Class #285

Balance Variations

60 min - Class
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Kristi starts class standing with an alignment check, then intersperses balance work with some specific glute work that includes some squats. Class continues with some advanced variations on intermediate exercises like the Double leg stretch and Roll Up. An explanation and demonstration of the Scissors are offered, then the class heads into the Twist, Side Bend, Pilates Push Up, and a little more balance.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Oct 06, 2010
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So shall we start? You're way too serious standing at the edge of your mat or parallel with your feet. Okay? So go ahead and look down. In fact, now that you've done that, don't think too much. Just look straight ahead and close your eyes. Lift your toes and just check in. What happens? What do you notice? Nothing you need to answer. You're just sort of noticing what is. So right now, uh, open your eyes. Set your toes down, and now balance your feet so the toes are down. You are now even as best you can be.

Big total little toe and then right in the center of the feet. So relax your feet. Shift your body weight ever so slightly forward and see if you can connect through the front of your body. So I'm looking for length or for you to feel a little length and through the back. And then shift your weight back a little bit, but not so much. You strain or almost fall back. Come back right over your centers.

Level out your pelvis. We in here, we're going for a standing roll down on your exhale. Keep the abs engage or get them engaged. Let your head fall forward. Let your upper back fall forward. Rounding over to just again, still checking in, assessing, inhale, and as you exhale, rolling back up right from the start. You're working okay. Right away. I'm going to do that once more, a little faster. If it feels stiff for you, don't go so far. Inhale, loosen up.

That's right. Get rid of anything you need to. That's exactly right. Exhale down. That's the way you're going to move easier. That's the only way you're going to start to move efficiently and some of you're still looking a little controlled, which I'll get to for now. Loosen up. Inhale, exhale, roll back up. That's it. Awesome. All right. Staying on your mat. I won't do too many of these. All we're doing is shifting the heels together and then from the heels if you want to think of it that way, squeeze rather firmly so you're tall.

You can squeeze your glutes as much as you like, so long as it doesn't tuck you. All right. From there, we rise up on the toes. As you rise up, reach the shoulders down your back. Inhale, stretch your body down or your heels back to the mat. Barely touch and come up again. Yeah, and the feet expect them to wobble. A special if you're on a mat and down and up. Good. This is your chance to just sort of check in again, but this time on, what is it that you want to focus on and up and down.

Tip. I'll be talking about hugging the midline. All I really mean is drawing inner thighs and up in and engage. All right, let your feet come down from there. Take your right leg forward. You can adjust your bottom foot. The other foot of me left foot again however you want.

So it doesn't have to be this perfect little turnout. Just pick up that line. Okay. And from there, without tucking, leaning, anything else? Just draw the knee up a little higher. Extend the leg and set it down. Bend, lift, stand. And as you extend, imagine that to be your, the beginning of your AB work. Here we go. Lift extended. Didn't have to be real high.

Just higher from where you started and down. One more here, Ben, Lyft and down. Nice job. Nice job. All of you on the mats too. That's great. Switch sides. Check in with your hips. If you know you tend to tilt forward or anteriorly tilt or back, kind of note that now and make sure it's not happening. Here we go. Float one knee up, extend the leg forward. It can be lowered as you do that and down and bend reaching out and now might be a good time.

I'm going to do two more to remind you that everything is meant to come from the center. So don't tighten up the leg. That's just wasted energy. Just let it go. Last one, you're tall, you reach and you're down. All right. With that we're going to stand with the feet wide, not super wide. I'm going to probably, I don't know how to say it's exactly, probably that. Probably just a little wider than your mat. So if you want to be off it, that's fine. I'll tell you what. Let's face the front so you get a view.

Not no offense to each other. Cause I know you're looking at each other fun. All right. What I'm hoping for is to get a little glute work in today. So, uh, with your sort of neutral spine, we're gonna head into a squat, but some of you are gonna want to stop shorter than I am. Okay? In other words, if you don't want to bend your knee a lot, you get to hinge forward and that's absolutely fine. You'll still get it. But if you can, I'm going to ask you to come a little bit lower. In fact, let's do that just to, and I'm using, by the way, I'm leaning forward, Jim, just a little, and I'm using my forums into my legs for a little support there. Okay. That looks great on everybody. Are you okay though? Anybody need to talk to me and say no more of this. Okay. Alright.

While we're here, just make sure that your feet aren't so far underneath you that you could lift your heels. You want to be able to almost lift your toes. Okay. Pretty comfortable if that's okay with you. And you can go just a little lower. Do if it's too much too soon. Don't K I'll get there in a minute. All right. Press into the heels. Squeeze your butt. A little hard place to do it. Use your hands initially to help you get up. Okay, that's about as low as I think we need to go. I'm not headed quite there yet.

We're going to go a little less deep for now. Here we go. Just wanted to see if that was going to work. So we reached forward and we come back up and we reached forward and we come back up. And by reaching forward, my thought is just as a counterbalance, right? So if you're used to some kind of dance, I'm not, it's not a play, right? It's not just straight up and down because I definitely want the glutes there.

Let's go a little faster and warm up in this heat wave though. We're having to [inaudible] and what I've just noticed I switched to and I'd like you to do too, is a chest expansion. So when you reach, reach down in back so you get a little bit of back work as well. Let's keep going. And reach it down and press it back. Working the whole body back a couple more. Reach one more time. Reach and hold.

So far, so good. Great. Let's go a little deeper then. Here's what I want to try for you. Come on down. You're going to take your elbows if you can. This low right inside and your support is in this. Okay, nice, lovely, lovely. Press up a little and down.

