Class #2262

Translate Wunda Chair to Mat

35 min - Class
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Description

Get ready for a quick, full body workout in this Mixed Equipment class with Benjamin Degenhardt. He shows how the exercises on the Wunda Chair translate to the Mat so you can feel the difference with and without springs. He includes plenty of variety so you will have fun while you are learning new concepts.
What You'll Need: Wunda Chair, Mat, Mixed Equipment

About This Video

Aug 10, 2015
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Transcript

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Hi everybody. My name is Benjamin Daegan hearts. I'm here with Kristen Matthews and we will take you through, I'm a little hybrid of a mat and a chair workout using the one to chair if you're so lucky to have one at home, um, to, to really inform the way that you practice some of the map exercise as well as just give you some variety between working without springs and with the springs. Tons of fun, quick little workout addressing the whole body. We're going to start with the a hundred. Um, so we're going to do it on top of the chair, which reduces the amount of surface that we working on. She's going to sit very close to the front edge at this point.

I should probably say we're working on in grafts, a one to a chair here. She bends her knees and church chest lies down on her back and reaches the arms forward and away from her. I'm just going to give her a couple of seconds here to really bend to the entirety of her spine, her low back or middle back so that her neck doesn't have to take all the work. She stretches her legs out to her level of comfort where she feels challenged but not overwhelmed. And then she starts pumping, breathing in for five and exhaling full five really starting to warm up the body, pressing the legs together in a military stance. The heels together, the toes apart and the toes reaching right into infinity, breathing in and breathing out. So even though the back is fully supported, it definitely feels different during the a hundred on top of a chair, right?

There's that subconscious sensation that you might just fall off the chair if you roll too far to the side, which she's perfectly centered here. We'll eat going, breathing in for five and breathing out for five. Now the idea is to get the legs lower and the arms high or in space, especially towards the end. We're almost there. The last 20 always the strongest ones. Breathing in and breathing, ouch. Neck long and curled in.

So that the back of the neck lengthens out for ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. She bends her knees into our chest, gives herself a nice little hug, and then go ahead. Come up to standing. Stand in front of the chair for the standing. Press down. We use that as a way to mobilize the spine. We're going to choose a spring setting that is fairly light. It's one spring in the medium setting here you position yourself a foot length away from the front edge of the chair. The heels touch together, the toes slightly apart. The knees are soft, but the legs are straight.

The arms lifted up by the years to start giving yourself a moment to length in the heels, dropping the crown of the head, reaching the fingertips, touching the ceiling. Chin over chest. Roll yourself down. Take your hands right on top of the pedal. The second you touch should pause for a moment. Feel your arms press down the same way that you heels. Press into the ground floor, your rib cage, lift towards the ceiling and then continue the descend.

Pressing the spring down with the spine bending down. We'll use the spring to get a deeper bend through the back so the belly button is pulling in right through awards. The ceiling, she comes halfway up from here and pulls back down and again, halfway up and back down. All the while the weight stays in the heels. The knee stay unlocked, but the leg stays straight. Couple more up and a down end. Last one, lift. Get longer through the back. To press back down, we're going to add a pump of the arms here. Been the elbow, spring the pedal towards the head and press back down and to bend in and press back down. Each time the arms length and Dow, the stomach lifts into the back.

And then on the last one, the arm stays straight with straight legs. The spine bends back up to standing when she loses tension on the pedal. Lift the arm up by the years. Deep breath in at the top and we'll do it one more time. Shin over, chest rolling down, keeping the hips right above the heels, taking the pedal down towards the floor. We'll take three pulses with the spine coming up and pressing back down, deepening the shape of the back, getting ready for our next mat exercise, which is the roll up. One more time. Presses down, pumps the arm three times three and a two end down one pressing Dow two rolls herself all the way back up. Arms by the ears at the top arm.

Circle out to the side and um, nicely done. Go ahead and turn around phase this way here. Walked to the front of the Mat and just lower yourself down onto your back for a roll-ups. Next you can cross your foot. Take your arms out in front of you or down by your sides. She rolls herself all the way onto her back. Legs extend, feet flexed, arms lift up towards the ceiling.

