Class #2846

Mat for Spinal Alignment

45 min - Class
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Work your way up to the advanced Mat work in this class with Monica Wilson. She adds a few more exercises to her progression, all focusing on spinal alignment and flexibility. She also encourages you to think about how each movement is related so that you can continue to flow through your practice.
What You'll Need: Mat

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All right. Today we are gonna add a few more exercises to our intermediate system, getting almost to a complete advance. Today we're going to add swan dive, boomerang and spine twists and all three of those. What they have in common is a lot of spinal alignment and flexibility. So we're going to try to keep that in mind during our workout and all the exercises impolite days are related and interchange. The shape moves from one area to the other and you can see that whether it's on the mat or you can take the same shapes and put them on the Cadillac or the reformer. So you want to start thinking about all the exercises, not just individually but uh, as they relate to one another.

So we're going to go ahead and stand at the front of our mat and face forward. Good Pilati stance cause we always start in this tall, nice tower, one arm over the other. You should feel, can the connection of your mind and body from the get go. We're almost at advanced so you should feel everything lifting. You pull in your belly in and up, one foot in front of the other, and keep your powerhouse up as you lower yourself down to the mat. Good. Good.

And then you're going to lift your bottom back so your legs are straight and lie down onto the mat. Good. All right. So reach your arms back and just stretch. Okay. Just reach through your fingertips through your toes as if you have a horse on each limb and they're just pulling you, stretching you, enjoying that, even your back can come up. But now we're going to pull yourself together. So we're gonna reach your arms up to the ceiling and then bring them down by your side. Good. Last, Matt, we lifted our legs up from here, but today I want you to go ahead and draw the belly in to slide those feet towards you. It's always good as you're advancing to keep your limbs together, not one and then the other. And then bring the knees into your chest.

Draw the lower belly into the mat, have it pull up towards your shoulder girdle muscles and lift your head up. Extend the arms for the hundred. And imagine you're on the reformer. As you pull your belly in and up in length in the legs, you're pushing out an imaginary reformer and pump. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Keep going. So this is [inaudible]. We're getting towards an advanced mat. Good. And in with the air. And exhale scooping in you. It's your warm up.

It's your time to feel the alignment of your spine. Good. Feel the back of the thighs pressing down. Feel the seat so you can draw that lower belly in and up. Really need you to feel that lower belly here. So send all your concentration to that of pulling in the like.

You have a six pack and you're thinking of this little lower set. One more big breath. And on the last exhale, pull it in and lengthen the legs down to the mat. Reach your arms up to the ceiling, reach them back. And we're going to start our roll up, arms up, head lifts and upper stomach, middle and lower end. Stretch forward and rolling back. Lower belly first, middle, upper Andrew, reaching back at six more times. We're going to go up, so we're focusing on the articulation of your spine.

We're going to go back with the lower belly first, pretending like you can keep your chest on your thighs as you roll that and then reaching back. And then on your way up, you're keeping your waistband down on the mat as the upper one comes forward and stretch. Send your hips that way. Pull the lower belly in and three more and lovely arms up head and drawing in that lower belly to help stretch at. Pull back with it. So you should feel your pelvic floor here pulling towards your, your lower belly and reaching back. Super important. Two more arms had drawn in the lower belly to help you round over reach.

Pretend you can keep your chest on your thighs as you pull back with the lower abdominals. Get that deep sinking feeling. And one more time. Arms were preparing, thinking of the rollover, which is the exact opposite of the exercise that we're doing right now, drawing in lower back. Great engagement. Good. And then once you're down, press your arms into the mat. Make sure you haven't a little more room for me. Thank you. Go ahead. And you're going to go ahead and bring the legs all the way over. Good.

And then open shoulder with a part had rolled down one bone at a time as if someone's lengthening your spine and squeeze together and over. So this exercise is similar to maybe tower on the mat and length and like the lead and squeeze together and over ad open. And then rolling down here first. Yes. And hold for one second. Hug the knees into your chest. And on the roll up we focused on making sure the you're trying to keep the chest on your thighs as you are rolling back on here.

