Class #427

Beginner Series #4

65 min - Class
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This is the fourth Beginner level class in a series of 10 that will be taught by Niedra Gabriel. The Beginner series is designed to lay an instrumental foundation for all your Pilates mat work. Join Niedra for each class and notice the improvement in your exercises as you progress through the series.
What You'll Need: Mat

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So good evening everybody. This is lesson number four. So let's start with having you lie down on your backs on the map. Make sure that if you have a pillow or a towel under your head, you're using it to create length in the back of the neck. And then bend the knees to the feet are a little bit closer to your bottom and bring your feet together and your knees together. And just take a moment to create length through the whole spine.

You want to feel your tail going in one direction, the back part of your head and the other. That's better, Tim. Green Your Chin down a little bit. That's right. So you want to feel the head long, not with a chin up. Just normal to you. So you were standing and you were looking straight ahead and take the hands by your sides and lengthen them away from your shoulders, Eh, we are. And very gently start to broaden the collarbones.

Broaden the shoulders towards the mat and check again that the arms are long and then connected to your powerhouse. Pull the stomach in and up. Check that you feel your back nice and long and gently narrow the hips towards each other. Support your inner thighs towards each other so you're hugging the midline and just start with the warmup without anything changing. Lift your right knee towards your chest and then put the foot back down again and lift the left knee up towards your chest and put the foot down. And Cindy, bring the right knee in towards your chest.

Right knee comes up this way. There we go. And back. How'd the mid line and the left knee? It comes up and down and the right knee comes up and dow and the left knee comes up and down. Very good. Now hug the midline again. Lengthen the spine. Pull the powerhouse in and up.

Make sure your pelvis and spine we main quiet as you lift your right knee again, keep your stomach in and lift your left knee up. That'd hug the midline here a squeeze the knees together. Tighten the hips together. Use your stomach to keep it lifted and put the right foot down and the left foot down and hug the mid line with your hips. And reversing it. Left knee comes up, right knee comes up, left foot goes down, right foot goes down, right knee comes up, left knee comes up, right foot goes down, left foot goes down and left knee comes up, right knee comes up, left foot goes down and right foot goes down. Take both hands and place them on your pull your stomach muscles in and up to you.

Feel your belly dropping towards your spine. Hug The midlines or hug the hips together. Feel how the thighs are moving in as if someone's got their hand between your inner thigh. Squeeze my hand, Megan. Yes. So you work those inner thighs. Now bring the knees in towards the chest without your stomach pushing out to the knees. Come up towards the chest. Cindy. Bring the knees in. Yes. Now have the midline here. Get the hips narrow.

Pull the stomach in and float your feet back to the map without letting your stomach press out. So with your hands there to help you feel what's happens, pull your stomach in and up and lift the knees again. Bringing the knees up, tighten the stomach and float the feet down, narrowing the hips and keeping the back long as you go down. Now squeeze your knees together so when you go up, don't let them go up. One at a time. Knee stay together. And if the knees again, pulling the knees up, even if you lose your stomach, you keep your knees together. Now pull the stomach in. Feel your back long. Float the feet down.

And one more time. Lift the Nisa, keeping the stomach way, way, way in. When they lift your head for a minute, I think it's better for you with put it back down and float your feet back down. Keeping your back long and your stomach in very good. Lift your arms to the ceiling. So in this position, pull the shoulders down away from your ears so you feel your neck long and pull the stomach muscles in. Now feel, just be aware of where the ribs are, the floating ribs and where that where you wasted because you're going to close the ribs slightly and glide them towards the waist. Lifting your head and chest up. Pull the stomach in and reach the arms long.

Feel the ribs close a little bit. Shoulders down, away from your ears. Shoulders down. That's it. And then lower back down and lift the arms to the ceiling and lift up again. Closing the ribs. Feel them glide under the skin. Very good and lower back down. Very good.

Now relaxing arms a minute. We're gonna clean this up a little bit because it's easy to crunch with the head. I want you to imagine you have an aid under your, between your chin and your chest. So as you lift up the head, the distance between your chin and your, your chest doesn't change. So you're not lifting by contracting here. You're lifting by working in this area of the body. The head flow too.

Just also it helps if you take your gaze and you gaze right in this direction, kind of on a diagonal. So Rebecca, just lift your arms for a minute. Pull the shoulders away from the ears. That so it's all here. There you go. When you look out, lower back down. The other thing you want to watch, we'll put the shoulders away from your ears. As you lift. Don't let the shoulders come up so it's all ribs much better. So it's all hinges right here and lower back down.

So let's all do this together. Lift the arms to the ceiling. Pull the stomach muscles in and up. Press the shoulders away from your ears. Yes. Now start to lift. Very Good Megan. Lift up and keep the shoulders down. So see that's it. And lower back down.

You can work your head forward a little bit and lift up again, lifting up so your head does come. Look in that direction over there. There we go. Lower back down and lift up again. Closing the rib, reaching the arms, shoulders down, away from your ears and lower back down. Very good. Now add the knees to this. So lift up again. Bring the knees to your chest. Lift your head and chest up. Both knees up and lower. Back Down, controlling with your powerhouse and lift up again.

Pull the stomach muscles in and up. The hands comparable to the floor. A little lower down, Cindy and back. And one more time. Lifting up. Use a powerhouse. Ribs. The hips, contracting, the back gets long, the hands come parallel. Bring the knees in a little more. There you go. And float back down. Lifting the arms up and rest for a minute. Bring the arms down by your sides. That was very, very good. And now, same principles for your hundreds. Lift the arms again to the ceiling.