From here we're using the same technique we used in the press down to roll the spine up the feet steady against the ground. She rolled herself option over chest, big stretch forward, a triple pulse for three and two and one just to inform the stretch and find a new space to stretch into. She comes down sequentially. Reach the arms overhead, the chair. We'll get in her way. The arms lift back up. Roll yourself back up. Stretch forward for three. Pull the toes back. Two pull one especially those pinky toes back. Yes. And slowly coming down. Um, switch back overhead.

We'll take three a little quicker. Inhale up. Exhale, stretch forward. Three and a two and oh one inhale down. I'm switch away from the feed forward to inhale up stretching three and a two and a one pulling the spine into the ground. Pushing the heels away from you. One more time. Rolling up three and two. Here's a little extra stretch. No that are not pressing down on her.

I asked her to lift herself into me so that her back opens a little bit. Does that feel right? All right. And then she slowly rolls herself all the way back onto the ground, reaches the arms back and actually holds on to the corners of the pedal of the chair. There's just one spring attached from earlier stills, so the pedal moves easily. I want her to get a good enough grip that she can actually feel like she's pulling on the pedal without moving it. The legs lift straight up to the ceiling. To start.

We'll take our leg circles from here to begin to leg circles. The legs open apart as wide as the mat. She stretches the feet up and away from her. Keeping a low back down. Legs go together and back up again. Open the legs, lower the legs, press them together, lift back up. One more open. Reach the feet away from you. Squeeze in together, lift up and then reverse it.

The arms holding onto the pedal really can help inform the back muscles working here to keep the rib cage down against the ground. Just one more time down. Open. Lift and press the legs together. Stretch the feet away from your spa as you can without your low back arch and then we'll take the full roll over. Legs go up, hips roll up and over. She stretches the feed right on top of the pedal and opens the legs and rolls herself down while you roll down pole on the pedal. Hard with the arms. Roll the hips down. Stretch your legs away from you. One more time. Up and over.

Feed on top of the chair. Pull on the pedal to roll yourself down. Close the legs at the bottom. We're going to reverse it. Open lift. Feed on top legs together. Roll on down. Get the back longer each time. Last one down around and up. Legs go together. Roll the spine down and we go up with the legs together. One final time, legs down. Just start. Lift the legs up at the top.

Roll yourself over, flex your feet right against top of the chair and then press your heels back in away from you. At the same time, lift your hips. Just a yummy little stretch here. At the end, the back of the next day long, the front of the throat stays open, so make sure you don't roll yourself that far into your neck. Release the feet off the chair. Roll yourself all the way down. Spit your feet up and away from you and the biggest radius possible. Lift the arms up and away from the chair. Chin over. Chest.

Roll yourself up once to take a forward stretch three and two and one. Again, I'm not pressing down. I ask her to lift herself. Good and then roll yourself all the way back down. Take your hands back to the pedal for the one leg circle again, that's just there for your shoulders to stay stable against the map. As we move one leg at a time, the right leg goes up, left heels pressing into the floor.

We'll do three circles with the hip stays super steady so your body doesn't change as the leg circles across the middle, down, around and up and two down, around and up and one, find your breath and reverse the pattern. Open down across it up and too much as the right leg is what's moving here. It's the rest of the body that is asked to work after three, switch the legs right down, left leg up. Take it across the middle, first down around, up and two down around it, up each one getting a tiny bit bigger it other way down, across it, up and two down across it up. Make sure that right heel is pressing into the floor as you go after three, reverse the leg again. Take the other one up, stretch your right leg up to the ceiling. This time we're going to take the hip all the way up and across to start to create a spinal twist to the spine. Left leg, rotating in, and then circle down, around and up. We'll do two like that.

The circle is big enough to stretch the spine open, but small enough so that the chair doesn't move behind you. One more time, down around it up and then reverse it. Open down across hip lifts. Hip pulls down to lift the leg to down around it up and one more time. Keep that left heel steady against the ground. There we go. Right leg down, left leg up. One more time. The hip lifts to take the leg across, circle it down around it and two and down around it. Continue to feel like you're pulling on the pedal rather than pushing it away from you to set your shoulders in place and you're back into action and to down, across and up. Last one. Best one down across it, up lower the leg all the way down the arms. Float off the chair. Lift your head, neck and shoulders up. Lift your legs up to bend your knees into your chest and give yourself a nice little hug here into your balanced position. Right on top.

