Class #385

Fundamental Mat

55 min - Class
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Description

Pilates Anytime Welcomes Pat Guyton to the studio! This distinguished instructor uses her experience to help us understand the nuance of the fundamental Mat exercises. Enjoy Pat's varied cues that will encourage precise movement patterns resulting in more effective work.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Mar 02, 2011
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So I would like everybody to start standing and start facing me. And then if you could just stag yourselves a little bit so you can see me comfortably. So everybody should be able to have a good view. And we're going to start with our feet a little bit under our hips. So they're opened wide. We're not going to do the V or anything. This is just some organization that I do probably Amy does too.

But let's just review it. So put your hands on the top of your hip bones and we could name what they are, but even if you didn't know it doesn't make any difference. And when I was growing up, people used to say, put your hands on your hips. And so I did, and I sort of thought these were my hip joints, but they're not. So this is the top of your pelvis. And then if you walk around to the front, you'll find a little bump.

And sometimes I joke and I tell people it's the front as hip as Bumpus. Okay, it's called your ass, but you don't need to know that. And then down at the bottom, your two pelvic halves meet and that's called your pubic synthesis. And if we were to connect those three dots, what geometric shape would we have? That triangle? So that's easy for us to organize in terms of keeling because everybody in this room has probably had an experience with the triangle. Yes. Good.

So when I say I'd like the triangle to be vertical or in the same plane as the wall, or if I want it to be horizontal in the same plane as the wall, but in a sidewards position, we all know what we're talking about. Okay. And then we're going to find our hips. So just walk up the side of your legs periodically. You may want to do this for yourself. If you put your thumb right on that big bone, that little bump there, and then point like you're going to point at something, bring your fingers in.

And isn't it amazing how really close into the pelvis is our hip joint. All right, so I think your hip joint, um, you're a small person, but I bet yours are there. And so let's do a little bend and keep your hand here. So just spend, feel your hip joint. When we get to the single leg circle, it's going to be really important that we know where that hip joint is because the hip joint is what does the single light circle. Yeah, not the foot. That's why it's called a single leg circle, not a foot circle and down and up. And one more. Down and up. And let's just take the Scapula, the shoulder blades on the back. Just lift them up, warm them up a little, and press them down and lift up and down.

Now we don't have to exaggerate this. All we have to do is just notice the movement so that if I give you a cue such as, feel your shoulders sliding down your back, then you'll understand what that means. And then let's just spend again and come up the shouldered and down and bend at the hip joint and think the scapulas sliding up, sliding down and bend, and you are allowed to breathe in my class and then, and take a deep breath in. Exhale, inhale, and exhale. So let's come to the side of our mat. And would you prefer, I think I'm going to stand sideways. So let's just come to the end of our mat. Bring the arms up over the head, bend your knees and roll down and come to a rolling in a rolling back position from this position. Take a deep breath in and on the exhale, feel the long length in your back.

And occasionally I will get up and move around. Please stay where you are and take a deep breath in and then lengthen from the tailbone all the way through the neck. Looks Gorgeous. And one more. Inhale and exhale. Good. Put your hands behind you. Come down to the mat and then roll all the way down.

So we're going to find the infamous plop. Is there anybody in here that doesn't know what a plop is? Everybody knows what a plop is. Good. So you don't know. Great. Alright. It's hard sometimes to find the back end of the triangle in the front of the hip because the bottom triangle is actually not as flat as the front.

So bend your knees up, put your heels under your sit bones. And then if this is a very scientifically hard and difficult maneuver, it will take you 22,000 years to Ma, uh, to master this. Yes. Are you ready to try? Yes. Okay. So all you're going to do is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Alright, are we ready? And plop. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, hold. You don't get eight, you only get seven.

And you'll notice as you're plopping, we'll do it again. That you begin to feel a spot where you land. Now this is all science-based research has a lot to do with something called neuroplasticity, which means, uh, what we think and what we feel can be changed. Uh, and there's a reciprocity. If I think something new and I feel something new than I think, something different, etc. Etc. So I want you to feel for that plop and plop. Two, three, four, five, six, hold. Now, that little spot, when I say I want you to stay on your plop, that's what you feel.

