Class #2311

Upper Body Mat

55 min - Class
125 likes

Description

Grab your light hand weights and join Niedra Gabriel for this creative Mat workout with extra emphasis on strengthening the arms. She takes traditional exercises such as Rollover, Corkscrew, Rowing Series, Side Kicks, and Teasers, and uses the weights to change the way you feel each exercise. She recommends 1 to 2 lb weights for this workout but feel free to go heavier!
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights

About This Video

Oct 12, 2015
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Transcript

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Good afternoon everybody. We're going to be doing a math class with little hand weights. We all have two pound weights, although it's great to work with one pound weights too. We just don't have them because you will probably feel that you're going to work pretty hard as especially so any exercises that you have trouble doing, this includes all of you. Um, my two lovely teachers, Heidi and Cindy and my lovely student, Tommy, not mine, but he came to participate. Uh, so any exercise that you feel is not right for you, you modify as needed and we will take it as it comes. So just to start out Pilati stance, press your heels together, really feel the connection of the heels first and then pull the in line ups, your zipper in your legs.

Now can you feel the weight into the little toe side of the foot, but not lose the [inaudible] pressure into the heels. And then from there lengths and the whole trunk upwards. So you're taking your spine from the tail up through the acceptable bone. You want it long and then narrow into it. You're stabilizing it. And just for a minute, bend the knees a little bit and furious of getting longer and straightener and bend again, feeling like you're tractioning upwards and straighten one more time so the whole spine gets long and come back up and keep holding this position.

And I want you to feel the power in your trunk because if someone pushed you back, you want to feel that you're anchoring yourself son. Oh, she's getting strong. We want to be that strong. And now the reverse, if I'm going to push from the back. So you need to, this is testing, testing that how much power you want to like your body. So keeping the own, take the right hand and externally rotated externally so he rolled it out. When you roll it out from the armpit, bring the arm way up over your head, stretch up right by your ear. It's fine to let the shoulder come up right now. Get it right by the ear. Lift both sides of the waist, hips stay steady and then extend way out to the left. The left hand is going to go down. So you open up the side ribs.

Now take the head, wrap it around your head, let it drop. Go a little bit deeper so maybe you feel all the way from your right hip. Now stretch the arm. Come back up, bring the arm down. Take the left hand lifted way up. Now when it comes up, pull the shoulder up. That opens up the high part of the ribs are both sides of your rib cage even.

Yes. Keep lifting up and locking the hips. And now without the hips moving, you start reaching out. Reach both sides of the waist, out the right side, especially retreat, reach. Reach Ben. Now let yourself go deeper to open everything up.

Stretch the arm out and come back up again and down. First arm again. Lift and extend. Way Out to the left. Wrap the hand around your head. Stretch it out. Go deeper. Come back up other side. Stretch the arm up. Lift the waist up.

Press all the way out. Wrap the hand over. Go deeper and stretch and come back up. Now a nice long, powerful trunk. Remember, no one's knocking you over. Lift the arms up. Bring the arms down broad shoulders. Take the arms up, bring the arms down. As you take the arms up, feel the shoulder blades go down your back and up and see if you can feel that you're lifting that from the shoulder blade and ribcage.

Rather than now, bring the weights together, the shoulder blades, glide dow and lift the elbows up without the shoulders coming up and down. So it doesn't matter how high those elbows go, but you don't want the shoulders coming up with his mother, the Trapezius staying long and keeping along elegant neck and down, and feel like strings of pulling your elbows sideways. So you reaching out and down. And one more time like this and out and down. Now Cross your feet.

We're just going to start the sitting down process. So as you bend, scoop the naval and fill up the lumbar spine. So I want to see a really rounded waist area. Come back up. Really fill up to you're lengthening out. This is not like in a gym where you stick your bottom out and come back up and again out you go fill up the back ribs right here more. So we want this very long and come back up and one more time.

Really feel out this part and come back up. Cross your feet the other way. So you're taking the whole spine in the waist area and tractioning it and you fill up floating ribs, floating ribs, floating ribs and then lift the ribs away from the hips to the waist is still on. That's at Heidi and come back up and again school and come back up and scoop. Fill up those ribs. Tom, I want you to take the rib cage. Someone's punching you in the chest and come back up one more time like this and scoop and come back up. Okay.

