This video is part of a course.

Class #4388

Step Into Flow

60 min - Class
87 likes

Description

Connect your primal flow from the Mat to the Reformer and reinvigorate your Pilates practice with Saul in his third class. Warm up your legs in his series of lunges and squats before you create length and strength with variations of the Long Stretch Series. He'll finish out the class with a traditional Mat exercise that will leave you ready to Return To Life.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

Hello, everyone. Welcome to step into the flow. So today we're going to move around a little bit. Today's workout is going to be more intermediate with a couple of animal flow, prime flow movements. So let's start with pilates stance, toes slightly apart, heels together, feel the outside and inside of your arch lifting.

Spread those toes on the floor, one third of the weight onto your toes and two thirds onto the back of the foot. Give me a little bit of rotation of your glutes. Don't squeeze. I never want you to think of squeeze those glutes because then it throws that pelvis forward. Just a lightly wrapped.

Think of your show as wrapping with a little bit, zip up those inner thighs, lengthen the back of the neck and lengthen the spine. Inhale very quickly, just for a second. Lift the shoulders up and just drop them down. Now we are ready to move. So let's take a couple of deep breaths.

Feel the expansion of the chest, the back, the lateral parts of your body and empty the lungs out one. Good. Again, inhale and exhale. Excellent. Again, inhale and exhale.

Now, today, we're just going to move the arms up to the ceiling and I want you to think of moving the scapulars up and open the arms and around, one. Try to breathe as deeply as possible and allow the scapulars to rotate upward and downward. Good. Again, inhale and exhale. Reverse, open the arms out to the sides.

Think of a scapulars. Like wings, they open out and they reach up lengthening that mid back so there's somewhere for the rib cage to go into. Again, inhale and exhale. One last time for me, please scoop your abdominals, make sure the back of the neck is nice and long and with the exhale you release the arms down to the sides and now we are ready to warm up the upper body. Open the legs out, two inches wider than your shoulders.

With the toes just slightly rotating out. Just a comfortable position so your glutes are activated. We're going to go into hinge to cesa. So from this position, please, I just want you to bend from the hips and using the back of the legs come up into an upright position. Good.

So since we already have done this in the past, I'm going to go a little bit faster today. So here we go, just hinge from the hips and bring it back up. Now we're going to bend the knees, hinge from the hips first and bend the knees, second. Straighten the legs and from the hamstrings and glutes come up into an upright position. Make sure your lateral rotators of the shoulders are activated so you don't drop the shoulders forward.

You keep the chest nice and open for me, please. One more time, and bend from the hips from the knees, straighten and come up into an upright position. Now we're going to go into a catcher's position, hinge from the hips, bend the knees, spread the toes and be in this position. Very controlled, press the heels down to the ground, straighten the legs and up we go. Again, let's try that one more time and then we're going to go into the next step of the exercise.

Excellent. Press the heels down. Now we're going to bring the knees down to before where you're going to continue that same pattern. Bend the knees, bring the heels up, knees down to the floor. And now I want you to sit on your heels with flat feet, top feet on the mat.

Lift from the glutes and curl the toes under. If you want to use a little bit of arms, you can today. We're going to find a little bit of flow into the system. Straighten the legs and then come up into an upright position. Here we go again.

Bend, hinge from the hips, bend the knees second, catcher's position. If this is a little challenging for you, you can always place your hands on the floor. Bring the knees down to the mat, flatten the top of the feet on the floor, squeeze from that pelvis. Good. You can use your arms here, scoop the abdominals and reach the arms forward.

Now straighten the legs and you're gonna lift the arms up to the ceiling. Now let's step into the flow. Here we go. We're going to hinge from the hips, you're going to bend the knees second and then go up into catchers positions, knees down, flatten the top of the feet, and this time we're going to add an actual extension and lift the steurm up. Good.

Scoop the abdominal, sit back into child position. You can roll up articulating for this one. Lift from the hips. Sit back on your heels and let's use the arms to go forward, straighten the legs and then opening your arms and inhale. Here we go.

Let's move again and turn the hips, bend the knees, catcher's position, knees down flatten the top of your feet, sit back, reach those arms forward and go into an extension and lift up. Navel deep into the spine and sit back for me. Please, articulate through this spine, lift with the glutes, curl the toes under, arms forward, straighten the legs, straighten the body and this is two. One more time. Here we go.

