Class #282

Mat for Men

50 min - Class
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Description

This class is geared toward men. Recognizing that men commonly have tight hamstrings, and low backs and tend to be stronger in the arms and legs, Cecile incorporates more stretching, and variations on the exercises to help alleviate overuse up the hip flexors and to accommodate for tight hamstrings. Remember Joseph Pilates was a man and designed his work for men. While this class would be good for anyone to take, it considers the person with limited flexibility.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Oct 07, 2010
Men
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Transcript

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Okay. Hi. Um, good morning. And um, this is a class that was, it's a great mat class. It was originally designed as a men's class. Um, though the funny thing about that to me is that [inaudible] was created by a man. Joe Has a [inaudible] and it was actually created for men, not for women. So, um, I find it very interesting that we now have moved the opposite direction. We mostly have women and not as many men. So anyway, this is um, a uh, I've changed some things here and there to incorporate more stretching for men. Um, the order is a little bit different so that um, we're not sitting for so long with our legs out stretch, which is difficult for many people, not only men. So I'm just changed a few things here and there. So it's a nice, nice class for anybody really. Um, we are going to start sitting up and we're going to put our feet about hip distance apart. Now, if you are someone who has, um, hip flexors that tend to get really tight and gram, when you try to sit like this, what you can do is put your feet into a little more like a diamond position.

And that kind of relieves that a little bit. Um, so I'm gonna start there, but if you are more comfortable here, that is fine. We're going to take a nice deep breath in and let's lengthen the spine as much as we can think about growing through the top of the head. Take a nice deep breath in and as you exhale, I want you to try to pull back and round the spine, round the abdominals, really pull back into your abs. Good to get that nice round stretch in your lower back and sit up nice and tall. Good and deep breath in. Exhale round the spine.

Get those abdominals pulled in and up. Get that nice long stretch on the back and come up. Good. And one more. Reach back with that belly button towards your spine. Good. And come back up. Good. Okay.

Now sit up nice and tall and we're going to continue that movement to get a little bit further down. So we're going to get basically, um, somewhere in the lower back area. I don't want you to be at a place where you're straining your lower back. I want you to get to a place where you feel like you can, you can hold the position. So we're going to take a nice deep breath in. Exhale, round down. So we're getting, we're challenging our ads and getting a little bit further and we're just going to hang out there for a second. Take a deep breath at the end. Good. And exhale. Now Roll it back up. Good. And sit up. Nice, tall, very nice. Again, deep breath in. Good. Exhale. Roll it back.

Now try to make it come from your abs, but if that's, if that's too much for you, you can always grab on to the knees. Good. Get a little bit lower. Good, good, good. Now stay there. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, deepen into those abdominals. Now Roll it back up to sit up. Nice and tall. Good. One more time. Deep breath in. Exhale. Pull into those abdominals. Lengthen. Good. Good, good, good. Roll down.

And you're really, really good. Trying to stretch that spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Good. Stay there. Take a deep breath in and ask hale to roll it back up. Very good. And sit up nice and tall. Now we're gonna roll all the way back and just put the head down.

Take a deep breath in. Exhale, roll all the way back. All the way back. All the way back. Good, good. Okay. Had can go down now. Now place your knees to this towards the ceiling. Feet on the mat. Good hips, feet about hip distance apart. And I want you to just, we're just gonna, um, do a little bit of positioning here to make sure we've got the correct position of our spine and our back.

So what I want you to try to do is to slide your right leg and your left arm out in opposition. So your right leg is just going to slide along the mat and your left arm is going above the head. And when you do that, you want to not change the position of the spine and bring it all back in other legs. Sly the arm and leg out. Don't change the bat and bring it back in. Good and reach, arm and leg. Do not change the back full end of those abdominals and pull it in.

Inhale and exhale. Reach it out long. Good without the rib cage popping up. The makes sure that as the arm goes up, the ribs don't change. Reach good and back. One more. Keep that rib cage closed and stretch it out.

Wonderful and back. So that's the position you want to maintain throughout this whole workout. Now we're going to slide your hands towards your heels, shoulders away from your ears and your head is going to come forward. So nice deep breath in. Good reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Good and keep all this down. Now what? I want to stay there.

What I want you to really think about is getting nice and flat through the pelvis. No tilting of the pelvis. Good, no tilting of the pelvis and go back down. Beautiful. Good. So we're not going to talk our spine many of us every time we begin to reach forward to do any kind of abdominal work. Many times, especially men tend to kind of Tuck in order to get there, so we want to really keep the lower body out of it. Nice. Deep breath in. Slide the hands towards the heels. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Very nice, good position. Hanging out there. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Go back down. Good. Now we're going to bring the legs to tabletop position. So knees up. Good. Yes. Okay.