So what I've changed it to is I'm just leaning forward and back, leaning forward, and then hips down, hips up, hips. Danny can be tiny and you still get work. I'm thinking three more. Here we go. All up and down. Extend your upper back to looking. Good. Here's three. Hold that hands to your thighs. Roll yourselves up. Use your arms. Yeah. Good. All right. We'll get a little deeper in a moment, but for now we're going into one more balance. So feed together.

I'd come off the mats for this next one. So just back, just behind ya and the turn once again to the center. Taking your right leg behind you from here. Find the back of the leg. We're doing a modified standing scissors. So reach your arms down your back, soften the leg you're standing on, hinge forward just a little bit. Okay, I'm not going for a big stretch here. Straighten that back knee. Even if it just barely comes off the ground, then we're coming back to up, right? You've got to bend the knee that's in the air to extend it forward and rebend it and to extend it back and Ben did.

So it's going to be kind of a moving balance and extend and bend and reach back. So all the action is really happening at the hip joint, I suppose the knee as well, but nothing too exciting. They're just clearing the floor and then we'll come back, finish the kick to the front and let the foot come down to change sides of the light comes up and reaches back. I recommend letting the toes be on the floor initially, maybe even curled under so that you have something to almost push against. Cause if you do that, you'll kind of know if your glutes are engaged. All right.

Hinge forward enough that the toes can come just off or a little more if you'd like. And will you go bringing it forward? Just bend the knee enough to clear the floor and extend and be tall and weep it back. And so the standing leg, just be mindful that you don't want to, well I'll call it locked out. Ideally we would have both the quad, the front and the back of the leg working hamstrings. But if it needs to just be soft for now. That's cool. Yeah. Last one full one.

[inaudible] and we set it down. Okay. Facing front, which like did you just do good? That was the one you were standing on or moving? Stood on, right. Let's do it on right. Good. Left leg out from here. Do you want it to just sort of hike your hip up? Whichever way and then it doesn't matter which way and then we'll go back to what you think is level. I just wanted you to feel the difference.

Flex that foot, take it slightly behind you so you feel the butt kicking in and then I suspect we're not going to be able to move much. Just that's the way the body, most of our bodies are designed. So it's squeeze, release, squeeze, release. Unless of course your Martin with her dancer arabesque. Go for it. Right? If it works for you. What we don't really want is any movement at the back. All right? It's just gluten. Boom, boom, boom, [inaudible] and boom, change legs. Just bring it down.

So let's set it up again so you're level, sweep the leg out maybe slightly to the back. It would be easier to start that way. Flex foot. If you lift a chest, which I hope you will, you bring the pubic bone with it and we lift one. We live too. We live three, four. Bring your hips forward. Just a little iron. So you're hinting at the hip [inaudible] yup. Okay. Bring it down. Ready? Round two this time, the same wide stance that you had. If you find you need to go wider, you're welcome to.

And now just cause I have nothing else to do with them right here. And actually you can get a little Peck like a contraction as well as your lats so that you have that awareness. Here we go. We're going to squat down excellent and backup. Exactly. And squat down. Remember, if you don't like the knee bending and straightening part, you're going to just hinge forward a little rather than bending as much. Otherwise you can go slow as you feel comfortable and let's go and tune. The truth of the matter is you don't even have to squeeze that hard. If you get as low as you all are, you just come back off as plenty. But if you want a little more, go ahead.

Just don't over commit the joint to anything. And I'm talking to the hip joint. Let's get 10 more. Somebody's account one and, and two and, and three. And now everybody's body. I'm talking to you better. Help me count four. Okay. Um, if you find yourself having to round, right, keep going. Don't go solo or do the hinge. If you have a mirror to look at, you should use it. Someone eight good on 10 with stayed down. Even if you don't go that low, is it? God? Wow. How scary is that? I don't know. Okay. Here we are.

Hinge fold a little. So all you're doing is lean forward and then come a little more upright. Lean forward. Everyone's gonna look a little different here so it's not exact spot. Lean forward. Lean back forward and we will come all the way. Oh right.

Yeah. We need glutes. I'm sick of hearing. No, soften your glue. It's no. Why would we do that? It's a big muscle. Sorry. Here we go. Uh, once again, a balanced to the front, right? Like four please. Hips are level. Oh Mary. What's the cue? Fishing reel. Fishing reel. Mary says it better, but it's like a fishing reel is in here and your leg is soft and she says it beautifully, but it's like you're reeling the leg up. You don't have to do the hand part. That's just my image of pulling the leg up from somewhere in the middle is the idea.

I'll keep coming. Can you come in and set a down? Same like, Oh yeah, yup, you do. Squeeze your abs, but not so much around. Not yet. And down and up and down. Last one for [inaudible] and Dan changing legs and we'll go kind of slow on this first one. Feel it. It's different, right? It's hard to know. We're just looking for a level. You guys look very good. Keep going, keep going. Challenge it. Excellent. Yeah, and very nice. And here we go. Third.

And to keep going, doing what you're doing, we've got to buy. You could have your hands out if that's easier. You all look fine. But the last one here up. Excellent. Right? So that was just your break. Next one. You know the first version that we went where we just sort of held down here. So you can do that one or you can do the one we just came from, which was up and down. Or you can go crazy.

And what you'll end up doing, I'm going to have you, if you choose to walk, and I'll probably have everybody at least do this. You'll go to the end of your mat. Mine's a bit wide for me and walk. Walk, but you'll be coming down your mat. Okay. If you choose to do it. Yeah, maybe go to the end of the mat anyway. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Make sure it doesn't matter. If you step on your mat I suppose, does it? All right, let's go. Let's think six walks forward, six walks back. We can do 12 of anything. Here we go. Sitting down.

Before you get too low, make sure that you haven't hunched anywhere and okay, here we go and pick up one Oh soft landing to Oh we get to enjoy three, four, five, six, hold, switch. Go back with that leg that's in front one, two and I am having one in front of the other three, four, five. That was easier than I thought I was going to be. Stand up. Just stay there when you get there. Can we do it again? Last one. Promise. Here we go down and if it's too easy to get low, one and two, three, four, five, six, reverse it. Add horn.

