Class #2645

Improve your Flexibility

55 min - Class
45 likes

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Work on your flexibility in this Mat workout with Monica Wilson. She teaches her brother, who is very active but doesn't always have time to stretch. She emphasizes the length of every movement while still trying to challenge him with a strong workout.
What You'll Need: Mat, Pilates Pole

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All right. Today we are here with my brother. I get to teach him and I don't get that many opportunities to teach my brother, but um, I'm going to teach him an extra workout specifically for his body, which is he is very active, very fit, but does not get enough time to stretch. And I'm going to really emphasize all the stretching and flexibility yet try to challenge him for a strong workout. So go ahead and lie down. Good. And Bend your knees and put your feet flat on the Mat. This is going to be about a, um, basic pilates mat with a lot of stretching. Like I said, uh, you might want to find out if you have some yoga, uh, blocks.

They're pretty easy to find around town, but I like to use some handles at the end for some pushups. I prefer some that grots has their a little bit higher, almost eight to 10 inches up off the ground and have a good solid wooden handle on their metal frame. But these also will do just fine. Um, so we're going to be working with those towards the end. You don't need to have them either. So don't feel like you can't do this whole workout if you don't have those. So. All right, Gus, we're going to start off with the hundred and I'm gonna put this three pound bar right at, um, right below your bottom.

Can I want you to hold it on with your hands just three pounds. Okay. And I want you to rest your head down. Good. And I want you to shrug your shoulders up to your ears, not up to the ceiling, but toward your ears. Yeah, there you go. And now I want you to slide your shoulder blades down. Maybe do a shoulder roll here. So you're going to go up and back.

I just want you to be aware yeah. Of where your shoulders are. Okay. Just feel them on your body. And I want you now to slide them down towards your tailbone and keep them there. Good. So when you pump your arms, you want to keep your shoulders in joint like that and reach that bar long instead of it coming up towards your tensing up. Okay, sir. Yep. So you're going to be reaching there with a straight line all the way to your fingertips. So even where your wrist is, I don't want you to clench that bar.

I want you to hold it, um, in between your, the little nook in your thumb and your forefinger. Perfect. Straight fingers, all together together. Not like a web. Excellent. Good. All right, so you're going to bend over one knee into the chest using your stomach and bend the other knee in. Good. All right. So first I want you to really understand how to use your stomach. Okay? So we don't just tense it and bare down in [inaudible], it should be like a suction cup pulling all of your abdominals, your internal and external obliques, your rectum of dominance, your trans versus is what the muscle is, is gonna pull everything in to support your back. So I'm going to give you a lot of that opposition today to feel that. And then there we go. And I want you to also the anatomy lessons.

While he's ain't pool, not just into your back, but it's I want, we're going to try to get a little length because your lower back, it gets a little compressed and I want you to get that compression out. So we're gonna end up stretching the rest your head down for a second. So I ended up pull your legs out to the position where I want your hundred to be. We're going to turn out your legs a little bit in applies stance. We're going to rest them on my legs right now. Pull into your back. Nope, no head yet. Pull your stomach in away from me. Can you feel me pulling you just a little good. So how about here?

Do you feel that now? Okay. Pull your belly away from me. Excellent. Now lift your head up. Good. All the way to look at your belly up, up, up, up, round up with your head and shoulders to come up with your shoulders. Good. Further up. Come up, up, up, up. That's right. Now start pumping your bar up and down. Yes. Reaching Long. Good, but have some rhythm. It's like this. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale. It's not gonna touch the mat anymore.

Curl up a little bit higher with your upper stomach. Thank you. That's it. That is perfect. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale. Do you hear me about the breathing? Yes, it don't come up so high in with the air and exhaling all your air pulling it in. Good. Good. So keep your legs reaching. Keep moving, everything. Keep your legs reaching like this in a Pilati stance, a little triangle, and I'm going to let go and you hold that. Good. Inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Keep pulling it. That's it.

Go for it with the air. Now on your exhale, try to pull away from my fingers as much as you can. Pull away. Pull a yes, that's the correct stomach. And inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Pull it in. Pull it in. Pull away from my fingers. That said, that's a feeling you want. One more. Inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Pull away from my fingers. Pull right into the part of your back that might bother you. And then put the bar underneath your legs. Knees and then bend them towards you. Bend your knees, rest your head down. Just rest. Take a break.

Good, good. So you're just pulling your belly into that lower part of your back. Could you feel that? Good. All right. We're going to take the bar out and sit up. Okay. If you're at home and you don't have a strap at the end of your mat, you can put your feet under a couch or a big club chair and that'll work.