And the reason you know where it is now is because we stimulated it by plopping it, which is a fancy, uh, which is another way of saying appropriate susceptive neuromuscular facilitation, feeling something gives us an experience so that we can reproduce it within the exercise sequence. If you at any feel like you need to Plop, we'll all know what you were doing on the, on the tape. So bring your legs up and lift them straight up in the air or keep them tabletop, whichever feels best to you. Stay on your plop as you lift head, neck and shoulders. Lower your legs down. And here we go for the one hundreds and inhale, three, four, five out, two, three, four, five [inaudible] four [inaudible] long necks [inaudible] last one. [inaudible] now listen carefully. Put your feet down, feeling the Plop, and then feel your scapula and roll your neck all the way down and put your head on the floor. Take your arms, lift them up, place them over your head on an inhale, arms come up.

Your feet can also flex. If this feels uncomfortable, don't worry about it. And all the way up on an exhale. Inhale, feet can point x sail and roll down. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. One more. Inhale, exhale. Now stay right there on your exhale. Feel like your back of your neck, your vertebrae are part of the roll up. Feel that length.

Now try to roll down through the back of your spine, keeping your neck long until the last minute. Roll down, roll down, roll down, roll down. Next are still long and then the neck reaches out and the head comes back. Bring the arms up and over to the side of the body. Feel your plop. Bring your legs in. I have new shoes and they keep coming off my feet and lift up.

Now we're going to do the rollover lift up and over. Open and flex, rural down and point and together live from the tailbone up and over. Open n flex roll down point and together and up and over. Open end, flex. Roll down and point and close.

Now open the legs out mat width. When you go up and over, really feel the tailbone taking you up and over and up from the tailbone and over. Bring your legs together and flex. Roll down. Keep your neck long and point and open up and over together and flex [inaudible] [inaudible] and point and open and bring the legs back together again. And let's all agree to lower our left leg. Good. Feel the triangle flat on the front of the pelvis.

We're going to start across, we're going to do five across and the rhythm is going to be circle. End Up ready. N Inhale, end up two and up three and up four and up five and up six and stay. I'm sorry, but I needed to look at all the legs and then I want you to lower and it change. Go ahead and lower the leg and change. Yes, we're going to come back to the opposite side. Now I'm going to give you an image. Put a pencil on your foot, draw a circle on the ceiling. Is that an image that everybody can imagine?

All right, so we're going to go across six times and circle and around circle on the ceiling circle and around circle and around triangle stays, flat, bottom leg and hold and lower your leg and go to the other side. Now I'm going to give you a different image. Instead I would like you to put a tiny pencil on the bottom of your hip joint. Right about here and on the mat you are going to draw a circle. All right, and we're going to go to the outside.

Now Circle and around circle and around three and round four and round five and around and six and around change legs. Was that a different image for you? Did it give you a different outcome? Yeah. Yeah. What did you feel that you liked? You felt the hip joint good. She gets a star. She's she, she, I told her to say that. Okay, so do you want to do it again on the other side now? Okay. An outer round and up to around and up.

Three around and up. I see a lot of hip joints. I'm getting very happy. And the last one and up and put your legs down from here. I'd like you to around and just curl into the rolling back position. Take a deep breath in and on the exhale before you roll back, just pull the triangle into your lower back and another inhale and pull it back.

And here we go five times in. Inhale back and exhale up. Inhale back, exhale up. Inhale back, exhale up. Don't be afraid to get your sit bones on the ceiling. That's it. Up and hold.

Now occasionally we have to stop and look at something. If I were a wheel and these were my shoulder joints as I go back, I'd like my hip joints to be on the ceiling and then sit bones to floor, sit bones to ceiling. I don't have to put my head on the mat to do that, so let's try to have those. Take a chance and see if you can get your sit bones up, ready and roll back and come up. Good. Roll back. A new challenge.

Would you say a new challenge and hold very good from this position? I'm going to be doing the right leg. So you're going to stick your left leg out to the front. Lengthen it out, roll all the way down. Now from here we're going to do, we're going to think about our plop. Keep our plop down. Bring your knee, your right knee all the way in.

Do you feel your plop? Huh? Anybody alive? Okay. Bring your knee up so that it's over your hip joint. Do you feel your plot more or less? More. So the PLOP is actually the center of gravity of the pelvis. So what we're gonna do is we're going to think about pulling our chest toward our knee and the rhythm is going to be one, two, three, four, ready, and one, two, three, four, five, six, another eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, left leg in.