Hinge from the hips, knees, ankles, bring the knees down, flatten the top of the feet, scoop the abdominal, switch the arms forward and stretch. Pull back until child pose, rolling up, lift from the glutes, curl the toes under, reach the arms forward, straighten the legs, flatten the back, inhale and excellent you guys. That was awesome. Good. Let's just go down to the forward very gracefully the way we just did and we're going to go into cat cow.

Bend the knees, heel, toes, knees down and just sit here for a second. Excellent, very nice. I've been working on the lateral rotation of stability of the shoulder. So think of your shoulders rotating outward. I want you to wrap them around, close the armpits and feel your transfers to dominance and obliques connecting, lift the base of the rib cage and release.

And, again, so literally I'm rotating my shoulders outward and feeling that connection of my arms into my obliques. And really one more time. Here we go and rotate your shoulders outward, pinch your armpit and from this position, we're going to go into a protraction. We're not going into cat cave yet. We're just going to create stability in the shoulder scapula.

So you're just basically protracting with the scapulars and retracting. So the lateral rotation of the shoulders is connecting your arms to the scapulars and all you're doing is creating mobility with your shoulder blades. So the shoulder blades wrap forward via serratus anterior and then they retract from the middle traps, against could be abdominals. Now you're going to stay in that protraction so your scapulars are wrapping forward. And from this position, you can go around your upper body forward and your feet are nice and long into a cat.

Now on the cow, I want you to inhale and crawl the toes under. See what I'm doing with mine toes. Let's give you a little bit more of a side view. And, again, I want you to feel that little shoulders rotating out and press the air out so you can go into a cat with flat feet and then crawl under and in here. Let's do it a little bit quicker.

Here we go. Press the air outs, exhale and inhale, press those heels back. And, again, round up over, scoop the abdominals and curl the toes under, inhale, open the chest, look up to the ceiling and release. Excellent. Good, let's go up into a caesar and flatten the top of the feet and we're just going to move around a little bit.

Good, lift from the glutes because activation of your feet is very important. and I love the stretch that this particular exercise gives to my ankles and my metatarsal. Good, let's do this one more time for me, please. You can be a little bit more ambitious and just lengthen and really scoop abdominous. Let's do this one more time.

Come up, curl the toes under, and sit back. Good, excellent. Now we're going to go into some spirals with the upper body. This one, you have to be very careful that you don't put the stress on the neck. I really want you to bring that chin close to the chest.

So this is what we're going to do. You're going to take that right arm and kneel underneath the other arm. Take the back of the head and notice where the back of my head and my shoulder is from this position, scoop the abdominals and step forward with that right foot and twist the body and look up. Good, we're going to do this five more times. So here we go.

Scoop the abdominals around your upper body under and stretch, scoop the abs in and open, this two. Good, again, navel deep into the spine. Go under, make sure the chin is up against your chest. It's not your ear that goes down to the floor. Yeah, try to see if you can bring that upper part of the back underneath you and stretch.

If you need to lift that opposite knee a little bit to get more weight in the upper body you can so you can get a deeper stretch. Be very gentle, please be very aware of your body. You know your body better than I do so be careful. Good, don't ever trust your trainer to count. I think we have two more.

So here we go, navel deep into the spine and curl under and notice my toes are curled under. That's just more... It's for more stability especially when I have to step forward. And step forward and look up to the ceiling and release. So let's go to the other side, please.

Good. Taking that left arm and just go underneath yourself. Notice where my head is and my arm. It's really stretching nice and long. And from this position step forward and look up to the ceiling.

Make sure that your rotation happens from the trunk and not the arms. And when you press away from that supporting you're really connecting into the center of the body via peg, lads, all those extra little cute muscles around the joint. Again, open the chest and the breathing goes inhale and obviously exhale to stretch the body out, inhale to power the body and exhale to open it out. One more time, go under yourself, bend axial, scoop the abdominals and navel deep and lift up, up, and release. Excellent.

Let's come back into quadrupedal position, please. Feel that lateral rotation of the shoulders, be careful not to collapse this way. Now you want to wrap your shoulders around and feel the scapulars wrapping forward. You're going go into rotation of the lower extremities. So pick up that right leg, you can point that foot if you want and cross it over.

