Class #2853

First Time Session

45 min - Class
138 likes

Description

If you are new to Pilates, then this Mixed Equipment workout with Meredith Rogers is great for you! She takes Jane through her first session, making sure to move deliberately so she can feel her body working correctly. She starts with breathing and finding neutral pelvis, then moves on to basic movements on the Mat and Reformer.
What You'll Need: Reformer (No Box), Mat, Mixed Equipment

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This is Jane. She's never done plays before. She's from bath, which is in England. And I'm going to give her her first polities lesson right now. And we're both very excited. So thank you Jane. And my voice isn't working today, so we'll have to all deal with that. All right, Jane, the First Ama stand behind you.

And the first thing that we're going to talk about is breathing. So what I want you to do is just think of elongating through your spine. And what I'm doing is with my hands and I'm going to, I already told her that I'm a very handsy teachers, so she knows that I'm going to put my hands all over her and she just said it was fine. So I want you to just take a natural breath and think about what happens in your body. Just take a big breath, notice what happens, and then let that go and do that one more time. Take a natural breath and you'll notice in natural breath how the chest wall rises slightly on the belly, relaxes slightly.

And then some of us let the shoulders lift so lightly. So what we're going to do in the first thing, we're going to learn a different sort of breathing and what it's called is bilateral breathing or post lateral breathing. And the reason why we do that, I should look at your face. The reason why we do that is because what we're trying to do is when you do natural breath, do one with me. So we let the belly relax and we let the chest rise and that creates space for air, right? But now what we're going to try and do in [inaudible] [inaudible] is keep our abs pulled in. So if we pulled the abs and then there is no, we have to figure out where else we can send the air.

So put your hands on your ribs like this with me. Good. And so now as you breathe in, just pull your navel to your spine and it doesn't have to be like super grippy or anything like that. So just lightly pulling the naval to the spine. And as you breathe in, I want you to see if you can make your hands move away from each other so you feel how you can direct your breath somewhere else. Yeah. Awesome. And now pull, continue to pull your abs in and exhale. Exhale. Pull the ABS in. Exhale, pull the ABS in. Exhale, pull the ads and keep exhaling.

I guarantee that you can Xcel more than you think that you can. So do you feel how when you exhale like that you make your stomach work? Yeah. Okay. So let's just do that two more times and I'm so inhale belly to the spine, expanding through the ribs, and then exhale. Feel the ribs slide down the front of the body, deep in the abdominal connection, deep in the naval to the spine.

Connection deep and deep and deepen. So I'm going to talk differently. You just do that one more time. All the same information. So what we're endeavoring to do in here is breathe like this throughout our Polonious practice, not through our whole life, through our politesse practice, just just to, to, to have the opportunity to stay connected to the center of our body. It might not happen every single minute. It might, but be aware of it. Exactly. Okay. Next line, you're back.

What I want you to do is take the heels of your hands and put them on your hipbones right on the two hipbones. You can keep your knees bent. Okay. Heels on the hands on the hipbones and then we're gonna run the fingers across towards the pubic bone. So now this triangle of space from the hip bone to hip bone to pubic bone. When that is flat, we're going to call that neutral pelvis zero. You're going to get a ton of information that you don't have to memorize. Okay?

So when the pelvis is in neutral, then we can start to look for the nat, the rest of the natural curves of the spine. So what I'm going to ask you to do is take another inhale and then don't change what's happening in your pelvis, but just soften through the ribs. So let the ribs start to drop back down into my fingers. So we've got a little bit of space in the lower spine, right? And but we want to keep the ribs on the mat. So now we have the natural, the rest of the natural curves of the spine present.

So now what I'm gonna have you do is take an inhale trying to use your palladia breathing. And as you exhale, I want you to push your belly button down towards the mat and tip your pubic bone towards your nose. Send, do your full exhale. Exhale, exhale, exhale. You feel how when the ribs come down like that, this relaxes a little bit too. And then inhale, let that go. So let the pelvis change back to neutral. He exactly, and again, exhale flat in the spine. So push. So what we're doing here is we're taking you away from a neutral pelvis. All words. You don't need to memorize into what we call a tuck or a flat back or around back and reach back. We'll do new. Going to do it one more time.

Just notice that when your pelvis comes down, you're not going to lift through the backside of their ribs too much. Who the the whole ribcage to be heavy on the mat and exhale. Good. Nice. So you should feel a little bit all light abdominal work not to saying anything too hard and then come back to neutral. So now when the pelvis tips the other way where the pubic bone is lower than the hip joins, we're going to call that an arch. So it is what it feels like. It is.