Now we're going into a modified version of our hundred so we're going to slide our hands forward. Reach our head, neck and shoulders forward. No talking of the pelvis right there. We're going to take a deep breath in. We're going to do five inhales. Inhale and exhale. Two, three, four. Good. Five and inhale. Beautiful. Three, four, five and exhale. Two. Good. Three, four, five. And inhale, two, three, four, five.

And exhale. Two, three, four, five. One more, two, three, four, five. And exhale. Two, three, four, five. Good. Relax. Head goes down, feet can go down for a second. Good. How was that? Did you feel that? Okay. All right. Now we're going to get a little bit harder with it. What we're going to do is we're going to start the same way, but I'm going to talk you through it. As we begin to progress, what I want you to do is just try to let the legs float either up to the ceiling if that's comfortable for you or if you want more of a challenge, they can go out. Okay. Um, and if that position, for many men, this is, this is tough.

So what I always have people do is we're here, we're gonna do our hundred in this position, then we're going to go up. And then as we get down to the more difficult place, I let them rotate those legs outward and rotate them back in and pull them in. Okay? So we're gonna keep that breath pattern all the time. It's very, it's going to be quite a few. Okay. So knees come up towards your chest, good reach, head, neck and shoulders forward. Slide the hands forward. Stay there and we're going to inhale two, three, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, five. And inhale, two, three, four, five. And exhale.

Now let's see if we can take the legs out a little bit. Inhale, two, three, good. Four, five. And exhale. Two, three, beautiful. And four to now start rotating the legs outward a little bit too good, so that you release the hip flexors. Two, three, four, five and exhale to good. And bend the knees. Two, three. Bend those knees back in. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Take them out one more time. Pull into those hands, reach forward. Three. Rotate them out. Inhale, two, three, four, five and beautiful, and bring them back. And beautiful.

Did y'all feel that? Relax? Head goes down. Good, good. So that changing of the rotating of the legs and moving them in different positions sometimes keeps us from, from grabbing on too tightly. Okay. All right, let's row all the way up. So we're going to start our roll up with, um, our legs out straight. Take a nice deep breath in. As we exhale, curl the head, neck, and shoulders forward. Now if we need to, we can bend the knees rolling up good or we can keep them straight.

Good. And reach out nice and long. Reach forward. Good. Reach over those feet. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, roll. Pull into those abdominals. Really, really get round. Nice, Nice. All the way down. All the way down. Beautiful. Good. Reach the arms up and over the head.

And remember that first exercise we did without raising the rib cage. Yes. And again, roll it forward. Good reach and round and you are fine to reach. Good without the legs aren't coming off, so you're great. Reach all the way forward. Get a nice long stretch. We keep that seatbelt on.

You really want to keep around and roll back. Roll it back, roll it back. Very nice. Good. And reach it out long. Really think about tightening all sides of the legs so that you're, you're really staying nice and focused on the home, on the core. Good. Good. Watch the rib cage. Reach all the way forward. Really tighten all sides of the legs. Beautiful. Good, good, good, good. All the way forward. Keep that seat belt on him really round. Good.

Very nice. And all the way back. So we're really stretching the spine out. Good. Good. Last one. We're going to go up and we're going to stay there. So we're going to roll up. Nice deep breath and watch the rib cage. Good. Roll it all the way up. Roll it all the way up. Good. Good, good, good, good.

And reach forward. Good. And sit up nice and tall. Bend the knees into a little bit of a diamond position again. Now we're going to take a nice side, Ben. So we're going to bring the hand to this side and we're going to bend over. Good. So let this elbow bend a little bit. That's on the hand, that's on the floor. Good. And come up.

Take a nice deep breath and bring that arm up. Reach up and over. Let the elbow bend so you get that nice long stretch. Good. And come up very nice. And again, reach up and over. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, good. Get that nice side stretch and up. Last one. And reach up and over. Bend the elbow. Beautiful.

Good, good and come up. Very nice. Good, good. Let's row all the way back and down. Let's put those knees in that tabletop position again. Good. Now I want you to reach head, neck, and shoulders forward, and we're going to go into our single leg stretch that we're going to bring our left leg out and take the right knee and pull it in towards your chest. Exactly. Inhale, inhale, change, exhale, and inhale. Inhale. Big, long. Exhale. So two inhales. Pull it closer to you've got it.

