Class #3575

Mat Fusion Combinations

60 min - Class
1204 likes

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Create movement, length, and space with this Mat fusion workout by Courtney Miller. She incorporates fitness, yoga, plyometrics into the class, focusing on learning recovery so you can maintain the Pilates principles during fatigue. She includes fun combinations and variations that will make you forget that you are working out!
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Hi guys and hello to you guys in the studio with me. Thank you for joining me. A, we will be doing a mat fusion class, so this class will incorporate fitness and some yoga and some plyometrics and lots of polarities. And of course everything will be done with those [inaudible] principles. Um, so let's just have fun. If I would, if I could pick a theme for the class, the theme would be fun. I don't, we're just gonna have fun. Um, okay, let's begin with the standing warmups. So I actually prefer to stand on a hard surface for this format. Standing on a mat or a carpet or a cushy surface is going to increase the level of difficulty. Uh, take your hands to your hips and let's stand to the outer edges of where at would be. Yep. Okay. And come into a squat.

So in this class we're going to be waking up and engaging a lot of the posterior chain. So I want you to think kind of gluten needs here as we do this hands are on the hips and we're just gonna step to the center of the room. And then feet together and that's it. And then go back to where you were. Good. And we step and we step. Yep. And for those of you who have been on a jump board, I want you to bring awareness and attention to your feet. Toe Ball, heel and toe ball. Heel. Good. One more step each side.

Easy. Now we're going to add a hop. So I want you to be heavy on your outside leg and light on your inside leg. And then you'll hop switching where you feel the weight and where you feel like. And we go side and side. And we want to stay low here, side and side. Good.

So a little bit more power when we add that push. Instead of thinking, jumping up, think pushing yourself to the side and see if you can get a little more distance. There you go. And side two more per side. Yep. Freeze. Yeah. So synchronized. Take the arms out like a T. I want you to lift up and become a star cause your arms will lift, your leg will lift your in a balance position. Good. Come low and do three hops. One, two, three. Look, we're on the other leg.

Lift up and become a star and other side we go. And um, two and three. Ah, cause that's what stars do. I know. One and two and three. Okay, I've got one more per side. Are you feeling those blades? How they work to power you? Okay, good. And Ah, okay.

Especially if you're coming to this class after a day of work and your work involves a lot of sitting, it's a good idea to wake up that back body turn. So you're facing towards each other and we're going to go into a lunge series. Let's all step our right leg up. I tend to call this flamingo. Okay, so feeling like that bird with a very long standing leg. Since it's our right leg that's up. Our left, our Mo left.

So we have this opposition, right leg steps back into a lunge. As the arms switch. Now you have to power through your heel on your left leg to come back to standing. Now that you know what, you can flow, you can move. Inhale down. Exhale up with your breath. Inhale down, exhale out. Keep going guys. And the benefit here, part of the challenge is that standing leg, right power down in that standing heel. Feel lifted for that standing seat.

Now this is a very functional pattern, this gate or reciprocal pattern. Nice guys, you have two more. Lunges are best when they're nice and wide. Stay up good. We're going to add a component to this. So go back to your lunge.

Come to your balance instead of a lunge, bend into your standing leg and come to what I would call a t position Flamingo. So come on back up and lunge. So what we've done is we've added a combo. We're up or tee bend in your standing leg where? Up and we're lunch. How are we doing?

Lift. Make it okay. Don't forget to come back up to the Flamingo before going into your lunch. One more time. Lift to the t and up and lunge. Stay here for a moment. We're going to really challenge your balance. Okay, so we're going to be up on one leg for a while. Hello, glute. Come to your flamingo this time we take out the lunch, we go to the tea, we take the arms to the side as the legs sweeps front, we take the arms through the side as the legs sweeps back and we come up to Flamingo only two more times t when meal.

Think of the belly hollowing out as your leg travels around your midline. And one more time. And we do have to do other like the other side we want to be and when meal and that and just march them. So if you're not sure if Palazzos works, just do that on one side and feel the difference. Okay, we're ready. Okay, so here we are. Now we'll take our other leg up to a balance position.

So now it's our left leg and oppositionally we lift our right arm. Yup. Ribs are closed. That's the opposite arm. So like, like you're doing quadro pet, four point kneeling work and then we stepped back into the lunge as the arms switch and we power through the front leg to come up all the way to a straight leg. Inhale down. [inaudible] exhale up. Yeah. Inhale down. Nice guys and exhale up. You got it. And as you go down, think about keeping your shoulders over your hips. [inaudible] these exercises are supposed to make you wobble and wiggle because what we're learning is recovery. We're pushing ourselves to a limit. The muscles are fatiguing and we're recovering and finding stability even in that place of fatigue. Stay up on the next one.