Pull your knees up and into you with strong arms to lift through your back and then we're going to reverse that. Stretch the arms, the legs forward. Roll the spine all the way back down. Excellent, because you're dangerously close to that chair. To scoot down your mat a little bit and we'll do one more transition into the bar shape on top. Then we roll back and forth like a ball. Make sure you're not too close to your chair. I mean Tim's over your head. Float yourself back up. In the meantime, this transition is a nice little exercise in and of itself.

Keep your heels against your seed. Maintain the shape and have some fun. Roll yourself back to your shoulders if you bought them up and returned to your balance. Ergon rolling back. Lifting up deep breath. Find that same spine you felt in your pressed down. Find that same support by pulling your heels against your seed, pulling your knees up against the shoulders. That same Ben through the spine just by pulling your feet in closer.

One more time. Rolling back. Lift yourself all the way up. Pull the right knee into your chest, left leg out in front of you. We go into the single leg. Stretch from here, Paul and switch Paul and switch Paul and switch as you go from side to side. Almost feel like your goal is to create more distance between the knee and the opposite set of toes. Stretch them further apart. Yes, you're splitting your thighs away from each other with one leg straight. Switch for the right and the left and three and the left edge two and switch one more. Set right and left. Now bring both knees into your chest.

Pull your knees and so much your tail might just lift a little. It's you're rolling like a ball shape all over again. On your inhale, stretch your arms or legs forward. Press your palms into the sides of your thighs. Exhale, bend your knees back into your chest, empty your lungs. So let's go again. Inhale, stretch the legs out. It's a double leg stretch. Exhale, knees. Come in super strong, super tight. Keep ongoing. Inhale, reach.

Exhale back in, out. If this starts to feel really comfortable and confident and accomplish in the body, we take the arms behind the ears without the head dropping. Circle Yams around. Knees come in. Four to open the arms. Pull the knees in. Last one. Exhale, knees. Come in, release the head down for just a moment of rest because of a nice little hug here. And we will add in the single straight leg. Stretch the scissors. Today I like to set up like this.

You set your right leg straight up to the ceiling. Walk your hands up behind your leg, lift your head, neck and shoulders up. Actively push the leg into your hands so it almost lifts you up a little bit higher. It might also feel like your hips are starting to lift off the ground, so we stretched this leg out as low as needed to keep the hips anchored. So the leg is pushing forward to enforce the scratch on the back of the knee if you'll have there. Good. And then you keep that push forward, but you start pulling once, twice a little tug and then you switch the legs one and two. And the most interesting moment is when you're not holding onto a leg that's short little moment in between. Is she dropping? Is She not?

Are you dropping all? You're not. You try to keep yourself lifted as much as possible. You pull pole, you'll switch and pull pole. You switch pull policy if you can make a different decision as to where your shoulders go as you pull, oh there we go. And pull, pull and switch. Paul. Paul would take form or and Paul, Paul and such and a three and a two. And just one more time Ben both knees into your chest and rest your head down.

All right, time to use the chair again. She's just going to sit up. Let's go ahead and turn around. Spring your feet just outside the chair. So you sit in a wide open stance with your hands on top of the pedal. That'll determine how far you need to be away from it. This will be our spine stretch forward. Set yourself up super tall ticket.

Inhale here on the exhale. Pull the ribs away from the chair around your spine and start to take the pedal down with you as you puff your back open. Hold the pressure here. Don't move the pedal anymore. Try to move your ribs back a little bit more to open that space behind your heart. Very good, and then the arms lift the pedal up. The spine releases at the top. Ergon first gets super tall. Then round forward, take the pedal with you. It's not about the spring opening too much, it's about giving you enough feedback to really open your back.

Lift everything back up. Deep. Inhale, exhale to press down. Think of compressing into the rib cage just to get rid of the air inside your lungs. And then the inhale, lift your spine back up. We'll take one more shin over. Chest roll on down. Press on down. Lift yourself all the way back up. Lift your arms away from the pedals. Point your toes away from you.

They're going to try our open leg Rocko from right here. Good luck. The Israeli means that your legs have to be open because there's, I want a chair right in front of you. She's going to roll herself back. Your rollies have down right to the back of your belt. You stretch the legs away from you until they float up and you grab a hold of your feet. Make sure the window chairs still going to fit between the legs. By the time you come up, roll back and forth or after the shoulders.