Keep the PLOP and come in. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Right leg up and change. Think of your hip joint. Think of your plop. Shoulders are pressing down your back.

Thicks seven a hand up and flex. Hands behind. Reached down and up and down. And up. Now a little challenge. Flex, flex and up. A beat, a beat en up. You have to use sure. Triangle upbeat of B and up and come in and hold.

So you're going to take your elbow and put it on the floor and then your elbow to the other side and think elbow to the floor. Switch. Good. And switch and switch. Good and switch. Now we're going to do the same thing that we did. You can take a rest for a minute that we did with the lower leg lift and anybody feel the beat beat? Yeah.

What did you have to do on the beat bead which bloodies per principal into really control. Yes. Be beat and up. So we're going to do the cross with the bead speed. B, B faith. One, two, three, four. Ready and wait. Feed fee, fee, fee, fee, fee, fee, fee, fee. That's it. Feel the twist in your body.

Last set and finish and legs in body long. Open up your feet mat with and let's roll up all the way up so that we're already in the spine. Twist as fine. Stretch position and reach forward. Inhale and exhale and back up. Inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, roll up. Exhale. Remember the neck. Keep going is part of the spines of feel the neck long and come all the way, uh, and hold. Bring the legs in and reach out and rolling back one and lift two and hold it three and up and four and up. And stay for a minute and put your feet down.

Some of you don't have your leg fully stretched out yet or maybe you have a longer leg. So let's try it with the hands either slightly above or slightly below and a place where you can straighten. See if you can do to like that and roll back and lift and back and lift. Hold that position. Bring the legs together and roll all the way down and bring the legs in and up and roll all the way over into the rollover position, the corkscrew. And we're going to stay within the confines of our mat.

So your legs are not going to go over the side of your mat and right side down. Roll around, lift up and little left and the left around to the right and the right around to the left and the left around to the right and the right around to the left and the left around and hold that position and roll down slowly. Slowly feel the length in your neck. That's it. Feel your scapula into the mat. Lower your legs all the way down.

Lift your head and come all the way up. Open your legs out and arms out for the Saul. So I'd like you to turn and face me. Good. So everybody is turned and faced me and that's really nice. However, I've taught you how to do this exercise from the outside.

So now I would like you to come back this side of the room. We'll be doing left scapula. This side of the room will be doing right scapula. As you turn, you're going to think of your scapula pulling towards your back in the direction to which attorney. So let's do that a couple of times coming toward me and the scapula turns you, and then it releases. Now go to the other side, the Scapula and release, and the Scapula and release, and the Scapula. Now the saw with a three count saw, add scapula, one, two, three.

Inhale and exhale, two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale and exhale two, three and come back to the center and coming around onto your mat and up onto your elbows. Now from this position, before we do rocking, what we're going to do is do a little prep work. So once again, find the little bumps at the front of your pelvis.

Put your hands just to the outside of your shoulders. Think about lifting your chest and this front, two little bumps your Asi s think of lifting them off, but your pubic symphysis stays on the mat. And then imagine that between those two bumps, it's like a hammock. And you're going to get that hammock. Well strong. So when somebody sits in it, their buttocks don't fall to the deck. Yeah. And then come all the way down. So this is going to be an inhale up.

Inhale, exhale, inhale and exhale and inhale. Good. And exhale and inhale. Good. And exhale and down. Push. Cross your hands over, puts your head, your forehead, right on your fingertips. Now I'd like you to just try to lift both thighs off the floor in this position.

Thighs up at good and thighs down that looks lovely. Ladies and thighs up and thighs down. Feel the muscles in your lower back and your buttocks and your hamstrings. Working and thighs up and thighs down. So starting from an up position, I have chest up, then thighs up and we'll do it five times. Starting with an inhale.

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and come back up and bring the arms. And from this position, think of the sternum as being flexible. It actually is flexible, has three joints. So as I come up, I think, wow, I'm going to really bend my sternum, pull my shoulder blades down and together slightly. Put my pubic synthesis on the mat and lift everything up. So my hammock is working. And then I'm going to take my right leg and bring it Ian without dropping.