Make sure you're trying to get ground your shoulder girdle muscles or the bottom of your shoulder blades first as you're rolling back down. Okay, so we're doing the reverse. We're going to have the legs up, open shoulder with apart and use your little lower belly to go over. Squeeze your legs together. And this is what I'm talking about. Get the shoulder girdle muscles down. Beautiful. Oh, over with the lower belly. Squeeze those legs together and shoulder girdle muscles. Go down first. Fantastic. One more open over with the lower belly.

Squeeze and rolling down one bone at a time. All right, we're going to keep the right leg up and lower the left. Maria, I'm going to have you slide your hips a little more center. Yeah, there we go. Good. Stretch that right leg towards you. Grabbing it behind your thigh or a home with a head down. Nice stretch. Stretch, stretch. Arms down by your side and get that left shoulder away.

Let's see right here. Shoulder girdle muscles down. Excellent and cross around. Up. Cross around, up. Good job. Cross around up two more and one more. End. Go the other way. Last class I really made you work the back of your thighs and glutes.

Try to really feel that left leg on the mat, pushing down, squeezing into the mat. One more and hug that knee in. Let's switch right leg down, left knee and left leg up. So now it's the right thighs. Turn to push into the mat. Bring the left leg up to your nose, arms by your side now, and cross around up. Good. Cross around, up. Beautiful. Three year round up.

So you're really stabilizing with the back of the leg and seat one more in this direction. And I love reverse for five how you're holding those shoulder girl girdle muscles grounded. You're scooping in. And two and one more. Is that right? Or do we need one more? Okay. And hug the knee into your chest. Rolling like a ball. So both legs straight on the mat. Draw the lower belly and we're going to get that upper body to go forward.

Lift your bottom forward to your heels. Go ahead, grab on to your ankles. Great. So now I want you to, I'm purposely making it stay here for a second. With your feet up and I want your knees to open up a little bit. I want your feet together and I want you to really be mindful about relaxing hip flexor muscles right now. They are not holding you, they're not engaged. Instead, I want you to draw that little lower belly and pull in and really round your lower back. That is beautiful and with that super round, lower back, keep it there.

Can you bring your ears any more between your knees? Can you bring your chest anymore? Can you make any more bigger letters? See, I'm forcing you to do this right now because I want you to understand this is your spine and you're really working to round that back and it's a full massage for rolling like a ball. So let's start that massage. We're going to roll through the lower back first and then roll through the upper back to come up. [inaudible] beautiful, lower back and exhale. Good in with the air. Exhale up. [inaudible] good in with the air massage in the lower massage in the upper two.

More in with your lower roll down those shoulder girdle muscles first. Yes, one more. I love it. And exhale and lower your feet down. We're going to go into the series of five. Put your hands way behind you lift up and back. Good. And draw the right knee into your chest. Right hand on ankle. Left hand on knee.

Lift up that left leg down the middle of your body and try to keep hugging in that knee as you roll down your lower back, your middle balance with your shoulders lifted off. Going down just to your shoulder, girl muscles. Good. Lift your left elbow to Maria. Good. Draw in and switch. Beautiful. And switch right down the middle of your body. Good switch. Good and switch. Nice. Squeezing your right cheek, your left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, not your knee joint looking good. One more.

And hugging both knees. Good agent you gotta use your right cheek a little bit for you cause you're starting to make your legs go down. The little right side of your body and double leg stretch. Reach your arms back. Good and scoop in it. Great. So keep working at right hip as you reach and exhale and send me your right leg over here. Yeah. And exhale cause your left leg is taken out.

Yeah and two more. Reach and scooping and feel your belly pull into your back and right leg up, left leg forward and switch. Good. This is keep going. Switch and switch again. I need you to feel that lower belly. I need you to feel how it pulls in and up. It's sometimes hard to get all the way down here, but just that lower set is letting his legs fly through the air.