Pull your stomach muscles in an uplift your head and chest up. Bring the knees to your chest, knees come into your chest. Hands parallel. Lift the legs to the ceiling. Start pumping with your arms. Breathing in for five. Exhale. Nice. Long breath in. Two, three, four, five. Exhale. Nice. Long breath. Three, three, four, five. Exhale, very good. Four to three, four, five. Exhale. Three, four, five, five, two oh five. Exhale, three, four, five, six, two, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, seven, three, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five, eight, two, three, four, five.

Exhale, three, four, five, nine, two, four, five. Exhale, three, four, five. Last set, three, four, five, six, seven. Very good. Bend your knees, head to the Mat, feet to the mat. Take a breath. That was cool. This was the first time you did not have real hundreds, so stretch your arms over your head. Really reached with the arms. Stretch your legs out on the mat just for a minute and just reach. Stretch the arms way back there, Tim. Way, way, way back.

Get those shoulders to stretch and open. Reach with the arms. Very good. Then bring the arms back to the ceiling. Bend your knees and roll up to a sitting position or rock, whichever way. Come up to a sitting position. You can grab the backs of your thighs to bring you up. Very good whole behind the knees for roll back and roll up.

Start by sitting tall and just check that the shoulders are away from your ears. Now pull the stomach muscles in and up so you start to connect to that corset around your waist area. Lean back slightly and start to Tuck the tail so you drop the s, the tail under you, the sacred rolling back, pulling the stomach into opening up in the waist. Keep the stomach pulling in and come back up and sit up nice and tall. Check that the shoulders are wide and the waist is long and again, roll back halfway and roll back up and sit up nice and tall. Lifting in the waist.

Shoulders are down, away from the years. One more time. This way. Rolling back stomach is in. Timmy wants to look forward in towards your center, looking toward your powerhouse and roll back up and sit up nice and tall. Same thing with the arms law. Check that the shoulders are down. Start to pull the stomach in. As you roll back, tail goes under you.

Sacred goes under. See if you can roll til the waist starts. Get close to touching. Come back up, sitting up nice and tall and rollback again. Same Way. Shoulders are down, away from your ears. Come back up and now see about rolling to the Mac. Rolling down one vertebrae at a time.

Lengthening out all the way down, all the way down, all the way down until you're resting with your head on the mat. The hands come to the ceiling. Very good. Now lift your head and chest and roll up again. If you need help, you grab your size to help you row up. That's it. Very Good, Sandy. Okay. And roll back again. Curling your tail way, way, way under. You stomach his way in.

That's it. Rolling down. Rolling down. Rolling down. Arms. Come to the ceiling. Press your shoulders away from your ears. Lift your head and chest. That's it. And Roll Up. Nice. Roll, roll, roll. Good, good. And again, roll back down. Dropping your head forward, pulling your stomach in, articulating through your spine. This is looking so good. Head comes to the mat. Arms go to the ceiling.

Check that the shoulders are away from the ears. Lift your head in, chest and roll up. Shoulders down, Wendy. Good, good, good. After you come Ro. Very nice. Okay, very good. Stretch your legs up. See now stretch your arms in front of you. Start by lifting up with the spine and imagine you have a big beach ball in front of you so there's a big ball who's have to lift up and bend over the ball and keep that round shape. As you start to roll back through, rolling down the shoulders, drop away from you ears. Tuck the tail under you. Look down into the center of your body. Rolling, downloading, downloading, downloading until your flat. Stretch your arms way over your head. Now bring the arms up and lengthen the shoulders away from the ears.

Lift your head and chest and see if you can peel yourself off the mat. If you can't get up with your legs straight, you bend your knees to come back up. That's it. And Rola. Good, good, good to roll back down again. And you can work with bent knees or straight legs and you modify as his neat necessary for each of you rolling down shoulders away from the ears. Very good. Arms go back. Once you're down, reach with the arms nice and long and lift your arms.

Lift your head and chest and then bend the knees if you need to to roll up. Peel yourself off the floor. Very good. One last time. Rolling back. Pull the stomach muscles in and fill up your back ribs. Sandy shoulders are down, down, down, down, down, down, and a little wider.

Shoulders down. That's it. That's it. Good, good, good. Stretch your arms back. Nice and long. Very good. Lift your head and chest and pull the stomach up as you start to roll. Come on. That's it. That's it. Bend the knees if you need to to come all the way up. Very good.

Bend your knees, stretch your arms out. And now this is the transition for single leg circles. So roll down again until you're lying flat on the mat with your arms, by your sides. So simple version is first. So organize your powerhouse, check that your back is long, your stomach is in your hips, up tight. And if you right like straight up to the ceiling and check that your knee is long and very gently, turn the foot out slightly and bring the buttocks together.

Starting with the leg, going towards your left side, crossing your body. Take it down, around and up, and pause with your heel. Opposite your nose and circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and stretch your knee. Circle the leg and up and circle the leg and up and reverse it, and circle the leg and up and circle the leg and up. Good.

Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up. One more time. Circle that leg up. Now lengthen that leg to the ceiling. Pull the stomach and stretch your knee, and then put the foot down on the mat. Next to the other one. Hug the midline. Pull the stomach muscles in. Lift your left leg to the ceiling.

Check that the leg is long. Very gently. Turn it out. Tightened the hips. Check that your pelvis is down on the mat. Yes, that's a timid against star to the right, down, around, and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg up. Chin down a bit. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up and reverse it and circle the leg up.

Circle the leg across your body every time. Circle the leg up, circle the leg and up. One more time. Circle the leg and up. Put the leg back down on the mat. Now with the straight leg variation, if you're right leg to the ceiling again, make sure the leg is long. Take your left leg extended down on the mat. Have two long legs. Take your right hip and lengthen it towards your left heel. So the waist is long. Linkedin the left leg away from you.

Starting again to the right. Cross down, around and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg up slightly. Turned out. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg up and reverse it and cross over and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up.

Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and uphold the leg with both hands and give yourselves a gentle stretch. Now when as you're stretching, check that the shoulders along the neck isn't long. The stomach is in the hips along. Put your hands down by your sides and slowly lower the leg down, leaching out with the lake. Pulling the stomach up, long back, long summer, long legs, all the way down. Line Long. The legs are together. The stomach is up, the hips and knee. Lift your left leg to the ceiling.

Make sure it's very gently turned out. The hips affirm. Start across to the right circle, around and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up. Circle the leg. Reverse it and circle the leg and up. Circle the leg and up.

Circle the leg up. Circle the leg up. Circle the Megan up. Very good. Hold the leg with both hands. Check that your shoulders are down. As you're giving the legs a stretch, you don't want to compromise your upper body so the shoulders should be moving towards the Mat. To Wendy opened the shoulder. Yes. Now stomach is in back is long. Put your hands by your side and slowly float the leg down. Long leg, long stomach, long back, narrow hips all the way to the mat.

Lovely work. Stretch both arms over your head. Give yourselves a nice stretch. Now if you're more flexible on the hands, going to the floor easily. See if you can take your ribs down towards the floor as well so the back becomes long. Lovely. Bring the arms to the ceiling. Lift your head and chest and roll apple. Bend your knees and roll up.

Come up to a sitting position. Then your knees if you need to, or rock up. Very nice. Now put your hands by your hips and transition for rolling like a ball. Have a look at where your feet are. Pull your powerhouse in and up and lift your bottom and bring it forward.

Yes, yes, yes. Very good. Whole behind the knees. Pull the stomach in for rolling like a ball. Lift your feet up and press your feet toward your bottom two. You're nice and tight. Keep the shape roll toward your shoulders. Roll up in balance. Roll back, roll up and balance.

Roll back. Keep the stomach in and look down to the head. Follow the minor, the spine. Roll back. Roll up in balance. Roll back. Roll up in balance. One more time. Roll back. Roll up and balance. Good. Now shift your hands to your ankles, pull your heels in towards your bottom, pull the stomach and see if you can get a little bit tighter. So the chest is getting closer to your thighs. Keep the shoulders down, shoulders are pressing down.

Pull the stomach and roll back and come up again in this shape. Wrote back to your shoulders. Come up and balance. Good. Roll back, come up and balance. Roll back, come up and balance. Roll back. Come up in balance. One more time.

Roll back, come up and balance and put your feet down for a minute. It's really coming along really well. Now each of us has our own body and our own conditions. So if you find that if this is too much in, you're getting a flat sensation, like you're crashing on your back, then you're not ready. This steel sections of the spine that are our tools too rigid in their shape.

So the primary goal is that you have around shape. So for some of you that may be more effective to get a rolling shape in this position. Because once you're here it's just too much and you get this kind of position going. So we're going to do this again and you choose which one you feel. You have a little bit more control on the seeker of where the stomach is going back. The ribs are slightly in and the body is round. The other thing I would like all of you to pay attention to is your head because it's very common.

Instead of taking the energy from here to control the shape, there's a little bit, it's either the legs or it's the head. So when you start the world, you get the momentum from the head and you don't want that. That should be out of it. So make sure the head is just staying forward. So choose which or when you want to try ankles or knees. So we're going to do four more roles and lift your elbows very slightly so you can get the sense of the shoulders going down.

Look down so you in a very round shape. And then roll back. Keeping the head forward to really use your powerhouse. Yes, very good. Roll back. Keep that head forward, Tim. And up. That's it. And roll back Cindy. That's excellent. And up now keep the shoulders down. Yes, and back and up. And one more time, Megan.

That's lovely. In fact, all of you. One more time back and come up and put your feet down. That was super, super good. So picking up here, we've just finished. Put your feet on the floor. Stretch your arms out and roll down again.

Transition for single leg stretches. Roll all the way down so you're lying flat on the mat. How'd the midline pull your stomach muscles in and up and bring both knees to your chest for single leg stretches. Both knees coming at the same time. Put your hands on your shins. Pull the powerhouse in and up and lift your head and chest up. Remember, you're coming from the ribs. You're not using the neck.

See if you can live til just the tips of the shoulder blades attaching. Check that your shoulders are down away from your ears. Take your left hand to your right leg and pull the right knee in. Stretch your left leg out. Let's take it 45 degrees. Now we've been working straight, just a little bit further out, not too low.

Switch your legs and pull your left knee in. Switch and squeeze the knee in. Switch and squeeze. Switch and squeeze and switch and switch and switch and switch and switch and switch and switch with both knees in and put your head down and your feet down and take a break. That was very nice. Now hands are by your side. Four double leg stretches. Hug the midline and bring both knees to your chest.

Bring your head and chest up and hold your shins with your hands. Pull the stomach muscles in and again, stretch your legs out, pulling the stomach muscles way in. Bend the legs back and stretch and bed and stretch and bend and stretch and bend and stretch. And Ben, one more time and stretch. Very good. And Ben, put your head down, put your feet down and take a breather and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left and back to the center. Now this last exercise we did double leg stretches. What we've been doing is only the leg part of the exercise.

So we'll add in the arms now. So just as lying, right the way you are, I'd like all of you to take the arms up by your ears just so you're good. Right back Sandy, right by the ears. That's it. And I'll take a big circle and bring them back toward your thighs. And again, just until you get a sense of what this is like the arms go up and back and then circle and in. So we add that and to have a quick look to see what this is going to look like.

You'll be curled up, you start just the way we were and now you add the arms so the arms go out by the ears as the legs go out, the arms circle. And you come back in. So there's a bit of coordination here and back. This is what I want you to to not do, which is drop down and a height use of up again. So remember it's all about holding the body from these upper, upper ab area.

