Class #393

Upper Body Mat

50 min - Class
17 likes

Description

Amy uses small Hand Weights for most of today's Mat class and discusses the opportunity to be able to understand how to hold and use the weights to your advantage rather than to stress or strain the neck. If we can sense the weight of the hand weights underneath and below our shoulder blades/in our latissimus dorsi, shoulder girdle, and muscles in our mid-back, these areas can be the counterweights to our arm movements, thereby freeing up our neck and shoulder to have more range of motion and power for movement. She gives a nice abdominal warm-up, blends some traditional Mat exercises like The 100 and Double Leg Stretch as well as some pieces from the Reformer like Rowing Back 1, Rowing Front 1, Draw a Sword, Reaching Up (done from a sitting position) and Kneeling Arm Overhead. Prone, she gives you Flight, T-Press, and some nice variations of uni-lateral movements instead of Swimming. Try adding the use of light hand weights to some other Mat classes for added challenge and variety. Enjoy!
What You'll Need: Mat, Hand Weights

About This Video

Feb 28, 2011
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Transcript

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I, yeah, I think we'll start standing actually. So let's start standing today. Well there we are. I must have picked up on it and let's stand at the back edge of our mat. We're going to just do some nice standing roll down, walking out. Uh, so I've got the hand weights out today for a few things.

I wanted to bring in some reformer exercises, um, into the mat work, which kind of adds a little variety and uh, we'll talk about it when we get a little more specific in that moment, but some, uh, work in those shoulder internal rotation of our arms and shoulders, external rotation. And you know, w that's so important for women to do and people, but uh, we'll get there in a second. So let's just start centered over the feet. We'll take a nice deep breath into the nose and we'll exhale and start to roll down. So it's feeling that weight forward on the feet. Let your arms dangle, let your head go. Try to look through the legs so you see what's behind you. Let's pause and take a breath. We'll roll back up. [inaudible] first from the abdominal muscles. Rotate that pelvis up over the top of the legs.

Come up nice and tall and again a breath in and exhale contracting first to the upper abdominals. Again, let those arms dangle and getting that curve in the spine. Just take a look through the legs again. See the wall behind you so you're not looking forward. Aggravating your neck and trust that drop. Inhale and exhale. So strong legs underneath us.

We're going to roll that spine up nice and tall. One more time. Just down and up. Take a breath and exhale and roll down. I'm just going to organize these four in case somebody else shows up. Inhale and exhale again from your low belly.

Peeling up arms, staying loose. Nice work guys. We're gonna roll down again, tall or through the spine and contract. Strong legs. Try not to waiver on the feet. So here we are. We're down. In that forward position, we're going to walk out unsure hands. Walk yourself into your front end front support position. Hands are right below the shoulders, chest, open collar, bone, long, low back, long spiel like you're pressing the floor away.

Inner thighs engaged toward the center. Lift that sternum and reach it forward. That's a little bit better, Bree. And now let's exhale. I want you to round your back today. Round your spine. Try to send your heels now down to the floor. Walk your hands back smoothly. Push, push, push. Let's roll ourselves up some mood.

Roll through your back again. Breathing in tall and exhale. Feeling the contraction strength right from the abdominal muscles. Bend that spine. Good walking out. Ah, same thing, just holding your plank line. You gonna look right down to the mat in front of your fingers. Again, trying to avoid looking forward, which can aggravate the neck.

Shoulder blades down your back, sternum, reaching into the center of the room. There we go. Nice breath in. Same thing. Exhale. I want you to round your back. Can a long round, send your heels down and then walking. Hands back. But this time stay hanging over everybody. I'm to have as crouch down into a crouched position. Lift your heels.

If you can just feel the stretch underneath the base of the toes. Put your hands in front of you and open up those hands. Rock your weight into the hands and rock your weight back and rock your weight forward and rock your weight back. Because we're going to do some arm work this morning. I just want to get you in your arm muscles, your shoulder girdle.

It's putting some weight bearing focused in there. All right, four more. Just rocking. I've got my stomach in. Of course, abs supporting the back and two more times and rock forward and back and forward and back. Okay, so let's come out into an all force position position. You hear that one po position. And once again, let's go into a curve curve curve curve. So as you're in this c curve or the round back, the catback start to address the shoulder girdle.

