other leg down, and lower.

One more set of just these little walking ones, which are fairly easy. Now let's lift both knees, and lower both. And lift, now when you lower, don't touch. And lift, so it's like a tease, and reach. Now they're making it look really simple, right?

We know it's not. So four, and three, and two, stay. Now we're gonna take a walk with your right arm. If you need to, the knees can lower. It's okay, take a break if you need to.

So here's the modification, knees come down. And take them a little further apart, Erica. Yup, so we're gonna take a walk, it looks like this. Walk, walk, walk, and in. Other side: forward, side, back, and in.

Forward, side, now the key is that you're not allowing the torso to move. When you feel ready, you lift the knees. If not, you keep them down. One more set. How are we doing, ladies?

Good. Tail is long, I know it's hard. I didn't say it was gonna be easy, stay. Drop, uncurl the toes, walk the hands back, take a nice little break here. I'm gonna give you a break.

Alright, now that we've stretched, you're gonna come to a side lying position facing me, ladies. Good. Come all the way up, extend the arm so you've got some place for the head to rest. Stack the hips and feel that lift of the bottom rib. Bring your feet just slightly in front, flex both, and lift the bottom leg off.

So you can use the top arm here for support, or you can bring it here if you want to challenge yourself. Lift, lower, lift. Not very high, I want you to think of that hip crease, right here at the side. Keep the length in the bottom waist, and we've got five, four, three with a smile, two, now hold. Bottom leg to top five times.

Five, four, three, two, one. Now both lower, both lift. Both lower, both lift. Three more. Now the hard part's coming up, 'cause we're gonna go to that standing position like we just did, first I want you to push through your bottom elbow, lift up into a little banana here, so we get this...

Hello train, we're waving to the train! Wasn't that perfect? And then come down. Now this time when you come up into your side banana, the top leg is gonna swing around and we're gonna come to a standing position without crashing into each other. Let's give it a go. Up, and then we swing lift, up balance, this is a little tougher, come back down, oh yeah.

And back out. Good, can we do that one more time? Sure. Okay, ready? Yeah.

And up, lift, and lower. Now just stop right here. We're gonna take a little side stretch, okay? So you've got one foot in front of you, you're at a slight angle. So you might be at an angle this way, you might be that way, doesn't matter, I just want you to feel lifted and up, and you're just gonna take a little bow.

I just want you to get a little stretch, and then come back up. Good, three more times. This feels good on the hips, 'cause we've been working them a lot. Last time, stay. Now I want the arm that is opposite of the leg that's in front to lift up, yup.

And now other way. And then up. Come up, swing yourself to the other side. We do our whole side laying series, out, head rested on top arm, find your pelvis so that it's stacked, each half on top of each other, bottom rib lifted, top hand in front for support, or over the waist. Hover both legs, and we lift and lower the top leg.

It's just a little hip crease. Feel the length through the top of that leg, top of the waist. Feet are flexed as if you were standing on them, the waist is drawn in for three, two, last one hold. Bottom leg up, five, four, can we find more length in the waist? Two, now both legs lower.

Five up, four, three, two, one. Now, we go into our side banana. So here's the lift. Now the top leg comes up, good. And we lift, find the balance, and we lower down.

And we come up, banana, and up. This time the leg stays behind, I know. I know, it's different side. And down. Find that position, we're in this little kinda sit, yes?

And again, you might be at a slight angle. This is perfect, wherever you are. We have arrived. And we bend forward, and we reach. And out.

Oh, I don't know about you guys, but this feels really luscious on the hips. Now, stay low. And again, opposite arm. That arm lifts like a little airplane, and then we go to the other side, and then we come back to center. Oh, yikes! Let's do some prone work, shall we?

On our stomachs, facing into the center. Alright, I'll come this side this time, and down we go. So now, let's start with actually our hands here. Legs apart, and take the backs of your hands across the low back. Just give a little pressure down, so you feel the length come in to your low back without squeezing your abdominals.

Then take the fingertips under, 'cause I want you to feel the lift of your abs pulling away from the floor. Feel that? And I know for me, that left butt cheek, you know I really do love it, but it does overwork itself a little bit, so I'm trying to let it release just a bit. Reach the tops of your feet into the floor. Press the toes away, now reach the arms away from your head, and lift up.

Now from here, lift the legs and swing the arms around. We're in this nice airplane mode here. I want you to bend the leg that's furthest away from me, flex the foot, look towards me, and lift that front arm. Hello. Come back, reach long.

Bend the other leg, flex the foot. Look to the other direction, and reach long. Now we'll go with a little bit of pacing. So flex and lift, and airplane, and reach. And flex and lift, and airplane, lengthen.

Two more sets. We doing alright? Good, flex the foot as it bends. One more time. Oh, nice.

Now fingertips, hands are underneath your shoulders, elbows down, then just make a little goal post out in front of you. Anchor the pubic bone down towards the floor, tail down towards your heels. Lift up, a little straightening through the arms if that is available, and then exhale lower. Can you turn your thumbs up and just reach with the pinkies the next couple times? So lengthen out through the pinkies, feel that serratus engage, and then lower.

