Class #3571

Clear and Concise Mat

45 min - Class
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Description

Feel the connections in your body with this Mat workout by Karen Sanzo. She starts with a warm-up for your hips and back and then adds breath work so you can fill your lungs during each movement. She uses clear and concise cues to help you stay clean and precise throughout the class.
What You'll Need: Mat, Theraband

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Clear, concise and connected mat class. Join me. Grab a theraband lying on the mat. Take the theraband around your right foot. Just put it right to the ceiling. Let it grab around your toes like that. So it Kinda helps lengthen through your heel, grabbed the theraband high enough that when you let your elbows pull down, it Kinda makes it taut. And from here, just make your legs Kinda just go in a circle so that you're driving the theraband in each direction. The hardest part of this exercise is often just your hands. If you need something under your head, you go ahead and take it.

We'll do one more time in this direction and then we reverse out, down, cross over, and come up. So if you're a beginner, this looks a little bit like single leg circle, which we'll get to. But what we're creating here is a clear connection in your trunk as to what's happening. When you push the leg out, push it down, bring it around and bring it back up. For the sake of the camera, I'm just going to hold my hand in the band. We're going to feel this long torso here. As I drive this leg around, the tummy stays connected and I just circle the leg. Then I'm going to bring my elbows down so I bend my knee and then I press it away. I bend and stretch.

I'm looking right at the ceiling because the bridge of my nose, as I kind of pull my face backwards if you will, that I'm not doing this with my chin or this with my net. I'm just pulling my face package right back into the mat. So here I'm just making this connection between hip flection and hip extension and bring that leg all the way in and bring it down. Now with that same right leg reaching long, I'm just going to lift it right up to the ceiling and now I'm going to do single leg circle as if I'm pushing the band. So now I feel the work in my leg and I feel the work in my trunk and nothing else is moving. And then when we do our full mat class, we'll connect this together and we'll do one more of these and bringing the knee into the chest. I give it a pull when I pull my knee into my chest.

Notice that I'm not rounding my shoulders, but I'm actually pulling from the back of my arm, which is almost the upper part of my back. As I pull that knee in to release it, take the leg down. So when the very first part here, we're making some some clear connections with the leg for hip circles so that when we put it together in the full class, you kind of know the things we're supposed to feel. So let's have the arm be pulled back so that the band gives a little tension. I to have it coming over my piggies just a little bit there. Now if this left hamstring is tight, don't modify by bending the bottom leg. But, but bending the top leg is better. And so we circle that hip joint. So I'm just pretending like I have a tighter leg on the left side.

So I'm actually driving the band around so that my trunk can feel the different forces that rotating my leg around, gives it, and then I switch. So my blades are attracting on my back. They're not like squeezing together maximally, but they're just not moving. And we'll do one more time like this and then we'll do a bend and a stretch and a bend and a stretch. Three more. Push the leg away. Two more. Push the leg away.

Last one. Push the leg away, bring the leg up, take the band away, lower it down. Take that same left leg in and up. Say you have a tight leg. This is the bent knee. That's fine. Pelvis stays level. I circle around, come up and stuff. So now I'm just circling the bent knee.

I'm just modifying as if I had a tight hamstring. And then one more time, my arms can be down by my side. Now our reverse, but sometimes when your arms are down by your side, you have to be so careful that you don't do this with your shoulders, right? You have to keep the shoulders heavy. And then we're redoing the circle and then bend the knee in.

Give it a hug, pulling from the back of your arms. If you can't reach your hands to your Shin, you put your hands to your thigh and you'd pull it in like this and then reach it down two feet. Come flat on the Mat. Still in a little warmup phase here. I'm going to take the band, reach it long and I'm going to start to tilt my pelvis to stretch out my low back and lift my bottom up into this bridge and push my arms down so I create my back arm. That body awareness, as I lift up into my bridge, my knuckles are long and then I slowly lower down and I'm still pushing my hands into my thoughts. Release. Inhale, exhale, arms pushed back and down. That's my back body connection into my last. I'd pull my tummy in. I really, really reach long through my knees.