So it's B beat and down. One, two and down. One, two and down one, two and down. One, two and down. One, two and down and the last one and down and come all the way back down. So from here, just let your nose be about one inch off the floor. Lift your arms up, soldier blades down, chest up and release and arms up, shoulder blades down, chest up. Good release and arms up, shoulder blades down. Lift your arms up as you come down.

Somebody use this body for a minute. Just watch the come up. The shoulders come down. If the chess lifts, the arms are not going to be on the buttocks. If they were, you see how the chest goes down. So when we do the double leg kicks, we want to get our arms back and a little bit up, more up than maybe you think, and then come down. So if everybody will lay down on the mat and let's turn the right cheek. Let's turn the cheeks toward me for the sake of the yeah, and bring your hands high up the back.

Let your elbows reach for the mat that opens your scapula. Take a deep breath in, and then three beats. Inhale beat two, three and up. And one two. That is your exhale. Inhale and exhale, two, three. Inhale and exhale, two, three, inhale and last one, exhale two, three.

And let everything lengthen out long on the mat. And then bring your hands in. I want you to think about this one as you lift up to go into what's called the child's pose. I want you to put the elephant into it. So your belly lifts, your tailbone goes under and you feel a deep scoop as you go back into that rest pose. So lift up, bend your knees, rule back, pull your belly in, pull the elephant tail down. Round round round. So we're not really resting.

We're actually working on our belly and lengthening our back. That looks really good. And then come up and turn yourself forward on your mat. Bring your arms up so they're behind your head. And we're going to do a neck pool, but we're going to do the neck pole in a series of sequences.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is feel the back of your neck. That's called Juris Epitol Ridge or just the ridge at the back of your skull. And as I'm up here, I'm going to think about just my fingers lengthening my neck, my spine is processes and my neck and I'm going to roll down, roll down, roll down that, we'll do that on a full breath. And then starting from my tailbone, I'm going to roll up, but I'm not going to be too eager to get my neck up over the top of my head. So let's do that first and inhale and exhale and a full breath up.

Inhale and exhale and rounding forward. Feel the neck part of it. That's why it's called net pool. Anybody ever think about that and roll up. So you really want to make yourself invite yourself to feel that neck working and inhale and exhale. Very nice ladies and inhale and exhale.

Now if you can get the crown of your head towards your knees, that's fine. As long as you can carry the net pole feeling into it. So if we put it together and if you feel like you can't do the whole roll up, just do it part way. All right, so I'm going to do it. I'm going to do the whole thing and you're going to go with me. Inhale back. Now those of you who want to can stay here, exhale and roll down.

Inhale. And here's where I really feel my neck and then I'm going to take my time and roll up so I get a nice long neck over top my spine. And inhale, starting at the [inaudible] tailbone, reaching down and back. Inhale and exhale and rolling up. One more time.

Reaching back and ruling down. Coming up in Hail. Everybody looks gorgeous and feel that neck. One more time. Just stay there for a minute and joy your neck. Now feel your lower tailbone, your sacrum, your lumbars through the thoracic shoulder blades. As you come up, you're coming up, coming up, coming up, feel everything, and the last thing you feel is your neck. Let go of your hands and you should have had a neck experience.

Did you have a neck experience? Very good. Then we did what we needed to do. So we're going to come down and we're going to do the scissors and when we do the scissors, I want you to think of the spine correctors over in the corner. So I'm going to show you what I mean by this. As I roll down, I am going to bring my legs up and I'm going to roll over. If you have carpal tunnel or any kind of neck or shoulder problems, you could do this flat on the floor and that's fine. For those of you who would like to try this, you see there's now a spine corrector. Do you see the spine corrector?

And so we're going to do this slowly. We're going to reach down with the scissor and come up. Now the way that we want to do it eventually is to keep the top leg vertical because that puts so much work into it to keep us from counterbalancing. But if you need to, you can open the back leg like this. So if we're just learning, there is nothing wrong with doing this.

And then getting to a place where we can do this and then we always finish by rolling down. All right. That's a good question. Okay. So my center gravity is my plump. Okay. So I'm up here now because I'm marked over. You see what I mean? If I lower my leg here, there is so much weight that it's gonna pull me forward. So the more advance the movement gets, the stronger I get, the more I'm going to be able to do this and not do this to counterbalance.