So you almost want to think of reaching to the opposite shoulder, bring it down, and this is one. And this is what it should look like from the front. Here we go. So some crechy crossing over and two. Again, let's do six repetitions just to warm up the body, three.

Because an intermediate will start adding rotation of the spine. So this is a good exercise. Not only to feel that but also to stretch the soas. So let's do two more for me, please Lift up, up and over. Good, last time.

Careful not to collapse into the shoulders like this. I need to push away and lift. Yes, now let's go to the other side. Very nice. Inhale and exhale across it over and down.

Good. Here we go. I'm going to give you a different view. This is why I love this circular mat is because I can move around and still have a nice support and patty for my knees. Lift up, cross it over and keep pushing away from those arms for me, please.

Let's do this two more times. Cross it over. One last time. Here we go. Lift up, keep doing it.

I'm just going to move around for you so you can get different angles of the movement and release. Excellent, let's just sit back on your heels for me, please and stretch it out a little bit. And now we are ready for squats. But before we do that, curl the toes under please and sit back onto your heels if you can. Just hang out here for a second.

By the way did you know that the beginners reformer is to be able to do a full squat? So think about that. Let's bring that right knee forward for me, please And then bring yourself back into the center, one. Let's go to the other side, cross it over. We're just a little bit lubing up those joints, especially those hip, knees, and ankles.

Also, the metatarsal. And if this is a little bit challenging for you on the metatarsal, I suggest you should start using the foot corrector. Foot exerciser, one more time. Here we go, cross it over and now that we're all warmed up, let's come up into an upright position. I like to use dynamic in my squats.

So what I want you to do is I want you to go down for five counts and you're gonna come up with one count. So we go down one, two, three, four, five, we're feeling the muscles and then quickly coming up one. And, again, we go down one, two, three, four, five, and quick. Good, again, because basically we're preparing you for a job and quick. Good, again, scoop the abdominals long and slowly and quickly up.

Two more, one, two, three, four, five and quick. Last time, one, two, three, four, five, and quick. Now this next one is my favorite because it makes me feel like I'm doing knee stretches. So what I want you to do is I want you to quickly go down in one count and slowly bring it up two, three, four, five. Again, quick one, two, three, four, five.

Are we feeling our heart rate, yes. Here we go. Quick, one, two, three, four, five. Three more, please, and quick and one, two, three, four, five. Last two, quick, one, two, three, four, five.

Last time, quick, one, two, three, four, five. Excellent. Now let's go into static beats. We're going to go down exactly the same way we've been rehearsing those squats. So we're going to go down for five counts.

One, two, three, four, five, scoop the abdominals, feel that lateral rotation of the shoulders, knees up. So imagine you on the reformer and your knees are off the ground. Wrap the scapula's full width, lengthen the back of the neck and from this position, press yourself back onto your heels and we come up. This is one. Again, let's go to the abdominals and reach the arms forward.

Reach the arms as far forward as you can, knee off the floor, scoop the abdominals, lengthen the back of the neck. Now let's push back onto your heels, again, and upright position. Try not to lean forward too much with the upper body. And now we're going to flip it. Here we go.

We're going to go forward one, two, three, four, five. So you remember that rotation that we did with our lower extremity. It's going to lift that right leg up like you did earlier. You're going to cross it over and you go into the crab. This is the crab right here.

Scoop the abdominal and you're going to return exactly the same way. Scoop the abdominals and flip it over and you're back into animals static beats. Here we go. Flip the other side, naval deep, lift the sternum up, shoulders, rotate outward. Good, and let's return.

Lift that leg up, knees off the floor. Now with your core, with your pecs pushed back onto your feet and stand up. Excellent. Let's do it again. Here we go.

We go down one, two, three, four, five, hands on the floor and hold two, three, four, five. We're gonna pick up that right leg like a scorpion and we're gonna lift it up and press and take it around. Hold, two, three. Now find that oblique support without oblique, bring it through navel deep and leg down to the other side. Here we go.

Lift it up, cross it over, rotate the shoulders back, open the chest, scoop the abdominals. Beautiful. Let's return back to that static beast. Hold this position here, press back and excellent. Good.

Now we're going to go into what I called long stretch. So here we go. Same pattern. We're going to go down for five counts. One, two, three, four, five and to the floor, hold here for five counts, scoop the abdominals.