One more set right, left both legs up now, hands behind your head and [inaudible] prs down the back of the thighs and see and use that lower belly. Beautiful and reaching down and that little lower valley. Love it. And reaching down and scooping in. Three more. Reaching Lower Valley. Good. Two more. A long and up and one more time.

Really working it for the criss cross. We're going to draw that knee in and twist up, up, up and switch. Do you feel your lower belly here? Where do you feel it and switch. There's so many parts to this, but again, want you to feel that lower belly and hug both knees in good. Rest your head down for a second. Sit Up. That was a second, Huh?

And spine stretch forward. So you want to be very aware of the lower belly because when we do any of our spine, when our arches or our twist, if you don't have this feeling, then we're in a bad spot. So we're going to flex our feet, draw a line from one hip to the other and be aware if you're a little forward or a little back, but that you're right over those sip bones with those hipbones. And then pull your belly deep in. Give yourself a little lift with your lower belly, lifting the ribs away from your pelvis, and then exhale, rolling off an imaginary wall.

And then holding here, leave your chest on your thighs and draw that lower belly back first. That's it. Rolling up one bone at a time. Take a breath and exhale. Leave the lower belly right where it is as you roll everything else forward. Stretch, stretch.

Make sure it didn't tilt forward and rule back up the lower belly, not the chest. And now to tempo. Take a big breath and exhale down to the mat. Inhale up to the sky. Exhale down to the mat. Inhale up to the sky.

One more exhale down to the mat. Inhale up to the sky. Good. Scoopin roll back your pelvis and let the legs just float up to your hands. Up we go for open leg rocker. Good grabbing right there. I'll let you find your balance. Nice.

Use your belly to come all the way up onto those sit bones. Come forward as much as you can. Lifting that sit. Very nice hand. Inhale, rock back. Xcel raw cap. Any rolling exercise. Inhale. Roll back is a massage for the spine.

You should roll down like you're rolling. Spokes on a wheel. Not like a flat tire. Roll through each bone. Rolling. Good. Roll your lower belly. Press your shoulder girdle muscles down. Good. One more and exhaling and stay here. Squeeze your legs together and roll down your lower belly, your middle, and your upper good corkscrew.

We started last time with our legs up over our heads and we're going to take the legs over and lift them up to the ceiling and we're going to roll straight down. Be Aware. Upper Body, middle body, lower sweep. To the right all the way around, left and up, rolling down, upper back, middle, lower sweep around and all the way up. Adding a twist. We're going to come down as you twist the hips, straightening the left, right hip away from you as you reach the legs around and scoop it up and rolling down. But send the left hip a little further away from you so you can send the left legs around and up. So you're twisting scoop, pull down in the shoulder girdle muscles, but then twist a little bit as you reach all the way around and up. Good. And then come straight down on the shoulder girdle muscles, but then twist a little bit with the pelvis around last time and rolled.

Good stretching, stretching, stretching. Let's do saw sit on up. So saw is a very basic version of an exercise we're going to add today. We're going to be adding this twist, so you want to feel where your feet are. In other words, nothing should move from the hips down. If your feet are sliding one leg shorter than the other than we're not really going to get the full twist. Okay, so we want to make sure our heels for the garage, if you're lucky enough to have one, they're going to be right in the middle of the block, both length and width wise. The heel will be right in the middle. Beautiful.

And we're going to keep them there and we're going to lift up, pulling that lower belly in, twist to the right without moving your pelvis. In fact, let's come back center. Let's get a little more out of this hand over hand behind your head. Good and pulling your belly in. Twist your left rib over your right hip bone, twist, twist, twist further. Woo. Yeah. Now reach your left arm forward and your right arm back and exhale down.

Inhale up, rolling up your spine. Hand over, hand behind the head. Twist your right rib over your left hip. Keep going with your powerhouse and reaching the right arm forward to that baby toe. Exhale, exhale, exhale and inhale. Roll up, hands behind the head. One more set and two west. Read out your belly like a wet towel and then reach forward as your stomach pulls in more and more and more. And roll up your spine. Hands behind your head, Tui west, pulling in your belly like you're wringing it out like a wet towel. And exhale forward.