Lift yourself back up. Find your balance. Excellent. Let's go again. Rolling back a lifting back up. Hold the balance for more tense. Rolling back, lifting up. Use the same technique as you. Keep going that you used in your scissors. You press your legs actually up and into your hands to create a deeper stretch behind your knees. Same sensation. Two more. Rolling back, lifting up and this will be the last one. Or Roll yourself back.

Lifted all the way up and then from here, find a creative way to get to the other side. Bring your legs together. Spin around, lay down on your back. I'll take it perfect for me. It was great for me. Take your hands to the pedal overhead. Same hold as in the rollover in the one leg circles for a corkscrew. The legs stretch out in front. You pick the legs up straight. 90 degrees. Go right into your rollover. From here, pull on the peddle with both hands.

Keep the shoulder steady. Take the legs to the ride. Roll yourself down the right side of your spine. Once the hips are down, swing the legs around to the left. Lift yourself back up. All right. Make sure that that chair doesn't move around underneath you. You take it down on the left side. Swing the legs over to the right and lift yourself back up. Nice. Good.

Really use your arms and your shoulders for your help here, down around and up. And really what happens if the chair moves is that you rely on maybe a little too much on that. Take it down on the left side over to the right end up just one more set. Very good. It's really squeezed. The lungs empty on the way down and on the way.

Last one down on the left, up and over to the right and pause. Flex your feet. Take your toes right against the top of the chair. Again for that same stretch as before. Remember that one that felt so good. You press your heels up and back. Try to lift your hips up and away from your ribs.

Actively make space in the front of your throat again and then let your toes like of the chair. You Roll yourself all the way down and then stretch your feet up and away from you. Lift your arms up, follow it up with the roll up. Chin over chest. Take a big stretch forward, all of your legs for three and two and one and then roll yourself all the way up to seated. We come to standing now to do our soft standing up using the chair. Let's stand right in front of it with your feet about as wide apart as the chair arms up. By the years, we'll take our standing saw here using the pedal as a way to inform the stretch.

They were going to get diagonally across the back. Both feet feel as though they pull the mat together in between. She's taking the right arm down and back behind her and the left arm down towards the right side of the pedal, keeping the feet steady. She wrote herself down, taking the pedal down with her and as much as she presses down and tried to lift the right arm up, following your fingers with your eyes and then slowly return back to center. Very nice.

At the top you'll lift both arms up and then you swing the other arm down and back, right hand to the left side of the pedal. Take it up, open the chest wide release, corkscrew your head almost towards that chair and then slowly come back to center. Lift yourself back up. Excellent. One more time. Each side, right, I'm down in back. The spring. Pressing up against you will, gives you some leverage to twist your chest open from here. But make sure that your hips stay level. That's the tricky portion. Good. And then you come all the way back up. We'll take it once more to the other side and are I 10 across both feet evenly weighted against the ground the entire time. Scripture Domino jazz did a little bit more and then come all the way back up, arm swing or by the years and impress them out to the side and down.

We'll take our swan on top of the chair. So just walk right to the back of it. We are still on the same spring setting with chair. Um, the rule of thumb really is whenever the hands on the pedal you have one middle spring and then we have a different setting for the feet. We'll talk about that later. She's going to be on her stomach. If you take your hands right underneath your shoulders onto the pedal, you press it down, scoot forward just enough so that you feel fully supported on the middle of the chair. Hip bones up, pressing down the feed, reach back one way. The crown of the head is reaching forward with the other.

The pedal supports you from underneath. The first step is to let the pedal lift about a millimeter away from the ground and still maintaining the length of the crown of the head. From here it's the eyes that lead the way. Look for the front of your mat and then for the wall in front of you started trace one line up until you see where the wall meets the ceiling. Maybe the ceiling, maybe the back wall one day and you keep using the pedal for you to open the chest. Nice.

And then you press the pedal away from you to stretch the spine out and to come back down. We'll do that again. Eyes lead the way. Trace that same line down and forward. Lifting yourself up, emphasizing the work through your upper back first cause that lower back wants to take over right away. And that's where usually things start to get a little dicey. The feet stretch back and almost down a little bit to lift the abdominal wall and then come back down. Let's do one more like that or lifting forward and i's lead the way hard stretches forward opposite to the toes, so there's a nice opposition in the length. They're very good.