Exhale, change, and inhale. Inhale, exhale, change. Good. Inhale. Inhale. Exhale. Curl that had neck and shoulders forward, and exhale, change, reach, and hail. Reach from the top of the head. Exhale, change top of the head, reaching over the knee. Exhale. One more. Inhale. Beautiful. Good. There you go. Last time. Inhale. Inhale. Exhale, change, relaxed. Head, neck and shoulders can go down. Knees are gonna hug into your chest.

Bring your knees up to your chest and give yourself a nice long hug. Good, good. Take your arms out to the side for me. Keep your knees up to your chest. Good and keep your arms to the side. Roll the knees over towards one side. Stretch that back out. Good. Deep breath in.

Exhale, roll back. Now really focused on rolling through the spine. Good. And roll the other way. Take the legs over. So you're getting that nice long stretch. Good, good, good, good. Now think about rolling through the spine to come back. Pull into those abdominals. Nice.

Good hug and reach over. Over, over, over. Good. Keep those knees close to the chest and back up last one and reach over. Very nice. You want to get that nice stretch in the back. Good. And you're also stretching out. Come back to the center of the chest and the pectoral muscles as well, which also tend to get very tight. We're going to do our double leg stretch now, but we're going to do a little bit of a modified version.

We're going to open the knees into a little bit of a v. Yes. Put your hands on your knees for me. Good. And what we're going to do is take a deep breath in as you exhale, boom. The head, neck and shoulders. And the arms and the legs all forward on a long diagonal. Now let's see if we can reach those arms back.

Circle Loma around to the knees and relax. Head goes back down and again, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, head, neck and shoulders. Remember, no talking in the pelvis. Arms go, reach forward and relax. Very nice and again, inhale and exhale. Now reach onto that nice long diagonal. Stretch it good. Don't talk the palace. Circle those arms without the ribs moving. Good. And come back and reach further to come down.

One more and reach and going forward. Good, good, good. Circle arms. Inhale and exhale. Stretch it, stretch it, stretch it. Good. And relax. You've got it. Good head goes down, hugged and knees to the chest. Good, very nice. Okay. Place one foot on the mat with the knee bent. Good. The other leg is going to go towards the ceiling, so you're going to stretch it up at, you're holding on to it, so hold it with both hands. Good. You can bend the knee slightly if you need to, but keep that head down. Good.

Just row. There you go. To [inaudible] that make it easier. But that's why we've got the need bent and the foot on the floor cause we want to be able to get that nice long stretch. Are you feeling it on your hamstring? Good. Good. Flex your foot. That's up into the ceiling. Good and point. Good. And one more time for lax and point. Good stretch. Yes. Very nice.

One more flex and point. Good. Let's change legs. Good. Take the other leg up. So you've got that. If you, if you are more advanced or more flexible and you just want more of a stretch, you can slide the other leg out along the mat. Okay. And you would get, you would get a stretch on that leg as well. In the front of the leg. But what tends to happen in men is if so tight in the hamstrings, in the lower back that then all they feel is their back. So we want to keep, we want to keep it out of your back and get it into the hamstring. Yeah, flex and point, right. Flex and point. Good.

And you might notice that one side is tighter than the other one. The other thing you want to think about while you're doing one more flexing point. Good. It's keeping that hip not hyped up towards your shoulder. You got it. And point. Good. Add been the need to bring it back down. Good. How did that feel? Hard. Yes. It's always tough. Yes. Yes.

Well we stretch those legs out for a reason because now we're going on to our scissors. So you're going to take both legs up towards the ceiling as much as you can. Good. And not so much that your seats, um, coming up off the mat. Grab onto one leg. Yeah, take the other one out. Long towards the floor. Right.

And then change to bring the other one up. Now what I want you to think about is the one that's coming from the floor, pulling that one up from the ABS. Bring it up and change. Good. And bring it up and change. Now your head is down right now. If you want a challenge, let's bring our head up and reach and stretch. Good. Yes. Try to get it up to the ceiling and you can reach towards that ankle.

Good. Retire good. You've got it. And reach. Beautiful. Now I want to say the top of that head towards that. And a beautiful one. More reach. Look at you and reach. And one more. Good. I know I said one more and back down. Relax. How was that? Okay.

But we've stretched the legs before we started doing the scissoring movement so that we didn't w didn't get that lower back. Just firing immediately. Okay. So that was, that was great. All right, I want you to roll on to your side. So we're gonna go onto our side and what we're really going to be focusing on here is not so much the legs, but on what the low abdominals are doing. Okay? And the low abs are kind of hard to find for a lot of people. We all work those, those um, rectus muscles, the upper abs, your six pack. But we, we very often forget about the low abdominal muscles.

