Class #2412

Abdominal Party

30 min - Class
195 likes

Description

It's an abdominal party in this quick Mat workout with Dana Santi! She focuses on using the backs of the legs so you can lengthen the hip flexors and use the inner thighs more during abdominal work. She includes many fun challenges like preps for Rolling Like a Ball, the Series of Five, and others that really get your powerhouse ready to work!
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hi, my name is Dana Santee. And today we are going to do a mat, um, one in hopes that we work on getting used to using the backs of our legs and lengthening the hip flexors and utilizing the inner thighs a bit more. So go ahead and lie down. Okay. And start all the way down. We're going to do the hundred, but as we're here, okay, kind of find your center, bring your Chin into your chest and look towards your feet. Okay.

Now if the pinky toe is down a little bit, let's kind of make it a little bit more, even with the big toe. It doesn't have to be exact, but not so, um, yes, not so turned like that. From here, reach your fingertips down. Bring Your Chin up a little higher. That's it. Pull those abs away. And I want you to try to reach through your heels and pump and breathe.

Inhale, exhale two. And exhale. Now keep it going. As I talk, I want you to keep reaching through the heels. Pull those abs back, okay. And see if naturally, if you feel like you're gonna use your quads, don't do it. But see if you can get your legs to lift, okay? Without using your quads.

If you need to use something, gets those inner thighs lengthen out your low back. Keep reaching those heels very far forward and inhale and exhale, and then lower the legs down. Reach the arms back behind you. Now from here, I want you to push through your heels. Arms come up, bring your chin into your chest. Roll Up. Now pull those abs way far back as you come forward. Take a look at your feet even amount out a little bit if they need to be.

And now roll back down. Reach the fingers towards the toes. Resist this as you go back a bit. Lengthen out as you go down and home and roll up. Drop the head now. Stretch three times. One, two, three. Roll back. Keep reaching. Keep reaching. Now lengthen out. Lengthen it, lengthen it, lengthen it and come home and roll up.

Round over. Stretch, stretch, stretch, roll back down. Keep reaching, keep reaching. Keep reaching. One more time. Up and stretch, stretch, stretch, roll back, keep reaching, keep reachable. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, and home. Okay, from here, bring the right leg up towards the ceiling. For your leg circles. Take the left foot and I want you to push through that heel and we're going to watch it once in a while. Make sure we keep it even. Reach the arms behind you, okay? And just reach them away from the center of your body. Now take the leg that's up in the air and I want you to reach the heel higher.

So that's what's going to help you straighten your hip out. Okay? From here, cross it over. Let's do one slow. Now pull the hip away from the heel. Now as you go down towards the center, reach through your heel more and reach through the heel of the leg that's up more. So you lengthen that out, bring it to the side and bring it up and cross and up. Cross reach it out of the center of the body. Cross.

Reach it out, cross reach it out. Reverse it now around. Reach it and home around reach and home, around region. Home around region. Home. One more and release. Okay. Left leg up.

Reached through that right heel and then lift the left heel up towards the ceiling. Cross it over. Stay there for a sec. Pull the hip away. Now bring it down towards the center. Now don't change. Reach your toes a little more, Amy. There you go. Now just reach the heel. Just reach it. That's it. Bring it open and bring it home. And we go cross reach and up. Cross.

Reach the arms away from the center and up. Cross and up. Cross and up and reverse and open. Karastan up. Open. Cross an up, open. Cross an up, open length in and out. And one more and reach it long. Alright, bring your chin into your chest. Roll yourself up. And now we roll like a ball, but let's prepare. So take your feet, keep them flat, keep them nice and even. And I want you to separate them a little bit.

So they're just just right. Maybe in line with the hip there. Reach the arms forward. Now you're going to roll back. But I want you to keep pushing in towards your feet. Heels and toes. Go back to where you feel like if I go any further, get those toes down and then come back home. Yes. Okay. Try it again and roll back. Roll back.

Roll back and come back home. That's it. So we're trying to get the hip bones open and kind of up towards the ceiling and not back towards our shoulders and home and roll back. Lengthen. Lengthen. Hold it there. Reach all those toes in, heels down and come back.

And one more time. Roll back. Lengthen. Lengthen and come back home. Okay, now grab the ankles. Okay. Lift your feet up. Now find your balance to where those hipbones are up towards the ceiling. Right? So at pine and fields, go a little bit further back. [inaudible] so that Yep, it's that spot. That's the money spot. Alright, you're ready. Roll back and up. And now, not too far forward. Okay, let's try to hang back just a little and roll back and up. [inaudible] and rollback and up.

