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Class #4382

Movement Potential

60 min - Class
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So, what else can you do? Have fun with Danica as she ties her concepts together to unlock a playful approach to the Mat. Find innovation and creativity through supported movement to realize your limitless possibilities!
What You'll Need: Mat

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Jan 23, 2021
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Hello, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It's day five of the Pilates Anytime Rise and Recharge Challenge. And today I'm gonna be taking you through what I like to call movement potential. Where can you go?

If you've got just a little bit of it, what else can you do? So we're gonna have some fun, right? You're gonna see some Pilates exercises and know exactly what they are, and then you're gonna just follow along, and have some fun, and just let your body go where it goes. Okay, we're gonna start seated. Get yourself up tall on your sits bones.

Take hands on top of the knees. Take hands behind your thighs, whichever one gives you a feeling lift, right? Not so much pull to your thighs, but lift, and just take a couple breaths here. Inhale. Feel yourself rise up in this space.

Exhale. Feel the possibility of compression and sinking and collapsing, and learn to start to fight it. I inhale and lift back up if you did give a little compression and a little sinking. Exhale, scoop abs in, up, and together to keep fighting that. One more breath.

Now, as you exhale, curl the tail, roll the hips. Initiate in the pelvis. Roll back into that lumbar. Let your elbows stretch. Tap the ribs to the floor and then exhale.

Let the legs slide back forward. As you come back over the bent knees, stack yourself back up. One more of those. And curl your tail, roll back. I always like to ease into my spine and roll forward, and then stack back up.

Get a voice in your head for where you're tight, for where you wanna grip, for where you wanna fall in a brick. Scoop your abs into that, and then come back forward, and stack up. This last time, ho ahead, take yourself all the way down to the mat. Know when your ribs touch. Feel your chest stretch back to the wall behind you.

Knees come towards your forehead, not dropping into your chest. Slide left leg out on the floor. Left arm reach. Feel that whole side Get long. On an exhale, contract the abs, and lift the head, lift the shoulders, lift the leg.

See down to those toes, reach back out, and then pull arm and leg back together. Head stays tall to the back of the room. Other side, right arm, right leg. Feel yourself, stretch out. Feel yourself, get long.

And then exhale, contract the abs. Still pick up both shoulders at the same time. See down to those toes. Feel the hollowing scoop of your hundred. Reach it back out.

Pull it back in and say to yourself, "Hmm, my head is heavy." Yes, it is. One more, other side, reach it, and exhale, curve it up. Reach it back down and in. And other side, right arm, right leg reach, waist nice and tall, exhale, contract, lift, and then bring it back down and in. And then the left side.

One time, reach. Keep that reach to the waste. Go ahead and send your right leg out to meet it. And then arms come down by your side. Start pumping in your hundred, breathe in.

Two, three, four, maybe five, and exhale. Three more breaths to such. If you need to lift your legs to get more scoop back through your spine, go for it. It will challenge the length in your hamstrings. Oka, the higher up to you 90 come, the more reach you need.

Now hold the pump. Turn the palms towards each other, externally rotating your humerus. Inhale, open, two, three, four, five. Exhale, squeeze in. And inhale.

Exhale, squeeze in. And three more inhale. Exhale, squeeze in, and open. Exhale, press the air out like you're squeezing a giant magic circle. Exhale, pull the knees in.

Reach the torso back. Reach both arms back. Now we did unilateral. Now we're gonna do bilateral. Let the left arm come down by the side.

Let the left leg straightened out. Now you've got opposite arms to opposite leg, reaching apart. Curve up, lift. And now as you do a single leg stretch, you change the arms as well, and change office. Opposite arm to leg is straight, and single leg stretch pull.

And breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in, it's like hundred and stomach series and a whole bunch more. Last set. Pull and scoop all the way to the top of that spine. Reach both arms back.

Both knees pull into your forehead. Roll back down. Feet come to the mat. Here we go for a good old roll up. Start with your knees bent.

Lift the arms, lift the head shoulders, let the legs reach out to straight, curve over. Stay over. Keep your hands up by your ears. Don't let them fall. Flex the feet.

Pull the abs back. Point the feet. Rolling down, curl from the tail first. Find that midline, reach away from your toes as you stand long out through. Let's see out the arms circle around into your upper abs peel you up.

Lift those arms to your ears as you come through them. Flex your feet, point your feet, curl the tail, roll back down. One more like such. And circle the arms, and exhale, curve forward. Legs strong and together, feet flexed, feet point, but now instead of rolling down, stack up at your 90, reaching out through.

Flex the feet, reach back in a flat back, curl the tail out through the heels, roll down. You're gonna come up and stack up at 90. Curve forward, but don't reach over the toes. Find the top of the head, reach for the ceiling, and lift each bone up. Keep a flat back, pitch forward.

Lift those arms, and then you're gonna curl the tail here, thinking short box, push through front, all the things. Roll back, last one, and arms reach. They can circle if you want. Feel the feelings come up, but stack up tall. Lift through the crown of the head.

Pickup every single bone, pitch forward, bend your knees if you need to, really making those hammies have to lengthen. Lift the arms up by the ears. Feel your back tall. Go ahead and curve over, contract. Shake that out while you're there.

Pull that right hip back. Reach your left hip forward, let it spiral. And then over to the other side. And then lift, bring yourself forward on your mat if you need to. As you roll back, arms reach forward, pull one knee to your forehead, roll back with that leg.