So you're pulling that down off the neck, wants you to feel your pelvis really tilted under, like you're pulling your pubic bone forward to your forehead. All right? And you can do that without triggering your neck. All right? Now taking that shape and just open it the other way. I'm really going to want you to arch your lower back. Actually look forward, lift your sternum, lift your chest, and stick your tailbone up. You're still reaching long, you're still working your abs, you're just extending that spine hyperextension and exhale one more in each position. Get it from those abdominals, pulling the pubic bone toward the forehead, still wide, a shoulder girdle, nice adjustment.

Inhale and exhale, reaching the sits bones back, tailbone up, sternum up, shoulders down the back. That really long extension. All right, once again, let's Tuck our toes. Shift your hips up now and more of a flat back stretch. Oh, we're going to walk our feet to our hands once you are three steps and then once again, I'm going to have you come down onto your seat there. All right, so we're gonna work with our weights right from the beginning here, abdominals and some arm work.

So I would like us to start with feet apart about sitz bones with or maybe a little wider knees bent and just have your arms reaching forward. I've got the palms facing in, so, all right, and just as you're holding your weights, uh, release the elbow joint just a little bit so you can, you can lock the elbows out, which we know we're not interested in doing there, but we could soften too much. We don't want that somewhere right in between and feel the weight in the hands. Almost like it's right here. I'm just going to do a little visual woo in my lat. That's the weight I'm holding my arm from there. Makes Sense. Rather than from here, I'm getting caught. Okay, so let's take a good breath and exhale. Let that one roll back. Oh, let's go to our sake room. We'll pause and we'll inhale there. Exhale, we roll up chest over hips and inhale, sitting tall and exhale, curving back.

Inhale, pause, and exhale. Rounding forward and sitting tall. Just two more. If your arms start to get too tired, just drop the weights for a second or fight through it. Inhale, exhale and round in forward. Just work on pulling the weight down into the lats. You guys one more and curving back.

Inhale, hold. Exhale. Let's dive forward and sitting nice and tall. Lower your arms for a moment. Organize your legs more in a diamond position. Okay, and arms this way. Now, so palms are going to face down. If we were on the Cadillac chappies table in the equipment series, there's the rollback bar, right?

We've most of us know what that is and you'd have springs attached. Well, we've got weights. I want you to pull those shoulders down. We're going to do another roll back and contract so we get that diamond rollback. We're going to try to go all the way back to your spine. [inaudible] and we're, the arms you're going to go is just straight up to the ceiling above you. Now we get to roll up from here. Reach your arms, head, neck and chest stand. Occur for beautiful roll up.

Inhale tall up on those sitz bones and again to round back. Sometimes having extra weight in the arms will help some of the spinal articulation. Few of us have found that to be true and then rolling up, press the weight down in toward the abdominal area. Peel off of the Mat, get that seeker two more times sitting vertical. Inhale and exhale and rounding back. I take a bone by bone. Arms is straight up to the ceiling. Lats still from inhale. Good. Exhale from the ABS, flexing the trunk, reached through those arms. Is it helping? Don't you. Woo. Smooth roll ups.

I know, I trust what works. I think it's amazing. Yay. Okay, so here we are in a diamond and our arms are above our chest. I'm going to have us turn the palms now again, face into each other, being careful not to display the ribs. Let's open on an inhale, arms towards, go ahead and take them. Just hovered above the floor, so feel the floor but don't drop. And then exhale, bring those arms back in. Just shoulder whip. Inhale as we open and exhale as you pull them in.

All right, we're going to do this for a while. Probably 10 reps. [inaudible] so we can, we can hold weight without triggering our neck. We really can. We have to learn how to do it. Keep pulling down, shoulders down the back. It's a cue. You hear so often, but actually holding weight might help you feel that more so in your body. The Elvis are level. There's no tuck. [inaudible] two more and open. This.

I absolutely could have been done with heavier weights where most of us are using our twos. Someday we might try heavier, but all right, so there we are. Let's do a scissor arm. Take your left arm back by your ear. Right arm down by your hip. Ah, good. Lat stretch and exhale both arms to the ceiling. Let's do an inhale. One arm goes back. Feel that lat pull downs. You don't arch your back and exhale to the ceiling. Left arm. Really feel the weight of the bones.

