Class #4153

Sweet Release

55 min - Class
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Description

This Restorative class with Amy Havens will have you flowing through gentle movements and stretches to let go of tension. She will begin standing with nasal breathing, allowing you to drop in and connect to yourself. Your mind and body will feel renewed as she guides you through perpetual movements, fascial stretching, and Franklin work. There will be no traditional Pilates exercises, so enjoy the freedom, play, and relaxation of the class.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Hi. Back again. And thank you. I will always start my class with a gratitude and a thank you for everyone who is here and showing up week after week to take class with me, but also to take class with each other, because we know we're doing that. So for the people that are local, from all around the world, it is just absolutely amazing that we can do this together. So thank you for being here.

A couple things before we get started. First, a little housekeeping. This class involves music, which I'm really excited to have happen. It's soft, kind of like the opening music that you just heard. It's meant to just let you drop in and go into yourself.

It's not like we're doing anything to beats or things like that, so just allow yourself to enjoy what you hear, what you feel. I want you to kind of disappear for a little bit, if you know what I mean. But if we have any technology gremlins kind of come in and stop our audio, just keep coming with me, and I'll move with you, and I'll keep us going. Hopefully we're fine. But this is the first time that we've had music in a live broadcast.

So I thank my team for helping me get music together because for me, this type of class we're about to do, and I have done one before when we were filming in the studio, the Mat for Stress Relief class that a lot of you have already taken and given me amazing feedback on, thank you, and have said, please, more of that, please, more of that. And so here it is, more of that. This is about fascial stretching. This is about perpetual movement. This is not about Pilates exercises, shapes that you make.

None of that, no technique if you wanna even think that. This is about dropping in, moving kind of perpetually, like I said, in a kind of experimental, I really want to encourage us all to recognize the stress that we're in in this world, and it's real. And we get through it, we do our thing and we get through it, but that stress stays in here. It stays in our heart. It can stay in our soul, our gut, our solar plexus.

I mean, obviously our hips. So let's recognize that and kind of meet it and do something with that and move so that we can have less stress, okay? So let's begin with a little breathing. And what I want us to focus on, we can start standing just wherever you feel with your legs. I'm gonna have mine parallel, feet underneath my hips.

And you can put your hands on your ribs. You can do one on your heart, one on your stomach. (soothing music) But let's just start dropping in and really feeling the breath. And I'm going to encourage us to try a little experiment of nasal breathing, okay? Only in through the nose and out through the nose.

If we are having to wear the masks for a while, let's learn to cooperate with the mask a little bit and train our nose, train our nasal breathing, which is different diaphragmatic control. Okay, I'm gonna cooperate with that mask. I don't wanna wear one, but I will wear one, and I am wearing one when I have to. But I'm also practicing my nasal breathing. So let's just take it in through the nose.

And out through your nose. Inhaling through your nose. Exhaling through your nose. Much as you can, it's gonna feel different for some of us. You keep going, I'm gonna cue.

You start to feel, connect the axial elongation, your whole self tall, rooted into the floor with your feet. That sense of energy through the top of your head. I like the antenna. Today I might use kind of vapor imagery, right? So there's just kind of like this essence of motion that's coming up from the top of us.

Rather than stick straight, let's think more like an ethereal kind of motion that's happening, okay. Yeah. Couple more rounds of breathing in through the nose, exhaling through the nose. Knowing we can really slow things down. We can nurture ourself with this kind of breath and this kind of movement.

So if your hands are, if you're holding yourself, wonderful, you can let that go. And I want us to start just moving the arms and the wrists around in a circle and kind of feel how that works in you. I'm gonna circle my wrists as I raise my arms up. Remember, this is just movement, and there's nothing right or wrong. You don't have to make a pose or a shape today.

Okay. Now, I'm gonna start letting my arms do a little more kind of internal, external rotation senses, and moving 'em, I'm doing little circles of the arms. Yeah, little circles. And one more image. I use this one a lot, is water or fluid, liquid, something like that. And maybe that we're like in the water.

We happen to be near the ocean, right? So we see dolphins a lot kind of jumping out of that water, and it's like, what would it be like to swim in there? Peaceful, hopefully. Guided and glossy and kind of smooth. So let's work with that. I wanna have you stand now.

We're gonna get a little more movement going. Split stance, so one foot is forward, one foot is back. I have my back foot heel lifted. That feels good to me. I want you, everybody, to bend both knees.