So where our legs are straight out from our hips, we are lifting both legs up slowly. It's the lift. That's the exercise flex point and bring them down. So try to lift them up really slow. Lift and flex. Good and point and down. Now at the same time, try to pull into those abdominals lip phylaxis.

Do we feel those low abs kicking in a little bit and point and the obliques? Yes. And lift and flex. Very nice point and down. Now we're going to get a little harder. We're going to lift. Now if you feel this in your back at all, you can bring your legs slightly forward. Flex, lift the top leg, bring the bottom to meet it and bring it down. So we lift them up, we flex, bring the top leg up, bring the bottom one to meet it. Point. Beautiful. Good. You got it.

Two more to go. Lifted up. And as I said, if your feet flax, lift the top, like if you're feeling it in your back at all. So bring your legs slightly forward and bring them down. Last one, lift them up and flex top leg goes up, bottom leg goes up, point the feet and go down. Good. Okay, let's go to the other side. You can just either even roll right over or turn. Good. All right, so legs are out, arm head is on the arm. Good. We're gonna lift the legs up and we're going to flex.

Pull into those abdominals point and going back down. Very nice. Good positioning. You don't want the hips rolling back or forth. Good lift. Flex. You don't want any instability. You want to stay as straight as you can while you're doing this. Good. And again, lift. And as I said, the lifting is the movement.

That's the exercise. So we don't want to pop those legs up there. One more time. Lift, slow and controlled and flex. Beautiful. Good. Okay, now we're going to the second version. We're going to lift those legs up and we flex top leg goes up, bottom leg goes up, point and go down. Very nice. And again, lift both legs up, no hips rolling.

Flex top goes up, bottom goes up. Good point and go down. Good. And again, lift, flex, top, bottom. Very nice point. And Damn, last one. And lift and flex top, bottom. You've got it. Point and down. Relax. Good. Okay, let's go onto our hands and knees. Very good. We're going on to all fours and we're going to do our catch stretches first. So we're going to start with, before we do anything, I want you to think about pulling your, your belly button up towards the ceiling. Um, I was saying today that Kathy grant used to say, pull your utters up. Okay. Say if you were, if you were where you see a cow's utters that that's where you want to pull up that low. All right, so to pull that up, that's your low abs. Now from there, nice deep breath in round this.

Been very nice. And Go back to a flat back inhale. Exhale, round the spine. Get as well and as you can and really focus on those low back. Yes, muscles getting rounded and flat. Good. And again, really round. So get this part as round as you can.

Nice and flat. Last one and round the spine. Really, really, really get nice and round. Get Out of those shoulders and more into that back. You've got it and nice. Good. Very good. Okay.

Now from here I want you to just reach forward slightly and into a little bit of an arch. So you're just pulling your hips through and then you're going back onto your heels. Good. So we're going to take a deep breath in. Exhale, bring those hips through. Slight arch of the back. Good. But you're still holding onto those abs. Reach and sit back onto the heels.

Good. And one more reach. And bring those hips through. Lift the chest, pull into those abs. Good. And sit back onto the heels. Wonderful. Good. Now let's go back onto hands and knees. For our pointer we're going to slide arm and opposite leg out.

You've got it. Now try to let that leg float up to the ceiling and the arm and bring it back in. What we're trying to do here is maintain the stability in our hips as we change from side to side. So what I shouldn't see is a bunch of shifting around every time we change, right? So you really want to control through the abdominal. So back to your first side, arm and opposite leg reach.

Very nice. And back. We also want the back to stay as straight as possible. So you really don't want to sag in the back. Change. Keep those abs pulled in and up. Very nice. I should be able to set a cup of coffee on your back and it not fall off and back. Good. Okay, now take, go back to the first side. Take the leg and arm out.

Now I want you to try to shift forward towards your wrist a little bit. So shift forward. Good. That makes it a little harder, doesn't it? Shift back and bring it in. Did you feel that? And take the arm in opposite leg out. Good. Now try to rock forward on to towards the hand. Good. Good, good.

And reach back and come back in. Very nice. And one more time. Each side reach. Now reach into it and reach forward. That makes it much more difficult. Good. And come back and in last one.

Reach arm and leg out. Good and shift. You got it. Good. And come back. Watch the hips. Good and good. Sit back onto your heels for one last time to stretch the back. Good. Nice long stretch on the spine. Very nice.