Okay. So the next thing that I'm going to teach you is what we call a pelvic curl. I want to and have you do is I'm going to have you just touch your, touch your thighs just with your fingertips. So we're going to, your feet are in a great position, so it did not the hands yet. Just the fingertips, just like that. Good. So going to inhale and as you exhale, you do that same thing you just did. So you flatten the spine into the mat. And now I want you to start lifting your pelvis off the mat and where your arms are there. Cause I want you to keep your ribs below your arms, but I want you to try to lift your pelvis off the mat so that your pelvis comes up kind of flush with your arms. Yeah, continue. Continue, continue, continue.

Right? So most of us are gonna want to lift too much here. That's what yet. That's just what you're doing. Keep keep coming up with your hips so you will feel the backsides of your legs working quite a lot. Hold an inhale. And then as you exhale, I want you to start dropping this bone. So you're going to come back down to the mat, dropping the chest, dropping the backsides of the ribs. And essentially you're just articulating now down through your spine, using the abdominals to create spinal movement. Yeah, I get it. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I was a bit lost at the beginning of that. When you say, yeah, I get it now. Okay, we're going to do it again. Yep. So in here, this is called Pelvic crumb. Exhale, flatten the spine. Yeah.

And then if at any point you need more air or you need to breathe, it's preferable. Preferable for you to just breathe rather than hold your breath. And then the pelvis is going to lift right up into the hands and the shoulders are gonna relax down and we're gonna inhale there and exhale as you roll yourself back down. So starting, you can think about starting from the throat. You know, you envision your spine, you know what spines look like, rounding down. It's kind of interesting other than if you, now, if you go into an arch, they're like drop your pubic bone towards your heels. You feel how it pulls on your skull too. I love that. Good. Yeah.

And this is going to go, you can just let those come down. That was just to give you like some input about your position. We could just do one more. Inhale, prepare and exhale as you lift. So the recipe [inaudible] about alignment in your heads just over to the right a little bit. So I'm just gonna put it on straight for Ya. Good. She's doing a beautiful job. She's a great first timer in here.

And exhale, ribs down, dropping the chest. So the front of the body manipulates. You can think about stretching, creating space between your vertebras, creating space between your bones. Okay, awesome. So now what I'm going to have you do again, so drop down through the backside of the ribs. It's gonna feel, stay there. I drop your tailbone down. So find neutral pelvis. So this put like this dropping of the rib thing's probably gonna feel kinda round in your body. Okay. So I want you to inhale again.

Now we're going to use the abdominals as us in theory to lift the leg. So as you exhale, I want you to start pulling your leg towards your body. So you do that with your exhale breath. You keep your pelvis still just like that. And then inhale, take that same leg down. So right. If the deep pit muscles connect to the da come up just underneath the diaphragm XL to pull. And again, we can quite literally breeze our legs in, right? So the abdominals are really not doing the heavy lifting.

They're doing the stabilizing, but what's working is our deep hip flexors and it's following the path of the diaphragm. Awesome. Yep. And now just take that leg down. So we endeavor to use our stomach for everything in [inaudible] again. So now we're going to go to this side. We'll do about four. Inhale, prepare and exhale. Slide the ribs down. So drop this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Beautiful. And the end of the exhale, not quite so much that you would feel your pelvis move and inhale just down away from you.

That end of the exhale breath that we practice when you're just doing the breath, that same light again, exhale to lift. That finish of the exhale is where you can really kind of tap into the deepness of the abdominal [inaudible]. And these are just super, super fun mental movements that make up every other movement and polarities. So we'd go down, we'll do chew more and x, how to lift. Keeping that tailbone down. I'm going to stop you there. That's where your pelvis starts to move a little bit and down.

So we also know, or we find that we are asymmetrical humans, all of us. And I'm just watching that. So I'm watching the line of your pelvis to stay still. I wanting you to drop this section of your body a little bit. Beautiful. Okay, so now I'm going to have you leave this leg here like that. This is what we call table Top, where this shit foot's just out in front of the knee.

Lift this leg up to join it. See if you can do your stabilize with your stomach to do so. Okay, so this next movement we're gonna call the spine twist. What you may want to do is just take your arms, like you can just hang onto the mat. Like can you reach the, Yup. Just do both. Okay. So your arms are out of your way. Again, this part of your back, I want you to heavy up. Okay. So what we're gonna do now is try to keep the upper body still the shoulders in the head and we're going to move the lower body.

So you're gonna bring your knees and in order to, so keeping the knees lined up. So in order to keep the knees lined up as you bring your knees towards me, this side of the pelvis has to get up off the mat. So yeah, pick that pelvis up. Yep, exactly. And come this way and it's not going to go very far. And you may get a little shoulder stretch as well. Yeah, I can feel that sort of done under my right sort of scapular done this good. And then this is where I want you to pull from.

