Class #2305

Continuous Flow Mat

35 min - Class
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You will get a continuous flow for the entire class in this Mat workout with Meredith Rogers. It's a quick class that doesn't feel rushed because she invites you to embrace your space and to set your intention before you start moving. She also reminds you to remember the fundamentals because they will help you as the class starts to become more challenging.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Aug 27, 2015
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Today, I'm going to see if I can fit a whole mat class into 30 minutes. We'll see. I've done it before. Let's try it. So no matter how rushed we are for time and space, I find that it's important always to just give ourselves a minute to connect, to be quiet, to, to embrace the space and the intention. So with that being said, holding onto the back of the thighs, I'm closing my eyes. You can choose to do whatever you wish with your eyes, but I prefer mine to be shot. Feeling the length of the spine, the top of the head, reaching up and the spine, traveling upwards in space energetically, and then bringing the attention to the arms. Use your arms.

Don't be afraid to feel the energy and the arms that holding of the spine in that upright position. And then bringing awareness to the breath, the expansion of the trunk of the ribs as we inhale and the contraction or the narrowing of the bones as we exhale in center and inhale again, feeling the spine lifting and rising an exhale. Continue to feel the spine rising, but let the bones of the body or the muscular system in the body work to support that. I'm opening my eyes now in here. Excellent. Now moving the pelvis, we shift into a post teary or tilt or a tuck. Feel the shoulder stayed just above the hip and then he'll sit back up and exhale, trying to mobilize the lower spine without actually changing the upper body much. And Inhale, lift [inaudible]. So the work is in the abdominals. Perhaps there was a stretch or an opportunity to look for a stretch in the lower right back and then a definite opportunity to find that extension.

One more time. Exhale, flexing the spine, keeping the shoulders held on the back wide and lifting. And then let's take the arms forward. Inhale again. Exhale. Now flex the spine, but continue backwards so we roll back. Finding the lower back against the mat. Inhale, take the arms up, out, forward and all the way up. Sit Tall. Inhale and exhale rounding. Taking that round spine back to the mat. Inhale, take the arms up.

Feel that there's energy in the arms. They push the air around and then exhale you rural Baca shoulders coming over the pelvis and inhale to lift and again, reaching the arms forward without sending the collarbones forward. So that's just energetic. Forward reach of the arms whilst at the same time feeling energetic, backward reach of the shoulder blades. Inhale, arms open, forward and lift. Lift the arms over the head. Inhale, open the arms out to the side. Exhale, reach forward and roll back.

Pause Palm space down. Inhale, just up off the shoulder blades. Neutral pelvis. Exhale, lift the right leg and, and lift the left leg. And, and left there rightly. And, and drawing and from just underneath the ribs, feeling the naval. One more time connecting down into the mat. Inhale down. Exhale up. Inhale, pause. Xcel roll up, up, up. Lift the spine, reach the arms, take the arms around to the side, round the spy and roll back.

Yeah, finding that neutral alignment of the pelvis stopping just below the shoulders are above the shoulders. Inhale, the left arm reaches out and exhale to come back. And in the right arm reaches out. It doesn't seem like much. And I know to look at, but you should feel it so deeply. Feel that the body has to adjust to the shifting of gravity. Okay, pause. Inhale, exhale, lift, lift the spine, lift the arms, arms open, and round and rock back.

And this time we're going to take the right arm and we're going to take the body with it. Inhale and exhale back through center. And inhale to the opposite side. If it's too challenging, hold onto your leg with your opposite hand. And inhale, reach and exhale back. And inhale, reach and exhale back on. Pause and rule up and reach Ya. And bring the arms down.

I'm gonna use my hands to Scooch my pelvis right up next to my feet. Reach the arms forward and we roll back. It's a little harder here when you're close, so close. And so do your best to control that movement at the bottom. Check to see that you can reach the backs of your calves, shins, backsides of your legs with your fingertips, and then place your head down for pelvic curl. Inhale, exhale.

Flatten the spine in a roll. The pelvis. Feel the stretch to the front of the legs. The ribs save low, the pelvis. Inhale. As you exhale, let the neck lengthen. As the upper body comes down, the ribs come down one bone at a time. The lower back comes down, one bone at a time. Finally, at the very last minute, the pelvis drops back into place. Inhale again.