So nothing moves in the trunk as you do this circle. So let's have a go together. Lying down on your backs, your arms side by your side. You saw it the same way with the knees. Bang, your stomach is pulled up, your back cause long. Your hips it together and then connect to your powerhouse. Bring both knees to your chest, hold your shins with your hands and curl your head and chest up. So you set this powerhouse and you keep your body here. Now have a go.

Arms and legs go out, circle the arms and hug. Arms and legs go out. Circle the arms and hub. Arms and legs go out. Stomach is in. Circle the leg. Arms and hug. Two more times. Arms and stomach pulls way in and up. Circle and in one more time. Arms and legs. Stretch.

Circle in, in, in. Put your head down and your feet down. And that was a super good. First Time I have to say excellent work. Again. Roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left and roll your head to the right and roll your head to the left just to relax your neck. Come back to the center. And the next one is scissors.

Remember if your neck is getting tired, you keep your head down, otherwise you can pick it up. So again, set your powerhouse up, pull the stomach muscles and bring your knees to your chest. Curl your head and chest up, pulling the stomach in. Lift both legs to the ceiling, slightly. Turn them out so you wrap the hip, the bones together. Take your right leg with both hands and pull it towards you twice. Pool pool, switch the legs, pool, pool, switch pool, pool, switch, Popo, switch popo switch Poco.

Switch Popo. Switch Popo. Now Flex your feet. Keep the pressure into the heels and pull pool. Switch Popo, switch pool, pool, switch pool, Poe, switch pool, pool, switch, popo brief both app. Pull the stomach way in, shoulders away from your ears, then you knees to your chest, deepening into your powerhouse. Head to the mat, feet to the mat and rest. Very, very good. Take both hands behind your head. Four lower lift, so hands up behind your head so you can get a sense of the elbows wide.

Knees and featured still be together helps get you give you a sense of stability in the pelvis. Pull the powerhouse in and upbring the knees to your chest. Lift your head and chest up so curl up and gently rest the head into the hand just a bit. Elbows are wide. Lift your chest a little bit more. Lift the legs to the ceiling. Lift the legs up, pulling the stomach in and float the legs away from you. 12 inches down stomach pulls up and lift the legs up again and lower down just a little bit. Staying up. Stay up, stay up. Load and like just to your stomach. In and up and lower.

Little Bit Sandy and up and lower the legs and lift. One more time and lower the legs and lift. Bend your knees and deepen into the powerhouse. Lift your chest a little bit more and then drop your head down and your feet down and take a deep breath in and breathe out. Stretch your arms over your head, left the arm.

Now pull the shoulders up to your ears just for a minute so you have a big, nice, juicy stretch. Very good. Now pull the shoulders down and then roll up to a sitting position. You can straighten the legs up, roll up with your like straight. You can have your knees bent and roll up. You can even grab your size and rock. That's very good.

Once you come up open the legs and you want your legs just a little bit wider than your own green mat for spine stretch forward so the arms are straight in front of you. Nice lift as the chest. Press the shoulders down, Cindy. You instead of the hands like this, you want the hands like that. That's it. Now all of you just press the shoulders down slightly. See if you can literally take the hands wider for a minute and push your shoulders down. Now as you push your shoulders down, lift the chest up a bit more. Now see if you can keep that place when you bring your hands a bit closer together. Lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely. Take a deep breath in and again, imagine a big beach ball in front of you. As you breathe out, bend over this bottle. Stomach pulls in. Round the upper back, the middle back, the lower back to make a big round.

Shaped the hands along. Then roll back up, roll back up. Shoulders dropped down. Lift your head and chest. Nice, elegant body. Deep breath in and drop your head and round. Upper back, middle back, lower back, long spine open and then roll back up. Lifting up in the waist, lifting up in the back, lifting up in the chest, shoulders down, back of the neck is long and again drop your head and start around. Forward. Round the upper back, middle back, lower back. The arms stayed long and then roll back up.

Stacking up the spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Shoulders away. Down, back. Lift up your chest. There we go. And one more time. Keeping the shoulders down. Lifting the spy lift in the stomach as you round forward, making sure the waist is almost long [inaudible] so you will lift out of the waist and then roll back up. That was a good move there. Wendy was sitting up, setting it up, setting up shoulders are down. Nice, tall spine, tiny waist. Get a little taller, tighten your hips, get a little taller, long elegant neck and relaxed. Lovely, lovely work.

Now for all of us, a lot of the work we're doing right now is to lengthen up the whole back part of the body extensively. So this is a nice little stretch to support spine. Stretch forward to help increase the range of movement. So just sitting the way you are. Just put your hands by your side for a minute and just relax the feet so the feet are just nice and soft and just bend the knees and flexibly, but don't move your heels. So that's it. And then stretch and bend the knees and stretch.

This is very good. And bend the knees and stretch. So you all doing this exactly the way you're supposed to. It's very easy to slide the heels and we're not, you're really looking for what you've got this nice hinge of the legs. Now this is what the exercise is going to be out are demonstrated. And then you'll be able, you will do it together because you're, you'll be bending the knees and then same way rounded forward, but you go till you get to your toes and then bend knees helps you get there.

If you're reading really stiff person, you can always take a towel to all the, onto the tower. I think all of you are going to get to your feet. Now from here you want to focus on this waste area and you'll take your right leg and stretch it to the fraud. But as you do it, imagine someone grabbing a belt and pulling the belt backwards so you're stretching this whole back part of the body and then your bed. And then you'll take the left leg and stretch right back into the sacrum area. So when you're stretching one day, get to time. You don't want to go that. You don't want this rocking movement.