[inaudible] shoulder blade heavy on that mat. How's that feeling for you guys? Wonderful. We've got a wonderful comment. Yeah. And Center. Three more. [inaudible] imprint the body and center. Yeah.

Was feeling good to me this morning too. And last time there [inaudible] OK. Close the knees. Bring your heels closer to you and just pull your arms all the way down on the mat now. Okay. Needs to tabletop and probably know what's coming. It has a number to it and we'll do the 100 and it's up to you if you want to do it with the weights. That was my plan. If not, just do arm work. Okay? Just the arm pattern. So let's take a good breath. Exhale, flex that trunk forward. Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to leave the knees here first and we do twos. It's very different to pump the weight legs all the way up and keep dropping your sacrum down there. Good.

Oh, K legs a little bit lower. Reaching those weights to the opposite end of the Mat. Little lower with the legs. I'm not going to give us the full 100 just take four, three, two last breath cycle. Now bring your knees in, let the head come back down ans right here by your knees.

We're going to go and double leg stretch with the hand weight, so curling the chest up. This could trigger the neck unless you know where to put your work down in the shoulder girdle. Inhale, arms near the ears. Exhale, open the arms. Control your circle back in. Inhale, arms near the ears. Circle, exhale, and back in three more. Feel the weight in the lats.

[inaudible] one more just to keep our abs alive and [inaudible]. Okay. Stop with the news tabletop. Bring your head back down and then again reaching the arms to the ceiling. So take your shoulders and just slap them a little bit on your mat, your shoulder blades kind of percussively just to wake them up and know, okay, we want to keep them now down. Solid arm circles supine from the reformer. So reaching your arms out towards your knees. Just hip level.

Now let's talk about it. You're going to turn, your arm is your palm is facing. Open the arms again, out toward, we usually reference this as a t position. Arms are shoulder height, not higher, and then straight in. All right, for more, we reached down, find your rotation, reach the arms out to the tee and then straight in reaching out. Inhaling without lifting your ribs, chew more on your shoulder blades are still glued on the mat.

Let's open and center and last time reach out, rotate and stretch to the tee. And then in now we've got five the other direction. So you open to your t, bring your arms toward you, palms will face your thighs, then face down as they come back up. This all has to do with some of the arm and shoulder rotation we're going to keep working on today. All right? So before you reach into the ceiling, palms down and then up, there's a rhythm that happens with your upper arm bones in your shoulder girdle. Rotate in there to more open, close arms down and up. Shoulder blades, heavy. Last one, close arms down and up.

And then bend your elbows to the Mat. Okay. So, uh, as your elbows are to the mat, I'd like you to make a soft fist if you hadn't already. All right. And then palms are gonna face in for just a second. Can you guys try and do, um, I'm pulling, keeping my elbows close to my ribs as possible. I'm going to show that just by sitting up. And can you open your forums that way while you're lying down? Yeah. Okay. So your upper arm has just gone into an external rotation. Now if it hopefully that you're feeling some stretch in there, right?

You want to control where you've gone rather than just passively letting your arms fall to the ground. Now are you really pulling those shoulders down your back? Enough. Pull those down. Okay, so we're going to do just eight movements. Inhale, they come in to the center towards you and exhale does simply, yeah, it's a stretch for chest. Inhale. If your back gets tired, please put your feet down. If your hips get tired, put your feet down. But this is also getting some external rotation musculature in the shoulder girdle. All right. Inhale Center and for more light.

Fist and open. Yes. Yep. Three more as far as, okay. If you feel like you're arching, go into your inter abdominal compression and bring it in. Does that feel better? Yeah, I see it. It's different. Yes. So that's another factor. Sometimes having extra weight to work with the back, we'll respond in that way.

It's actually may want to arch up away from the work you want to imprint to it. Okay. I think we've overdone it. No count wise, hold that position there. And let's everybody put the feet back down. Okay, so elbows are kind of toward your ribs, right? Reach your arms out. Almost like that t position. Once again, we'll do eight more of those. So elbows in, I'll show it this way and elbows are going to go out and elbows are coming in in a minute. We'll do this from a sitting position like I'm doing now. But as you're lying flat, I just want to have your ams. You're back and printed.