Exhale, press down and forward through the arms as you roll up through your body, pressing down with the feet and lifting up with the hips. Inhale and exhale. As we roll down, you're articulating the spine and dropping the pelvis. Let's go one more time. Inhale and exhale. Lifting the spine, making sure that the back isn't hyperextending through the thoracic pause here, right foot stays on the mat. Lift the left leg up and a little shoulder bridge. Prep XL lift. Feel here that your abdominals work just as much to stabilize the spine as they did when you're lying on your back.

Two and one as you place that foot down. See if you can do that without any shifting in the pelvis and lift the right leg up and da. And, uh, and pushing against an imaginary force to work deeper through the waist. Last two and a last one and down, placing the foot down on the floor. Reach the arms over your head. Let them hover just off the floor. And then Aro roll down, articulating the spine. Feel the arms reaching above you. Feel the head reaching through the arms. Drop the tailbone down, send your arms out to your sides.

Have one leg followed by the other legs together. Spine twist. Inhale coming towards the left and exhale as you pull back through the side of the body. And anyhow, as we reach across to the right and exhale, shoulder blade to ribs, ribs to obliques. Oh, bleaks put the pelvis back. So what I mean by adding the shoulder blade and is that, that's your stabilization point and that helps you engage the side of the body. Just thinking about the bones of the shoulder blades and the bones of their ribs. Meeting back together after being separated. Inhale as you go across or you could think about the ribbons sliding down the front of the body, but also in towards the center of the spine.

And inhale as we reach over, skews me and exhale as we pull back. We're going to do one more time. Here it is. Inhale to the right. Exhale back through center from there. Slide the hands behind the head. Place one foot down at a time. Let's keep the legs together today. Inhale, exhale, lift the head and chest. Feel the ribs slide down the front of the body.

Feel the abdominal sink. Feel that there's no change in the positioning of the pelvis and the head being forced forward in space. Inhale as you're holding and pressing your legs together and excellent as you eel elongate the spine back down to the mat. So inhale again. Exhale. We'll curl the head and chest up. Ribs, slide in, abdominals flatten. Tailbone stays, heavy. Head heavy. Inhale and exhale.

Stretch the spine back down and inhale and exhale. Holding the chest up. Now from here, breathing in, I want you to just float both feet, maybe a quarter of an inch off the mat or just feel them getting lighter. Just slider. I'm still touching them at. I'm just just like they're stuck with gum or something and then release them back down in here. Exhale. Try to float them up by sinking the belly down.

I'm definitely not lifting them into any sort of hip flection. I'm just using the hip flection energy to find deeper ab work. So there it is our, there's our third and last time and lower down. Surprisingly hard, so hard. It made me cough again. XL lifting up, holding here. We're going to go into rotation now as you go into rotation towards the left, feel that left leg just float. Same energy, doesn't lift. It just gets lighter. Inhale to center. Exhale as you Hiro Tay.

Feel the right leg lift. Pay attention to your details in your fundamental work. The fundamental work in my opinion is where everything else comes from. And if you're strong in your fundamentals, you'll be strong in your advanced work and in here. And we're going to do some of that.

So let's get nice and warm and ready and in here and exhale and pause. Stretch the arms out straight. Stretch one leg out straight, stretch the other leg out straight and breathe. As we exhale we're coming all the way up, keeping the head above the spine into our round shape and then press the arms out, lift the spine up. Inhale, exhale, round, draw back through the waist and rolled. Articulating the spine. Feel the rotation of the pelvis in order to get the low spine down. Arms reach in, he'll pick the head, chest and arms up off the floor.

Xcel round, staying long as you create your round shaped shoulders. Come over the hips and inhale that straight now and reach and drawing. Paying attention to the positioning of your head. I just caught myself dropping my head too much, bringing my head out of alignment. So I'm saying it out loud cause I'm guessing that maybe someone else shares my bad habits and reach out and around and back.

Slowing down. Finding the control. Last time in here, keeping the head over the spine. So the, sometimes we need to look forward in order for that to happen. Round. Lift the back, bend the knees, take a hold of the ankles, tuck into a ball and we roll. Inhale to rock back. Exhale to balance. Pressing the legs together. Inhale, rock and balance in here really tightly. Find that inner thigh work to help to stabilize the pelvis. Inhale back and [inaudible] and one more.