And then take it down until the pedal is about a millimeter away from the ground and stay. Keep the length in your spine, bend you elbows, bring the pedal up towards your chest and press it right back down. This happens fairly quickly. You bend in your stretch. One more time. Bend in a stretch, press and hold. This is less about your muscles working at any one way. It's more like riding the bicycle and taking your hands off for a second, right?

It's taking the spring tension out, but maintaining the length. Let's try that again, Ben and stretch three in a down two and a down. Good one and a down hold. We're going to add three back bends here. Eyes for what? An up lift, lift, lift and press it down and to lift, lift, lift and press it down. One more time lifted up. Press it down at three pumps three and out, two and down, one and down last set three backbones to start.

Actively use the legs behind you. Reach them back and away from you to keep the low back long. Almost press them down a little yes and one more time into the back chest lifts to go down. And then for three push you push and last down from here that the feed comes through the ground. Push yourself back. You can hold onto the top of the chair for a second.

Just let your body hang back for a little counter stretch cause that feels good. But then also the next exercise will be accounted to stretch. It's called the reverse swan. Also known as the teaser. She's going to turn around. You can face that way here. Sit down fairly close to the front edge of the chair, so your front edge.

You don't want to sit too close to the pedal. Bend the knees into your chest as soon as same position that you use for your rolling like a ball heels to see. You can give yourself that same little hug. Find that lift through your spine that you look for in your teaser as well. Spine stays. Let the legs go and stretch your legs up in a way from you. Reach your fingertips towards the toes.

That's the first place we start from own that position. We lift your rib cage up and away from the hips and then fold everything back in to that restful place, but that very exciting balance on top of a lifted chair. We'll do that again. Unfold into a teaser. Stretch your arms up in, away from you. Can you touch your toes? Can you touch your toes without flexing your feet or bending your knees and maybe the answer is no. You Bend your knees in and you grab a hold of your ankles.

It's a good thing to work towards. One more time. We stretch the arms up in a way. Stretch the legs up in a way the legs would stay. Pull the elbows back behind you. Take your hands to the pedal with your fingers pointing forward to the direction of your feet.

Feel like you're pushing the pedal away from your first to open the chest and then pull the stomach back towards that opening between your torso and your arms. Roll the spine down until your low back gets to the edge of the chair and lift yourself back up, up and press it down, down, down, and lift back up. Up, up. Think less about your arms, pushing it down and more about your spine. Bending that brings the pedal to the ground. Lift all the way up. Arms reach up and forward towards the toes.

Fold yourself back into you're rolling like a bar position. We'll do one more set in this time. You're not so lucky to have me hold your feet. Stretch your arms of in away from you. Stretch your legs up away from you. Arms Scald back. Hands spaced the pedal if you choose to.

If your chest is open enough, you can turn your hands the other ways. Well up to you will roll down three times here, down, down, down, and lifted up. Up, up. He reaching your legs up in the same direction with lots of energy. One more time. Down, down, down, lifted up. Hold it at the top. Reach for your toes. Lift yourself up just a little higher. Hold it all in.

Whew. Wows up. That was crazy. Good. Nicely done. Step away from the chair. Good work. Come on over here. We'll lie down on your stomach here for a second. Facing away from it and we'll take our one leg and our AA cake. I love that transition. That was wonderful. Elbows go underneath the shoulders.

I didn't even ask for a plank and there it was. You pull your Elvis down in the chest through your arms. You stretch your legs back behind you and by pressing you hits down enough, your legs might just lift a tiny little bit. If that puts too much of a craze into your lower back or recommend walking your elbows out a little further or maybe out towards the side so that your low back can lengthen out and your legs can come up higher cause that's what we want to emphasize. One leg kick the right heel. It comes through the seat once, twice. Switch the next one, two, stretching back. One, two, one, two against the kicking heel. Pull the Stein back, he pressing your forums down.

It almost feels like you're crawling forward on your arms. Kick, kick, switch, kick, kick, switch, kick, kick. And let's do four and three and two and one both legs back. Turn your head to the right, left here to the mat. Hands to your lower back tracks. Really low back for a second. You use your hands against your say, come to stretch it away from you so you can even bring it down a little bit lower. It's a nice little stretch for your lower back.