Belly stays in, thighs attracting and then slowly, slowly lowering all the way down. One more time, thighs. Press up as the band presses down. Open the chest as you open the front of the hips. Now here's the tricky part. Right leg is going to kick out. Hold, comes down, left leg kicks out, hold, comes down, everything lowers all the way down.

Take the band, put it around both of your feet. Bend your knees into your chest. So I want you to pull the band from the back of your arms. So I want you to almost feel like the thighs are being pulled in and your buttocks is curling up. Hold that right there. Breathe into your side ribs, your back ribs. Exhale, pull the belly in one more time.

So I'm pulling my thighs into my chest to give my low back a little bit of flection for a stretch because I'm getting ready to roll up and just a little bit. And then I lower the legs down. Now I'm going to use one band on my leg as I lift my head and a curl myself up. Put two pieces in here. So we've just done just a tiny little warmup here. I'm going to pull my shoulders back, pull my belly, and bend my knees a Tad.

Now I'm going to pull my arms back to give me a little bit of support and making a flection connection through my low back. Notice that I'm not dropping my chest, that I'm pulling my arms and I'm going to really link. Then the low back just like that to my ribs touch, and then I'm going to curl up over my ribs. Oh my goodness. That's a tough one. And again, enhance. Exhale, the arms pull back, they hold, the belly pulls in, the naval pulls back. So I'm giving myself this flection connection again into my low back.

My next days, my deep neck flexors are actually nicely engaged as I support my trunk rolling down and then my head goes down to the mat. Relax the arms. Now I'm going to press this, Bam long drop my shoulders just like this, reaching long. Now from here I'm going to lift my head deep neck flexor. Just my head look, just my head. When I put my head back down, I pull my throat back first and then I look to the CIA. Inhaling, shoulders stay, legs stay.

Belly stays, deep neck flection. So I nod my chin, look into my eyes. I think there's a tutorial on this, but here we're tying it into the mat work. I'm not curling my trunk to a hundred beats, curling my neck, lowering my throat. Looking back at the ceiling, it is your neck. It has to be your neck to lift up against the gravity like this. One more time.

Head lifts, trunk the trunk does not live just the head and you look big. Inhale. Now I'm going to bend my knees a little bit and I'm going to continue to curl up in my trunk as my arms pull out. Watch. I'm going to straighten my legs. I'm going to curl my trunk and round forward holding myself here. I'm gonna pull my waistline back, stack up my spine as if I'm in sitting tall, getting ready for spine stretch. Inhale, arms pull out.

[inaudible] head nods forward. I pull my tummy back as a spine. Stretch forward holding here. Arms, pull back, waistline pulls back, and then the trunk lifts up and then the arms release. We'll let go of the band. Now, little bit of warmup for your spine, a little bit of warmup for your hips. And now we'll take it to our full class, lowering yourself all the way down to the mat. I think it's really important to do a little warmup like that for the hips and the back and the spine. Then your mat class becomes a little more active.

So let's start with the knees bent and the feet flat. Take an inhale and then as your exhale, sink that belly down and just pause for a second. Getting yourself ready here. So the deep neck flexors curl the trunk we hold, we take an inhale, exhale, scoop the belly. Now inhale into your back ribs and almost feel your ribs buoyant yourself up into this hundred beat position and then slowly lower yourself down the throat and the head. And now we're ready. We'll lift the head, chest and trunk and the legs simultaneously on an inhale. Here we go. Ah, [inaudible], [inaudible] [inaudible]. Ah, nothing fancy here. Maintaining the connections.

I got 20 more [inaudible]. Exhaling, knees come in, head comes down. Pause two legs down, two legs out long toes, flex arms, reach down if you can, let's try it again. From here. It's not as hard as you think. When you go through all that trouble of making that connection in help. Prepare.

