Class #3364

Down and Dirty Mat

20 min - Class
1066 likes

Description

You will get down and dirty in this quick Mat workout with Maria Leone. She adds her own flavor to each exercise, finding ways to increase the intensity of the movement. She includes creative variations to exercises like the Hundred, Leg Circles, and much more!
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Mar 12, 2018
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Hi, I'm Maria, and we're getting ready to do a down and dirty. Matt is going to be pretty straightforward, but quick, just 20 to 25 minutes. Let's start with cat cow, so onto your hands and knees. The hands go right under the shoulders. Knees right underneath the hips. Start with the spine. Very Long. Inhale here. Exhale, come into cat pulling the tailbone under. Inhale, open the chest, drag the hands back to the knees.

Cat Cow

Open the chest and around the back. Make sure you feel your weight equal in all four points. Open the chest, the heart goes forward. Push the shinbones down, exhale around the back, suction the belly button up. Inhale, open the chest. Make sure you're not doing too much with your neck. Make your back flat and come into rest position. Knees slightly open.

Reach the arms out. I'd like just your fingertips on the mat and Leon onto your back. Cross one leg over the other and allow the knees to drop to one side. Any side that will be fine. Try to feel oppositional energy going through the opposite shoulder and pull yourself back. Change legs and then allow the legs to drop.

Spinal Twist

Just getting a nice gentle rotation. Nice gentle twist. Being aware of that opposite shoulder, but not forcing it down. Pull yourself back center. Pull the knees tight into your chest and we're beginning with hundreds. So inhale here. Exhale, lift to your hundred position. That might mean tabletop.

Hundred

Begin your breath in for five and out for five. Continue with your breath. Vigorous pump. I'm going to show you some other options with the legs. Maybe here, maybe there may, maybe quite low in for five. Nice, strong exhale out on the five. Begin to make the pump a little bit more vigorous and now hold the arm still and walk the legs in for five and out. Two, three, four, five in, out, two, three, four, five. Fight to be still out. Two, three, four, five. No bobbing. Heads out. Two, three, four, five. Glue the legs together.

Lower everything down, hands to the ceiling into roll up. Inhale here. Exhale, peel all the way up. First one is always a little stiff. Take a breath in here and exhale. Peel yourself back down bone by bone, by bone. Lengthen the arms over the head. Inhale forward. Exhale, peel up.

Roll Up

Squeeze the legs tight. Find that beautiful sea shape at the top. Pull the hit points up away from the thighs. Tuck and peel down and move your head with you in hands over the head. Inhale, hands come. Exhale, peel in and up. So the crown of the head here, I want to push the wall in front of you. Away.

Tack. Peel down. Start moving the head right away so the chin never touches the chest. Last one like that. Inhale forward with the arms. Exhale, a beautiful peel up. Really show me this cat position here, right. We're back in cat roll back halfway only and Paz chest is lifted from here. Open one arm in. Rotate. Squeeze the legs tight. XL, come back center. Keep lengthening other side. No shift in the pelvis.

Roll Up w/ Rotation in C Curve

Really Open that arm. Come back center. Arms up over the head. Peel slowly down. That's repeat that again. Inhale, hands forward. Exhale, peel in and up. Pressing the waistband backwards. Mind the C shape. So the hip points are pulled away from the thigh bones. We're all half way back. Finally lengthen the spine.

Open one arm and twist. Squeeze the legs. Come back center. Make sure those leg length stay the same. Keep getting tall back. Center into the SI hands. Come up over the head. Peel slowly all the way down. Hands by the side. Pull one knee in tight to the chest for single leg stretch.

Single Leg Stretch

Lift the head and shoulders up. Reach the opposing leg up one inch. Inhale, change legs and really pull in tight and exhale and pull in tight. So there's a few different ways to perform this. Pull in tight and use your arms, not the shoulders and in tight. Listen for your breath. Connect to your breath. As you do this, keep deepening your contraction. The legs reach past the edge of your mat, so just straight as not enough, even straight or even longer. Last one in. Stay connected. Even here.

Lower down. Release your head one side and to the other side. Come back, center for double leg stretch. Curl the head and shoulders up. Stay here. Inhale, stretch everything out. Pause x, Hilary, Keulen, head and shoulders. Don't change. Inhale, stretch even further than you think you can. Exhale in. Let me hear the breath. Deep breath in and exhale. Almost like the breath brings you in. Inhale, the legs are glued tight.

Double Leg Stretch

Exhale in, lower down, something a little different. Legs straight. Flex the feet. Pull the navel in and up. Slowly lengthen the arms up over your head without changing the ribs or there. Contact to the mat from here. Bend one. Need a tabletop without hypey. Hiking that hip. Extend the leg to the ceiling. That's flex it.