So let's just try a little bit of that challenge. Okay. And that was a great question, by the way. Thank you very much. And lift up and over. Put your hands right there on your sacred and at your ilium. And then lift your legs up and see if you can imagine a spine corrector underneath you. Good. Now we'll do it slowly so we have time.

Lower the right leg, inhale and come up. And scissor, close. Exhale, left leg. Inhale and exhale. And if you fall out of this, that's what I used to do. So it's okay. And exhale and inhale and exhale.

Now rollover into the rollover position. Take the weight out of your hands and then put your hands on the mat and then roll all the way down, keeping the neck long. And then let's put the feet under hips for shoulder bridge. And we're going to close the legs, put them together. And this time we're going to inhale and go straight up with a plank.

So we're not going to articulate. So inhale up, hold that position and exhale and down. Inhale up. Good. Exhale and down looking. Good ladies. Again. Inhale up. Next long, exhale and down. And one more. Inhale up and hold that position. Good. Take your right leg up. Good.

And you're going to flex down and point up and two and up and three. And up and four, and hold. Now push that hip up a little bit to the ceiling and bring it down and push it up just a little bit and down. Gives your buttocks a little bit of extra feeling and down, maybe more feeling than you wanted and down and put your foot down. And did you feel that? And down. And take a rest for a moment.

Take a full deep breath in and out. And then inhale up. Good. And let's go to the other side. Leg Up and flex down and up to an up three and up and four n hold. Now push that hip up a little bit and then level out your triangle. Push it up a little bit. Now you're pushing the hip that's in the air up.

You're not pushing into the foot on the floor, up and down, and been your leg and roll down. So I'm going to show you something with Amy again, go all the way up sweetheart. And the lake goes up. Now she could push this leg down to push this hip up, right? That would be a foot exercise in a leg exercise. What I want her to do is lift the buttocks up and then lower it just to the bridge line, up and down, totally different movement.

And for some of you that have a strong side and a weak side, this will help you create balance in both sides. So let's go up and try that again. We'll just do two on the right, put our foot down, then go to the left, just so you can feel it to practice that at home and all the way up on an inhale. Hold that position. Now lift your right leg up. Now think of sending your right hip up a little bit and bring it down, up a little bit and down, and put the foot on the floor. Go to the other side and the hip and down the hip joint and down and Ben, and put it down and straighten the legs all the way out. Good. And then we're gonna roll down onto the mat for the Jack Knife.

So I'm gonna do a short lever Jackknife, which means shorter legs. So I want you to bring your legs up and cross them over. Yes, I really mean that. Cross them over and then look through your legs and think about more of a seal position. So if ever you look up, you should be able to see that much space, which your fingers in your hip joints. Now jackknifes have a joint, so your hip joint, if you put your feet on the floor and touch and then you bend at your hip joint. That is a jackknife movement and down touch. And use your hip joint and stay on your plop.

Very good and dash down and up. And then bend your legs. And I'm going to show you something. This is a knee motion. All right. And we were, what we're trying to do here is flatten the hip and bend the hip. So let's try two more of those. Cross over to the other side. So do you understand the difference between the feet dropping and the hip opening? All right, so hip opens, very good.

And hip closes. This should be very hard to do. Yes. And a good. Now we're going to take the shape up and over to a rollover position holding this open seal position. And roll up and over the sit bounds are on the ceiling. Now make the Jack Knife in your hip. Take a full breath up.

Make the Jack Knife in your hip. Do not lower your sit bones. Good girls. Now Flex at the hip and come down. Now roll back down onto the mat. Good. And then change crossed the other side. Now tailbone goes up and over.

Think about your hip joint as a Jackknife. Lift up with a full breath so you can really enjoy that moment. Lower on a full breath, keeping your sit bones up. This is looking nice ladies and rolling all the way down. Down, down, down, down.

Now straighten your legs straight up and we'll do one quote. The classic way to same thing. Up and over. Good. Now Open your jackknife. Take your time. Feel that Jack Knife opening. Good. Now Bend at the Jack Knife at the hip position.

You should still have your hips up. Now roll over and down. Good and legs come down onto the floor and you come all the way up and you're ready for your spine twist. So we're going to inhale here and as we turn we're going to turn and exhale three times. So it looks like this. Join me please. And to the front. Exhale two, three and exhale two, three. And exhale two, three and exhale to three. A little, a little cue, a little different cue. Let's exaggerate.