That leg reaches up to the ceiling. Arms come up to the ceiling as well, perpendicular to the floor. Curve up, reach for the toes. Get as far as you can. Change legs.

Reach back down. Now, try not to come closer to you if you're flexy. Okay. Just try to keep that reach of all the limbs. Find spinal flection up through hundred and thoracic.

Single straight leg up and down with the other side. Roll back down, and curve up. Control those lines, reaching of the extremities. Scoop through those abs and change. And then back down Whoo! One more.

Here we go, and then you're going into a single leg circle. Curve up. Change. Now keep your arms up, which is gonna make your circle smaller. Cross the leg, down round, exhale up, and home.

But guess what, use your arms to set the frame of your circle. Cross, down round. Don't go wider than your fingers. And exhale. Last one, I feel like that's five.

Reverse. Open down round Exhale. Check your bottom leg. Does it need to bend a little bit so that you can feel more stance through that side? Two more, and last one, and change.

Lift up, squeeze at the top, feels strong for a moment, and then the other leg comes down. If it needs to bend, cool beans. Over, down round and center. And your arms are setting the frame of your circle. It really makes you feel how much you gotta work back through your center.

Last one, this direction. And reverse. Open down round. And it's not that much of an open, but do try to inner thigh pull cross. And last one.

You're there. Both legs down. Pull right knee to your chest, hold behind the thigh. Curve up over the knee. Let the leg reach and stretch you up into a tree.

Climb, climb. Dive over. As you roll back, bend the knee, pull the hands back behind. They're all down. Grab up again.

Roll up, let the leg reach. That'll help you climb, climb. Dive over. And then as you roll back, pull the knee in. See, tree can move.

One more. Tree can be fun. It can grow it. Doesn't have to just stand on the ground. Dive over.

Sneak your hands over to the other side. Pull back with that other leg, bend in. Roll up. Wee! Then let the legs stretch out. Let it feel you pull an opposition, climb, climb. Dive over, and roll back, and just let the knee bend.

You can keep it straight if you want to, if you really wanted to keep that leg straight on the way back. That would just make it harder, because it would make your leg heavier. Climb, climb. Dive. Woohoo! Roll back.

One more to make three. The good old rule of threes. Here we go. Scoop, pull, reach, let the shifting through, help you find the opposition. Dive.

Put both legs down. You're gonna roll back, pull right in into your chest, stretch it to the ceiling. Now, you're gonna go ahead and put both arms over your head. The right arm reaches up. So same arm, same leg.

I'm gonna start rotating this leg to lift the hips and pelvis to bring me all the way onto the left side. Reach long. And then as the leg rotates in the socket, it's gonna pull me back down. Just let your arms go with you. Feel where you have to push and roll.

If you wanna keep going, you can let the leg come back. Find a little spiral. Reach and then lift up through. Let the leg rotate in the hip socket to pull you back down. One more.

Lift toes to the ceiling and then let the leg turn. If you wanna keep going, if you wanna feel cool, go for it and lift, but you're just finding where your pelvis articulates on the femur. Shaky wakey, other side, right? Now, if you're on a raised mat, be careful, okay? Don't fall off the mat.

So I'm gonna think lift up to the ceiling, and there is this reaching over. The bottom side presses, and it lifts me on to my other side, giving me this idea that sidekicks might happen today. Right? Just let your arms go with you. Anything, they might not have to push you.

You might have to pull on something. If you wanna let the legs start to cross back, take a little stretch through. It feels delish, and then up, rotate in the socket. Last one. You get the femur to roll.

You get the pelvis to roll, and your whole back gets to extend. Come up. Pull it back. Both knees into your chest. Curve up, roll up, and you're probably crooked on your mat because that makes you go (speaks gibberish).

So get all centered. Rolling like a ball. Are you ready? Are you ready? So pull together in your C curve, come over the knees, rock back with an inhale. Come home and balance.

Just give it to you more. It's rolling like a ball. Just let it rock and let it roll. One more, finding that exhale at the top where you can really deepen. Find your balance and just go to your open leg rocker, why not?

Just rock it back from here, rock back. It's the same spine. Lift, your legs are just heavier. Rock and back. One more, rock back, and then just bring it back on down to your rolling like a ball.

Now here's a fun talent. Take your arms on the inside. Squeeze your inner thighs into as you grab a hold top of your shin. So it's kinda like seal, but not seal. Right?

Rock back. Squeeze the inner thighs into your midline. Come home. Can that allow you to deepen and curve your abs more? And squeeze into center, and exhale home.

And one more, last one, and home. Hold your balance. Bring elbows on top of your knees, press together. All right. Straighten one leg, keep your elbow in your knee together.

Set it back down. And keep the elbow and the knee press together, lift, set it back down. Yeah, you see how my voice got really serious, 'cause this is serious. And bring it back down. One more.

You gotta keep that work of your curve over, both legs. Simon says all bright. Pull them together, arms come down. And you're here for some corkscrew. And just go ahead and take it to center over to the right, down to the center.

Lift your hips up through center, lift. Wee! And then go over to the left, down around through center. Up and lift. One more time, over, down round. Lift up through center and to the left, down round, and lift up through center.

My body just wanted to keep going and didn't wanna stop at center. Bend both knees. Step both legs down. Now keep your knees together. Straighten one leg, which means that quad muscle has to work.