Really scooping in and wringing out that air. Keep your arm straight. Now for the last set, lifting up. Beautiful. Twist the rib more. Twist it, twist it, twist it, yes. And up right rib over left hip and then down. Yes. Good and up and rest your arms. Good legs together and flip onto your stomach.

Whenever I do my mat work home in my room, I never have enough room to do saw with my arms straight. So I do it like that with my hands behind my head and whooo. It takes it up another level. It's good. Let's keep your hands underneath. If you have a grots today we're not going to use a bar cause we're introducing swan and so we want to make sure we're ready for Swan. So your hands are going to be underneath your shoulders if you're super flexible. If you need a little bit here, back's feeling a little stiff today, but still ready to do swan.

Let's bring your fingers or hands three inches forward and three inches out to the side. Absolutely fine. Good. But now let's really feel our spine. You're going to squeeze your bottom down into the mat so that your pubic bone is on the mat. You're gonna squeeze the back of the thigh and seats down into the mat. So that allows you to pull your belly up and feel yourself supporting your spine. Do you feel that lady's good?

Now I want you to let go of all the muscles and feel how heavy you get into the mat. Okay? It's just let all your muscles go and you should be giving into gravity now. Now let's fight it. Let's squeeze again your seat down and your hamstrings down, and that allows you to pull your belly up. And why I say that is because in Swan it's this rocking motion.

And so when your legs go down, squeezing down, they're going to help you lift your upper body. And then when your upper body goes down, it's going to help you lift your lower body. So we're going to really work on lengthening our spine right now. Pretend those hands are suction cups and you're pulling the mat behind you as you lift up your head and as you lift up your chest and come up to straight arms if you can and you don't take it in the lower back cause you're squeezing. Look over your right shoulder. Circle the head.

Dare over to your left shoulder. Look forward. Do you feel the hamstrings and glutes you need them for this exercise? Look left. Circle the head down around right. Look forward and come down onto your belly. Bend in the elbows. Nice job. Good one more set. Squeezing the bottom down, scooping the belly in. Lift up the head, lift up the chest.

Keep squeezing and lifting. We're going to look over your left shoulder first. Circle down around to your right. Look forward and hold. Is your belly still and it needs to be in. Look over your right shoulder, chin to your chest over to your left. Look forward and melt down. Lengthening. Don't put your belly down first. Yes, stretch out. Good.

So you guys are ready now for Swan. Swan means your arms are gonna reach forward. Your legs reach up to the ceiling. Let's try this. We're going to squeeze down the seat. Good. Pull the belly in. Come back up into your position using your belly, not the arms.

Your stomach is lifting you. Good. On the count of three, I want you to shoot your arms forward and they're not going to touch the mat again. One, two, three. Shoot them. Four legs up to the ceiling, arms up, legs, arms. Use the hamstrings and glutes, powerhouse, leg, string powerhouse. One more. Good for you. Relax into the mat. Very important. Relax that spine into the mat. Round your back and sit onto your heels. Very, very good. Get a nice scoop reaching the arms. Good, good.

And we're going to do single leg kick back onto your bellies. Nice and quickly. Here we go ladies, and we're going to lift up onto your elbows. This pushing into each other. Squeeze that pubic bone down. Lift the legs up, belly up, and here we go. Right? Two, one, two, left to right to left to right, to left to keep the knees off the mat. One more set. Don't let them press down and that's enough, right facial cheek on the mat. Hands behind your back, elbows down.

Bring the hands up as high as you can behind your shoulder blades. Both legs. Lift up with your powerhouse in. So squeezing down, belly in and the re kicks. It's kick. One, two, three scoop. Scoopin. See as you push down, you see how you're lifting your chest and switch and kick to three. This is the swan dive we just did. And one more set and kick. Two, three. So hold this and try to pull your belly in more. Relax your shoulders.