You're going to walk your hands forward into what I called long search. Scoop the abdominals, feel the shoulders wrapping around and just give me a push up. If you need to bring the knees down to the floor you can and press yourself back, press this heel down. Notice my knees are not on the floor. Now from this position, I want you to fold yourself in half.

Good. Imagine you're doing elephants. So close those rib cage, close that rib cage, close the armpit. Now from this position you're going to go into what I called loaded piece. You're gonna bend the knees and take your sit bones back to your heels.

Walk your hands next to the knees. You're back to static beasts, press back and you come up. Awesome, let's do it again. Here we go. We go down one, two, three, four, five, hold this position and hold two, three, four, five.

Bring the body forward, long torso, long neck. Now, if you need to bring the knees down, do so, give me a pushup. And then from here, lift the knees up and go into an extenich. You're gonna go into elephant position, press those heels down for me, please. Close the armpits, bloated beast, walk your hands back to your knees, push away from the four, please with your arms and back onto your heels and stand up.

Excellent, very nice. Should we keep going? Let's do it. Here we go. We go down.

The next one is going to be wave unload. So here we go. We go down one, two, three, four, five, hands on the floor and hold two, three, four, lengthen the body, push up position. Here we go. Let's go down and extend the body up.

Now this time we are going to return back to that elephant position but we're gonna add another step to it. You're gonna go higher on your toes, you're gonna lift the abdominals and go return back to that back extension. See that. Now fold yourself up again, closing armpits, loaded beast, walk your hands back to your knees, push off onto your heels and up we go. Awesome.

One more time let's do it. We go down one, two, three, four, five, hands on the floor, one, two, three, four, five, walk forward, long body, long torso. Here we go. Push up and press yourself up into an extenich. Good.

Now go back into that elephant position here. We're gonna lift those heels up, you're gonna scoop the abdominals, close the armpits, lengthen the back of the neck and extent the body forward. Good. Now this I'm gonna add something new it. When you go back into loaded beast, check this out, you're going to jump forward from this position, you're loading your beast, step forward and you come up.

Now we are ready for the mat walk. Cross the arms in front of you, please, one leg behind you and we go down to the floor gently, gracefully with control. Reach everything opposite direction. Guys this is a hard word. Lengthen the arms nice and long and now we are ready for 100.

Reach the arms forward, pick those legs off the floor and start pumping, inhale, and exhale. Inhale, exhale two, make sure those inner thighs they're connected. You have that pilates rep, you're lengthening that lower back. If your lower back starts coming off the floor, bringing those legs up a little bit higher but note that your goal is for those heels to be two inches off the floor. I also like to pump those arms above my face and think of lengthening the back of the neck and opening up your upper back with a breath.

Inhale, exhale. One more time, and empty the lungs completely and reach the body nice and long. Yes, let's go right into roll up. Right here I want you to place the palms towards one another and come up from here. Please, and here, I like to add a little bit of pulse, pressing the hands into the four and reach one, two, three, empty lungs completely and inhale coming down, on front of all the time.

And I like to point my feet to feel that full extension. And, again, flex the feet and come up. So that way I can connect with my serratus and reach two, three, inhale, and point, and exhale. And reach, reach, reach and go back, one third about a time with the inhale and then point the feet along the body and release. Legs circles squeeze, five one way and five the other.

Flex the bottom foot, right foot points. It's okay if your pelvis comes out before circle and one that's the way Joseph Pilates indicated and I want to follow that tradition. Two more for me, please? Exhale on the way down, inhale on the way up. One more time and reverse, inhale, exhale out, inhale, exhale out.

Good. Two more, please. Keep the spine nice and long. And let's switch the legs in mid air flexing that right foot pointing out left foot, cross over the bottom legs, (indistinct) nose, one, two, three, exhale, inhale. One more time, awesome.

Reverse, exhale, inhale, exhale. Two more, please. Last time and release. Excellent. Let's find your longest point, again, please from this position.

Think that you're doing a teaser but you're really just going into April in like about position. Scoop the abdominals, fore head between the knees, try to keep those heels as close to the body as possible and inhale, exhale. Keep the back of the neck nice and long and lift those hips up because you'll see how essential lifting those hips up is in our last class. Here we go. One more time.

Inhale, exhale, hold this position. Stretch those legs long. If need to hold onto the legs, if you're that two way stretch for the navel deep into the spine, let's set up for the next exercise, single leg stretch. It could be abdominal and let's bring the right knee into your chest with the inhale and exhale switch. Again, very nice.