And really feel how you ground yourself down, between, weight is centered. And then here we go, taking those arms a little more lifted now. And now, here we go, we're gonna start letting and making and inviting more movement. I'm doing arms, but I'm also thinking of my spine and my ribcage. Swaying, liquid-like movement.

I'm gonna ask us just to think about the pelvis slightly in a posterior tilt. That's all, just a little posterior tilt. Notice what you just may have felt with that change of alignment. Perpetual movement. Try to take your body in places, new places, kind of all the time.

So I am exploring space around me, letting myself move through the space in front of me, the space to the side, above, to the side, maybe behind. Here's a big one. I want everyone to, whatever leg you have behind you, reach your arms opposite of that leg. Reach your ribcage to the side of the leg that's behind you. Arms up. Body goes round.

I'm dropping my torso forward, somewhat slumping over that leg. Roll back up. Let's do it again. Arms up, ribs left, take your body away from the leg that's behind you. Round your torso forward over the leg. Check a little posterior pelvis.

Roll yourself up. Beautiful, take the leg that's in the back forward and swap it out. Okay, so you've got the other leg forward. Center the weight between both of the feet, a little posterior tilt in that pelvis. And then here you go, wherever you want your body to start moving.

So my arms are pretty buttery like this. That feels really nice to me. I'm gonna now maybe invite my ribcage to have more play. Less arm and more ribs maybe. Let's see what it feels like. Check that posterior tilt.

So if you're knowing what fascial lines we're working on, please don't really be too academic about it. Feel it. Feel it and less thinking. Less thinking, more feeling, right? Take those arms, lift. Body reaching away from the leg that's in the back.

Gonna round forward over that front leg. Flexion. Roll up to standing. I'm gonna lift up my chest. Arms will come with me a little bit more, reaching ribcage side to side, maybe front, back. Arms over to the side, away from the back leg. Check that posterior pelvis.

Keep rounding your spine, rounding over that front leg. Roll yourself to standing. Oh, should feel pretty good. Back leg forward, yeah, keep moving, perpetual movement. We're not stopping into any shapes really.

Too many. Take your feet apart. Little soft knee bends, guys. Okay, we're gonna move our spine. I want you to take your chest up. And I'm gonna bend my knees, and I'm reaching my tailbone way back behind me.

And my chest as far forward to you as I can. Dropping my arms, dropping my head and chest, rolling up to standing. This is just kind of ooey, gooey chest lift, bend the knees, reach your tailbone back. Remember you're very liquid-like in your movement. Let's do one of those type of arch and curl over toward one side, so either your right side or your left side.

Arching down. Curling up. No specific way to get to the other side. Arch and curl. As you curl up, we're gonna transition down to the ground.

However you wanna get down there. However you wanna get down. However you wanna sit. I like sitting in diamond because it does center my pelvis, center my sits bones. All right, time to do a little blend of some Franklin work and some more fascial stretch therapy work.

So either side, I want you to take your hand, start squeezing your forearm. And squeezing up on your biceps and your deltoids. Up on your shoulder and your neck. And so with the Franklin work, I've learned some. Had a lot of workshops.

Squeezing your tissue is if you're trying to get water out of there. Hydrating, you're also really attending to all the nerves, right, the nerves that are in these muscles, in these tissues, giving some attention to it. And squeeze your hands. Are you holding tension in there? There's probably a chance you are.

Yeah, oh, go back up the same side, everybody, and see if you can get your hand to kind of over the top and back of that shoulder, and maybe onto the side of your neck. Yeah. And just give some squeezes. Maybe in the front, on your scalenes. Notice all the Zooming we've all been doing. Like today, right?

But our neck probably holding a lot. Sometimes we need to just touch. Work it out. Okay, let's do the same on the other side. Hand just kind of squeezing on your forearms, your wrists. Up your arm.

Notice yourself, right? Gonna be all right. Yeah, so you go up on your neck and your shoulder, around the back of that shoulder. Boy, it feels good there. Around the side of the neck.

Squeeze. Really squeeze the tissue. Squeeze it. Kinda like hydrating, right? Getting that flow. Unsticking some stuff if there isn't as much flow. Sometimes you just need to bring attention to the area that needs it.