Two. Good. Three, get the glutes for five and stand up. Oh, I think that's enough of that. Walk to the front of your mat. Please cross one foot over the other. Yes, arms go over the other. And the only reason we really do this is to push up into the top arm down with the bottom arm. Pull the belly in and have a seat as gracefully as possible. Arms down is absolutely fine. Right from here. Roll yourself down.

I'd like you to think about the glutes you just worked so hard. Draw your feet in until you get to your shoulder blades. Pick your knees up to tabletop. Make sure your low back stays in the mat. Extend your leg. Inhale, prepare, and exhale. Two, three, five and in and out. Three. Lovely.

Yeah. [inaudible] and three, two, three, four, five. Good. So listen to your body, right? If you need more challenge, you're going to go low. Just like Marta's. Got it. Great. Making sure that the low back is down. Right. And I share a very nice, what I'm going to suggest for everybody is that you intend to go forward, not higher, but forward with your upper body. I think this is eight. We're on slightly different counts, so I'm going to get one more exhale out of the deal. If you're done, you're welcome to bring it in. And inhale, two, three, four, five.

Draw the legs in. Hug 'em to your chest. Head goes down. Briefly. Slide the hands up to your knees. So there are one on one hand on each knee. Curl yourself up. Roll yourself up. Yes. Squeeze the bleeds still. [inaudible]. Okay, and from here we do rolling like a ball.

Start kind of simple up here with your hands. Here we go. Inhale back. Exhale, hold. Remembering where you start. You stay. So nothing changes. Inhale back. Exhale, hold. And you nailed that. Exhale. Whoa. That's feeling too easy. Which it looks like it might be for y'all. Bring it in closer. It's the same thing though. Inhale back a little harder.

You got to have a little bit more faiths. The kinetic chain stays the same and it has a lot to do with connecting to the back of your body. Right? Anybody can roll, but you know how hard it can be. Or it used to be when you came up flat last one and upgrades. If your hands aren't already at your knees, put them there now slowly lower yourself down. Yep. And then from here we're gonna just keep the knee bend for now.

Reach the arms back, touch the tip of the toes. Exhale, circle the arms round. Pick those knees back up. Oops, sorry. You know what? We'll do, just go back and forth. Illustrate over. If you have room, you can circle. Otherwise just come right back over the top. Good. Very good. You might be able to, yeah. Jen, you could come down actually in your upper body a little bit more. Yes. That's really lovely.

Okay, so let's all get back here. If you want to challenge this, you go inhale, touch the toes to the mat. Start to reach them low to the ground. Only if you can keep your back still and then bring it back. Okay. That's all determined by whether or not you can keep your middle spine, your whole spine. Absolutely still. All right, let's do four more. Whatever version you want. It's whole one and and two and in and three and in one more four and and set your heads down momentarily to come right back up.

But make sure inner thighs and glutes are squeezed. They're just going to help you from here. We'll go right into single leg, stretch hand outside, hand to the ankle, and we go. It's on one. Make it easy on the arms and legs, right? If that becomes thing, go back to just holding the knees. Yeah, focus like you're hugging that midline.

You're pressing up against that ma midline of the body. Give yourself two more hero one. I'm sorry, one one. And here's two, two and two both knees in, hands behind your head from here. Let your head go down. This is going to be smaller than you're used to for the moment. Take your knees off to the side. So I do have my head down. It's okay if your elbows need to come up a little, but if you can keep them down, do exhale back to center. Knees.

Stay exactly line to the back, spine to a supine with just a little change and exhale back to center and making sure those ribs are damn off. You put your ribs in the mat a little bit. Yeah. What I'd recommend is bringing your knees a little closer to you. Yeah, that's better. That's it. And back. Maybe Sherry too. I'm not sure. I just want to come find out. Let's just see. Let's go this way. A little with your legs. Yeah. Sorry. Scratch off time and that fabulous.

Fabulous with one more to the back. Right from there. Keep it there. Only curl your head. Neck and shoulders up. Only only don't, is that what you heard? Single or whatever? Crisscross here goes. Oh one I'll tell you what. Come to the front of the room. There we go. M's. Change. Press caress. Shoulder to hip.

Now I'm going to slow it down just for a second cause I want you to feel that your hips do not move, right? Yes. You twist your waist. You don't twist your neck. You can come down. Jim, you've gotten too strong on me. There we go. There you go. All right. Speed it up. A little. Preach and reach and reach and little exhale through. Okay.

Getting four more single counts. One, two, three. Come back to the center of both knees. Extend your legs up. Head goes down. Inhale, squeeze the glutes. Exhale, curl back up. Do not rely only on the front of your body. It's never as effective. From here, allow the legs to lower. A little exhale to bring them up. Inhale down today and it's like more reach than down and exhale.

Feel the fishing reel again. I should probably say the cue properly before I keep referring to it. Anyway. Inhale, the low back is pressing in and exhale because you're curled up. Nice. One more. If your neck or back takes over, it's your responsibility to take a break. Everybody bend in the knees. Stretch your legs out onto the mat. Keep your head up.

Looking at your tops of your feet. Yeah, ankle bones as close together as possible. Reach your arms forward. Inhale, start, exhaling, start, exhaling, and now we go roll up. Inhale externally, rotate those arms to the palms. Face each other. Good and it's an exhale down and I am going to stop for now. Just it's chest. Sorry if it late. Call on that Marta and up. Good in here.