I really like to give myself a little bit of hugs to really pull into the body. So you stretch the body. There's a strengthening aspect of the exercise and then there's a stretching. Now reverse the breathing, exhale with the right, inhale with the left and continue. And try read the width as much as you can through the nose.

Obviously, if you're getting a little tired, you can once in a while expel the heat through your mouth. Both knees into the chest for me, please. For traditional, Joseph Pilates style, double leg stretch, reach everything forward, press the hands to the thighs, length those legs long and it's to bring it back in way. Again and exhale and breathing. Make sure that the exhale draws those legs back in and see if he could come up higher with the upper body so you don't put that much stress in the neck.

I like to press my hands to the sides so I can connect my arms to my trunk. So when it's time to reach the arms over head, I'm already connecting my arms to the trunk. Good. Let's do two more for good measure, please. And you should actually come into thigh ball.

Last time, and single straight leg stretch. Bring that right leg up. Give yourself two poles. This one, two, and switch one, two. Good, one, two, make sure that the back of the neck is nice and long.

And you're folding yourself from the upper dumsels. Yeah, quick, quick, and pull, pull. Pull, pull, pull, pull. Make sure your abdominals are constantly working. Single pull double time six repetitions, one, two, three, four, five, six, and release.

Let's bend those knees into the chest for a second. Take a deep breath. Extend the legs up to the ceiling, hands behind the neck. One hand on top of the other, extend those legs off the ground and use your exhale to bring yourself up. Inhale, bring the legs down and quickly come up, one.

See if you can bring them a little bit lower without releasing the spine from the ground to that lower back. Again, inhale and exhale. Lower, and exhale. You know how far you can go without releasing that lower back on the floor. So do it, press yourself.

Get to that next level. Again, last time, criscross, adjust the body to the right and hold, look behind you, two, three, and twist to the other side. Look behind you. One, two, three, and again, bring out the spine. Hold two, three, again, twist and hold two, three.

Last time, here we go. Bring it up and hold two, three, finish it to the other side, bring it out and hold two, three, and release. Let's bring those knees close to the body. Now in one movement, shoot the legs out and with your powerhouse, sit up nice and tall. Flexing the feet for me, please.

I will do it Jose Pilates style. First place your hands to the sides and lift the pelvis up. Feel that connection of your chest and your back. Now just drop your sit bones down to the ground. Place your hands in front of you and from this position, scoop the adorminals and lengthen the back of the neck around the upper middle lower thoracic, lengthen that lower back by pulling the belly button further back and let that pelvis go forward a little bit.

Close the armpits and inhale sitting up nice and tall. So here we go. Let's move a little bit quicker. Exhale, one, two, three, and the inhale lifts you nice and tall. And again, around the upper body forward and one, two, three, belly button back.

Without blending that pelvis under. Let's do that again, and there should be some pelvic mobility here. If we're going to improve on our teasers we have to have to have better flexibility in the hamstrings and rolling up, one right about a time, length the body and release. I'm going to move forward just a little bit because I don't want to hit the pants but scoop the abdominals. Think of it this way.

Think of neck poles. So lean the body back from me, please and with the inhale, lift those legs off the floor. You can bend them if you want, and then straight them out. Exhale, let's go back and inhale, one. Scoop the abs in and length the body.

Again, exhale back. Good. I like to touch the floor, so let's see if we can touch the floor and keep those arms long. Good. Use the exhale to press the abdominals and inhale to lengthen the body.

Good, two more just like that. Navel deep and hold. You should feel like a massage on your spine all the way to the top of your thoracic lengthen those legs, reach the arms forward and navel deeply into the spine, scoop it up and we're going for cock swing. Hands down to your side, let's bring those legs over the head, parallel to the four, chest like leg circles, single like circle, exhale to go down and inhale to bring it over the head, parallel to the ground. Stretch those legs along for me, please.

Think of massage in your internal organs as you bring your legs down. So keep those things as close to the body as possible as you rolled them. So aim to the lungs out and inhale. One more set. Last time.

And from this position, I want you to scoop the abdominals and sit up, open the legs out, and we are ready for this one, opening arms out to the sides. Pinch the scapulars just a little bit but don't let the arms go back. From this position, bring that left serratus across and right up, one, two, three, and inhale. Twist the body and keep inhaling to the left and take that palm back up towards the ceiling as you shave that little toe with the other arm. Lengthen good.