And first side again and hand hands one on top of the other. If you want to, you sit all the way down to the floor or you go down any other way you want to and I will step up. So bring yourselves to the front of your mat. You want your knees together, hands first on the mat, long with the weights long. How much can you lift your way? Stop and use the reach of the hands outward to feel how the shoulders are draping down and then slightly reach the arms away from you. If it's too much, the hands can bring the hands down and now reach up and round the sacred mount of the mat.

Just the sacred comes down and then the hands come up and you lift and go a little bit further. So this tailbone, the sacrum, and then the waist comes down and then come back up. And now the sake room, the waist, the floating ribs, tips of the shoulder blade, scoop the navel, roll yourselves back up and this time all the way down. Row, row, row, row, row, all the way to flat and lift the arms to the ceiling. And just for a moment, stretch the shoulders to the ceiling. And now plug the shoulders down into the spine. Lift the shoulders up, plug the shoulder blades down into the mat, lift the shoulders up, plug the shoulders down and extend those arms back without letting the ribs leave the maths. You can go all the way back.

Bring the arms up and down to the floor. Stay there. There. I'm just having a look at you and lift the arms up. Broad shoulders. Feel the floating ribs down, Heidi, floating ribs down. It's like someone's punching you and moving the ribcage backwards. Good. Come back up one more time like this.

Lift the arms up and extend them back and just feel this beautiful length in the spine. You want your tail down, you want your shoulder blades down. Hopefully the whole spine is down. You are long, but you're all so narrow. So see if you can hold this position and get more narrow in the hips in the navel. So it's kind of tone, but it's not straining. Bring the arms up. Lift your head and chest and reach forward towards your ankle. Yes, lower back. Reach the arms back. Bring the arms up, curl forward, scooping the floating ribs into the mat. A little higher Heidi, if you can, and come back down. So Tom, you going a little too high.

Come back up. You want the floating rib sinking into the mat? Lower floating ribs in. Much better. Have a look at your navel. Is it long and flat? Come back down. Arms to the ceiling. Take your right leg and lengthen it out on the mat without changing shape in the pelvis. Lengths in the left legs out so both legs along spine is long.

Reach the arms back again so you can keep this length in the trunk. Bring the arms up, lift your head and chest. Look at your feet lower back down. Take the arms back, bring the arms up. This time, lift your right leg and as you lift it, feel how you're taking the weight into the trunk. So the left leg should be light. Lower down, arms back. Bring the arms up, lift your left leg and reach it out.

Lowered back, arms back. Bring the arms up and both legs come up. Long Trunk, lower back down. Take the arms back and then lift the arms up and we'll lift up for the hundreds and breathing into three, four, five out, two, three, four, five in five and out. Two, three, four, five. If this is too much being legs in and two, three, four, five and out. Two, three, four, five into four. Five out, two, three, four, five star.

Do Bicycle with your legs. Book Five, four, five out, two, three, four, five into three, four, five out, two, three, four, five. Bring the knees deeply. Lift your chest a little bit more. Stretch those arms away, feet on the mat. Roll the legs out, arms over your head. Take a deep breath in and exhale as you roll out, dive your head down. Inhale and roll yourself back on the mat. Now everybody flex your feet, stretch the heels away.

Nice flex feet. Feel the waist into the mat. Arms come up, lift. Scoop the navel as you dive back with the waist. Roll down, rounding the spine, arms long, flex your feet and pull the toes up. Arms Up, lift and lift the waist up away from the thighs and roll down and arms back. And one more time. Lift the chest up, scoop the navel, lift the waist up. This time when you come down your hand, stay close to your thighs. Reach them out and put your hands by your sides on the thighs.

Now you want to turn the little weights so that they're up and down. I'm going to move forward time on this bed and you want to feel like you're staking them into the floor and use them. Let's just take a moment and press them down and use it to ground your shoulders into the mat. Two says a lot of work in your triceps and your broadening your collarbones without arching your back. It's a nice way to get that sensation deepen into the powder.

Float legs up to the ceiling for roll over. Hog the midline. Take those heels and dig them tightly together. The tole should be long but relaxed. Keep pushing into those weights. Lift the hips up, take the feet over and get them to the floor. Push your heels away, open the legs, push your heels away.

Now push into the weights and lower yourself down. Reaching that spine into the mat. One Vertebrae at a time. Legs together. Push down to lift. Press the heels open. Press the heels, lengthen those legs as you roll through. One more time. Push down to lift. Press the heels away.