Arm, arm, arm and arm. You see what I'm doing? I'm thinking arm. So let's do one. They see me and one facing, they're ready and the arms are moving to the sigh and arms. Two, three. Now do you remember the Scapula? One, two, three. And now I'm thinking of this. Two, three, and the other. One, two, three.

So inhale to the middle and then come to me. Inhale and exhale. Two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale and exhale, two, three and exhale, two, three. And back to the center. And let's organize ourselves so we can do side legs.

So why don't we do this? Everybody's legs in that direction. All right, so we're here we are and I have this nice battery pack under my hip. And so if I look a little lumpy, that's the way it is. All right, so I've got my feet across the mat and my elbow here, and what I'd like us to do, I'm going to invite you all to just let this side of your body just sink. And you'll notice that as you do this, your shoulder has gone into a position that may not be comfortable. So, uh, my shoulder lady back there, you don't ever want to do that.

What you want to feel is these muscles working and then they're holding your shoulder in the right position. So the cue is not pull your shoulder down. The Queue is use your lower trunk muscles. Let's put the hand up behind our head and we're going to come to the front flex, flex and back and flex, flex and back. We're allowed to breathe and one more and back and bring the legs close together. Take your free arm, put it under your ribs. Now lift this leg up.

And as you do that, feel like there's something here, a string that lifts your foot and down. And once you get that feeling, you can take your hand back up and once you learn that feeling, you won't ever have to put your hand under there to remind yourself every time. Notice your leg is not flying to the ceiling, but the center of your body is working. Do we all feel that lift and down and lift and down? That is something I invented that I enjoy. Lift up.

Now do not move that foot so you have to hold it there. Take your body and rotate your chest so it comes to the floor. And then unroll Tate, come back and put your foot down. Inhale and long. Exhale. Inhale, lift. Exhale down. Inhale, good and exhale and inhale and down and inhale and exhale and inhale and down on the last one. Inhale, exhale and hold. Now start uncurling from the belly. So don't lift your elbow.

Think I'm going to rotate my spine, rotate my spine, rotate my spine, rotate my spine and I'm up. And then I come all the way down and lay down long in the mat and then take your bottom like forward and come all the way up to sitting. So if you were on your reformer from your reformer class, you would know this to be the mermaid. And so you're going to lift your arms up and I'm going to go to the knee that spent for which for all of you will be the center of the room. So I'm going to take an inhale here and exhale two, three, inhale, exhale two, three.

And exhale two, three. And exhale two, three and exhale two, three and come up. What's your hands behind your mat? And we're going to put something that we normally put on the other end in the middle. So legs are up. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna visit my right hip and come back to the center. And then I'm going to visit my left hip joint and come back to the center.

Now does anybody feel a little bit of muscle in there might be your paraform at [inaudible]. So you're going to give it a little massage. And over and center and over. Now from here, make a circle around. Visit that side and lift and circle around and lift and circle around and lift. Feel the belly and the spine making that movement and the last one, circle around and lift.

So we might want to do the other side of our legs. No, I'm not. We're not going to demonstrate this anymore. Having demonstrated that wants. Does anybody really want to do this again? No, probably not. So we're up in this position. We're feeling the underside of our body and flex, flex and back in Hail. Exhale.

Okay. Your triangles should be in the same plane as the wall and one more and back. And bring the foot over the foot. Now from here, lift up and put it down. Think of lifting rather than kicking. It looks great in here. Up and down, up and down. Nice.

Inhale and exhale. Okay. You feeling your glutes? Yeah. Good. Lift, twist.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, twist. Exhale. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and twist and on. Twist and down and inhale. This is your last one. Make it beautiful.

Up and down. Now, the easiest thing to do to get into the mermaid position is to bring your legs long. Take the bottom leg forward on your mat, bend the opposite one, and you'll end up sitting and you'll know which direction to go. It'll just make sense. This is your inhale wringing out your lungs. Exhale, two, three. Inhale, exhale, two, three. And exhale two, three and exhale two, three and come all the way up. I just want to point out that one of the lovely students made this, um, shape, made a seal shape.

That was the perfect thing to do. Thank you very much. So then any of you have knee problems, you can always change into this position. Does that make sense? It won't change the dynamics of what you're doing. So now we're going to introduce you to Pat's infamous teaser. So the teaser is actually the most simple variation of the teaser is probably the hardest teaser to do.