The hip flexor has to work to not let your leg drop below. Keep that. Lift both legs here. Whoo! Feel that difference of weight in your low abs and how much work that takes. Set it down, change legs.

Right, keep the legs pressed together. Lift, pull. Good. And set it down. Now you go straight in one leg.

You're gonna lift both legs, and then you're gonna let your hips follow. Yeah, you are. Here we go. Straighten the leg, pressing those arms, pull, lift up, pull back down. Set the foot down and change legs, teaching your low labs to really work with different weight.

That side it's so much harder. And set it back down. Go ahead, laugh at yourself. Laugh at this breathing. One more set.

For me, I find this much easier. I can really balance it across my center a lot easier. But when my right leg is out, my body has a little bit less of an idea where my left pelvis is. Bring it on down. Whoo! Shake it out.

That was fun. But now that your low abs have felt that ability to deal with weight shifting across, come on up for a spine stretch saw fun time. Okay? Hands come in front of you, and you're gonna take a breath in and tall. Exhale, curve forward.

In your spine, stretch forward. You're gonna let your right arm lift. Lift the right side up tall. Find center spiral. Look back at those fingers and then come back center.

Inhale up. Exhale curve out over. Now, the left arm, lift and pull and bring the low abs with you, 'cause one side of your back is heavier than the other, and back center. And inhale, exhale, go over. Feel the curve, feel the stretch.

Feel the strength of that right side lift and bring the elongation of the other side with, and you feel your abs work in front of you to bring you back to center, and over. Knowing that you can work one side of the core and then the other, and just lift yourself up tall, and back center. Now you're gonna do one through center and come up for center with both arms. Exhale. Lift both arms, come up through center.

Come up through center. Keep both arms up tall, twist to the left. Open the arms, flip the back arm in your saw. Dive over. Flex your feet for more challenge, stack up.

Now pick both arms up to the top. Lift tall, lift tall, spiral with your spine, spine twist with your spine. Then change the arms, and let that carry you out over. Lift and back up. Okay, have a little bit more fun.

Twist the arms, dive over. That back arm, flip it back over and come forward, and both arms reach by that pinky toe. And it brings you level in your spine stretch, maybe counter twist too, and then open back up to come up. Both arms back up. Oh that with a lot.

Other side, twist. Saw arms, dive out. Now that back arm, everybody's got a different bit of rotation. Find it, slip around in the socket, both sides out to the pinky toe. Saw it off.

And then lift yourself back up through it. Flip that arm. Both arms come up. Now, staying up, I want you to lift one side of your waist and shoulder. Let it literally pick up that I hip.

Set it back down. Lift one side of your shoulder blade, rib cage. Let it pick up your pelvis, and set it back down. Bring your legs a little bit closer together. Just let it side bend you over and let it feel you pull, but don't fall and come back.

And one more, stretching up one shoulder blade, opening up the rib cage, letting it to pull your pelvis over, little side bend, little reach, and then back over. Whoo! That was fun. Shake that out. Flip over onto your stomach first, and posterior stuff. Right?

Just posterior stuff. Let's have legs a little bit apart. And again, to get in the middle of your mat, you can take your legs wide and shmiggle yourself. So let's go like hip width apart, right? No wider than shoulders, hip width.

Okay. And I want you to come down where your nose is one inch away from the floor, right? I'm not sure if you can see that, 'cause the hair might be in the way, right? And now I want you to take your hands, and I want you to press them into your outer hips. And I want you to let yourself do something that you're not really supposed to do.

Collapse your chest and collarbone without letting your nose come to the floor. All right. So your spinal muscles are having to work up through your neck. Your shoulder girdle has just collapsed off. Correct your shoulder girdle first.

Rotate the humerus, pull the collarbone open. Slide the shoulder blades together. Squeeze the outer hips. Pull so much that it starts to bring you up into the idea of swan. Find triceps working, and then come back down.

Hover your nose one inch off the mat, so that all your cervical erectors working, and then let your shoulder blades fall off. Let them just melt off. Find the rotation of the arms. Let it even spiral into your fingertips down there, 'cause they're moving. And then as it pulls and lifts, it opens the chest.

Look forward out over the edge of the mat. Not dead forward, just out. And then back down, and let your shoulders round. Feel the rounding. If your feet begin to cramp, give them a wiggle, and then open, reach.

Lift. Hold up here. Not super high. My ribs are still on the floor. Elbows, bend and stretch back down.

Try as best to keep them to the ceiling as you can. If they open out to the side, it's gonna be harder to keep them out of the ground. pull and reach. One more pull and reach. Come on back down.

Bring your hands forward. Let your knuckles come together, elbows wide. but knuckles are really under my sternum. Pull the legs together. Be in a parallel.

Now again, don't think kick my neck back. Think pull my whole spine forward. Look out over the edge of the mat. Single leg kick. One, two, set it down.

And one, two, add your foot with a flex and a point and a down, and a flex and a point and a down. Yay! And one more. And last one, flex and point and down. Wasn't that fun? Now, we're gonna kinda combine that with something else.

Plant the arms, plant the hands, elbows up, shoulders working. And you're gonna kick, kick and hold. You're gonna lift, let it rotate, tap your toe. Bring it back down, set it down. Now other leg.

Kick, kick, hold. Lift, opening up the front of the thigh. It begins to externally rotate and that carries through your spine and taps. Now pull back through your center, zip up. Pull yourself back and through.

