Class #2500

Exploring Shapes in Movement

45 min - Class
95 likes

Description

Visualize shapes while you are moving in this Mat workout with Leah Stewart. She plays with diamonds, triangles, and circles to provide imagery that enables us to feel the work in a new way. By looking at each movement from a different angle, you can become aware of how certain shapes impact the way you move.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Feb 16, 2016
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Hi everybody, this is Leah and we're going to do a mat class and I'm so excited to be doing a fun math class here. And pled is anytime and they have these three beautiful women that are going to join us today in our mat session. So I want to just give you a heads up on kind of what we're going to be kind of playing with today. And a long, long time ago when I used to teach regular mat classes, I would sometimes come in and do like, we would focus on shapes, like kind of different shapes that our body make or that our movement makes or just kind of the energy, the shapes that we make with energy and just movement patterns and stuff like that. So I was kind of reminded of that and I thought, well, why don't we just explore with that a little bit today. So you can play with like, you know, diamonds or Rhomboids or rectangles or circles or triangles. But today I'm calling gonna speak a little bit to more about a diamond shapes and triangles and circles.

And I'm going to incorporate as many different ideas that I can. I'm going to ask you ladies as well, kind of what you kind of feel with some of these different shapes and if you can see them and visualize them. So my goal is just for us to take the shapes and basically to provide a different sort of imagery tool for us to be able to use and kind of maybe to again just kind of look at the work from a different angle. And I would just ask that all of us together collectively kind of are really aware and cognizant of how thinking about these shapes and seeing these shapes in our body or in our movement, do they affect the quality of movement or our association with the movement or the way that we perform the work by just thinking about some of these shapes and some of these images and some of these patterns and stuff. So can you guys do that for me and with me? So let's go ahead and get started.

And we're going to start, I'm going to kind of draw in different things as they come in, but we're going to start with the idea of a diamond shape. Okay? So I want you to sit in a very comfortable position with the bottoms of your feet together, your knees out comfortably. Just a little bit of external rotation of the hips and just place your hands on your, uh, your shins and use your arms gently to kind of lift her body up, sitting right on top of the pelvis, elevating your rib cage over the pelvis here. And right away we see our first diamond shape in our legs today. See, super easy. So really nice to kind of see that diamond shape that we have in the legs.

And we're going to kind of play with that. Now I want you to picture here for me along your back. I want you to think of the top of the diamond being at the occipital bones. And I want you to kind of how our rumbler, excuse me, our trapezius muscles are shaped. I want you to see the diamond kind of come down to your shoulders.

And then I want you to see it come down to the bottom tips of the scapula. So imagine that really broad diamond there. And later we're going to talk about that diamond, like a kite that flies in the sky, right? So I want you to play with just those two images of that diet of those diamonds as we start this work here. So we're just going to start very simple with some stable that stabilization work and you're going to hinge back just a little bit. Nice flat back hinge, and then come straight back up. So don't make the movement very big, but I really want you to imagine that diamond that goes across your back sing really broad and flat and you can even balanced that or mirror that posterior diamond image with one anterior. So one that's on the front side of the body.

And that's going to be your co contraction of your spine. So just going back and forth gently, just rocking over the hips, rocking over the pelvis, and when you come up, I want you to feel like you're getting taller, lengthening your spine out of the pelvis. Let's do two more. Breathe in as you go back and coming back up. And one more time. I want you to hold it there. Now take your breath in with an Xcel.

I want you to literally feel you're going to elevate your spine a little bit more. Fill your energy, reach more up on that diagonal. Good. Now go back to that image of that diamond across your back. So it's going to help you broaden the mid back and then lengthen the bottom tip of the scapula away from the occipital bones there. So hold that position in. Gently take your hands one at a time behind you pumps that fingertips rather can face to the side or straight back. Then I want you to allow your waist, so take some of that pressure off the hip flexors and kind of put some of that weight into your heel of your hands here. Now from here, the diamonds of the leg is going to close. You're going to exhale, close the legs. Inhale, open. Exhale, close the legs. Inhale Open. So just feel that internal and external rotation of the hip joint. XL.

Close. Inhale, open. Now reach energy down into the heel of the hand. So you're just opening. You're allowing the muscles at the front of the chest, the pictorial muscles, the anterior shoulders, just to open up and respond to that beautiful stretch that we're placing upon it. So close. Now just do your right leg and close and open. Three times to two more close to just again mobilizing, warming up the hip joint a bit. And do the left leg here. So close. Good. So just picturing the half of that diamond moving, closing, and opening.