Scoop the abdominals, look behind you and reach two, three, keeping the pelvis square. You're really only twisting from the thoracic as much as possible. So you think of that opposite serratus anterior wrapping forward. It gives you a little bit more of a cist. One more time.

Here we go. Exhale, inhale. Keep inhaling and scoop the abdominals and exhale Come back to center and release. Bring the legs together, swing them around and now you are ready for neck rolls. I want the hands, especially the thumb to be at about the ear level.

And place your hands together. Now from here, lengthen the body forward and press yourself up into an extension. The pelvis comes up with you. Look to the right, circle the head down around, look forward. Look to the left.

So go the head down, around, look forward. When you come down, don't flop, just think of lengthen the body forward as you bring the head down. Good, again, inhale, look to the left, exhale to bring the head down and around and bring it back to center with the inhale. Look to the right, bring it around, pull yourself forward and exhale. Bring the body down.

Let's do preparation. First one, inhale and exhale. We did this in our last session. Now we're going to create action. We're going to create movement with this.

I want you to only exhale when you lift legs, inhale up. Again, exhale, good, one more time and bringing the body down, lengthening it. Scoop the abdominals, take the hands underneath the shoulders and sit back on your heels. Squeeze into a child pose On to your stomach, please. Scoop the arms in, make a fist.

Now, with the inhale get right leg off the floor. Kick up with the exhale, inhale, stretch it long. You're still dragging yourself forward with those elbows and check the other side. Lift it up, kick one, two, inhale and out. Let's move a little bit quicker.

Quick, quick, inhale and down. Good and switch. Keep the belly button off the floor for me, please, and rotate the shoulders out. Again, lift. Think of lifting that leg up with your glute and not your lower back.

Two more sets. Exhale, inhale, down, plaster asset. Finish it to the left, length those lakes long and bringing the body down. Double leg kick, choose a pilate style, chin onto the mat. Place your hands behind you.

One on top of the other and length those legs off the floor. Kick one, two, three, and inhale, lift the chest up. Make those legs long off the floor and bring it down. Again, one, two, three, and lengthen the body exactly the way you did it on the first exercise of the sequence. Inhale more, inhale more, a little bit more and exhale.

Two more, last time. And open the arms out to the sides, reach the arms forward and really sit back onto your heels, please and stretch your body out. Stretch that lower back out. Scoop the abdominals, put some weight on your arms, push away from the shoulders, scoop the abdominals, cross the legs and jump the legs forward and we are ready for neck poles. On your back for me, please.

If you need to use your arms to get yourself up, you can but I really want you to be very articulate through the abdominals. Think of this serratus, middle, lower abdominals. Hands behind the neck and pull your body forward. Now rolling up nice and tall, go back about 15 degrees. And the reason we did do this is because we don't want to collapse into that sacrum area.

So reach nice and long and, one, good. I need to conserve my energy so I'm just going to use my hands and pull myself forward and round the upper body forward and inhale lengthen the body nice and long. Go back to 15 degrees. Do not collapse into that sacrum area, lengthen that serum out, reach those heels forward and to one more time, here we go. If you are at that serratus, scoop the abdominals, ground the upper body forward, inhale, lengthen the body.

Scoop abdominals, feel that serratus, navel deep deeper, deeper, deeper, and release. Excellent, let's go into silex Joseph pilates style. So place both hands behind the neck for me, please, lengthen the legs and lift them up. Bring then slightly in front of you. I like to create a little bit of base for my bottom leg.

So this is what I'm going to do, right? Now, from this position, you're going to take the leg back about a foot and I want you to incorporate your body. I know this is something that we were not supposed to do in costco but I want you to start feeling the connection of the leg into the trunk and take that leg back. So one pulls back and two pulls us forward. One, two, and, inhale.

Again, kick one, two, and inhale. Again, one, two, feel your powerhouse and reverse the dynamic. Bring that leg forward about a foot in front of the bottom leg and extend and reach arch two and bring that leg forward. So two pulses to the back. One, two, good, two more.

Lengthen, one more time and bringing the legs together. Scoop the abdominals, sit up for me, please, you can use the left hand to bring the legs to the other side and here we go. Lift those legs slightly in front of you. Make sure your neck is nice and long. Close the armpits, lift that leg back and kick to the front for me, please.