But let's put it there and just go ahead and go like that and put your hands underneath your knees. Nope. Sit Up and just put your hands. Yep. Like that. There you go. And round your back. Pretty good. We're going to start with your shoulders right over your hip bones, because employees, we always work with the box, right? A straight line from one shoulder to the other and a straight line from one hip to the other. Okay. And that these always stay here. We might round our back, we might arch our back, but we always keep this within relationship so that we keep our spine supported.

So keep your shoulders right now where they are. It's all right. Keep your hips right where they are and you're going to pull your belly in and round your back. Not by going back with your shoulders. They stay there. Just bring your head to your chest and round your back. Very good. Good, good. You don't have to think about it as much as you think so you, that strap is there, right?

I want you to pull your belly into my hand in your lower back against that strap. So we're going to pull and we're going to roll back, but pull, that's it. Very good. Very good. Keep your hands where they are. Pull your belly into the mat, take a breath. Exhale. Keep your belly in and round forward again. Go right back to home where we started. Perfect.

Take a breath and exhale. Pull your belly into your back. Good. So you're really pulling into your back and just to, there's great, take a breath and exhale forward schooling in your belly so it's all from your stomach. We initiate every movement in pies from your powerhouse and take a breath. One more like this. And exhale, pull in in. Good.

So he's really pulling in his stomach, going down this bone. Good. Now I want you to slide your hands down as you go down the next bone, but do it from here. You haven't moved here. And then keep going down the next bone. Yes, and the next and the next until your head touches the mat. So go through all your shoulders and head. Touch the head to the mat. Inhale, lift the head up to the chest.

And now Xcel try to roll up one bone at a time. And you do that by pulling your belly into your back against the strap. That's excellent. Starting to squeeze that stale air out of your lungs. Stay rounded. One more of those. Pull your belly away from that strap into your lower back.

Beautiful. And then go and down. Good. Everything feel okay. Good. Go each bone down until you touch your head. Good. And now all the way down. And now inhale, lift your head up and exhale scooping in one bonehead time. Good. Exhale all that air. Try to exhale a little sooner next time. Now we're going to work a little on your flexibility.

So slide your bottom back until your body, your legs are straight. Good. And bring your heels together. Still the straps going to be taught. I like to use this three pound bar. Go ahead and grab on. Just like good and reach it. Reach, reach, reach, reach for your toes. Yeah, head down.

Good, good. Head down. Good. And I'm going to stretch you. So take a big breath and then exhale while I stretch you. Exhale all your air. Blow it out. Thank you. Good. Yeah, there we go. Little tight little things. Okay, so now keep your head between your arms and we're gonna head between your arms and we're going to roll back. Yeah, keep trying to do that. Feel my toe and pull your belly into my toe. Against that strap. Yes. And then the next bone, that's exactly what we want. Beautiful.

Keep going. You're lining up your vertebra, one by one on the mat. Then rest your shoulders, rest your head. Lift your bar up to the ceiling. Good. And now exhale as you drop your belly into the mat. See if you can keep your back on the mat. Do you feel your back on the mat? Yes. And I'm going to pull you for a stretch. Three, two, one. Do you feel your stomach in good. Do you feel how your waist is kind of lengthening up this way? Yeah.

I want you to remember that feeling for future exercise arms. Come here. Straight fingers so you don't grip that too much. Bring your head up through your arms. Good. And now push this down as you curl up. One bone at a time. Curling up. Beautiful job. Always pulling your belly into your back. Exhaling. Very good.

And we're gonna. You might need to take another breath, I think. Inhale and exhale forward again cause I'm going to stretch you again while you exhale each time you should get a little less stiff. More going to inhale. Start Rolling back. Head between your arms. Good. Inhale to start the motion. Exhale though. All the way down. Pull into my toe. Come on. Pull your belly into the back against that strap.

So you really want to use all these tools to help you get a better stretch. Inhale the arms, come up and drop your back nice and flat into the mat as you exhale back here. So it was lineup up your back little more pulling your belly into the mat. That's what I'm talking about. Don't do so much with your bottom though. Yeah. So that waist is lifting all the way this way. Arms Up. Two more. Inhale, head up. Exhale.

Push down a little and put round up. Pulling in. Good stretching. That was better. Take another breath. So we are exhaling as I stretch you. Well it's straight arms head between those ears. Between those arms. Yes. And Rolling back.

Squeeze your heels together and inhale to start an exhale. Rolling down. Let's get right here. Come on. Pull the belly against the strap. Yes, yes, that's it. Nice job. Rolling. One at a time. Down. Good. Keep going. Arms Up. Inhale and exhale, reaching back, dropping down your ribs again. Get the back nice and flat. Beautiful. Really want you to get this feeling of your belly link pulling in and up.

Reaching. Lengthening the waist [inaudible] right now. So I want you to pull your belly into the mat. Do you feel your stomach into the mat yet? Once you stop moving around, tell me. Alright, good. Okay. Now feel your stomach also stretch this way.