Exhale, pause. Now inhale, arms, legs and trunk and everything lifts up. [inaudible] [inaudible] trying to keep the back ribs down, but curling from that deep flection in the front. Knees bend in, lower yourself all the way down. Now with articulation, I'm going to lift my head, curl my trunk, bring myself up and over. I'm not going to stack up in between. I'm going to lengthen my low back. Head stays as I lie my spine and my pelvis all the way down. The arms come up. Exhale, pause, head lifts. Inhale, trunk lifts. Inhale, exhale, curl yourself.

Oh, inhale waistline back. Fill these back ribs with an inhale. Exhale, lie down. Now one inhale gets you all the way up. Quick seal all the way over. Waistline, back tip all the way down. Last one, inhale. Oh, I think that was a little bit better. Exhale and then come on back. So we want to get a little tip without a grip, a little bit of tip of that pelvis, but not a grip of the buttocks all the way down.

Right knee in right leg to challenge this single leg circle. Now hands to the ceiling. Inhale around, up, around up, just three in each direction because we're going to do small ones and we'll do big ones. Then we reverse crossover around left leg long last time. Knee comes into the chest to pause. Same leg up to the ceiling. Now the hands come down by the side, tidy up your shoulder blades, kind of stick your sheets in.

Now we're going to go over and the lengthening of the leg will lift. The pelvis will come down around stable, trunk, stable, everything stopped. That's one [inaudible] and that's to one more reach and then roll the pelvis back. Stable, stable, stable, stable. Then we'd come up. Now reverse. We go way out and when we cross over we press that right arm to almost get us way over there, Anna. And then around crossover. Get it way up there and then one more time.

Cross it way over and get it up. Knee comes in and hold and pause back of the shoulders. Lift my head. Neck flection. Curl my trunk flection. Hover the left leg up off the ground. Hold this position right here. Inhale into those back ribs. Exhale, pause.

Two arms come out three breasts. Ah, ah, ah. Switch legs and pause. Small Circle three times. Last one. Reverse. Are Your sheets tucked in?

Okay, two and three. Give it just a little pull, a little break too. Like same light comes back up. Bigger circle now it goes all the way over, all the way down, all the way out. And I cross all the way over. All the way down, out and up. One more. Oh, the way over. All the way down. All the way out and up. Now, reversed out, down, reach, reach, reach, reach, and then come up out, down. It's not a neck exercise.

My voice shouldn't change. One more and then reach and then come up, hug it in back. Arms, head lifts. Get up off of those back ribs. Don't rest on the down, but curly up other leg reaches long holds herself right here. Hold. Reach your arms long. Ah, ah.

Playing with the feet position. Hold two knees. Come in a lie yourself down two feet. Press Tuck your sheets in. Lift your bottom up into the bridge and hold right here. Now from here you take your right leg and you press that heel down into the mat. You take the left leg, you press it down.

So the pressing down of your legs is what lifts your butt. And then you drip your chest, you roll all the way down, you lift your trunk, grab your thighs if you need to pull in yourself all the way up and over for rolling like a ball. So first, now in our ball here, we're going to put the hands under the thighs. We're going to get the tip of the pelvis without the grip of the buttocks. So you're going to tip your pelvis backwards, tip it from the bottom rather than collapsing the chest, hold yourself here. Now the rolling like a ball today isn't going to be rolling. It's going to be holding like a ball, but it's going to be ball shape here.

And then ball shape here. Ball shape here, ball shape here so that you see how the thighs pull in deeper to make that deeper connection in the lower belly. Who? I mean we got one more and in and that will come alive in the abdominal series. Here we go. Lying yourself all the way down. Okay, so now on the abdominal CT, we're going to change our breath pattern a little bit first with the head down til we get used to it. One knee comes in, second leg matches. Oh, I think we can go ahead and do it. Let's take the arms up. Lift the head, curl the trunk outside. Hand on outside. Ankle. Opposite leg reaches away to the distance you can support.

