Class #2389

Return to Life Mat

35 min - Class
65 likes

Description

Ever feel like a zombie? Return to your natural state of vitality with our four guests who are not dead yet, but not fully alive either! In this Mat Workout with Amy Havens, breath is the focus and just the thing our four zombie guests need to bring them back to life. Come alive with us today! Happy Halloween!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hi everyone. So it's Halloween. And you know what that means? The Halloween Mat class or workout class. So what I've done today is you'll see, I think they're coming in there. I have four zombies that I'm going to teach a math class too. And I have returned to life here. Well, I feel someone, no, I don't. Okay, I did. I have returned to life here.

The book return to life and what this means to me and what I'm doing in this theme for the class is breath. So return to life by breathing, continually breathing. Inhale and exhale. And I'm going to do my best to restore these half dead, half living zombies, returning them to life. Let's see what I can do that.

See what they can do and how much fun we'll have returning to life. Okay. Bend your knees please, and put your hands underneath the back of your knees. You can use your arms. You still have arms now pull yourself up tall. Pull yourself up. Tall. Taller. Oh God. Did you hear that? They're halfway alive, but they're also kind of not alive. I don't know.

Taller guys. Okay. All right. All right. Taken one with a big deep breath in through your nose and blow all the air out. Let's do that again. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Fill up your rib cage that you still have and exhale and squeeze all of your air out and you should feel your abdominal muscles contract. That's for strength.

You might need that later. Take a deep breath in through your nose and sit nice and tall and take an exhale and blow the air out. And I want you to start thinking about a round shape around shaped. Take a deep breath in through your nose. One more time. Set really tall guys. That's it. Exhale, no round your tailbone underneath you and make a ball.

She had like a c shape like you're gonna roll back onto the ground. Good. Use your arms and pull yourself up tall. Feel your arm muscles in their relationship into your back. Inhale and exhale again and round your back. Start to feel like you're stretching your spine long from end to end.

Inhale and come back up to sitting tall. Let's do three more like that. Exhale as you round back. This could be a point where you are engaging them dominal muscles and pulling yourself in toward your spine. Well, one of these inhale, come back up to sitting tall two more times. See if you can go a little bit further down to the mat this time. Exhale so that more of your body gets near the ground.

Good. Okay. We're doing well. Stay right there. Let's add something. Let's see if they have something in them. Take one. You choose which arm to raise up and bring it back down and hold on tight to your leg. Pick up the other arm and lift the other arm anchors down on your leg and bring that arm down. Let's do it again and see if you can keep your feet down. Maybe if you do this with Europe, okay, maybe not reach one arm up to the ceiling as you inhale and exhale as you bring it down, hold the abs in the other arm. Inhale and exhale.

As you bring that hand down. Now try this. I think you can do it. Bring both arms up and both arms down. Two more times. Inhale, bring both arms up, reach for life, reach and exhaling down there. Great. Inhale. Inhale up and exhale this time. Go ahead and roll all the way down to the floor.

Not Bad. Okay. Walk your hips closer to your knees or your feet back closer to your hips right there and have a little space between your knees and ankles, their arms by your side. Open up your chest and feel like you can broaden across your collarbone. You're going to be able to take more air in if you want the life in your lungs. Inhale, as you exhale, I want you to take your pelvis and tip it back so your whole back is flat on the mat or the ground. Inhale and level your pelvis down.

Good. Again, excellent tip your pelvis, so that comes from the center of your body that you still have use of. Inhale and level your pelvis down. Two more times, everybody tilt the pelvis, feel your feet. Press down into the floor a little bit more and inhale, come down to a level position of your pelvis. Let's do that. Just one more time and tilt. Hey, you guys, really good job. I didn't even have to tell you about your alignment of your legs.

You still have memory in your muscles. This is so great. Okay, I think we're going to do this. So inhale again. Exhale. Keep tipping your pelvis this time and keep rolling up your back, your spine until you're on the shoulder blades. Now you know this. Trust me, this will feel good. I'm going to give you each a little tug. Okay? Resist the urge to do something to me and just reached and that feel good to feel more length in your whole spine. Oh, she said yes.