I want you to pull the ribs in and then the ribs are going to connect you to your own obliques and they'll bring you back to center. Sometimes just thinking about the placement of the bones will tell with the muscles that need to work, what to do. So in here we'll go across navel to spine and then exhale, deepen that navel to spine connection feels at little right rib cage. Slide in, slide down into the mat. Beautiful Spine, twist supine.

Inhale as you come towards me. Nicely done. Softening the chest, softening the rims and coming back to center. Awesome. And in house we reach across. We'll just do three more. It's quite hard. Hard on your stomach. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I get one more time to eat PSI. So it's all my, I think about holding my ribs back away from my knees. And then back to center. Stomach muscles pull you through.

Soften through back last time. And then navel to spine. We come all the way back and we got done. Okay. So next stomach exercise. I'm gonna have you take your hands behind your head, fully interlock your fingers.

So you're kind of holding just at the top of your school. So now what we're in endeavoring to do is to keep the tailbone down. That may or may not happen right now, but we're going to find out. I'm gonna let you have your legs together. Squeeze them tight. Inhale, prepare. As you exhale, you're going to come up into like a sit up shape.

So you're going to curl your head and chest up off the mat, curl your head and chest up off the mat. Good. Now I want you to take your hands. I want you to hold onto the backs of your legs. Now pull yourself up just to the, I mean, you're not going to sit up literally and now see if you can drop your tailbone the other way. But also what's important to me is that your lower back is flat. So if your lower back isn't flat, then we're going to let you go into that slight tucking activity. Okay, so flattening into that lower back.

Now what you're going to do is you're gonna let your arms go, or your legs. Those are legs. Let your legs go. Keep your body lifted as you bring your arms now up again, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Hold yourself up with your stomach muscles. Bring your arms all the way back. They're going to go back behind your head and put your hands back behind your head. [inaudible] head and lower all the way down.

Right? Right. Okay, so that's called the chest lift. And we're going to do it two more times yet. Talk me through it. Okay. Breathing, prepare, breathe out to lift. Good. So the arm thing is just kind of a help, right? To get you in a really nice solid position. You use your arms as much as you need to right at that moment.

Get the low back to really con, come into contact with the mat, then let go, then reach back. But don't fall down. Oh, don't fall down. Keep your body lifted. That's right. Go way back there with those arms, Jane, and put your hands back behind your head. Oh, and now when you go down, I want you to feel that you're working near stomach muscles down to nice. Ooh, okay. One more. We have this one and then one more exercise and then we'll be done with your stomach work for a little while. So app yet, use your arms if you need to come up, up, up, up. Good. And now we're going to go arms. Oh, keep that. Stay up. Stay up.

Hands come back. Oh, and now or your body all the way down. Awesome. Okay. Yeah, that's quite hard work for me. That's cool. We've got one more thing to do and then I'm gonna let your stomach have a break for a little while. Okay. So it's going to, you're going to come back up into that same shape. So lift your head and chest, go hands behind your legs again. Curl up a little higher. All right, so now I'm going to stay back here with you just to give you a little bit of help and some guidance in terms of where I want you to go. But I do want you to bring your hands back behind your head, but I'm going to give you a little support like this.

So what we're gonna do now is we're going to create some rotations. So I want you to bring the right rib towards the left hip and the left rib towards the left hip. Yup. And then center. Inhale, left ribs towards the right hip, and then those right ribs slide towards the spine. Slide down to the same side, hip and center. Lift Your Chin just a little bit. Yeah. And again, exhale, rotate. That's beautiful. That's exactly what I want. Inhale Center. Exhale, rotate. So we're gonna do one more to each side, Jane.

And I don't want you to come down when you're in the center, I want you to hold yourself there. One more exhale and center. You're being so brave and said, Oh and good. All right, so we're going to grab a reformer. We've got Jane, I'll set up on the reformer on her back. We're gonna do some footwork, so some information. I'm going to have you just right on the heel of your foot and then what you want to try to find before we start to push away on the springs, we're using three red springs mid to stand over here into, okay.

So we're going to find that same neutral pelvic position so the tailbone drops down and then who you are. I'm wanting you to gain the ribs down just a little bit more. So this part of your body is where I want you to really feel connected all the time on this, on the reformer. Okay. So let me have you do is you're going to flex your feet. Now, don't literally push with your legs yet. I just want you to push your feet into the bar and see if you can tighten the muscles in the backs of your life. You're there. Yeah.