Here's the breath pattern. I'm going to exaggerate it. Inhale. Inhale, exhale, switch, hold feet, whole back. Inhale. Inhale, exhale, switch. Oh God. [inaudible]. Whew. So we had a little longer time on the inhale. Same exercise again, arms down by the side. We're going to pull the thigh in without the hands pulling.

Neck flection, trunk flection. Curl those ribs, much like a hundred beat two knees come in reach. So it's Po, Po Press, Po, Po Press, Paul Paul, press, Paul Paul, press bend, rest bridge who whoever thought of bridging would be a relaxation part, right? And then roll your trunk all the way down. Double leg stretch, two knees in hands hug, same breathing pattern. It's a little bit different. Head nods. This is just a head nod. This is a trunk curl, so it's reach your arms and legs away, but it's going to be [inaudible] rust down and bridge. Next one is no hands. All fives in the breath. You can see how the my breath gets a little challenge. Very tough exercise.

Alarms are going to be long by the side curling up. Much like you do for the a hundred beats. Gotta wiggle around a little bit and then it's [inaudible] throw the arms over the head. Whoo, that's tougher. [inaudible] last one. Everything comes down. Who does a front body grabber? Good job right there. Oh, I love to cap myself on the back and then lower yourself all the way down.

Very good. So we did single leg shrimp, double leg stretch. We're just singles. Straight legs, scissors. Quivers oh my goodness. Scissors and quivers. There's a tee shirt. Okay, so now right leg. We know this as a pulse, right? Yeah.

Exhale, pause. [inaudible]. Bend your knees back of the arms. Now we do it with the legs up. Head and neck. Trunk Curl. Arms reach long. Yeah, pull the thigh, pull the thighs switch. Pull the thigh, pull the thigh switch, pull the thigh, pull the thigh, switch one more, and then he's come down. Ooh, voice change on that one. It's because it's tough.

Press the hands. Press the feet here. Now I want you to tip your pelvis like water's dumping out of the left side of your belly button. Roll your spine down. Keep it tipped, rural it up. Bring it level other side. So you just get time to roll it down on one side and then roll it up. Bring yourself level, lower your trunk all the way down. Where the double leg lower. I didn't forget to knees. Come in.

Now notice here when people have a hard time pulling their knees in and up. Do you see other shoulders want to change? We don't want that to happen. So you got to Tuck your sheets in. Bring your blades in. Okay, so maybe you don't push your arms down. Exercise have become much harder here. Two legs up, two legs, lower, two legs. Raise three times with the head down, working the abdominals in this long phase here, which is really important.

And then the hands come behind the head. Very traditionally. You Curl your head, you curl your ribs, and then you lower and then you're Hays three times and then you res. And then last time, and then you raise knees, come in, lower yourself down, rust. And now your hands are in position to get ready to do the crisscross. We're actually gonna leave the feet down to start this one.

Or we're going to do our new fancy breath. Inhale. Exhale. Curl the head. Just like the top of the candy cane curl, right? Sometimes when I get hot back there, I get a little sweaty. I have to kind of curl my trunk a little bit like this.

So I'm going to do two inhales to the window and then exhale center. So it's gonna look like this to the other side, to the other side. [inaudible] now we'll combine the legs. I'm over exaggerating the breath just so that you can hear the breath pattern. Lift the head, curl the trunk. This is just the head.

I have to get those ribs up into that hundred beat position. I might reach my arms long. I might pull here just to get that to really make that connection. And now with same side, I tried to touch oh two more. Last one.

Rest. Okay. Oh, curl up. Breathe. Inhale. [inaudible] this is hard. Bread touch last one. Lower down, arms down by the side. Pick pelvis up. Big. Inhale. Exhale, pause. Stay right here.