Good. We're going to add that balance t. So we'll go to the tea bend into the standing leg, back to flamingo into the lunge, which funny enough, kind of feels like a rest. And then back to Flamingo. So t bend into the standing knee. Pause for a second. So we're banning that standing needs so we can really feel this seat straight in your standing leg all the way. The muscle emphasis changes. Two quadriceps, one is that better than the other? But I want you to feel that glute. Come back to Flamingo and go into your lunch and see if you can do two more at your tempo.

Flamingo the Flamingo, and lunge Flamingo t flamingo, and stay in the lunch. Oh, okay. What's getting tired, right? This will get you set up for stand up paddle boarding, rise up so no more lunge. We go the wind meal first tee position. Now maintain the bend in your stabilizing legs, the arms, windmill, and the legs sweeps forward. Circle it back and rise up t when meal.

Circle it back and arise up. Should we do two more or one more too? They said too, they didn't. You guys didn't say anything. Circle and back and up. One more time. Tea Scoop. Circle up. Oh, and class done. Thanks for joining us. Stand at the back of your mat, facing towards each other.

Good work guys. Inhale, bend into your knees. Reach your arms up and come into a little squat position here. Think about your biceps by your ears. A little up stretch in that t spine. Exhale, touch the floor and lift your hips and I'll come back to the squat position. Arms up and exhale. Drive the heels down. Lift the chest and think about a chest expansion again.

Sit back, arms up. Shift your weight more to your heels, into your toes. Hands Down, hips up, hips down into the squat, arms, biceps by the ears. Press down through the four corners of the feet and rise up. One more. So send the pelvis back as the arms reach forward. Send the pelvis up as the arms reach down. Come into a deep squat, lift the arms up and give yourself chest expansion.

Wonderful. Back to your squat. Hands Down, butt up. Walk your hands forward. Not quite to a plank, but instead to a downward facing dog. So make like a letter v an upside down. V, spread your fingers. Point your middle finger straight ahead. Bend your knees a little and see if you can anteriorly tilt the tailbone, lifting the hips up higher than straighten your legs all the way. Good. Do that again. So bend your knees a little.

See if you can tilt your tailbone up and straighten the legs all the way. Good. You have two more during the time that you tilt your tailbone up. Think about lengthening the space from the pubic bone to the tailbone. So bend the knees as the sacred [inaudible] tilts up. The distance between the pubic bone and the tailbone increases. Good.

You're in your facing dog. Lift your heels up high. Shift your shoulders over your wrists and bend your knees to a hover. Looks like that. Okay. If you need to make an adjustment or to do it, your shoulders should be over your wrist. Your niche should be under your hips and you're in a hover. Yeah, cat, you're still in a hopper and up stretch. Two more, Kat, and up stretch. Good.

Who needs knee stretches on a reformer? You can just hold that hover, burn baby burn up. Stretch, pause for a second. Press into the pinky edges of your hand and externally rotate a little. There you go. Go back to your cat. Good. Lower your knees all the way down and sit back to a child's pose position. Good. So that movement I was asking them to do and they're an all fours was pressed into the Pinky side of the hand and almost feel like you're doing this.

And when you're in a plank position or in downward facing dog and you focus on feeling that external rotation in the humorous lats fire. Nice guys, come to all fours. Don't worry. The knees can be down and said, I'd like to actually take my stabilizing leg. So that'll be your left knee. And I take it into the midline and then I send my right leg back. So basically I've created a tripod. Um, can everyone just do two sets of protraction and reed road trip protraction and retraction the scapula. And as you protract, can you feel the Pinky side of the hand?

Push it out into the mat and that'll help to fire lots. Serratus anterior. Yeah. Nice guys. Okay, now go to your protraction space. So that's when you have width through your shoulder blades, yet sternum up higher. Yeah. And if you're going to do anything, if you, if you're thinking of one thing, think of being protracted here and getting that width. You got it. Keep that width. Good. This is wag the tail, right leg crosses the mid line and you look at it and you laterally flex your spine. So you're drawing your hip and your shoulder close together on one side and now send the leg horizontally, ab duct away from the midline and look at it. And that's it.

So you're getting this great lateral flection in the spy. The height of the legs stays the same and you're working protraction in that modified plank position. Yep. So you feel like an accordion. You're shortening. One side is the opposite side lengthens and side to side. Awesome. Allow the neck to move yet.

Keep pushing the sternum up. Good. Lift the ribs. Bring the leg directly behind you. Cross the knee behind your left knee and allow the feet to open. Good. Do you feel like a pretzel? You will send your hips back?

