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Class #4342

Build On Your Practice

55 min - Class
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Jump into our four-week Rise and Recharge program with Maria as she builds on your practice with a fluid workout combining exercises from the Mat and Reformer. She'll help you look at Pilates in a new way by applying movements from her yoga practice. Flow through her sequence with exercises including Rowing Back, Teaser, and Double Leg Stretch to fire yourself up.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Good morning, everybody, this is Maria, and we're coming from Bodyline in the heart of Beverly Hills, and this is Rise and Recharge. If you haven't yet, try to place your mat in this orientation, and let's begin. So come on to your hands and knees for me, put the hands right under the shoulders, the knees right under the hip, start with a nice flat back. Big breath in here, exhale, round your back, push the shin bones down, spin the biceps forward. Take a big breath of air inside, the shoulders out of the ears, open the heart.

Exhale around the back, push the shin bones down. And inhale, open the chest. One more time, really listening to your breath, exhale around the back. Big breath in, like you're dragging the mat back towards your knees, make your back flat like a table, lift one hand to the ceiling, big spiral stretch, and lower that hand down. Then the other hand comes up, inhale, push the ground away and lower down.

And again, inhale, the right arm comes up, push both shin bones into the mat, and lower down. And other side inhale and lifts, belly pulls in. Come down to all, we're gonna begin this little simple rotation, just circling the whole trunk forward and back. Begin to focus on that circle in the shoulder socket and the hip socket, just warming up those joints. And let's go ahead and reverse that.

And anything right now that feels good to you is good for me. Listen to your breath, just warming up, melding the mind and the body. Go ahead and sit yourself down back into child's pose, the hands reached out straight, paste the hands into the mat, compress the sit bones down to the heels, drop the shoulders, open the shoulder blades. From here we're going to shift forward into a modified plank, and this is a position you might wanna use several times as we go through this workout. Push yourself all the way back into child's pose.

Compress the sit bones to the heels. Let's do that again. Shift forward, straight line from the crown of the head to the knees, belly is tight. Spin those biceps forward and come back into child's pose. We're gonna move on now.

Come forward, and we're gonna do a little modified Chaturanga, which means the elbows point straight back, you lower yourself down, stay here, pause. Shoulders, never any lower than the elbows. Push yourself all the way back into child's pose. Compress the sit bones to the heels for me, everyone. Shift forward again into that modified plank let the body travel forward into Chaturanga, belly is tight, pelvis neutral, shoot yourself back into child's pose.

Stay here, elbows are off the mat. Let's take one deep breath into the back side of your body, really fill up those lungs with air. Long, slow exhale out through the mouth. And now look up to the edge of your mat. Put your forearms down, and we're gonna snake to that edge of the mat.

So skim your chin, and then your chest. Push through with the arms, the belly grazes the mat and lift into swan. Big breath in here, really filling the lungs and lower down. Two more swans like that, please. Inhale, reach out and pull the spine long, feel the stretch in the front side of the body, pubic bone stays on the mat, and lower down.

One more here, shoulders slide back, pull the mat into your hips, and lower all the way down. Make a little pillow with one hand, the other hand up over the head. From here, reach the opposite arm and leg up off the mat, you have the hands here to help support you, and lower down. Two more like that. Inhale, reaching forward, pulling the spine long like a slinky, and lower down.

One more time here. Inhale, super straight back leg and lower down. Let's change sides. And reaching out and up, shoulders slide down. You have the front hand to help you, forehead to hand.

Again, inhale, pulling your body longer than your mat for me, please. And lower down. One more time, inhale, and lower down. Reach behind you, interlace your hands behind your back, pull the knuckles back to your feet. Now keep the feet on the map to start, open the chest, pull the rhomboids together.

Your gaze should be just past the edge of your mat. From here, float your legs up. So this is locust pose, though I have to say is very similar to double leg kick. Breathe here into the front of the chest, lower everything down, forehead down. And again, begin by drawing the shoulder blades together, reach vigorously through the knuckles, vigorously through the legs, looking for length, inhaling into the front of the chest, and lower down.

Last time. Pull into locusts pose. From here, release the hands, began swimming the legs in for five. And now for five, make it a vigorous breath for me. Strong exhale, some of you will open the arms to a T.

The arms are perfectly still as you continue with that fluttering. Arms go up over the head, the hardest part in terms of staying still, lower everything down, come back into your child's pose. A big breath into the backside of the ribs. Long exhale, crawl those hands forward, paste the hands into the mat. We're gonna go into our first down dog, so let's start with the fingertips wide to the edge of the mat, curl your toes under, lift your hips.