You see how her fabrics are stretched here? That's what happens to your skin and your muscles too. It's quite yummy. Both legs lift again the same exact way as before. Both heels come to the seed, one to speed up and back to the top of the pedal. Arms reaching back as well. Chest was forward in, up. Turn the head come down. Kick once, kicked twice. Feedback, hands back, chest up, up, up. Turn the head for more. Tax Kick, kick, stretch and lift. Lift, lift. Take her down.

Find a breath that supports this nicely. Excel the air. Take it down. Kick, kick. Last said, arm switch back. Head to the left. One more time. Kick, kick, lifted. All up. We're going to transition that into the final expression of this, which is the rocking. So essentially the same exercise, right? You press your heads down, you kick your heels to your seat, and then we kicked the feedback. Except they want, they won't straighten out your legs this time, right? So give yourself a little turn with the arms. That's your kick once and twice as if you're trying to straighten your legs out behind you. Kick your feet back into your hands, reach your arms up and back and your chest forward and up.

So it's the same exact thing. Create as much space in your low back as you can. Lift your heart forward and up away from your knees and then deflate the shape. Coming back down. You can turn your head if that feels great for your neck. And then you tug once, twice, feet up and back. Chest forward and up. It's a lovely little backbend.

Think about your knees and your shoulders in space and create as much of a bend between those two points as possible and then deflate the shape. All right. You want to do a little rocking there? Yes, let's try. Okay. Tag words. Tag twice. Lived yourself all the way up. Start creating enough momentum to rock by lifting the chest and forward up and four and down three. It looks lovely and two down. One more. Release with control. And then sit back over your heels.

Give yourself a nice little counter stretch. They look great. Yay. Yay. She says, roll yourself all the way up from here. Come to standing. And this is where we change our springs settings somewhat. We're going to take, um, mostly the feet will be on the pedal. Now and again, it's a rule of thumb. It might not always be the truth for each exercise, but typically when the feet are on here, I'm going to choose one top and one bottom spring. And again, that depends a little bit on your body, your weight, your size, um, as well as the springs, how heavy they feel. They should never feel, um, restrictive, always supportive, but just at the edge of your ability so you get a good challenge, right? And as we would just be wasting our time, nobody wants to waste their time. Um, we're going to take the polyp first.

It's similar to the press down we did in the very beginning, but just go ahead and press the pedal down with one foot to start. Then take your hands to the back of the chair. There's alternatives to how we hold onto the chair. Here are personally like hooking the fingers around. You can always hold onto the sides as well.

If you have a really wide chest from here, the heels are together, the toes are apart. Again, all 10 toes on top of the pedal, the hands pressing down to lift the back rib cage up towards the ceiling. Same shape we were in so many times, especially in that first standing exercise from here, shift the weight forward just enough so your shoulders land right above your wrist and start to unweight the pedal off the ground. The first one, we just try to find the peak of the climb. Where can you take it? Two, without pushing your shoulders further forward in space and in row, halfway down. Nice. We'll do that two more times at the slow pace. Lifting up, up, up, and then actively keep your back up. Press the pedal down. One more time. Lifting up. Feel like there's even weight between hands and feet on the way down. And here's a little counter stretch.

You press your heels down towards the floor and you arch your back the opposite direction. Just to stretch the front of the chest and the backs of your legs for a moment. And then we'll reverse that again. Push down through the hands, down through the chosen. Lift the back and roll yourself up with all little quicker. This time. Find the top press halfway down and lift back up and halfway down and back up.

Two more. Down and up. Last one, halfway down and lifted up and then come down nice and slow. Press the pedal actually to the ground. So good. Flex your feet, arch your back. And we have one more set around your spine. Lift yourself all the way up. See if he can lift the pedal up a little high. You're only come a third of the way down. And if back and down, lift back up. Keep yourself in the higher position longer.

Move your shoulders right over your wrists. Now beyond two and up. Last one down and up. And then press your heels towards the ground. Arch your back. Find lots of space between your seat and your heart. Just stretch yourself open. And then from there, step your right foot on top of the chair. Make sure that you don't over cross the midline here.