Yeah. All the way. And drop your forehead down and breathe. So let's just establish a little bit of trust. I'm going to push you to your limits today, but we'll always go to a place of rest. Right? Well we'll work, work, work, work, work and then recover. And so enjoy this yumminess cause these kinds of things will be sprinkled in throughout the class today. Okay. Come on up. Let's see how we do on the other side. Spread the fingers.

Push into the fingertip pads. In fact, why don't we do that first? So lift the heels of the hands. Push into the fingertip pads. Yeah, Yup. And then lower down to the nut goes thumb, then lower down onto the wrist and find that sense of spiraling out. Take the right knee to the center and the left leg up. So adduct dre towards the midline. Look at it, but keep the height of the leg and then draw it away from the midline.

Instant and the whole time the legs staying up. Yup. And we're thinking a little protraction. So we're pushing our sternums up. You got it? Yeah. Nice.

So you've got this long lever of your leg and you're allowing it to sweep side to side, which is allowing your spine maybe an inch more of length and stretch. And again, this is a great exercise to incorporate in the beginning of your practice, especially if you are sitting a lot during the day. So finding that Lang through the lateral body is going to allow you to take a deeper breath and that's where we get our energy from right in this work. One more. I love adding the movement through the cervical spine too.

Bring the leg behind you, cross the knee, open the feet and allow the hips to go back. And maybe they don't meet the ground, but there's a sense of heaviness. Allow the head to drop. Good. Come back to your all fours position. I used to say when you're ready, come back. And then people never did.

So now I just say we're starting again. Okay, so spread the fingers. Good. I know you are getting a little tired and that upper body, so don't worry. I'll give you a break. Curl your toes under and lift your downward facing dog. Okay. Um, by break I mean something hard. I was joking. Take your right leg out to the sky. You're in a three legged dog.

Take your right leg through your arms into a lunge. Now it can take you six steps to get there, but I'd like your toes and your fingers to be about in the same line. Yeah, you can come right up onto your fingertip pads and use the power of your back leg to help you spring into a balance position. Good. And then the toes can go down and the leg goes back and you're in your three legged dog again. So you go through and forward light on the fingertips.

Spring, nice flat spine here. And then toes tap and you're back to your three legged dog and you've got three more. And if you would like to increase the challenge, the hands could come up, toes go down and you're in your three legged dog. Good step through back leg lifts and the hands could come up. Yeah, exactly. Hands down and three legged dog. And one more time. Step through.

There it is, yeah. In the chest. And step two, your three legged dog. Keep your three legged dog and bend deeply into your stabilizing knee. Your heel will lift. Stay here for a second and try to lift your back leg up even higher. Now this back leg is the key to this exercise.

The more you can extend it as hip, the easier it's going to be. Look at the space between your thumbs jump so you'll have to straighten. Jump off of your left foot. Little hop. Yeah, just jump. Yeah. And again. Exactly. Now as you begin to build confidence, you your jumps, make it bigger. Keep this back leg straight the whole time and up in your three legged dog. Yep.

Yep. Do you want to do a handstand? Oh, I'm going to spot you. And up there you go. And back down. And maybe you do a handstand. Yeah. Do you? Under a handstand. I'm giving away. Free hands. Hands. Good. And lower the knee down and sit back into child's pose. Good. Do you remember the theme was fun? Yeah, it is fun.

It's also very good fee in that version position, right? We feel that blood flow to the brain. Okay, let's do it again. Don't worry, you'll rest your wrist when you're in the balance position. Hands go down, good toes curl under, downward facing dog. And then you've got a three legged dog. Okay. And then step through and you're trying to align the toes with your fingers and it can be laid on those fingers now. And it's like a little spring. It's almost, you see how it's almost like that jump you were doing. So it's a little spring in your app to a t and then the foot goes down and you step back to your three legged dog. Good.

You step through and you're in your balance. Yeah. And then you step back and your knee, your three legged dog, and you can absolutely add, you can go at your own tempo, guys. You can absolutely. It's not like it's a video or anything. Um, [inaudible] you can absolutely add the arm lift. Yeah. And those little shakes and those little quivers are your body learning, adapting, being challenged.

But you're not falling. So you're meeting that challenge, right? Finding that recovery. Yup. One more good. And go to that three legged dog and then bend a lot in the standing knee like a lot. Yeah, that's part of that piece of the puzzle. And keep your back leg lifted and then look at the space between your thumbs on your mat and exhale, hop and feel your weight shift over your shoulders.

Exactly. Keep your back leg lifted. Go ahead. Let me just say that the likelihood of you doing a Cirque de Solei flip is low so you can give it a little more umph. I know you feel like you're going to flip. There you go. Little more umph there. Yes. Three more.