So what you just did is where you're going to push from. So go ahead and squeeze there and push out. Straighten your knees all the way. Yeah. Awesome. And Ben, so when you come in, I want you to think about resisting the spring so we know we're never riding the springs in. You're doing great and push out again, heels push into the bar, you tighten up the back sides of your legs. Choo, Choo train. Good. And I'm just looking at the tracking between your pelvis and your knees and your feet and all looks great and bend. The next thing I'm going to ask you to think about is a whole nother set of things.

Try to bring your arms straight down and by reaching towards me as you straighten your legs, you may be able to feel that you can pull your shoulder blades just, they don't have to forget forced down, but just so that they're not getting pushed up into the shoulder body. I'm not supposed to be pushing against. You're going to feel them. Yeah, you're getting, there's no way that you're not gonna feel them, but what I'm saying like, yeah, right. Okay. Yup. Okay, so just do that a couple more times. Like as you get more advanced, you would do like 10 repetitions of all these different foot positions, but we're not going to do that today. We're just going to give you kind of a taste of what is feels like. Okay. One more. And what's really nice here is that you're doing well and see what you are getting. That Nice Quadricep, and I didn't even ask you to do that.

So you must have some sort of skill on the street and England news from somewhere else. Cycling. I think [inaudible] come onto your toes. All right, so this is a little bit of it. I'm just an evening you out. So when I want you to do again is push out all the way again to stray. Oh, that feels completely different. Yeah, it's a little harder to get connected to the back of the leg there. Huh? So now, right where your feet are, I want them actually not even to change. So I'm going to leave my hands here for you and I want you to bend your knees without pushing on my hands anymore than you are or without lifting off my hands anymore than you are. So don't, you're pushing down a little. Yeah, just like that. So you're going to push out where?

So what I'm asking and just a different way to say it. When the legs are straight, you're going to be in like that high heel position. But now when the knees bend in, you're going to stabilize here and keep your feet right. Keep your heels still. So you feel the muscles in your feet have to work a little bit too. Yeah.

Let's do three more. Reaching out and bending and softening through the front of the rear ends. And your head loves to live to the right, which is it? Yeah, that's right. I'm going to fix it again. It's like that's, feel that straight. Okay. What do I thought? Is there one more? Yeah, it's a lots of to remember. The good news is, is there's no test, there's no test. You can walk away, you can forget it all. And next time you come, I'll say it all over again. Okay? So bring the heels together. Oh, so what we call this, so you're gonna make like a small v-shape with your feet and we call this small v shape or a [inaudible] stance. I want you to squeeze your heels together.

Do you feel how as you squeeze your heels together, you'd automatically start to feel the insides of your legs working. So that's one reason. And then the knees are going to just be a little bit just about as wide as your shoulders. You're going to push out again. And I want you to think about as you push out rapping from the glute, so from the back of the hip and squeezing through the inner thigh. So wrapping through the glutes, squeezing through the inner thighs, using your politeness, breathing, keeping your shoulders down, keeping your head in line with your spine.

There's too many things for everyone to remember all at once, right? I'm sure it will come through. Totally does. And what it becomes, go ahead and push out. It becomes like a checklist, right? So as you go, as you move through, you start thinking, you remember to think, Oh, where are my shoulders? Oh, am I breathing? Oh, where am I arms? And push out again, good and bend. And is it OK that my heels, when I get to the end, is it okay that they come apart or they do slightly? I shouldn't be trying to keep them together. Keep them together.

I think what that, what's happening is the structure of your knees getting in the way from your heels, staying together the whole time. So let's just, let's keep them together all the time. I'm going to look at that a little bit more closely and push out. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll just do it exactly like you did just then. Okay. So we have a couple of more foot positions to do and we're going to go out onto the outside of the bar now on your heels.

Perfect. Do you want to be able to get into a place where you can push? Yeah. Okay. And then the knees are going to be in kind of in that same just in line with the shoulders to pull this hip towards me slightly. Perfect. Okay. And Flex your feet. So now how you can find your inner thighs here is imagine that you're trying to slide your feet together without actually moving them or moving their knee. Yes.

Good. And then push out. So keep that energetic inner thigh working as you keep the knees turned out as you work through the back of the hips. As you continue to think about your abdominals and bend. Nice. So here we are back on the heels where it's a little easier to like find that back leg. Just target set up from there, press from there.

Jane. You're a natural, you're a natural. No, it's all in the teaching or you do three more. Reach out, keep the knees turn slightly out. That's right. And then Ben and should you do it slowly? Like you say you're resisting over time and eventually you can keep moving while I talk to you. Eventually it will get quicker. Yeah. But I am not a, um, I don't need for you to go quit. I would rather have you do like less repetitions and go more slowly and really feel it right this minute. Yeah.