Use your belly to lift, lift, lift and switch. One more. Kick two, three and stomach in. And use your belly to lift. Squeeze your bottom into the mountain more. Lift higher, more, and melt round your back and sit on to your heels. Could you feel the swan in that exercise ladies? Nice work. Good.

Nice. All right. Flip onto your back and lie on down. Good. And we're gonna do neck full. Flex the feet good. And you can have your hands by your side. You can have your hands behind your head.

You can do whatever you want as long as you articulate up. So we're going to end with the air head. Exhale, come on up. Good. All the way to kissing your knees in how? Roll Up. Use your lower belly here as you go back. Lower belly pulls in and up, in and up. Rolling down one bone at a time. Good. And with the air backup, you want it rice and quick. Right into the next.

Inhaling up and back. Nice and quick. As in once your head touches you come right back up. The rest of it continues to tempo. Pull the shoulder girdle muscles in more. Push them into your head, your head into your hands. Yes. Two more. Inhale and exhale forward. Inhale, sit up tall and then use your lower belly and your seat seat seat.

And one more. Press those ribs in that sit and inhaling up and exhale. Push the head into your hands. Length and linkedin. Linkedin, good arms by your side. Alright, so just like roll over was the opposite of roll up. Jap knife is the opposite of our neck pull that we just did. So bend the knees into your chest, legs up to the ceiling. Good.

And we're gonna go over to a 90 degree angles. Don't let the legs fall to the floor and reach them over and then squeeze them up. Beautiful. And then shoulder girdle muscles first. Excellent. Bottom and lower belly takes your legs over and lift. Beautiful Maria. And lowering down. This is like your exercise, Huh?

At one more. She's like, can we do it again and roll down shoulder girdle muscles. Yes. Let's do one more lower belly and beautiful. Up and rolling. Damn. Good. All right, we're going to bend the knees and place the feet flat on the Mat.

Last time I introduced bend the knees, shoulder bridge. So we're going to do that again. Hips here. Good. Before you do anything, make sure the shoulder girdle muscles are grounded. We aren't going to lift our seat. We're gonna bring these feet quite a bit more in. We're not gonna lift our seat with our ribs are we?

We're going to pull your belly in, squeeze that seat, curl it towards you. Really feel the hamstrings and glutes. Lift your bottom up and then try to make a straight line from shoulders to knee. Then make an l with your hands and put your hands underneath elbows on the mat. You can bring the feet, adjust the fee closer to you. Whatever you need to do.

But try to get the elbows more on the mat from I think you and your hands right into your hips. Good. All right. Relax in those ribs. Use Your right hamstring and glute to straighten that on the mat. Nice and straight. Kick that right leg up to the ceiling and bring it down and kick it up and flex it down. Lifting your weight off your hands and one more up and you shouldn't get heavy on your hands and hold the leg down and return sliding it onto the mat ribs here. So from your left thigh.

Squeeze it on the Mat. Keep it down. Yeah, there you go. Kick it up. Flex it down. Nice. Kick it up. Hamstrings and glutes are lived in those hips. One more time. There's no waving in those hips. Returning the leg to the other. Take your hands away. Shake 'em out if you need to, and roll down those reps all the way down. Good. So we learned that one last time and we written two a lot of detail.

Sit Up and we're going to do spine twist. So we talked about that. The saw was the baby version of it. So on here we're going to keep our legs like a Mermaid's tail wrapping in, squeezing our toes are gonna pull back towards us. And now we're going to pretend that we've got duct tape wrapped around our feet and they're not gonna slide at all. K and we're going to do the same start where we're going to make sure our, where our sit bones are.

We're going to keep our hip bones over those sit bones and really use that lower belly. Try not any, there's no sinking in this. It's actually really important. Just as much as the twist is, is the lift. Okay? Right? Like I am being pulled up by a string. Put your hands one over the other, behind your head. Take a big breath and empty the lungs by ringing the air out of your lungs, twisting to the right early exit [inaudible] and then inhale center.