Press a heels away. Long legs. Reach the legs in one direction. The body in the other and reverse open. Presson. Push and push and pull. The stomach in use is to iron out your back. And again, up over prints together. Press rule that spine out.

One more time. Up over. Press together. Press no, soften your knees. Reach back with your hands and hold your ankles with the weight. So the weights are anchoring you dow and let yourself roll out. Getting as much of a stretch as you're able to do so the knees get soften. You just use this to open up your back and use the weights to slightly help you with the position. Very good. And bend both knees for a minute.

Give your legs a hug again so you soften out the lower back feet on the mat, arms over your head. So the arms along. Let's see, let's have them with the palms facing the ceiling. All of you can get, are you okay there Tom? Your hands get to the floor. Yes is. Are you okay with that? If it's too much clothes, you can have them wide. Extend the legs out. Lift your right leg up to the ceiling and start with the leg right above your hip. Left leg is down and strong. Take the right leg across your body, down, up to your right shoulder and center. Cross down, around and up. Cross down, around and up.

Cross down, around in, up. Cross down, around and up. Reverse it out without the left hip moving or crossing up, out, down, across and up. Out, down, across it. Up a cross. Enough across enough. Reach up with both hands. Hold the leg, give it an extra stretch. You can hold behind the hamstring as well.

Flex your foot to get an extra little traction in it. Hands down. Float the leg down, arms up over your head. Left like comes up. Anchor your hips. They should stay in mobile the whole time. Cross over to the right, down, around and up. Cross down, rounding up. Cross down, around in, up. Cross down.

Rounding up. Cross down around. Reverse out, down across in, up, shoulder, down shoulders, nose, shoulder, down, shoulder, nose, shoulder, down, shoulder, nose. Hold the leg. Nice, long, juicy stretch. Float the leg down. Arms over your head. Lengthen and narrow the spine and peel yourself up to city. Peel, row, row, row, row, and pop yourself forward and hold on to your shins for rolling like a ball and see what happens with the weights. So can you lift your feet up and drop your head down?

The niche should be ha. Maybe even hugging the size of your temples, neither apart. Stay this compact. Roll back toward your shoulders and roll yourself up. Good and roll back again and roll up.

Now let's have everybody flex their feet. Pull your heels to your bottom, compressive and more. Roll back again. Roll up, roll back, roll up, roll back. Roll up pants by your ears with the little weights, elbows by your knees, stomach from rollback and up again. Grow and up. Roll and roll and up. One more time like this. Row and up. Feet down. Roll down onto the mat. Bring both knees into your chest just for a minute and stretch.

Using the weights in your hands just to give you a little bit more. Um, [inaudible] wait eight into the knee for single leg stretches. Curl your head and chest up. Take the right knee and just use both weight to pull the Shin in length in this leg out. Switch length in that like I'll try to reach it long towards the floor. See opening up in the hip flexor and stretch and stretch and stretch and stretch.

Now we start to bicycle and stretch and Cariss the mat. Stretching, caress, mat, stretching. Caressa Mat, stretching, caress, stretching, caress. Now we'll see if you can reverse with the right leg. Down and up, down and up, down and up, down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Both knees. Come in, lift your chest a little bit more, stretch your arms and legs away. Big Circle and in and stretch and in and stretch and in and stretch in. One more time.

Stretch and [inaudible] the head down. Feet down. Put your weights down for a minute. Bring your knees into your chest. Feel how when the knees come in, the lower back gets nice and long, and now lift the legs to the ceiling and just have that pressure of the heels toward each other. Surveys like Palladia stand without the pelvis. Lifting off the mat. Arms just above your shoulders. Curl your head and chest up. How high can you lift your chest to the ceiling, not towards your feet, to the ceiling to the ceiling. Now take your arms by your ears and float the legs down.

Take the arms and the legs down. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and come in. Head down, feet down. That's your double leg stretch. Where that weight, where you're aiming for scissors both legs up to the ceiling. Hold onto your weight. Again, this is just to help us take your right leg with both hands. Paul, Paul Scissor, Paul Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Both legs are up for change. The arms over the head, the head is down so the whole spine is long.

The trunk is being hugged by the muscles of the waist. Float the legs away. Do not let your back arch bring the legs up. Try not to let the hands get shorter so you reaching the hands in opposition and two and lower long tailbone to crown of the head. Stay stable. And if anything you're trying to make them longer. One more time and up.