Ah, and then lower yourself all the way down. Now to build a better bridge here, what we're going to do is this, we're going to take my left knee into my chest. I'm going to give it a hug. I'm not going to hug it with my shoulders like this. No pull from my back body. So as I pull this thigh into my chest, it gives my pelvis a little bit of posterior tilt. So because my pelvis is in a little bit of posterior tilt, that means it's in a little force of Lumbar flection.

So now when I lift up into a bridge with my right leg, it has to be my right bottom that's working. Now some people will try to get the extension in their neck and they'll try to go like this, but basically I'm pulling my knee in to take care of my back so that it doesn't hyperextend. When I do a bridge, press my right foot down, lift up and down. It's 10 times you guys 10 times three. Doesn't matter how high it is for, it's your button, your thigh, five and six. It doesn't matter how much you pull this knee, that alarms aren't going to help you. Seven it's all the back of the right buttocks, right thigh, eight and nine last time, 10 whew. Other leg comes in. Give it a hug.

Doesn't matter how hard you have this. It's really not gonna help you. It's all underneath that left bottom. Now take your shoulders, pull them back, belly in and lift and lower. Lift and lower. Here's the third one. Try Not to change the position of your neck. Five and six and seven and eight and nine and 10 and rest.

Lift the head. Curl the trunk. Grab your thighs if you need to pee. Oh, yours. Ooh, that roll up was a lot easier. Getting ready for spine stretch, so we stock up the spine. If you need something to sit on you, of course, go ahead and do it, but want to make sure that when we're sitting up tall, we're not trying to arch the back. These back ribs need to stay over that pelvis. Arms come. Inhale, head nod going forward. Now we're going to change our breath pattern here and we're going to breathe in two quick counts for the breath to expand our posterior ribs. So it's going to be okay.

Exhale forward. Stay here, exhale, come up. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale pulls you forward. We pause. Holding right here. I'm going to class my fingers, put them on my crown, on my head, and I want the crown of the head to reach forward. Pause belly in. What a great time for that train to come through because we're basically pausing here while I Belize all the weight in two quick inhale.

Exhale on winders fine. Come all the way up. Arms out to the side like a t. The legs will close so we're not going to do Saul, but we're just going to do spine twist. I'm going to shorten to my lever arm to sniffs as I twist to the left. Exhale center, stay tall. Inhaling to the right.

Yeah. Exhale, stay tall. I'm exaggerating the breath today because I want you to use the breath to feel the lungs. Arms reach out long. Pull the tummy in, lie yourself one roll down because that roll down should be a little easier. After rotation, arms come back at sail. Pause, arms to ceiling. Inhale, trunk lifts, drunk curls out of the head lifts. I gotta grab a second and then I roll all the way up and over.

Taking my body forward. Now getting ready for the open leg rocker, but we're not going to rock. We're going to hold. So right leg comes up. Okay, so feeling this connection to the back of the thigh and the arm here, the shoulder blade has to stay tucked in. So just hold this position right here and get that tip without a grip. Any place else, other leg comes in and we reach out as my legs. Push away, my arms pull back, and my belly tips even more. And so now as an exercise here, I'm going to close the legs, reach the arms, open the legs, grab the legs, close the legs, reach the owners, open the legs. Whoo. Grab the legs.

One more, close the legs, reach the arms, open the legs, grab the legs, and then roll yourself all the way forward. So sometimes in those rolling exercises, it's holding the position. That's the hard part. Lying myself all the way down. Okay, turning over onto the tummy. Preparing for little spinal extension.

So first one here, reaching the legs along. I'm going to curl my toes underneath me to just stretch out my thighs and then I'll rest them hands are kind of underneath my armpits. So I'm going to press down on my arms to pew, my chest up, using predominantly my arms to give me spinal extension. And then lying my spine all the way back down, leading with the head that chest, the arms, I press up, I exhale, still pressing my arms. I still impressing my arms as I lower myself all the way down.