Ah, do our legs back up to tabletop. Knees in. Keep them there. We'll have arms out three more times. Elbows and pull and elbows out. Two more elbows in and last one, elbows in, [inaudible] and in. And then just rest. Okay. Tuck your knees to your chest. Let's roll ourselves up. Move your hips back.

I'm going to have us do a rolling like a ball using the hand weights. So find your curve position of your ball. I'm gonna just say a hold your weight's kind of near your chest here. And my elbows are reaching out just a little bit. So yes, we're so used to holding in. See if you can do your abs or holding your legs there and you've got your weights to help you. This could be fun. Inhale back to our shoulder girdle.

[inaudible] [inaudible] woo. Some different things going on for me here. All right, let's keep going. I'm going to take a look. Rolling back. Rolling Center and rolling back and rolling center. Easy neck. Three more. Let's talk it back. [inaudible] okay, one more time. We'll place the feet and rest. You rolled better too.

Okay. All right. Let's, uh, I'm gonna face you. Will, you guys face me two seconds. You'll love it better and just put these down for a second. So if you have our arms out forward, let's do palms up for a second. Upper arm bone. They're humorous. We know we can internally rotate, which is really spiraling quite accessibly the other way. So if you had a wristwatch on both sides, the faces would see each other.

Internal rotation and external quite a lot the other way. Let's just work that out a little bit. Internal, external in a rowing sequence on the reformer. Uh, most of the rowing's we're working this fundamental of internal or the skill, internal and external, right? Lot of the, uh, arm exercises have this in it, so it's shoulder strength and stability. All right, now as you have palms up, just open this. Hold your last down. All right, now I'm going to have you take your arms back behind your back internally rotate and bring them behind you. I'm going to have you clap, you know, boomerang and short and double leg kick. Just do a little pull with your arms. I'm not death gripping, but just pool staying internally rotated in your shoulders.

Be careful so it's not a huge Paul. All right, now as you let go, bring them all the way around the front in external. We'll go back internal and see if you can do this with your chest collapsing. You know what I mean by that kind of, I'll show a collapsed chest. That's a big one and a drop of the head. So I that this came up, this will keep going. Came up last night, somebody said, well, I can't get my hands back there without doing this. And I said, just get him back there. Without doing that DNA, she wasn't able to class. Okay. All right, let's just do one more open and forward. Okay, so that that internal external is going to come up in a few things.

So now you can face each other again. Let's do a rolling from the reformer. It's going to be a rowing facing back. So if you grab your weights and put those, the hands right in front of the sternum, I've got my knuckles pushed together trying to sit up as tall as possible on your sits bones. And again, right now the arms are kind of in a neutral place. Elbows are lifted, shoulders are down. Looking straight ahead. Let's take a breath and exhale and around your spa and spine back. So again, it's like a roll back, but don't go all the way. All right, so we want to fix this curved position. Now the arms are going to, we're going to do part of it, open toward a t. As you open the arms out, it's actually a v Palm should be facing your feet, right? Yeah, and this, bring those back in. Let's do that three more times.

We inhale open without puffing the belly and exhale back in. Two more. Inhale as you open, keeping the c curve. Ah, open and exhale and close. And let's use the abdominals to bring yourself back up to sitting tall and we'll add on breathing in here. And exhale. Are the weights feeling heavy yet smart? She picked the one pound weights. Okay, so full rowing, you're opening. Now we go into internal rotation of the arms as they travel back.

We just did it. They're going back behind you. Your chest is coming down. I wouldn't, you don't need to class your hands. Just stay reaching them back. Okay, so you're in a forward flection. Lots of tummy squeeze. Now I want you to feel your arms, your triceps contract to arms to lift your arms up about the height of your shoulders. Circle the arms from the back to the front. They're going into that external rotation and roll yourself back up to sitting tall, knuckles to chest. Full flow about three more repetitions.

Exhale. So establish your c curve open without puffing the belly arm staying level. Now as you dive forward, internal rotation, ha palms should be facing up now behind you. Keep your chest low. Raise your arms. I want to get to a place where your triceps are working and open from the back to the front.

Those arms are coming around into external rotation and rolling up in neutral. Two more. And exhale, contract and open. Exhale, shoulders down. Hold. Inhale as you reach your arms up. Okay. [inaudible] track more. Rolling up to vertical. You've got one more repetition. And exhale. Inhale, open.