Bring the hands to the tops of the knees. Push the knees into the hands and start placing the spine down on one bone at a time. Feel the rotation that needs to happen in the pelvis in order for that to happen. Neutral pelvic alignment. Upper body lifted double leg stretch. [inaudible] and [inaudible] and in, yeah and poor. Feel that the legs reach straight out and straight back and instead of up or dipping, feel that there's energy through the arms.

So this is just a chest lift with some moving limbs, right? We didn't have a strength in the chest left. This would be less, I don't know, less pass hands on the left knee, right leg stretches out and we switch. What I want you to do with your hands is to push them on your knee at the same time. Push the knee into your hands so there's an up and a down. Push all the time and reach. So that's straight like really stretch away from five five, four.

Squeeze through the back of the straight leg. Three, three, two, two, one holding here. Hands behind the head and we rotate for the crisscross up and over. So the ribs that you're turning towards, tuck into the center of the spine, towards the spinal, the ribs that are on top or reaching over the top of them almost as though they attempting to trade places. Try to feel that again. There's stillness in the head. Stillness in the upper body and the rotation is happening all in the trunk and we'll do three more. Starting now. One, one, two, two, three, three, center both legs, straight, arms forward, going to roll up, roll up, shoulders down. Meredith Rola, taking a hold of the ankles, flattening the spine, finding a good long, strong position, and then with a little rotation in the pelvis where you rock and lift and balance and rock and lift and balance.

Would you take that just a little pause at the top to enable all of us to look for our best position. Okay, and balance. Holding here, we let the legs go. Flex through your feet, take the legs to them at Emma's, slide back a little. Sit Up, inhale, and then taking that forward start rolling the spine down over the lengths, reaching out through the insides of the lengths, knees facing, straight up, feet facing, straight up. Inhale and then articulate or just float the spine back up over the pelvis.

Shoulders come over the hips. Inhale again. Exhale round. I'm going to do this one more time after this with flection, and then we're going to add some extension work in, in rural. So they're just like you're coiling a spring into itself and then letting it rebound and exhale as you round again, reach out, find your flat back ribs and tailbone out. Arms Narrow. Exhale as we take it back forward and articulate the spine, backups it tall. Inhale, exhale to round forward in here as we reach out.

Long flat spine. Reach back down. Yeah, and roll back up. One more time. Sitting tall. So too around. Notice that when you round down, you're not bringing your shoulders with you. They just stay on your back, just held in place. Reach out, take just the arms down, hold on to your legs wherever they land and give yourself a little bit more flatness in your back. Go as low as you can with your spine without rounding your back. So I'm not the perfect picture of that. If you have flexibility, you should go for it. Holding here. Now we're gonna rotate.

Feeling the length of the spine is we reach out and over and inhale back to center and rotate a reaching out. Yeah, an inhale back to center. This time as you turn, take the opposite hand towards the inside of the leg and use it to pull. Bring the arm up and find center and then rotate. Let's inhale kind of a variation on the saw, which we're also gonna do. Exhale, make it bigger. Inhale arm and XL center one more time through. Inhale, rotate. Lots of back extension work here.

Lots of opportunity for length. Reach up and center and inhale and arm lift, not just across but also forward on the diagonal arm. Comes up, sign center. Sit up all the way, arms out to the side and twist and into the SA. And we lengthen the spine as we lift it up and find center. So for me, being in that extension with rotation or that like real flat back rotation enables for an easier transition into this exercise in an opinion. Reach up, arm, back, arm forward. So there's that forward back energy. And in addition to that, we've got some front to back energy, front, arms spiraling forward, back arms spiraling back, lengthen as you sit up and find center.

One more time through lift and reach and Elongate and center. Last time, lift, twist, reach [inaudible] center, arms down, turn towards me and come up onto your knees. So aligning through this by making sure the head and the pelvis are right on top of one another. Abdominals drawn in. Take the arms and energize them out to the side reaching. And then inhale as you reach keeping their straight across.