Then I then try to rush through a certain number of repetitions and, and not really understand it and I think going slowly gives you the time to kind of imprint it into your great. Yeah. And I can feel what I'm working as well can. Yeah. So I'm, I'm a big fan of slow. Yeah. Come on your toes. So it's, we're going to stay in that turned out position. So it's like a ballerina, but you stepped wider. Okay. Yeah. And then push out [inaudible] nice. So we can still keep those inner thighs working and can still feels completely different on the toes again. Yeah. And then keep your hills right here with my hands and Ben, don't push on me. Just touch me. That's right. That's right.

This knee likes to venture out wider. Okay. Okay. Ooh, touch me. But don't push. It's like you want to touch me like I am. I'm like, I'm very fragile. Okay, let's just do a couple more and we'll say three more.

You feel how the feet like to do different things? That's one way I still, no one wants to push down a little bit. So, and I don't know. I mean, I don't know the answers for any of this. It's just like we're both learning about your body right now. I guess that's the thing, isn't it? About having, you know, an instructor do it first. It's like you could never just do it yourself. I don't think you could never just get on one of these really easy and it is really hard. Like, that's why even as teachers, I feel like we all still need to have people have somebody's eyes. Like I can do whatever I want to, to my body, but I could be practicing it.

Totally. Of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So next thing you're going to do is you're going to come back into the center and what we're going to do here is straighten your legs all the way. Again. We'll call this a calf raise. You're going to reach all the way under the bar. So your heels are gonna come in towards me, down towards me, under the bar. You can actually come a little bit more down onto your feet so you can get a little more range. Good. And then I want you to roll yourself back up.

So we're just moving the feet now. So lift your heels rolling up. Awesome. And down. Oh all the way. Pull in these muscles. Anterior Tibialis will help you to get further underneath the bar if you think of actively pulling from that. That's right. So the springs will just some of that work for you too. How are the springs, by the way? I've never been asked to other sign. It's not, it's a good amount of pressure. Is it pressure or then what you'd call it. But its, yeah, tension pressure. Whenever I can feel like I'm doing stuff, but it's not really hard, you know. Perfect.

Well we'll wait until later to make it really hard. Okay, so now what I want you to do is bend this knee. This knee is going to bend the same food, foot's gonna drop. It's like a prancing. So you'll come down with one heel up on both toes, which I'm not doing very well in space and in change. And what you want to think about here is a big stretch and switch.

Where you want to think about here is stabilizing in the pelvis and keeping the knees right in line. And this leg that's bending, that foot gets to push and you get a little stretch in your toes. Good. And then switch and change. Nice. And just to say one or two more. So seeing these reformers before and thought, what the heck could you do with them? [inaudible] there's a lot. There's a lot. This is a, this is a very, very, um, very tiny glimpse of what there is already a tile machine.

Say here. Versatile. I'm an a, uh, take one foot down. I'm going to give it a stretch. So if just seeing the I've, no, no, no. You keep both feet on the bar one. Me. Just like you were doing, you have to stop one foot and I'm just going to give it a nice little, yeah. Okay. Oh yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah. There's your prize and then switch sides.

All right. That was really nice. Yeah, it feels good, Huh? Okay. Then journeys and bring the carriage in. Nice. Okay, so what we're going to do now is a little bit technically arm work, but we're going to make it talk to your abdominals. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to just, we'll start on a red and a blue spring, and that doesn't have to matter to you. I'm just saying it out loud for people who are listening, I'm red and blue spring and right behind you, right behind the shoulder blocks, there's some straps. I'm going to have you hold it, those with your hands. Thank you. Yep. All right. So remember when we were talking about breath, how I wanted you to get the ribs involved with that. Okay, so we're going to talk a little bit more about that. I'm, you're going to be holding your legs up in a tabletop position. I don't want you to feel pressure in your lower back.

If you do tell me and we'll just reorganize the legs a little differently. So I don't want you to feel that you're having to use your back to hold your legs in the air. Come a little bit forward with your whole body. So you wiggle away from the shoulder blocks a little bit. That's perfect. Keep your feet right where they are and straighten your arms so your arms are going to just go like that. Just right above you. And you're going to put tension on your straps from the muscles underneath your armpits, from your lats, essentially.

So pull the shoulder blades down a little bit, not back. Just, just down. Yep. Okay. So now the arms are going to do that. You're going to lift one leg, lift the other leg. Oh, so now you're using your own? Yes. Okay. Okay. So now you're going to bring your legs up out to there. And now to push your arms down, I want you to think about breath. And I want you to think about rib movement. So you're gonna exhale, feel the ribs slide down, feel the sternum slide down.