Bend the knees. Lift your head and chest up. So we're like preparing for crisscross. When you twist to the right, your left arm stretches over. Lift, twist, lift, twist, lift, twist, lift two with lift, twist and arms, long legs, long road yourselves up to sitting and spine stretch forward. So feet of flex, probably just off the map. Starting out with the arms in front of you.

Lift the spine way up. Now drop the arms down and get taller. Scoop the navel and slide those arms out on the floor. Pulling the waist and the ribs back. Lift the arms up to shoulder height. Roll yourselves back up to sitting. Arms up over your head.

Take the arms back without flaying the ribs. Big Circle to the mat. Scoop. Roll down, pulling the waist back. Lift the arms up. Roll yourself up to lift. Get Taller as the arms come up. Shoulders back.

All open the arms at squeezing the shoulder blades together. One more time. Drop your head down. Reach long, pull you waist back. Lift the arms, roll yourself up. Lift up. Squeeze your shoulder blades to get the armpits open. Big Circle and down.

Now let's see what happens with the weights. So make sure you're sitting far enough forward on your mat. Open leg rocker. This is going to be a challenge for all of us. Hands in front scoop. Lift and see if you can hold your legs and let's see what happens to all of us here. Long arm, so high. Do you want your elbows long? The legs have to be further away from your trunk, not too wide, just a little wider than your shoulders. Roll back.

Roll yourself up and roll back. Roll yourself up, roll back. Roll yourself up one more time. Roll back and roll yourself up. Legs together. Walk down your legs. Plank.

Um, state stamp. I'm trying to think of the right word. Press those weights into the mat. Keep your hips on the mat for the first set for corks row. You're going to go right down, left and up. Keep grounding the trunk and the triceps and reverse circle and one reverse circle and one for side circle and one and one.

Now roll up onto your shoulders. Push down to lift. Roll down to the right hip. Dow left hip up onto the shoulders. Really pushed him with hands. Reverse left Dow right hand lift and right down. Left and left.

Left down right and lift and roll everything down to the mat. Nice and slow. Slowed the legs. Dow Long legs, arms over your head. Lengthen them out. Arms Up, rural. Up to sitting. Open your legs. Let's put the weights down here and half the hands. This is for Saba. Slight variation. Hands up behind the base of the skull.

Big Lift Up. Feel like you're grabbing that occipital bone and lifting it and if your neck tends to poke forward, can you press the neck back so that it's more of a straight line from the top of the spinal column? Elbows are wide now. Both hips grounded. Twist to the right as you with really flex your feet. Left elbow is going towards your left knee. Left elbow towards left knee. That's it.

Right elbow to the ceiling. Roll up in the twist. Back to the center. Lift the waist, twist to the left, right elbow to right knee. Left elbow to the ceiling. Come back up in a twist. Back to the center. Twist to your first side. Left elbow goes down. Roll yourself up. Back to the center. Twist to the other side.

Right elbow goes down, left elbow, up and up. Back to the center. First side again, twist. Elbow goes down, come back up, center, twist to the other side. Roll down, come back up, back to the center. Relax your arms down. Bring your legs together, but you do some of the rowing series that we do on the reformer. So the arms will be in front of you.

Shoulders really gliding down your back. And let's have everybody flex the feet. Scoop the naval and curled yourself back. Stay here. The hands come in like you're pulling away. Take the hands out sums to the floor. Nothing moves. Push.

Now you can forward weights touch behind you. Lift the stomach up away from your thighs and the arms come up all the way around. Now grab your feet or your ankles and pull backwards that it spread those shoulder blades and lengthen the stomach towards your back so you really get a lumpy traction. He stretch. Come back up and again, school to go back. Arms Out, sums down. Push. Come forward. Thumbs, touch close to the tailbone. Lengthen the arms away from you, from the shoulders up all the way around, putting your head down, but lift your stomach up and backwards.

Come back up one more time. Scoop to rollback. Flex those feet out. Push, come forward. Thumbs, touch, lengthen up all the way around. Lift the red the way she want to really pull the ribs up and roll up. Now for the flat back, lift the elbows, but shoulders are down. Nice. Long spine, buttocks lifted, hinge.

Come up. Lengthen those arms out. Sweep the arms behind you. Stretch and lift all the way around of different sort of stretch. Grab your feet or your shins. Lift your head and chest up broad shoulders and think of pulling your sternum between your shoulders and then lengthen out to have a long flat or kind of a stretch towards the legs.

