Class #2904

Proprioception Mat

20 min - Class
50 likes

Description

Play with proprioception and coordination in this Mat workout with Ken Gilbert. This class is based on the Floorwork that he learned from Ron Fletcher as well as the work he has been doing to integrate the five joint actions of the spine. He works on mobilizing the spine while building awareness so you can learn how to move with fluidity and ease.
What You'll Need: Mat, Braided Towel

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I'm Ken Gilbert here at Paulie's any time. And what I will teach right now is a floor class. This is based on some of the floor work that I've learned from Ron Fletcher and some of the things that I've integrated in my own way of working the five primary joint actions as the spine forward flection extension, lateral flection rotation, and circumduction also playing with appropriate ception and coordination. So the demand of this is different in that we're sitting level to the floor or challenging for the male student than it is for the female in that women sit differently on the bowl. George and I have a beautiful butterfly and the women have a bowl.

So in our beautiful butterflies we're challenged to sit upright sometimes, so it's going to be a little different to notice the profile of George and myself versus the women as we go through this class. So we will be in diamond pressing the feet together, lifting the sternum, dropping your pubis down and pulling in and up at the same time. Let the arms be at the side. The lower belly pulls in and up and you start by reaching up and then down. Let's go just to the chest and down to more and down.

And one more just to the chest and down. Now overhead and down and overhead and down to Moore and down. And one more. This time stay wide back and lower belly pulls in and up and round over. [inaudible]. The show was an arm round over into the thoracic ribcage.

Round over into the lumbar. Now rounding over all the way you're rounding over your hands. Come to rest on your ankles, your elbows on your knees. So in this rounded place, the crown of the head, pulses to the toes from the lower belly reaching under the sternum and [inaudible]. You want to think of lengthening of the lower back.

You're a little rolled forward a little bit on your sits bones and four, three, two. Now let's reinvent the upright spine. Drop your pubis forward and lift up on your sitz bones. Okay. And come up into your lower back then your thoracic, and then your neck and your head. Reach the arms overhead. And let's do that again. Yeah, forward flection rounding over hands. Go to the ankles. Lower belly pulls in and up.

You're moving from the bottom of your sternum, crown of your head towards your toes from lower belly pulls in and up and do pulse. Good. And then rolling up, sitting on the sits bones pelvis and then rolling up into the lumbar and then to the thoracic and then to the neck and the head. That's enough for now on that. So that's the forward fluxion from that plate place.

Now we go into the back of it. So pubis pulls up to the naval and you're rolling into the lumbar and [inaudible] keep your thoracic lifted. Do it without thinking. She keep lifting through the sternum, crown of the head, and two more this time. Hold a contraction now roll to the back of the pelvis so you're on the back of the pelvis and then roll up. Keep your eyes level to the floor floating there and roll back to the back of the pelvis and coming up to sit up on your sits bones and rolled to the back of your pelvis. Coming up onto your sits bones.

One more of those and roll back to your pelvis and coming up on your sitz bones this time. Oh, good George. Sitting up and roll back to your sitz bone off. Just sit bones onto the pelvis. Well back to the lowest rib to the tips of your shoulder blades and then roll back. Just stay right there for now. Let's just stay right there so we're on the sitz bones are on the tips of the shoulder blades. You reach the arms alongside the face, lower belly pulls in and up and then roll on back to the floor. Lower belly pulls in and up.

Sweep the arms around like a snow angel and roll up head, neck, shoulders and arm. That's the first breath. Press your feet together. Press the base of the big toe, little toe, middle of the heel and roll up all the way to vertical. Sit or uprights it. Very nice. Let's do that again. For breast around, down and pubis, Navel back to the pelvis and then rolled down to the lowest rib. Roll down to the tips of your shoulder blades. Head stays up, arms to the face, and then roll back. Neck and head. Sweep the arms around and roll up. Head, neck, shoulders and arms. Then roll up all the weight, pull your shoulder blades together for open so you're rounding over, you're hugging yourself forward. So as you come up you're pulling yourself up into the extension two more times on this and pubis navel and then rolling down to the lower back, the pelvis, lower rib, and then tips of the shoulder blades, arms to face and the neck and head rounding over.