Make your last one your best one. Yep. And then lower the knees and sit back in a child's pose freely. God guys, I'll go into child's pose with you. That's not fair. Rebuild your spine and come on up. Okay.

How about some Polonius? Okay, good. Sway A. Swing the legs forward and take a seat towards the front edge of your mat. Uh, let's just kind of wake up the abdominals. Mobilize the spine a little bit more before we go into exercises like the hundred. Take your elbows down so your elbows are underneath your shoulders. I like to be in a palms. That position. Okay.

Flex the spine. So you're in a c curve. Think of the ribs knitting in towards the body and then take the legs up to table top position. Good. And let's just do some of our mat work here. Uh, were lifted up. So the neck is in a nice, comfortable position. Single leg stretch. So Sen one leg long and pause. We tend to bring a lot of energy and emphasis to that straight leg. But I want you to shift focus and think about the bent knee coming closer to you. Yeah.

And then switch and switch and switch and switch. Yep. And switch. Nice. And it's this reciprocal sort of bow and arrow pushing and pulling at the same time. Three more. Two and one. Now it doesn't matter what leg is straight, it's okay cause we're going to do both. The leg that's straight lifts up and lowers down five times.

That's one. That's two. That's three. That's four. Oh and five switch. It goes up. One and two and three. Yeah, four and five. Bend the knees and place the feet down. Very good.

Exercises like that make you really want to do a roll up. So go ahead and straighten those legs, feet or flex. Yep, you can take it all the way down. Reach the arms back, flex the feet, hug the thighs towards the midline. Push your big toes forward and pull your baby toes back. Inhale, lift the arms and lift the head. Look at the toes. But let's all take our arms low and on an exhale, flex the spine. Melt the ribs into the body, and take your time as you go up and over your thighs.

Take a second to let the shoulders melt down. Good. Inhale, roll halfway back. Good. Lifting the right arm only. So you're gonna feel a little bit more work on that side as you roll down. Try to stay in the center and then take both arms back. Let's do it again. Inhale, the arms float up and so does the head and we're going to lower the arms so we can focus on articulation. Exhale, skew to go all the way up and over. Yep. Inhale, roll half way back.

Lifting the left arm this time and exhale as you roll down. Trying to keep the spine straight. Yeah, and both arms go back. Now let's see how it feels if we roll up with one arm up. So keep our left arm back. Lift our right arm to the sky. Good. Flex the spine. Look at your toes so your right arm can go low, but your left arm is gonna stay bicep by the ears. Exhale.

Yeah. Inhale, roll halfway back. Good. Take the right arm up by the ear by set by the year that is, and exhale. Roll yourself down and now you can keep that configuration Rola. So lifting through the upper body, melting the ribs as you go over. Good.

Roll halfway back and the left arms up by the ear and rolling all the way down. Good. You've got two more to go and just play with that. If you'd like to feel more ava, a resistance, a physical challenge, then you can lift both arms at the same time. But the single arm variation is nice because we can feel that little weight transfer and now we how we have to work to feel our weight stains centered against this single arm left. Yup. I like to flex my feet. Yeah.

I just feel anchored a Dorsey flex that is, and I try to think of energy through my heels, especially during that roll down. Good. Yup. This is when things get serious. Okay, good. And take it all the way down. Yep.

Thanks guys. And then however the hands about six inches off the mat, palms down in preparation for the hundred but don't go there yet. And find your plantar flection. Good. Hug the inner thighs together. Good. Nod Your Chin while your head is still down. So just a little cranial Ritchie reflection. And then as one unit, the head, shoulders, and neck will come off the mat and Sobel the legs.

So inhale, get ready and exhale. Good. And then go back down. Okay, so this is not going to be a long hundred. It's going to be broken up with a um, exercise in between a combination. So let's try to keep our legs long and low. But know that you can modify with legs on the mat if you prefer. Nod Your Chin while your head is still down. Exhale is one unit. The legs float up and we pump.

Okay, one more time. Okay, good. Here's Combo. Arms down, head down and legs up. Yeah, overhead. Good. Separate the feet. Flex the feet. Don't go all the way down yet. Just halfway, just halfway. Mobilize that t spine and then exhale. Roll back up again. And you can look at your knees and your legs here and make sure that they're straight. Look at your toes.

Are they pointing straight down or kind of out to the sides? [inaudible] think about your sit bones pulling away from your shoulders. And now that we have a whole new renewed energy, we lower the hips, we lower the legs, zip up the legs, and curl up to the hundred position, pumping the arms, hold, arms go down. Head goes down, legs go up. Here you go. Yeah. Separate the feet and flex the feet. Maybe you can spread your toes.