So we're trying to stabilize our hips a little bit more and hold and rolled back and up and rollback and up. And one more. Roll back and up. Hold it, hold it and then drop the feed. Nice. Alright. Take the left leg out. Reach it long. All right. The right knee pulls in. So in our head, we're going to think stomach series, but we're going to keep the legs down and we're going to keep the head lifted. Okay. It's kind of a good one for people with bad. Next, roll back a little bit more. Now here's the hard part.

Five toes, all of them down. Okay. Give yourself some breathing room here. Little space. Now take the toes, press them into the mat. So you're going to push this foot away. Pull these toes in.

So we resist all those toes down. Yes. And switch and change. And we're trying hard. If you can go back at smidge further aim, you're good. And then switch and change. Hold it. Try to pull that leg into you. Get those toes down right and switch and change and switch and change and switch and switch.

And switch and switch. Okay, so your single leg poles stay there. It's more fun. Okay. Now from here, don't move anything. Prepare yourself. It's going to be hard. Pull this leg in. Come on, all the toes down. Okay, you're ready. Now don't do your arms yet. Just do your legs. Reach it out, hold it, breathe. Lengthen nothing, and then come back. Pull it in and again, reach it out. Get all those toes down.

That's it. Now go back a little bit more, Debra. That's it. Now pull the toes back in. Okay, you with me now? Inhale, use your arms. Reach it out, hold it, and exhale. Double leg. That's all it is. Inhale, reach, hold it and exhale and inhale, reach. Hold it. Lengthen. Lengthen. [inaudible] or it's a party in there. One more time. Then reach it out. Hold it. Lengthen.

Hold. Now lift your right leg up. Grab it now, stay here. Now we've got two heels. Reach out of that one so it pulls that hip and reach through this one, Paul. Paul. Now drop the leg, reach it out. Don't move anything and bring this leg up. Pull, pull, drop it down now reach through the heel, pull, pull, drop it down. And lift. Lift. Drop it down. And lift. Lift. Drop it down.

Reach it. Reach, stretch, stretch. Don't move. Okay. Breathe. Drop the leg. Hands behind. Oh, it's so far away. Okay. Roll down a little and come up and a little lengthen long. Come on and up. And again, roll down.

Keep those elbows wide. Roll down and up and roll down. Stay there Chris. Cross. Hold it. And switch and switch. I know. And switch and switch. Come on.

And switch and rollback. No, we'll do your stomach series. So bring your right knee into the chest. Okay, we're going to in the air now we gotta think of that push. Pull through the legs. We still have to reach through both heels. Okay. This just has to kind of come from the hip here and Paul Paul, switch. Paul Paul, two two pole pole, three three pole pole, four, four, five, six, both knees in. All right. Double leg.

Inhale, reach. Hold it long. Loose legs. Come back in and reach. Hold it. Lengthen and pull it in and inhale. Hold it and exhale and stretch. Take a peek at your feet and [inaudible] now. Right leg up, left leg out. Okay. Reaching both ways.

Paul Paul, switch, Paul Paul, switch, Paul Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. Last one. Legs up, hands behind blues. Lower. Reach through the backs of the heels. Come back up. Lower lift again and lift. And again, reach and lift and lower and lift. Lower. Stay there. Bend your knee in. Hold. Now reach that opposite leg. Switch polled.

So now this hip has to lengthen under the other hip. Has to lengthen. Switch, hold it, switch and release. Set yourself up. Yay. Spine, stretch forward. Okay, so for kicks, put your hands down. Put the whole hand down, even the palm. Okay. Lift your abs, keep something connected back there. Inhale. And now exhale, push the hands forward. It's a little sticky, stretch, stretch, stretch. Push through your hands as you come back up.

And again, lift the ABS, drop the low back and inhale and exhale and come back up and again and stretch. Okay. And come back up. And one more time. Stretch and come back. Lift, lengthen and home. Yes. All right. Bend your knees in open leg rocker.

So grab on the insides of your ankles. Okay. Stretch the legs. And I did. Don't want you so much to rotate them out here. So look at your knees and see if you can get your knees to face you more there. Okay. Hipbones up. So I know you're not going to want to, but come back a little bit. Little more. Come on baby. And now roll back and up.

Now keep the chest open. Roll back and uh, reach through those heels. Roll back and up and rollback and up. [inaudible] and rollback and up. Hold it there. Hold it. Now pull back at those hipbones up more. Make that u shape. Bring the legs together. Walk the hands down and we're ready for your corkscrew. So reach the arms behind you. Squeeze the legs tight together.

Okay, from here, take the legs to the right. Now. Drop him down now as you're down. Okay. Reach through the heels so that extends. Bring them over to the left and then come home. And now to the left. Reach them. Now.