You want to aim the stretch right into this central part of the body. So every time, so you'll do a few ripe leg, left leg, right, like left leg. And then we'll be doing at the same time, both legs. So if you notice, I'm actually going backwards as the knees go down, knock, going forward. Normally people stretch. Think of going forward, you're looking to open up the back part of the body. So with your legs open again, bend your knees, lift up for a minute so you just feel where your belly is and then bend over and grab the tops of your toes and at the head dropped down.

So the head is right down there. Now pull your stomach muscles in and straighten your right knee and pull back in your waist. And then bend the knee up against the both knees are bent. Take the left knee and press it down and pull way back in the waist, way back, and then bend the knees so both knees are still bent. And take your right knee and press back and pull back with your stomach against the stretch and bend. And the left knee. Stretch weight up and stretch your back body. And then, and the right knee again, press back and stretch into the back body and bend.

And the left knee goes down and stretch the back body and bend. So both knees and now Ben, now press both knees down and press right back into the sacred sea. Oh yes. You open up this back body and bend the knees up. Bend them, bend and bend. Flex your feet more, Cindy. Big. That's it. Now press the knees down and stretch back. Very good. And Bend One more time.

Pull the stomach way in and open up this back body. Letting the head drop way down. Really pull the stomach up. The arms should be straightened, should be stretching back and then and come back up. Very nice. So that often will help. If you're very tight in the hamstrings, they tighten the lower back often. That will help you progress much more quickly forward with your range of movement. So, and it prepares us for, for open egg rockers.

So bend your knees and check again. You can be right on top of the sit bones. You want to be slightly back, kind of right between your sit bones and your tailbone as that little platform. Pull the stomach and close the ribs and lift your feet up off the mat. Check that your knees are in line with your shoulders. Keep that angle and stretch your right like up.

Bring it back down. Take the left leg up, bring it back down, keeping the stomach in and the right leg up. Very good and back and the left leg and back and the right play and back. Very good. And your left leg and back. Pull the stomach in and both legs at the same time and as the legs bend, pull the stomach in and lift the rib cage so the waist stays and back so you're filling out your back body but staying long with it and again extending and back. And one more time and extending, putting the stomach way in, bringing the feet down, put your feet on the mat, stretch your arms out.

That was so good and slowly rolled down onto your backs with your arms long buyer side for corkscrew. So bring your knees and your feet together. Bend the legs up the arms along by your sides. Put your stomach muscles in and up. Make sure the back of your neck is long. Very good. Now bring both knees into your chest.

Keep the stomach muscles in and up and lift both like straight up to the ceiling, keeping the stomach in your draw. A very small circle with the feet. You'll go slightly to the right, down to the left and up again and pause and pull your stomach muscles in. Reverse it left down, around and up. Good and right down around and up and left. Keep the stomach way in, in the back, down and up and the right, right down, around and up and left down, around and up. Now stomach is way in. Hips are tight.

See if you can lower your legs all the way to the floor holding the weight of the legs off with the stomach, so all the way down, lower, lower, lower. If you feel your back is arching, you bend your knees to put your feet down. Down you go. Very good work. Very, very good work. Stretch wold arms over your head. Nice long stretch again. Let the back are tremendous.

See you can get the shoulders down and the hands touching just to open up the side ribs and then pull the shoulders down, your back and PR. Lengthen the ribs into the mat if the arms to this ceiling and roll up to a sitting position. So roll up, roll up, roll up, bend your knees if you need to come up and open your legs for saw. So the arms, the legs along your feet are flexed. Lift the spine up. Take your arms to the side. Not, you know what? Let's, yeah, let's, when do you stay forward that the youngsters move back? And Sandy, why don't you move a little bit more back to see you all have lovely room through your arms. So very important scene. Get your hands exactly to the side.

Now press the shoulders down so you feel the shoulder blades glide down your back. Lift your chest up and pull the stomach in. Flex your feet strongly twist to the right, right hand goes down and back. Left hand goes through your little toe. Stretch one, stretch to stretch. Three. Sit Up nice and tall and lift. Now twist to the left, right hand to foot. Stretch one.

Stretch to stretch three and the lift, twist and stretch and two and three and the lift, twist and two and three. And lift, twist and stretch. Keep the left hip way down and lift, twist and stretch and two and three and lift. Very good. Bring the arms in front of you. Bring your legs together and slowly roll down onto your back.

Roll down one vertebra at a time. Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll. Very nice and roll onto your stomach. For Prep. For preparation for swan will be lying on your stomach with your forehead on your fingertips in this position. Make sure that the knees are together, narrow the hips and pull your stomach up and gently lengthen the spine. Some of you may even be able to pull the stomach in so much it lifts off the Mat. You want to feel the back long, the knees together and the buttocks firm. Now lift your elbows two inches off the mat, lengthen in your waist and without shortening the waist, lift your forehead and your fingertips off the mat two inches.

So you hover off the floor and your spine is long and your shoulders are down. Lower back, down, very good, low or the upper body. Keep the shoulders away from you or your elbows. Lift first and then lift up and hover off the mat. Hips a nice and firm stomach is in and lower back down.

And again, elbows come up first and lift up. Make sure your nose is facing the mat and the back of the neck as long as you're just hovering off the floor and lower back down so you really isolating your upper body. The strength in the upper body. Keep your waist long and lift up again. Nice and long and lower back down. Very, very good. Now last time we worked with a towel under the arms, it helps you slide, so stretch the arms out in front of you. This is a setup actually for single leg kicks, but it also is and move yourselves forward on the mat so your shoulders are right near the front of the Mat. So just keep wiggling in and you want your arms extended in front of you with the towel under your elbows in your hands cause that's going to help you glide. That's it.

Now in this position, you want your arm straight, you are straight and your forehead on the mat. That's it, Tim. Yes. Now everybody turn your hands so you have like a karate chop. The little finger side is on the mat right now. Lift your head and chest. Pull the shoulders down your back and pull the elbows in towards the Mat as you lift a little bit, lifting the chest up, broad shoulders sliding.

Pull the elbows in and then slide the arms out. Again, lengthening, pulling your stomach muscles in an app. That's it. Now use your powerhouse and your shoulders. Shoulders glide down your back as you pull in, lift from the powerhouse, lifting up, glide the elbows in. Pull them in, pull them in, pull them in and slide back out again. And one more time. Pull them in. Pull them in, pull them in, pulling the shoulders down your back and glide them out again. Oh, okay. Very good. Put your hands under your shoulders and sit back to your heels just for a minute so we can kind of have a look at what we're doing here.

And just all of you turn them around for a minute. So when you pulling in this way, there's two movements. You want to feel this connection of the shoulders into the back. So you start to engage your lap muscles. So that gives you the lift. And of course this whole front body does.

So you're learning to get the sense of length in the front body. So have a quick look. You'll be [inaudible] here. The towel is just here to help you actually be able to slide. Now the first thing you want to do is just make sure your waist is long, your pelvis is long. So your powerhouses nicely engaged. Do you feel see this movement, I'm pulling my shoulders away from my ears, lifting the head and chest and use that to lift up even more.

So you're reading, engaging your sidebar on the way out. You resist it. You resist it. Your shoulders stay down, your back. It's long. Your stomach pulls in as you go down. So shoulders into the back and then pulling and lifting up. So it just engaged in your whole front to go up and down.

So I have another goal. Let's do. Yep, that'll be, let's have actually all of you. Three, Wendy and Megan and Rebecca. Let's have you turn around. It'll just make it a little bit easier. So length and now your arms are straight. Yes. Remember that? Karate chops. So the little finger side is on the mat. Now he legs along together. The hips are tight. Pull the shoulders down, your spine away and start lifting. Pull those elbows in and lift up.

Megan. Very good. Nice broad shoulders. Very good. Cindy. Yes. And then s with control. Slide the arms back out again. So much better. So, so, so much better. Very good. Hips, a tight knees, a tight, and again, pull the shoulders down your back and start to lift from the stomach. Work that side, they thing lifting, lifting, lifting. Very good. And then pull the stomach into. Slide the hands out. Again, nice and long. See if you can keep your knees together. Otherwise that's excellent.

And one more time pulling in the same way. Pull the shoulders down, your back, lifting up. Feel that nice, elegant lift. Now make fists with your hands and you're set for single leg kicks. Your buttocks are tie. Your stomach is in. Bend your right knee and kick your bottom twice. Kick, kick. Lengthen the leg out. Left foot, kick, kick and long and kick, kick and bottom tie. Kick, kick.

Don't let yourself flap and kick. Kick. Keep your hips from and kick kick and long and kick, kick and long end kick. Kick. Very good and long. Very good. Slide the arms out. Put your hands under your shoulders, pull your powerhouse in and up and sit back toward your heels. Filling up your back body on the way back. So you round into the position where you sit back into your heels.

That's it. That's a nice long stretch. Take a deep breath in here, filling up your back body. Breathe into your waist, breathe into your sacred and breathe out and then stretch out again and lie on your right side to all going to face the front for single leg kicks. So you lay yourselves out of the back part of the mat. Support your head with your hands. Or if you have neck trouble, you can always, let's do this to him. Let's give you a pillow so you, that's better.

The top arm will be in front of your chest. The legs are stretched out straight in front of you. Straight. I'm sorry, in the back part of the mat. So let's just do this for a minute. Let's give you a little pillow. We are like one more towel for you so you have a little bit more head support, right? So if it's not comfortable to be with your head up, you want to put something under your under. So you're literally lying on a tower, other hands in front of your chest, about 12 inches away from your body.

Now everybody pulled the shoulders away from your ears. So you feel yourself becoming very elegant here. That's it. Pull the stomach muscles in and up. Lift both legs up and bring them forward and put them down at the front of your mat and flex your feet strongly. Now pull the stomach up.

Imagine that you're lying with your back against a wall. So then there's a lot of lengths in the waist. Take your top like flex your foot and lifted a little higher than your hip from your waist. Press into the here. Flex even more and lower than that. Leg Down with resistance. And press the leg up and lower the legs down, pulling the stomach up and lift your leg up and lower the leg down.

Only a little higher than your own hip. And lift the leg up just to their stomach in and up as you bring the leg down and lift your leg up and lower down, squeezing and imaginary ball and lift the leg up against resistance. Very good and lower down. And one more time with the leg up, not too high, Megan and lift the leg down. Now the next one we started last week, it was swinging the leg forward and then straight down. So what are we trying to do?

You want to keep the whole body quiet? The body is like a stable point and then the leg swings without anything else kind of. You're really isolating the leg. You don't want any movement in the body. The only range you'll do is two pulses forward and then straight down to make a straight line with a body straight down in. Lengthen it out. So the no the legs they forward. So just to reiterate, the leg is going to come double pulse to the front and then it comes straight down, not back, but down in the stomach is up in the spine as long.

So let's all of you lift your leg, hip height, extend the foot a little bit. So this, pull the stomach up, narrow the hips and swing to the front. Pulse. Pulse and reach long and pulse. Pulse and reach long and pulse. Puff and reach long and pulse, pulse and keep the stomach in. Pulse, pulse and reach long pulse, pulse, very good and long. Put the leg one on top of the other for the high side kicks.

Turn the leg out and swing it high to the ceiling. Swing the leg up and flex it down and swing the leg up and flex it down and put the leg and down and kick the leg and down and kick the leg and down and kick and down and kick and down. One more time. Kick the leg and I'm very good. Point your foot and little circles. Circle one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and back and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight. Very good. Take your top leg and bend it up in front of you on the Mat.

If you can your whole the foot and bring it in closer, you can have your hand inside the flutter in the hand. That's it. If that's too much, you can always bend the knee down. Now take the bottom leg and stretch your knee so the leg is mom and the foot is reaching. Keep that alignment. Lift the leg as high as you can and lower down and lift and I'll check that the knee is pulled up in the leg is reaching and down and lift and down. Need long and down. Stretch even more. There we go.

If the leg is along, the muscles will work in a much deeper way and you'll get those long lean muscles. We all want and down. Very good. Now lift the leg up as high as you can and little circles. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Reverse it in. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Lower the leg down. Extend the other leg out. Pull the stomach muscles in and up. Press the shoulders away from your ears and lift both legs up in the air.

Lift them up, keeping the stomach in and lower down. Very good and lift. Pull the stomach in, tiny waist and down and lift and down and lift and down and lift and down. One more time and lift and down. Very good. Now we're going to add in little beats. So I'd like all of you. Same way your fingers want on top of the other La roll onto your stomach and place your forehead on your fingertips so your elbows are wide, your legs are extended, your forehead is on your fingertips, your knees are together.

So set your powerhouse first of all, so your hips are tight, your stomach is in your back. As long the knees are together. If you can, keeping this shape, lift your legs off the map. So lift them up and open and closed side with beating your heels together. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Lift a little higher. Three, five, six, seven and last one, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Lower the ladies down. Put your hands under your shoulders. Pull your powerhouse in and up and sit all the way back, pulling your stomach in. As you go back. Go back, go back and stretch your spine out. Nice stretch. Take a deep breath in, opening up your back body so you breathe into the sacrum and without allow the spine to get long. Good again.

Breathe right into the lower spine. Feel this area widen and lengthen and move and breathe out and then lie out on your left side too. All gonna face this way for the other side to your lie out and support your head with your hands or put a pillow under your head like you want to be at the back part of the mat. The other hand is in front of your chest. So set yourselves up. Start. Imagine you have, it's like you are against an imaginary wall. You want your elbow back, Megan Moore. That's it.

So you really trying to have elbow, arm, pit, hip and foot against that imaginary wall. If you can now pull the stomach muscles in and up, lift both legs up and bring the legs forward to the legs. Come to them and put them down. Once the legs are in this more forward position, it's naturally easier to access and open up the lower back, lower spine. So double check that your hips are really stacked. Yup. Your feet are really flexed as though you were standing on the floor. And um, when did that get this? A little bit. There's forward.

The hand is just about 12 inches in front of you so it almost feels like you're leaning into the hand a bit. It helps you stay stacked up there is side. Excellent. Now with your feet, flats, take your top leg lifted a little higher than your hip lifted up, flexing the foot, pulling the stomach in and then squeeze your thighs together and then lift the leg up as though you're pushing against the weight and squeeze like down and lift the leg up and squeeze like down. And Cindy wanted like parallel for this and lift the leg up. Now taking your buttocks and squeeze down. Push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push, push and press up. Imagine push against me.

That's an empress down. Yes. And Push, push, push, push and press me down. Push, push, push, push them. And one more time. Lift and lower. Very good. Now the forward and back swings with the like hip high, long toes swing the leg to the front, double pals and straight down reach to the back of the room and double pals and reach and double poles and reach. And Double Pals. Very nice. And stomach stays in and shoulders are down. Double Pals.

So you work in the legs. The powerhouse holds your body, the shoulders, elegant, double pals and long, very, very nice. Again, legs one on top of the other for the high side kicks. Check that your hips are still one on top of the other. Pull the stomach up. When you bring your bottom a little bit, there you go. Turn the top leg out, check that your shoulders are down. They will keep wanting to ride up. Swing the leg up, flex your foot and lengths in the heel out. Heel to heel. Point an energy up. Flex and heal the here, bottom tight and lift and down and lift and down and shoulders down.

Megan, other wise, very good and lift and down and lift and down and lift. Very good and down. Now lengths in the lake and little circles, a circle. Start forward up. They go behind the bottom like so. Circle, circle, circle, circle c. You really have to hold the hips nice and stable. They'll start to flop around. Circle Circle and reverse it and [inaudible] back and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

Heel to heel. Tighten the hips. Take your top leg and bend it up. Hold your ankle, pull the shoulders down and flex your inside leg. Pull the stomach muscles up, lift the leg up and down and lift. Very flexed foot so you pull the toes way up towards the knee. Rebecca down and stretch that leg, lengthening through the heel as though you're pressing the heel far away from you.

And lift and lift and lift. Hold it there. Extended toes and little circles. One, two, three. Keep the toes law so you extend the toes as Sandy. Six and seven and eight reverse it. One and two and three and four and five and six and seven very good and eight extend the legs down to extend the top. Like out on the bottom they check that the shoulders are down, the stomach is in the back. As long.

The hips are firm length in the legs together and lift them up, hugging the mid line and lower down and lift the legs and lower down and lift your legs and lower down and lift and down and lift. Very good and down. Now roll onto your backs and you three turn around to face the front again for preparation for teaser. So lying down on your backs with your knees and your feet together. How the midline with your size, pull your stomach muscles in. So Tim, you want the knees bent and without the knees separating.

Extend the right leg up so you have this long diagonal. The knees are glued together. Knees a glue together. Good tip. Pull your powerhouse in and up. Lift your head and chest and see if you can roll up and roll down. Now let's take the bend plague and lengthen it out a little bit further away from you and starting again. Lift your head and chest. If you can.

Roll up, up, up, up, up, good and roll down. Hands to the mat. And again, lift your head and chest. Pull through the powerhouse and roll up and roll down. And one more time. Pull the power out in and up and roll up. Roll up, row up. Good. And roll down. Hands to the bend your knees so you put your foot down to both knees are bent. Squeeze the knees together, lift your left leg up, pull the shoulders away from your ear so the hands are long.