So keep trying to get tall or that's it. Good. Instead of just being like this, do you feel the difference? Yeah. Alright. Arms. It's just very subtle, but so important for your back. One more time on your own here. Inhale. Head up between your arms. Exhale, pressing down with the bar, pulling your belly in. Exhale.

Go ahead and stretch past your feet. Yeah, really getting all that stale air out of your lungs. Retreats, retreats, reach, stretch. Good. That's it. You can even hook the bar over your toes if you wanted to. Almost pretty good. And now we're going to roll back. Inhale to start. Okay.

Just like you're, you're not pulling your belly against that strap. So that's it. So pull me down now. Yeah, I can feel the difference between pulling me down with your arms and pulling me down with your stomach. Pull me down with your stomach. [inaudible] exhaling. Pull me down with your stomach now. Your arms. Yes, that's it. Keep pulling more with the stomach. That's the depth. I want your belly in. Good job.

Keep rolling down and reach your arms back just like you did. Good. And stretch back on your own. So you're exhaling. You're gonna take a breath and exhale, pull in and reach your arms back, not forward. Reach. Reach from here. Reach, reach, reach. So you are now pulling these muscles like that.

And that's what I'm talking about. Okay. Good job. All right, bring the bar up and we're going to put it away for a little bit. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the Mat. Nope, don't move that way. Just bend. Good. Right? Arms down by your side. How's your neck? Can you straighten it out anymore? Good. Can you have it like flat [inaudible]? Yeah, so the back of the neck straight versus looking behind you. Right? All right.

Now pull your belly into the mat and bring your knee into your chest. You got it. Good. So I mentioned that we always keep everything square. So is this hurt your knee at all? No. Okay. So if you have a hurt knee, you can hold underneath your knee. But that in the hip flexor, it's okay to no, the hip flexors. Okay? Yeah. Okay. And then we're going to straighten this leg and I want just a little turned out okay to help the hip and pull your belly into your back right there.

And I'm going to keep your hips square as I stretch you. Oh, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. And we're going to do a circle. We're going to cross around, pull it up, cross around, pull it up, hold this light can hang out, but don't use it and cross around up. Cross around up. One more cross around. We're going to go the other way. Reach. We're not gonna use the hip flexor. We're using our belly to pull in and up. Reach belly pulls it up.

Three more. You look good now. Two more up last time. Keep your bottom on the mat. [inaudible] and now hug the knee into your chest. Good for you. Good. But the foot down and now you're going to pull your belly in and bring the left knee in. Good. Let's leave the bottom on the mat though. Yeah, there you go.

Good. How's this knee? Good. Good hip flexor. Okay, good. All right, and now we're going to straighten this leg up. Turn it out a little bit to turn off that hip flexor a little and we're going to stretch. Exhale. Okay. This leg is a little easier than your right. Okay, good. And we're going to cross to that shoulder, see how much we're pushing as up as we go over.

So you don't want to fall away from the shoulder when you're doing this at home on your own, you want to go up to the other shoulder and pull it up? You on? It crosses high up to the other shoulder and one more crossing high to get that stretch. And then we're going to go the other way around. Pulling it up and around, scooping it up. Good around scooping it up. Two more. All right, good. One more. All right. And hugging that knee.

Good. Okay. We're going to put your foot down and bring your legs together. Lift your head up, look at your belly, and try to pull it in as you roll up. Back up to a seated position. Use Your exhale and sit up. Good. Yeah, super strong guests. All right, so staying here and want you to put your hands underneath your knees. Good. And pull back like this away from your thighs. Good. Stay there and lift this knee and foot up off the floor a little bit.

Okay? Hold your balance and lift this one up too. Okay? Try to bring your head a little more forward. Just your head. Chin to your chest. There you go. Good. Okay. See how your feet aren't touching the floor. I want you to pull your stomach in like you did earlier, pulling it against the strap to roll back.

And I want you to rock back and rock right up. Touch your head, your shoulders. I mean, and come back up. Good. So all from your stomach though. Inhale to go back. Exhale to come up. Inhale to go back. Exhale to come up. Okay.

Put your hands on your ankles. Really good. Tuck your head between your knees. Good. So your goal is to keep your head between your knees and you're really pulling in to your lower back to stretch all of this area out. Okay? And exhale. All right, let's do two more like that. Inhale back. Okay. So three more. Okay. And inhale, roll back and x out. You don't have to worry, I'm not going to go all the way back.

You're doing great. I want you to go instead of how far you go back, I want your bottom to lift up a little bit off the mat instead of thinking about how far back this way. Uh Huh. And then exhale. Good. One more. Good. Rest on your feet. So I want you to learn how to do that. You're very strong and I want you to learn how to do that better.