And then exhale. Don't let those feet shift and center and exhale. Draw that lower belly and lift up off of your seat and center. And exhale. Pull that lower belly in. Take that right rib over the left hip and center.

Now spread. Spread your shoulder blades. Don't let them pull together. Reach your shoulders apart from each other. Reach the arms and the fingertips. Touch the walls so you've got so much energy pushing out of your heels, lifting out the crown of your head and lifting up your fingertips. Stay with all that energy and take a big breath.

And we're going to do an x hello in. A little less stir bounce, boom. Inhale, center twist is hell. And a little [inaudible] extra balance. But no feed sliding in with the air. Exhale. Nice ad. Last one actually. I like we do. One more set. Exhale, lift up that seat and exhale. Left. Lifting the ribs away from the pelvis and center. Nice job, ladies. Lie On your right side.

We're going to just roll right over for our sidekicks. Good. That's it. Now, last class I let you rest your head on your right hand. I'm not going to be so nice today, but we won't do as many legs. So I want you to think of neck pool and I want you to put the right hand behind. Good. And let's rest your left hand down. Good. All right, so I'm gonna join you with this or on our right side. Okay.

So because this is starting to be more advanced, right? And an advanced person has both hands behind your head. So we're going to have our box nice and straight, pulling in your powerhouse. All right. And then we're going to make sure we're not resting our hat head on our hand. Instead it's pushing into the back of our hand.

Add the left hand behind your head. Okay. Reach the left leg, a little upturned out and reach it out of the hip. So we've got a lot of energy reaching out and pulling in up. And we're going to kick forward one, two, and back to notice one, two, and back to notice my elbow isn't waving at the ceiling. Instead it's pointing directly up to the ceiling. One, two.

It's reaching to the ceiling and for more forward and back to no waiting. Ladies forward to keep those shoulder girdle muscles under control. And three, two and back. Two and two more. Use your belly. Use your seat. Make sure reaching out of that hip as you go back and legs together. All right, you can put your hand down for this one.

We're going to lift that right leg, left leg up to the ceiling and school we ease down, up to the ceiling and laying thing out. Good. One more like this. Good. Now put that left hand behind your head again and kick up to the ceiling. And as you squeeze down, pull your belly in and up in Linkedin, out the crown of your head, three more, and lengthen out the crown of your head. No resting on that hand. Last one, squeezing down as you lengthen. Hold by little circles with control. One, two, three, four, five, reverse one. What a great powerhouse. Love it ladies and rest. Pull your belly in. Lift the legs up as you roll onto your belly.

Make a small pillow for your forehead. 20 beats, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 mark, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Roll to your left side. Okay, good. Line up on that back first. Maybe bring your shoulders just a hair forward for me, Maria. Thank you. Good. All right, ant, you're going to start off like this with your head not resting in your left hand. You're going to push your head into your hands.

Add your right hand. Good. And that's all from the shoulder girdle muscle. Good. Lifting the right leg length and out. Again, tons of energy and we're going to do a little one to forward and back to and forward. Two and back two and forward two and back and forward two and back to and forward and back. Nice job keeping your elbow steady and back and one more forward and back and legs together and lift that leg up and squeeze down.

I let you have your hand down on the other one for a couple but we're going to keep it here and up and draw that belly in and up. So a lot of length you're using that leg one more time to help get taller. Hold here with that posture you should be looking like you're doing this and you're going to circle one, two, three, four, five. Reverse it from the powerhouse to push your head into your hands where I'm here and leg down. Lie Onto your back. How can I ease into your chest?

And if you have felt your quad starting to tighten up on you at all, you're going to want to Jay. Okay. Now we're going to draw the lower belly and [inaudible] and we're going to extend the legs forward. But you want to make sure that you don't do it from your hip flexors cause we are going to be in a bad spot. Okay, so we're going to draw the belly in and up and work from where the thigh connects to the seat and rotate the legs out to a 45 degree. Reach the arms back and you're going to roll up.