One more time. So holding this position here, bring your feet back together for me. Stay. Yep. Do you have that nice hold there. So I want you to release the arms. I don't want you to bring them out to the side. So now you have that beautiful balance there. You've might have a little bit of a tingling in your hand there.

So now what I want to do is I want you to roll back into that posterior tilt, hold that position. Good. So go as far back as you can feel. Hold that position. Now I want you to scoop a little bit deeper and I want you to bring the right side of your diamond up and the left side of your diamond up and hold it. Find that balance. Now draw a little bit more into the posterior tilt if you can. You're going to take the feet down together and you're going to roll back up into that extended spine. Good. So go ahead and roll yourself back.

Hold that position. Bring the left side of the diamond at this time. Then the right side, hold it there. Hold it there. Slowly lower the legs down. Feel that control and then roll back up. Beautiful. So diving right into the abdominal work. So curving back, filling that posterior tilt to the pelvis, bringing the bottom up towards the top. Bring the right leg up.

Then the left leg up holds it there. Feel that beautiful contraction of the abdominals. Lower the feet down and then rule yourself right back up. Let's do it one more time and reaching rule. Find that position there. Bring the left leg up, good.

The right leg up, holding a reach energy out through your arms. Look at that diamond shape of your legs. Now control that, control of that, control that, and then coming right back up. So holding it there, feeling that great control. Beautiful. So now I want you to roll back again for me. Good. So ladies, you guys are gonna roll toward me and I'm going to roll towards you. I'm going to adjust myself just a little bit.

So I want you to roll and meet me here. Perfect. Great. So we're going to really, you guys are on your pullover different, right? So you're going to really reach that bottom hand down into the mat. So here I'm going to add the image of a triangle. So you can see that beautiful triangle that comes down the side of your body, across the mountain, up your arm.

You're going to feel really steady through that triangle. So you're engaging in the surveys from using the lats gives me the shoulders. But then I also want you to feel maintaining the upper back extension as well and opening up that shoulder. Beautiful. Great. So here we have closed in that diamond shape of the legs. Of course we can always do a little Clune, which is nice and fun and easy.

So we're going to go ahead and do a few of those here. I've got a little chuckle. It's easy. No gets to just feeling that external rotation of the hip. Let's do a couple more. Exhale. Good. Now hold it there. Now reach that leg up and close.

So maybe you've done clam many, many times that maybe haven't really thought about it in the sense of maintaining, coming in and out of this little bit of this diamond shape here. Maintain that triangle shape underneath your arms. So should feel that connection on the bottom side of your waist. Yes, last one. Now hold it there. Extend the leg. Good. Now you're going to reach roll on to both hips. Reach forward. This.

So kind of like this weird teaser prep diamond [inaudible] thingy. Funkiness right. Let's just hold that there until I have your inflection here. Now I want you to reach the energy out through the leg. Come into extension. Yes. And close. Reach out and rules. So when initiate the work from the pelvis. Beautiful Mary. That was gorgeous.

Hold it there. Good. Now feel like somebody pulling your leg out. Reach out, reach out, reach out. Push energy down through there and find that triangle underneath your arm. Good and close. Let's do one more time. Reach. So initiate from the abdominals, from the pelvis. Feel the rotation of the leg. Fill the rotation of the shoulder. Yes.

And feel the rotation of the heads of the shoulder. Reach back, find it, come here. Perfect. And then scoop three of them. We're going to roll over onto the other side. So coming here. So find that diamond or excuse me, rather that triangle shape underneath your arm. Reached out, arm up the top arm. Good. And we'd start with our clams. So external rotation out. Good. I say good because I can see when the reflection, cause I'm a mom. And when you write, you haven't magically have eyes in the back of your head. Good.

So externally wrote to that looks beautiful ladies. They'll fill the scapula nice and wide. Imagine that they're wide. Go back to that diamond shape on your back. That kite. Yes. Love it. Now hold that external rotation. Extend the leg out and tap the toes.

Extend and tap the toes. Good. Extend and tap the toes. Beautiful. Keep that energy reaching. Don't settle into your body. It'll feel a little bit harder in some sense, but a little bit easier if you keep radiating that energy out. Beautiful. Last one. And hold it. Rotate from the pelvis. Good. Reaching, reaching.