I'm wearing the heart shirt on purpose because I want this whole class to be very heartfelt for yourself. And for one another. Well, movement heals. I say it all the time, and we all know that. Okay, and then go ahead everybody and just settle for a minute, and just hopefully that feels pretty good and alive.

Now, we're gonna do some more kind of fascial stretch sequencing for the neck. So take one hand to your sternum, that meet kind of where your collarbone is. And then the other hand on it, on top of it. Glide your shoulders up. And then glide your shoulders down.

And I want your hands to also kind of drag your skin down. Let's do it again. Let's breathe in through our nose. Shoulders going up. And shoulders coming down, use your hands and kind of pull down that skin one more time. Some of us are probably already feeling that stretch response.

It's a stretch response we're looking for in the tissues right all through, you know, anything through the front anterior line. Okay, so now from there, I really like keeping my hands pressing and pulling a little. Lean your head away from one shoulder or toward one shoulder. Only go to where you feel the stretch response. I don't want anyone to push into, oh yeah.

Nothing too heavy. This is soft work. This is nurturing work. Stay there and take three cycles of breath in the nose and out the nose. (soothing music) Let the sound kind of wash some ease through your system. Now, if it feels good, I'll keep closing my eyes because it feels right for me to kind of disappear into the music.

And then what I'm gonna do is start to move my skull in a bit of a circumference movement, like a circle. You can trace it with your nose if you'd like. And use your eyes to look around that circle. You know how I love the circles. Oh man, it feels good.

Breathing, guys, get the breath in there. Feel free to move your head any way you'd like. I'm gonna explore making my head turning and looking down to the floor, to my bottom, knee, and shoulder. And then up to the top diagonal of my room a couple times. Let your jaw really hang heavy.

Ah, hands dragging down the skin on the front of the chest. Now, center your head if you'd like to. I'm now gonna let the hands go. Feel the difference. I want you to continue letting your head make a circle, kind of a quarter circle, so you're looking down toward your lap, and then reposition your head straight forward, okay?

Other hand, other hand. One time, shoulders up and down. Use the hands to press against yourself for support and drag down. Lean the head to the ear. To the shoulder.

May get kinda drifty, it's wonderful. All right. Just recognize the differences. And then if you like those circle movements of the skull and the nose, you can start those now. Find a place to really take a big inhalation and see.

And then the big exhalation. (soothing music) Pause. Take three big cycles as you're pausing there. And can you release into the feeling a little deeper? Kinda underwater and liquid-like. What would it feel like to have some cool water on your neck right there?

Feel that one? (laughs) Okay. Carry on. I'm gonna do my head movement, looking down to my shoulder and up to the top corner of the room. That's my choice. But make your choice yours. You can move that neck and head any way you want. Can experiment with opening your jaw, sticking out your tongue.

It makes up a big difference, too. Okay, lean, hands come down. I want you to circle your head down towards your lap. And then roll yourself back up. Oh, ah, it's so good. Okay.

Fingertips are going to come behind your back. On top maybe like cervical seven, thoracic one. Back there. And elbows are gonna come close to your head. Okay. Let's get some rib movement.

And I am doing a little bit of reaching these elbows upward. And what that's helping my body feel is some ribcage kind of suspension or traction. And I want you to think about the upper ribs kind of more near the underarm region. Good. You guys, round your spine. I'm gonna make some circular movements now.

Every time I come to the top, I wanna reach the elbows up. A couple more in this direction. Circular, very liquid-like. Free. You can make the circles as big or small as you need to. I'm gonna go the other way now.

We're still trying to breathe in the nose and out the nose. (soothing music) Slow. Go slow. One more circle. And you can let yourself rest. And I want to bring in a Kathy Grant listening ears, so I do this one a lot.

One more for our neck. So it's that feeling of rotating your head, your neck, and your eyes to one shoulder. But let's play more with your ears and your auditory. What do you hear out of it, from the front ear, or maybe the back ear? Really listen.

Possibly improve your range of movement in the rotation. Use your ears. Let the other ear do it. Change sides. Nice and slow. Unhinge your jaw.

(soothing music) And your breath. Come back to center. Ah, feeling good? Let's do some cats. Come onto your knees. Gonna do some cats and some hip flexor stretching, kind of moving things now down from our torso into pelvis and things, so I want you to take your hands down your mat.