Keep it here and really use your lower [inaudible] belly. Pretend your chest is staying on your thighs. Nice job reaching back and again and keep your chest lengthening forward. Drawing your lower belly. And one more. We're staying here. Pretend you're holding onto Joe supplies.

Shoulders lower and scoop up too. You really want to have this energy going forward. One more hold and then arms lift and roll away from those legs only to come back up. Beautiful arms lift and lower belly. Keep reaching the upper body forward. And two.

Hello. I lost count he and one more time. Good. Arms up and rolling back. Beautiful job ladies. All right, and we're going to roll up to a seated position from the get go. You got to use your lower belly to pull into the mat and round up your head and shoulders. Okay? And then use that lower belly. You're gonna roll up pushing the back of your thighs and seat down into the mat.

All right, so we're introducing boomerang, which you can cheat quite a bit and you'd go for it when you're learning it. Enjoy the movement, but then you're going to want to work on it. Okay? So we're going to cross our right ankle over your left and just like that beautiful spine twist you dead. And that's why we're introducing these together. You want to have that energy, like someone's pulling you up to the ceiling. Yeah. And your hands are going to be palms down by your hips and pressing down to give you that lift also.

So right here you can kind of throw your chest up and back and use your hip flexors to lift your legs up. Or you can keep grounded in here and draw your little lower belly. And you're going to try to roll round your lower back a little bit to length in a back line to lift your legs up. Well, that's a lot of talk for just trying to stay a little bit in place as you lift the legs. Okay, let's lower down again versus coming back here and lifting up. Okay, so try to pull in, grow tall. Use Your hands a little scoop in and hold and we're gonna roll back like the Jack Niver rollover starting. So roll over, hold arms, hips are over the shoulder blades and you're using your powerhouse to hold your way, not to fall into gravity.

They're gonna open shoulder width apart and switching goals and now rule through the shoulder blades and rule up keeping your hands down until you feel good balance. And then reach for the teaser. Bend the elbows past. Now hold those legs with your belly so they don't flop as you go down with them. Big Circle with the arms. Big Scoop in your belly. Grab your ankles and stretch. Good.

Sit up tall. One more at that tempo. What I would like to stress is when you're rolled over again, don't let your hips collapse and hurt your neck, but also your legs. They always want to be getting a workout and stay tone so they're not just like, eh, eh, but they're gonna want to be like nice and controlled, not out, but within the mat. Nice and controlled. So let's try that a little bit. So scoop in, grow tall. Don't just hinge back.

Lift those legs from your powerhouse and roll over. Switch nicely. Roll back, sliding your arms, reaching forward. Hands passed behind you. Keep reaching your chest forward with your belly, holding your legs and big circle. Let's try a little more tempo. Hands by your side. Scooping in, lift and over open. NGOs who roll up wringing the arms behind you. Big Lift and circle. One more time.

Scooping in and up. How we looking? Open? Close. Rolling up. Hands go behind, man. Big Circle. Good job, ladies. All right, let's flip over to swimming. Flip over straight arms and straight legs. The last two times I've let you do the PT version first. Today we're going to go right into it. Squeezing your pubic bone down, hamstrings and glutes. Lift the legs up. Belly lifts up your ribs. Arms right arm up a little higher than your left.

Left leg is a little lower than your right. Yeah, so opposite arm and leg. Sorry I messed up here. Right arm and left leg higher. There we go. And switch any heel. Two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. I love the length in your arms. Keep pulling your belly in and up. One more time in with year two, three, four, five. Squeeze the legs closer to three, four, five and melt into the mat. Really good. Round your backs and onto your heels. Good. Good, good, good. Curl your toes under you. Good. Reach your arms forward.

Keep them on the mat and lift yourself forward for leg. Pool Up. Squeeze your bottom down a little bit. Wonderful. The right leg is gonna squeeze up with the pelvis, staying where it is. Rock back and forward and make sure both hips are working. [inaudible] and switch rights up again.

Keep that left hip working and down at yes, so they're pressing against each other. Ooh, that was good. Even when you're switching. All right, we're done with three sets. Take your right hand to your left hand. Good. And reach your hips up and your left arm up as you turn around. Yes, and now going and put your left hand on the Mat underneath you and point your fingertips forward and keep using that seat. Excellent.

We're going to alternate right leg kicks up and flexes down. Lift up and flexes out. Kick your right hip up with that leg. Get your left hip bump with that leg. Kick your right hip up with that leg and your left hip and down. And Go ahead and sit down. Nice job. Good.

And we're going to go into seal. Lift your bottoms forward to your feet, knees apart, arms between those ankles and just like rolling like a ball. I want you to hold yourself in this position. I want you to work as much as you can to stretch that back. This should be a really relaxing position, not a shoulder tension. So you want to keep drawing that pillow. Those inner thighs are active, the pelvic floor, the lower belly.

And then you're trying to use your upper stomach to round forward and stay here from your hips. Clap one, two, three, and rock back to three and roll forward to three. So lower belly massages, upper belly comes to massage in with the air and to your lungs. Inhaling, exhaling. Good. Two more. Okay. Exhale. Last one. Or we're going to stand up.

Okay. And push into the mat to stand up. And now you're going to turn around and we're going to do push ups. This time I want you to challenge yourself a little bit more and good. Maria, with your heels off the back edge. I always like that a little bit. Keep you honest. Alright, so we're going to keep your lower belly and, and lift your arms up to the ceiling. Good.

And roll off an imaginary wall so your weight has to stay forward or you'll fall off the mat and you're gonna walk out into a plank position in a pushup position. Squeezing down and give me five down, up. One. Good job down up too. Don't forget to engage everything to help you from your head to your toe. One more. You're working your powerhouse and walk back to your feet and pause when you get back to your feet. Good. Relaxing down. Good.

Don't use the knee joint. Yeah. Now you gotta find that lower belly member, that lower belly in your seat. We're going to roll up. Keeps squeezing your seat forward. Keep pulling in your lower belly. Reach your arms up to the ceiling. That was fantastic. And one more good.

Rolling forward. So what can you do at home if you want to do this? Well, you can Relevate and down up five. Go ahead Dan. Watch the shoulder blades. Good. So that means when you're going up, down into your pushup, you're going to stay like this as you roll off at imaginary wall and you're going to go down to the floor and you walk out and you're going to do your pushups. And then when you come back, hold it right there. Ladies, you're going to stay in Relevate. If you are at home and you don't have a high math and you're going to make sure hips are pushing forward as you draw your belly in. Yeah, scooping in and then have your belly lift your ribs away from your pelvis and then push down as you lift up your body and the heels go down and you're all finished. Nice job, everyone. Good work. Nice.

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Comments

1 person likes this.
Great workout, ??
excelente, y muy precisas las indicaciones.
Monica Wilson
Thank you Bobbie! I'm thinking you added some fun emoji characters after your comment but it just reads as question marks. Please let me know if you did have a question:)
Monica Wilson
Muchísimas gracias María Luisa!
Alexandra L
Fabuloso! I love you Monica Wilson. Precise, clear cues always pushing me a millimeter onward.
Monica Wilson
Love you too Alexandra!
1 person likes this.
I love your Mat class! Please do some more Video's!
XOXO
Hi Ira, Monica has been a monthly instructor for Pilates Anytime for seven years (Thank you Monica) so I have great news for you! Here is a link to all 119 Mat videos she has done with us so far. Monica's Latest Mat classes.
Monica Wilson
Thank you Ira! And Thank you Kristi for posting the link! I hope you enjoy many more classes:)
1 person likes this.
I know that I will be thinking of you, Monica, the day after tomorrow... Great workout and well suited for a level 2/3.
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