Oh, she's returning to life. She actually said something. Inhale, and as you exhale, lower your chest down. Keep your hips up, but lower the rest of your spine, down bone by bone. Notice how good that feels along your spine. You don't have to say anything, but you could if you wanted to. Inhale. Let's do two more of these. Exhale as you tilt your pelvis. So this is our spinal articulation. I think you guys remember this peeling from bone your tail all the way up until you're on your shoulder blades. I'm going to give them something with their arms.

Reach your arms up to the ceiling and all the way back overhead so you can stretch and feel more life all the way through your whole body. Take a deep breath in. Keep your arms there and reach as you roll down your spine. Chest, ribs, pelvis, and tailbone. Lower your arms all the way down to the floor. Let's do it again. Inhale there. The bridge again, the articulation, I think you remember it. So pelvic tilt, peeling one bone at a time. Articulating up to the shoulder blades.

Same reach of the arms. You'll how in the arms reaching moment. You can actually let your ribs expand more. Your lungs are in there, so really let your ribs expand and feel the arms go all the way to the floor behind you. There you go. I'm going to challenge you because I know I've seen you zombies run before, which takes them good balance in your leg. So I want you to stand on one foot, lift the other foot up into the tabletop position. So your hip is creased your knee as written. Let me help you. I think you'll remember. Here we go. That's that tabletop.

Remember and step it down pretty good. Take it to the other side. So one leg comes up to tabletop. Use the other foot to push down into the floor. There is your power you're going to use when you run after things, but they won't cause they're going to return to life. Bring your foot down. Let's lower the arms down all by the hips and lower your spine all the way down to the floor. One more moment here. Take a breath in, a little variation. We'll see what they've got. Roll up to your bridge again.

Alright. Take one leg back into tabletop position. You choose which one. Okay. Now challenge yourself to stretch the leg all the way up to the ceiling as you also stand really firm on the other foot. This brings in that principle, I think we'll remember called opposition. Something's going up, but something else is going down. Lower the leg down. Step onto the floor. Other side, find your opposition. So bring the second leg up. So there's one leg reaching up, one leg, stepping into the floor and your hips are elevating up.

Beautiful. Okay. Things are looking good. Then your knee. Step that foot down and take a breath in, two feet on the ground. And exhale, soften your chest, lower your ribs, lower your lower back, your pelvis, and your tailbone. Pick up your knees and give yourself a hug. Hug Your Shins. I may help you again. This should feel good. I want you to bring that muscle memory back into things and remember how good it feels to stretch. You're returning yourself into the life that you remember as a Polonius mover.

[inaudible] student. Alright, now let's let this keep working. Their abdominals here. Okay, so that really famous exercise called the 100 I'm not sure if they can get all a hundred pumps, but we're gonna try. Okay? Zombies, put your arms by your sides. They're obedient. Pick up your head and your chest and look at your knees. Your knees are still up. Now reach your arms long, lift them up, up off the Mat, and start pumping your arms vigorously. Pump from the back of your shoulder, not a flappy wrist. Remember strong you use. You've used that strength to do things before.

So pump, oh, this one. Shoot. He needs a little help. Okay, let's see what goes on here. That's how I want you to use your sit up muscles and reach more with your arms. Pump faster. There you go. I want to have you all challenge yourself and lift your legs up and I think I want you to challenge yourself and lower your legs down. Oh, okay.

Are you pumping? This is your opportunity to breathes on these in through the nose, out through the mouth. Inhale through your nose and out through the mouth. Three more. Inhale through your nose. Exhale out. Three, four, or five in four. Five. Exhale. Three, four, five. Last one. Exhale. Three, four, five. They're having fun. Actually. Stop. Bend your knees into your chest. Hug yourself again. They deserve a little love.

Put your head down. Good job. Okay. I want you to bend. Put your arms by your sides again, but keep your knees up and just simply tip your knees to that side of the graveyard. Okay, good. Stop. Bring a mal my way. Suddenly we're near the ocean again, graveyard near the ocean. It happens. Let's go the other way. So feel how when you tip yourself over to one side stop, there's a little balance that kind of connects inside your abdominals. A little strength inside your abdominals.