Taking the arms by the side like a soldier. Take the blades back, reach the arms long, lift the head, lift the chest straight. Elbows, pause right here. Naval still pulled all the way up and in lying down three of the inhale, eh. Exhale. Inhale. [inaudible] last one. Excellent. Hale propping myself up to my forearms, preparing for single leg kick and double leg kick. So as I build up here, I'm being very mindful that I'm not sagging, so I have to press my forearms, lift my chest, pull in my belly button, reached the legs long. People always say, what is it about this exercise? Well, it's holding this force of extension or this position of extension.

While I don't move my pelvis, when I kick, kick, reach long pause. Ah, right. And then you really try to do it without letting your leg rests down. So it's inhale, inhale, exhale, long left, like inhale. Inhale, exhale. Long inhale, inhale, exhale.

Long last one. Inhale. Inhale, exhale. Long lie yourself down. Double leg kick. A challenging exercise. Turning my head to face. You. Take your two hands, grab your two fingers behind your back. If you can't, you just take your arms down by your side. I'll do it the modification way first.

Notice my shoulders are in internal rotation. I take an inhale, I kicked my heel towards my bottom, but I don't get space at this hip crease. You need to look at the extension connection tutorial if you need to figure that out. So I'm going to kick, kick, kick. Then I'm going to turn my arms into x terminal. [inaudible]. [inaudible] reach my legs long, left my chest. Look in front of me, turn my head, the other side internally.

Rotate my shoulders, bring them down, kick, kick, kick. X. Turn Lee, rotate mirroring them up. Turn my head to the other side. Kick, kick, kick. I'll do it a little more advanced way. You can repeat the same way or do it a little more advanced with me.

Grab two fingers. Grab your hands up, your back, elbows down, shoulders are in. That's right. Internal rotation and help prepare. Exhale. One, two, three. Inhale. Exhale. Internal rotation. I slide my hands down. Keep my thighs lifted, lift my chest, turn my head the other direction. Kicked three times. Reach Long.

Pause yourself right here. Feel the extension in your upper back. Feel the lifting of the legs. Take the arms out to the side like a t. If you have it in you, the arms can come over your head. You take them back out to the side. Take them down, lower your body all the way down and rest rolling onto your side. Before I do the side kicks, we do the side plank.

Side planking is really important to get the side body information. I'm going to start the side plank today with my knees in line with me, my two knees pressing together, my shoulders under my arms. People typically want to prop up their arm to go first. I don't want that to be the Goto. I want you to learn how to press down with your knees to the floor.

So you're putting an abduction force on that bottom hit. So that really is a helper. And then we can take the top leg and lift it up and just hold it right there. Comes back in, lowers down two legs out long. Now I have a longer distance to lift, so I'm gonna press my feet down, straighten my legs and lift up.

Notice that the Shin is lifted as well. So I don't want to dip my pelvis like this. I want to push down with my foot to lift everything up. All's we're doing today is holding here. Inhale, exhale, whole inhale, exhale, hold. Everything comes down. Knees come in, switch to the other side. First side, plank lines, my knees up with my pelvis so my feet are actually behind me. Incidentally, if I turned on my back right now, wouldn't that kind of be a bridge? Right to have open hip crease here?

Important to have that shoulder a little bit away from the elbow so that when you come up it kind of migrates that way a little bit. Now left hip, this is a little bit of my weaker side injured last year, but coming back strong and then I'm going to take this leg out using the side of my hip abductor. I come in high, lower down. That is tough. Two legs out. Not sure if I can do it. Just give it a try. You try it, keep going with me and then we're going to press down to lift up. Hold yourself right here. Don't compensate with your head or your chest. Keep pressing that lifted down.

You can stay. I can stay and then everything comes down. Knees come in. Who are we? Go back to the other side. Now we lie all the way down. Getting ready for just a couple of sidekicks here, arm out long. So there's been some talk about how do I prop my head? What's more advanced. For the sake of this, I'm going to keep my torso long with my arm over my head. Most important thing to me for educating the hips is to Kinda have some comfort here in the upper body.