The teaser is about articulating your lower back. So I don't always make it up. That's pretty scary. All right, so this is what we're going to do. We're going to sit and place our feet against an imaginary wall. And so what I, the reason I did this is I started to see a lot of my students, particularly on the reformer kicking out to try to get into a teaser and they never got there. So this is, they invented this for me out of necessity.

So from here I'm going to roll down to the blades of my scapula and then use my lower back to come up. Everything in my body is going to say, I got to pull out with my legs to get up. Don't move your feet. So as I come around, I'm going to ask you to do that and we're going to progress through this at any point that you want to stop. Stay with the last place that we were and rolling down. Inhale and exhale, coming up. Inhale and exhale.

I promise you it was fun and down. Inhale, exhale and up. Oh, you're doing good. You're doing good. Come on. You can do it. Hey, there you go. Very good. Now let go of your hands and do the same thing and roll down. Inhale, exhale and AH, breathing. Try not to push your legs out. It's very hard and down. Good.

Now everybody come up. Now you've got your lower back. It's gone to school. You may straighten your legs out to the tee. Sir. As you know it in this world, you can put your hands out so they're in a parallelogram or over your head. However you would like to do it. Now roll down just to the shoulder blades, keeping your feet right there and then all the way up using your lower back. Good. Rolling down. For those of you who are working on this, you can always put your feet on a wall so you can work your lower back. Now, three teasers the whole way, all the way down. You don't have to do it if you can't and all the way up, you can do it with your legs bent.

Very good and all the way down and all the way. Ah, and all the way down. I promised you three and this is the last one all the way up. Hold that up a position. But I didn't tell you we weren't going to walk. Right? Like down and lift.

Left and lift, right and lift and the last one and lift and right. Roll the all the way down. Very good. Now after that, we should do something in extension. So what I'd like you to do is to roll over your head soon. You're gonna swim toward each other.

So here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to put her hands under her head so we don't get confused. And we're going to break this down into three parts. So some of you, if you're at home and you do your practice at home, you may want to do each part separately and then put it together. So think about your right thigh. Notice I didn't say foot or knee. Lift your right thigh off the floor, put it down, lift your left thigh off the floor, put it down with your thigh, tried to get your foot on the ceiling on the right. Put it down. So let's really go for it.

And lifted up on the left and put it down. And the right and down. And the left and down. Very nice. Now your arms are out a little bit and you're going to lift your right arm up, keeping your legs down, right arm up, head comes up, everything comes up. Let's lift, lift, lift, lift. No legs yet and down.

And the left. Lift up, good and down. I'll look at Amy for a minute. If we actually extend, which means to bend backwards as she lifts, she's going to have some head lift. So look how high she is. It's sort of like your a rocking and down, and then lift up and down. So let's do that right, left two sets. Ready. This is very good for your lower back and it's great for walking. It's a functional walking exercise.

When you put the leg and the arm together and write one up, good and down, and [inaudible]. Inhale really burry. Then down, you have choppy water, so you have to really go and live to look and see where the boat is and down and the laugh. One last one, lift and down. Now if you could lift your legs and arms that high on the swimming, that's what you're going to try. One, two, three, four, ready and swim and two and three and four. Where are the heads? You look for the boat. One and two and three and four. Five and six and seven and a and down.

And then what you're going to do is roll back again into that backward position. Feeling your elephant tail down, rolling back, back, back, back, back, feeling the stretch in that position and then coming all the way up. And let's do a seal. So the seal is going to bark three times, one, two, three but you don't need to bark and back. One, two, three. Exhale. One, two, three.

Back. One, two, three. Up. One, two, three. Enjoy this one, two, three. Ed. One, two, three and back. One, two, three and up. One, two, three and put your legs down on the Mat. And I think what we should do is we should finish with the pushups because everybody loves the pushups. Yes. All right. So I like to do the pushups off to the side of my mat because the mats tend to stretch. So I'm going to give you, um, a little suggestion, Amy, if you'd come here and get in the plank position please. And I'm going to ask her to bend her elbows as much as she can.

So yeah, so just bend good. And then I'm going to ask her to lift the triangle up. Don't think about it as an arm. Press Down Triangle. So you see you don't have to do much down triangle. Then I'd like her to do an up stretch and really get that stretch.