Exhale in over. You got it? I'm going to take a look. You got it. Stay looking down. Yes. So from there, Sarah, lift your arms up behind you. Just a couple inches. That's it. And that arms open from the back to the front. Like you've got a cape. There you are. You got it. You're and roll up. It's sitting nice and tall and just rest.

Shake your arms. Alright, let's go into a rowing facing front. If we were on the reformer, we're still facing each other. All right, so hands now here I'm going to show you right palms. Yeah, palm spacing out and elbows not behind us but more in front. Alright, so again, the upper arm is back in that external rotation. So simple. Just press return. Yeah, alternate position for the seat sitting would be diamond. You got it. If your hips are jacked up and your hip flexors are Fussy, just bend those knees. So we inhale and exhale externally. Rotate that upper arm. Three more press and it's a lot of back muscle muscle work as well. Guys, one more time. Hold. Now when you have you palms face down internally, rotate the arms again. Tap your fingers down on the Mat.

Full exercise lead with your pinky finger. Arms are going to come up. Drop your arms to t level. Palm should be facing down and you start all the way over again. Rowing one and for run internally rotate arms down. Lead with your pinky fingers, arms up.

It's like you shave your side of your head, palms face down and into the chest. Again, reaching forward internally. Rotate arms down, rib cages in lift, arms, down, shoulder level and hands back into the chest. One more time and reaching forward. Thumbs down, fingers down. And you guys are doing, no one's dropped the weights yet or let him down and rest. Okay. Come into a just a a hamstring stretch. Give, give, give some weight to your legs. Couple more exercises. Four arms, arm focus day. Uh, how about facing front again and let's all go ahead and cross into a cross legged position.

I'll do my ra left arm. You guys can do your right. How about this one on the floor just to give it a little line. And the right, your right hand fist in front of your navel. So often is the draw sword or pull up. Pull across. So lead with the elbow, forearm, wrist and hand.

We've been able to come up to pretty decent diagonal line without elevating our shoulder. Now if we rewind, do a little wrist curl this morning, I just adjusted it and the l form comes in the elbow and back in. The reason why I'm having us do a little risk curl is to stretch out the forearm muscle. We're holding weight so it's a little different work in the arm. Okay, roll back in. I heard another little, again, those aren't mandatory but they're kind of Nice and elbow, forearm, wrist and hand. Hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, all the way in two more and l might be a nice way to breathe and [inaudible] back in last one and out shoulder drops, shoulder drops, shoulder drop. Sen Curl in all the way there. Okay, other arm, not that exercise. It's the reaching up. So once your elbow facing me, your forearm is going to go in a vertical line to the ceiling. All right. All of us in this room are going to have a different range of motion.

I'm pretty sure you might. Youtube probably going to go pretty high with your arm. Mine is going to go about here before my shoulder wants to elevate. So go ahead and show me yours. Yeah, they can go pretty high with that arm without the whole complex lifting. All right. You don't want to lift the whole complex established.

Where can you get your arm to reach up before you feel that whole thing lifting? That's your stop. Okay. And then pulling it down and three or four more. So we reach and I had more than I thought and lower two more and four arm is going straight up. Sure.

Two more an reach and good. Nice focus guys. [inaudible] that's it. But this hand down. Let's do that exercise with this first start and reaching up [inaudible] and up and down and down. So your elbow stays forward. Yeah. In front of your shoulder or armpit and your forearm is with traveling like a rope. Straight up.

Down we go. Yeah. So if you feel the neck trigger, well boy, don't get me started. We're all connected. Can I just leave it simple? I know you'd say I thank you for saying, yeah, that's another discussion. One more time asked why does it trigger the opposite side when this one's in motion? I mean, hey, we could go there, but okay. Fist we'll, let's do our draw sword ready. So elbow, forearm, wrist and hand and curl. Get those forearm muscles to lengthen on the return. So we lead forearm, wrist and hand. Wrist, forearm, elbow and return. Yeah.

Okay. You're doing this with the low shoulder, strong lat and, and nice work you guys do more. And what I'm also really watching on all of you is how no trunk control you have. And it wouldn't be uncommon to see a rib shift on an arm movement, but you guys are really integrated. I think it's cause you're a strong and knowledgeable bull about your core as you are. Last time probably counted wrong and in all the way. Okay, cool. All right.

Anyone feel their middle back besides me or some back muscle? A little bit. Okay, good. Yeah. Up on our knees please. We're going to do a side, a s arm, uh, overhead. We've done these before in math class and let's, let's look at the position before the hand weights come in the picture. Okay. So if you take your trunk and flex it to your right, I'm going to oppose you.

Oh my gosh. I feel so good on the neck. Take the arm out and up overhead and let's just go here for a second. Alright. Yeah. Some of us have a long arm. We can get that hand to the floor. It can also be about a flexible trunk, flexible spine that gets us down there. Keep your pubic bone pressing forward. Yup. Good, Sara. All right. Now if so, the elbow is what I want you to think about the top elbow.

Look where it's pointing, you know, weight or feel where it's pointing to the ceiling, right? Yes. Rather than not the not over there, we don't have our elbow right on up to the ceiling. Now turn your palm face up. You're gonna move your palm toward the ceiling. You're really hinting at your elbow and hindered. The elbow hand goes to the head and PRESA. This would be enough.

You could do this without any hand weight, but we're gonna try it with hand weight in a minute. Let's press up and down now to get out of that, go back into a little crouch. Just put your head down. Often a very big stretch on that quadrant of your lower back, you know, especially, yeah, so don't come out of that too quickly. Let's roll up. We'll take a look at our side, bend to the other side and then we'll come back in and see where the weight, uh, takes shape. So it was recited, been to your left arm out. [inaudible] has it, hand is getting up to your head. Adjust that shoulder blade.

All right. Just acknowledge the different sides of your body and how they might be responding differently. Elbow is up, side bend, a little more pubic bone forward. Looks good you guys. Okay. So three movements from the elbow. The hand reaches up and elbow. Hand returns to head. We can inhale and exhale anytime. You can drop that shoulder blade. Yes. Okay.

That's all we did on the first side. So come out of it carefully. The lot of stretch, like I said again on that left, uh, or your side quadrant of your lower back. Okay. So as we do it with the hand weight, let's just use one of them. Okay. Find your psych or position pubic bones forward carefully. You don't knock your head. Have to say it.

Okay. So again, the motions here in your elbow, and I'm going to have this term palm face up. So I learned this. A cue that came very helpful for me was Amy reach your forearm over your head more. And that just saying this huge stretch down my sign. And then I realized, okay, I need to get that. And then the movement came naturally from the elbow just reaching up. All right? So as we've been the elbow, the form is going to go over our head.

[inaudible] fuel. Okay. And [inaudible] ass and overhead. It's called kneeling arm overhead and per [inaudible]. Okay. And over only one more though.

Press and good shoulder check. Okay. Same way out. Go into a little round. You might feel more of it because of the weight. Hm? Other side. Okay, so again, let's establish where that forearm overhead, shoulders down, pubic bones forward. Our neck is easy. This is a tough one for that.

Take a breath and reach, bend at the elbow, forearm overhead, three more and press and as much as you can, get that shoulder blade to draw up good and pubic bone forward. Good side, Ben. Good last time and over and let's come out of it crouching down and just take a little rest. [inaudible] how are you feeling? I think you all felt that right here and my guess is it's good. We need that. We need that stretch a lot. Okay, let's come face down everybody and I think I will have this user awaits.

We're going into our flight. We do this one a lot, but of course adding weights a little more for the back of the arm and shoulder. So forehead down, nice, long neck. It might even be that you tuck your Chin in a little bit, looking into your shirt, shoulders or long and down. Take a breath. Now let's lift everything, not legs, head, chest, arms, and hold that. My, my weights are very close to my legs. Okay, now just keep the back established up there. Let's raise the arms a couple inches higher than they are on an exhale.

Inhale to the thighs. We'll do total of five long arms. Really feel that nice soft part in the back of the upper arm. Trying to get that taught last time in in, and let's bring everything back down to the mat. We'll take that whole thing one more time. Take a good inhale. Exhale, engage your back extensors. Reach the arms long by your signs. Again, you're tucking your chin slightly down. Kind of look in your shirt. Keep going to go ahead, press up so that it establishes that beautiful long line in your neck.