If you're familiar with dance and dance history, you want to feel very Martha Grammy here. And then reach out. Find it extension, yes. And then move from the abdominals and roll back. Yes. So you're feeling you're seated really heavy into your pelvis. Yes. And then you just reach out and fill that full extension.

Push energy down to that bottom arm. Fill that triangle, fill that diamond across your back. Good. Two more. Exhale. Nice. And then spiral and feel that spiral in the thighs in the shoulders as you're letting the humerus and the femur rotate. And XL, this is your last one. That looks great. And then reach out. Find it. Good. Bend the knee. You're going to come back for me.

So I want you to come back into this position here. Wants you to bring both legs up and then wants you to hold. Yes, go ahead. So we're going to roll like a seal minus the foot. Toe taps in minus the really hard position with your shoulders. Okay, so you're gonna roll back. Exhale. And at that was for you Amy and roll back. Yes, you're holding that diamond steady.

Do not let that diamond get bigger or smaller in your legs. Now keep going. Ladies. Here, we're going to draw this image of a circle. Hold right there. Do you imagine from your toes around your bottom, over your shoulders to the top of the head background. Imagine just somebody taking a marker and just drawing that endless circle around your body. And you're going to roll in that circle. So draw the abdominals in. Little more posterior, tilting the pelvis to rock you off your balance and they come up and find it.

Now keep that circular energy. Yes. And Rolling back and up and keep that circular energy. Beautiful. Rolling back and holds it there. Nice. Now take your right foot. We're going to break that diamond above your left foot. Yep. So a little bit.

Yup. Nice. Now you're going to roll back. Switch legs and switch legs when you come up. So roll back, switch and up and hold. Yes. Roll back. Switch and up in hold. Last one, the side switch and up. Inhale, hold it. And then switch legs. Start with your left leg up. Roll back, switch and balance. Roll back, switch. Good. So keep that circular energy for me and roll back. Switch and find that balance. Find that balance.

Keep that posterior tilt to the pelvis. Bring your toes together. Tap your toes down. Hold that diamond shape and articulate for me. Good. So now take that kite, that image of that kite across your back holding right there. Now you're going to rotate, rotate, rotate, rotate. So you're going to take four rotations to go back into the hinge.

They're going to rotate, right, left, right, left and rotating. Now that feels more comfortable for you to take your arms out. That's fine with me. I just want you to focus on letting that image of that kite across your back. Good. Just kind of feel free as you're rotating that spine. Yes, and rotate back. Got Beautiful. Good.

Keep doing that and twist and just start to fill that freedom of the spine as you reach back. Good. And come up. Nice. Let's do one more time and go back. Good and up. Nice. Good. And hold it there. Now bringing the bottoms of the feet all the way together. Now you should feel more power, more lengthen your spine to be able to sit up with a little bit more control, less. No assistance from your arm surge. Just really feeling that body there. Now rotate toward me. Twist. Yes.

Now you're going to dive down and you're going to reach through and come up. So again, we're going to die from the top of the head down in deflection and they are going to extend on diagonal and, and the twist over to the other side to the right. Diving down and reaching up. So now we're taking other sides. Sorry ladies. I'm sorry. That was my fault to the center. We're gonna alternate sides.

So go toward me. Good. And go down and up through the center other side. So I want you to start to feel this flow now is that little diamond shape of your legs being affected by the rotation? Yeah. Right? So see how you can take okay the spine and move it, but yet maintain some of that integrity of the legs. And that's coming from that little bit of that pelvic stability. One more set. Good feeling that worked through the back. Last one.

Good. Holding it there. And I'll come forward here. Now with me, very slow. We're going to articulate down, articulate down. Of course when we get to the bottom you can adjust. But for now, keep that control. Keep that control. Now once your lower back is down, I want you to sweep in and bring the legs up. Hands are going to be down by the mat, so you're in this beautiful flection.

Flex your feet and lower your body down. So I just, if you need to on your mat now we're going to bend the knees and Exhale, extend. So we're still playing with that diamond shape in the legs here. So you can see how you pull open into that diamond or hold it there. Now see if you can get that, the knees a little further apart. So you're really broadening that horizontal aspect of that diamond shape by externally rotating your hips a bit more. Great. And then press up.