Come back up so you're working in a seam of a flat long back lift. Hinge back, long and flat. Come back up. Lengthen, circle, thumbs, touch. Lengthen the arms up all the way around. Grab your feet, lift your chest, pull the shoulders down, your back, long neck, and then laying. Send over your legs. Come back up one more time. Lift the chest, hinge, hips tight and up.

Long. Circle those arms length in the mouth, all the way around. Lift your head and chest traction. That wastes long as you go down and keep your stomach long, your spine long, your neck long. Come back up, reaching from the armpits, elbows back, long spine up through the crown of the head. Reach. Bring the hands down. Get even taller. Keep the arms in the peripheral vision. Lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting and stretch and down. Lift from tail to fingers long lifted, hips tight and get even taller and stretch and down from your pelvis to the crown of your head to your fingers. Long, long, long, long.

Now flexing the feet. Drop your head towards your knees and slide the hands. Lift them shoulder height. Roll your spine up, lift up, out and down. So you lift your stomach away from your thumb. Rings, lip the hands roll back and up. Lift and all the way down. Scoop the navel to slide the shoulder blades.

Long roll up, lift and out and down. Sitting cross legged hands will be behind the head. Elbows a wide but you want this long diagonal from tail through the crown of the head, back ribs, a long extent and back. Extend and back. See if you can extend from your waist through your ribs to the fingers and back from the pelvis. Weights, ribs, fingers, and one more time. Extend from your tail arms to the side.

Cross your feet the other way. Big Breath in and close the arms. Inhale, squeeze or shoulder blades. Spread the shoulder blades. Squeeze the shoulder blades spread and open. Now exhale here. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Okay. Let's come onto the stomach for single leg kicks. So very simple. You're pressing these little weights down the knees when heels are together.

Now this is a thing that a lot of us would tighten the lower back. So it's a little tricky. You want to press the hip flexors down and lift the stomach out so you're long and you tried to lift the whole stomach off the mat. And Christie, bring the elbows further out. So because you're very bendy in the waist area, can you pull your floating ribs up? So more of a s that's a little better. Now you can you bring your elbows back again. Keep that feeling full. And now pull the shoulders down your back without arching more. Yes.

So the waist area, that tends to be the most bendy part. You want to not let it bend it, fully indulged back of the neck is long and right like them since slow first type. Just bend it in and don't let your waist short and you just test the ground. Can you open your hip flexor and back? Left leg comes in. Open the front of the thigh and the hip flexor and keep the backlog and down.

And now we'll go fast, right? Like kick, kick and down. Left kick, kick and down and kick. Kick and down and kick. Kick and down and kick. Kick and down and kick. Kick. Very good and down. Hands along. Just first part, lift the shoulder blades, lift the hands and lift your chest so the shoulders will roll back. You're opening up the collarbones hands. Come down, let the shoulders drop and their head turns to the left. So right here, let the shoulders go long into the floor.

So you're just working the shoulder girdle. Now lift the shoulder blades and squeeze them. Lift your head, lift in hands and stretch them back. Very nice. Now the hands come to the waist first side. So you're going to turn your nose to the right. Your hand told me behind your waist. Let the elbows drop down.

For some people this is easy. Some people you really have to force it so not elbows come up. Lift your head and chest, stretch back. Turn your head the other way. Elbows to the mat. Now we'll add the feet, bend your knees, kick you bottom three times kick, kick, kick and stretch back.

Open the collarbones first side kick, kick, kick and stretch. Other side kick, kick, kick and stretch for a side kick, kick, kick and stretch. Left side kick, kick, kick and stretch. And last one, kick, kick, kick and stretch. Lower down, hands under your shoulders. School. So you got this like nice, like push up position. Pull the stomach in, see if you can lift up like your leg, your bend, your knees. But can you lift up in one piece? Yes. Stretch back towards your heels.

Let your forehead come down, walk your hands to the right. You're on the floor so you can take your hands as far to the right as you can, but keep your hips down to have a nice stretch in the left side of the ribs. Walk your hands to the left. Very good. Bring the hands behind you, even with the weights and even clasp your hands behind your back so you clasp your fingers and lift the hands up on the weights will help propel the shoulder a little bit higher so you have a nice little stretch into these shoulders. Very good. One more time. Okay.

Come back up a minute. Are going to show you funky trick. So I your, is that okay on your shoulders? Okay, so shoulders are tricky to open, but they're very mobile joint that we all want to get open. It's important. So this one we had our bottom down, but now this next time you're going to lift your head, your bottom up. If you can hook your fingers, it'll help and then stretch it out and you'll be able to go a whole lot further.