You guys look so good. Yeah, so their shoulders down your back. Nice. Long neck. Two more. Yeah, and then chest all the way down. And rast. How are we doing? All right. Everyone's like, oh my God, one's over. All right, so one is a little different. Take a breath. Exhale, same thing, flight. All right.

This will load one side of your back more than the other. Keep your left arm where it is. Take your right arm, palm face down. There's that external rotation again. Now. Take that right arm out to your t hello back muscles and no arm back in internally. Rotate the arm without elevating the shoulder.

Chest down other side. Take a breath first, exhale and hover externally. Rotate the arm first. We'll put your palm down. Now reaching out towards you. T you should be able to see it in your peripheral vision. Bring it back in internal rotation and exhale all the way down. Once again, each side [inaudible] inhale internal. Turn it out, reach it out to your tee.

Bring it back in and exhale all the way down and got one more on that left side. Xcel to the flight. Palm face down, external rotation. Arm out to a t, bringing that arm back in, palm face up and everything down. Okay, we're going to do the pattern twice, both arms at the same time. You knew what was happening. All right, take a breath. Exhale, flight. Inhale, palms face down. Exhale out to that tea.

Chest up. Good you guys. Bring it back in. Palms face up and chest down. Just one more. Breathe in and exhale. Inhale, palms face down. Exhale out to the T. Inhale back in, palms face up, and exhale all the way down. Okay. Just move your weights off to the side. Hands Underneath your shoulders. Go ahead and Tuck your toes back behind you.

Let's press herself up to a front support. Just holding that as if we haven't done enough arm work, but pike your hips up again. So I'm passionate about women having strong upper arms and strong upper body being strong in general, but we really, you know, we need to empower ourselves to feel good and strong in our upper back, our shoulders. [inaudible] one more breath here. Now bring your knees, put your knees down on the mat and then sink back into your rest pose. We're a little break now as a stretch for some of the arm area.

I'm going to just take this, I'm going to open my knees up a little bit so my chest gets lower to the floor. I'm going to take my left arm, kind of thread it underneath my right arm. Turn that whole shoulder and actually your whole trunk and just you're trying to stretch that outer outer shoulder. Okay. Yeah. Just really in my palms face up. You're looking at that hand. Ah, you're breathing.

Trying to get the breath to come into the back. The upper back around all the shoulder muscles that we worked a lot. [inaudible] all right, let's change that to the other side. So just thread that on him through. Try to turn your whole trunk [inaudible] in that very deep breath into the upper back around your shoulder girdle into the neck. [inaudible] couple more breaths.

[inaudible] good you guys. Okay, good hunch. Okay, come on up to sitting here. Let's just do some nice fun stretches. Okay. Not nothing really specific for arms. Maybe there are more. Going to be more hip related. So let's first have legs out an ankle over a knee. You know what's coming. I'm going to bend the straight leg, my hands, your back, just real light. And then slide that that hello that put up?

Yeah, she'd put that stretch right there. Back your hip. Right? And then they're just going to wiggle a little bit. [inaudible] ah, wow. Okay. So let's just make it a little bit, I guess more work by holding on. I'm holding on my front Shin and a pull up. Or You could absolutely have this and around to secure that knee. Yeah, that's fine. To just bring your chest to your legs.

[inaudible] yeah, I'm doing it. Bringing my legs in. Yeah. This is a good one. Sydney. Figure four isn't it? Sitting figure four. Yeah. You absolutely. Uh, you got it. [inaudible] I almost liked this better. Now that I'm sitting in it for a while then the way I'm used to doing it, either fly flat on my back doing it in or I don't know.

It's good to change things up as you know. Other side. All right, so straight leg, ankle over thigh, hands back, and then slide that heel towards your mat, acknowledging the different sides. Little wiggle. Last week, uh, we did some traditional mat work. No weights, no props at all. Here we go. Let's hold on. Uh, we'll probably take a look at some of that material again soon. Um, we were looking at Jackknife and Jackknife prep, uh, scissors and bicycle up on the wrists. Bigger corkscrew. Oh my gosh. Some more. Yeah, some, some of the advanced pieces. Um, that my goal for you guys is to keep bringing those in to you.