So this is our first down dog. Don't worry about making those legs all the way straight. Have a generous bend in the knees. Use your arms to push the hips really far back behind you. And now check in, drop into your body, take a little scan, we're not gonna move for a beat or so.

Spin the biceps forward. See what you can create a little bit more, lengthen your body. See if there's a place you can drop some tension. And now shift forward to full plank, shoulders right over the hands, we'll be using this a lot as well, but you can always come to your knees. From here, draw one knee into your chest, so tight that you tuck the tail under.

And then take that leg back. Pull the other leg in, the head and shoulders don't change, you pull the knee in so tight that it draws the pubic bone under, connect to the abdominals, spin the biceps forward. Take that foot back, lift the hips. So when your downward dog, feel like you're pulling the mat long, and then create space between every bone in your back, spin the biceps forward. Okay, we're gonna do a little rehearsal here of how we're gonna be moving around the map.

So from downward dog, pull your right knee into your chest tight. Draw the tailbone under, make sure you're not hanging your head. Step that foot forward between your hands. Now we're in a runner's lunge. I want your back leg super, super straight.

And then ideally, you're on your fingertips, hug that right hip in. upper back isn't nice and long. So here's how we travel, tuck the back foot in and pivot, and come into a spiral stretch, opposite shoulder to knee. Continue to travel around in the circle and come to the other edge of your mat. So that's the first part.

Then we continue the circle, cross your left leg up and over, quarter turn, come back into a spiral stretch. You should be facing me at this point. Continuing to move in the circle, back foot comes forward, and your back into your lunge. Upper back is nice and straight. And step back to downward dog.

Okay, let's go through that a little quicker on the other side. Pull the left knee into your chest tight, tight, tight, step forward into a runner's lunge. On your fingertips, make sure the booty isn't sticking out, very, very strong back leg. Tuck the back leg in, and come into a big, spiral stretch, crown of the head to the ceiling. Lift, lift, lift, continue traveling that direction, and you're back at the other edge of your mat.

Cross your right leg up and over, quarter turn into a spiral stretch, sit beautifully tall. Continue the circle, you're backing your lunch, and now we're back into downward dog. Okay, so really press those hips high, find space between the shoulder blades. Pull the right knee into the chest tight, step forward into your lunge. Tuck the back foot in and take a spiral stretch.

You're beautifully tall, use your hands to create a little bit more rotation for me. Continue and take your legs to the edge of the mat and find the top of a roll up, pull the waistline back, pull the shoulders out of the ears and just really enjoy that opening of the lower back. Tuck the tailbone, undertake your time, roll yourself right up into your 100 position. Begin pumping the arms vigorously for five, and out for five, be vigorous with your breath. And this is your 100, so no problem with being a tabletop or feet even down.

Keep the lift of the chest and keep the breath vigorous. Almost done here. Wherever you're at, lower everything down. Pull the right knee into your chest, again, hug that hip and stretch that leg to the ceiling, drop the shoulders. Just a little gentle hamstring stretch.

Let's flex and point the top foot. Keep the breasts smooth and steady. The other leg comes in, and stretch the leg out. Straight drop the shoulders, and flex and point that foot. Back to the first side.

We're gonna do a little variation on leg circle, hands behind the head, lift the chest up. Now lift the bottom leg up one inch only and circle that top leg around enough. Remember the pelvis doesn't move, the bottom leg doesn't move either. Two more here stopping each time. Pause, catch that leg, pull it into you, lift the chest higher, five scissors now.

For five, four lift the chest, drop the shoulders, three, two, one. Voila, you should be on the other leg. Hands come behind the head. Legs circle for five, as big or small as you want. Goal is stability.

Take a look at that bottom leg, make sure it's not bouncing around. Last one like that. Catch the leg, pull it into you, lift the chest a little higher, five scissors. For five and four, and three, and two and one. Knees in, two feet down.

Windshield wiper the legs. That's built crisscross, legs to tabletop, hands behind your head. Lift your head and shoulders up, pause and stay here, rotate across and face me. Opposite elbow to knee. Now stay here, and see if you can increase the power of your shape.

So you're not just sitting in the shape, you're constantly turning that volume up. Now without diminishing at all, come up and over through the center and across to the other side. Spin, spin, spin the rib cage. See if you can lengthen through the bottom leg, a little bit more. And now lift up as you come center, and lower down.