Inhale as you roll halfway down. Think about pulling your seat away from your shoulders and exhale, roll back up. Yeah. Inhale, so trying to create length. Yup. Exhale. Banca and notice how strong you have to be in your arms, right?

They have to be active here. They're part of your foundation. An exhale app. Good role all the way down. Zip Up here, inner thighs. Lift the head, float the arms and pump the arms. This is your last part of the hundred. You won't see it again unless you do a second place class today.

Good ribs knitting down, hugging the inner thighs. Point the toys, toes. Reach to the fingers and hug the knees in towards you. Lower the head down, but keep the knees hugging in fun. Okay, let's continue to play. Nodding your chin towards your chest, curling into your abdominal flection. Good. Take the hands around and behind the head. Cool.

We sort of practice this already so it's not going to be new choreography. So then one leg strain. Yep. And we'll rotate towards the bent knee. Perfect. And we'll switch three times. So ready? One, two, three. That straight leg, lift it up and lower it down. And then we repeat. One, two, three.

That's straight leg lifted up and lower it down. Keep going. One, two, three and on. Two, three, one more. Each side and twist, twist, hold. Single leg lift and lower and twist. Twist. Whole single leg lift and lower. Had the knees towards you. Lower your head down. Life's good.

Kind of makes you want to do a handstand again, right? Not yet though. Not yet. Okay. We're going to do a double leg stretch combination so well hugging the knees in. Nod Your Chin, flex up, shoulders are down the back. You're right to the tips of the shoulders.

So coming into your double legs stretch or hollow body lever. Lift both legs up, lower both legs down. Circle around on the lift up higher. Yeah. Again, send it out. Lift them up, lower them down and circle, but try to lift up higher arms and legs. Reach away from the midline. Legs lift, legs lower and circles. One more time. Arms and legs. Reach away from the mid line. Legs up, legs down. Circle, scoop. Lower your head.

That's good. Excellent. When things get serious, it makes me want to roll or go upside down. We already went upside down, so let's roll. Roll to your tips of your toes. Okay. Coming into like a rolling like ball position. Uh, let's not use her arms though. Let's reach them forward. Flex the spine, drop the Chin and have her the toes. If there's hatching, let's roll back three times. Inhale and exhale. Yeah, one that's two and back. That's three. Now we're going to do this in slow Mo. The hands go down to the bat.

As you roll back and the bum comes up, you're able to now hold that position, right leg straightens. Left knee to the nose. It's like you're doing single leg stretch and an inversion and switch and switch and switch. Both knees come down, knees to nose, and you'll come back up through your rolling like a ball. And then we roll three times. So one, two and three hands come. You go back and now the leg that's going up, just pause for a second. Make that leg like a jack knife. Legs. Squeeze your button, come into hip extension, then switch, then switch and switch.

Knees to nose. As the buck goes down. My head goes up your in. You're rolling like a ball position. Good. Try that one more time. Three times. Roll back. They're smiling. One, two and three. We'll meet at the top. Hands to the mat. Roll back. Nice nose. Good.

Pause for a second. Okay, so the leg that goes up. Go ahead, pick your leg. Pause for a second. It's in hip extension because you're engaging through the glutes. Yeah. Not Cause you're propping yourself up onto your shoulders anymore. Switch legs.

Yep. Switch legs. Yeah. Even more hip extension. There it is. Strong arms switched legs. Yes. Needs to nose and roll. Huh? Rest your feet and open your knees. Oh Man. Good work. Okay.

So this next one is a called a butterfly bridge. And so I would sort of call these legs butterfly legs. That's kind of where the inspiration came from. So leave your legs in that turnout position and lie back down. Good. Yup. And you'll notice everybody's, um, flexibility here is different so you're not forcing it or anything like that.

Um, and I want your big toe mound of your feet to touch. It's almost like you're in a prayer position with your feet. Yeah. Good. Hands down. Exhale. Lift your hips up. Good. Yup. So you're pressing into the baby edge of your foot.

Lower your hips down a little bit and press up down a little empress up. So very different sensation. Then a flat footed bridge. When you press up, think about coming into post, steer your pelvis, tucking the tail and squeezing that glute map. Yeah. Float the arms up to the sky and keep doing your little down and up.

The emphasis is the up [inaudible] and see how it goes. If you felt the arms back behind you. [inaudible] and on the next one, keep the hips up and go into your flat foot bridge. Walk your heels a little closer towards you. Good. Take your leg into a tabletop position and leave the leg and table. And if you're finding this is uncomfortable with the hands up or back, then you can put them right down on the mat. Again.