Sweep around and roll up and upright. Sit. You did it on one breath. That's great. Let's do that again. And one more time. And pupils navel onto the back of your pelvis. Get to feel the sacred on toward the floor. Then the lowest rib, beautiful. And then tips of the shoulder blades onto the face and then rolling back.

Neck and head. Sweep the arms around and roll up. Head, neck, shoulders and arms, all the way to upright cit. That was nicely done. Let's play with the hinge. Flex your feet. So as you flex your feet, your arms are reaching out in front. Flex your feet, lift the arms overhead and hinge forward. Loomer the degree of your hands doesn't matter as long as there's no bending in the spine. Lift up right and hinge back upright and forward. Hinge Upright and hinge back, upright and forward. Hinge, upright and hinge back. One more time. Upright and forward. Hinge, upright and hinge back. We'll play with the legs here at this point so we're here.

Round over into the contraction onto your sacrum. Flex your feet, reach the right leg outs and pull in. Reach the left leg out and pull in and reach out and pull in and reach out and pull in for more. Reach out and pull in. Pull in on the lower belly. Reach out and pull in and one more each leg and pull in last time. Reach out and pull in. Point the feet and roll up to upright. Sit lower belly pulls in and up and reach the arms overhead.

Rounding over hands. Go to the ankles. Lower belly pulls in and up. We're going to make the roll down more dynamic as we come into this position, staying there and forward flection and rounding back. Make it a quick round back to the back of the pelvis, Ronnie back. He'd be honest, reaching out of the shoulder blades.

Then to the lowest rib tips are the shoulder blades and then arms to the face and all the way over. Reach around, roll up and make it dynamic. Two breaths and then round over all the way. Crown of the head of the toes and pulse there. Four, three, two and rounding back sacrum. And then lowest rib tips are the shoulder blades. Keep the arms wide, so stabilize his shoulders, different arms coming alongside the face and roll back.

Sweep the arms around and roll up to breasts. Then all the way over crown of the head. Now from there, flex your feet and grow the spine. Crown of the head, arms alongside the face, into the thoracic, into the Lumbar, into the bottom part of the sacrum and pelvis. Come to upright. Point the feet and round over. [inaudible] forward and then roll back. Sacrum, get there long distance. And then lowest rib tips of the shoulder blades, arms to the face, and then roll back. Neck and head.

Sweep the arms around and roll up to breasts to get their crown of the head to the toes as you round over. So it's like rolling like a ball. And then flex your feet and arms are alongside the face and grow the crown of the head. Fingertips. That's the neck and then into the thoracic. That's the ribcage. Then into the lumbar. Tell me to upright sit and arms down. Let's take the towels, reaching out in front just to get the dynamic of the towel through the back pulses. We're here overhead and hey. Okay.

Okay. Four, three, two. Let's go with the side. Bending to the right. Yeah. Yeah. And a little bit more. [inaudible].

We're going to grow this and come up inside. Bend to the left. Okay. [inaudible] and a little bit more. Yeah. [inaudible] coming up and side bend to the right. Yeah. [inaudible] coming up inside. Bend to the left. Yeah. [inaudible] and [inaudible] coming up. Let's play with this differently. Take the arms.

So we're pulling to the right. So pull the right arm and let the left arm come directly over the shoulder and center. Then pull the left arm, let the right arm come directly over the shoulder and [inaudible] lift the sternum wide back. So you want no movement to happen in the shoulder girdle. So the pelvis is anchored, the shoulder girdle is stabilize. The head is balanced at the top of the spine.

Last two and one. This time arm reaches to the right side bend. Let the hand go to the floor. Come into upright armory. Then side band. Let the hand go to the floor. Coming up. Armory, armory, armory, armory and arms down. Take a little break. The shoulders stabilize.

This sits bones anchored. Their lower belly pulls in and up. Upright here. Sure I do that. Arms overhead. It allows this clavicle to rather level instead of getting caught up in the neck and shoulders. So we're here now and into rotation to the right more and more. And overhead. Stabilize I your sits bones, the lower belly, pulling it up.

Stabilize your shoulder girdle. Last one in center, arms down. We add the rotation and forward. Fluxion. You Royce rotate over the thigh and then forward flection and then come up. We're playing with this and then we'll go into the extension from there as well. So we're here. That's what I'm talking about Jane. Just the Smiley.

All right, wide back and rotate for reflection. [inaudible] coming up on the rotation and center and rotate and forward flection. Come up on the rotation and center and [inaudible] [inaudible] where you are in relationship to your legs. And one more and arms down. Let's road the shoulder blades forward three and two and one roll the shoulder blades back however that you perceive that doesn't matter as long as they're going in different directions. And then here wide back. Let's add the extension from that. So go ahead and flex your feet.

We're here on the rotation so it'd be our rotation forward. Flection into the extension. You drop into the opposing sit bone. So here you have to be in the left. Sit Bone. Then round down, come up on the rotation and center. So we're coordinating it. Flex your feet. Ready and rotate. First for reflection. Grow the extension.

Well reflection [inaudible] come up on the extension or lift up into upright and then center and rotate forward. Flection. Grow the hinge for reflection. [inaudible] come up to upright and center. Shoot. One more time. Each side and forward flection grow the extension, the flexing of feet helps and then round over into the flection. Come up on upright and then center. One more time. And [inaudible] [inaudible] arms down. Let's put the towels away.

So bring them up above the upstage of the math, upstage of the math here. That way it will be out of your way. So play now let's we're playing with the, the, the possible of what we can do out of the sitz bones with the arms. Reach the arms out to the side. So you're in diamond here. Now I'm not, I'm not doing a side view here. So you wrote, you roll onto the side hip and then you return to center. You roll onto the side hip and return to center. So let's play with that. This is your balance. Reach them out of your clavicle.

So get the line from the maneuver, him reaching out to the fingertips. The middle finger is a great indicator of where you are reaching and off to the side and then center off to the side and center off to the side and center off to the side and center for more [inaudible] your spine is staying lifted. So there's a lot of work going on in the extension of the spine. One more [inaudible]. So let's play with that awareness. This time we, we go into the um, well demonstrating the side. You here, we're going into sip bone and we lift the arm and then return the sit bone first here, lift the arm, return the sit bone. First we're building into a progression, so let's do that. Please.

Soon the side bend or are you in the uprights? Go into the side and lift your, your up upper arm and then return the sit bone first and then to center and tilt and lift. Return the sit bone and center and tilt to lift the arm. Return the sit bone and center and tilt. Lift the sit bone arm and return. One more tilt. Lift the sit bone and sit bone down.

Lift the arm and return center and tilt. Lift the arm. Sit Bone and [inaudible] center. So take off on a Fletcher piece. It's quite fun to play with. So our hands are on the floor here. That's our marker. We go out to the side reaching to the side.

So a play with it. Play with it this way, this, this foot, this foot goes onto the floor. It was just coming in and spontaneous moment here. So as you go, you're out to the side here. You rotate here. This arm stays level. Then you've do what we just did with the lifted sit bone and then replace your rotate. Reach out, lift the sit bone, then replace. Do we have it? Yeah. The idea is that one foot is on the side and the other foot is a whole foot on the floor. So you're in this position here. That's what's important. Yeah, we're playing with awareness of and proprioception.

So we're all going to the right first. So ready and rotate to the right. Then lift the arm fit bonus high and replace the sit bone and rotate and lift high and replace and lift high and replace and, and lift high and replaced two more. And reach across and lift high and replace. Reach your cross and lift high and replace asking for sophistication through the lower back. In this position here, reach your hands behind you. Unlock the elbows. Do upper back extension so you drop your pubis forward.

Lower belly pulls in and up. Please don't fall into the lower back. You want to lift as an extension of the spine. Drop the shoulders down. Bring the shoulders forward so the lower belly is pulled in and up to get your head over the spine into an upper back extension. So hold that position there for a moment. Lower belly pulls in and up, similar to what we might do with a combination on a reformer. Flex your feet and from there extend your right leg out and then return and your left leg out and return and your right leg out and return and your left leg out.

And return for more right leg outs and return left leg out. Return two more. Right leg out. Return one more left, like out and return. And then returned upright. We've done upper back extension, we've done flection, we've done side, we've done rotation. Circumduction so the pattern goes this way. We're hands are here. You look to the side, come around. That's an inhale. Exhale, come around. Inhale, exhale, inhale, and exhale.

So that's the pattern. So in position, you're here, we're creating a circle around our legs. So you look to the right and then bring the hand around. Inhale, exhale. And then inhale, exhale around to the side of the hip. Then come up and exhale the arm returns. Inhale, turn to the left hand. Exhale, bring the hand to the tips of the toes. Inhale, exhale to the side. Hip. Inhale, come up and exhale, return. Look to the right and exhale around. Tracing the circle. Inhale, exhale to the side. Hip. That's the circumduction. Inhale, center arm up. Exhale and return. Turn to the left.

Watch the hand, exhale to the toes. Inhale, exhale the hips float down. Lastly and coming up, and a one more time. Inhale, exhale to the toes. Inhale, exhale to the side, hip, and then inhale up and exhale down. Inhale, left. Exhale to the toes. Inhale, exhale around to the side. Hip. Inhale. Exhale, center. Lower belly pulls in and up. Wide back, arms reaching out. And let's play with a little bit of what goes on with the arms. Arms Up, down, and in. Up, down, and in.

Up, down, and in. Setting up, out of your lower back, up, down, and in. Up, down, and in. One more. Up, down, and in. Out, up and down. Out, up and down. Out, up and down. Sitting up, out of your lower back, up and down. One more. Out, up and down. Can we do the opposite? One doing the other other way. Good. So now we know what we don't know, and that's coordination. Lower belly in and up, sitting upright, arms reaching out.

Let's do another roll down. [inaudible] Cuba's naval. Onto the lowest rib. Tips of the shoulder blades, arms to the face, and rolling on back. Neck and head. Sweep the arms around and roll up. [inaudible]. One more breath. All the way to upright. Sit. Reaching the arms up overhead.

Two more. One more. Stop to the side. Head turned to the right and center. Left and center right and center. Left and center. Right and left last too.

Right and left a single breath. And focus now to the walls. You're looking to the wall each time and four and three. And to relax the jaw one and pulses and yeah, i's to focus. Keep the head level on the top of the spine. And four, three, two and center. Arm three, top three more. Two and one. Thank you.

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Comments

I really like the rock to one side/sitz bone exercise and the spiralling exercise after it. Thank you, I will incorporate these ideas in my classes
Pieta . . . thank you for letting me know! I appreciate any feedback, especially when there is an application of the work that I offer . . .
Maryam
The best workout to start the day... Thank you Ken Gilbert . I really enjoyed it.
Mary . . . I am excited to hear that the workout works for you! Thank you . . .
Cynthia G
that was great after a day of sitting
I did this class in conjunction with Ken's 30 minute standing class. I don't roll-down very well, especially in the diamond position. So I added 5lb leg weights which worked for me. I love Ken's Classes and I wish there were a gazillion more of them.  Thanks Ken:) 
1 person likes this.
Gary . . . I'm curious . . . how long have you practiced Pilates? The rolldown (for men) is challenging at the onset of the work (men are chest heavy) and the mid-back is usually tight. With practice you will be able to find the rollup in diamond. A way to "cheat" without the 5#weights is to touch your outer thigh with your middle finder, hug the back of your ribcage by widening the shoulder blades (an image . . . as you rollup imagine someone is pulling on the outer tip of you shoulder blades; keeping your arms in the rounded position over your chest). Also with practice you will tame your psoas as a stabilizer rather than a mover. Once you get more movement in your spine all of this will change.
Thanks Again Ken:) 
1 person likes this.
Gary . . . I would love to have a conversation with you - phone, Facetime or Zoom - about your connection to the work that I teach! I have been asked by one of the PA Staff to address Pilates and men. Your comments would support me in reaching other men.
Looks and sounds deceptively easy. That is definately not the case! Excellent - love it.
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