Come my way now and stop and let's go back over to the grave. Tip your knees over. Now I'm going to add a little challenge here. Hold Straight. You lay eggs on a diagonal reach or something with your toes. Bend your knees back in again towards your chest and rock toward me.

Same thing. So tip your knees, extend your legs. Re Bend your knee. And again, let's just do it one more time, each side. And when you go over to the first side, what I want you to do is hold and just notice how there's weight distributed on that side of your pelvis. Now stretch your legs and hold. Can You keep your shoulders anchored? But you're tipping weight onto that one hip. So you feel really how strong your Middle House to work.

Bring yourself across the center and bend your knees. Let's do it one more time. My direction. So tip toward me. Feel the weight on that hip, right? And your shoulders are still square. Now extend your legs and challenge yourself to be in this wonderfully leaned position and how much work is going on in the center of your body. [inaudible] bend your knees and bring yourself in. Okay. Doing well.

Can you all put your hands behind your thighs or your needs and just pick up your head and your chest again and start rocking? Just feel yourself. Rock on the mat a little bit forward and back. Forward and back. And I'm going to have you breathe. I want you to inhale when you rock back. Exhale, when you come up. Inhale rock back. Exhale, rock up. Inhale back.

Exhale up one more time and make your way all the way up to sitting. Open your legs a little bit, maybe just the width of the Mat, just your feet here and you can put your heels right in the corner. Legs Straight and reach your arms forward. Okay, this is another opportunity to sit up tall. There we go, and Oh, I don't want to pull his head off, but I want him to sit as tall as he can up on a sitz bones. They're little taller. Use your back muscles, the muscles in your spine.

Inhale. Now as you exhale, round your body forward over your legs, but leave your belly button back here. See if you can leave some of your body. That's it, and stretch forward. There's that opposition again. Zombies reach a little forward with your arms, but back with your tummy. Okay? Now you're going to be, imagine that you're a zipper for just a minute. If I think you know what that is and you zip your body up from your tailbone all the way up to the top of your head and sit back up as tall as you were when you began. This is fine. Stretch forward. Okay, breathe in taller, good. Exhale round forward. Reach toward one another, reach toward one another.

And I want you to leave some of your waistline behind you. Settle on your pelvis. There you go. Reach a little further. Now feel what it is to flex your ankles and push your heels toward one another. Deep breath. And now roll yourself back up. So started your tailbone, your low back. There is that articulation that we started with earlier. How tall can you sit? Two more times, a little faster.

Breathe in and exhale. Let's go over and four counts. One, two, three, stretch a little more for stay there as you breathe in and roll up on four. One, two, three. Sit a little taller. Use your back. You guys, use your back muscles. Breathe in. They're doing so great. Round forward. I can actually hear them breathing. Things are going well, Bree. Exhale all the air out. Take a deep breath in here and roll yourself back up to sitting tall, tall, tall, tall, tall. And once you arrive, place your hands behind your head and you can, you've actually put your thumbs at the base of your skull.

Almost like you're gonna pull your own head off of your spine. All right. Now if this is uncomfortable, bend your knees. It shouldn't be uncomfortable cause I think some of you are still half dead. I'm not really sure. Take a deep breath. I need to hear your breathing. They're restoring. Exhale, rotate towards the graveyard. Turn your whole chest, turn the chest. Inhale, come back to facing one another and exhale, turn toward the ocean. Inhale, come back to facing one another.

So we're adding that basic fundamental of turning the torso with keeping the pelvis stable. Inhaling up and exhale to the ocean again. Inhale, sitting taller. Keep the feed flex and see what happens when you reach out through your heels. Turn the chest. Inhale face front. Exhale, tour though. Ocean. One more time.

Doing well. Zombies. Inhale, exhale toward this graveyard. Inhale back to facing each other. And one more time facing this direction. My way. I bet your feet can flex more. Feel the opposition out your heels, up your head. Good reach. Look at each other again and reach to each other. Let's do one more spine. Stretch forward, round over. Touch your toes if you can.

I'll help you. Zombie. I'm here for you there. You need a little helping hand. Sometimes I feel safe. I don't think I'm going to get attacked by these zombies. This is good. Okay. Bring your legs together. Reach your arms forward. Take a deep breath in. I want you to roll down to the Madigan.