Now with that kind of focus and intensity, let's flow. So hands come behind the head, the head and shoulders come up and criss-cross all the way across, and all the way across. Really going to the very edge of your shape, fully engage with the mind, with the body, and with the breath. Start picking up your tempo, you don't have to stay with me. Some of you might be moving quite quick, go ahead and really push it.

Push, push, push, move faster. For five, four, three, two, one, knees in. We're coming up, some of you are gonna do a roll up, some of you will just rock up. The legs go straight, cross your left leg up and over, quarter turn and come into a spiral stretch. Opposite shoulder to me.

Continue to travel that direction in the circle and find your runners lunge. Again hugging this knee in, hugging the hip in, back legs so straight and light on your hands and step up into downward dog. Shoulder blades are wide. You should notice now that the heels are a little lower to the mat. The body is beginning to warm, it's yielding, melting, beginning to give you range.

Take the left leg into the chest, tight, tight, tight, don't drop the head, step forward into your lunge, ride on your fingers. Super strong back leg for me. Go ahead and lift your hands up for a second. Make sure you really have your weight into your legs. Tuck your back leg in, quarter turn, spiral stretch.

Lift yourself tall. Continue moving in that direction in the circle, and find yourself in rowing back with a round back. Sit beautifully tall. From here, tuck the tail under and peel yourself back. You're not slouched, the chest is lifted, open the arms to the side pause, palms face back, now vigorous pump.

Pump, two, three, four, five, body still. Pause here, dive all the way up and over the top. Pull the shoulder blades together, reach to the fingertips, palms turn up. Same pump here. Tap them out and then toss the arms up.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, lengthen, lengthen, palms turned down. Big circle up, all the way past the toes. Drag your hands right in next to you. Fingers point forward, make your back a cat position. Pushed into the hands, lift the tail up, shoulders or out of the ears, and lower down.

So think tendons stretch. Live from the belly first, and then drive the floor away from you. See if you can point your pubic bone up, and lower down. One more time. Exhale, lift, pull the pubic bone up to you, you should feel another contraction in your abdominals.

Lower down, bend your right knee and allow it to open, sit tall. Take one hand behind you the other hand in front of you, push into your shin, lift your hips up, this should feel really nice. So it's a little modified wild thing. Come back down. Other side.

Tuck the leg in, one hand behind, use your legs. Press your hips to the sky, pull the shoulder out of your ear, and lower all the way down. Now let's flow through all of that, hands to the chest, tuck and peel back, open the arms, dive forward, pull the rhomboids together, big circle, up and reach all the way past the feet, hands to the hips. Lift into tendons stretch and lower. Two more here.

And lift and lower, option to be on the knuckles, and lift and lower. One leg in and lift the chest. Push the grounds away, lower down. Other side and lift, and lower down. Cross the right leg over the left, quarter turn your back into a spiral stretch.

Sit nice and tall. Continue on in that circle and back into your lunge. Hold it here. Come into push up position and hold. Make it a perfect push up.

Use your chest to squeeze in on that mat, pull one knee into your chest and then the other. So some of you will stay just like this, at this tempo. Keeping the head in line. But option to start to build some heat and move quicker, and maybe taking this all the way to a run. I'm gonna go slow you guys keep running.

Run, run, run, run, run run, for three, for two, for one, and lower yourself down, and come back into rest position for me. Deep breaths into the backside of the body, long, slow exhale out through the mouth, and come on to your forearms, and place your elbows right under your shoulders. And let's begin with your right leg and lift it up behind you into arabesque. Okay, so arabesque, the hips are slightly open, pinky toe is reaching to the sky. As always, the mat is our partner, right?

So use it, push into the mat, take that leg straight down, straight up. So pretty simple to begin with, but have all your ducks in a row, so we're not leaning into that left hip. Check out what's happening with your neck, listen for your breath. And really feel it the action is coming from the hip socket, and the back is not moving around. Hold that leg up.

And now we're gonna draw a triangle, so the pinky toe comes to one side of your mat, curl all the way to the top. And then big toe to the other side and up. Continue to flow like this at a tempo that's comfortable, but check in with your lower back. See if you can visualize exactly where the motion is beginning. That back is still, the shoulders are down, and you're connected to your breath.