But before we quadruped and cat and all that, I'm gonna enjoy just swaying those ribs again. Gonna spread the palm of my hand on my mat and reach my arms as long as I can forward. Really spread the hand. And start to let your head come down between your arms. Again, I'm going to just really concentrate and invite ribcage movement.

Leading with the ribs from one side to the next. Keep that going as you start coming up into a cat. Flexion of the spine. (soothing music) May need to walk your hands a little more forward for this next suggestion, which is to start to extend the hips forward. Mm-hmm.

And continuing to move. And I'm gonna move back through that cat. And back into what kind of looks more like that child's pose. I'm gonna go through that a couple more times. So the swaying. Moving with the breath.

Extending the hips forward, getting a beautiful anterior line stretch. I'm gonna pause the side-to-side moving and do a little more uplift of the sternum now. And then back. (soothing music) Let's do that one more time, everybody. Coming forward, pelvis coming forward.

This time as our pelvis is forward, pause for a moment and look over one shoulder. Look over one shoulder. And I'm gonna bend that knee that I'm looking at. It feels right. My other arm is bending a little bit, too.

And then let that transit. Can you move that up and over to the other side? So the pelvis on one half is coming closer to the floor, looking over the shoulder with some rotation, taking it back to the back knee. If this is not working for you on your hands, you can do it on your elbow, get creative. And other side.

Remember to breathe big breaths. Transition to the other side. Gonna linger right here for a breath or two. I feel like my side needs me to stay here for a minute. If you have a side like that, move to it.

(indistinct) a real liquid-like fluid. And them come out of that. Sit back. Use your hips, really think of how far back can you reach those hips. But ease in your hips. I'm gonna now let my elbows and hands relax.

And instead of so much rib movement now, I'm gonna start thinking and feeling, let my low back sway. And my pelvis and lumbar spine have more sway. Let that bring me up out of that kind of child's pose place. Whoa, it feels so good to move like this. I like it. And I'm facing you again. Hope you guys are feeling good.

So we're gonna move now into that, done it before, we can reference our shape that we know in the Pilates world of mermaid. Something like this, okay? Where one foot is in front of us, and one leg is bent in front of us, one leg is bent behind us. Yeah, and then lean back on your arms just quick. Just kinda lean back here for a minute.

Scoot over a tiny bit. Okay, this whole next section is really about this pelvic region. So quad hip flexor, iliacus, adductors, you know what I'm talking about, all this. Glutes, QL, lumbar, all that. It's a lot of stuff. Okay, so here we are on our hands.

I've done this pretty recently, in fact. Right, so that feels pretty good. I'm gonna just take some breath there, nose and nose. I don't want you to get static, right? This is not just about making a shape and contracting.

Keep moving. And I'm gonna end up now though, I'm feeling my way through that. And I'm taking my hands on the floor in front of this front knee. Holding in the rib movement a little bit. (soothing music) And do some arch and curl.

So I need to come up on my fingertips. I want to, from pubic bone to head, get elongated, get as high as I can. Walk your hands as far forward on this diagonal as you can. Mm-hmm, as far forward as you can. And get your chest as low as you can.

And touch your head down. A lot of you can. That's great. No big deal if you can't. In a moment, let your body be heavy on this leg. What do you feel? Now, we get to come up.

I want us to think about where we lead ourself up from this. Let's go back with our pelvis. What if you had a friend behind you helping you, you know, kind of, they had a hug, they were hugging you. And they were hugging your ribs and help picking you up. And you're gonna carry yourself all the way up and do it again.

Maybe that friend is behind you gently pressing your back forward. You're walking and your hands out. You're getting long. You're breathing. Letting that head go. Check in. Can you drop a little more?

What did you feel? And then we come up. I like sets of threes on this kind of thing. Let's go it one more time. A lot of lift in that sternum. A lot of extension.

Walking hands out. See, this last time, can you go even? What does it feel like? Tiny bit farther forward. And one more full cycle of breath here. (soothing music) Roll up.

And we're gonna go now to elbow on the floor. And this elbow is straight out from my hip. Gonna take the arm up. But as I said earlier, it's not just arm. I'm gonna think about my ribcage reaching toward the arm.

Pushing these upper ribs here by the underarm. There's ribs in there. Let those muscles between all the ribs get some elongation stretch. Slowly rotating. I'm gonna try to aim my shoulders square for the floor.