And kick, kick hold. You feel a lift in a parallel. Now be clear. Externally rotate and let that influenced the movement, and then come back through parallel and down. One last one.

Again, hover your nose, kick, kick, lift, rotate. Feel the spiral comes through. Let it feel good, let it feel good. Come back. Good, and down.

Now, you're gonna reach one arm forward. And as you're gonna open it up to the side, and as you it comes down to your waist, you're gonna let it pull up that whole side of your chest. Circle it back in. Set it down. And it doesn't come up that much, and it's not that rotation.

Reach the arm forward, reach it out to the side. As it comes back, it opens and spirals that side. Bend and come back down. Did you catch how much more rotation I had to one side than the other? Check it out, right?

Yeah, yeah, right. And check that out on yourself. Arm reaches forward, and it's like you're doing a breaststroke one arm, and it comes over, but you're gonna let it engage that whole side and spiral. Ooh, that is sticky. Pull it in and down.

And now the other arm reaches forward. And I do mean breaststroke like you're in the actual water, not like breaststroke on the reformer. Into your side, let it pull. Then lift that side of the body up, and then bring that hand back down. Good stuff.

And then lift up, press back, curve and through that spine, so you're not collapsed. Take a generous knee opening and a frog if you've really got like tight hip flexors or you just don't have that much like stretch going on. You wanna feel some things. You're gonna stretch it out into your quad position, hands and knees. Okay.

Now, in parallel, because we're gonna pick your legs up. You can't really pick them. You can, but I want your legs in a parallel, not together in your frog stance. Otherwise, your knees might get a little upset about this. Press into the arms, find your flat back, tuck the toes, right?

And really find a place where you can press down. We know we want the heels pressing back, but you need to be able to press down. Okay. So in this flat back, on an exhale, you're gonna lift the knees one inch and find your cat. Hold.

Hold, kneeling knee stretches, and then keep the cat. Tap the knees down. Stretch out to your flat back and into a little swan. And then back through to your flat back and feel your cat just happen and pick up your knees. Hover them and bring them down.

Not heavy, right? Don't collapse down onto them. Come through a flat back to your swan. Come through a flat back to your cat, and let your cat scoop and pick up. Keep it there.

Stretch one leg back, other leg back. Bring your chest forward through your flat back. Curve back into it. Pull the knee forward, bend. Pull the knee forward.

Good, cat here with your knees down. I know I snuck a plank in there. Did you see that? Did you see that? It just snuck right in there. Tuck your toes.

You're in your cat, hover and lift, stretch a leg back, stretch a leg back. Now feel your back extend without dropping your waist. Go where you can. If you'll wanna take it to a little swan action, cool. Curve back through.

Come through your flat back to your cat. Bring it in, bring it in. Take extra cat here, make them feel good. Last one, and stretch it back. Stretch it back, and then feel the waist elongate.

The upper back work, but you don't drop. Can you keep going to your swan, to your upstretched combo? Pull back up through your flat back into your cat, and let that suck the knees in. Big stretch, curve back now. Take your arms over to one side, hips over to the other.

And then over to the other side. Let it breathe. It's about now where the heart rate is like, "What's happening? We're really moving." That's right, so let's keep moving. Flip it on around, legs out in front of you.

The neck pull, right? So, do you actually pull your neck? Yes and no. Don't pull on your neck because you could hurt your neck, but use the idea of lifting it and pulling tension up through to be the idea of neck pull, and pull all the way up to it, laying it back, round it down, and then curve it up. Ooh, dive over the legs, reach.

Two, three, stack it up, and going back. Exhale to control. Inhale to lift up. Exhale to finish getting over and wring out all the air, stack up. Now, as you go back, bend one leg, set it down into the floor.

And as you set your head down, lift the straight leg. Set the straight leg down, curve up. Pull the leg stretches out. You're over, you're over, you're over, and you're up. Pull the other leg in, bend the knee, pitch back, roll down.

When your head touches the floor, the straight leg lifts, sets down. You curve up. Try to make it a seamless action. (laughs) And over, both legs straighten. Yup.

And now last one, roll back, right leg in. This time, as you lift the leg, can you also lift the hips? Set it down, everything. Curve back up. Dive over straight legs.

Two, three, stack it up, and pitch back, roll it down. Can you lift and press? And then dive up over, and stretch out over both legs. Circles, shake that out. Get resituated on your mats.

Lie down for some actual shoulder bridge. Right? Kind of snuck it in there. All right. So, shoulder bridge is about your shoulders helping support your bridge, but you got a curl up, up tall.

You have to make sure the center of the bridge is supported under the load of gravity. Roll back down. If all you use is your shoulders to push, then you're gonna end up in a swan. And I don't want you in a swan. I want you to go through flection to an extended flat back more than a swan, and then roll down.

And now you're gonna roll up. You're gonna lift one leg up straight, but you're not gonna kick it. You're gonna come back down and set that leg down. Both hips come up evenly. They stay even with a leg that lifts.

You come down evenly, albeit the weight is not. One more set, up, lift. Now you can have the opposite arm for fun, lifting that opposite arm and still working evenly down through the ribs and pelvis. That was way harder than I thought it would be. Let's do the other side.

I bet you it gets harder. Lift up. Then the leg goes up. Find the opposite arm and reach. Roll down evenly through the ribs or as best you can, and your pelvis.

Both feet down. Both arms reach back. One leg slides out. Curve up, see down to that leg. See where it is, and then lift and grab a hold of it.

Yes. And then let go, leave it there as long as you can. Roll down, change legs. There's a reason for this. Trust me, trust me, trust me.

Curve up. See down that body. Right? And then finally, you lift and grab a hold of it. And yes, you get to press down.

Oh yes, you get to press down, and then you're gonna roll back down. Roll back down. Change, one more time. Curve up. Lift, pull, grab a hold of it.

Oh, fun. Let it go, reach. And change legs. Last one. Curve up.

Reach, pull, grab a hold of it. Get a good pull around, stretch your back in that tree, but this time stay up. Go ahead and bring both legs down. Stretch both legs out in front of you. Now a little spine twist.

Instead of arms out to the side, bring your arms up just behind your head. And you're gonna twist to the left or right. Twist, twist, hold your twist. Keep your pelvis nice and still. Pull the elbow in and get your spine taller.

Let them back open and back center. And go to the right, twist and a little bit farther, and then hold that little bit farther. Pull the elbows in, open them back up, and back center. Now, if you find that you can't move them, you might have twisted from your shoulders versus your spine. And twist, twist.

And if you twisted from your spine, as you move your arms, you should have a whole conversation across your thoracic, all the way around the front of your chest. Open back up and back center. And to the left and then pull. Oh yes, that's such good times. And back up.

And now twist, keep the arms still. Bend the knee of the sides you twisted to. So I went left and I bent my left knee. Now I'm gonna lean back, and then I'm gonna come center, and I'm gonna come forward, and straighten that leg out. Twist to the other side.

I'm gonna the right, so I'm gonna bend the right knee, and I am pressing down with that foot. And I'm preparing for the idea of around the world. Go back, come over to center, and forward, and back out, and twist. And you can pull the knee in at the same time, and then use it. Come back center and forward.

And all this playing with the differentiating weight in your low abs, well, it's just gonna make you stronger. Come center. Go ahead and curve forward. Go ahead and give that a wiggle. Shake your arms out because they were just up in the air for a whole long time, and now they're gonna need to be on the ground for some jackknife.

Now we can call it a jackknife, roll over. Just put your butt in the air. Okay. Starting a frog, knees to your chest. We're also gonna throw some leg circles in here.

Okay. And you're gonna curl the tail and stretch the legs over, thinking roll over, roll down. Pelvis touches the mat. Legs hit 90. Take a leg circle, press open.

Down, you don't have to go far. Together. Come up, bend the knees back in. One more, curve over and let the leg stretch, and lengthen the back of the legs. Roll down.

Pelvis touches, waist tall, 90 at the legs. The legs circle, open. Down together. Back up through center. Bend in.

Now if that's enough, just keep doing that three more times. Otherwise, keep your legs straight, and you go over to your jackknife. Roll it over. Now, jackknife, lift it up from down, and I want you to open circle the legs and continuously come back up. Lift, roll through, and find the leg circle.

It makes it more like long spine stretch on the reformer. Lift, roll down. Last one. Down together Lift up and roll back down. But now you're gonna do three legs circles the other way, with both legs straight.

Down through center, open at the bottom, come up to 90. Keep the pelvis stable, and down. It's a double, single leg circle without crossing center. And just one more, because you go one direction, might as well go the other. Right.

And onto your side for some sidekick love. So here we go. Sidekick love. Now, take arm down first. Let your head lengthen out, so you can really get a nice length through your spine.

Legs forward. Check yourself out. Right? Check yourself out. Find the top arm.

Parallel, bottom leg lifts, and bring it to the front, point the foot. Reach through, come to the back. Now, keep your spine still. Keep it still. And two more like that, and come to the back.

And one more, and back. Now, let your torso come with you. As you come forward, contract, slightly curve and do a little C curve, come through center, come through flat back. And then swan out through as the leg comes back. Now, if that's enough challenge, cool.

If he wants some more challenge, come up on your elbow. And as the leg comes forward, you have this little pivot point on your elbow as you curve forward. Notice the movement of the pelvis on the bottom leg. You have to correct that movement of the pelvis in the bottom leg. There will be movement on the pelvis on the bottom leg.

Try to open instead of fall back. and then come center, and coming forward. Curve the torso, come long through. Stretch the chest, go back. One more, curve forward, pivot on the elbow.

Notice you're also picking and turning on that bottom femur. Come back center. If you wanna stay up with the arm, great. Lift in a parallel, rotate to lift higher. Back to your parallel and down.

Parallel and then turn out, back to parallel, and down. Just two more. Lift, parallel, and down. And lift, parallel, and down. Go ahead, come back down on your arm if you were up.

in the top leg in front. Let that be a stretch for all the things that we're just working up your back hip. If this is too much, go here. All right. Bottom leg lifts up, set it down.

And inner thigh, pull, get longer. Yeah, you're telling me just get the longer, it happened. Lift it, hold it up. Inwardly, rotate angle, big toe up. Backs are parallel, externally rotate big toe down.

But it happens in your hip. You can see your toe move if you were to look down, but make sure your thigh is moving with it. Don't just do this. One more, turn it in, in, in, in, in. Turn it out, out, out, out, out.

Now turn it all the way in, pigeon toed as some people would say, and keep that circle up, circle up, circle up, and reverse. Keep that over inward rotation. Go over inward and lift up. Yeah, it sounds exactly like Pilates. Set it back down.

Top leg goes back out. I know you already want to, but not quite yet, right? Both legs lift. Set them down. Both legs, lift hold them there.

Bottom leg beats down, up, down, up, and hold. Top leg beats up, down, up, down. Bottom leg, down, up, down, up, down, up. Top leg up, and up, and up. Both legs down.

Torso. Yeah, this thing up here. Right? Press down. Can you lift your waist, lift your ribs?

Hover and come back down. So hard, right? I know. Try to do more, try not to make it a piece. Try not to do the worm to come up, right?

But stand, and you really have to lift your waist. And the more curve you have in the pelvis, the more waist you have to lift, and then the weight of the ribs and the shoulders, and press. And your legs might come up, that's okay. And back down. One last one, try to lift the torso first.

If the legs follow, so be it. And back down. Let the knee come forward. And then you're gonna bring your bottom arm forward, and you're gonna let your torso twist and spiral. I'm hitting a wall right here, but hopefully you're not.

And you can stretch your arm all the way back out, right? I didn't really plan for this one, but I really need it because that was a lot of feelings in this area. And then you're gonna reach your leg back down. Let it pull you up through your side. And you can just roll to the other side, but I wanna keep facing you.

So I'm gonna kick my legs to the other side, stretch out for the other side. Okay. Now, the biggest challenge about sidekicks for your teacher is to Remember all the variations we just did. I'm gonna try. So my arms down, right?

Truth and facts. Top arm comes down and you come up into a parallel top leg. Take it to the front, flex foot. Point, bring it through to the back, waist tall. And forward, keep the torso nice and tall, and lengthen.

One last one, and feel your torso being still. Now, as you come forward, flex the foot, contract. You're thinking mini cat, mini C curve. Come back through the link of neutral, and then find your swan. And you notice you wanna pick up your head.

That's why doing this on your elbow makes a little bit more sense. And as you curve forward, you contract. And as you lengthen through center and then go back, you extend. And yes, there'll be a little spiral, that's okay. And then you curve forward.

And then you lengthen through your waist, but it is the idea that you are still going through spinal flection, extending through neutral, hyperextending. Last one, forward. Lengthen and notice that movement on that bottom hip, bottom leg, stabilize it. And we come up to the side through a parallel, rotate it to come higher, back through the parallel and down. And three more, and down.

Breathing in, reach it out. Because it starts to burn and the breathing saves you and makes you think you can keep going, and you can just do it. Come on down. Top leg is gonna come on top. It can fold all the way down to the floor if need be.

Bottom foot flex, lift. Now, set it down. Just give it two more down and up, so you feel the length of your inner thighs. Your inner thighs are really long, right? And keep it up at the top.

Inwardly rotate it. Through parallel, externally rotate it. Notice, do you have a difference in rotation and the degree of rotation on this leg than you did on the other? For this leg, I'm having a much harder time getting it inwardly rotated. Hold that inward rotation.

Circle up around, up around, three good times. Reverse it. And yes, you've just discovered that your inner thigh runs all the way down to the medial part of your knee, on the inside of your knee, feel it all the way down there. Good burn. Set it down.

Reach top leg back out. Now we did some beats, right? Some beats. Lift those legs. Feel the weight, adjust, adjust.

Go ahead and set them down. Wiggle shmiggle if you need to. Get longer and lift, and the bottom leg beats down, up, down, up, down. Hold it up. Top leg beats.

Up, down. Oh it burns so good. One more set of that. Down, up, down, up. Get longer, breathe taller.

It will burn. It's supposed to. Last one. Set it down. Then there's the torso part.

I remembered. You think I was gonna forget this really hard thing of us, and I don't even know if this side wants to do it today. Here it is, yey! Put it back down. Right? You gotta find your whole waist.

Pull together, and lift, and set it back down. And if the legs wanna lift too, and you get full activation, go for it. And last one, hover. Wee! And back down. Whoo! Onto your stomach.

Make a little forehead. Make a pillow for your forehead. (chuckles) Make a forehead, what? Stretch yourself long, give it a wiggle. Lift both legs.

Hover them nice and straight, and then you're just gonna kick them up and down and you're swimming. Easy on your upper body. Just let your hammies feel the love. Opening, opening through. And then you're just gonna easily lift.

Open your arms to your T out to the side. Bring them back in. put the other hand on top. Set down, keep cooking. Yeah, by the way, keep cooking.

Just a little bit of lift. Stretch out to the sides, pull it in. Bring it back down. Last set. A little bit of lift.

Stretch the chest, fly, come back in, and set it down. I know. Sit back on your heels. Give a little stretch out of that back. Give it what you need.

Stretch onto your hips. They've just had a time. And I will meet you up on your knees. Okay. So here we are on knees.

Now, I do do this with my feet starting a little bit together, and more of a classical tripod frog stance. Okay. It actually helps me feel my hips better. Hands up behind your head. Now, leave with the head first, and let your head pour over to one side.

Let it carry your ribs over. Let it carry you towards the floor. Reach an arm down to... Maybe get your fingertips to the floor, but then find the other arm, reach up to the top. And find the arm at the top, lift you back up.

All the way back up to your side, all the way back up. Hands come back behind your head. Lead with your head. You can initiate with so many things, but initiate with your head, pouring over. Pour, pour.

Let the weight of the arms just reach the finger tips to the floor. Find the strength of the top body, the top side pull you back up. One more of those, lead with the head. Pour, reach, let it hang. Lift and pull yourself back up.

And reach, pour, let it hang over a little bit. Dare I say it, almost collapses, but then you've got the strength of that topside to pull you back up. Now, that was initiating from the top. Let's initiate from the bottom. And feel yourself press into the floor, rise up.

Feel yourself, push over to reach out one leg, and then pull it back in. Stand down and back up. You definitely don't get to side bend as much. So we're not going down, we're not going over. You're gonna push and reach, and be able to get out onto one leg, and then pull.

Whoo! Pull it back in. And you're going to put your hand down. Push from the bottom. Reach it out, hand and leg. Set the leg down, and then lift it, set it down.

Lift it, set it down. Lift it, set it down. Stretch your bottom leg out, surprise. Lift, reach that arm onto your side, and lift, and reach that arm onto your side. One more, lift, bottom leg comes back in.

Top outside, top body pulls you back up. Whoo, surprise, yeah. Push from the bottom out. Tip it over, but don't fall out. Hand comes down.

Right, get it where you gotta get it. Top leg lift three times, and set it down. And up, and set it down, and up, set it down. Round it, bottom leg reaches. Top arm lift.

Come through your side then and up, and reach. If you wanna take that press, my feet are a little slidey. Over, last one, and pull your bottom leg in, and use your top body to lift as you pull the leg in. Whoo! That was some fun times. Come on, back down onto the mat.

We're almost there, friends. We're almost there. Teaser boomerang delight. Here we go. Cross your right leg over your left or your left over your right.

You got two, make a choice. Hands are down. Now, the first action, I would love you to try and feel in your boomerang. It's not you going backwards. Actually, what I want you to try and do is just try to lift.

All of that pull of the uneven weight with your low abs, pressing in the flor, squeeze the leg, lift, then roll back. Open, close, come into your teaser. Hold the legs. Hold the legs. Get on top of the bottom.

Get your hands underneath the top leg ankle, the bottom leg begins to lower. That same arm should be able to open and you spiral. Pull it all back up together. Let go. Continue your boomerang around and stretch.

And here you go again, get your hands, plant them. Now, no one just try to go back. Scoop, pull. Rock back, open, close. Come into your teaser, catch it.

Get a hold of your top leg, therefore the bottom leg and that same arm, that same unilateral side can open and reach. Don't fall, don't fall. The lower that leg goes, the harder it is to pick it back up. You saw me wiggle. You saw it.

It was a true wiggle, and lower the legs, dive. You can do any rowings. Stretch up if you like. Dive butterfly those arms. Place the hands where they do help you push your scoop and open, close, and hit your teaser, grab that top leg.

And reach, open, spiral, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist. Pull back up. Let go and over. This is your last one, and scoop. Open, close.

Hit your balance, grab the top leg. Spiral, lift, open. Scoop up through that lumbar because your lumbar is in this tug of war right now, and it needs to keep supporting weight up. Good, let go. Dive forward, and you reach.

Now go ahead, put both legs down nice and even. Roll back one time. Knees come to your chest. To level it off, circle the arms, come up through one teaser, both legs, and then roll back down. Knees into your chest.

Do two more. And just feel it nice and easy. It should feel a lot easier than when your abs were working to control uneven weight in your legs. Last one. All the way up, now stay up.

Bend the knees, bring them around through. Now you're in your seal. Outer hips, inner thighs. Not feet and toes and feet and toes. Open, close, open, close, open, close.

Rock back and spin. And clap, clap, clap at the top. Same tempo with claps. One, two, three. Three, two, one.

Don't put your head down. One, two, three. Sometimes my head hits the mat. Curve it, curve it, curve around in those upper abs so it doesn't. Two more.

One, two, three. Rock back and come home. Last one, you're gonna let go, and you're gonna come up to standing. Let go. Bring it up to standing, both feet together.

Roll yourself up all the way tall. Be in the center of your mat. Hands, let's reach them up, let's reach them up. Okay. And your hands are up, and your legs are really firmly pressed.

You're gonna have little Pilates V of your choice. Lift both heels, and just hover, hug your midline. Not around back, but a flat back, pitching from the rotation of your hips. Find where you end. It's not gonna hit 90.

Pull yourself back up. Right in the hips. Deep in the hips. Now in your mid back, keep it strong. Pitch forward, easy pitch.

It's the coming back up where you're pushing back up into gravity, and you have to drag your front body with you. One more, fight for it. You can have 1/2 inch of hover of your heel. It's all it needs, but don't move from your spine. Move from your hips, and use your back strength to pull your front body.

Lower your heels back down. Step one foot forward. Now you're still feet a little bit apart, okay? Right. So you're like on the Egyptian walk, but not foot in front of foot, still next to each other.

Arms forward. If you want more challenge, have them up. If you need information, put them in the front of your hips. Find that same pitch forward. Don't let yourself skew.

Keep reaching, keep reaching, and now curving forward, let your hands come down to the floor, wherever they were. And you're gonna feel not your head leaning forward, not your mid back pull forward, but you're gonna feel your back foot lift the heel, push up into your core, shifting weight onto that front foot, so you can lift that back leg. Can you lift in line. Whoo! Come back down. Bring that foot back in.

Roll yourself up. Up, up. Change legs. I didn't do so great on that, because my body is tired. It should be, you just did a whole mat class, right?

Go where you want with those arms. Higher up, harder the challenge. I like feeling the even crease, so I'm gonna go here, right? And I've got equal weight on both legs. Now I'm gonna curve over, and hands out away from your toes, so you have room to reach.

Because as I push from that back foot, I'm gonna shift weight on top. Abs gotta stay lifted, leg lifts. Extra challenge, try to bring your back up in line with your toes. Well, fight for it. Ooh, bring it back down.

And back down to the floor. Roll yourself up, up, up. Give it one more go, one more go. Just move through it now. Pitch forward.

Reach your arms out, push, lift. Inhale the leg. Lift your back. Let it go where it goes. Bring it back down.

Set the foot down, roll back up. You could either step forward or step back, or do a little hop change. You know your day. Pitch forward. Plant the hands, dive over, push from the back leg, lift.

Reach through the waist, coming up through your back. So hard. Back down, bring the foot down. Lift up and center. Last little fun thing standing.

You're gonna let your feet come wide, and you're gonna let some external rotation happen. Dare I say second position. Right, okay. So my heels I would say are just wider than my armpits. Arms out to the side.

Really reach and feel strong, even though you've got this home happening. You're gonna side lunge out over. Knee over toe. Make sure you take your whole waist with you. Come back center, right?

Don't give me this. Still a thing, super sassy, but take your whole frame. Take your whole structure, and back center. One more. Lunge it out, press.

Feel the weight shift over. And if you want to, you can hold your frame so you don't feel yourself collapse. And back center. Okay. Now side lunge over.

And then you're gonna take your torso over there. You can take your torso over there, and you're gonna keep reaching that top arm, but then you're gonna let your pelvis push, and you're gonna keep reaching that top arm over, so you get this huge stretch to your side. Then you're gonna lunge back out, so we get a little lower, get a little bit deeper. You go and find that top side pull you up. Oh that top side.

Yes, side lunge. Side reach, side bend, side love. Now the pelvis follows the direction of those bottom finger tips that the torso keeps reaching. Whoo! And then out. And then back up.

And then you're gonna go over, and you're gonna take the thing. Yeah. And you're gonna push the pelvis, and then you're gonna lunge back over. Don't come back up this time now. Let your head just get heavy.

Let it pull your head forward. Bend both knees evenly. Hang your arms down. You're in your C curve, roll yourself up one bone at a time. All the way up.

And over to the left or your right, just the other side. And you press the pelvis through those fingers, and keep reaching, you keep reaching. Pull all the abs and do the thing. Reach out. And now as your head comes heavy and it pulls you back around, let both knees find an easy bend.

Let your shoulders just kinda hang down. Roll yourself up. Arms reach out to the side. Side bend. Over.

Press the pelvis, reach it back, come through center, but now keep going all the way over to this lunge of the other side. Find that side body, open, and back up. And over to the left, and the hip reaches, and then it comes back over, and then your head curves down even through both knees. Now keep bringing the head over. Rotate that front body back open, and stack back up.

Give a little shake out. And now you're gonna find your one leg pick up the heel, set it back down. And when it does, let it push the whole body up and over. Set it back down so that it can rotate, come down into a little bit of a lunge. Stretch out through the front of that hip.

Stand back up, push from the feet to push you back up around. Lift the heel. Rotate, turn, find parallel in both legs. Come down. Find your stretch, let it feel good.

Stack up and come back up. Toe ball heel your legs in. Give it one minute to just stand nice and tall. Take a deep breath, and exhale. And you guys made it through a whole week with me.

Thank you so much for joining.

Rise and Recharge: Recharge your Practice

Mat, Strength, Control, Articulation

Jan 21, 2021
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Articulation
Danica Kalemdaroglu
Intermediate
60 min
The Pilates Center
Mat
Mat, Intermediate, Flow, Playful

Jan 22, 2021
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Integration
Danica Kalemdaroglu
Intermediate
55 min
The Pilates Center
Mat
This Video
Mat, Flow, Playful

Jan 23, 2021
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Movement Potential
Danica Kalemdaroglu
Intermediate
60 min
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Comments

5 people like this.
Danica, thank you!   You and your teaching method is a beautiful breath of fresh air.   I enjoyed this class and will do your other classes in the series.   Yes I know I believe I stared with the last aired class in the series.   We all just start somewhere.   Thanks again!
1 person likes this.
Good Solid Class. I wore 5 lb leg weights which worked for me. I had fun, got a good workout, and feel much better. Thanks Again Danica:) 
Maria P
3 people like this.
Great work out and beautiful moves!!! Danica, May we please get some similar series with props? Thank you!
Venus L
2 people like this.
i love your energy and choreography and fluidity in transition Danica.  Thank you for such an awesome class... 
Jennifer E
2 people like this.
That was so much fun! Thank you thank you Danica!
Laura Maria
Love your teaching style, Danica! Great week of classes :) 
2 people like this.
Amazing!
2 people like this.
This is so beautiful, Dana your grace, energy and creativity makes me so excited and ready for your next class.  Beautiful personality.  
2 people like this.
Loved the creativity and energy. Can’t wait to try this class tomorrow! Thanks for this terrific series:)
2 people like this.
Really nice workout for one hurting!!!  Got some heart,strength and whole lot of mobility and unknotting!   Your personality is warm and friendly.....will follow your classes!
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