Nice and slowly. How slow can you go? Put one vertebra down and then the other one just like you're going over a spine corrector. Pause. Bring one knee to your chest, the other knee to the chest, and I bet they're going to remember single leg stretch. This is kind of fundamental, guys. I think you'll remember this. Put Your hands on your right shin bone. I'll keep it simple. Pick up your head in your chest, both hands on your right shin.

Extend your left leg as long as you can. I'm not sure. Sure. That's as long as it can go longer from the hip. If I could, I don't want to pull her leg off, but I'd pull it from the top of her leg all the way out. And she's pulling the other leg as deeply into her chest as she can. But now can you bring your tailbone onto the mat? That's right. Now do the other side and feel that on that other side.

So one leg is really stretching. The other one is really pulling in. You're placing your tailbone on the mat. Change legs. Here we go. Change and stretch. Let's breathe in. Start changing. Exhale as you're in the stretch. So how about the breath make you move?

I'm going to help him with my sound. Exhale, stretch. So if your head gets tired, you can put your head down. Zombie. Inhale, start changing. Exhale as you reach, and he'll start changing. Exhale as you reach. Okay, they need a little tempo. Here we go. Inhale. Exhale, stretch. Inhale, exhale, stretch. Inhale, exhale, stretch. Breathe in and breathe out again in our little tempo. Mr Palati has talked about rhythm and flow. I'm going to change it up.

Put your head down and we need a little bit of vigor here. Okay. He wanted vigor. Here's the breath cycle. I'm going to do it with my sound. You're going to do this. Yeah, I think you can handle that. So each movement of a of a breath is a leg movement.

Pick up your head and let's try it again. I'll do it up here. So we do. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Cool. Good. Exhale. Exhale. There's the breath. Exhale. Exhale for three. They're doing so great. And rest. Okay. Rock up again. Let's chill. Challenge that reading. One more time.

This is the rolling like a ball. Scoot your hips forward. Okay. Hug your knees or your shins or your ankles, and can you balance on your tailbone? Okay, so remember the breathing is what we're after here. I want you to inhale as you roll back to your shoulder blades and exhale right back up. Go. Inhale, exhale, stop. Go ahead and try it again. Inhale, the roll back. Exhale happened. Whoa.

So what do you have to do to hold? Inhale, roll back. You can use your arms and hug into your body. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up. We're going to do three more. Inhale, nice and quiet on your spine. Exhale. Show a balance up there. Zombie. Wow.

Bad. Our squeeze your butt. I bet will help. One more time. Awesome. Rest. Not for too long. I want you to turn and face line your tummy. Let's have our head's facing this way. So some of them moving a little more zippy here. This is good.

Some there are there they energy's picking up. I think a little more life is coming back into my zombies. Stack your hands please and put your forehead down on your hands and don't want to damage your glasses. So take a deep breath and as you exhale, sink your shoulder blades just down the back of your back. Okay. Take another deep breath in and do it again. Exhale, bring your shoulder blades down, your back and your tummy up off the mat. We're going to start working your spinal muscles a little bit more directly.

Another breath in. And this time. As you exhale, just float your head up off of your hands, almost like you're levitating there. Just hold that position and breathe. Let's return our life force in our breathing again, so trying to laterally breathe. That means our side to side breathing and breathing into the back of your rib cage. Full inhalation and full exhalation. Nice job you guys.

One more breath in and as you exhale you can put your head down. So we'll do the same thing, but just a little more flow. Inhale, prepare for this. As you exhale, you can slide your shoulders down and float your head. Stay there. Inhale, now grow or stretch or in in a long gait. Energy out the top of your head. Okay, good. Use An exhale to bring your head down. Okay, you've got to listen closely.

I'm going to add just a little more change. You're breathing. Inhale, lift your heads. Exhale, lower your hands. Inhale, lift your heads and exhale lower, so just keep doing that. Notice the inhale is the reason you lift your head and your chest. Remember, your lungs are keep going. Your lungs are in your chest, in your rib cage. So when you breathe in, it's almost like helium just brings you up your head off your hands. I hope that makes sense. Inhale, rise and exhale as you lower.