I want to allow my lower lumbar QL pelvis area to really feel this stretch. Breathe deeply through my nose in and out. We get that two more times, so aren't we lucky? Take the arm up. Might be nice to look at the arm and do something with the hand and the arm.

It's also in the ribs. Remembering those ribs, reach up. They're trying to elongate away from the pelvis to create more space and openness and ease. Maybe reached, got a little farther with your effort of arm stretch. What it feels like to effort a little more rotation with breath.

Get low, as low as you can. And we have one more. Oh. As Elizabeth Larkin would say, one of my favorite people, take the longest journey that you can from this arm to the back leg. The longest journey possible. Every time she used that, I love referencing that and thinking about what that would feel like in movement.

Great. Oh my goodness, let's come up. We need to do the other side. Before we do, take your feet forward, everybody. Ooh, ooh, yeah. Feels good.

Feel like my nervous system is down 25,000 notches. Just drop your legs in and out like this. Keep the calm breath going. Keep the calm focus going. Hope you're feeling some ooey, yummy sweetness in your body. Okay. We'll get the other side, right?

So you have one leg goes behind, one leg comes forward. We started with our hands behind us. And you're doing that, and you can just sink back in your shoulders a little bit. And just kind of notice what you feel through your quadricep and pelvis and hip and all this front line. Now, just noticing it.

Okay, and then the sequence really starts with our hands in front of the other knee. So we have to come on up, place those hands down. Check in. Drop that breath, drop yourself down. Okay. Here we go. Start that extension of the spine.

Arch. Walk out. Walk to that corner of my room. Stretch, and let that chest come down as low as possible on that leg. And I feel a really nice (indistinct) and stretch around my glutes adductors on the side. And then we come backward.

It's that friend behind us kind of helping us out of our slumber a little bit. They're saying, come on up. Okay, we've got this. Let's go again. Another effort. Walking up, lead with the sternum and chest.

Walk a little farther if you can, if you want. What do you see? Let those hands really feel the floor. Let your body get heavy and spend a breath cycle here. (soothing music) (indistinct) You can use your hands to help push you up.

Push with those hands. That's okay. One more time. All the way to the left. Walk out a little farther if you can. (soothing music) Little breaths and let it go. Good. Hands come in, elbow down.

Body facing forward. Elbow opposite hip. On ribs. All right, everybody reach the ribcage. Now, think more of your ribs here by your armpit. Up toward the ceiling.

And the longest journey from that beginning movement all the way around into this rotation. Trying to get my torso to face completely square to the floor. Oh, you're feeling that stretch. Same place for me. Getting it in my lower lumbar, right by my pelvis, that QL muscle.

Mm-hmm. And we have two more of those, kind of swimming movements. Ribs lift. Feels like you could take a giant yawn. I'm efforting my back knee a little bit down too, just to increase that sense of elongation on this side.

Kinda play with reaching your body. forward or backward, left to right. Can you get more rotation possibly? Can you get heavier on your leg? Full breath cycle.

(soothing music) One more. And around. Okay. Okay, great. Everyone, we are going to focus on our glutes.

That definitely got them, but we're going to do more. So find your way onto your back. And go on a little diagonal with my body positioning just in case you need to see it, but you don't need to look. So take one knee, cross an ankle over a knee. But all kind of the prep for figure four, but it's not really a figure four, okay?

So I particularly right now have my right ankle on my left knee. I want to rotate toward my left and see if I can get myself so rotated that my foot finds the floor. And then trying to take my right thigh and opening it or pressing it down toward the other leg. I'm getting this external rotation. I don't wanna think about the biomechanics.

I'm feeling this openness, this stretch in this glute med here. And let me get at that a couple times. So you just returned to on your back. You still have that ankle over knee. And whatever the top foot is, let it be kind of guiding you toward, you know, so I've got my right foot on top, but I'm going left.

And I wanna go so far that my right foot can land on the floor. Spend a breath there. If it works for you to continue, I'm opening, dropping that right knee. Feels good to me to sometimes do this with my arms over head. Dropping that thigh as much as my tissue will allow.

And then we have one more. Things in threes, okay? So on your back. Same thing, that foot's gonna come across the mid line, dropping to the ground. If it works to let that side drop. Ah, there's kind of some separation of, kind of I feel right here in my glutes.