Leg Circles Variation

Look at it. Drive through that heel. Now sink the belly and lift the bottom leg up just in itch and hold from here we do leg circles around and up, around and up. Staying very stable through the entire trunk, the opposite leg. Last one. And reverse it open and around and up. It's not going to be as big as you probably would like it to be around in a last one around. And uh, catch that leg bottom, leg down, head and shoulders up. Take a hamstring stretch. Point. Your toes and second side. Okay, so belly button is in, is up. The tail points to the heels. Flex the feet, lengthen the arms over the head without changing your rib cage.

The other leg comes into tabletop. Make sure you didn't hike that hip. Extend the foot to the ceiling. You might need to have a little bend in the leg. That's fine. Or take it straight. The bottom leg barely comes off the mat and as it comes off the mat, the waistline gets more narrow. Now circle that top leg. Choose a direction around and up. Around in, up.

Okay. Keep your body tight to the mat. Okay, last one like that and reverse it around and upkeep the focus on the top of your thighbone. Ah, AH, last one. Oh, catch that leg. Point your toes. Lift your head and shoulders up. Up, up, up into scissors. Inhale, change.

Single Straight Leg Stretch

Exhale, change. Pull with your arm, not your neck and change. Pull that leg into you. Change trunk is still inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Two more really straight, full range with those legs, knees, and lower down. Release your head from side to side into double leg. Lower lift, hands behind your head. Set your start position.

Double Straight Leg Stretch

Head and shoulders are up two legs to the ceiling. Turn them out. Some of you might want to work with just one leg. Inhale, lower down, one or two legs. Big. Exhale up. You determine how low you go. Inhale down ribs tight to the mat. Pause. Exhale, up. Inhale down. Drop the tension in the neck and the shoulders. Big. Exhale up. Two more. Inhale, reach through those legs.

Exhale up last time. Inhale down, hug the midline. Exhale up, knees in, lower down. Release the head, one side and the other side. And come back. Center. We're going to build crisscross, so take your hands behind your head. I always have to put my flavor on everything. Curl your head and shoulders up. Rotate to one side and extend the opposite leg out and just stay here.

Criss Cross

Keep twisting. Inhaling, stay there. Exhale, lifted a little bit more. One more. Inhale, keep lifting. Exhale, keep twisting and lower down. K, second side twist. Pull that knee in opposite leg out. Stay here and hold it and keep lifting. Find a way to breathe fully here in this shape. Don't let go. Keep going in the direction of your rotation and lower down.

Okay, so we're going to move quicker, but I don't want you to lose any of that quality. Okay, so legs up. We're going to start slow and then move quick. Curl the head and shoulders up. Stay here. Inhale, twist, pause, exhale, cross pause. Pull that knee into the midline. Twist, pause, open the opposite elbow, twist and inhale and exhale and inhale. Wring out that spine and exhale five quick and five, four from the ribs. Three, two, one and lower. Yeah, down and flip onto your belly for Swan weight, which is going to feel awesome. After all that hands go underneath your shoulders, abdominals are lifted.

Swan

Take a breath in. Lift your chest up. Pubic bone stays on. Lower down. Okay. With your hands under your shoulders. Inhale, lift your arm probably will not make it straight. Keep lifting. Look for a sensation of stretch more than anything else and lower down. Last time. Inhale, reach out and up, but stay engaged and reaching through those legs and lower down.

Turn your head to one side. Interlace your hands up on your back from here and lift the whole shape off the mat. Lift the legs. The neck is long shoulder blades. Pull in. Stay here. Inhale into the chest. Get a little bit higher. Exhale, lower down. Turn your head to the other side. Okay.

Double Leg Kick Prep

And lift yourself up. Pull the knuckles back. If this is not available to you, your hands will be here. Girlfriend length more than height. Hugged the legs in. Inhale into the chest. Okay, and exhale. Lower down hands. Come underneath your shoulders.

Sit yourself all the way back into rest position. Okay. And set yourself up before saw. Like straight in front of you. Get as vertical as you can. That might mean a little knee bend in your knees. Reach your arms eastern west and from here, rotate one direction and stay.

Saw

Make sure neither leg has shifted at all. Come back center and get taller. Opposite side twisting from the waistline. The legs don't shift at all. Get Taller. Let go with the front of the hip, come back center and get taller and twist again. Adding the flection. Now bend forward, pushed the back arm back, make a brace between your front hand and your foot and then use that to go further into your rotation. The opposite hip is imprinting into the mat.

Come all the way up beautifully tall. Second side twist. Then come into your flection. Keep that opposite leg heavy and grounded. Use that hand to brace against your foot and take you further into your rotation and come all the way up and lower down and lay down on your side. For leg kicks, I like to set up right at the back corner of the mat and then the two feet will come forward. Your head can be down or up, or my favorite, which is on the elbows. Okay. If you're on your elbows, lift your bottom waist. From here, just straight leg lifts straight up and lower it down.