We're going to reach that one hand. I'm going left hand down towards the Mat and then drawing and lifting through the waist on the right hand side to bring the body more upright again. And then inhale as we reach over and exhale as we come up. I know that some of you know where this is going, right? We're on our knees, we're about to side kick, but let's enjoy this beautiful stretching moment, working, stretching moment before that happens and it's happening. So, over, lift the Lang, stretch the leg out, noticing the position of the pelvis, make sure it's in a very neutral position, not arched behind you. I like my hand behind my head. We're going to flex forward and point back, holding the body still and point back in here and exhale and inhale and exhale and last time and back. And now we go down the back, up to the front, up over the top, into the back, up over the top and to the front, holding the spine, stationary and to the back and front and back. And two more.

Here it is, front and back. Now bring the leg back out to the side. Take the hand out from behind the head and bring it around to the mat. Adjust so that the knee goes straight on. You could even, I just changed my mind. We're going to do some pushups, step back because, so we're going to bend the elbows and strain and bend the elbows and straighten and one more. Bend the elbows and straighten. So I had my left knee on the mat before, so I'm putting that back down.

Right eye comes up. Want you to take your hands really wide? I my Matt's not really wide enough to um, go as wide as I want, but I mean really utilize your, utilize your space. So we're gonna bend the elbows this time wide. I'm going to list the leg up. The toe touches the ceiling and the push back. Find your kneeling position.

Inhale as you've been reaching up. So it's a little back extension, a lot of hip extension and press and Ben reach and press. And one more Ben reach. Oh No, we might as well do five. What's the difference between four and five? Just one and k. So now we're going to turn the left hand back to the center. Swivel the left knee back around right arm comes back up, right leg lifts back up. Set the right leg down, step the left leg back and into the side. Bend me, reach over the top, looking down and then finding our side playing bend and hover.

Stabilizing the shoulder in. Y'all reach up over the top, back to center. Not sitting down yet, but just hovering and reach and hop over the top [inaudible] and back and then, and then straight back at left knee comes down, right knee comes down, and here we are back where we started. Stretch to the right, bring the right arm, close to the legs, actually push the right. I'm into the legs. If the left arm overhead stretch, bring the left arm back and lift the right arm up. Inhale as we reach over, left-hand presses in right arm reaches up so it's oppositional energy, fuel, and then back and back to the top.

One more time over. Keep the right arm pressing into the right leg and then rotate a little quarter of a turn. Reaching the left arm out in a way. Inhale as we come back and exhale to lift up. Yeah, and you know, as we reach over, what was the hiccup and x, Y, Z, orotate drawing back to the center of the body. Really the most of these rotations.

Most of us keep our spine to still most of the time. Here we go to the right, bending over, right hand, comes down, left leg kicks out, hand comes behind the head. Pelvis is neutral. We go forward and back, keeping the height of the leg, keeping in mind the position of the head, so I'm not pushing my head forward with my hand and said I'm using my hand as something to push against. Last too, and back. Monitoring the stabilization of my bottom shoulder and back. We go down, lift to the front. So my intention was to do five of each of these on both sides.

Some of you have pointed out that I'm not a great counter, so that's what I'm trying for. Five. This is three. Three for lifting range. Last one, reach behind, pausing there, take the left hand or that, hand this behind the head, bring it to the mat, widen the other hand, come around, swivel on the knee, step back into your pushup position. Pause there, drawing in strong through the legs. Bend and press. Inhale, exhale and inhale. Exhale. Then the Nice Celeste leg that goes out back out. Again, wide arms wider than this mat. If you have space where it go real wide doing peck pushups.

So the elbows go wide, like reaches up psych. It's going to touch the ceiling and then comes back level with the body as we press up. And then list and press reach these we did five of cause. We had a conversation about it and reach to reach last time and reach. Okay, so the right hand comes back. We pivot around the right knee, left footsteps down, right footsteps back in this side plank position. You're gonna lift up and over. Nice down.

Come back and Ben going away from the hand. Inhale out. Exhale up and over. Inhale back and exhale down. One more. Reach out, lift up in, over. Come back. We came back down again. Then we're going to go back out.

Instead of coming down onto the knees, now we're going to turn back over the list of pelvis. Press the heels down towards the floor. Rise up onto the toes. Articulate the spine forward into your friend. Support. Flex through the feet. Ben, press and lift. Three times heels come down, total heels up. Articulate. Find your friend support, bench press and lift. Last one, rolling on or over the arms. Bend, press, lift the pelvis, roll the pelvis forward again, Ben, one knee and then the other to the mat and lower yourself down onto your elbow. Stretching your legs out behind you.