Now for you Tom, instead of doing the fingers class, grab one way. This way and the wider, you can have your hands. We only have a way today. But if I gave you a strap or towel and we had you this width, you'd be able to go right over and get the strap where you want. So that's how all of you do a stretch. You can do one or two weights. Yes, look at that. Opens up those shoulders.

Rock is a forward, that's it Heidi. Get your head closer to your knees. Yeah, and easy. And you will see that you just get a juicy stretch right where it feels good and not feels bad. Okay, come back up. Nice. Work Different, Huh? Okay. Let's put the weights down for a minute. Come up on our knees for size. Strength. You can have your knees together or apart.

Arms along. Lift these bones up so you have lengths in the tail. Fill up the back ribs. So you're pulling the ribcage. At the shoulders. Come forward and [inaudible]. He comes back, hinge and up and hinge and up and hinge. [inaudible] and up. One more time.

Hinge and up. Very good. Back onto our weighted tripod position. You want the shoulders right above the risks. Step your right leg back, the left leg back, and just hold this position for minute and see if you can find lengths in the waist. It's a tricky area that has a lot of room for growth that most of us never fully tap into. Bend the right knee back. Bend the left knee back.

Reverse it. Left leg goes back, stretch the knee, right leg goes back, hold, hold, hold, left knee and right knee in right like back, left like back. Lift the stomach up. Bring the heels forward. Take the heels back, bring the heels forward. Take the heels back, bring the heels forward and back. Right knee in, left knee in, and last one. Remember the neck long? I was dropping my head down. I forgot. Lift your head up. Left leg back, right leg back, heels forward. Heels back, heels forward. Heels back. Heels forward. Heels back. Bend the knees in.

One more time. Stretch back and come to a sitting position for NEC pole. So hands by the sides of either behind or on the side of the skull. Lift your head up, Curl Your Chin down, and then start rolling down. Bringing your head to your knees. Roll yourself back up again. I have a better idea. Then the weight's come down. Want you to take your hands behind your skull right at that bulging spot at the base of the skull before to attaches to the neck. And there's an indentation in.

Push the head back into your hands there. So as you bring your Chin down, you want to be pushing into your hands who actually open up the back of the neck. Instead of dropping those bones, you make them longer so you're lifting the back of the neck up. Now keep that pressure and the trunk grounds down, but the next day is long, so you're not pulling the head down. You're actually pushing it up as you curl over, come back up. So you're really pressing this part of the neck back and now he is just 45 degrees trying to keep that length in the back of the neck. Come back up, push the head back into the your hand and bring the chin down and links in the back of the neck upwards. So then you crawl the trunk, but the back of the neck stays long. It's going up to the sky, not down. Roll yourself up. Nice long neck, hinge back.

Come back up, back of the neck. As long as you curl down, curl up, hinge back, and come back up and roll yourselves down. Four Soda Bridge. Stamp your your um, weights into the mat, knees and feet together. Roll your hips up and pushed down with the hands and the shoulders. Roll yourself down. Narrow the hips. Roll yourself up. Roll yourself down. Press again.

Road yourself up. Extend your right leg out. Lift it up, flex it down to the floor. If you can, lift it up. Flex. Sit down, lifted up, flex it down, bend the foot back. Lift your hips. If they've dropped, extend the left leg, lifted up. Flex it down, lift it up, flex it down, lifted up, like sit down, bend it back, lift your hips a little bit more and just hold a position for many. Push down with the hand from your armpits to your knees. Length and more length in morning.

Then I just dropped to the center of the shoulder blades. Keep lengthening your pelvis towards your knees. Roll to the base of the ribs, pelvis to knees. Roll till your waist is touching and roll the sake room all the way down to the mat. Extend the legs out. Arms over your head. Roll up to sitting and arms to the side. Flex your feet for spine twist.

The arms will stay exactly to the side so you know none of this happening. So twist to the right pulse. Pulse back to the center. Left pulse, pulse center, pulse, Pulse Center. Pulse, pulse, center of Pulse Center. Pulse, pulse, and sent her arms a long roll down. And let's roll to the right or [inaudible].