So I'm going to bend both of my knees in to be a 90 degree angle. My top left hand is going to go on my pelvis, so that way I can kind of press my pelvis long, kind of lifts up my right waistline. I'm gonna lift my top leg to the level of my hip. Then I'm going to press my leg out. So from here now, if as I press my left leg up, can you see how that in a side plank would be pressing your leg down to the floor? So it's really important that I feel the entire left side of my body.

So we're not going to do 50 of these, but we're going to do lift two, three and then hold on the fourth one. So it's going to be one, two, three and hold like you're pushing your leg against a wall. And sometimes I put my hand on people's legs. You put your own hand here and just press against that resistance and then lower. And then one, two, three, hold. Bottom knee incidentally presses down as the top leg lifts up and then really send them two more times. One, two, three, hold. Go ahead and press it. Oh, I like this. Press it and then release.

And then one more time. One, two, three. Hold. So you're not an extension. Your Chin is in line. The back of your head's in line. You're going to hold yourself right here. Come on, keep pressing that left leg off. Hold for five. Hold for four, three, two, one real last. Whoo. Okay. We're not done yet. We're not done yet. Stay with me here.

Now take the same left leg. Reach out. Notice it's just different with his bottom knee bent. It also makes it a little room for the side of your hip bone there. So stay long here. Now top hand's gonna stay up to the ceiling. Now I'm going to take this leg forward as far as I can without curling my pelvis. Now have you ever tried hamstring?

The knee may bend a little bit and that's fine. So I'm going to hold it here until I feel a load laterally in my bottom. I already feel it. You might as well. When you feel that, then you're going to lift the leg up a little bit, and then down, and you're gonna lift it up a little bit and then down, and then reach up to the ceiling, not behind you. And then down. And then one more time up, up, up, and then rest. Whoo. So my arm kinda likes to go back all over the place.

So when you get this mindful workout, you've got to kind of keep yourself in there. We're going to do this one one more time. Leg out long comes forward. So from here you gotta be careful. See, my arm is pulling me back. So you're gonna pull your belly and you're going to reach that arm up to the ceiling. Now here circles. Circles. Don't let the leg hang. Circles. Circles three and then four, reverse ISO wanna. Lean backwards, two, three, and four and five. And that's enough of that.

Whew. Okay. Now let's roll quickly to your back. Okay. Cross this left leg over the right one. I know that we have another side to do. Take your right leg in. We're going to give this leg a little dynamic attention of the one that we just worked on. You can make this a little bit further.

Watch if you cross this Shin even more. Take your hand, grab your ankle, lift your head, curl your trunk, much like a hundred beats, reap down as far as you can and then pull those in as you lie yourself down and then release. Alrighty. Other side [inaudible] bend your knees in there about at 90 degrees holding yourself right here. This top leg is going to lift up. I call it like a chair leg, so at 90 degrees here, 90 degrees here. I'm going to take this pelvis and reach it long and I'm just going to lift this top leg up and down. My bottom leg is pressing down to the mat. I'm not rolling my pelvis behind me and we'll do four more and three and two and then one. And now this top leg is been a reach out long.

I'm going to press my pelvis long. It's more important that you feel the whole action of your leg and not just a lock of the knee. Okay, so you want to reach that long right? Comes to this little position here on the side of your leg. So we're going to go quick, two, three and then hold and press down as you reach it up. Hold it right there. And then you're going to go one, two, three, and hold. Be sure your knee cap is facing straight ahead. Oh, mine wants to turn out so bad. Hold it right there.

Press up and then release two more sets. So it's one, two, three. And then hold pressure left foot down as your right leg lifts up and then release. And then one more time. One, two, three and hold. Pull your tummy in. Press that bottom leg down. And then rest. Okay, here's challenging one, kick this leg out in front of you, right onto the ceiling, right? Not Behind you, but straight up to the ceiling that that makes you make a a little fletching connection almost in your trunk so you don't just hang out there. Now from here, it's up, up, up and up. And then three more, two more. Last one. I can't count.