And this time just for today, we're going to walk in as if we're doing the elephant on the reformer. One, two, three, four, and then tailbone down all the way up. And then if you cross your foot and turn around and go into the other direction. So you won't be walking across the room. Yes. Okay. All right. So do you understand this is where you pull up from? It really makes the difference. You do not have to bend a lot.

Just a little band and a pull from your triangle. That's goal. I helped. Well, not much. All right, everybody, a nice plank line. Remember your mat may skit out from underneath you and bend your elbow. Triangle up, Bend your elbow, triangle up, bend your elbow and up and whole. Now lift one up. Stretch really pulling up.

Now start to come in thinking tailbone, cut, feet walk and tailbone to heels. Tailbone to heels, tailbone to heels, and then pull the tailbone down to [inaudible] rural roll, roll, roll, roll. And there you are. Say hello to each other. Cross your foot over, turn around. You don't want to look at those people anymore and roll down. Good all the way down. And then you're going to walk out into a nice plank all the way out.

Organize your triangle. Just take a moment and think about it. And elbows. Triangle goes up, elbows, triangle up, elbows, triangle up. Think up, stretch, pull the triangle up to the ceiling and then come forward with your feet. Tailbone, tailbone, tailbone, tailbone, tailbone, and start the tailbone down to the heels. Roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up, roll up. Good. And then turn around and face me. Normally we would do three, but since we all have a schedule to keep and just spread yourself out a little bit so you can see me and open your feet slightly and let's just think about bending and straightening and inhale.

Exhale. Yeah. Now Open your feet out slightly. Is this not the dancers turnout? It's just a slight turnout, a little exercise that Joe Pilati is like to do. And since we can't hear the breath, they didn't have any sound.

I'm going to imagine for me, this is Sydney. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale [inaudible] and the last one over and up. Feet together. Bring your arms up, put your chest on the ceiling as if you were doing the rocker and come up and down. So from the side, I'm going up, but I'm keeping my pelvis level up and down. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Are you ready for the next part? It's fun and it's got a one, two, three, exhale. So Watch, inhale, and exhale. Two, three. Inhale. You can join me. Exhale, two, three. Inhale. Exhale, two, three. Inhale, and exhale, two, three, and rolled up. Thank you very much.

Very good. Clap.

Comments

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1 person likes this.
great cues for the neck pull!!!! I could do it without struggling my neck and my hip flexors. Thanks!
1 person likes this.
I couldnt find this class??
I am also interested to watch this class. Hope it will be back up soon.

Loved your word pictures as you taught this class. Also purchased a Stretch Out Strap and your book Stretch Out Strap Shoulder Girdle and Arm Work use book and band a lot.You are a great instructor!
Great class! Thank you. Loved the leg cirlce work and the push up combination....the triangle cue. So great!
Love this class! Many great cues and corrections on several movements. Looking forward to take classes from Pat. Thank you.
This was a great class, but I wouldn't classify it as level 1-2... rollover...jacknife, those are much more advanced exercises. Also, & I don't mean to be cheeky when I ask this but when you're referring to the triangle, are you saying 'plop' or 'plot'? Great cues throughout & yes I had a 'neck moment' during neck pull- thanks again!
Thank you! My students hated the Neck Pull. For the teacher, this should be a challenge to find new ways to help the student embody the exercise. What person exclaimed, "OH, That is why it is called the Neck Pull!" Now the class loves it.
Hello Elaine,
The Franklin Method has been a fantastic tool to help me pose images so they provoke a response from the student. They are simple pictures, as you say, of things that people have experienced. Let me know about your SOS work. I have gotten great feedback when applying this tool to mat work.
Hi Kristen,
Thank you for your feedback.
The triangle is a great cue. Everyone knows what a triangle is and the image of keeping it in a horizontal plane or moveing the image in a direction to create functional movement is easy to understand. Teachers can name the ASIS and the pubic symphysis as the "corners" of the triangle when people become more comfortable with the exercises and are ready for more information. Too much, too soon, is confusing and unnecessary. The triangle also defines the "neutral pelvis" which can be open to many interpretations and the differences in anatomy due to genetics, sex, and injury may alter the experience for each individual. I try to find universal tools for teaching.
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