One more. I'm gonna add to it. Inhale. Now. Stay right there. As you exhale, take both of your arms and reach them long by the sides of your body. Palms can face up. So how much can you reach your hands and your arms and your shoulders toward your hips and your legs? How much can you reach? That is amazing. I bet the inhalation is helping.

Inhale, and as you exhale this float everything down. Just rest in a way that makes sense for you. You're going to do that two more times. Okay. Let's see if you can connect. The inhalation is the rise of your back or your chest and the reach of your arms. Here we go. The inhale is what brings you up. Wow. Nicely done. Exhale as you come down.

I like to think of it sometimes the inhale is like the air. It's up above us. The exhale is like the soil that's down below is rooted. Inhale as you rise or kind of float up even. Yeah, a little higher. Reach with the arms and see how that actually makes the spine extend itself higher. There's a lot of relationship here and exhaling down. One more time. Zombies, beautiful work. Inhale, their lungs are getting more full. I can tell they're breathing, you know, stay right there and I want you to start lifting your arms up a little bit, vigorously up, up behind you, up, up, up, like we did that little hundred beats at the very beginning.

I know it's a little weird. Up, up, up, up and up, up, up, up and four, three, two and one and rest. Okay. Can you make a your body move and put yourself on your hands and your knees? Sometimes we call it the quadricep head position. Nicely done. Hands should be right below your shoulders, knees, just underneath your hip joints and for just a moment, breathe again. I think you can walk your knees and close or Zombie.

They are. So there is your opportunity to breathe again. Okay. We're three dimensional beings. We are not just a front. We're not just aside. We're not aback. We're three-dimensional. So take that whole thorax of years, your rib cage, and expand it with your breath. Nice breather here. She's very much alive. Inhale and exhale.

Bring your knees and just a little more Zombie. Oh, again, fill it up. Inhale and exhale. Now let's just do a little movement of the spine with this breath. Inhale. Just prepare for something. As you exhale, lower. Drop your head and your tailbone like your butt and your head, and lift your spine up.

If you remember what a rainbow curve looks like, you know you're not dead yet. You're halfway there. Make the rainbow from your tail to your head. There it is. Now inhale as you go back to the flat bridge line. Okay, and then maybe like a little bit dip of your belly in your spine. What the heck? This Zombie wants to go a little further. Inhale the here. Now xls. Make the rainbow curve. Belly button is up. Inhale, go back for the other shape of your spine.

So what I'm noticing nicely as you're connecting your tailbone in your head, they're up. And then as you exhale those tail and head go down three more times. This move on your own. They're returning themselves to their life. Inhale and exhale. I even got a little smile from one of them. I think they're doing great. Inhale, extend and exhale as you flex your spine. And one more time. Inhale as you extend and exhale as you flex. Okay.

Find level position right between the two. So I'm going to have to get them up to standing in just a minute. What's best for standing as opposition? Because when we walk, I'm going to see if they'll be able to walk. Okay, we went an arm and a leg to move in unison. So pick an arm, reach it forward, pick the opposite leg and reach it behind you and just look forward a little bit. Stretch balance on the knee and the hand. Make sure those abdominals are supporting your movement of your spine.

Excellent. And bring your knee and hand down. My Gosh. Do the other side. One arm, the opposite leg reach. This is how I like to call it, pointing her bird dog pointing the appointer reach, abdominal support, movement of spine, instability of spine. Actually in this case, good. And bring your hand in, knee down. Do One more each side. So pick your first arm and reach.

Pick the opposite leg and reach. I bet some of you could lift your leg higher because I've seen you do it. Return yourself to your life. If you were a kicker, if you were a dancer, what? Where are you? Right? And bring it in. Of course they're not dead yet, so it doesn't really, that may not make sense. And the other arm and leg and reach and reach and reach.

There's always more to do. There's always a little more to seek and bring your arm and your leg down. Okay? Lie On your stomachs. We're going to do one more exercise on your tummies. You guys the swimming. So reach your arms toward one another. Lift your arms up, your chest, up in your legs, up, lift and just start to paddle your arms up and down.