So I'm going to put, have you put your hands over one over the other, behind your head and touch your elbows to your knees. Good. Now balance with your feet up again. So this takes out some of the cheating where when we use our quads to help pull us up. Okay, so now you're going to try to rock back and up like this. So inhale, roll back and come up with your elbows on your knees. You see how you lead with your knees? [inaudible] you got to lead.

You gotta use your upper stomach to stay on those legs. Don't pull the legs away from your body. Three more pulled back with your stomach. Exhale up there. Yes. Good. Two more. Pull the belly. Good. And now exhale. Come on up. You got it. Keep coming.

Yes. One more lower belly and exhale. Oh, that one. You didn't even need me. You got it. So you s you started to really understand how it needs to come from there. The first couple ones you were rounding really well, that hurt your stomach. Okay, you're gonna slide back now.

Your bottom and then lie down until you're all the way straight. Good. Bend your knees. Everything feeling okay? All right. Straight in the back of your neck. Good. All right. And I want you to pull your stomach in to bring your right knee into your chest. Good. And just hug it anyway. Good. Put it down and pull your belly in to bring in the left knee. Good.

And Butt it down. Exhale, bring in the right knee. Stay there. That's right. Whenever you contract your body, like try to coil it up as tight as you can you, you exhale to squeeze out all the air. So stay there and lift your head up all the way, almost by your knee. Good. And now this is what I want you to feel. This leg is going to be here, but pull your belly away from me. Don't fall off the mat.

Stay Square there. Good. Now use your belly to pull in your left leg. We're going to switch. Yes, good. And switch. So one legs always lengthening your back and reaching. Now stop twisting with the shoulders and everything stays super square.

Yes, but you're moving a lot with your shoulders and switch. Pull in in your belly. Good. And switch. That's it. So if I had good, keep going. If I was just looking at your torso, just this, I wouldn't know that you were doing any exercise. That's health stealth. You would be and pull it in your belly. Good. Do you feel this length?

Okay. And switch. Okay. Right from there. That's better. You anchored yourself better. You grounded and rooted yourself. Now reach always for me now and we're going to switch on your own. Pulling your left. Yeah. Reach for me. Make this leg more like a sharp, soften the knee. A little bit like a sharp knife. Cutting down the nose. Belly button than toe. Instead of it being out it like a sharp knife.

Reach and down the middle of your body. Okay. And we're going to switch hugging the left. That's it. Hugging the right and left. More belly and right and left and reach and hugging and hugging and switch and one more set and right and left. And hug both knees in and rest your head. Very good. Rest your head. Good.

All right. Do you remember how I pulled your arms back there and you got, I've made you feel this a bit. We're gonna get that again. Bring your head up hands right here. Good. Now I want you to put your, um, reach your arms back by your ears and the legs go out right at the same time. All right, we're going to change this a bit. Bend your knees. Good. Put your hand one over the other, behind your head for a second. Good rest down.

Take a breath and as you exhale, round up and come up as high as you can. Awesome. Now stay there. Don't move your upper body. Okay. Okay. Stay right there. You're going to inhale. Straighten your legs. Reaching like this. Give me a little plotty. Stance his toes apart. Heels together. And now exhale. Bring your knees back in using your belly.

Pull them in. Yes. Inhale out when you breathe. Exhale. Don't move with that upper body. You don't get to rock back when you inhale. Awesome on your own reach. Pull in with your belly. One more on your own here. Good.

Now put your hands right here. Now we're going to do the same thing. Straighten your legs and give me your arms. Inhale, reach your legs forward like you did, but straighten your arms back to me. Good. Now we're going to reach, reach, reach, and they circle back to grab your ankles. Yes. Give me your arms. Keep your belly and legs out too. At the same time. Long. Beautiful. And pull in. I liked that. Height of your legs better and three more.

I'm putting my foot under here so you don't go down. Yep. Inhale, reach. Yes. Exhale. Two more. Inhale, reach. Stomach pulls in in, and exhale. One more. Inhale. Stomach pulls in in. Excellent. Exhale and rest down your head. Really good. How'd that feel? Good. Good.

Now we're going to straighten both legs up and I know you're a little tight, but lift your head up and see if you can crawl up behind your right calf hands are going to walk up behind your right calf. Put your hands. There we go. Good. Is that too high? Oh, that's good. Okay, good. Now don't make it so tense. In fact, make it loose. It's going to go. Can you look at your belly?

Keep your belly in and pull this leg up with your stomach. Now grab onto your left leg. Straight leg. It was straight. Make sure it's stretching. Ooh. Yeah. Down and pull this up with your belly. You got it. And switch. Now the only thing I don't like is when one leg goes down, your torso twists.

Stay Square. Grab onto this leg and down and pull it up with your belly. Yes. And switch. So went out right. Sharp like a knife down the middle of your body. Pull it up. Switch. Good. Give me this one. Nice.

Pull it up. Good. Grab on. Now you're going to go a lot faster. Okay. And switch and switch and switch. Good. Stay between my arms. Switch, switch, pull up. They can pass by each other now in the air. Yes. And switch down between my arms. Don't go out to the side. Stay on the mat.

Yes. One more set. Right and left. And Ben both knees and rest your head. Good for you. Good. So that one was really good. You would just have to keep switching. Did it really good from your stomach? Yeah. Yeah. It's not called. The first one we did when we hugged in a knee was called single leg stretch.

And that's a bent leg. So make sure you keep your leg straight when you're doing it. Get that big hamstring stretch hand over hand behind your head. So that was called single straight leg. So we've got double straight like next. So you're going to lift your head up and look at your belly.

Come up as high as you can as you exhale and exhale. Perfect. You don't move from there. Okay like a five inch nail underneath your back. Lift your legs up. Kay. And I turned them out a little and I'm going to help you with this. Look at your belly up. Come up another inch. Good cause that's why the a hundred warmed you up.

Now we're going to keep your belly in like that as you stretch and pull back up with your belly and reach the legs. Don't bend when they come up. Keep them reaching. Head up more. Come up more [inaudible] reach and up. Inhale, blow out all your air cause you're contracting right. One more with me reaching. Come up with your shoulders. Exhale, three on your own. Reach an exhale.

That's it. Two more come up higher so you're really supporting your back. Exhale. Last one. Really good. Reaching and pull it in. Stay here in Brent. Bend your right knee. Good. Stay right here. Now twist that left. Good and pull in and I'm going to twist you. Stretch, stretch, stretch, and switch. Bring this knee in and twist, twist, twist and switch. One more set and that's all you got.

Pull in this knee. Bring this knee in. Pull it in storage. One last one. Pulling this knee in storage and hug the knee in both knees in rest your head. Good. You feel your obliques on that one? Yeah. Yeah. Let's sit up now we have these blocks here and I want you to straighten your leg and then want me to put the heel right in the middle like that. Do the left. Now when you can't sit up tall, can you sit up tall with straight legs?

Probably not. Okay, that's not bad actually. But you're still a little leaning back. So when I say sitting up tall right now, you're just a little back here. You have to have your hipbones right over your, what we call your sit bones and stack up your spine. So you're gonna lift your bottom forward a little and let your knees bend so that you can sit up tall. Good. Great.

How's that? Good. Not so good. Yeah. Okay. Let's put your arms right here at shoulder height. Yes. Good. So I'm going to put this bar behind you so you can really feel what I'm talking about. I need you to stand up tall. See that? That's straight. Kay. And we're going to take a big breath and exhale, bring your head down and pull your belly into the pole. As you bring your head down and roll off my bar one bone at a time till you touch your head to the mat all the way down. Go for it.

Go, go, go, go, go. Good for you. Now inhale and start rolling back up. Good, good, good. And exhale and go down. Very good. Okay.

So just giving you an idea of what the alignment is in inhale and come up. Good. And now be nice to you and exhale and go down. Head to your chest. Good. Good. Oh, we're going to stretch, right?

Is that too easy of a stretch for you? Good. And now we're going to roll back up. You're going to feel my knee, and then I want you to roll up onto my thigh. Now I want you to pull your belly in. Okay. Pull it in and we're gonna stretch up here. Getting that length again and arms straight ahead.

Inhale and exhale. Head down. And you're going to roll off one bone at a time, pulling your stomach in. Awesome. Stretching with your belly in. So you stretch your lower right back. You feel that? And then we're going to roll back up. Inhaling, rolling up this bone, this bone, nice and straight head comes back to lift up your arms. Good.

So you're really lifting from your waist like you did in the first exercise. And one more time. This is the one I wanted you to remember that. Head to your chest and exhale all the way down. Remember, you're contracting, you're squeezing out all the air out of your body. Exhale. Good. And now we're going to roll back up. Inhaling this bone, this bone, this bone, and then arms up reaching reaching region. Do you feel your belly in? Yeah. All right. Come on, pull it in and reach with it. Thank you. Good. Alright, lie onto your back. Okay, good. And now bend your knees into your chest. That's a good thing.

You're not sweating or anything. Okay. Now we're going to straighten your legs up to the ceiling. So you did a really good job earlier. Right now I want you to reach your shoulder blade long and reach your arms longer. [inaudible] good. And use the back of the arms, the triceps to really push down into the mat. Good. So you did it earlier. You did these dropping your legs and pulling them back up with your abdominals, with your powerhouse. Super good.

Pull back up. You don't remember. Hold them here. Do it on your own. Now pull up with your belly, belly belly. Not with your legs. More belly than legs. K and pull up up, up. Good. Now fall to the ocean with those and pull them back. Center. Good. Fall away from the ocean and pull back. Center. Good. Now fall to the ocean. Now down, reaching all the way away from the ocean and pull them back.

Center and towards away from the ocean around pool with the stomach. Exhaled bull all the way back home. Good. Reverse it here. Inhale to start. Exhale, diploma all the way back in. Good. Inhale to start. Exhale all the way around. Pull it back home. One more set. Inhale. That's fine. Around reaching.

Exhale to pull up. Good. Last one. Inhale. I just want to give you this reach. Yes, and exhale. Pull it back in and hug in your knees. Very good. Sit Up. Good. Put if heel here in a heel here and maybe slide back a little bit on this one.

A little more. Good to straight legs. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. And I want you to try and sit up as tall as you can and we're going to do what we call saw. So arms straight out to the side. Good reach. Like think of your shoulder blades, your scapulas, spread them out. Reach to the ocean. Show me all the muscles in your arm. Reach away from the ocean. Reach with those arms. Good. Now pull your belly in. Good.

And use your obliques to twist to the right. Nope. Twist. Twist your torso good. And exhale. Take this pinky and reach for your baby toe. Head down and reach now at your stomach. [inaudible] look at your stomach. Take another breath.

And as you blow out all your air, pull your belly and to go further down. Look at your stomach. Use it to go lower, lower, lower. Inhale. Sit Up. Tall arms reaching out to each side, twist to your left. And now exhale as you look at your belly. Yes. And contract your stomach to pull yourself lower, lower, lower, and inhale up tall and twist to the right.

And exhale, look at your belly and reach. Reach, reach. But this shoulder go this guy. Yeah, so that stretches like that. Inhale up tall, reaching both strong arms, tiny waist, really strong stomach. And exhale, reach for your baby toe. That's it. Relax that guy again. And exhale. One more set on your own. Inhale up tall, twist to your right, using your obliques. Good. And exhale reached this pinky for your baby toe. Okay, good. Using your stomach to get there. Inhale up.

And I saw that hand help and twist to your left. Oh, got it. And twist. Head up, twist to your left. And exhale passes baby toe. Good. Use your stomach to get lower. Lower like a stomach crunch. Good. And inhale up. Good. And relax.

Bring your legs together and you're gonna flip onto your stomach. Yes sir. I'm going to do a little back bend. This pole helps you. If you don't have a poll at home, you just take your hands a little wider and that'll help to come up until your heads in between those poles though. Good and hands on the pulse. Good. And relax. Forehead down on the mat. So it's going to slide a little bit. So keep that in mind. Don't let it scare you.

Try to bring your legs together and I want you to reach your legs away from you. You're not going to move at all. And get out of your way though. You just want to feel like your thigh muscles are lengthening and your pelvis is reaching this way instead of feeling like it's pushing into you. Yeah, pull that way. Now pull your stomach into your back and pull it away from me and try to straighten your neck length and your head away from me too. Don't lift it. Just reach the crown of your head.

Forward to the wall in front of you. Put Energy in me. Yeah, that's it. Pull these this way. Yes. All right. Now we're going to pull your stomach in, always supporting your back and lift your head good. And lift your head up all the way chess lifts up. Keep lifting your chest, push into your bars, and lift your whole upper body. Yep. Open your shoulders. Now look over this shoulder and circle your chin down to your chest over this shoulder and look forward. Good.

Reverse that. I'm going to make sure your stomach is supporting you. That's all it needs to do. Good. It doesn't have to round your back. Good. Now with your stomach in, come down reaching. Pretend like you can pull this map behind you and stretch your energy that way. That's nice. Come all the way down. Yes. Good.

One more. So you're going to pull in your stomach, engage your glutes would be really helpful for your lower back and come up. You're going to inhale to start coming up and exhale the whole way up. Yeah. Head trying to keep length. Exhale the whole way up. Now straighten your arms all the way up. Yes, look left this time first. Circle the head down around to your right and look forward. Good. Look right. Push with those Armstrong. So your stomach's lifting.

Yes. Circle down around to your left and look forward and now come down. But always thinking about your stomach. Lengthening out the crown of your head. Bend your elbows coming down. Good, good, good. And now round your back and sit on your heels.

You're just going to come back with me. Leave the bars. Walk your hands back. Round your back. Now leave your hands there and just stretch. Good. Rest your head. Yes. Tell me if I'm putting too much pressure.

Hmm. Your Body didn't want to go into this position originally, so it was fighting it. Screaming. That's okay. Good. All right, flip over. Two more exercises and we're going to do some finish. Lie on your back. Good. Bend your knees into your chest. Nice. And we're going to do teaser. Okay.

We're going to give me your legs and again, pull your belly away from me. Beautiful. Good, good. All right, so now you're going to give me your hands, okay. And I can always feel when you're pulling me with your strong arms or with your stomach. So I want you to almost enjoy letting go a little bit and just focusing on your stomach. Okay? So I want you to pull your belly into the mat. Good.

Okay. Just like that. Lift your head up, relax your arms again, their alarm for the ride. Look at your belly, and we're going to pull your stomach so that your set really pulls in and then your middle set while you're strong. Lower. Beautiful. Stay here, take a breath, and now pull me down with your lower set of your six pack. Hold me down. Then your middle set, then your upper until your shoulders and head go down. That's fantastic. One more with me. Inhale, lift your head. Exhale, use your upper set to curl up the top, the middle set. Exhale all your air lower set, and this is how high you're going to come up.

Okay? Take a breath and exhale. Pull me down into your lower set. Yes, your middle set and your upper good. Now your hands are on your own. Okay. Rest your head down. Keep your arms are just going to keep doing what they did and we're going to lift your head up and curl up and try to touch my shoulders. Upper set, middle. Come on, come up to my shoulders, arms, touch my shoulders and take a breath and exhale. Roll down away from me.

Feel how I'm pulling your legs. Always in the opposite direction. Good. Again, inhale, head up. Exhale, EAD up. Exhale, come up all the way up. That's it. And take a breath and exhale. Good. One more time. This is how I want your legs. Nice and long. Reaching, not crimping and come up. Inhale, head up and exhale. Come on, come on up.

You Go. Yep. That's it. So you still use your legs a lot, right? So that's your goal is to get out of that and roll and down so you can, yeah. And I'm going to, I want you to pull me down now. Yeah. Do you feel how deep your stomach is? You feel how you're really pulling it in? That's what you want to feel. Hug your knees into your chest.

So when you practice this at home, you can put your feet up on the wall, like get close to a wall and put them right here. Right at that 45 degree angle. Turned out, not parallel, polite stance and try to touch your toes on the wall and your feet will come up off the wall. So your goal is to keep them there. Hug your knees into your chest, cause when you're using your legs, they'll come up, sit up. And we're gonna do seal right here. Stay right where you are. Arms go through your legs and under your ankles.

Good. And they're just going to be like this. Good. Now we're going to lift your feet up. Cramping your leg. There we go. So we're going to end up lifting up your feet and balancing like that. Uh Huh. And pull back with your stomach rock, back. Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock. Not your head. Keep your head to your chest there.

How are we doing? Good. Good. How can you have your hand all the fingers on? Yes. Now I want you to reach your feet for the four and come back. Awesome. Hold it. Reach your feet back. Exhale as you come up. Great. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll up.

Awesome. Now two more without me stopping you. Here. You stop yourself in that same teaser position, which is right there. Inhale, always. As you go back, I'm to let go and exhale to come home. And you hold it here in that teaser position. Eyes down. One more, Eh, exhale. Good. And rest your feet down. And that be random.

So that's you using your legs again. Is it almost done? Oh, okay. So I want you to give me your hands. Use your stomach and we're going to stand up. Ready? Here we go. One, two, three. Come on. That's good. Now we're going to do our pushups. Stand right over there. Alright, so like I said, we are going to use these handles aren't you? Go ahead and put them in your hands.

[inaudible] turn this way and put them that way. Good. And stand right here with me. Pushups and pies are a little different. Okay? See this line right here. I want you to put your heels together on that line. They're not on that line here. All right? And I want you to hear have weight, okay?

Like a penguin. Okay. So you'll have to be, have good awareness of your feet since you're a soccer player and you want weight on the ball of every toe, okay? And the weight on the side of the foot and weight on the heel, okay. But you don't want ever any weight on the arch. Okay? Heels are touching though. Please touch, touch, touch, good. And you don't want these bones to touch your ankle bones. Very important that they don't touch, okay. When they, sometimes you collapse in your arch and those touch. So to lift the arch, you use the arch muscle. You don't lift the big toe up, you still have to keep the big toe down. You lift the arch muscle, you didn't really good, but those are, I know always you always strengthen your ankle at home.

So we're going to keep that in mind. Okay? All right. Your weight should not be back here. Your weight should be using your glutes to a little forward and your stomach takes the rest of your body. You don't, you want to be, let me show you different angles so you don't want to be with your upper back. Back here is what you're doing. So you push your hips forward nicely, but then you stuck your back back there. So you gotta [inaudible] pull your stomach in and have your whole body leaning a little more forward on the ball of your foot. Then on your [inaudible] hills.

Okay? That's better posture. Head Up. Okay, so in place our pushups, we don't go wide and elbows wide out here they go under your shoulders and your elbows graze your hips and you should look like you do now. When you go do a pushup, you shouldn't lower your hips instead of your shoulders or your chest in front. Your body moves as one solid plank. Yeah. Okay, so bring your head to your chest and roll off an imaginary wall until you touch you're, so if I'm the wall, start rolling forward. Good. And bring your arms down to the floor. Good. Good, good, good. And I'm going to actually take them. Take your hands to the floor and let's walk your hands out until they touch you. Grab onto here.

Good. Alright, now put your hands on top of there. Good. Get your shoulders directly over your wrist. Good. Squeeze your glutes down so you're a straight line. Okay, that's pretty good. That's your a little forward. Walk your feet back. Two inches. Walk. Three, two, good. Heels together. Good.

So squeeze the glutes. Got It. Stomach. Come on, pull into here, Paul. Yeah. Long line. Good squeeze. Glutes are not engaged. This and this. Have to work together. Now one solid line. Go down for five. Good. Bend the elbow straight back and pull up nice and down and pull up. Good. Three more. And pull a nice two more and up. Last one. The handles give you a little more height, which is a very nice and up. Good. Now lift in your belly.

Use your stomach to pull up a little bit. Your hands are going to stay there and walk your feet towards you all the way. [inaudible] towards your hands. Yes. Try to head down. Try to have your legs as straight as they can, so your Achilles tendon and all your muscles. Keep stretching in your legs. Very important for you.

You're going to walk your feet all the way forward until they're in front of you. And we're going to do a tricep dips so you can bend your knees if you need to. Good. And then walk your feet out. Good. And then have your leg straight. Bring your hips over your [inaudible] right there and take your legs now. Forward. Good. There we go. Strong. Lift up. Talk. Come on.

Where's my tall lift? Lift, lift, lift, lift. Use Your glutes. Use your stomach. Good, good. Now Bend your elbows straight back and go to the floor down. [inaudible] and pull up. Good and straight back. Good and lift. Good. And three more. Are you cramping? No am pulling up and two more.

Touch your bottom down it all the way down and up. And one more. Use those triceps and lift up the chest to the ceiling. Up. Good. And now walk your feet back into that push up position. Straining their grots handles that. We have. Good. You can actually, when you're flexible enough you can pull into a pull up and then take your legs back without even touching the floor. That's a nice position. Good heels together cause they're about this high off the ground.

Squeeze your glutes. Go ahead a little too low. Pull it support with your belly. And five more straight back. Five more. This is [inaudible]. Here we go. And down up one. Yes, down. Up Two. Good. Down up three. Don't leave your belly. Pull it up with you. Two more solid plank. One last one. Elbow straight back, pulling up. Good.

Leave the handles and put your hands on the floor. Good. And now head to your chest. Walk back to your feet. Good. Okay. Head down. Good. Straighten your legs as much as you can. Good. Separate your legs.

Try to reach through your legs and grab behind your ankles. Good stretch, stretch. Good. Leave your ankles and bring your feet together. Good. Round up stomach in roundup. Up we go. Good. Good, good. Stay there.

One arm over the other. Use your stomach. Pull in and lift the right knee up to your elbow. Put it right back down. Left up. Put it right, right back down. See how my legs are. Remember I talked to you about sharp knives so you're not going to step out to here. You're going to be right down. Okay. Stomach pulls it up straight down. Don't fall over stomach. Good. Here we go. Come on up, up, up. Pull it up with your stomach up. Get it up.

Get it up. Come on one more set. Right, left. Good arms out here. Now when you do play in your soccer game, you have to trap on the side. Elbow up to the knee. Up. Here we go. Huh? Oh, stomach. Use your stomach. Don't use everything else. You got. Pull it up with your stomach. Yes. Uh, uh, ah. Come on, keep it going. Use your energy up, up one more set up, uh, and get loose and you're all finished. Nice job.

Good job guys.

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Comments

HK
2 people like this.
A lot of information efficiently conveyed to a novice. Would love to know what Gus (who is brave and good) thought of the lesson.
I liked the explanation of the movement and it was good to see how Gus interpreted what he was being told. I enjoyed the way Monica was hands on. I learned better breathing during this class so thank you Monica for your explanations.
I need to know, why I have not acccess to watch the vídeos?
Francisca ~ We are sorry that you were having trouble. We had a bug with the JW Player 6. It is fixed now and you should be able to watch videos without a problem. If you continue to have trouble, please email us at contact@pilatesanytime.com.
Love this!!
Monica Wilson
I'm so glad y'all enjoyed this!
The connection between you and your brother was adorable to watch :P Amazing patience, clear and concise instruction, hands-on, and improvised break downs to convey the exercise. Love the emphasis on length! Do you have advice on how to modify/cue/direct people who cannot straighten their legs all the way, for exercises that require it, such as scissors. The only thing I can think of is to have them use a theraband. Thanks for the great video!
1 person likes this.
GREAT Monica Wilson we love the simple way how you explained the exercises, love the emphasis on C curve, and hands on! thanks
Joanna G
1 person likes this.
Monica, I loved this class, thank you. Loved Gus facial expression in criss / cross. Fabulous class! 

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