Dip Your right hip lower than your left and turn your right knee out to the side or externally rotate and the hip doesn't need to touch the mat. Exhale, recover. So to recover, you need to push down through your left heel. Inhale, dip, and externally rotate. Exhale, recover. Inhale, death and exhale. Yeah, it's a lot of inner thighs on your stabilizing leg. Two can you feel that good? One more time. Good. Recover and hold. Let's all float our arms down so we have extra support. Pull your right field towards your bottom.

So just deepen that knee flection and lower the hips almost all the way down. And then we're going to do a cancan kick as we lift back up to a bridge five times. That's one. That's two, three, four, five. Send the bum downs in the feet down and open up the knees. Turn your palms up and you can feel, I call this Palladia Shavasana sometimes, right? We need a Shavasana to, um, you can feel how much your inner thighs and your obliques have to work to stabilize you. When you rest here, you can really feel as interclass and left leg. Let's keep the butterfly position. Push down into the arms to lift the hips up, good, little lower and then lift. So we're doing a second set of these.

Think of it as like sort of finding center. Again, finding your baseline, try flooding your arms up to the ceiling and see how that feels. And then maybe your arms float back. And then you can pick the arm position that felt best for you and go to your flat foot bridge. And you'll probably have to walk your feet a little closer towards your bum and then take your left leg to tabletop. And two things happen at once. You rotate in the pelvis, left hip down, and you externally rotate in the hip and then you recover.

And you lift up by pushing the right heel down. Inhale, dip. Exhale, lift. Good. Inhale diff. And exhale, lift. Good. Yep. And as you go down, just close these guys a little more yet and power through that right glue. Awesome guys. Yeah, because these guys, you got it.

Press down that he'll hold your recovery. If your arms aren't down on the mat, go ahead and put them down and then pull your heel to your bum. It's in deep flection and lower the bum almost all the way down to the mat. And exhale, spring up, hips and leg kick. Inhale, bend. Yep. Exhale, kick. Inhale, bend. You got this.

Couldn't so good. Kick two more and last time. Plant the foot, lower the bottom. Open the knees, turn your palms up and take a breath or two that just breathe. Awesome. Roll both knees to one side and let's flip onto our bellies. Our toes will be facing in towards the center. All good. [inaudible] good.

Yup. And scooch so that your head is going to be on the mat. Perfect. Okay. Take your fingertips underneath your forehead, palms down, and then separate the legs. The width of your mat and kind of feel with your toes. Awesome. Press your pubic bone heavy into the Mat and your asi es on both sides. So you're making the triangle. Close the ribs.

Draw the navel up on an exhale. Lift your whole upper body that includes your elbows and head and lift your legs. Good. On an inhale, straighten your arms, turning your thumbs up, and you can widen your hands. So you're kind of like a star on an exhale. Cross your forms again and take them back to your forehead and then lower the whole shape down. Inhale. So it's a four step process. Step one, everything's up. Step two, you reach it and you open it. You can even open your legs a little if that feels good on your spine.

Step three, as you bring the forms back to the forehead, step four is you lower the whole thing down and if you want to get really fancy, you can crisscross which forearm is over each time. Here we go. Oh, I was pointing to everybody. You just happen to be right here. So lift everything up. Shh. Stretch it. Long inhale. Bring it back to the forehead. Lower it down, lift everything up, stretch it long. Bring it back to the forehead and lower it down. One more time. Lift everything up. Stretch it long. Pull it in.

Lower it down. Sit back to a child's pose. Beautiful. Yeah. Or Shell stretch or whatever. For a bitch works best for you. Come back to a prone position and this time zip up your legs together. Curl your toes under you and bring your hands underneath your shoulders with your fingers spread. Keep your knees down to start and see if you can push your upper body up as one unit into a modified plank.

Okay? Yup. We're going there. Yeah. And then keep your body as one unit as you lower the whole thing down since your arms and legs away and swim for a count of five. One, two, three, four, five. Zip up the legs. Hands under. Now maybe this time your knees come up with you and you do a whole body lift, gut, and a whole body.

Lower arms and legs reach and you swim. One, two, three, four. Okay. Five hands under the shoulders. Whole body lift. Nice. Can stay down. It's your choice. Whole body, lower flutter, the arms and the legs. One, two, three, four. Okay. Five whole body lift. Everything up. Whole body, lower. This is a sneaky way to make people do pushups and swim and you've got only one more to do. Nice and whole body lift, downward facing dog. Lower your heels, soften your knees and walk your hands to your feet and slowly rebuild the spine. Coming back to vertical.

Good. I feel like we need to jump a little bit and shake things up. Yeah, so turns to your facing towards each other. Yup. And you guys can get kind of a little bit close to [inaudible]. You're going to come into a wide squat position. So I mean I would even widen my feet wider than the mat for me. Yeah, good. You'll send your hips back and your arms forward so you're in this squat position.