Yeah. And we're ready. Most days we feel pretty good about trying those harder ones, but some days not. So we get a pay attention, but okay. Now let's go and put our feet down. Just open into a little straddle. Yeah, I know. All right. And then walk your hands forward. Ideally knees, any caps or face up.

Definitely not facing. Yeah. Just allow your head to drop down the weight of the torso to be over the Ed legs. Eh, nice deep breaths. [inaudible] eh, we'll stay in low, but just walk yourself to your right.

I'm more towards your right leg. Good. Yeah. Whatever makes sense for you. Some of you guys are doing hands on feet. That's fine. I'm just doing elbows on floor. No worries. Just take the breathing into it. Let your inner legs get some elongation and then one more to the other side.

And then we'll, after this inner thigh stretch, we're gonna come up for a neck stretch after all that arm work and weight work that, um, want to give your neck some attention. [inaudible] okay, so let's come back to the center. Knows roll your chest up. Can just put your hands behind you. Close those legs against. Sit in a comfortable way for you. Alright. Tilt your head to your right hand on head.

We've done these before. This is something I do fairly often. And then again, that light pressure of your head against your hand. Real light pressure. Let's take our left arm out. Palm face up. External rotation of your upper arm. Let's play with that internal rotation of your upper arm. How that changes your neck sensation. Do you feel that and external rotation.

Oh, internal rotation and external rotation. Where do you feel the most sensation? Don't have to tell me. Me. You may want to just choose to stay there. Wherever you're feeling the most, uh, sensation any longer it reach out of it. Let's just hold that for a couple more breaths. Okay. And then carefully let go. Woo.

And other sides. So head tilt, hand on head, just a real gentle pressure. It's really contact that's not even pressure. And then arm out to the side. Again, external rotation and internal rotation. And there's one easier on this side than the other side. Chances are good. It is open, internal, external, internal. There it is. All right.

And then find the one that you're getting the most sensation in and stay there and reach out of it if you can. I mean just make your arm long. Good. Wow. And one more nice deep breath and release the pressure hand on head. Oh Mama Mia. Okay. Tell closes knees. Just rock yourself to one side. Check your feet behind you. We're rocking to that little squat.

Stretch your legs up guys. We'll do just a nice easy, easy roll up. Just standing. Take your time cause we just did some pretty big stretches for your neck. Might make you feel a little lightheaded rolling up through your legs and your spine. Does a nice breath in tall. Yeah.

One more roll down. You knew it was happening. Excellent. Yeah. It seems like we need another one after that. Rolling down. Nice. Inhale at the bottom, and that exhale to bring us up. Squeeze those legs together. Pull that abdominal wall up in, in. Hopefully you feel some good energy through your upper body and increased strength. Thanks so much, you guys. You're very welcome. Thank you.

Comments

Loved using the hand weights as a prop- needed this arm weight class- Thanks Amy!
Hi Elaine! Thanks for the feedback and so glad you enjoyed class! I like incorporating light hand weights with different workouts, Mat, jumpboard etc.... give things that extra little "something" . Talk again soon!
Excellent focus on the arms and back. I will definitely be taking this class again. Thank you very much!!
I didn't have any hand weights handy, so did the class without them. It was challenging enough! Some great ideas for my ladies. Thanks again, Amy.
It's a great class for working on shoulder girdle stability and mid-back series work. Thank you very much.
Hi Christy.....thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate hearing from you all what you like, what feels good, what to do more of etc. I love working my back too and I think it's incredibly important. The light hand weights just give that extra little 'something'! Talk again soon!
Hi Claire, great idea to just do the exercises solo! I'll try to remember to mention that next time----an alternate might be two small bottles of bottled water even. I'm glad the exercises challenged you and gave you some good ideas for your ladies. Let me know how they liked them. Talk again soon!
Hi Loretta, thanks for your feedback and glad to hear you enjoyed the shoulder girdle and mid-back work....very important! Talk again soon I hope!
Absolutely wonderful class!! Loved targeting the arms and integrating the hand weights with Pilates movements. Amy, your cues are so clear and specific. Thank you for a great class!
Hi Kelly! Thank you so much.....! I enjoy utilizing the hand weights from time to time and bringing in some Reformer movements/exercises into a Mat class. It keeps things interesting, challenging and familiar to those who have Reformer knowledge. Glad you enjoyed class...and thanks for taking class. Talk to you again soon!
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