You want to keep the right heel right in front of your hip and your legs parallel. Just for this one, you can create different options with your back leg. You might want to turn that out a little bit, but the front leg is nice and parallel. You sync your right hip down for a second and you can take your arms out in front of you just so that they're out of your way for a second. And the, here's a little drill I like to do. To set the hips in place, I want you to push your left heel towards the ground and almost indulgent to a nasal or deep stretch so your hips go out of whack for a second and then actively push through your right foot into the top of the chair until you feel that your hips align themselves again. All right, and again, press the heel back in down. Also feels like a nice little stretch for the front of the hip and thigh and then push to the right foot. Feel like you're dragging it back until the hips are level again.

You feel that little movement in there. All right, one more child. That's how you can figure out when your hips are in the right position. It feels like you're pulling your right foot back even though it's not moving over the chair. And once you're in place, press the heel down to stand up. Good. Make sure that the heel is heavier than the toes key pushing through the heel and then slowly come all the way down. Nice and right back up.

Your arms could be in different positions here as well. You can take them behind your head. That's a great way to add traction to the neck and have them out in front of you. They are really there for you as a counterweight so that you don't fall off the chair because that will be so sad. We'll take two more. Press up for us. The heel down, stamp it right at the top of the chair.

Let's take one more all the way up and up and up. See if he can straighten out your top leg and lift your back leg of the pedal. Hold yourself there for just a moment of balance. Square the hips the same way you did on the ground. That was perfect. Bend your front knee. Find the pedal with your back foot.

Take it slowly down. Think even weight on your feet. Yes. Stick your hands at the top of the chair. Switch your legs. Nicely done. Left here, right in front of the hip. Again, an opportunity to check in with how your left side feels compared to the right. It's always an interesting moment. We'll do that same drill here. The heel pushes towards the ground.

The hips go out of whack for a second and then she pushes down to the front leg as if she's dragging the foot back till the hips are in place. Do that again. The hip sinks down. Push down through the heel, feel like you're dragging it back. Set the hips in place. One more time. Heel drops. Feels like a lovely stretch to set things in place. Once you're there, push down through the left heel to stand up. Lift yourself. Once the hands are behind the head, use that to push your head back into your hands.

Give yourself traction through the neck. Head stays up, you come down, down, down again, lifting up and down. It's very tempting to take all the weight into the front leg here, right, and let that back leg sort of be a sad little branch hanging out of your hips. Exactly. See if instead you can give that back foot some way too, and you might start to find the effort somewhere else. Couple more. Take it all the way up nice and down. That makes it a little bit harder. That's not a bad thing, right?

Lifted all the way up to standing this time. See if you can straighten this leg and lift your back leg of the pedal. Stamped that left heel down. Nicely done. Square the hips, square the shoulders. Bend the top knee. Find the pedal even weight on your feet. Take yourself all the way down. Nicely down.

Take your hands to the front of the chair. Step your left foot all the way off the chair. Lift the pillow with control and take your right foot down. Kiss the ground if you'd like. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We'll do the tabletop next. Now we're going to work the back of the body. All right. You're going to have a seat on the front edge of the chair facing of the other way. Hands on the back. Now, depending on how open your chest is, this exercise might feel a little bit tricky. In a perfect world, the fingers point back hook around the back of the chair. Similar to the pull up, the heels are together, the toes are apart.

We have the same spring setting here. This is where sometimes I like to ramp the spring setting up a little bit because we're going to need that support where the things will work for you. First thing is to open the front of the hips and just stretch the thighs. She lift the hips up and forward. Push your knees forward and towards me. Press your hands to open your chest and your chin can stay down so you sort of look at the horizon right across from use of the neck.

Doesn't take any strain and we can just stay here. See if you can uncreate the front fold of your heads. Stretch your knees away from you as we get a beautiful stretch of [inaudible] of your thighs and then you slowly lower the hips back down. All right, we'll do that one more time. This time, try to keep the pedal in exactly one space or lift yourself all the way up. Don't press down into the pedal. Lift yourself back into your hands. Lift your chest up. Oh right. Nice things to look.

A little shakier from up close hips. Lift up. Open the chest. Find your breath from here. Just once. Slowly press the pedal down actively without the hips sinking in. Space lifting yields up against the seat and then lower the hips back down. All right. Once we can do that slow. We'll do. It's crazy fast. Are you ready?