Nice. Once you have a child, you notice every hair, helicopter and airplane that flies by because I'm like, Oh red one good. Put your hands down. Just try to stay light on your fingertips. Hop your feet together, hop your feet wide and lift your arms back up and light. Fingertips together. Y and up again together.

Wide and up. Five more together and wide and up. Yeah, and four. And you guys can own your own tempo here. Three. Good. And to, and one good. Stay in your, you're going to do a jump. Turn 180 degrees. Okay.

I like to bring my hands into the center to do this. So you're in a low squat. You'll jump and you'll turn to face. Either way. I'm afraid to do on the raised mat. I'm going to try. Ready? Here we go. John. Turn. Whoo. Yeah. Ready? Jump. Turn. Yeah. Ready. Jump.

Turn there guy. Got Him. Ready. Jump. Turn for more. Yeah. Three, two. And we're all facing each other. That's one. Good step your feet together. Nice guys. Get set up your meet together. There's your arms up, I think of like a little chest expansion. Flex the spine. Touch the mat. Good. Walking the hands forward.

Okay, good. Come down onto your knees, rebuild the spine, and let's all turn to face means to you, a little bit of lateral flection rotation. So take your inside foot and step it long on your mat. Yep, exactly like that. Head and shoulders over the hips laterally. Flex towards the straight leg. And as you laterally flex away from the straight leg, lift the leg up and put the hand behind the head like your sidekick series. Push yourself up and laterally stretch and then float into your sidekick.

Two more. And you're at and you're down. One more and you're up and you're down. And now we're going to hold flex the foot lifted high, bring it forward, lifted high, bring it back. Four, three, two, one. Hold it up. Look down at your hand and take both hands down as you pivot and turn God. Keep that same leg up and you'll take the opposite elbow onto the mat.

So I have my left leg up. So my right, elbows on the man. Yeah. And then place that hand onto your other hand. An open to the side. And I like to point here. Yeah. And then think about doing cat with your spine as your knee comes underneath, knee to nose, and then listing the shape of the leg.

So flex and lift and flex and you are pushing a lot into that bottom. Elbow lift and flex and left. Yeah, a lot of shoulder girdle stabilization. Two more. Very nice guys. And lift the leg. Keep it straight, place it down.

Come on to the inside edge of the foot and transition into your side plank. Lift the hips up by pushing down into your bottom elbow and laterally flexing. Reach the arm to the sky and thread the needle. Focus on thoracic flection. Reach the arms to the sky. Hips come highers, you reach overhead and then you twist.

And if taking a knee down feels more appropriate for you, do it because you're still getting that movement through the spine and twist to come back to your plank and lower your hips. Separate your feet and you're in a mermaid and you earned it. Take your arms out to a t. Good. So lift your arms up as you rotate towards your legs and come back to a t. And then lift your arms up as you rotate away from your legs and come back.

And just think of this more of a posture exercise. Finding the length as you twist and up and towards the legs and away from the legs. Stay in this position and place the hands down and you might even come onto your elbows and forearms. Straighten your back leg. Good. Flex the foot and we're going to repeat the same side kneeling series that we did arc and go front arc and go back. You can come down on the elbows are can go front, arch can go back.

Very different sensation. Focus on the back, the friends easy cause those hip flexors wanna assess and see if you can make your arch a little higher up to go over two more. Good. And bring it in. Cross that ankle over. And I said it before, I'll say it again if you're not sure if it's working, just do that. Stretch right there. Good. Lift your chest up and cascade forward. Good. Rebuild the spine. Should we skip the other side?

Can you just hit rewind? No. Someone up to your knees. So we go to this long line. Yeah, we're creating movement length and space. We want more of that. And then they arms go to a tee and we laterally flex towards the straight leg, keeping the chest lifted and open. And as we go over to the other side, the leg lifts, we land light and we're getting ready for a side kicks. We're not there yet. And we come back over and [inaudible] in the head. Yep. And back over [inaudible]. And as you come up this time, think about your leg being the driving force.

So it's like your leg is wanting to lift up and that's it's taking you over. And one more time and then we'll hold the sidekick kneeling position. Flex the foot. So focus on this up arch to go forward. Up Arc to go back up to go forward. Up to go back. Good. Roll the shoulders.

Open three [inaudible]. Think of his abdominals as a cylinder three dimensionally and lower the foot down. Cross the other ankle and you are in your side plank position. Arm goes up. As the arm goes over, you lift the hips up, higher arm goes up and then you thread. But the emphasis here is flection and twisting rotation and flection in the t spine. So don't worry about the hips going up during the thread, the needle.