Okay, good. Alright, let's go on to our backs. We're going to lie down, hips on the mat and feet and knees about hip distance apart, although they could be a little closer if you want them to be. We're going to start with a little pelvic tilt, so we're just gonna roll our, our pubic bone up towards the ceiling and then roll back to a flat back. Deep breath in. Asks how pelvic tilt. So do what I told you not to do at the beginning of class and come back to your flat back. Now this time we are going to grow, make it grow all the way up, all the way up, all the way up to a nice slant board position. Good.

Yet up as high as you can into that bridge. Good. But you don't want to be in an arched position and yes, I know you're still up there. I want you to stay there live. Let's see. Good and hold. Very nice. And now from the chest, soften. Roll down. Roll down. Roll down. Very nice. Stretch. Good. And come back down.

Okay, we're going to go back up and now we're going to try to challenge our stability. So rolling back up. Get your hips high. Good. Get as high as you can without going to an arch. Good. Now stay there for me and let's see if we can take one leg off and just stretch it out long. Need a knee good. And just hold it. Check your hip bones. You want them level so the leg that fits extended out.

I want that hip level with the other hip. Yes. Yes. Stay there and bring it in. Roll down just because we don't want to take the other one out from there because you'd be all crooked. All right, go back up. Roll it back up. Good. And Roll it back up. Very nice. Get up as high as you can. Lift the hips up but not the rib cage. Take that leg out and hold.

This is functional stability. You want to be able to to maintain your, your balance with one leg on the floor. Good. This is great. Good, good, good, good. Hold it. Hold it very nice and come back together and roll back down and get that nice long stretch on the spine. Very good. Okay. Bring your knees back into your chest for me. Good. Yes.

Get that nice stretch. Deep breath in. Good and relaxed. Good. Okay. Let's sit up nice and tall. We're going to come to our spine stretches. Now what we're going to do in this class is instead of having our legs here as they traditionally would be, we're going to open them out a little bit wide or just to allow you to be in a, you're getting, um, not only the stretch in the hamstrings, but hopefully a little bit in the inner thighs as well. If this is too much for you, we can bend the knees.

Okay. And that is going to give you just as much of a stretch on your spine as, as the other. So nice deep breath in. Keep your knees bent to start. Exhale, roll and round forward retreats. Slide those arms down. Take a nice deep breath. And while you're there, exhale, come back up. Good. Let's do one more in that position. Deep breath in.

Exhale, reach forward and come back up. Good. Stretch those legs out. Now let's see what happens. Good and yes, reach forward for me. Region. We are good and only as far as you can go comfortably and come back up. Well, not comfortably. I know. None of it's comfortable. And again, reach and Ram. Pull into those abdominals retreat retreats. Reach. Beautiful, good and come back up. Good. All right, let's give the legs a rest for a second. Put the feet back in that diamond position that we've done before. We're going to go over to the side like we did. Now from here, I want you to reach that hand forward on a long diagonal.

Good. Like you're reaching towards me. Good. And then go back to your side and come up. Did you feel that across the back? Across your lower back? Yeah. So you should get a nice stretch from here that your side, but then when you reach forward, now I'm getting that stretch across that back. Yes. And then go back to the side and come up.

Very nice. And reach over one more on each side and go across. Really, really reach across. Get that nice stretch in that lower back, but your knees are bent so you're not, you're not, um, getting hindered by your hamstrings. And one more reach to the side. Yeah. Good. Very nice. And then forward. Good.

And then come back to this side and uh, great. Okay. Let's go onto our stomach lying down and we're going to start, um, with our elbows by our sides. Okay. Pull your navel up to your spine so that you really as if you had something underneath your, your belly there. Now press into your elbows, bows and lift up. So I'm lifting my chest, but I'm, I'm pulling into my abdominals, keeping the ribs close and back down. Inhale. Exhale. Press into the elbows. Keeps shoulders over away from the ears for me, and lift up the chest and come back down. Now if that's bothering your back, open your legs out a little bit and pressing lift. Pull into those.

Have down abdominals. Paul Paul, Paul, good press. Now really think about unsure og in your shoulders. Press yes. Shoulders away from ears and back down. Now this time we're going to make it a touch harder. We're going to lift just as you just did. Good.

Now you might want your arms slightly forward, but just slightly pull into those abdominals. Now from here, I want you to press into those hands and just slightly pick those elbows up. Not all the way and back down because what am I'm trying to do? I'm trying to work your arms a little bit here, going back down, so you've got to hold it and pull into those abdominals. I lift up and lift the elbows up off the mat. Shoulders away from the ears and back down.