Last time like that, come to your knees, come all the way up standing on your knees, pull the belly in, lift the chest up. Circle the arms, and fix your leggings, and back to your forearms. Okay, other leg lifts into arabesque, pinky toe to the sky. And you can see that I'm not 100% square with my hips, that's okay, 'cause this is arabesque. Go ahead and move from the base of your glute.

Push the shoulders down. Let the breath be smooth and steady. So you know what the choreography is on this side so you can really focus on form. And let's begin that triangle. And continue to think about using the floor, really using the floor, we don't have any props, we don't have a machine.

So the floor is our friend, and we wanna use it to source energy. So really feel the connection of your forearms and your shin bone into the mat. Last one like that, come down to your knees, come all the way up, pull the abdominals in, lift the chest, pull the ribs right up out of the pelvis. circle the arms and come all the way down onto your belly. Hands go under the shoulders.

Inhale, lift yourself up into swan. Enjoy the stretch in the abdominals, lower down. From here, lift your two legs straight out and up, legs are straight and lower. Lift the chest and lower. Lift the legs and lower.

Now, we're gonna build this into a swan dive. So that might mean that you're just rocking and lifting the hands. Go ahead and begin. Some of you will go without hands and continue that rock. Really staying one piece from the crown of the head to the toes, and then all the way back into rest position for me.

And we're gonna slither back down to the mat. So look up, paste the hands into the mat, slither, the chin, the form is on the mat. The sternum grazes the mat, the hips push through. Big breath in, and lower down. Okay, something a little new.

Make a little pillow with your hands. Take your right leg, lift it up into an arabesque, which means it's turned out. From here, bend your knee, lift your knee and feel like you're taking your heel towards your tush. So it's sort of like an attitude, but the pelvis is really rotating. Shoulders are square, tail is pointed towards your heels.

Lower all the way down. Second side, the other leg lifts, then the knee, the hip rolls off the mat, everybody. The shoulders are square, belly is lifted, pelvis is strongly rotated, and lower down. We're gonna move through that now. Lift into arabesque into attitude, come all the way up to a seat.

Your foot is firmly on the ground. And now we go into wild thing. Push the hips up, all the way from the bottom of the foot, reach all the way to the wall behind you this time. And lower down, one more time. And lift.

Big breath into the chest, guys, and lower down and all the way back to the mat. The other leg lifts, bend the knee, turn and set yourself up. Prepare, get yourself comfortable here. The ground is your prop. Lift yourself up, reach all the way to the wall behind you.

Lower everything down, come all the way back to the mat, Curl the toes under, push straight up into plank, lift back into downward dog. Widen the shoulder blades. From here, take the right leg, lift it up into arabesque like we just did. Bend the knee, find that feeling of attitude. Allow the pelvis to rotate.

So I like this because, there aren't many things that put our lower back into extension and rotation at the same time. Two hands equal, weight is equal on two hands. Back to arabesque. Pull the knee into the chest. Step the foot down, find your runners lunge, some of you will take your hands off this time.

From here this add a little rotation here in the lunge, lift the chest. Tuck the back leg in, and come into your seated rotation. Continue on, and we're back at the edge of the mat again. Hopefully you found yourself here with me. Bend your knees, take your hands behind you.

Hands might be east and west, they might be forward, whatever works for you. Step into your feet, tuck the tail and come into a table position. Really push the ground away. Use your feet, seal your feet to the mat. Pull the rhomboids tight.

Let's take a little pulse up, to right from the base of the glute, lower yourself down. So something a little different right now, soles of the feet come together, not your biggest turnout. So, knees head towards shoulders, bend yourself forward, make a little 90 degree angle with your elbows. And I want you to find this brace here. Push the elbows into the shins and now pull your belly button towards your feet.

So we're gonna call this braced butterfly. From there, reach your hands up and through your legs. Lift your feet up and you recognize this, right? So let's roll it, this is your seal. Back and up, one more time.

And back and up. Release the feet, back to your brace butterfly. Shoulders way out of the ears, guys. Keep your focus in these motions where you're still, just because you're not moving doesn't mean you're not as active. Bring your feet together, take the hands back behind you again.

Come back into that tabletop position. Push, push, push, take one leg out straight. Some of you are gonna do big Batman's, without letting that booty drop. Keep using your arms, and change sides. Some of you might just be doing those simple pulses again, which is fine.

I'm really grateful my leg is moving. It's not been so great lately. Last time, have a seat, braced butterfly. Elbows against the shins, pull yourself forward. Check in with your neck, your shoulder blades and your breath.

Come all the way down to your forearms this time, take the legs up. So same feeling here, do not slouch. Let's begin a little bicycle. And I really want you to drag the mat. Squeeze it in, feel your whole foot.

Oh, I'm sinking. Feel your whole foot dragging into the mat. And keep the crown of the head going to the ceiling, everyone. For two, through one, come back to braced butterfly. Remember, the knees are in tight.

Drop the shoulders, release the neck. Big breath, everyone, reach through, find your seal and here we go. Backing up, it's a perfect balance. And back. Then up, let's do one more for kicks.

Then up, legs go straight. Cross your left leg up and over. I hope this is right, quarter turn, sit nice and tall, crown of the head to the ceiling. We keep moving that same direction, and back to your lunge. And then if you took it on the first side, option to join me with the hands up over the head, belly lifted, hip is back, yada, yada, yada.

And let's take it back to plank. And let's do some push ups, elbows are gonna open though guys. Inhale down one piece, big exhale up. Inhale down. Think about your body more than your arms, and up.

Inhale down. Make your breath do the work. Think about that. Inhale and exhale. And try to follow my tempo, so it's down and up, so like a little catch, catch.

And up. Last time, catch, and up, and lift yourself up, into your downward dog, take a nice deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Take the left leg up into arabesque, bend the knee and find the attitude. Lift the abdominals to hang the head. Check in with your body.

Back to arabesque, knee to the chest, pull the tail under, under, under, step through. Find your lunge. Lower the hands, come into a stretch, spiral stretch in the lunge. Tuck that foot under. Find your spiral stretch, fix your hair.

Continue on to the corner of the mat, the other edge of the mat. Legs are straight now. Place your hands however is comfortable, squeeze the inner thighs, and I like to really start like this. Puff your chest up, so find that connection to the rhomboids, and now lifting to your feet, tuck the tail. Now your head, place it where it's comfortable.

I don't like the head back, so either look forward or look up straight up to the ceiling. Seal your inner thigh, or resist the temptation to sink into those shoulders, don't do that. Sit down, find your braced butterfly. Down to the forearms, legs to the ceiling and bicycle maybe a little quicker, maybe not. Maybe you're also just doing knee-fold.

So do what works for you. The point is the pelvis isn't moving, and you're pushing, pushing, pushing that ground away. Come back to your braced butterfly. Knees are in, remember, this is like little training for crow pose. Reach your hands through, hatch the ankles, bring the feet up.

Here we go, either you're holding the balance or you're rolling. Let's say we roll just twice, here's the second one. Take the leg straight, cross one leg over quarter turn, spiral stretch. Sit beautifully tall. Continue on in that circle, find the lunge on the other side.

Take the arms up over the head, for some of you. Really find that beautiful straight line from the crown of the head to the heel, wherever you're at. Abdominals are lifted, tail is pointed towards the heels. Take the hands down to the mat, find yourself on your hands and knees. We're gonna do most of this series floating.

So be neutral, curl your toes under, Play some weight into your feet, lift your knees up. So I don't want you here on your hands, guys, that's gonna burn you out super fast. Have some weight into your feet, spin your biceps forward. And now pull in with those hands, feel the pecs turn on and lower down. So hopefully you found all those sweet spots, all those ways we can use our body to hold that load.

Back up, lift yourself up. and now from here, one hand to shoulder. So the choreography is really simple. So all your focus is going into form and breath. Nice and smooth, with as little shift from side to side as possible, lift the abdominals, make sure you're not lifting the booty stick out and come down and into child's pose.

Knees can be together or open, whatever works for you. Compress, compress, compress the sit bones down to the heels. Big breath into the backside of the body, guys. Long exhale out through the mouth. And back to all fours.

Okay, let's bend your right knee and take your heel to the ceiling. So this is a little prep for a back kick that we do in a martial arts. Take the knee down and up. Now check in with your lower back, even me I have a tendency to kind of tip forward with my pelvis, so I almost bias it. I almost think about doing like a tiny little baby pelvic tilt, as the knee goes up.

Hopefully that makes sense. Take the other leg up. So I know what my shortcomings are, and so I'm proactive about it. So pelvis is still as you can, it's a swinging action, and the heel is flexed 'cause you're striking with the heel. From here we're gonna repeat, lift the knees up for some of you.

Same thing, up and up. And you can begin to move with a little bit more power and velocity. Keep using the arms, remember your floor is your prop, push it away from you, use it. Last one. I think I need a little rest, child's pose.

Stretch the arms, drop the sit bones to the heels, big breath into the backside of the body. Back to all fours, curl the toes up. Take the other leg up, here we go, down and up. So this is prepping us for later in the week, when we're gonna be doing real martial art back kicks. Similar to polotis in that, power comes from the center of the body.

So right now, powers come from the hip, power is not ever gonna come from a knee joint or an elbow. Two more, last time. Lower down. Sit, big breath into the backside of the body. And exhale, exhale out.

And after all force, find your neutral position, belly tight, and then start moving one side of the mat to the other side of the mat. Now what I wanna see, is you staying on one level and keeping weight on your legs, everything nice and square. Now, if you'd like you can move a lot faster, or you can stay slow, or you can not do it at all either. So listen to what makes sense. Last time, come all the way down.

Standing on your knees, pull the belly in, lift the chest, big circle of the arms, come all the way back into rest position. Curl the toes under, lifted downward dog, press the hips high. Take the right leg to the ceiling, turn it out and bend the knee into attitude, weight on both hands. Back to arabesque, knee to the chest, step through to lunge, maybe lift the hands up. Lower down, take a twist in your lunge, quarter turn, seated stretch.

Crown of the head to the ceiling. Feet back to the edge of the mat, hands to your chest. Back to rolling back, tuck and peel back. Open your arms. Dive forward, pull your head towards your feet, palms turned down.

Big circle of the arms, up and over the top, something new, can catch one ankle, and pull your head as close to that foot as you can. Create a seal between your trunk and your leg, in one action, lift straight up. Drop the shoulders, so very climb a tree. Let's try and lifting the bottom leg up one inch and find a balance. Keep the space, trunk to thighbone.

Lower everything down. Come to the other leg. One piece lifts up. Drop the shoulders, pull abdominals in, bottom leg up one inch, hold, hold, hold. Lower that leg down.

Lower the foot down, come down in one piece. Bring the hands by the hips, lift yourself up into tendon stretch. Lower down, bend one knee into wild thing, and down and the other side lifts, lift, lift, and lower down, let's flow through that again, hands to the chest. Tuck in row. Open dash forward.

Big circle, catch an ankle, and lift, hold it here, the bottom leg comes up. Some of you will roll back and up, fight for that balance. Put the foot down in one piece, come all the way down. Catch the other leg, lift it up with you. Drop the shoulders, bottom leg comes up one inch, hold it here.

Some of you will roll back and up, find that balance, I lost mine, bottom leg down, one piece all the way to the mat, hands by the sides, lift the hips into tendons stretch, lower down, bend one knee, lift thing, and the other side. Lift and lower down. Cross the left leg up and over, quarter turn, come back to that spiral stretch. Continue on with your circle back to your lunge. Maybe the hands come off.

Hands come back down, come to plank, and lift yourself up into downward dog again. Let's just take a moment to breathe. Check in with your body, your neck, your shoulders, your hips. Okay, left leg into arabesque, push that mat away, into attitude. Rap, rap, rap, let the lower body rotate, guys.

Come all the way to arabesque, pinky toe to the ceiling. Pull the knee into your chest tight. Step it through. Maybe the hands come up or keep the hands down, wherever you're at, find a little twist in your lunge. Don't let the hips go to one side.

Tuck the back foot in. Spiral stretching, lift, lift, lift. Come all the way back to where we started. Okay, we're gonna be working in and out of some teaser. So, some of you will work like so.

Nothing wrong with that, this is still teaser to me, also known as boat pose in Yoga. Or the legs can be straight, or of course you can be in your full teaser, whatever you'd like. From here, wherever you're at, tuck your tailbone under, and roll down beautifully and gracefully into your 100 position, pause here. Take the arms up over the head, take the arms forward, peel all the way up to your teaser position. And that might mean for somebody you grab your legs, which is fine, go ahead and grab them.

The sooner what you need, guys, that's the practice. From here, tuck and roll down into your perfect 100 position. Again, that might mean you put your knees down, pull your knees into your chest, this time guys, into a tight, tight, tight ball shape. Now from here, you're gonna roll to me on your side, here we go. Transition to me, two legs are up, squeeze the legs tight.

Come back to ball shape, lift a little higher. Rotate to the other side. Squeeze your two legs together, and come back into that ball shape, hold it here. Shoot everything out, arms and legs out. Hands come forward, back to your teaser.

Hold and roll back to your 100 position. Take the hands over the head, circle the arms pull into your ball. Again, roll to me, stack the legs. Now if it's available, try taking your hand up off the mat. Pull into ball shape, and to the other side.

Try not to kill that mic right now, keep those legs up high, high, high. Come back into your ball shape, hold it here. Shoot everything out, circle the arms and peel all the way up to your teaser position. Catch the legs, sit beautifully tall. One hand goes up, one leg goes down.

Exhale up. And you can also do this with your knees bent is fine. Release, and catch. Then again release, and catch. And last time, release and catch.

Hug the knees in, bend forward. Come all the way up. Cross your right leg over your left and find your little spiral stretch, you've done that little pivot there. Crown of the head to the ceiling, continue on in that circle. Find the lunge.

Maybe your hands are up, upper back is long, take your hands to the mat. Come back into perfect plank, hold it here. Keep breathing, keep hugging in with the mat, hugging in with the arms. Use your whole body here, full body to exercise. Pull one knee in and then the other.

And then again up to you, really pounded out if you got the energy today, or move slowly with me. Fast, fast, fast if you're moving fast, lightning speed light on the feet, listen to your breath. And now everybody lift your hips into downward dog. Shake your heads, bring all your attention to your lungs. I learned during COVID that most of our lungs are in the back side of our body.

Think about that. Deep breath into the back of the lungs. Then long, slow exhale out. And now walk your feet forward to your hands as close as you can, take a moment and make sure you didn't go back on your heels. Feel the weight on the front of your feet.

Bend your knees deeply. The weight goes into your heels. We're going into chair pose. So let's bring the hands to prayer position, lift the abdominals and pull the hip points up off the thigh bones. So your weight is really far back here.

Take a deep breath in. Put my most of your focus right now on your upper back. Almost as if you're trying to extend the upper back, so I really want your back extensors involved. Take your hands all the way down. Now, think of lifting from the abdominals to straighten the legs, so not just pushing through the knees, spin the biceps forward, put a little weight onto your hands, guys.

Yeah, as if I were going to ask you to push right up into a handstand which I'm not gonna do, but really feel how much the hand needs to be involved, the hands, the fingers, wrap the arms. Bend your knees, let's come back into a deep chair. Upper back is flat, hands are in prayer position, shoulders are dropped, the breath is steady. Lift one heel up, and then lower. And then the other heel goes up and lower.

Lift and lower, upper back nice and straight, lift and lower. Some of you will lift your two heels up, hold it here. Now, think of moving from the center, the center pulls up, that takes you down, your heels are lifted, put some weight into your hands. Shift forward into the hands, notice how the sit bones lift higher. Go ahead and lower the heels down.

Tuck your tail under, peel yourself beautifully up, bone by bone by bone. Stand beautifully tall. And find your little polatis first position, about a fist distance between your feet and fix your legs. Bend your knees and come back into chair position again. Okay, so this isn't done in yoga, back is nice and flat.

Hands are in prayer, lift your heels up. Whoo, that's just get used to this balance for a moment, get your bearings, focus your mind. The heels are up really high, if you can do it. Keep your focus on that upper back and you might be working in a position that's much higher, which is fine. Or you could be really pretty low.

From here, try to keep your legs, we're gonna fold yourself forward. Think about that braced butterfly. See if you can get your shoulders lower than your knees and find that brace, really push and then put your hands on to the ground. So we're sort of in a crow prep. We're not lifting the feet, but shift onto your hands.

And your upper arm should have become a shell for your legs. So it's like oh, my quads get to relax. And then come back to your feet, and then the quads are working. And then shift into that upper arm. You might have to wiggle around a little bit to find that sensation of your legs being totally supported by your upper arm, and bring the weight back to your feet.

Now, here's a tricky transition, try to keep the feet up. It's okay, if the heels go down. Find yourself all the way back to that chair. Upper back is flat. Lift the belly, drop the hands.

Oh, the heels are up. Put the heels down, peel slowly all the way up, deep breath in. Back to chair. Okay, we're heading towards our grand finale. Make it a perfect chair for me everybody.

Notice my heels are down 'cause I need a moment. Check in with your back, make sure that the tail is long, belly is up. Maybe your heels are up and you have that space right here between your hips and your thighs. With control, lower yourself down. Shoulders go lower than the knees.

Create that brace, remember butterfly brace, hands go to the mat. Lift the heels high, shift on to the hands. This time, see if you can lift one foot up and then change legs or maybe bring the other foot up to join it. Big toes touch, belly is strong. Now if you're in the right position, this really isn't that hard, what is hard is finding the way to support the legs.

From here, wherever you're at, put your feet down, you're on the ball of your foot. Scoot your booty right down to the mat, and lift yourself up to a beautiful teaser. Taking a deep breath in through the nose, long, slow exhale out through the mouth. Really focus, stay here for one more breath. Cross your legs and drop all the way forward.

Okay, we're just gonna use the last few minutes to ground, reset, receive. So, forget about anything that happened in class. Just be completely focused on your body right now. And I want you to just focus on how it feels, don't worry about form, just focus on the sensation in your body. And see if there's a place that you can let go a little bit more.

For many of us, it's the shoulders, for me, it's the jaw, I'm a jaw clencher. Peel yourself slowly all the way up, Let's change legs, and go ahead and drop forward. Now if this is uncomfortable, you can be here, right? So make sure you're comfortable on your knees, maybe you've moved in something to prop under your hips. That to me is always an intelligent mover.

So I always be listening and attuned to what your body needs. Maybe your breath is really full, but maybe it's really quiet. Maybe some of you have that like nervous, like, "Oh my god, she's talking about breath, I hate breath, and I can't breathe now." Peel all the way up. Sit comfortably for me, I'm gonna be cross legged. And this heifer pops up as a symbol of receiving, close down your eyes.

Be still allow the breath to breathe you right now. Allow your sit bones to be really heavy into the earth, and you're not moving, you're just visualizing those sit bones heavy, heavy, heavy, like bowling balls sinking down into your mat. Your hands are also heavy on your knees, see if you can feel the back of your hand and your top of your thigh. Really, that contact right there, see if you can make it heavier. Like your hands are suddenly lead.

Shoulder blades heavy, just sliding straight down on the body, we don't even have to think about keeping them down. They're so heavy, they just glide down. And that gliding down on the shoulder blades, it automatically lifts the heart, We don't have to think about it. Head is light like a helium balloon, really see your head like a helium balloon. And then just notice how those little visualizations shifted what you were experiencing.

So in some ways, we're shifting our experience by what we decide to focus on, and how we choose to focus. Take one more moment in stillness. Okay, let's end with one deep breath, let's fill the lungs from the bottom all the way to the top, and now hold the breath, and as if you're blowing out through a very tiny straw, a very long, slow exhale out through the mouth. And when you're ready, slowly allow your eyes to open. We're done for today everybody.

Thank you so much for joining me for Rise and Restore and recharge and renew and relive and re-everything, it's a new year everybody. Have a great day. I'm here tomorrow morning again, next four days only. Take care, let me know how it felt.

Rise and Recharge: Find Your Flow

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Jan 05, 2021
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Build On Your Practice
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55 min
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Comments

1 person likes this.
Maria, I loved this class - felt so good to move.  I'm positive my moves were pretty ugly, but it was fun.  definitely a vid I'll come back to and hopefully improve.  Thank you!
Angela T
2 people like this.
what a wonderful class! Thank you!!
4 people like this.
I love all the variations of yoga, Piyo, and Pilates in this video! 
Very fun!
Lina S
1 person likes this.
Amazing class! I've loved the flow, the slow preparation for the final crow. A great take-off for a new year. Thank you!
2 people like this.
Before I joined P.A. last March I belonged to a club where I did yoga 2x a week for 5 years. So I found this class a delightful mix of Yoga & Pilates. I had fun, sweated, and got a good workout. Besides Crow I loved the repeated leg over leg stretches. Those really helped loosen me up.  I also liked that this class had elements of a Yoga Flow Series. Thanks Maria:) 
Laurence F
1 person likes this.
What a great class! I loved the fluid flow and the creative mix of moves. Something new for the new year! Great cues and energy from Maria. Thank you!
Kyzo B
2 people like this.
What is this witch craft at 22:09?!!! HA Loved it!
1 person likes this.
Hi Maria, I have loved your classes on PA...so good to see you again! Thank you for something different and challenging. Really liked all the constant stretch in between & the flow was beautiful. Can't wait for your other 3 classes!!! 
I saw you. I downloaded. Just.What.The.Dr.Ordered. Yowsa.
1 person likes this.
Really made me get involved in the movement and concentrate on the flow. Felt good to move, thank you.
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