Bring it all the way in and we do that one more time. We make circles armed the ceiling leg out in front. Get it loaded, right? You've got to get that whole loaded feeling there. And then the arm reaches up to the ceiling and then we circle five, four, three, two, one, reverse the circle. Five and four and three and two and one and breast.

Why on your back? Crossing your right leg all the way over your left. First you just kind of pull the legs up, do some little circles, little dynamic movement here to kind of get a little activity. After you work that, take your left hand, grab your Shin, Curl your trunk, much like a hundred beats, get some breath into those back ribs. And then as you lie yourself down, take the legs with him and then circle very good, and then bring yourself up to sitting. Turn around. Our last little variation here is going to be a little plank variation, so the arms will come down there, pressing your palms down.

You curl the toes up underneath you. The first part of this exercise is getting your shoulders straight, then the belly. Then the knees, they just hover shoulder weight-bearing without sinking. So my arms are pressing down. I'm not sagging. Going to hold right here and then bring yourself down. Lower your shins, push your arms forward to sit your bottom back. Now bringing yourself forward, you're going to take a full plank. Two hands down, right?

So their shoulders come over the hands and the hands are active, so they're already active before they even start. One leg comes out, other leg matches. Now the most important part of a plank, believe it or not, is the position of your back ribs, not if your pelvis was hanging and level. Yeah, this is like nothing, right? This is just me hurting my wrist. So I'm going to push my arms, lift those back ribs. Now my voice changes. Now I'm corely connected. So then I'm gonna take my right toes lifted up. Kick five, four, three, two, one. Lower down left leg. Get regrouped. One, two, three, four, five. That like comes in the knees. Come down, sit my bottom back restaurant there.

So building this now if it's too hard for your wrist, you've of course come back to your forearms. I'll show you two ways and then we'll just be done with this little workout. So I'm going to curl my toes, press up into my forearm plank with my butt, kind of high. Nod My head, lengthen my chest to stretch my shoulders. Now as I take my shoulders or my chest over my shoulders, I'm going to crawl out and will lower my bottom down. Now from here, I'm just going to hold and then when I want to rest, I'm not going to go down. I'm going to go up.

So I get the shoulders right. So I keep weight bearing into my shoulder. So I'm pushing my hands to the floor. Last one, and then bend the knees. Sit your bottom down. [inaudible] very good. I'm glad you joined me on my map.

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Comments

3 people like this.
Enjoyed this class very much Karen, thank you. Feel really well stretched
Lori
2 people like this.
You are such a rockstar teacher Karen! I have looked to you since starting Pilates and you never disappoint. You really excel at helping people make the right connections. I always get a deeper workout with you. There is always something you teach me. Thanks so very much!
Crystal
2 people like this.
Karen, I truly enjoyed the journey of this class with you. You brought inspiration to me for working with a couple of particular clients. Thank you so much for your time and insight.
2 people like this.
Hi Karen,
I always love it when I see a class from you on PA. And of course I always gain something! My hips really needed this today as I danced my butt off at Rod Stewart concert last night. Woohoo!
Thank you for all of your wonderful expertise over the years! Xo
Karen Sanzo
1 person likes this.
First day comments. Thanks to all of YOU for taking the time to comment. I absolutely love everything about Mat and all it has to offer. Every day is a new day.
Allison S
2 people like this.
I just want to say I love your videos and that you always acknowledge the work you feel. It brings such a human aspect to the work our bodies are doing. I hope I can take a class with you someday!
1 person likes this.
Thank you! You gave me some inspiration!
1 person likes this.
Excellent teaching and I definitely made some deeper connections!
EXCELLENT
1 person likes this.
Thanks Karen Sanzo i really enjoyed that.
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