Reach past your pelvis towards the foot bar. Do you feel how that past the pelvis made your shoulders come away from the shoulder blocks? Yup. Good. So now lift the arms up, but don't keep pushing. Keep pushing forward into your straps to keep the scapula down. It happens here. Exactly. You're doing it. Beautiful. Good. And now from there XL, stop.

Make muscles push down on the spring. Give your stomach working. Yeah, give me feel your low back at all. Okay, cool. Cool. Loaded that a couple more times. So muscles press down, you're reaching, it's like you're trying to touch the foot bar over here. Nice. Beautifully done. Two more times. So you see how you, we can just use breath all the time.

Just talk to Ann in just the orientation of the bones to talk to the muscles that we want to find. So I'm going to have you do one more and when you get to the bottom and have you keep your arms down, stay okay, so now the palms are going to turn like that. Keep pushing towards the foot bar with your back muscles. Now just like the breathing, reach out to your side. So will feel the ribs go out to the sides as your arms. Reach out to the sides, you know like a fireplace, bellows, and then use your arms to squeeze the air out of your body.

They're going to come right back down and keep the knees in a little bit more right there. Good. And then open. Inhale. [inaudible] you pope in the bellows to blow into the fire and exhale, squeeze your stomach down. Push all XL, exhale all the ads that finalization of air out of your body that helps you to find your stomach muscles too. We're going to do three more. Good. I'm going to let you hold your legs again. [inaudible] and two more navel into the carriage press. Nice. Push this way with your collarbones. One more time.

[inaudible] awesome. Cool. That's plenty for today. We're going to just put the feet down like that and then bring your key. Bend your knees and come in. So the [inaudible], this is going to be like probably the craziest thing you're going to learn today. We're going to put your feet into these things. In this position. You're going to be lying on your back and we're going to put your feet into these straps and here's how you're going to do it. It's just gonna. It's just gonna feel strange. It always does. The first sentence, you just push out with your legs.

Just one foot is going to come up into the strap. So now if you just put some tension on that strap, just keep your knee bent and that that will hold you still. And then this one you can come into. Good. Okay. I thought you were going to put my legs above my head together. Not Today. Not Today. It is one. Oh yeah. Oh, for sure.

Okay. So what are we going to do now is well, straighten your knees and then you're going to make that small v shape or that ballerina shape. Lower your feet towards me just a little bit. Okay? Now I want you to squeeze your heels together all the time and soften through your ribs and then bend your knees. Okay? Just right there. Open your knees a little wider. So they do come just outside of the straps. And now I want you to push like you're gonna kick me right in the ribs.

Push towards my body. Awesome. And then inhale, as you bend the knees go just outside the strap to pelvis, stays down, and you're going to push towards me like you're going to push me off this bar. Nice. And then, great job and press. Cool. See my way. Like shaking. Yeah, they've been, they're like, what are you asking me to do? What the heck is going on here? But you're doing so great. Good. One more time.

Okay. Okay. And so the next thing that we're going to make is a circle. So you'll go down to this. Two things. I don't want you to go so low that you feel your lower back. Get on stable. So I'm going to stop you probably around there today and we're going to keep those knees turned out all the time.

I'm going to guide you through the first one. So we'll go out to gather tailbone stays down and now find the backs of your legs again, just like you did when you were pushing on the bar and push your legs down towards me. Exactly. Keep the knees turned out, the heels turned, and you can soften your knees to get your heels to Tuck is to do that without you being there. Yeah. Yep. I do. Just a small circle. I'll stay with you. So owl, the straps will hold. You see? Ah, yeah. Okay. And so you just have to think about standing in your straps, your straps or your surface, your ground, and then you're just watching, trying to make your circle of symmetrical. Yeah. And, and is it, is it about sort of controlling the circle? Is, is that is about controlling the circle, trying to make it the circle even. Yeah. But also more, maybe more importantly is controlling the orientation of the pelvis, like not letting your back get moved around, not letting your Thomas get moved around and you're doing a really nice job with that. Although you are a little heavier than this side than you are over here. Okay. I can feel that I'm doing more with that.

That's interesting. So you know what you do, all you have to do is you have to tell you how to mentally tell that leg to work. Yeah. The time. Yeah. I can feel what you're saying with that actually. Um, it, it, what helps me is like just to stand a little heavier and that strap or think about starting from there. Now we're going in the reverse. Oh. Oh, that's weird. [inaudible] lift gauges to there and open. So they say, so let's just pause for a second. When I let you go. You see how this one's way over here and it's not quite over there. Yeah.

I have a feeling that that comes from something in your spine or on your hip on that side. I have got a tilted pelvis that is going to make a difference. Yeah. So those are the things that we start to learn about and explore. I guess that's the thing about working with the same teacher all the time as well, isn't it? They get to know. So this one's wider, so that was happening in your footwork as well, and that's the one that likes to go out and then push down towards me. Nice. Good. Let's do one more. Keep your knees turned away. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Really good. Okay.

And then those one last thing that we're going to do here. It's like that's like going into the, so there's the let your knees bend a little soften. Not Too much. So we're going to take, I want you to imagine that you're just tracing like the surface of a water. I keep this leg out. See how that light wants to draw here. Okay. We're going to go, oh, the weight is enough and now you're going to use the muscles that you feel stretching right now to squeeze your legs back together.

Just like that again, reaching out at, keep that leg lifted and schooling the [inaudible] together. Right. How about two more? Okay. There you go, Vince. We've awesome. Oh, okay. One more time and then you're done with it. [inaudible] good. Okay, so to get out of there, we're going to do it exactly the way the, how we of came in. So let's take this foot out. Ben, this knee, this foot's going to come down. Now you're safe. You've got something to stand on. This is going to come.

This was just going to step out of this, this strap. Put your foot down and come all the way in. Okay? Okay. Awesome. Okay, so we're going to go back to the mat to finish. Okay.

So what I'm going to have you do is I'm just going to have you lie down on your side, my head, it doesn't matter. Okay. Okay. The second face. Your audience. Oh, hello audience. Okay, so this is a, this is an exercise for the waist. Okay. I'll add an laterally move lateral movement exercise. So what I want you to do is I want you to align your feet up with the rest of you. This ham you can use. You're gonna want it. Okay? So to help you balance and then you can just lie on this arm straight out.

Perfect. So the first thing that we're gonna do is we're going to try to make you a straight line. Like imagine that you are going to stand on the ground, but you happen to just be lying down instead. So that's your best alignment. So what I want you to do is think now of narrowing the space between your Aha. Yeah. Your navel to your spine. Start feeling that you're trying to reach your legs away from you.

They're going to continue reaching away from you as you lift them up, both of them. So they're going to reach away to lift. Nice. Awesome. Good. And although only go down just a little bit. As you inhale, they'll reach away to go down. Yep. And then you're going to exhale navel to spine, and you're going to use this right here in your body, right? To lift your legs up again. Do I live when I exhale or what? You can lift out whenever you want, but it makes sense to lift when you exhale to me because then you're finding the muscles, right. Use to lift.

Now you feel higher at pelvis is pushing back on my hand. I want you to keep it right there and then breathe in as you go down. What I like, I play a little game with myself. I see if I can get my skin to stay off my clothes and we're all going to try that. It's too difficult. It's too hard. Okay. So we did at least navel to spine, belly button to spine and reach those like that. He feel it right in here.

Yeah. Hang, go down. Hey, we kind of match. I just figured that out. Right? Good. I'm glad. Okay. Last pell, this phone. Yeah. Is it hard for you to balance on the hip, on your head to keep the shoulder down? That's the hard thing. Yeah. That's the hard bit for everyone. So that style making stomach and stomach and awesome. Um, cool.

And I guess you could just turn over and face me. Okay. Just lying down. All right, so we're going lining the legs up there. It's not super important that all the bones have to line up perfectly, but just make sure that the knees are facing straight ahead. Yeah, and the feet may or may not touch. It's whatever. Okay, so this is, that's just a postural thing for you. So pull this back in. I know that feels round, but that's more straight. Okay.

So that's going to help you, but I don't want you to keep, you can use these muscles to help you, but not these. Okay. Okay. So stomach muscles in, yeah, no worries. Stomach muscles and legs reach and the legs reach so far. Why pull your stomach and that's right. Bring this hip towards me. Bring this hip toward this top hip towards it. That's it. That's it.

And then go down. So again, we're using the center of the body. We're using the breath to create movement in the legs. You might feel, ah Huh. I like that. I like how you're finding your stomach muscles first and then you're lifting [inaudible] good. Bring this hip forward all the time. That's right and down. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Squeeze and reach the legs.

Reach out. Nay. [inaudible] okay, two more abdominals in. We read. If you need a second breath, take a second breath. Compressing. Are you hungry? [inaudible] give you your belly. You can tell. You can feel your out. Please tell me. Galley last one.

Last one worked. Yeah, you've worked your up an appetite. Awesome. Great. Yeah. Pull this in a little more. That's right. Great. It's really easy to let it go. Totally. You concentrate on doing it at the beginning and then you just like, it just goes like, cause you're concentrating on lifting. Right? Right. Yeah. Right. But it's all just, you know, like I like to say to my students or people who come to take class from me.