Lengthen through the heels as you're there over and come back up and to the right. Reach and the length in, over and up. Left reach. Lengthen over and home. Go ahead, bend your knees, sit yourself up and onto the saw feet. Go yes as wide as they can. Arms out to the sides. Okay, lift up tall. And now from here, let's twist to the front. This way, twist, twist, twist as much as you can. Now drop the head down. Aim this pinky finger towards the pinky toe stretch.

Keep those hips in Nice and even up and center and twist to the back. Keep going and stretch. One, two, three. Come up and center. Lift up, twist, twist, twist. Drop the head, stretch, stretch, stretch. Come back up. Twisted and center. One more and stretch, stretch, stretch.

Come up. Twisted, lift and center. Now Rollover. Lie down on your stomach. Take your hands, place them underneath your forehead. Okay. Okay. You're going to drop your chin down a little bit.

Pull the shoulders away from your ears, place them in your back pocket. And now just squeeze the legs. Think of squeezing them together and then reach them long. Okay. From here, pull the belly button off of the mat and just lift it. Okay. Take the legs, reach them out of your hips and we'll just lift them up and keep them together.

Sometimes if you think of almost pointing your knee caps together, you get into the inner thighs a little more and then bring it back down and pull the belly button up. Reach the legs, try to reach through the heels, keep the shoulders down and come back home. Pull the belly button in, reach the legs, shoulders are down, hold it [inaudible] and come back home. Now take your hands, place them underneath a by your chest. Okay. Keep the legs long and down. We're not going to worry about them right now. I just want them to be working and reaching. Pull the belly button in, shoulders dropped down, and I just want you to work your upper body up.

Hold it, hold it, keep those elbows into you. More shoulders are dropped and come back. Keep the belly button lifted and come back home. And again, push it away. Hold it right to where you can keep it lifted legs together and come back. Home.

Belly button lifted one more time and push it away. Hold it, hold it, hold it and come back and home. Now wrap your arms around your head. Make two fists. Okay. From here, push your arms into the mat. Push your fists down into the Mat.

And now press the chest up and lift. Hold it there. Now take the arms and open them a little bit wider. Open and move your fist more in line with the elbow. Now push it down hard, hard, hard. Okay, now bring him back, rounded, and then drop the head down. Okay, keep pushing into the fist.

Push him down. Not really in and lifted up. Hold it, hold it. Hold it. Now bring the arms out, wrist in line. There you go. Push away. Okay, you really got to make those arms in that chest work. Take the right foot, kick it in, kick, kick, switch, kick, kick. Pull those shoulders down. Okay, kick, kick, kick, kick, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, push, hard shake.

And then bring the arms back and drop the head down. Take the hands, place them behind your back and take your right face cheek and place it down from here. Pull the belly button in. Take both feet, kick it in. Three times. One, two, three. Now push your palms up and stretch, stretch, stretch, change cheeks. One, two, three.

Try to pull that belly button in and stretch, stretch, stretch and change. And one, two, three, press and lift, stretch, stretch, stretch and change. One, two, three. Press and lift, stretch, stretch, stretch. Sit back onto your heels, round in your spine and then roll over for your neck pole. [inaudible] lie all the way down. Hands behind the head. Press through those heels. Okay, nice and long. And now roll up round it and stretch, stretch, stretch, roll to sit. Now pull in, pull in more. Pull in more. Now as you're pulling in, reach through the back. Lengthen and home and roll up.

Round over. Stretch, stretch, stretch, roll to sit and roll back down. And again, roll up. Pull those abs in. Pull them in. Stretch, stretch, stretch, roll to sit and roll it down and roll up. [inaudible] stretch, lift, lengthen. Roll it, roll it, roll it, and home. All right, let's um, face the back and we're going to do your sidekicks. So line your backup as much as you can with edge of the mat.

[inaudible] all right, hand in front. Now take your top leg, bring your hips back a little bit further. There you go. Top leg comes up. Okay, take the leg to the front for one second. Take it there. Now take your bottom cheek and pull it back a little. Feel that not the top one so much. Get at that bottom one. Now reach the leg to the back and as it goes to the back, keep reaching it longer and to the front. Forward.

Forward. Reach it. Lengthen it back. Forward, forward. Reach it back. Forward, forward. Reach it back. Forward, forward. Reach it back. Top leg comes back. Kick it two times. Up, up, up. Now reach through the heel, reach it long, and try to connect the inner thighs together and again, up, up, and reach. Now try to think about that bottom cheek and pull it back as you go up, up and reach, reach, reach again, up, up, and reach.