Exhale, hug the space so those arms end up just opposite your shoulders and down again just to chest or shoulder blade and allow for a little tuck there. Yeah, good for the next couple. Changing it slightly. Come rolling back. Bend the knees a little bit right here. Press the heels down, that's enough. And then we go back, touch the back of the head, reach the arms back from there. Lift your head with your upper arms today so it stays together. Press the heels into the ground, innercise together.

Start to come forward and then the arms will level out at shoulder height. Well done, well done. Inhale, we'll keep that. And even for now, inner thighs, sit bones, whatever you want to call it. I'm trying to get glutes to work touch. It's as if the upper arm are attached to your ears. And for the first exhale, part of the exit, you lift up Zen, lower the arms, or you can do it normal. All right, and we'll do the same thing, but stretch the legs out unless you feel like the legs are gonna pop up that that's a district. Nice way to stay in your abs. You're welcome to stay with that. Here we go, lifting it off, exhale, and then those arms will drive down. Blow out everything you got.

You know Aaron, do one of those [inaudible]. Yup. And down. You can let the arms go up a little sooner too if you want to really precedent and will last one to come up. Sure. Roll yourselves up. Hands together. Unless that forces 'em something like that. Okay.

You could be here if you needed to. If your belt like with you, granted, otherwise, flex your feet at any time. You can bend your knees. You're more interested in feeling tall on your spine. Slowly coming to the front. Your eyes are right with your hands or your faces. Exhale, center. Inhale to the back. Exhale. Center. Yes. Inhale and exhale. [inaudible] and part of why I'm doing it now is so that you can feel that you're not moving your hips. It's from above or the waistline and up and back.

Once more please and back. I'm here. Just draw that in. Elbows wide. And as you do that, just like earlier we were pressing in shoulders down and it's just to have contact. Yeah, you can let them come out just a little and then all you have to do is slightly lift your chest. Good inch and down in. You're perfect. Okay, here we go. Now you're coming to the front again. So inhale, I'm gonna come to you just so you can see. Inhale towards me. Exhale and extend right to me. Write to me. Write to inhale. Rebend shoulders drop. Yeah, it's an XL center to the back. Inhale, rotate. Exhale.

Extend the arms. They don't have, you don't have to press hard out there. It's just that they, if you can keep them in contact emails, grow taller in the spine, exhale, center, and at anytime bend your knees as long time to sit here and exhale reaching. Some of you may feel more comfortable letting the hands part here. No problem. Really, and then bring them back together when you come in and center to the back. Inhale, rotate. Xcel. Serve it out. Reach it out, reach it out.

Inhale, rebend and center. Only one more. It goes. Inhale, exhale, extend. Feel free to separate the hands. Inhale, pull back and center. From there we draw the knees in closer. Separate them to a sitz bones distance. Reach the arms forward. Inhale. Exhale. We roll down just to mid back. Sorry, just to mid back. Yup. Adjust your feet for comfort.

Turn your palms down and make sure your collarbones are wide, like you're pressing the shoulder on a shelf rather than the hands. One arm goes up. Keep your eyes forward. Exhale, bring it back down the other side. The object of the game is don't move a thing except for the arm. Just one arm. Again, just find ease where possible. And inhale. Exhale, we're going up. We're going to roll up.

Feel free to grab your legs or to take your time. That's the thing. We never need to bypass it. If you can straighten up. In fact, let's just press on the knees to help us straighten up. Oh, it's getting warm in here, isn't it? And we're like, here we go. Reach forward and down, and we go find that spot. Let's challenge it. If you need the challenge, bring your feet in closer. Any more here thought. So inhale, arms up.

Exhale down the other side. And again, I'm acting like I'm going to be able to get up from this position. Oh boy. Oh boy. I'm going to do what I can. Inhale. It's not gonna be much. Exhale, we'll going up. Breathe, breathe. Those shoulders are gonna want to creep up. Don't let it happen. Don't let it up and don't let it happen. Oh, let's get out of that. Shall we?

All the way down for shoulder bridge to separate your feet now. So about six bones, distance, shoulder bridges, that pelvic curl position. Adjust yourselves. We've seem to have climbed down our mat. So maybe come down a little bit, Marta. Just a little drenched. Is it the workout or is it that it's a hundred degrees outside?

That's not great. Yeah. That's good. Okay, so good. We'll take it. Reaching your arms. Of course. Spread out your upper back. Inhale, prepare. It's a pelvic curl. Make it comfortable, but hit every bone that you can. Exhale, rolling up. Lovely. Good. Excellent, lovely pharm. Everybody. Inhale. Go down. Just one time. I want to, I want to see that just once more. Yeah, maybe just maybe feet a tiny bit closer together.

Yeah, that's all. That's all. Thank you. Oh, here we go. Go ahead. Now we're about to do the shoulder bridge, the kicking, right? You've got to get kind of comfortable elsewhere. Otherwise it becomes this straining neck thing. Let's do, once you've done that, take your right leg into the air, keeping all else the same. Hopefully inhale, prepare and it's a kick down on the exhale and it's one. The leg itself is quite free. Two and three, five more.

You're in total control. Take it down and slide it back into place. Take a second. It's worth adjusting if necessary, and it almost always is a little bit. It's that lengthening of the low back. Other leg comes up. Take a peak down your body that you're still level. Here we go.

Exhaling down at one and lift up and two 30 if you want more to play with you. Flex on the way up. Point on the way down. Last three. Here they are, one and up and two. Oh, sorry. Shoot. Go down and place it from the bottom. I forgot where I stopped from there we inhale. Exhale, roll down.

When you get to the bottom, you're going to bring your legs up one at a time. Two tabletop, zip up through the inner thigh. Heading into rollover. So if you want a modification, you're just doing a reverse crunch from here. Otherwise you've know that your low back is in the ground already. Extend your legs on a little bit of a diagonal, 60 degrees maybe at max.

Here we go. Inhale to 90 degrees. Exhale up to go over your legs horizontal so they're not on the ground yet. Flex your feet. Separate them. Only if you can lower the feet without changing the spine. Would you do so from here? Pull the chest away from the chin. Adjust the shoulders as you go. Rolling down. Enjoy the hamstring stretch. I'll go a tiny bit faster on the way down. Next time. Here we go. Inhale.

Close it up. Exhale up over. Remember, we never work just the front of the body. This is the place people tend to do that. Flex your feet separate, lower and roll down to, I got to be there by four, three and four. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, flex, open, optional, lowering of the legs and down to three and four. Inhale, make it so we can't tell where the hard part is. Exhale to go over. Nice. Inhale, flex, open, and exhale down.

Let's just keep this without reversing it. Go ahead and go again. And then what? When you get to horizontal, we stay there for a second. I just want to check one thing. Yeah, so you want to be, I know you're around it and I want you to stay it. I'm going to have you put your feet on my knees and use that to get a little taller in your back. Yeah, that's where you want to end. Okay, then that looks good. So the side of your bodies are kind of long and firm.

Then you separate your feet. Then you keep that long curve and lower the legs if you're going to, and then you can roll down in hinge at some point to get the stretch. Good. Last one. Inhale. Exhale up to go over so you can sit and that's it. Get up there. Get up there. There you go. Everybody could squeeze your glutes here and should be.

That's perfect. That's great. Separate flex if you haven't and down you go. Lovely. Alright. Alright. [inaudible] we are heading into full journeys. All attorneys. Anybody not want to do the scissors? Oh good. Yeah, exactly. You didn't hear me too bad. Um, why don't you guys just rock up.

I haven't taught these in a while to you all and I would just want to give them to you, uh, properly. Um, and you may decide to grab that TheraBand. I offered you earlier if you don't want to do it. So I gotta just get rid of this all together. Okay. So what I'll have you do is one more rollover just to get you here. My tail is sticking out, isn't it? Okay. From there, you're going to take your hands and place them for now, high on your or comfortably on your back.

Then you do a little anterior tilt or some of you are going to go, well that's hyperextended. Yeah, it is. It is. And you're supporting it with your hands. Okay. From there, all we're doing for now is going to pull one knee in actually. Yeah, at the end one the end and this straight leg is going to reach down and I want you to try to feel as the straight leg is pressing down, you're lifting up out of your hands. This is pressing down, but if you just do that, it's not fun. Right? You want to press down as you lift in opposition. Okay. This knee will help you. So I think I'll just play with that for a couple. It's more like a bicycle at the moment and then we'll play with this pulse pulse. I won't keep you here this long ago. Well, maybe this long, but not much longer than this. Okay.

Now if you have a wrist or even elbow things, it's not going to be great and I have something to offer you. So let me know if you don't want [inaudible]. Okay. Alright. You could also do a couple more rollovers, but I'd rather you get some or another shoulder bridge. So here we go. Um, I'll just talk you through it initially. Straighten your legs just to do one more rollover in help prepare it.

This part counts. Exhale to go over. Then once you're there, you bend the knees quite a lot. Just bend the knees and put your hands somewhere at your back for support. So that ought to help you get up. I personally have to walk my elbows in a little closer. Some of you may decide you want your elbows wider. Okay?

From there it's let your knees drop a little bit toward your face and then it's like you're sticking your butt out a little bit. So it's an odd position we've met to at Aaron. Keep doing that. It's an odd position for us. We almost never do it. And you guys look good. All right. From there, pull your right knee towards your face or just let it fall toward your face as the left leg starts to straighten out. And if you feel all of a sudden it's all in your elbows, that's when you know, okay, I'm gonna pull my right knee and my hips toward my face as I reached the leg long and somewhat down.

Ah, Lee Lee. Okay. Just bring that straight leg in and change. Take your time. Use your hands as you need to pull the knee in and the straight leg a Jim, you're going to take your leg toward the front door. You walked in, you're straight leg where the front door you walked in. I will show you what I mean. It's hard to know that when you're upside down, isn't it? Do it keep the one bent. That's right. Exactly. Exactly. And go ahead and switch a gang gang. Yes. Yeah. How's that and switch?

Yup. Just bend that one. The one closest to you. There you go. It's like, go ahead. Yeah. So now let's take the top leg and straighten it. And we have that one and it goes pulse, pulse change. I'm going to get out of your way. You guys got yourself. I think you do go so nice and slow. You got it. Gym. [inaudible] good. Yeah you do. And so the point of all of that was to focus on the leg that's reaching away from you. Yep. Nice one. Okay.

How about we're almost done. Even yourself out to get out of this. Take both legs over like the rollover and shimmy your elbows. If you did, let them come down and then slowly roll down looking good and we'll keep playing with that. Good job, Jim. Oh, maybe. Maybe hug the knees to the chest and I'm thinking once you've done both knees to the chest, let's take one leg straight out on the mat and the other just cross it over. Big deep breaths or letting that go. We can stay intense.

We can stay doing some of these more challenging exercises when you're ready to change sides. Um, but it's worth giving yourself a little bit of a break in between. And it's not just for break sake, but to build back some stamina for more to come. Right? You right. Why else would you be here? Ah, Oh, stretch. Relax. Nah. All alright. Come on back and let's stretch the legs out onto the mat of hands.

Go behind your head. Shoulders are easily down. Elbows barely off the ground, but somewhat. Here comes the neck pull. I have my feet together. Uh, let's try it like that. There are other ways we could do it. Here it comes in. How cells come up through chest lift. Start exhaling. She trusted.

Try not to pull on your head. Round over it is very much rounded. And then inhale rolling up through to a straight spine hinge back a little bit. Exhale to roll back. Yeah, and I'm hoping you kind of feel in each little piece of your body and he'll lift. Exhale, come forward. Blow it a hatch. Now we all know that parts come in, right? We know that part is coming. That's hard. Inhale, roll up. But don't let anyone else know it. Hinge back, anticipate it to a certain extent, but not so much that you heave yourself cause that's just becomes habitual for a lot of us in here. It's all right if we don't get up, we're just going to try [inaudible] you can take all the time in the world.

You can let go your hands for the moment and then roll up bettered. I think in my opinion to take all the time rather than bypass the hard part and let's just do one more to get up in [inaudible]. Free to do a roll of instead. Exhale, the breath helps. Extending those legs. Nice job all the way over. Roll it up and here we are for spine stretch to separate your feet.

I always say this is, we're going to do errands version, but half the time you're not here when I say it. So this is Aaron. It's version. It's your fault. Exactly. I'll never forget that. Oh right. Thank you. W it was just a party where out by the hole and then we were doing spine stretch. We had no champagne whatsoever in him. Okay, so LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, exhale. Down we go. It is the spine stretch with a small variation right into back extension.

So allow the hips to move to roll forward into your back extension. Exhale the arms into extension. Sorry Marta. Inhale refold the arms, but climb out of yourself to get longer there. Exhale round and we'll roll up and grow tall. Inhale. Imagine you're lengthening your back up as the abs.

Pull everything forward. Almost like a conveyor belt of your skin. Inhale into back extension. Oh, that's so pretty nice. Then extend the arms. We'll be right there in Matthew where we're catching up with you in how refold the onset. If your shoulder blades could fault, pull further down. Now exhale round forward. When do your shoulders good? Okay, good. Okay.

Start changing Springs with a different arm. Inhale and exhale. I haven't said much about the midline lately, but I could inhale. Let your head come into place. The last exhale while we're here for a moment, think of squeezing the inner thighs together, but don't physically move the bones. Inhale re pull the arms, exhale round and and let's just kind of keep it going. Blow out all the air. Inhale, unfurl the spine.

Don't let the elbows get too far behind ya. Also, don't let them hug your face. Exhale, arms. Inhale. Refold arms and yeah, last one with the variation at the end. Exhale, round. Inhale, unfurl. Exhale, arms extend. Take a second. We're gonna take the arms behind us for the moment. Guide yourself not forward. Okay, that's not going to help us, but up on the the diagonal, whatever diagonally you've got already, that's it. Good. I love, I'm seeing some bent knees.

That means I'm getting some straight spines. One arm back up. Hold that position other than backup front ribs in just a smidge, not enough to round you. And now gently think of the space between the shoulder blades working to pull the arms back very subtly, two and getting taller. Three pretty easy in the arms there are straight, they don't have to be rigid about four more. Let's just do whatever that ends up to be. I think nine actually. But anyway, talk clear some space at the waist. Inhale, exhale, round over.

Roll yourself and bend your knees to draw the feeding close. I'm heading into open Lake rocker. So behind you. I think we're good. I, I'm going to play with it a little bit just behind the sit bones or tailbone. So you're kind of round and let's hold, I have the knees apart. Hold in front. Okay, so you're behind and, and flip the feet if you haven't already.

Roll the shoulders back so you have a nice open chest and here, Oh, I'm cramping. Squeeze the inner thighs. And if you, you don't even have to do that, right? You can just squeeze them, pick up the right leg and while you do it and actually just bring it down. That's okay. Other side, just sort of finding your place and down. Let's do right side again, Dan, if it doesn't go all the way straight. That's all right. Can we do both? You may or may not get to straight and bring them back. Now before we do anything else, let's use the hands to press on the legs to find a straight or upper back.

The low back doesn't really change. It's still somewhat curve. Take the right leg up. You can either continue to hold it there, which is classically how it's done or you can support yourself from underneath, which is fine. All right, here we go. Squeeze inner thighs. We roll back to the shoulder blades. Inhale, keep it the same. Exhale, relax with it a little and use the back extensors to stop you and inhale. Let's be mindful of where the spine is and not arch the neck too much. Kind of basically looking straight ahead. Inhale back, exhale up and challenging yourself or warm tonight or bodies are warm so we can reach up a little higher. Right? Challenge the position you normally do.

The last one, let's see it. Lovely when you get there. Stay there, close the feet, bend the knees to that tabletop and slide sly. Just move my hands around the side. I am pushing into him a little bit. Let their arms go overhead. Touched the back of your head to the mat. Inhale. If you can inhale the whole way up, do you might need an exhale with all that cuing, it just sort of did and lift and we roll down.

Not a whole lot changes with the pelvis. I don't really roll over the top. If you need your knees to come a little closer here, that's fine. That's a nice little break. Then you can let them push out a little and then hold them as still as possible as you climb your way up to challenge yourself. Let's do a few full extension or one leg if you don't want to do both.

Here we go. We roll down leaving the legs there and back. Make sure you don't arch your back there. Inhale, rolling all the way up. Wow. And Dan, squeeze the glutes. It'll take some of the pressure off the front of the legs and the hips.

One more here. Up, up, up. Bend the knees. Sorry. Just look straight ahead. I'll be clear. Squeeze in her size. Leave your legs there. Take your upper body off the front window. Switch all the way to the back to the front. Stay here like you did earlier. Yeah, I love it.

You guys are you put your feet down if you want to write. We're only doing two more. One and two and everybody feet down turn to face the front like so I love, I do. It's like this is the way she'd always be right sauna like, okay. So I'm actually going to give you just a stretch for the moment. So I've taken my, I'm sort of that figure four position. This leg is just straight back.

It's hard to like so and then just do a little tuck. You lean out onto your, uh, Oh, uh, let me have YouTube on that way just for now if you would Jim, you also the other way. Yep. Thanks. Yeah, exactly. There you go. So we're on our outside arm just trying to do a little tuck, trying to get a stretch there. Okay. Yup. Exactly. And if you're not tight, you're not going to feel it. But if for anyone who felt that for the while, we're here, take the other hand down. Try and square off your shoulders without torquing your back.

Put some energy now at T as if you were going to try to get your hips down. You won't, but just kind of in that direction toward the center of your room. Then lift your chest to arch, your upper back, and then we'll come into centerS start by stacking the legs just so I get us all back together. And then put the top leg in front. This is going to be side Ben, so this is another one where we're on our wrist. If you don't want to be, you go to your forearm.

Sometimes that actually is more effective because you don't have as much to lose energy in. All right, so here's the plan. Three side bend, three twist, and I might stop in between. I'm probably not squeeze glutes. That was the theme tonight. Here we go. Lift yourself up. Take a second. We're all going to help the chiller find a straight line. So come down a little with your hair. There you guys energy out the head. That's it. That's it. My feet. Okay, now lift up to go over.

I'm going to show a modification. You can put this knee down, then come back to a side plank and then come down. Okay, lift up if you don't want to use it. If you want to use the knee the whole time, you just come right there. Then you lift away from it. You actually take weight out of the arm if you want to do it that way. In hell, back to the side. Plank and down. Number three, trying to keep, keep the legs a little involved.

Now they beliefs will lift you up. Nice. Nice MFI. Very good. Inhale to the side. Come down, Marta. Just you're not quite straight. There we go. And down here comes the twist. If you want it, if you don't know the twist, just do another side. Bend watching. Here we go. Inhale, lift up. Now you lift the hips. You're going to pike flat back. Reach across the chest. Ends up.

There's not a whole lot of weight on the back foot. Inhale, reopen to that side. Plank. Ben to come down. Yup. Here we go. Inhale, lift. I didn't think about this sweaty Mads did I come across? Be careful. Okay. I mean it's really not worth it if it's slippery. If you're unsure truly and down, how slippery are we? Should that be it? Yup. That's it. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Switch sides. Yeah, I forgot about that.

So, um, so you're, we're stretching first, right? So we were in that figure four and just leaning comfortably out onto the hand. Um, pressing this, what the outer hip forward and just kind of looking for some action there. That's right. Eventually we're going to ride to our gym is new, right? With both hands. You're right. I'm following you. It's exactly where it goes.

Where you had it. Yup. And then head into an arched spine. Not like, it just looks like I'm not leaving. I need to wipe some towels down though, don't I? I mean some who needs one? Okay. And then I'm going to grab sticky mat. Okay. Unwind yourself and start setting up for your side. Bend your okay. Jim got one.

Anybody? Anybody good? Okay. All right. We go. Oh no, he just looked so serious. This is a serious class. A sideband we lift. Okay. Take a second. I encourage you to push this bottom leg into the top leg.

Then lift up to go make an a rainbow. I want to see, I want to see some effort here. Lifting those hips up. Then you're gonna feel them come back down as you stretch out and Ben to come down. So it's a diagonal. Then [inaudible] if you do turn your head, which is sort of how we finish it, make sure it's just your neck that turns and not your body open and, and three. Okay. Is it better or is it just as it's better. You get that shoulder pulling into your back pocket.

And down here comes two twists. Inhale to lift up. Sorry. Exhale you pike. The hip to reach under head is down. Inhale, reopen zip-up inner thighs. It's only going to help you with good and down. Last one, inhale, lift. If you're doing the elbow, probably stay in the side. Bend and open. And the thing they do stretch a little bit, don't they? They're like, okay, let's go onto your abdominals please. And um, all the way down to we're going into double leg kick.

So clear it. Make sure you've got room behind you. I think you think you're okay? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe scoot forward a little bit, Jim. I don't think you're going to hit it, but it just, your arms are not going overhead. Hands go behind your back. Yup. And either preferably have you laced the fingers and pull away up on your back. Elbows forward. Elbows forward meaning elbows relaxed the mat. Okay.

Foreheads, sorry. Looking. Let's say you look to the front, look to one side. Okay, here we go. You're going to draw the abs and bend the knees, feet together. If you can. These together if you can, and we kick the glutes three times a one and two and three. Inhale, extend your arms and your legs. Let's leave the palms apart and then come in again. Turn your head the other way and kick one and two and three and stretch and we'll lift. Very nice Sherry and change. We go to three.

Getting those elbows down every time and if your shoulders are really tight, what you can do is let the arms come apart. When you're getting destroyed. I would like those elbows straight. And then let's do last two one and two. Body doesn't move and look and very controlled. I love it. And down. Excellent. Two and three and [inaudible] and relax everything down. You can separate the hands. We, well, are the elbow supposed to go all the way down? Yeah. Well not yes.

How's that for a clear answer? Yeah. But you know what? Yeah, exactly. So many peoples don't. So it's just allowing for that stretch. Never something you want to force. Um, you're getting tightness right here in front, right. If you try too hard. Yeah. If that's what we're just trying to stretch the, exactly. Recognizing that one side's probably going to be tighter than the other and yeah, let's see. I would, this class is so different. You know, you guys are, so many of you are able to do that. Um, uh, my right doesn't go as much.

Um, so it's, it's totally normal, but just encourage it by allowing it to not forcing it to, that's the message I want to have come out of that. Take your hands and put them by your shoulders and then come up to push your hips back over your heels. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful. Okay. Coming into hands and knees please. There's be, I'm, I am doing the [inaudible] push up. I think, um, you don't have to do it. You can, um, a couple of different options. I'll tell you when we get there, you can do it on your knees as the first thing I want you to hear.

And the second thing is that you cannot actually bend the elbows at all and just do a plank. Okay. But for now, just stabilize through the shoulders, which to me means a gentle pressing back of the shoulders towards hips, the upper arms towards hips, and a sense of um Hm. Openness through the chest. Reach the feet back one at a time. They are pretty close together, but don't have to be touching. Flex your feet, tighten the backs of the legs as if you're pushing the thigh bones toward the ceiling length into the crown of the head as if you're trying to pull yourself forward. And from here we allow the elbows to bend. And we straighten them. I'm going to do three. One, two on the third one. If you were on your knees, pickup your knees and pull the abs ups almost like a pike, but you keep the hips somewhat rounded or walk back without shifting. Side to side. Walk your hands to your feet for a moment. Hang their balance, your weight, shoulders on your back and you roll up.

Feel free to bend your knees on that to the top. Okay, lot going on on this one. So I'm going to go slow again. Exhale, roll down. Try to avoid looking forward if you can help it knowing we're going slow, so you're looking at your feet. You'll allow your right arm to reach out in front of you. Don't let it come out of the shoulder, meaning keep it connected and walk forward. One, two, maybe four steps. Try for three bend if you're going to inhale down, exhale up what those shoulders don't get to get any closer to your ears. Two, three from there. Lift the ribs when you walk back.

Try not to shimmy side to side one, two and up. Head down to roll. Just one more set with her without the pushups. Here we go. Inhale. Exhale slightly faster if you can. And we walk one, two, three and inhale. Exhale. Wanna keep those feet flexed. If you're doing the pushup two and up we go, one, two, three and Rola and up coming. Step to the back of your mat and give yourself a little room. Maybe come into the center but at the back. So like that, but facing the center of the room just like that. Exactly.

Just so you have room behind you. Come face me. Perfect. Here we go. From here. Extend the right leg back. I don't know what went wrong with that. I really don't. Uh, what didn't you understand about the back of the room at the center? Sorry, my fault. I'm sure. Here we go. Lean forward just a bit. And then from the top yard you might have to feel for this because we're about to make it a little bigger if you're up for it. Um, that you're not hindering, you're not rounding, you're just nice and long arms by your side reaching and you decide. A lot of this will depend on your hamstring flexibility.

If your hamstrings are tight, you can bend the knee. That is absolutely fine. Maximum would be for today, perpendicular your body and your leg perpendicular to the floor. If that's okay. Take your arms to a tee position. Yes, that's okay. Expect wobbling. That's normal. You want that. Let the arms go overhead, but reach the leg.

It's as much as you reach the arms forward and then let the arms go back by your side and start to come up. Oh, no big deal, right? Switch. God is nice looking out there. All right, we're lifted so it's opposition. That's your key. That's your key. You expect wobble at the foot. That's no big deal. Start to hinge.

If you notice your upper body is still going forward, you should feel that that foot is still rising. Nice to the knee you're standing on. Think about your neck at some point. Arms are reaching, either keep them there or to the T if you want to. You take 'em overhead, energize, energize, and the energies in the middle of the body, believe it or not. Then take your arms back by your sides. Start to lift your upper back and your foot goes down.

Facing this way. Sorry. Here we go. Standing, roll down. Nice work you guys. Inhale and exhale. Let go, right? Remember how you kind of shook things out when you started class? Allow the knees to bend just a little bit. Exhale, head your legs back to straight, but you can also let your fingers leave the floor as you roll back up in a pretty powerful stance, meaning your feet are firm on the ground. You know what you're rolling up from, right? There's always something you're coming away from or rolling towards.

So inhale, exhale down. We're heading towards the feet obviously, but you're going to hold back a little. Find resistance up near the ceiling. That's your opposite point. So you think closest to the ceiling right now. Hopefully your abdominals inhale and exhale. Feel the firm feet on the ground and lift up off of them rather than pushing into them. And we're almost there. Let's bring this, bring the feet, um, heels touching again where you know, and it's an easy place to feel the glutes squeeze. Yeah, because if we do that when we're level, we won't be able to arch.

So that's why I'm doing it. So do it as much as you want inner thighs too. And then from here, reach your arms down and kind of press them into your legs. As much as you are your ribs, as much as you can. From there, you're going to start to lift your chest. Let your eyes kind of come up as well. We're trying to arch the upper back. It will not be huge, right? We're not leaning and we're not arching.

The lower back is just as if the chest could arise. Squeeze the glutes, taking one arm up. It might get a little bit behind you. Just straight back, other arm up. That's too much. You can leave him down lifting. It's like you're trying to come up off the waist and everything down in front. Any questions for the last one? Same thing. Okay. Squeeze glutes.

You didn't bear down on yourself. You're tall, you're easy. And then just inward. That's it. All right. Start to, I think, have reached down to reach up. Chest rises and the back is still long. Eyes might need to arise when you think you've gone as far as you can without breaking at the low back. We let one arm follow it up, maybe a little behind us. It could be wide. It doesn't have to be directly above other arm. Keep it where you have it loud. Bend the elbows like you did earlier.

So the lace the fingers behind your head. Elbows slightly point forward and lift your chest a little more, but do it by squeezing the glutes and supporting your head and release. And with that, take a deep breath in. Just inhale and exhale, helping light on yourself. Come up the front with the arms, big, deep breath and let it go. Okay.

Comments

Great class Kristi, thanks! The more classes I do the more I get out of them and I can really feel the results. I have a question - when you do the rollover do you use your arms a little to help you get your legs behind you or should the power and movement all come from your core? Thanks.
Helen Great question! There is some pressure into the back of the arms (that are straight and long), but they should not be the only reason your hips and legs are getting over. The deep contraction of the abdominals when your legs are at 90 degrees should begin to take you into a pelvic curl to roll over. The entire exercise should look smooth and flow. Thanks for asking!
Thanks - I will keep practising and bear this in mind!

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