It may help to lift your chest up. Remember your lungs should be full of air at this point, so let those lungs be very buoyant to really lift you up a little higher. Up, up, up, up. He paddling. Go a little faster. Let's see. We wouldn't get some vigor. Get their blood flowing a little bit warmer, a little bit warmer, a little bit warmer for three, two, one and lower all the way down there. Breathing. The zombies are actually breathing. Okay.

Come up to your hands and your knees. I did it. I did it. I think I got it. Can you crouch down into a squatting kind of positions on these? Okay, so you're going to stand up. Now. I want you just to stand on up on your legs and your feet and just feel how you, how you feel. Hopefully you feel good.

There's a little change. Okay? We, I think we need some pushups that that usually does it. Walk back to the back end of your mat. Okay. Stay right there. Take a deep breath in, round forward, head, shoulders, upper back and roll all the way down. Walk out onto your hands and you're going to make a shape that we often call it a plank, and I know some of you remember that. Okay? You don't have to push yourself up and down. You can hold this position, which takes a tremendous amount of strength. Shoulders on your back.

Look a little more forward. If you are going to do the pushups, bend your elbows an inch or lower and push yourself back up. Inhale, think of bending your elbows back to your hips and push the floor down. One more. Inhale and exhale. Push. Now lift your hips up. Use your arms and push yourself backward. Walk your hands to your feet. I'm not sure if I believe that one.

So were you going to do it again? Roll yourself up. Okay. Take your arm as this way from your sides all the way up. Take a deep breath. Exhale, lower your arms. Start to round yourself forward. Head, neck, shoulders. Walk yourself out onto your hands. Find your plank position. Your head should be the highest point. Then your shoulders, your hips, your legs, your feet, so that there's that diagonal line air. Very easy to see here. Three, three times. Inhale, bend your elbows. Push the floor away.

Nice on me. Inhale. Exhale, push. Last one. Inhale, exhale, and push the floor away. Walk your hips up first. You got your right. Walk your hands back. Now stay right there. I want you to roll your body up about halfway to a standing position.

Kind of slumped over, if you will. Okay? And as your slump there, actually all four of you, just a little bit higher. Maybe your hands will just be adjacent to your kneecaps. Okay. Knee shouldn't be locked, but I do want you to feel your abdominal muscles pulled up into your ribs and start to just kind of move your arms. Let me see if life is back in you here. Yeah, just kind of dangle your arms. Beautiful. This one may remembers their little circles. They're little stirs. Meanwhile, there's that scooping up and in of the Tummy and see if this one remembers.

She's got it. She's got her arm circles. Letting that head just hang down. All right. I think they are almost ready here too. Transition. I want you to stop moving your arms. Take three deep breaths. Remember your three dimensional object in your rib cage is full because your lungs are so full and your lung tissue is even all the way back through here.

So take another deep breath in and expand your ribs. Exhale, let the air go, and one more time. A deep breath and exhale. No zombies. I actually don't think you're zombies anymore. I think they're for Pilati students that have returned to life. I feel like they've done a really good job.

I'm going to have them articulate themselves all the way up to standing and just balance up on the balls of their feet. Lower the heels. Two more. Rise up and balances for a moment and lower the heel and one more time. Arise up and lower the heels. Let's take one more breath together and exhale and all the way down. Nicely done. Zombies. I'm going to go though before they're going to get me.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Very nicely done for zombies.
1 person likes this.
Nicely done, Amy! I appreciate the efforts - it is a lot of work to put a video like this together!!! And I love your teaching!!!!
Berit R
1 person likes this.
Thank you. Great presentation. I love your topic, coming back to live thru breathing.
1 person likes this.
So well done and fun!
1 person likes this.
Hi All.....we had fun with this one, can you tell? Tried to keep it light yet relevant and true for a beginner, or anyone really. Thanks for your comments!
1 person likes this.
Fun!! I needed this... after too much Halloween candy and fall allergies I was feeling like a zombie!
1 person likes this.
Cute idea! As always , your classes are great!
1 person likes this.
You just were amazing in this class. Fun, original and yet classic, all in spite of four freaks on mats:
Ha!!! I missed it on Halloween, but I feel returned this morning!! What a great way to wake up and chuckle!!
Thanks gals....it was a fun one to do!!!
1-10 of 19

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin