Class #3677

Jumpstart Mat

35 min - Class
265 likes

Description

If you are looking for a way to jumpstart your practice after time off, then this Mat workout by Monica Wilson is perfect for you. She uses the Magic Circle to help invigorate and wake up your muscles so that you can begin to feel strong and free when you move. By focusing on precision and technique, you will be back to yourself and ready to take any class!

This is the first of two classes in a series. When you are finished with these classes, you can follow up with this playlist that Monica created.
What You'll Need: Mat, Magic Circle

About This Video

Jan 31, 2019
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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Monica Wilson and welcome to my jumpstart Palladio's class with the magic circle. When you are able to stay disciplined with your [inaudible] work and practice it three times a week, your body feels invincible, free and strong. That's not always the case with life and that's okay. We might travel, get sick, indulge in the holidays, or get over committed with responsibilities. Today we are going to jump back into our mat work using the magic circle, two invigorating.

Wake up our muscles we so love to use in our [inaudible] work. Tomorrow we will use our re stimulated muscles to move freely and enjoy the same exercises with flow. After these two classes, you will feel back to your strong self again, ready to hit any Peloton playlists program or class you want to attack. So grab your magic circle and let's get started. We're going to stand at the front of our mat and we're going to work a little bit of standing footwork. So put your circle between the heels of your hands. Straight ahead, elbows up. This is going to be about an intermediate class, so not a beginner class, not a basic class, but trying to wake up all those muscles again.

So go ahead and Relevate or rise up onto the ball of your foot, drawing your powerhouse in and up, keeping those heels together weight forward, and go ahead and bend the knees over the big toes, keeping your spine long, tailbone to the floor, and then roll down through the heels in here as you're going to really use the outer thighs, inner thighs, lifting the arches, lifting your pelvic floor, your lower belly, all the way up to the back of your ribs and your chest and up to the crown of your head. You can't get any taller. Using the circle, you're going to pull the belly in as you press. Keep that high cross over with the foot and you're going to lower yourself down. Pull it in, keeping your height, lengthening your back, scooping in, practicing balance. And let's get ready for the hundred. All right, so put the circle to the side, lift your bottom back to the center, roll down your back, and let's go ahead and put the circle between your ankles and we're going to put your feet back on the floor. Parallel one hand over the other, behind your head. Take a big breath and exhale. Draw your belly in and you want to feel your pelvis nice and flat.

Tailbone down. Big Breath, trying to stretch your lower back by pulling your powerhouse into your lower back into the mat. On the next one, we're going to exhale and round up our head and shoulders. Big Breath. Exhale, and then taking a breath. Pull your belly and more come up. Higher. Big Breath. Exhale, squeeze, circle. So you're pressing a midline. Pool it over your knees, over your hips. Take a big breath, and then exhale. Reach your arms long. Rounding your spine from your powerhouse pump. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five.

Hundred

Pressing that circle with your magic circle, with your legs, with your inner thighs. You should be pumping. Inhaling for five. Exhaling, but most importantly, feeling very grounded in your powerhouse because you're squeezing that circle and pulling your belly into your lower back against that pressure pulling in and up to the back of your ribs. That's what rounds your spine for the last 30 we're going to straighten our legs using the hamstrings and glutes pumping and exhale in with the air and excellent, and one more round up. So Ben knees stretch yourself thin. Take the circle and sit up anyway you can and we're going to place a circle between your inner thighs for the rollback six times. We're going to start by sitting up tall, right over our sit bones. Press with the inner thighs. Wake those up, round your back by pulling your lower belly into your ways.

Roll Back

Stretching your back and we're going to try to exhale and round your upper back even more. Big Breath. Press your circle, pull the belly in and round your upper back, expanding the ribs and lungs. Take a breath, press the circle, draw your inner thighs, pelvic floor and lower belly to pull the waste back against your hands. Take a breath, pull your waist again, back against your hands as you come forward. One more like that. Press squeak. Press with the hips. Reach them that way. Try to find those muscles again. Take a breath, squeeze round your upper back. Forward the middle back, the lower. Good job again. We're going to go further prs. Stretch your hips that way. Scoop your belly this way.

Lower back is down middle. Touch the bottom of your shoulder blades. Inhale into the mat. Exhale, squeeze and draw the upper body forward. Middle and lower. One more press and exhale. Squeeze that circle down to the shoulder blades.

Take a breath and exhale. Rounding forward, pulling the belly always back, and now all the way down. Press and draw on your waist waistband first. Next bone. Next, we're learning how to stabilize our lower body in with the air. Stabilize it as you curl the rest forward.

One more time. Press. Draw everything in. Yeah, rolling all the way down and with the air press scooping in. Nice, stable, lower body. And now we're going to go down for single leg circles. Press with a circle. Squeeze your inner thighs, draw that pelvic floor, lower belly all the way down. Rest your neck nice and long. Remove the circle, but use it to stretch.

Let's keep our knees bent and we're going to put the right ball, the foot, and stretch the leg. Now holding that, let's work the back of the left thigh to go down the middle of our body if you can. If you're not flexible enough, you can keep the knee bent. And now I'm going to press the circle between my hands, anchoring the back of my ribs. Reach that right leg down and scoop it up with your powerhouse. Cross around, up, cross around, up to the circle. Up to circle, back of the thighs. You go down, stomach up.

Single Leg Circles

One more reverse, maybe a little out scooping in two, three more. Pressing my circles so I feel the opposition of my ribs staying stable. My upper body stable this time and hug the knee in. Place the foot down just bent. Bend the left knee. Press the circle on the left, ball the foot and straighten and stretch.

Once you get a lovely, use the back of your right thigh and glute to slide down the middle of your body. Releasing that hip flexor and we're going to hold a circle between the heels of our hands, reached the left leg long so we really release that hip flexor powerhouse up and cross around up to around Paz. Three around precision for around hold. Last one around reverse, around and up, back of the fight engages on the way down. Powerhouse on the way up three, I think this is last one, and hugging that knee. I'm going to leave that rolling like a ball right now.

We're going to get to that next class. We're going to put this foot down and do single leg stretch. Draw in the right knee, right hand on your ankle, left hand on your knee, pull into the mat and lift roundup your head for single leg stretch. Slide the left one straight. Reach it out and switch and switch.

Single Leg Stretch

Pooling your belly in and up. So we have no magic circle. We have no feedback for our body that has not been working very often. And we need to figure out what we're working. We'll get to it in a second. One more set, right and powerhouse. Left. Hug both in and rest down your neck as you grab your circle, put it between your ankles and we're going to put your feet down on the mat.

Great job. We're going to let ourselves really understand where we should be for the series of five. Your hands are gonna be behind your head. Okay. And I'd love for you to work towards having your pelvis just like this. Not tilted too much, not tilted the other way, but just where you can feel it nice and flat on the Mat. And you're using your powerhouse to pull and stretch into your lower back.

So taking a big breath, just like we started the hundred pool in. Yeah. And round up. If you tilt it untilt take a big breath and exhale. Scoop in more and higher. So using your powerhouse, let's come up just a little more [inaudible].

Do what you can and then stay there. Draw the knees in by squeezing that circle. Stay here. Reach the legs away. Pull in, staying here. Squeeze that circle out. Squeeze that circle and now reach your arms long to your ankles.

Extend the arms as the legs. Squeeze out. Circle with energy back. Pull the belly against the circle and your belly is going to pull in and up against the circle and squeeze the inner thighs. Trying to stabilize that lower body. Press the hips. That way we have one more. Okay.

Double Leg Stretch

And lower the circle in your head and we're going to make sure we get back up where I was just saying when we do single straight leg, so pull your belly in and up. Big exhale. [inaudible] and then extend both legs. Grab behind. You're right. I'm still too far this way. I'm going to lower my left leg and I'm going to take a breath and I'm going to come up higher. That's where my weight should be. Here we go. Switch. So try to keep your tailbone, the weight a little on your tailbone, reaching, reaching, reaching, scooping, scooping. Three, two more. How are we doing? Last one. And Ben, the Nice, grab your circle going to put it between your ankles for double straight leg bend in the knees, hands behind your head, one over the other. Again, we're going to put your feet flat to get right into the right position.

Single Straight Leg Stretch

Taking a big breath. Exhale, draw the belly in. And the same needs to be for Chris Cross. Take a big breath and come up a little higher. When we don't work out much, we can get stiff. We're going to pull the knees in. I might be a little stiff right now and we're gonna extend the legs.

Take another breath. I still don't like how high I am. I'm going to pull in and come up so my weight is more forward. Pressing the circle reach and squeeze it up and reach and squeeze it up and rich and squeeze it up. Let's reverse that. We're going to squeeze it down and pull up and squeeze a town and pull it one more and now bend the knees and come up, up, up and twist to that right knee. Come Center, stretch forward. Pull and up, up come center. Stretch forward. One more set. I'm feeling it. I'm sure you are. And stretch forward. Draw it in.

Double Straight Leg Stretch

Last one over to the left knee. Again, stretch forward. Pull in. Whew. Nothing like this. Series of five with the magic circle. Let's go ahead and sit up any way you can. Let's use a circle for our spine. Stretch forward. Arms straight ahead. Heels of the hands on the circle.

Criss Cross

Pull your belly into your back. Find your sit bones says awareness today so that we can wake everything up. Lifting off your seat, draw your belly, and in all the way up to the crown of your head, press with your arms. Curl the body down. Exhale, exhale, exhale. Release a circle and roll up. Yeah, stacking your spine. Exhale down. Squeeze in the circle.

Spine Stretch Forward

Pull those toes back and relax it as you draw the belly into your lower back, up to your middle, up to your upper, back, up to the crown of your head. Now we'll do two's not squeezing on the way down. Okay, and you're going to squeeze. And what do you get from the magic circle? Can you feel how much deeper you have to pull in as you come up and one more exhaling, no squeezing here. Let's see what happens when you squeeze it and now you just feel the arms who feel your belly pulling against it into your body, supporting your spine and relax. We're going to do open leg rocker with it.

Now you might wonder why I didn't want to do a rolling like a ball, but I'm doing open like rocker and it is kind of silly, but I like the feedback that the circle gives you. Maybe you can only hold behind your knees. Maybe you could hold behind your cast, but we're going to draw the belly in, pull the waist back and extend the legs with the magic circle. There we go and we're going to just lightly press so that you draw those inner thighs, lower belly rock back and exhale, expanding the rips, lift, lift, lift, and FY more in with the air and exhaling. Really try to feel the connection of the inner thighs, pelvic floor and lower belly to start. Exhaling on the way up.

Open Leg Rocker

You're rounding your upper body three more. Okay. It's easier when I don't talk and two more. You're going to squeeze? Yeah. To engage that Paris. Last one. Really exhale on the way up.

Press, Huh? And now stay here with the circle and try to roll down the lower back. Press evenly. Okay. We're ready for corkscrew. Press your arms down and let the legs fall to the right. Pull your belly into the mat as it goes. Left and center.

Corkscrew

Squeeze. Pull your belly in and center. Feel what that circle is helping you invigorate and re-stimulate. One more step press. I feel my inner thighs when maybe you don't normally in cork. Screw. I can feel my seat. Definitely my powerhouse. Nice job.

Bend the knees. Take the circle away. We'll leave it out for saw today in with the air. Set up. Any way you can. Feet go out and arms out at shoulder height. Lift off your seat. Pull your belly in, twist to your right. Open those collarbones and exhale, lifting in the waist, lifting in the waist, lifting in with the year, twisting with those nice open collarbones. Delicious. Exhale, lifting in the waist, pulling up, up, up, up, and try not to collapse. Reach for the corners.

Saw

Show me every muscle in your arm and exhale [inaudible] and in with the as a breathing exercise, we're going to twist and exhale. Squeeze out all those toxins of whatever you've been doing lately, whether it was your sick, whether it was a little more partying, whatever it was. Just exhale it all here. [inaudible] in with the air. We're going to do bridge and then we're going to flip over onto our belly. I really want to do a little bridge here so that you know what to feel when you're flipped over onto your belly.

Bridge

So put the circle between your inner thighs and I want you to have your feet just hip with the part, not wider like your shoulders. Can't see my feet, but hopefully that's where they are. Pelvis is again flat and I want you to put your hands right where your thigh hits your seat. I want you to create a dimple here. Okay. We want to shape our buttons here, so we're going to press with the inner thighs. We're going to scoop in our lower belly against that circle into the mat.

You should really feel that, have that feedback and you're going to curl your tailbone towards you. Not using tight hip flexors, but using these muscles right here and then you're going to keep lifting your seat up using these muscles, using these. I want you to imagine you're lying down on your belly, on your pelvis, on the mat, and you're super straight and we're going to do 20 pulses, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. I hope your belly hasn't scooped like this in a long time. Really feeling it. Four, three, two. Hold it tight.

Watch how I roll down my ribs, not my bottom, and then the shoulder blades and then the middle back waistband. And finally my tailbone. We're going to do that one more time again, pretending we're lying on our belly. We're going to press the circle and use these muscles to curl. K, really deep stomach here. Lift using these muscles. Once you have them, you can push down and lift up even higher. And 22 three, four, five, six. So I'm trying to create a straight line from my shoulders to my knees because if I was lying on my belly, I'd hopefully be a straight line three, two, one. Now hold, and you're going to melt down meltdown one bone at a time.

Stay right where you are. I just want to demonstrate what I want to envision on the mat. So if I lift it up but not quite up to the ceiling, then it'd be like my, there'd be a tunnel under my pelvis when I'm lying on the mat. What does that look like? So press curling towards me. You can do it with me or not curling up. So ideally, if I was lying on the mat, I'd have be pressing through the mat right here with these muscles.

But if I wasn't really using this to the most degree, there'd be a little dip, whether it was from my chest, whether it was because of my bottom. But when you're lying on your stomach right now, you're going to progress into the mat from these muscles and support your lower back with your powerhouse. Let's flip over. So we're gonna put the circle aside for a second. Hug the knees and turn on over onto your belly. For neck. Rural hands can go either right under your shoulders if you're super, um, flexible otherwise, a little forward or a little out.

Draw the shoulder blades. Here's what I'm talking about. Press. Try to find the back of the thigh and the seat, making a little dimple and I want you to press into the mat and you're going to pull your belly in. I knew how to use those muscles to help liberate your neck. Liberate your upper back, upper back. Pull it up, circle the head freely to the right around to the left and far reverse. Cool. And forward and roll. Coming down, stretching your spine.

Neck Roll

I want to say roll because it's, you're coming down one at a time. One more. Again, regain that dimple work. These muscles. Maybe you feel your pubic bone pointing and pressing into the mat. Pull the belly in and we're going to come up because that strength allows our neck to move freely, allows our collarbones to open. We're going to look left this time and then we're going to circle keeping our shoulders in place. Look right and look forward.

Look right around left and for now. Lengthen out of that tight bottom and come on down. We're going to grab your circle and we're going to work our chest muscles for single leg kick. Too many times we collapse and then we don't get enough out of our lower body because we've done this with our upper body, which doesn't let our bottom or quads or hamstrings work enough. So we're going to put the heel, the elbows right onto your shoulders.

We're going to pull, press your pubic bone down again into the mat. You're going to pull your belly in. Now I'm going to roll up in my shoulders, press the circle and use all of that to lift. Holding your upper body like this. Lift both legs up at right to left too so you get more out of your hamstrings, more out of your bottom, your glutes. If you can stabilize the upper body, try to squeeze the inner thighs right by each other, right by each other.

Single Leg Kick

Right by. Let's do one more set, right and left and relax. Now we're going to put it between our ankles and I won't be able to talk too much or explain too much when my cheek is on the mat because it'll sound too loud in your ear. So, um, do you remember to keep this pressing into the mat? Your stomach supporting your lower back so that you can create nice, strong hamstrings and glutes. All right, so we're going to do a little choreography. We're going to put the circle between her ankles. Okay. It's a little different than the standard double leg kick.

Double Leg Kick

So try to stay with me right cheek on the mat. Press lift, pulling. Okay, now squeeze those inner thighs. To squeeze a circle. Press your pelvis down. I want you to try to see if you get any freedom in the neck, in the shoulders because you're using your lower body to stabilize switch cheeks. [inaudible] pulling in, pulling in, pulling it. So we're going to switch cheeks. Press down.

Now I want you to press the circle with your inner thighs. Keep the glutes pressing down as you lift the legs. Squeeze a circle into your bottom, squeeze it as you link out and pull up up with freedom and the upper body. One more time on the left, okay, and up. Up, up, and we're going to take the circle away to the side. Round your back. Always scooping in your belly and stretch. Okay, turning around. We're going to do neck pull, doing it a little different here.

We're going to place it in between our inner thighs and we're going to sit up tall. I haven't done this one a long time. Not a favorite, I have to say, but it's important. Always revisit things and learn from what maybe you need to learn more about. Okay, so we're going to sit up tall. Press with those inner thighs, give feedback in her thighs, pelvic floor, lower belly, and we're going to lift tall. Fill your waist, pull up to the back of your ribs, out the crown of your head, hinges back, and then curl the rest down and we're going to end with the air squeezing. Exhale, scooping in. Touch the forehead. Inhale, sit up tall, releasing the circle. Press.

Neck Pull

Use it to pull your belly in an up hinge, hinge, hinge, and curl the rest. Now one more like this. Press draw the belly in using those inner thighs. Inhale, sitting up tall. Press again, hindering back and curling down. Here's why I don't love this. Put your hands behind your head and press with those inner thighs.

MMM. Exhaling all the way forward. Much harder with your hands behind your head. Lift up tall, releasing press and let's hinge back. It feels good though. That's the neck pull. Curling down. One more. Okay. Inhale, sitting up. Tall press. I want one more.

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Okay. Make sure you breathe. Okay. That's it. That felt better and press.

And so you're really trying to learn how to stabilize with the lower body to get more out of your upper body. Let's do our sidekicks lie on your right side. Circle between the ankles. There we go. Lying long than bend the elbow and stack up your hips. Turning out, scoop your belly and maybe even lift your right waist a little bit as you press.

Side Kicks

Two, three, four, five release. I'm going to put my hand right here because I'm not feeling much scooping in. Now I'm giving my body messages, keeping in and release. Make sure you're not pressing with the foot, but you're using the outer thigh, the inner thigh powerhouse in and up for good posture. Release a little choreography. You're going to rock back a little.

Bend the bottom leg, slip it in, bend the top leg, slip it in both hips, stacked outer thighs. Pull your belly in and stretch it. Three, two, one release. Five count. Stretch, pulling in, stretch through whore. Three, two, one release. Don't hike up your hip like I just did. Use right here, right here. Just stretch right here. All right, and now we're going to press down, rock it back, put it between our ankles. I did not like that, so I'm going to adjust it. All right, and we're going to be rolling onto our belly. And guess what? Same thing what I was talking about with the bridge, pressing down your pubic bone, your pelvis into the map by using your hamstrings and glutes supporting your lower back with your belly. Let's go ahead and squeeze the legs together. Lift him up with your waist. Roll onto your belly.

Small pillow for your forehead. Many beats. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine, ten one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Hold roll to your other side. I hope that wasn't too loud into your ear and we're going to bring the legs a little forward. Stack your hips up, one over the other turnout, both legs. Pull your belly into your back. Can lengthen your neck to press. Five, four, three, two, one release.

Pull the belly in and squeeze. How's that stable lower body going? Add one more. Pull it in and squeeze. Okay. And release. Rocket back a little bit. Pressing with the top leg. Bottom leg. Slips it over. Okay, Bob, top blank.

Here we go. Scoop in your belly. Use that outer thigh and stretched to three, four, five. Release the bottom legs. Working to use the outer thigh to press down as the top one presses up. Release. And one more time. Very nice job.

We're going to press down, rock it back. Put the circle between our ankles. All right, we are going to creatively lie back on our back. K, put the circle right between four teaser. Okay. Scooping in your belly. I want you to squeeze the legs forward and trying to use here.

Teaser

Reach your arms back. I'm gonna probably press my legs down as I roll up. Take a big breath and exhale to come up. Okay. Because this is about where I should be using these, releasing these scooping in role in a way two more. It's a lot easier when you're in the right position. Find that feedback.

Pull in against that circle one more. Okay. This is your seal position as well and how'd your knees then? Very nice job. We're going to sit up for seal and after six seals we're going to rock up and stand up. Taking a big breath and exhale.

Seal

Maybe bring yourself a little bit forward and let your knees open. You're going to put your hands underneath your ankles, so I want you now to find feedback from your hands because you don't have a circle. You're going to pull your ways back against your hands like you did in the roll up. Keep pulling back until your feet just come with you and your lower back stays round six times. Here we go. Clap. One, two, three. Draw your belly against those feet.

Maybe pull on your feet as you lift your head. Pull against them and exhale and stretch your upper body. It should be a massage for your back. All rolling should be a massage tomorrow in with the air. That's hell on this last one. Let go.

Cross your ankles. Push into the mat for feedback. Always feed back. Let's grab our circle to finish up. So on the next class we're going to finish with pushups. You're going to be in a plank position. Want to give you a side profile? Playing position should look just like you're standing. Great Posture, arches lifted inner thighs lifted pelvic floor, lower belly up to the crown of your heads on the front, on the back.

Standing arms w/Magic Circle

Your hamstrings and glutes are like pressing into the mat that we talked about today. Releasing your neck. Good. And then your hands would be forward underneath your shoulders in a pushup position, right? So let's start here. Pull your belly in as you squeeze for five, four, three, two, one release. Again, pulling in. Squeeze. Two, three, four, five, release. Keep your collarbones open. Two, three, four, five, release. Let's lift up the arms. Challenge it, pull it in. One, two, three, four, five. Release, squeezing and pulling in. Two, three, four, five. Release. One more time. Lifting up. Still thinking about our plank, or push up. Let's come down a little bit lower. Nothing changes in. Pull it in. Squeeze.

Two, three, four, five. Release. Pulling it in. Squeeze. Two, three, four, five. One more time. Pulling in. Use those muscles and put it behind you for a little opening. Chest and tricep work. Pulling in a little roll. Open your shoulders. Lift your chest from your powerhouse. Squeeze. Two, three, four, five. Release. Pulling in and squeeze to the four. Five. One more time. Pulling in. Squeeze.

Two, three, four, five. And now for the ultimate feedback, we're gonna rise up onto the ball of our foot pumping eight counts. Here we go. Pump. One, two, three, four. Your whole bite should be remembering how to be tone, how to work the back of the legs, how to work the bottom. How do you use your powerhouse for balance? And three more. One, two, three, four. I want to see your pushups like this tomorrow. So easy to stay in a nice straight line or a piece of steel.

Two more from your head to your heel. Four, five, six, seven, eight and dash two three four, five, six. One more time. Don't use your calves to come up. Use your hamstrings. Use Your glutes. Hold your balance with your powerhouse and a counts down light as a feather back down on your heels. Almost stretching your lower back to do so. Great job today. See You tomorrow to work with flow.

Rhythm and Dynamics: Beginner Mat Workouts

Comments

2 people like this.
Thanks Monica! You read my mind. Just returning to fitness routine after our Australian summer break.
Julie Lloyd
1 person likes this.
A great class with awesome instruction :)
2 people like this.
Great class! Really enjoyed it! Thank you
1 person likes this.
Perfect instructions; easiest way for reminding one how to use their muscles as the exercise requires ...thank you Monica
2 people like this.
Great class! Thank you!
Trini Baez
Para cuando subtitulos?
1 person likes this.
Trini ~ Unfortunately this class does not have subtitles. Here are all of the videos where they are included. We hope to add more to this list in the future.
1 person likes this.
Another great class to get me going again after sporadic practice recently. Hadn’t realised how tight my hammies and back had become. But also a shorter class to hit all the favourites for busy weeks I think.
1 person likes this.
Really liked this class Monica! I liked your clear cues nothing too much Super thank you!
Hi Monica,
Loved this, haven’t seen class 2 yet, did I miss something?
1-10 of 22

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