Lift yourself up and then we'll do 10 presses, right? You pump the pedal down in, up. Hips. Stay down and up. Nine and up. Eight and up. Seven and up. Can you get those hips a little higher? Can you get the pedal a little lower? Five and four and three. Are you breathing too so much? I think about one and hold it up.

Lower the hips back down. That was the test drive. We'll do one more. Wait into the hands. Open through the chest. Now you know the way you've been here before. Now go for it. Like you mean a 10 and not an eight. There we go. He billings to the sides of the way. Start to finish. Five, four, three, two, one. Hold.

Lower the hips down with control and step away. Nicely done. That's a tough one. Wouldn't you agree? I've got to finish up now with a pusher variation on the chair. Um, the spring setting is highly individual. There's always that one perfect spring setting for one person and it never quite translate. So we're going to start with the springs on two bottom springs for her on this grass chair.

It'll really take doing the exercise once or twice to know what springs setting you need. All right. Um, so good luck to both of us. Um, stand in front of the chair facing away from it. Take your arms up by your ears just to give your body some length. Stamped the heels down. Reach your fingers up, Chin over, chest. You Roll yourself down. You take your hands down in front of your feet. And then from here you kind of peek through your legs to set your feet onto the pedal. One at a time. One foot goes on the hips, go up to the ceiling as the other third goes right next to it, heals touch, toes apart, and we have a little bit of a handstand here and this is already a great exercise, right? If you decide that this is all you want to do today, perfect.

From here, walk the hands out in front of you until your hips come down in line with heels and shoulders and just take a moment here. Feel like your chest is pulling through the arms feed way up behind you makes this plank incredibly interesting, right for the body. Also, there's the spring tension here that holds the pedal in place. From here, the first thing we do is pull the pedal forward by moving from the shoulders, pull your whole body over your fingertips and then come back. You do that two more times. We should feel like you're dragging your hands towards the chair. One more time. Pulling forward, coming back. Stay. Walk your hands back, lift your hips up to the ceiling to get closer to the chair and then step one foot down and the other land on two flat feed.

Roll yourself all the way back up. Lift your arms up by your ears. We can do much more fun things here. So we'll go down again soon over chest rolling down. Take your foot one at a time, back onto the pedal. Hips up, walk out into plank. Second time around the pedal stays in one place.

Drag the elbows back and bend them to lower the chest towards the ground and lift back up. It's a micro bend of the elbow. It's only becoming a full pushup. If you can maintain the length in your spine down and up there was perfect. Lift your hips up, walk your hands back towards the chair without moving the pedal, which gets more and more interesting. Every time you do in one foot comes down and the other a calm roll up to standing arms ripped up by the ears. And then of course we can put those two things together. Chin over, chest rolling down.

Take the non dominant foot first on top of the pedal. Exactly. And then the other was mixing it up a little bit. Work the hands out into your plank. So now we pull the pedal out as we descend towards the ground, pulling the springs with us, and then spring back up. Literally spring back up. And again, two more times pulling forward to come down and left. One more time.

Forward to come down. Lifting go back. So Nice. Lift your hips up. Walk your hands back towards the chair. Keep the pedal employees. If you can take one foot down than the other. Come all the way back up to standing. If your arms are by your ears, take a deep breath in, arms go out to the side and down. And You my friend. All done. Nice work.

Comments

4 people like this.
The Instructions are precise and clear.
Nice neat and clean movements from this Lady. Very Good.
Perhaps, we will get to see Mr Degenhardt doing a full mat demonstration of his favourite mat repertoire sometime!
Wonderful example of clarity don't you think.

3 people like this.
Fantastic push-up sequence!
Beatriz S
2 people like this.
Great workout!!!
Good Flow, Cues, and sequencing. Great Job Benjamin!
Z A
1 person likes this.
That was great i had a strong wish that it would conclude with some work on cadillac at the end. Maybe next time;)
3 people like this.
I would love to see more mat classes with Ben!
Benjamin Degenhardt
Cheryl - you're in luck, we have an entire series of Mat classes queued up ;) stay tuned, hope all is lovely in Boston!
Mat Work have you seen this?
Contrology is...

It is a pretty good sample of Benjamin and our PA friend and teacher Clare Dunphy, doing what you are asking for.
1 person likes this.
Beautifully sequenced and cued class. I love Benjamin's instruction, thanks ??
2 people like this.
Beautiful as always xx miss you Ben xx
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