Let's have everybody facing me just so that we can be on the same page. The weights will be off for sidekicks. So you want the legs in front of you. If you can, can you get all of the, actually not lifting up, but let's have everybody stretch out for a minute. And how much space can you get between the lower hip and this arm that you tractioning are could actually traction it even further. So you're, all of this is touching and maybe you're getting a huge stretch already in the armpit. So unless there's a problem with a shoulder or some kind of thing, you want that length placed the other hand in front and just see if you can bend. Lift your head up without shortening.

So it takes time to open up the armpit. But that's what you want to go for. Check that your hips are even and just lift the top hip up a little higher than your own hip. Lower down and try to get it longer than your bottom leg. Push into the heel and down and lift and down. Now lift up hip, high reach and slightly externally rotate and we'll go front. Front, front, front, long to the back. Front, front, long to the back. Front, front, long to the back.

Front, front, long to the back, into bicycle to the front. Bend knee goes back. Extend the leg out. Forward bend. Press at Chi. Extend Forward Bend, Press OSI. Extend and reverse it. Take the leg back, bend it. Get longer in the front thigh. Bring it through.

Extend and back. Bend it in. Bring it's through. Extend. Take it back, bend it in. Bring it through. Extend. Take the leg in front of you. Inside leg lifts and down and lift and down and lift and down. Lift and point in big circle and circle and circle.

Reverse it. Reaching the leg out, reaching it out, reaching it out. Lower down, both legs out. Lift them both and down. Lift them both and down. Lift them both. Stretch this hand down. You may have to adjust this one. Can you lift your arm and your legs and down?

Arm and legs and down. Arms and legs and down. Let's have everybody swing around. To the other side and I will adjust my Mike so I don't smash it. Oh, okay. So starting out, just nice, nice and long. So literally, if you can hook your pelvis and stretch the floating rib away from the pelvis, you get that really nice openness in the sideways.

We often don't explore as much as we could. The legs will be on this diagonal. And then can you bend up without losing length and then make the hips nice and compact. Take your top like lifted up and down and lift and down and lift and down. This time, lift, hold, extend externally, rotate and go to the front. Double Pulse, back, back, double pulse, back, back, double pulse, back, back, double pulse, back, back, double pulse and back, back, bicycle forward.

Then the foot to your bottom. Press the thigh away. Extend, bend it in. Press the side long. Bend it in. Press side long and together. Reverse it. Reach the leg down and back. Bend it in, press it through.

Reach out, take it back, bend it in, bring it through, reach out, take it back, bend it in, bring it through, reach out, bend the foot, lift your inside leg and down and up and down and up and down. And now big circle one and two and three, reverse it and one and two, and [inaudible] three. Now lower legs down long. Lift them both up and down. Lift them up and down. Lift them up and stretch your arms out.

And both arms and legs and down. There's always a side. It's much worse than the other one. And this is my bad side. Let's get it go. Yep. Okay. Now let's have you all on your backs for Teaser, no weights, and start up with the legs on a long diagonal so they're quite far away from you and they're bent. And just roll yourselves up. Seeing if you can come all the way up to your teaser position, which you can, and then roll that out.

Now bring your feet in a few inches. Again, very compact. Hips. Lift your head up and see if you can scoop and roll up. And you don't want to get kind of to this position. You want that scooped position with the tail under, but the stomach is lifting. You're not collapsing. Roll yourself down.

Bring your feet further in. See if you get [inaudible] yourself up. So there's this point of no return and roll down. And if you know you're really struggling in that one, stay there or bring your feet in a little bit more. There's a point where the feet like my feet are now losing weight.

I'm losing them. So I'm just to hear beyond the place that I want to be rolled down. So right here is where my level of teaser is. So lift your legs up where you filed your angle. [inaudible] yourself up, roll yourself down, roll yourself up, rural yourself down, rural yourself up, arms up, down, up, down, up, down, up and arms out.

Roll, roll, roll on you. Glad you're not doing this with weights. Rural. We're up. See if you can touch your toes, the roll down and just when you touch you come up again. And the roll yourself down. Last one. Gum Up. V Roll, roll, roll and down. Whew. Oh, okay. Grab those lovely weights. We really missed that, didn't we?

So on your stomach for swimming, let's have them spike like this, the arms along. And just for a minute, lift your head and chest just a little bit. So you're kind of looking forward between y'all know the arms are still down, arms and out. So you just want to find this trunk. Lift your right arm, left leg down, left arm, right leg down for a side, down, other side down. See if you can let both and go for yours. [inaudible] oh we love this so much.

And one more set rest. Sit into your heels, stretch your spine out. A lot of work into the shoulders with the weights. And from here, let's have you all just turn in my direction. Come into the middle of the mat. So we just kind of pushed up into our heels. Let's everybody press the hips to your right. You're right, there we go. So this hand will be down and if you want to give you some super hard time, you can be here or you can be here or you can be here.

It kind of depends upon where you're going to survive and you can let go of this hand. So how much can you lift up in your back? Bring the arm up, lift up in the waist and over. You go over, you go over you go wrap. Just like we did, standing stretch and just nice long diagonal and reach. And just use this to open up the side ribs and back and again over wrap. Stretch. Now lift the waist and reach and wrap and links in the waste. This is our last one and reach and over and stretch and lift and reach and over and stretch. Now this is the fun part. You're still leaning in. You stretch the legs out, swivel them around and then them in.

So other side, lift and rap and stretch and lift the waste out and reach and rep and stretch and lift and reach and wrath and stretch and lift and reach and wrap and stretch and lift. Last one, reach and stretch and reach and up. And we might just go to this side stretch and we will yourselves around. We'll do seal without the weights. Let me just get this myself wired up. And here we go. Hands inside. How high can you get?

Can you get your elbows if you can. So there's a little bit of a pressing in with this innercise. You may not be able to. So the innercise are kind of doing that and your arms are doing that so you're not letting your chest get compressed, but you're actually working. And when you clap, I want you to think of, it's happening from the thighs, not the feet. That's it. So nice scoop.

Nice strong legs. Clap three times. Clap, clap, clap, clap on the shoulders. EAD. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap back, clap, clap, clap up, clap, clap, clap back. If you want to stand up, you can stand up and your which way you want to. That was very nice. We all did it the other way. Right? Arms come up to the ceiling. Feel the length in the spine. See if you can lift your heels for a minute. Just pushing the heels together.

Don't walk around like me. Lower the heels down. Scoop the neighbor. Roll yourselves down. Three circles here. Reverse your circles. Now can you bring your hips, your sit bones right over your heels and see if you can roll yourself flop without losing that because we all throw our hips back. Reach the arms up. So just like wall most advanced wall, the heels and the tail are on the wall. Lift and keep. The ball is air. It's not letting you throw your bottom back. Roll yourself down.

Three circles. One, two, three. Reverse to three. Sit. Bone state or where did you roll yourself back? Lift the arms up. Float the arms out and just check.

Are you heavy on your heels? Or like you want this lightness. And so just bounce the heels a few times. Feel that the neck is free and long, that the shoulders are white. So your, you're kind of powerful, but you're not straining. And then just take a deep breath in and breathe out. And thank you very much of our day. Hard workout.

Yay.

Comments

I love the creative use of the weights, the flow, and the great cues. Thank you!
i'm not sure about the shoulder stretch where the head is on the floor and weighted. I don't think this is good for the cervical spine.
Niedra Gabriel
Thanky ou for your comment Jeannene, ijust be careful not to flatten the neck when you do this, and if it desk not agree with you, then don't do this, some of the length will depend on how compressed or relaxed the whole spine it. Best of success to you.
N. Burke
I really enjoy this class. Great cues and flow, and the addition of weights is just what I was looking for.
Niedra Gabriel
Thanks for your post N. happy you enjoyed this workout.
Thank You Niedra What a wonderful class. Your cueing is beautiful, I was almost able to follow by listening. I just registered to take mat 1 and 2 with power pilates in NY. I can't wait. You class is a perfect prep for the long weekend.
Niedra Gabriel
Good luck with your training Jennifer - you will love it! Weekend trainings are always a challenge but coming out the other end and then applying what you learned with students is the journey and I am sure you will love every phase.
Lovely class! Added to my favorites. Thank you.
When rolling like a ball, head is not supposed to touch the mat. Wonder why the instructor rests her head while rolling
Niedra Gabriel
Saniya, what a great question. from my perspective, it really depends on who you are training and the level of the training. At beginner / fundamentals I look to get the control coming from the core, and the extremities limited.at that time yes, the head is not taking any weight and the roll is limited to the shoulder blades. Later, in advanced work, the structure is already healthy strong, flexible and balanced so you can roll more deeply. I do not see a problem in rolling onto the neck, when the rest of the body is already well educated, quite the reverse, many of my clients find it releases tension and opens up the tissue, and the head floats up when they stand more easily.
Hope this gives some depth to your understanding.
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