And last one, pressing up. Press into those hands. Lift the elbows up off the mat and back. Damn. Wonderful. Place the hands by your sides for me and you can put your head to one side or the other. Now I want you to actually turn your palms towards the floor.

Route. Shoulders away from ears, reach hands towards feet and lift your body up. Really keep those hands reaching towards your toes. Come on. Good, good, good, good. And back down. You feel the upper back muscles working as well as the back extensors. Now polenta, those abdominals. Good. And slide. Shoulders away from ears.

Keep that neck long and really reach open all this up because men tend to get really, really strong in here and back down, but we don't always get stretched out in the front of the chest and we want to really work these muscles in the upper back as well to try to balance some of that out. So slide those hands towards the heels. Lift. Good. Keep the neck long and really open this nice you feel that stretch. Good. And back down. One more to go and reach. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Good and back down. So we're working that back. Okay. Arms over head.

Now we're going to do our swimming. So head is going to go down. Pull into the abdominals. Lift. I want this space really long. Perfect. Okay. Lift arms and legs off the Mat. Both arms and legs. Good head a little bit. Good. Now we're going to swim right there. One, two, three, four. Keep breathing. Five, six, seven, pull into those abs.

Nine 10 and relax it down. Good. Now we're going to get it a little bit harder. We're going to lift up and I want you to open and close slightly arms and legs. So it's a, it's from here. We're gonna go this way. Okay. I'm not going very far. Okay. All right.

Lifting up and arms and legs. Up and open and close and open. Polenta. Those abs. Open and close. Good. Open and close. Open and close. Open and close. Good and close. One more. And Open and close. Very nice.

Sit back onto your heels for me. That was great. Good, good. Very nice. Okay, let's go back onto our side. Okay. So we're gonna start just with a few of our side kick exercises.

So we're going to go, um, oh, you can be on your elbow. Okay. Here you can be all the way down. Okay. Whatever feels um, better to you. It's more difficult to be on the elbow and it's easier to be all the way down. And if you really want to make it hard, we're going to go to here. Okay. I'm, I have legs straight, but sometimes we feel, um, I feel that I'm using this leg too much. So if you are, you can bend the underneath leg. Okay. All right. So the, the underneath side is lifted and we're gonna lift that leg, hip, hive. Good.

And we're going to flex it and I'm going to bring it forward without changing my back, right? So slide it forward. Good. And then bring it back. Keep it the same level, but don't change any of this and bring it forward and bring it back. Exhale and inhale and exhale. Good. And inhale and exhale and inhale.

And exhale. Last one. And inhale and exhale. Good. Now bring it front and bins. Check. Take it to the back and stretch. Bring it front, Ben. Take it to the back. So that's our bicycle. Good.

Bring it front Ben. Now. No moving in the body. Good. One more. Take. Get Front Ben. Take it back and stretch. Reverse your bicycle. Bring it back. [inaudible] bend it, bring it front. Really pull into those ads, bring it back, Ben. Take it for a run and bring it back. Good. Ben. You've got it. Take it front. Last one. Bring it back Ben.

Take it for hour and bring it down. Good. I want you to take both legs out. Come up onto your elbow for me. Yes. Now from here, this hand can just go on your hip if you want it to. Um, or you can just put it out to the side. We're going to lift up into our plank. Pull into those abdominals. Yes. Good. And Go back down.

They'd keep this length right here and press up into that plank and bring it back down. Good. Do you feel the work underneath the shoulder blades under there and all in that side? Yes. Progress into it and back down. Very nice. One more and press into it. Lift, lift, lift, lift and back down. Good. Okay. Can we get one little tiny bit harder? Sure. One more thing here. We're going to lift up. Can we lift a leg up and put it down and relax?

Beautiful. Lift it up. Keep breathing and lift lower. You got it. One more. Bring it up, lift lower and come back down. Very nice. Other side, everything on the other side. So we started with our side kick, so you're on your elbow.

Other hand can go to the front or behind the head. Now your feet are slightly in front of you for this one. And yes, remember if you feel that you're using your underneath leg too much, bend the front knee and put it in front of you. All right, lift that leg hip height. You got it. Now take it front and keep it flex. So you get that stretch in your hamstring and swing it to the back without moving any of this and going front. Inhale, reach length in here. Exhale, take it to the bat. You've got it. And inhale, flex it to the front, reach it good, and bring it to the back. Nice. And one more.

Bring it [inaudible] and take it to the back. Yes. Good. Now Bicycle. So we're going to, we're going to bring it front. We're gonna bend it. We're going to stretch it all the way. Bring it back here and reach it back. But don't change this. You got it. Bring it all the way front and bend. Reach it all the way back.