Make sure the right foot is a little bit further out, that it would be an average. Lift your head and chest. See if you can roll up. Just come as far as you got up. You come. Good. And roll down. Hands to the mat. And again, roll up, roll up, roll up. Good and roll down. Very nice. And one more time. Squeeze of knees together. Lift your head and chest and roll up. Roll Up. Good. Good. Good.

Up Your company, Cindy, and roll down. Okay, very nice. Now Bend your feet, lift your arms up so you have that angle of the size and see if you can have the hands about the same angle. Tighten the hips, pull the powerhouse in and up. Lift your head and chest. See if you can roll up and reach so you roll up and reach and roll down. If you can do that without grabbing your size, that Fi, if you need to grab your size, roll up again. You grab your size and reach and roll down. Good hands to the mat. And again, lift your head and chest and grab your size if you need to to help you. Roll up, roll up, roll up and reach. Very good and roll down.

Pull the stomach in. Drop the shoulders and roll down. Roll down, roll down and rest. Yeah, not easy to do, but you're all coming along. Stretch your arms over your head and roll up to a sitting position. Now you can rock up as well for seal. So roll up or bend your knees and rock up. Good.

When you feed in clothes, bring your hands into prayer pose. Lift your knees, your feet. I should say. Wrap your hands around and grab your feet. Press the shoulders down, up as Sandy. Inside the knees. There you go. Yes.

Now can you lift your feet a little bit more? Pull the stomach way in and gently push your elbows into your size to help you pull your shoulders down and gently push your knees in. So that's a little bit of locking mechanism. So when you do this, clap, clap, clap. It's the thighs, not just the feet. Clap, clap, clap. Pull the stomach in. Just feel your balance again. Clap, clap, clap. Good. One more time. Clap, clap, clap.

Now Roll back towards your shoulders and come up against the back. You go and roll up and balance and clap, clap, clap and roll. Back and up. And balance and clap, clap, clap. One more time. Roll back, roll up in balance and clap, clap, clap. And put your feet down. Very good. Come up to a standing position. So heels together, size, pulled up, stomach lifted, long back, narrow hips. See, want this sense of very gentle wrap of the size towards each other.

If there was something between your innercise, you want to squeeze a little bit. So the lakes are very dynamic. This spine is long. Shoulders are down. Lift your arms, shoulder height, and three little circles here. Circle one, two, three. Reverse two three. Bring the arms down, lift the spine up and broaden the shoulders. Now feel the shoulders down and as you lift the arms up again, take them higher, but only go as high as you can without.

If the shoulders come up, you've gone too high. So as high as you can without the shoulders coming up. Three circles again. Circle one, two, three. Reverse two, three. Pull the powerhouse up. Lengthen your waist up. Shoulders are down and float the arms down and get taller, taller and taller. Very good.

Now lift the arms up again with the shoulders. Dow lift the waist and start to roll down through the spine so you're lifting the stomach and curling down. Just the way you were doing when you were rolling up from the floor rolling down until the hands hover above the floor. You go as low as you can. Let the head relax. Now let the shoulders drop here for a minute, so everything is loose except the stomach and three circles. Circle one, two lawless dangly arm three versus one, two, three. Check that the arms are long and dangly.

Check that your head is really dropped down. Yes. Now pull the stomach in, narrow the innercise, and start to roll up, stacking your spine up and then slowly roll up and lift the arms. Roll up your body, roll up, lift the arms up and lengthen in the waist. Lengthen in the chest, reach through the fingertips, and then float the arms out to the side. Just be aware of your neighbor and see, even get taller and longer and more elegant. And just take a moment to stand and feel that your weight is in the center of your foot. So if you lift your heel up very slightly, you want to have that sense of lightness on the foot.

Inner thighs lifting long in the lower back. Look, nice lift in the stomach so the waist is long. Nice lift in the chest. A lot of openness across the collar bones and neck is long. Take a moment to look straight ahead. We sell. Look straightforward to use. Really look down. Feel the top of your head floating up so you're nice and elegant and long.

Take a deep breath in and breathing out. Let all that energy roll off of you be keep your elegant attitude. So thank you very much. You all did very, very well. [inaudible].

Comments

1 person likes this.
I really enjoy Niedra's beginner series!
Rina S
1 person likes this.
This series is amazing. Sometimes, I take the same class twice. I am not exactly a slouch when it comes to exercise. I have been working out for years, 6 times a week. I either run, swim or go to the gym. I thought I was in decent shape until I starting doing these classes. They are taking me to a whole new place. I also have fibromyalgia and these types of exercises seem to be very helpful.
So great to hear Rina!
2 people like this.
Niedra is the whole package. I am returning, and have had MANY great teachers and oh my she is fantastic!!
We at Pilates Anytime couldn't agree more Nancy!
Another great session. She was full throttle today... I am surprised at my progress in some of these exercises in just 4 classes... NEXT..... IM READY
Niedra Gabriel
Me- Anie, I am delighted to read your post here. Happy to hear about your progress - you just made my day, Keep it up.
I adore your classes. I've taken pilates for years, but got away from it due to travel for work. I'm so happy to have found pilates anytime and your classes to get me reacquainted again. I'm feeling so much stronger every day!
Niedra Gabriel
Thank you Taunia, your sweet post made my day.
I can feel your enthusiasm through your words. So glad you are enjoying and benefitting from the classes, you are definitely on the right track to find an on line resource for classes ( Pilates Anytime ) as now your vitality and health are in your hands.
I travel a lot to teach as well so know how important daily workouts are for good health - keep up the good work.
Still at it over here in France and loving your classes Niedra, thank you. Candida
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