When's the last time you were perfect at something? The first you tried it. Right. So just like, let it be fun, have fun and we're almost done and we're going to have some wine. Absolutely. One more exercise and then we're going for wine. So turn onto your stomach. Okay, so this is an upper back exercise. Um, what I'm going to have you do with your arms is to put them in your forehead's going to end up on the mat and you're going to put your arms like this with your forums just down on the mat. Yeah. And then I'm going to move them around a little bit.

So due to the fact that you're more well endowed than I am, you won't feel like you're going to lift very high off the notes. So what the lower back does, as you know, is it has that kind of natural curve it to it. So we're not gonna overemphasize that. But I want you to do instead is imagine that you have some ice underneath your belly button and just lift your belly button. That's all you need to do. And then I'm gonna have you just lift the back of your head so your forehead will come up. So now the rest of it is a gliding action.

We're going to feel the Scapula, the glide, and then the gliding of the Scapula is going to bring the head up. Bring the head up, bring the head at. That's enough. Feel it working in here. Yep. That's awesome. Well, I can feel it. Run them this part as well. Okay. That's okay. And then go down.

So it's not wrong to feel your lower back muscles working as you know, but try and see if you can use a little bit more stomach muscles and see if that the lower back sensation goes away a little bit more. Also, you can tap into a little bit of leg muscle and also you don't have to lift quite as high. So lifted the back of your head, fly this right scapula downside, bull scapulas down, and then it's like this, these ribs go forward and down to let these ribs lift up and back. Yeah. Nice. And then lower down. So slide the shoulder blades down as you lower down as well. Nicely done. Was that better on your lower back? Was that the same? Yeah. It's like, I feel like I'm sort of engaging different stuff when you're listening or you're saying things. I'm trying to think about what I'm actually doing and like, yeah, you're doing great for stomach and shoulder blades down. So it's like that.

It's like you're pulling your arms to lift your head, to lift your back, lift your head a little bit more. Come up to my hand. That's right. Good. So we just do a little bit of back extension and then we go down. I'm gonna have you do that just one more time. You could think also of, instead of thinking about, I have to lift up. I think I'm going forward, I'm lifting my spine forward, back of the head first.

The back of the head helps the upper back to start to feel work. I'm going forward rather than up. I actually liked that. That was my most favorite one. Good. But I felt that when you said go forward is, do you know what I imagined is stupid? I imagine myself being like a snake. I know that's nothing stupid. And then sort of, you know, stretching here. Yeah.

Yeah. Like it. Did it feel better? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So now we have to do one more so you can play with that idea and then we'll be done. So we'll play with that. I think that anytime, like you'll find something, a visual something or an imaginary, something that works for you and work with it. Play with it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. And then what I'm gonna have you do shit. You can push off your forums. Like you're going to do a pushup. Sit back on your feet.

You're going to sit in child's pose. Okay. Sit in child's pose, arms reaching out in front of you. We'll give you a little bit. Is that okay? And your knee? Yes. Cool. My knee's fine. We're going to give you a little stretch. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. This is again, your, this fear of the first part of your reward is this, and the second part, it's Chardonnay. Local shard.

All right. Yep. Great job. Thank you. You did so great. That's so fun. That was great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Love your class Meredit ! l hope to take your class too ! Im waiting you in Korea. Thank you for your all classes which is usefull to exercise
This is great to see a real client with little experience in the very beginning of learning pilates. I would love more like this ! Meredith you are a wonderful teacher :)
Lori
3 people like this.
Ok both of you are adorable. It was great to see in real time the connection for a first time student. Meredith shows time and time again what a superb teacher she is. Thanks!
I love these Ladies! Thank you for doing this on your vacation Jane!
Thanks so much to you all!
And a very special thanks to Jane who made teaching a beginner seem effortless...
See you in Korea Soyeon Kim!!
I just have to say that i love Meredith's teaching style; her mindfulness, grace, concentration & intuition are so inspiring to me. Thank you, Meredith!
Jane is a top novel pupil. Congratulations!
Thanks for your sweet words, Alexandra. And Pablo, I agree, Jane is a top pupil indeed!
1 person likes this.
This class was so helpful towards being mindful of keeping each part of the body in the right place and working together while breathing through the exercises. Thanks for the pacing and positivity, Meredith! And thanks for being brave, Jane!
Maggie L
1 person likes this.
Ha ha ha, Love you, Meri!
...and thank you, Jane.

What a totally authentic experience -- I really felt like I was a fly on the wall, observing the session to learn how to work with a first-timer (who, in this case, is obviously already healthy and comfortable in her own skin.)

Watching this reinforced some of the common experiences I've seen in beginners, challenges of communication and of course, the joy and discovery of Pilates exercises and equipment.

Again, this "Teacher's Corner" program on Pilates Anytime is rolling out at the perfect time for me. Thanks!
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