Don't change the ABS. Good. Bring it front bend, take it to the back and don't change the positioning of the body. One more. Bring it front to Ben, reach it back, and don't change the position. You've got it perfect. Reverse that. Bring it back. Then stretch it to the front and really flex that foot so you get that hamstring stretch. Bring it to the bat, and Ben, bring it front and flags. You've got it. Bring it back then and reach it front with a flex.

One more. Reach it back and Ben. Good. And bring it front and come through and down. Perfect. Good. Okay. Up Onto your elbow for your side point. Okay, so legs are out. Good. Nice. Now pull into those abdominals. Other hand can be on your hip or out to the side. Okay. Yes.

Now from there we're going to lift the hips up. Press. Use all of these muscles under here as well, and come back down. Lowering the hips. You've got it. Lift into that nice long plank. Perfect. And back down. Good. Exhale and again, use your breath to help you. Lift, get that nice long stretch, pull into those low abs that we were working earlier and back down. Good. And one more. Lift it very nice and back down.

Now if your weight is evenly distributed, this, that next one is not that hard, okay? But if you're pushing into your feet, then it does make it a little more difficult, okay. Or just pushing into your arm. All right, lift up. Now take that leg up. Just sightly. Bring it back down and sit in to that hip. You've got it. And again, lift and lift the leg and put the leg down and relax. Good.

And bring it up and lift the leg and bring it down. Add one more if you can, lift it up. Keep breathing and lift and lower and bring it down. Wonderful. Okay, very nice. Good. Let's go back onto all fours. Wonderful. Okay, so from right here, we're going to slide our leg one leg out and I'm keeping my hip to the floor.

Okay, slide the other leg out. Now we're in our nice plank position. Now before we do anything else, we have to know that we can hold this position strongly. Okay. You don't want to be down here and you don't want to be back here either. Okay. You want to be nice and flat. The glutes are tight, the ABS are tight. Now we're just gonna lift one leg up.

We're not going to do a flexing point or anything and come back. Good. But what I want to focus on, take the other leg up is I really want you to focus good and down night on really keeping these guys back. Yes. And this up and down. Keep alternating and lift. You've got it. Yeah. So that you're not powering from just here that it's all coming from here. Good. Flatten this out. Beautiful. Yeah. Pushing into your arms. Good.

And one more. Is that the first one or do we have one more and good one more and down. Relax. Back onto your knees. One knee at a time. Come in and sit back onto your heels. Good. Shake your hands out if you need to. Very nice. Good. Cause I, we're going to do one more, which is going back to our hands into our plank.

And we're going to go into a pushup now. Okay. So go back to your plank position that you are in yet nice and flat. Good. Now from there we're going to lower from there. Keeping that plank. Yes. And come back up. Nice. But what I want to see as though shoulders open and back and again, back into that. Push up. Good and coming up.

Push, push. Use the whole body to do the movement. Yes. And three acts help arrest. One more and four. How are we doing? And a good, take your right leg off. Good. Try to push up and go back up. Wonderful.

And left leg and lift. Paletta those abs. No lower backs. Arching. Good. And back up. Beautiful. Let's do two more and then you'll be done with that and going down. Stretch it out. Long reach. Oh, away from you. You've got it. Good. Good. Keep all this open. Last one and down. Perfect.

And come back up. Very nice company in one knee. Other, Nate, let's sit down. Good. Alright, let's finish with our teaser. Okay. And then we're going to do some nice stretches. Um, we're going to lie down and we're just going to do, um, a small teaser because what I don't want is for you to get so caught in your, in your quads and your hip flexors that you know, that's all you're thinking about is that and not what's going on here. So we're going to start with a very small movement and then if we can grow from there, great. If we can't, we're just going to leave it wherever we can get to and just feel those abs. So round forward, bring the head, neck and shoulders up and off the mat. Stretch those feet out long. Good. Now take a deep breath in. Exhale, pull into those abdominals in the left. Legs float off. You've got it.

Stay there. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. Try to grow an inch. Yes. Stay there. Deep breath in and try to grow a little higher. You've got it. Exhale round. Good. Now toes to eyes and roll it back down. That was great. Now I want to watch and deep breath in. Round, upper body forward.

Now keep your feet on the mat first. Stay there. Now once you've got your nice tight position there, let the legs reach out and float up. Perfect. Now from there, let's make it grow. Deep breath in. Exhale. Use Your exhale to get the movement. Deep breath in. Exhale. Gouraud wonderful. Don't pop deep breath in. Exhale, grow. Think about your feet more than your upper body. Good, and one more, and roll it back down. Wonderful. Two more to go and you're dead. You're done. I promise. Deep breath.