Two more times. As you lift, press the feet down into the floor, and exhale. One more time, now, stay, palms down. One arm, and then the other. Other arm.

Feel how your pelvis tends to shift. If you need to, lower down a little bit. Now, opposite arm and leg, and lower. Feel the lift come from the glute fold all the way down to the heel. One more slow lift on each side, now we swim.

Arms are wide, legs are about hip distance. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. One more big full breath, lifting the breast bone forward and the heels away from you, and release. Hands come under, elbows up, sit up, sit back. Boy does that feel good.

Now, we have a little bit left to do, and this is in the standing position. So just come all the way up, tuck your toes under, push back, and stand. Nice and graceful, you guys can turn around and face me. Now this is okay to do on the mat, or you can do it on the floor, it just depends. We've got a little bit of jumping from side to side, so this is our lateral jumps.

I think you might be better off on the floor. We'll see. Let's take the arms out, we're gonna step out with the right toes, yup, and now just bend, step back with the left, and reach out and step back with the right. So this is just a low curtsy with a lateral step to each side. So we've been doing this a couple times in the workout already, so we should know our range of motion.

Now we're gonna reach out, and then land. Reach out, and then land. Reach out, and then land. So the legs might be starting to feel a little bit of a burn. If it's too much with bare feet, Erica has Vibrams on right now, so she's got a little bit of support in the bottom of the foot.

Amy and I have on toe socks, so if it's too much with the jump, just step and land. And if you are jumping, make it light, and then land low. Up, and then land. One more left, one more right, stay. Now we're here, I know, it's a lot of stress here.

Hand can be here. But what I want you to do is try to come unsupported. And then we lower, and lift. And lift, lower, and lift. One leg squatting, your option is to keep the left toes down.

And three, two, one. Little knee bend, and a circle. And a knee bend, and a circle. Two more. I'm a little out of breath if that helps.

Good, now come up, land, either stay here with the foot on the floor, or hover, or hand here if you need. And we come up, and down. So right away you're gonna find out which leg is a little stronger than the other. This is a movement, though, that we do a lot in daily activities, yes, ladies? Three, two, one, and up, and circle.

You'll be glad to hear we're almost done. Last one. Step in, let's stay feet on the floor, hip distance apart, feet reaching to the front. Now I want you to feel weight on all of your metatarsals, on both feet. From the pinky toe to the big toe, down on each side of the heels, feel the energy come up through the feet, in through the knees, up into the hips.

Feel the ribs lift off the pelvis, creating that space, and reach your arms out long. Take a big breath, and exhale. And again inhale, slight extension in standing, and exhale without arching the lower back. Inhale, eyes up, sternum up, exhale. Two more.

One more. Now, shoulders stay down, arms reach up, right arm grabs the left wrist. Big side bend to the right, so right hand, left wrist, there you go. Take a big breath here and anchor down through your left leg. And now bend both knees, circle around, open the arms out wide, grab the opposite wrist, exhale over.

And again, I'm just bending the knee to show you that I want you to anchor down through that side, and bend, open the arms, we go to the other side. And exhale, anchor through the left foot, release, open. Nice save, Erica. And around, open, lower the arms by melting them, and keep the arms by the sides and just lift up onto the ball of the foot. Stay there, find your balance.

Know that you can support the pelvis. Over the knees, over the ankles, under the ribs, under the shoulders. With a big wide smile here, open up and expand just a little bit with the arms. And now we're gonna keep this height that we have just created and lower the heels to the floor, keeping the same height. So it's almost like we're stretching our pelvis away from our ribs.

And release. Nice deep breath in, exhale, bend the elbows, let the hands cradle the back of the head. Inhale, let the head rest back into the hands, slight extension. Exhale, eyes forward, back of the neck long. So use the hands to lengthen up through the back of the neck.

Inhale, arms up, exhale, release. How about one more big breath? And a big sigh. And I lied, 'cause you got two more to go, because we're gonna do little curtsies, shall we? Left leg behind right, big breath in, right leg behind left.

And a big reach up, give yourselves a big hug. Awesome work, ladies!

Comments

Loved it! I did it with handweights- about 2,5 kilos ... And i also tryed using the teraband. WHOLA!!!! I activeted my arms, shoulders and back more
Love from Norway
3 people like this.
I didn't think i had the energy for this today, but i made it to the end !! Thanks for "kicking my assets" Portia, and for making me feel so strong !! And for the flow, and creativity, and enthusiasm, as always :))
Brenda B
2 people like this.
Great class! Thanks, Portia!
Brenda B
1 person likes this.
You're such an inspiration!!!
Thank you!
Thank you for this great class, Portia -- loved the functional movement and your sense of fun!
Just love when Portia visits and teaches a class. She truly kicks your butt, but smiles while doing it.
Thanks so much!
2 people like this.
Really fun class. Lots of nice new challenges to make it interesting too. Thanks Portia
Awesome Tuesday morning workout with my favourite ladies! Thank you Portia, Amy and Erika!
Good start for a happy day! :)
1 person likes this.
nice sequences

EUGENE from China
1 person likes this.
so glad you enjoyed the class Heikki! happy days ahead...
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