Think more about what's happening in the spine itself. One more time. Hips up when you reach over and then Kat and twist. Good. Go back to your side plank. Lower the hips and you're in a mermaid. Yep. Sitting nice and tall. Arms are to the t.

You might notice one side feels a little more restricted. Lift the arms as you twist to the legs and open and then lift the arms as you twist away from the legs and open and towards good and away. And one more of each towards and away from our legs. And then we're going to keep the spine like this, but put the hands down, straighten the leg and we can come down onto the elbows or keep the hands up and lift that leg. Foot flex. And we're going to try that same arc to go forward. Arc to go back, pulling the belly in. You're in rotation and extension the spine. Four more.

Three. Yep. Two and one. Crossed the leg over. Good. Lift the chest. Let the knees feel heavy and lean forward. It's feeling release serious again.

I love people. I take their Pilati seriously, but whenever I sense that then it makes you want to do something crazy. Can we do one more crazy thing before you guys go? Yeah. Okay. Pivots are you're facing towards each other and scooch back. Come onto your hands and knees. Okay. We're going to practice tripod.

The reason I love tripod is it's so empowering because you can do it. It doesn't have to be some big scary and version. You can do it and it's a great way to work the core to feel, hey, you have to draw up to find your balance. The great way to strengthen the neck and upper body and it's fun. Okay. And you can take a picture and put it on Instagram that year.

I do you to tripod. So put your head down onto the mat, crown of the head down, and then take your hands so they're underneath your shoulders. Uh, your risks, excuse me, are underneath your elbows. So you're making a 90 degree bend, spread your fingers, then curl your toes underneath you. Hey, can I just ask, have you guys done tripod before? No. No. And then did you do it? Okay, so no one's done it. So this will be a good experiment for how empowering it is. Okay. So here we go. I can do it and then straighten your legs and then just start to walk your toes towards your nose a little bit.

Okay. And then puts your one knee on one elbow. Okay. And then start to bend the other knee. Find that elbow and pull your bum or your fee up to your bum. Lower one foot down. Oh or the other. And lower the nice. I wasn't lucky. And you have to do it again. Did they do it excellent. Right? It's not as intimidating as people think. All right, well let's try it again then.

So the head crown of the head is down. Yeah. The very top part. And then see if you guys can adjust your hands so your hands are under your elbows. Good. And then lift your bum by straightening your legs. Yeah. And I'm going to say bring your hands under your elbows like this even a little more and you're gonna if you could do it last time like that, then this one's going to be easy. Yep. And then start walking your toes towards your nose and then take one knee onto an elbow.

And then the other [inaudible] and are, you can stay here, but you might even feel like you can shift your hips over your shoulders and lift your knees off your elbows. So think knees towards your belly button. Yeah, like, like feet to the sky. Like you're going to do a headstand. Oh, here you go. Yeah, you can do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, kid, you're ready to do a headstand. Good. Lower knee and set back into tiles post. Yes guys.

So what I mean by that is kind of getting this shift. When you're here, here, you're already there. Like do you see how close you are from there? To there, you're already there. And I think the only thing that would be stopping you is fear. Guys. Whew. So you did a mixed workout today, right?

There are some fitness in there. There's some jumping, there was some yoga, there's some [inaudible]. But what you did is work your whole body head to toe your heart. Ahh. You created space in your body and you created space in your mind. Whenever you do something that you've never done before or maybe something that you think you couldn't do and you're successful. I mean, that is such an empowering moment. Yeah.

Thank you for joining me at home. I hope you had fun to come back to this workout and you will get stronger and yeah, and then just keep on coming back. There's like 3000 videos on plays. Anytime. It's amazing. And then there's poetic or yoga anytime to, okay, thanks guys. Bye.

Advanced Mat Workouts: +40-Minute Classes

Comments

Z A
6 people like this.
Fun fun fun! Courtney can we have weekly fun classes☺️☺️🙏
I'm only 20 mins into this class and already commenting to say how much I love it!
7 people like this.
Courtney , you are awesome! Always fun, always challenging and innovative!
1 person likes this.
As usual, LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Thanks Courtney!
What a great class, so challenging, but still so flowing! I have to put in into my favourites right away. Thanks Courtney!
Pascale Perez
Fantastic class. It's always a plasure to see your class💚Thank you so much Courtney
Great! More please. More Courtney, more mat fusion 🙏
Love Courtney. Thank you from Bonnie Scotland 🙏
Connie H
Whoo - one of my favorite mat classes ever! Loved the core work combinations!
That was fantastic. Thank you Courtney. Love your combinations and ideas. So creative. xx
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