The slide, those hands forward round. Now that's your strong position. Good. Now from there, let those legs float. Reach out so that you're not thinking about the front, but the backside. Stay there. Deep breath in. Exhale, reach. Hold on to it. Don't pop up. Stay there. Let the legs come up equally. You got it. Stay there.

One more rural and roll it back down. Now I want you to think about rolling, stretching away. You've got it. Last one. Deep breath in. Come on. You can do it as hell. Think about those nice flat abdominals you're going to have, reach and reach. Let those legs float up. Just let them float and their waitlist. Exhale, your legs aren't even involved. It's all abs and reach, reach, reach, stretch out, out, out, out, out, good toes to eyes. And then low. It's not just about the up, it's about the down. Stay there.

Bend one knee and place the foot on the floor. Take the other leg up to the ceiling for me. Grab onto it with your hands. Your head can stay down. Okay. Now I want you to hold that for a second. Keep that foot flex so you get that really nice stretch.

Take a deep breath in and exhale. You've got it. Deep breath in and exhale. And now I want you to go across your body with that stretch. So now you're stretching that it band, right? So you're really should be starting to feel across the outside of that leg.

Reach this hip down towards me. You got it. You feel that? Yeah. And if you really want even more of a stretch, you rotate that toe inward and rotate it that way. And then that really gets you. Yes, it was already hard. I know, I know. All right. Now bring it the other way. Take it over to the opposite side and get the inside of the leg. So if you need to put your for you, if you need to put your um, your right hand out to the side to give you counterbalance. That's fun, right?

I know I do. If I get too far, I start rolling. Yes. So you get that nice stretch in the inner thigh there too. And then bring it back and the other leg. Okay. So you want to stretch all sides of the legs? Yeah. So we take the leg up now trying to keep that tailbone down as much as you can while you hold that and just breathe.

You want to always hold it for at least 30 seconds. Okay. Deep breath in. Good. And ask how really think about that long spine and exhale. Good. Come across the body. Yeah. And rotated if you need to. And you can actually pull on it with this hand from over here. There you go.

And really drop that hip down and you should feel that nice stretch across the outside of that leg. Yeah. Besides the fact that you're feeling your hamstrings. Stretching too good. Okay. Go the other way to the outside. Reach and open if that nice stretch there. Good. And this hip over here comes back over. Yeah. So here you go. Good. Good. Good. Deep breath in.

Hanging out there and exhale and come back. Cross one leg over the other one. This is your last stretch. Pull this knee up towards your chest and just try to get it as close as you can. You want to make sure you're not cheating and rolling over towards the one that's closest to your chest. So you want to make sure you're here yet you feel that. Okay, good. Okay. And change sides.

Doesn't that feel good? Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Bring it across the body and then pull it in. You've got it perfect. Make sure you breathe into it. Good. And if you're not feeling it, try it, crossing it more over and you're going to definitely feel it. Good.

And bring the leg back down. Good. Okay. Very, very nice. I will let you be done. Very nice. Good.

Comments

Ted Johnson
I get frustrated that my lack of flexibility keeps me from doing exercises the "right" way. Cecile's tips on how to make alterations were really helpful.
2 people like this.
i loved this, it is helpful to remember to pepper in stretches for anyone who is less flexible. i wish there were a lot more classes geared especially toward men! (including apparatus)
thank you!
1 person likes this.
This is great! I just started a men's class at my studio and this is very helpful!
1 person likes this.
Qué buena esta clase para chicos! Me encanta! A ver si haces más. Gracias.
This is a great class! If you're a man, do yourself a favor and watch it. If you're like me, you'll be grateful someone has taken the time to "translate" Pilates movements to the male body. I always feel great after taking this class, never sore or tight, as I so often do after taking a class geared towards "the girls." I now find I will often stop these later classes to incorporate the stretches that are a wonderful part of this class. Bravo Cecile! (And THANK YOU!!)
Brenda B
1 person likes this.
I have a lot of men in my mat classes and every time I do prone back extension, I get complaints about the excessive pressure on their genitals. How can I modify for them so that they won't be so uncomfortable and still benefit from the exercise? Thank you,
Maggie L
Good question Brenda - did anyone give you suggestions?
I loved this. More men's classes please!
Did anyone ever reply to Brenda Barcelo about modification for men in prone?
Brenda B
I have come up with several modifications that seem to work very well for men. Any suggestions welcome!
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