So I want you to feel a little bit more external rotators. Of course you're gonna fill your hip flexors a lot. You're going to fill your stabilization coming through your torso, through your pelvis. You should feel a little bit of ad doctors. Now from here, take your hands, put your palms together for me. Now you're going to bend your knees into the diamond, but you're going to come up into flection.

So like a little bit of 100% beautiful. And then reached back and thinking, reaching forward. So imagining that beautiful diamond shape of the legs. So now we're going to hold your, now you can see your policy in front of you. So now I want you to imagine your pubic bone up to your ass, up to your belly button, and there's another diamond. Do you guys see it?

And I want you to look at it. And I want you to imagine that being really nice and flat. Good. And then reach back to more like that and reach back one more time. Hold this position now you're going to extend your arms and your legs out. Hold it there. You're gonna reach up, bend your knees down into that diamond shape, your arms meets, Ma, match it.

Rather reach out and up. And then we're gonna do one more and hold. So grab the back of your legs for me just to support your head and your neck here for a moment as I still, as I talked to you. So from here I want you to see another circle for me. So this circle I want you to imagine of your spine.

It's going to start from the back of your hips. It's going to sweep up and around over the crown of your head, and you can imagine it over your feet or you can kind of imagine it cutting through your legs and it's going to sweep around. So I want you to again, matching that circle. So we're going to take a breath in with your Xcel. You're going to imagine a little bit more of that circular energy and watch how your spine kind of floats up into more fluxion. That's so pretty. Breathe in. Yeah. And feel that circle. And just imagine how your spine lets itself respond into that flection. Good.

One more time. And imagine that circle now. Hold that circular energy. Good. We're going to come down for a little bit of a break. Okay. Relax your jaw. Relax your neck flexors a little bit. If you're like me, Oh boy, those neck flexors. Darn it. Okay. So now I want you to bring your hands back up.

I want you to play with that beautiful diamond integrity of the legs. But then imagine that circle coming in of the flexor and I want you to feel if you feel more, more connection, more ease with obtaining trunk flection. So take your breath in and exhale. Imagine that circle of your body going up and over. Yes, we have the lever of the arms helping us and that's okay. And bring it back. I'm doing this now with pointed feet where before I was inflection a hold it there. Extend the arms, reach up and as are not.

Circle extending arms and legs out to the side and reach up. Watch a circle. Come over. Good and out. Does that help you stay up in your flection? Good one, one time. And reach. Now here ladies, open your legs and roll toward me. Oh my goodness. So fun. Yes. If I fall off you guys can laugh.

Good. So hold it there. Beautiful. Okay, let's bend and extensive balance. So now I want you to get a little bit of lateral flection. Yes, good. And reach. And then and reach one more time and hold it, hold it and reach up a little bit more to that top leg. Glide. Now we've, you come over, you're going to roll across your back, but you're gonna lift the energy of that circle up and over.

So you hold that flection to hold that flection. Guess over to the other side. Find it right over my mic pack. That feels, hold it there. Good now then no, I'm okay. You're good. Reach. And then Nice. Now feel that lateral flection a little bit more. If you can, that top arm to that top leg, that top rib cage gliding down to the top side of the pelvis. Good bend and fill that reach. That looks so pretty and again, and retold it. Good. Now maintain that flection. Come over the center.

Fill that height, fill that height. There it is. That circle. Good. Bring your legs together. Bring your arms together, palm stays down. You're gonna pull yourself into the energy of that circle going over your body a little bit more parallel with your legs. Bend your knees, take your left foot down and slide your right leg out. Oh, it feels great. So now we're going to work with some hip extension. You have this gorgeous triangle right here of your leg so you can see it, this beautiful triangle. Now I want you to activate energy through that bottom foot, and you're gonna feel the hamstring engage right off the bat.

And Go ahead and flex your right foot. That's out on the mat. Good. So engage that left hamstring, flex that right foot. So you're filling that power there. So what we're going to do here, ladies, is you're going to bridge your hips up and you're going to point your foot, push down through that left leg, bridge the hips up, Glenna, push down through your right leg at the same time. So you really have those hip extensors engaged. Now as you lengthen out, flex your foot. Oh, that's a good sound and reach. That's awesome.

And you're going to lift up. We're going to try not to make that happen again. Now start with your toes, your ball of your foot, and then feel as if somebody's pulling your heel out away from you. Yes. So as you do that two more times, hold that image of that strong diamond shape and that bottom leg. Yes. And then reach out. So now we're going to marry that nice steady diamond to that bottom leg and we're going to see us semicircle with the body as we come up into the bridge.

Good. So hold that. So can you see that semicircle? If you can imagine like a rainbow, your shoulders anchor down. Look at the apex of that semicircle is your pelvis. Yes. And then you go all the way down in the bottom. Anchor, the pot of gold so to speak, is in your heel. Hamstrings. Okay, hold it there. And then reach and lengthen out. Push through the heel. Now if you need to just kind of shake it out.

We don't want to get any little counseling. Cam, sir, we're going to go into our bridge here. So we're going to shoulder bridge chair. So we're going to press up. As you do that, you're going to devil up pay or extend that leg up. Good. Now reach, fill that semicircle retreats you the apex of that semicircle up in your pelvis. Tap that foot down and then flex the heel and length and out.

So point your foot, bend the knee and reach up. Yes. Reaching out. Feel that circle, fill that half circle of your body and then flex and bring it down. One more time like that. And Bend and reach up. Good. And I want to see an arc arc energy of your body over. Yes. And reach it out. Lengthen. Lengthen. Lengthen all the way. All the way.

And switch legs, which is going to feel magical. Yes. Okay. Maybe magical is a little bit of a very demonstrative word there, but that's okay. I like adjectives. Okay, so let's go. We have that beautiful triangle there. Good enough. Spread those toes out. Feel the power of that triangle. Activate those hamstrings. They're good. Nice. Okay.

So what we do is we bridge up and you point the bottom foot. So plantar flex, good. Reach up, reach up, reach up. Good. And then member, somebody pulling the energy of your heel away as if you're drawing your hip away from your pelvis. Nice. And then go ahead and bridge up. So there's that rainbow shoulder up through the pelvis. Down through the foot. Yes.

And reach down and your hip flexors should be responding to this and opening a little bit more. Let's go two more times. Energy through your shoulders. So your upper back. Yes, a little bit more draw of a posterior tilt. Yes. Kind of help counter balance all of that. Hip extensor working me with kind of drawing a little more energy through the whole body. Good. And again, last one. Nice. Good. Hold that there. Little bit more.

Tuck of the pelvis if you can guess and beautiful. Good. Feel a little more opening through the hip, hip flexors and then reach out. Good. Now let's go into that shoulder bridge. So we bend and reach now where's another circle you see through that so you can talk to me. Can you see that beautiful kind of circular pattern that we're making of the body? You want to undulate the body here. That's another, I love that word so many times I can use that.

The one class again and up. Undulate the body. Good. That's so nice. And again, sweeping that leg up and reaching out. Finding it. That's so pretty. Hold it there and reach all the way, all the way, all the way. Beautiful. Now bring your legs up, extended up here. Another circle that we do here. Circular Energy is through our rollover. So taking your breath in, I want you to post early until the pelvis.

That's where your circle starts and you're gonna peel the spine over with your exhale. Come all the way to the top. Flex the fi open, lower the toes, and roll down. So before we start to play with some variations, we're going to go into just one more good old, wonderful, full rollover. So here, in order to maintain that beautiful position, you got to be Willie. Hold that energy of that circle really coming up and over the spine like it's floating up in the air. Now as a result of that, you should feel as if you're kind of a little bit more posteriorly, tilted in your pelvis. Good. Now keep that circular energies that go ahead and flex and open and toes down. Great. And keep that energy as you roll down.

Really keep that circle drawing, that circle around your body. Seeing that circle, seeing that circle, yes and close your feet or your legs. Brother, come up and let's do another one and exhale. Let that circle bring you over as so nice. Okay. That looked like really flowy and not like, you know, sometimes we do in our roll over us. That was beautiful. Okay, so hold lead on for me please. I'll call it. So let's bring the toes down. Excuse me. Now I want you to hold on to your left foot or ankle or cab, wherever you can reach. With that left hand, you're going to take that right leg.

You're going to circle it out and around and up. Flex the foot as you bring it down. So you've got to listen to my voice here. Rotate the hip externally. Take it out to the side as you bring the leg up, as high as you can, point the foot. It's an external rotation. Bring it back to parallel, flexing down. Now push your right hand down externally. Rotate the hip through the mat. Keep your balance.

If you lose that image of that circle energy coming over your body here, your pelvis will fall back and you will probably fall down or [inaudible] oh, why are you laughing? Good. Hold there. Now circle the right hand around to grab the right foot or ankle and bring the left hand down and then circle cool with the left leg. Now if you can get all the way up vertical to the um, you know, just vertically, straight up, that would be great. But just work where you can right now. I'm more concerned with you holding that beautiful stability of the pelvis as you mobilize that hip, focusing on balance.

That is the goal here. That is the objective and reaching up and back. And one more time for me and reaching him. Good breath. Good. Now both feet black. Circle the right arm around. Now point your feet here.

Now we're going to do this big sweeping circle motion with our corpse grill. So legs are going to go to the left. Now roll down the left side of your back. I feel this beautiful circle all the way around, up the right side of your body and center all to take directions to the right, going down the right side of the body, sweeping around and filling that abdominal control, that articulation of your spine as you go up and circle to center and go sweeping around could feel that control. Circle those legs around an a that circle over. So if you had crayons on your toes, you would just have this beautiful circle being drawn around your body, up in the air, over your body. Yes. And again, reaching over. So as you one more set around, good. Just reach the energy through your legs to the really nice to straight.

Beautiful Ladies and last one for me and good and up. Hold it there. Now to continue with the idea of circle, you're gonna bend your knees, keep your thighs parallel to the ground. Now bring the pelvis a little bit more into the posterior tones. Go ahead. So what I'm going to have you do here is you're going to start to roll down through your spine. You're going to roll up until the rolling like a ball position balancing on your hips, but it's going to be seamless.

It's going to be wonderful because you're in this beautiful circle position. Your body is controlled and contained. So you're going to roll down, start to lift your head and find your balance. No, this exercise in and of itself. So go ahead and draw your heels in towards your bottom is the epitome of being in a perfect circular position. So let's try three just to massage the spine a little bit more. Go ahead.

It's a continuation of that rollover massage that we got an XL up. Go ahead because we worry so much about balance when we do the rolling like a ball. But if you just picture close your eyes, which my three bounced off a little bit, but close your eyes and just picture you're rolling inside a circle. Okay. And try it for me with your eyes closed.

Okay. And just keep pitching that and see if you can keep that tight position of your body. That's still where we have as hard time with rolling like ball. So we let that body open. Good. Nice ladies. One more time. Yes.

And hold it there. Hold it there and bring the legs back into the diamond and sit right back up for me. Finding that position, holding that. How does that feel? So I feel good. Wonderful. Okay. So holding there in that position, just feel that extension of your spine here. Yeah. Nice. Imagine that diamond shape that comes across your back. Nice and broad.

Nice and wide. Yeah. Phil, how you had that nice energy and warmth in the front body. Good. Nice. I just feel a little bit different sitting there.

So let's come over onto the side and I want you to lie down here. Okay, so reaching nice and long. Great. Perfect. So from here now I just use the image of the diamond shape for the pelvis. Now I want you to see it as a triangle on the anterior aspect of the pelvis. So Asi Ssis, pubic bone in there.

So you're going to take that beautiful triangle and it's really nice and level here and you're going to tip it side to side. So you're going to bring the top side of that triangle, which is the top hip, and you're going to squeeze it up to the rib cage and then take it down and bring it up. Up, up, up, up, up. Yes. So when you think about the image of that triangle, I want you to also just play with that. I want you to recognize how that makes your body feel when you move. What does it change about it for you? Is it easier for your balance?

Do you feel more of the oblique control or the oblique sensation that we want that we want to get our, our goal here to challenge those obliques? Can you feel more public floor activation as you're holding the energy of the Asi es closer and closer together. Good. And last one holds it there. And even these really feeling my vibe cause she's already on my same page. I like. Good. Thank you. So hold there. So we have that triangle. That triangle is lopsided. No, that pelvis bring your least slightly forward.

Might help a little bit with balance. Now here, we're going to draw another semicircle over our body. We're going to reach over. Yes. That tri triangle is still tilted. You can feel that. Yes. Good. And then reach out. Beautiful and app. Keep it there. Keep it there. Hold it there.

Holds it there and lengthen as you go out. Good. When we're time and reach good. Feel that tilted triangle. Tilt it a little bit more. Triangle the pelvis still till till till. Get a little more oblique work. A little more QL work. Oh, their faces are so pretty and reach all the way here. Good.

Now hold there. Good. Now again, if I fall, you can laugh at me, but your triangle is now even again. Fill that link. Yes. Now take that triangle of the pelvis and turn it with control. Turn it, turn it, turn it. We we're going prone. The flop is fine and holds it there. Good.

Now circle the arms around and open the legs so you're in an x position, essentially will not really an extra arms, a little bit wider. Good. And then what you're going to do here. Can you continue to circle your arms? You're going to close your legs. Does that make sense? Now you're going to circle your arms again. Open your legs. We keep the legs open for a brief moment. And then as your arms close, close your legs again. Good. So you're gonna keep that pattern.

So you're circling those arms. Good. And then close the legs as you bring your arms all the way to your body. Beautiful. Socal, your arms completely out to the side. Good. So now that you see your drawing, that again, that circle with your arms, you're still going to picture that diamond shape of your pelvis. Now that triangle, it's not the diamond shaped by the, excuse me, the triangle shape is a little bit bowed, right?

Because the ASI are down. You have the pelvis is a little bit anterior tilted. Beautiful. Nice ladies. Good. Now hold right there. Now if you can, you can take your hand down if you need to.

If you're going to roll over onto your other side. So you're ready to do the leg work here. So find your position. Good, perfect. So again, align that triangle up as best as you can. Good. So you're gonna take the top line of that triangle, shaped that image there, and you're going to lift the legs up and you're going to tilt it, bringing that hip up toward the pelvis. Good. And then lengthen as you bring it down. Good. So so simple here and again, some of these images will resonate with you, some of them won't.

There are so many that we can bring in, but when we start to work with the concept of image, it kind of will help release some of the tension we carry when we do, when we do movement. And of course our options for images are endless. But working with shapes is just kind of a fun kind of elementary, rudimentary way to kind of look at some of our movements here. Good. And I just wanted to explore that a little bit today. Nice ladies. So again, recognizing by working with that tilt and straighten and Tilton straight into that triangle of the pelvis, how that affects your movement, holds it here. Beautiful. Take that top arm, reach it. Good. So we're going to hold that tilted triangle a little bit more married if you can. Beautiful. And then we're going to sweep up.

You can see that beautiful semicircle and it reaches at the top. Imagine the energy reaching. Now here's where it really matters. Open out wide as you reached down so that we really emphasize the East centric phase of this contraction. Good. And reach up imagining that circle beautiful and down. So as you do that, you're marrying again, that triangle of the pelvis with that circular of the movement.

Yes, and reach as you go down one more time for me please. And up. Go ahead and reach. They'll feel it nice and strong. Beautiful. Now with control, you're going to roll back into your prone position. So reaching out through the crown of the head, out to the legs as if somebody is pulling your legs. Good, good.

Very nice holding there. Now sweep your hands into your hands are underneath your shoulders. Your elbows are down onto the mat. You can go ahead and relax your feet down from me. Go ahead. We're going to come up into kind of like a swan, diabe preppy thing.

So we're going to lift the head neck and chest app, and you're going to press up here. So feel the shoulders nice and glute down. Fill that lift in that extension through your sternum. So as you come down, you're gonna lift your right leg up into extension. Good lifted up. Nice. Now from here, I want you to hold that leg up as you lift that body up, hold that leg where you can and only lift her body as high as you can.

Not let that leg go down. Keep it into extension. Yes, it won't be as high as it was before. Perfect. Now from here, really glue. If your elbows are down, glue them into the mat. Perfect energy out through the crown of the head. Now bend that knee and good. Keep the abdominals in and up a little bit. Now reaching energy back through the crown of the head.

And I want you to draw a circle around your knee from your toe to the back of the head. Yes, that changed it completely good. I know it's tough on the back. Beautiful. Now lead on that leg and reach the body all the way down. Beautiful. We're going to do the same thing with the other side, so go ahead and lift the head, neck and chest up. We're going to come into a full swan prep here, so reach up now here, pull that pubic bone forward a little bit. Good. Lift that sternum up. Nice. So coming all the way down.

Lengthening, lengthening, lift that left leg at this time. Good, nice strong, straight knee. Now extend that back up is high as you can go without letting that left leg drop. Good. Now bend that knee. Reach the energy, the back of the head back and picture that circle going around your body. Yes. Extend that leg. Reach it out and lower down.

Beautiful. One more time. Up into the full swan prep. Coming up, up, up. Feel that stretch. Fill that link. Good. Now from here, you know we're not going to bend the knees here, but again, I want you to see a circle around your body and see if that helps you elevate your sternum a little bit more. Get a little bit more of that, reached that we want a little bit more. Lift into your back extension, a little bit more elevation out of your lumbar spine. Then bend your elbows, keep your legs down, go all the way down and sweep your body up and come into your rest position here. Stretching out your back, finding that stretch, letting your hips just stay dropped down.

Extend your arms forward for me. Reach all the way. Nice. So when you take your exhale, I want you to let your hips get a little bit deeper, a little bit heavier on your heels. Yes, go ahead. Just take your deep breath. Okay.

And then just keep again, that energy of that circle wrapping encompassing your body, wrapping your body up in that beautiful continuous energy. And as your heels dropped down or we just forward comes up over the top of the shoulders and the head sweeps down your back, your bottom, Jeff's backs down into your heels. So you can kind of imagine that with your breath. I hope as you breathe, just keep that continual energy coming over the body, down through the bottom and reaching up and over and just feeling heavier with each breath, letting those spinal extensors just open and relax and lengthen with each breath. Let the hips relax. Let the articulation of the femur into the pelvis. Get a little bit deeper with each breath.

Take your breath in and with an exhale, go ahead and roll that for me. [inaudible] Nice. And when you're sitting here again, I want you to go through just some of our little main things that we focused on. You have that beautiful diamond coming across your back. She feel that energy, so really nice and broad, really nice. A long, you want to feel the energy of that triangle of your pelvis. Good. So the seam of your pants should be vertical straight down.

Good. Yes. Nice. And just imagine those simple shapes in our body. Simple shapes in our movement. Thank you. So again, we can just have a lot of fun with some different imagery and some different shapes. So go ahead and start to play with that as you're moving through other classes here in ideas, anytime and just see when you can see those shapes in your movement in your body and how that kind of affects the way that you move. So real quick, I'm going to have these ladies, guests give us some real quick feedback about maybe some changes they may or may not felt, but hopefully what you did was there one that stands out to you and I'll go ahead and repeat that to them at the beginning for me, the flection. So Amy with that circular kind of a cuing, an imagery of coming up over into a circle, kind of help to take some of that tension out of the spine and are the neck that keeps us locked up and keeps us from obtaining that beautiful flection position that we want to, which will and never really takes away from the work that we're able to obtain in the abdominals for that forward. Fluxion anything in this battle, the bent knee is I can get more my upper back. Wonderful. So in that swan that we did there in the back extension, bending the knee and I saw that for sure with your body able to get a little bit more of that upper back lean thing that we want, which is so hard to get any sort of articulation in the thoracic spine.

Flexion and extension or whatever it is is so easy to carry it all in the lumbar spine, but that helps to kind of keep that work equal through the body. I liked the one like a ball. Yes. Wonderful. So rolling like a ball. Just keeping that beautiful circular motion so that the body does open and closes and we don't get so caught up on balance that, yeah. So do me a little bit more flow. So that's so wonderful.

Thank you ladies so much. I hope that you enjoyed that class. Please leave a comment below on maybe some of the things that you felt or you know, if you have any questions about it and I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you so much for joining me for that little math class. Thanks ladies.

Comments

Leah! Thank you! Loving the shape theme!
Super creative, well thought and always awesome material!
Thank you, great class!! Play with the diamond…aww, that's awesome! Excellent explanation!
Wow, how wonderful! I did all of your great pre-natal and post-partum classes over and over again during my pregnancy. So happy that you now have a "normal" Pilates mat class here. Can't wait to do it tonight! Yeah!!!
Thank You Leah for yor Style in your Class, i love it.
Greetings from Germany
Excelllent, thank you!
Nice day from Slovakia
Fantastic class! Loved every movements and going to use them for my clients too. Thank you Leah!
Yay! I'm so happy that you are all enjoying this class! Keep having fun with those shapes
Enjoyed this class, associating shapes with movements very helpful.
The shape imagery was fun very helpful. Even if it was just an energetic boost rather than something you could see physically in my body, it helped me express the pose more powerfully. Creative sequence! Beautifully done, my body and mind enjoyed the wonerful movement.
I'll be "coloring" with crayons to "see" my leg movements in all my classes now. Thank you Leah. So glad I didn't see you were teaching this class last night or I wouldn't have gone to bed a bit early as I planned. It was a lovely wake up surprise!! I may just HAVE to visit you in Costa Mesa.
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