We're just dropping off that femur a little bit. Good, and then return to center and give yourself one full crossover. So your knees are fully crossed. And then one more time, just drop the knees to the side that you were going to. Arms above your head.

Clasp your fingers, take a big breath here. (soothing music) And then we've got the other leg to do, the other hip to do, so just find yourself uncross, and across ankle over knee. And then here I go. Whichever foot is on top, it's my left one now, I'm taking it all the way to my right. And hopefully that foot will drop and feel the floor.

And then allowing your femur to just fall or cascade or sway down toward the other leg and foot. And opening up the pelvis. And a breath there. Coming back to center. You've got it twice more. Over.

The foot lands on the floor, and that's all you can do. That's so perfect. That works, so continue letting that thigh sway down away from your torso. This is a fantastic glute stretch. You feel all this tissue.

I don't need to tell you what you're feeling. I know you know what you're feeling. Come back to center. Yay team, one more time. Foot to the floor. Take those arms over head. Let the leg drop.

Full breath in through the nose, out through the nose. Back to center. Full crossover, knee against knee. And the knees just now sway easily down to the floor. Arms above head.

(soothing music) Yeah. Back to center. Bring our knees to our chest, everybody. Oh, yeah. And just round yourself into a little curved shape. Feet down, legs down.

I'm gonna stay on this diagonal just because it might be more useful if you needed to see something. Okay, I'm going to do a little kind of, well, I adjusted myself. A little side roll. I'm gonna bring my elbow and my knee toward one another here. Almost like I'd be rolling over in my bed to go to take a little snooze.

I am gonna roll onto my side. And round my back. Let the back of my back skin just feel like it's getting some opening. And then lead with the leg, lead with the arm. Open yourself back out.

Kind of making that X shape on the floor. Other side. So the top arm and the top leg come toward the center. You're rolling into a little, almost like a side-sleeping ball shape. Softening the skin on your back, everybody.

And then open the shape again, arm and leg, reach away from center. Out into that letter X. We're gonna do one more each side. Let's spend a breath cycle here. (soothing music) Making that movement change.

Somewhat like a side-curved sleeping, fetal position. And then open it back out. We'll have the other side one more time, big breath. Exhale into that curve. Experiment with rounding that sacrum underneath you a little bit, maybe your head down a little bit.

Stretch the skin on your back. And open that body out. Okay. I'm gonna have us come around. Whew, use your hands to help you get up. How you doing?

Okay, let's stretch our calves a little bit. There can be some hidden exploration there, some need to explore the calves. So I want you to take those hands again. Widen them, stretch the skin on your hand. Keep yourself moving.

You can think down dog. I'm gonna just lift my hips up. I don't wanna straighten my knees. I wanna keep my knees bent. Feet are pretty wide. Legs are pretty wide. And as I'm shifting weight from one arm to the other, I'm slowly going to see if my heels will come also down lower to the floor.

Okay. I'm not forcing it. So the swaying movement may be all you need to get those ankles, lower those heels lower. For some of you, that comes quite easy and wonderful. For some of you new, it does not come easy, and don't worry.

What I do want all of us to do is pause when you're weighted on one leg more than the other one. Okay, so then the free leg, I want you to lift it and take that foot, and just put it right on your calf. And just slide kind of your toes and your toenails down the calf to your heel. So if your heel's not down, that's fine. You go where it goes.

If you don't like this position on your hands, you can do this on your elbows. Keep swaying your weight. Remember, we're not stopping. We're perpetual movement. Let the movement be at your ankle, your hips. Yeah.

One more. And then step to the other side. If you need a little hand weight break, that's fine. Okay, we've got the other leg, the other calf. So we're going up. So shifting your weight to one side.

Ooh, that feels so wonderful. And then the other foot lifts, and I take my toes, and I hook behind that knee, and I drag or slowly, even that for me, I'm feeling a lot more release in my calf. It's when the other foot came on my leg like that, that just, that communication really made a change. Continuing to sway. (soothing music) Yeah. Feeling that.

Okay, go onto two feet. Bend your knees. Take some weight off your hands for a moment. Let's go upside down one more time. We're upside down. Let's see what it feels like to get the heels closer.

Keep shifting your weight. Kind of pressing through my arms to help me shift weight. Bend your knees, everybody. Come down with your knees again. Tops, of feet down, sink back.

And you curve more around the pelvis, lumbar, pelvis, sacrum. Continuing to shift ribs. You're still swaying. I'm gonna face a little on the diagonal. What I want us all to do now is take the hands over to right or left. Might even face you directly on.

So my hands are going left. I'm gonna really, really ask my right ribcage and right pelvis to go right. I'm gonna breathe deeply. Let's do three cycles, the nose breathing. Get heavy. Sink, sink, sink.

(soothing music) Mm-hmm. Other side. Arms reaching one way. Ribs reaching opposite. Head is down. Body low if you can.

If your knees don't like these crouched positions, I should've said earlier, you can always just fold into a cross-legged sit. One more breath cycle, nose breathing. Okay. Come to center. You come on up. Let's find a sitting positions that feels okay for you.

We're gonna do this little exercise to finish class. We're going to breathe in for three counts, hold our breath for three counts, exhale for three counts, and hold. Your timing is your timing. Try to do it through our nose. Okay, and support ourself.

Feel that work that we can do from the diaphragm. So here we go, inhaling for one, two, three. Hold, one, two, three. Exhale, one, two, three. And hold, two, three. Let's go again.

Inhale. Hold, two, three. Exhale, two, three. And hold, two, three. A couple more rounds.

(soothing music) And keep it calm. In through the nose for three. Holding for three. Exhaling for three. While you're here, practice some listening ears. You don't have to turn your head. Just listen.

What's around you now? What sound is around you this way? And let those shoulders lower. (soothing music) Find your way to standing, everyone. Go slow.

Whew. How do you feel up here now? Now, let's do one more split stance. Pick a foot. And bend those knees, posterior tilt. One last opportunity to restretch here after some of that seated work, arms up. Like we started. We're ending like we began.

Go opposite of the leg that's behind you. Around, down. Just change feet. Other foot goes back. Little posterior tilt. Arms up. Body goes away from the leg that's in the back.

Can you feel that? Around you go, feet together. Feet apart. Lean one hip to the side. Lean one hip to the side.

Couple more breath cycles in us here. (soothing music) To the other side. To the other side, arms away. Round the spine again, feel your weight centered between those legs, roll up. Taking your hip to the other side.

Arms reach away from the hip. Body rounds down. Nice. Walk your feet together. We wanna roll up to standing. Let's take your hands, circle those wrists.

Thank you for class. Thank you for moving with me. Hope you found some sweet releases. And in your body, maybe your thoughts, maybe your mind, maybe you just your heart and your soul, you know? So let's keep moving together. I really just thank you all so, so much.

As you know, we've got lots of things going on in the week, and tomorrow is Mary, Thursday is Kristi, Friday is Leah Stewart. We have Mr. Brett Howard actually on this Thursday, I should say. So tune in, we've got so much great programming coming for everyone all the time. We really appreciate everyone. And with that, I will sign out.

Everyone have a great week. Okay, bye.

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Pilates with Amy Havens: Move with Amy

Comments

So grateful for this start to my day. Thank you Amy fit bringing fluid movement and a sense of calm energy to my mind, body & spirit!! 🙏🏻 PS Super cute top you are wearing!! 🥰
Lori
2 people like this.
Loved this! I’m a puddle on the floor now I feel so relaxed.   Not sure when I’m getting back up.  Thanks so much Amy, as always. 
Jennifer E
2 people like this.
What a perfect class to start the day! All of your classes, Amy, are so appreciated! Thank you for sharing your movement, your wisdom, your care!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful, thank you x
2 people like this.
Thank you so much Amy, I was feeling so much tension before I took this class and now feel way better both physically and mentally. Thank you ❤
Blissful Amy, thanks so much! x
1 person likes this.
Thank you Amy! I’ve missed the last few live classes and needed a release tonight after a long day and this was it. Hope to join you live soon. 
Lynda E
1 person likes this.
Big fat heart emoji!!! This was exactly what I needed! Thank you, Amy! 
1 person likes this.
Loved it just as much as your last one like this! Shared it with a couple friends as well. I felt like jelly after and so calm. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Bravo, Amy. A wonderful combination of perpetual, fluid movement freeing up the fascial lines, whilst providing a refreshing gift for the body, mind and soul! Such impeccable, calming cueing as well, loved the images! Thank you for sharing this wholesome much needed class, just a lovely respite to let go of tension and rigidity and restoring a sense of suppleness and mobility!
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