One more time, up, up, [inaudible] and reach it. Reach it, reach it from here. Take the leg. We're going to do big circles. One slow, bring it to the front. Try to keep the inner thighs connected. Both of them. Lift the leg up, keep them connected so you can't rotate it too much because we've got to keep that front connected. Reach the leg long. Reach it out and bring it home and forward.

Up and around. Stop home, keep him connected. Forward, up and around. Stop home, forward, up and around. Step home now to the back, back up and around. Home, back up and around. Hole, back up and around. Home and then over to the other side. Cool. Okay, nice and long. Top leg up and forward and back to reach it back and now get that bottom cheek three and four and five and up and down. Two kicks up. Now reach now, connect him, squeeze, squeeze again up and reach.

Now try to reach through that bottom heel and reach and up and reach. Now, inner thighs connected, connected, connected and home. And we go forward, up and around. Step, home, forward, up and around. Step home, forward, up and around. Reverse. Back up and around home. Two and one more.

And then release. Yeah. All right. Sit yourself up. Face the front of your mat teaser. Okay, so block it out. Happy teaser. Okay. Squeeze the legs together. Look at your feet. Let's try to make them a little more Eden. All right, you're going to reach through the backs of the heels. Legs Long.

Start lifting up. Now pull those abs back, pulling back more, and I want you to just roll back to where you feel like your hipbones are up towards the ceiling. Okay. Reach the legs and reach them out of the hips. Hold it. Keep reaching through those heels. Hold. Then drop the legs, pull in and come home and try it again. Roll back. Reach k strong arms so we don't have to worry about that. Go back more. Go back more. You're going to go back even more. Go on now. Reach those legs. Hold it, hold it, hold it, and then drop the legs and come home.

And now roll back. Hold it there. Reach at long. Now your arms go up and down. Try not to move your torso or pop through the low back and up and down. Up and down and up and down.

One more up, and then come back home and roll back. Okay. Lift the arms a little bit. Hold it there lightly. Lift one leg and bring it down. Other leg, try to reach out or the heel, but don't jerk the other one back. Lengthen it and home and up and up and come back. Okay, here we go. Roll back. Where's that spot? Don't care how low it is. I really don't. So if you want to go down, go down, lift the legs, lift them. Now lift your upper body.

Hold it, hold it, hold it. Hold it. Lift. And now open everything up and lay all the way home. Sit yourself up for your seal. Okay. Grab in and around the feet. Squeeze the knees into the arms.

Push the arms into the legs. Hipbones up. So go back a little. There you go. One, two, three, roll back. One, two, three, and up to two, three, two, two, three, three, two, three, three, two, three, four, two, three, last one. And release. And you ladies are done.

Comments

3 people like this.
It is very difficult for me not to use my quads when doing ab work, so this class was really helpful for me. In the beginning, I simply flexed my feet when Dana said to reach through the heels, but that is not it, right? How exactly do I reach through my heels and engage the back of my legs? Think of pulling my hip bones away? I was able to do it for a short time, but then I lost the connection again.
7 people like this.
Dorit...correct don't think of it as a flex, it's a reach. Try not to point the foot so much as what you are used to. Pull the top of the foot back just a little yet keeping the the top of the foot a bit longer then heel. Then (keeping the foot from moving) try to reach from the bottom or back of hip to the hamstring or the hamstring to the calf or the calf to the Achilles or heel or the heel to the wall in front of you. Part of it right now is finding which connection works with your brain so you can find it and feel it. Then you can explore the entire opening through the hips in both directions. Hopefully some part of this long comment will help:)!
2 people like this.
Dana, thank you for taking the time to respond. I will try to find the connection because it feels much better!
3 people like this.
This was an amazing class. Creative and well thought out. Thank you so much.
3 people like this.
As one of the students in the class as well as the lucky one to do the Teaser tutorial Dana recently did, I can agree....keep playing with the connections! As a gal who tends to be in her quads and has difficulty sometimes engaging my hamstrings, this class was very, very good for me! Thanks Dana....see you soon!
1 person likes this.
Will keep playing with the connections. Like Amy, I tend to be in my quads and it was very good to focus on engaging my hamstrings. Well thought out class.
2 people like this.
Wondrous class for anyone whose neck often "feels the work" before the targeted muscle group does!! Those preliminary movements before the series of 5 and as a prelude to the teaser were fantastic. Eager to take this class all over again. Thank you.
1 person likes this.
Great class - challenging with some innovative instruction - loved it!
1 person likes this.
aawwww- live it!!!! Thank you!! Amazing!!
1 person likes this.
Dana, there is something in your cueing that takes me to the next level. I love your classes! Thank you so much! Will look for more!
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