Up and Down

Pulling that leg really long as it lifts back up to and lower. Make sure the hips don't change. Live three okay. And lower. And don't stop moving back up for okay and lower last time. Lift up five and lower. Point that toe. Eight vigorous circles. Eight, seven. Fight to be still for. Hit the back of the circle.

Circles

Reverse it and circle real. Even in symmetrical [inaudible] and lower the leg down into leg kicks. Flex the foot. Kick the leg forward. Little posts point. Take it back, little pulse, forward, pulse back. Find that glute. Inhale and exhale. The leg stays on one level. As you move [inaudible]. Inhale for two. Exhale one, two, and forward to and back to last.

Front and Back

One forward and back and two legs down. Come on up. Let's go to your other side. Setting up at the back edge of your mat. Choose whatever position you're working with. Two feet to the corner that's flex the foot and lift that leg out and up.

Up and Down

So whatever you did on the first side, do it on this side back up too. So you might be turned out, you might be parallel back out and up and pause and lower down. Keep lengthening through the crown of the head lifts. So the rest of the body should stay alive as you're moving the leg lift and lower last one, lift. Envisioned that leg growing as it lowers. Point the toe. Vigorous circles, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and reverse. Send back two three. Hit the back of the circle.

Circles

Six, seven, eight. Lower down. Flex the foot and lift it up to the height of the hip. From here, kick it forward. Little pulse. Take it back. Little pulse forward for two and back. Keep extending through the crown of your head and back. Hips are still forward and back and forward.

Front and Back

Look for a stretch here in your hip and forward and back. Last one, forward and back. Two legs together. Come to your hands and knees. Bring your elbows right underneath your shoulders. We're going into a forum. Plank. Step one foot back. Take the other foot back.

Forearm Plank

Shoulders over your elbow. Squeeze your legs tight. Anything you need to do to modify is a good decision. Yeah. Try to feel this throughout your whole body. Push the ground away with your forearms and your fingers.

Ground through the feet. Lift through the abdominals. Okay sense where your neck is, where your head is. Notice your gaze and be still and interest position all the way back. Knee slightly open. Arms are straight. Deep breath in. And exhale. Come back to your hands. We're setting up for plank into leg. Pull Front. So shoulders over the hands.

Leg Pull Front

One foot goes back, the other foot goes back. Open the chest, squeeze the legs tight. Establish that same position, that grounding through the hands and the feet. Release one leg. Kick it up, one to place it down. Hips don't change. Other leg one to place it down, right leg one, two down left leg, one, two down, right leg, one to down left, one to down. One more. Each way. Hang in there. Stay strong to your knees and into rest position. Allow the knees to open.

Take a deep breath here and exhale out through the mouth. Hey, we're going to end with a pushup. Okay, so that push up for you might be something that looks like this, which is fine. Okay. Or full stance. Find yourself in a straight line crown of the head to the knees. Inhale, lower down. So it might be this big only big exhale up. Inhale, lower down. Pause. I'm going to open the elbows. Exhale up so we're not doing tricep pushup. Inhale down, pause. Exhale up. Resolve to get there in one count, lower and lift. Two more.

Push Up

Lower and lift. You might just be holding plank lower and lift to your knees into rest position. Open the knees wide. Deep breath and exhale. Come onto your toes. Walk your hands into right in front of your feet.

Bend your knees, place the hands firmly to the ground. Push the ground away. Biceps go forward. Belly Button suctions up the head hangs. Just enjoy that stretch in the lower back. Feel your weight forward on your whole foot. Release your arms.

Forward Fold

Grab opposite elbows and hang. Breathing nice and full and deep. Allowing the body to traction. The spine head is heavy. Release the arms on the very base of your spine. Begin peeling up.

Keep a softness in your knees even if they're straight. Make sure soft come all the way up. Feel your crown of your head pushing the ceiling away. Take one deep breath in through the nose and a long, slow exhale out through the mouth. And we're done for today. Thank you.

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Comments

2 people like this.
Fantastic! Thank you. Feel super mobile and ready for the day!
5 people like this.
Perfect, fast workout for the full body. Thanks!
1 person likes this.
Awesome class! Tough but fun :)
Thank you Maria, that was fun! Just what I needed before teaching my mat class in 40 minutes. :~))
Sharon O
1 person likes this.
Thank you! Did this mat after your athletic reformer. Whew!
Great sequence and cues. Thanks Maria!!
Really enjoyed the single leg circle variation!
Lorie H
1 person likes this.
Time efficient and challenging full body workout.
Such an intense short workout. Love the way you teach!
1 person likes this.
Just perfect after a long stressful day (good stress)! Thank you!
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