Interlocking the fingers. All was about as wide as your own. Shoulders. Draw in through the abdominal so the naval lifts up away from the Mat and then pulled back on the arms that a spine as at attention reaching forward. Lift the legs and we kick the right like in, in left leg in rightly so. It's a double kick and we'll do it in this B. Exhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale.

Pulling the spine up and forward. Exhale, exhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Trying here as the legs move through space to stabilize the spine to hold everything very sta except for the kicking of the legs. We'll do two and one both like straight. Turn your face in my direction. Place it down on the mat.

Reach behind you with your arms. Interlock your fingers and bring them high up your back. Draw the shoulders down, away from the ears. Drop the elbows down and we kick what to stretch out, reaching back through the arms and turn the head the other way and kick one, two, three. Reach out energy through the lengths, energy through the arms, and again, kick to three and reach and kick to three and reach.

Hold the legs in space. Take the arms out around to the front. Lift the left arm in the right leg, the right arm on the left leg. And we swim with that rhythm in two, three, four, five and read out two, three, five and strong arms. The arms lead, the legs. Reach and pause. Bring the arms out to the side, lower the legs down and take just the arms up and back for five like you're flying through the air for Siri to remembering to support from the front one arms down on the mat.

Forums on the mat, press off your forearms, scoot the knees a little closer and reached back. To sit back onto your feet, coming up onto your hands and knees. The knees will be just underneath the pelvis. The hands will be just underneath the shoulders, abdominals drawing into the spine. Inhale, exhale, feel the talk of the pelvis or the posterior movement of the pelvis, bringing the hips forward towards the ribs, the front ribs anyway, and then find neutral and then holding the pelvis steady lift and extend through the upper spine [inaudible] and find center and exhale as you curl. The lower spine attempting to separate, although it's not fully possible, the separate that two segments of the spine.

The upper spine goes into extension while the lower spine stays. Still, the lower spine goes into flection while the upper spine stays fairly stuff, and then just once, let's go all the way, letting the pelvis arch reaching all the way through the body of the back of the head, reaching back to the tailbone and then rounding undulating through the spine and then coming back. Let's bend the left arm, take the right arm underneath and reach down so that you're lying on your right shoulder. Make sure the shoulders not lifted up into your ear and then you can use the left hand to help you increase the rotation of your spine and then stabilizing the left shoulder or just single arm push up here. Here we go. We press up right hand comes down opposite arm threads underneath my spine rotates. I've got to drop my pelvis a little bit, head down, but away from the shoulder and then using the right arm as a lever to help the spine rotate more and then press up off that arm. Sit down onto your feet, lift up tall through your spine, resting your hands on your size and just take a moment as moment, a quiet moment to feel into your body, the energy that moves through it, when it moves, the energy that moves through it, when it's still and take a big breath in. Let's take the arms out in a, we rise up with the arms, lifting the ribs up away from the pelvis and then just allowing the arms to fall soft or bent or straight like water flowing. I always imagine water flowing on glass, but it just now imagine like a waterfall, but that's a little more energy than I want to let them imagine trickling water and something beautiful, whatever. Reach the arms back, lift the chest, create your own imagination, and then reach the arms out, pushing the walls away, gently bringing as your arms come down to your body, your body back up, right, and enjoy your day.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Awesome class to start the day - thank you!
2 people like this.
I really your classes Meredith! Thank you!
3 people like this.
So good! Especially loved the hovering feet in chest lift and rotation.....thank you!
1 person likes this.
Perfect...I love the 30 minute class...great job Meredith
1 person likes this.
Loved your gum on the bottom of foot cue! I just love PA! Thank you Meredith!
1 person likes this.
Such a calming yet challenging class and all in 30 mins- With kids around on summer holidays these short classes are a godsend! Thank you so much!
1 person likes this.
Wow! Loved it. I always learn something new in your classes Meredith - thank you!
1 person likes this.
Perfect Meredith, we've had construction going on, painters coming this morning and I needed something challenging and brief to release tension and get the stiffness out of my back. My body has reacted to the added chaos at my home. This helped! Have an awesome day and thanks for being so wonderful!
1 person likes this.
Fluid, beautiful and challenging! Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Another fantastic class with great flow Really love your cues!!
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