One, two, and lengthen to get back. Again, forward one, two, and back. Around the upper body forward one, two, and back. Let's do this one more time. Scoop abdominals, and let's reverse that, please.

Bring that leg forward and kick it to pulses back, extend and forward, one. Again, reads the spine long, two. Let's do two more for good measure and last time, take it back and release. Excellent. Very nice.

The moment of truth to you guys. Teasers, here we go. Stretch those legs nice and long. Personally, I like to start with a teaser in an upright position. Okay, we've been doing roll down so we're going to incorporate the roll down exercise with one leg off the floor.

So here we go, lengthen the body nice and long, scoping the abdominals you're going to take the body back, sacrum on the floor, now round the upper body forward, rounded it forward, forward, forward, forward, and lengthen the body and sit up nice and tall. Good. Again, nail it even to the spine and pull back. And round the upper body forward, scoop, scoop, scoop, and sitting up nice and tall and we switch the leg. Excellent.

So this could be plenty for you if you're just introduced to the teaser. Just this particular exercise with one leg. I don't mind if you use your arms for a little help at the beginning. Yes, so you can really find the serratus, the upper fibers of the obliques, middle fibers of the obliques and then the lower fiber of the obliques. Excellent.

Lengthen those legs off the floor. We're going to use your hands to descend down, find the lower abdominals and round the upper body forward for me. Please, scoop the abs and this is one. Find that lateral rotation and build down against. If you can go a little bit lower and find that cereus to wrap it to your obliques.

If you see that diagram of serratus and obliques it's pretty fascinating. If we go one more time and navel deep, around the upper body forward. Let's give it a try with no hands. Here we go, naval deep, roll all the way back. Now, applying that serratus and up we go up, up, up.

Let's do it again. I'm going to challenge myself. So I'm going to challenge you. Here we go. Navel deep and coming up, up, up, up, and we are ready for figure four.

Excellent, scoop the abdominals, navel deep into the spine, sit up nice and tall. For now, let's just do a couple of stretches. See how I'm really lifting up nice and tall scooping the abdominals. Open the arms out to the sides and just bringing the body forward for me, Please. Just stretch.

Good. We did this at the beginning of our series but we're using the arms to bring them forward. Right now just here, this is enough to get a nice stretch on that front leg. Scoop the abdominals and come forward and again, really scoop the abdominals lenghten that lower back for me, please. Don't round it.

Now, come back again. Lift out of those hips sternum. Yeah, if you can rotate the shoulders back and look up to the ceiling and come back to center. Good. Let's switch to the other side.

Here we go. I'm going to switch the legs just because I need to see you. I need to see your beautiful faces but eventually we're going to keep your feet stable in the same place. So here we go. Let's come forward and navel deep in to the spine, forward, forward, forward, and let's go back, open the chest, rotate the shoulders back, feel the connection of your back muscles.

Good. And again, body forward and stretch. Two, three, good and come back. Navel deep, open the chest, scoop the abdominals, feel that nice openness in that front leg and center for me please. Excellent.

Now let's loo up those hips a little bit more. It's so essential. Give me a second. I just need to connect. Here we go from this position, do not move your feet.

You're just going to roll onto the plant of your foot and then to the other side. So you're going to lift those knees off the floor. Stay as upright as possible and see if you can give me a little bit of spiral with the upper body. So you're here, navel deep into the spine. Pull back with your hips and let's go to the other side, keep the spine nice and long, spread the sit bones, good.

Now see if you can pull from the pelvis, the lower abdominals, the thoracic, and twist. Good. And now let's move a little bit quicker. So let's just find like a rhythm just to be comfortable. Boom.

Now let's add the spiral with the arm. So you're sort of doing stomach massage in a sense because when you go into this position right here, you should feel those muscles that you use for stomach massage. Should we test it out? Let's do it. Cross your arms in front of you, please and here we go.

We alternate sides, scoop the abdominals and twist. Good and to the other side, lift up and twist. Again, navel deep, wrap it around. Good. Think of pulling from the hip first, abdominals, upper body, and bring it out, bring it out, bring it up, bring it out, bring it out.

Let's do this one more time. Navel deep and circle around, navel deep. Good, one more time, here we go, take it around. Navel deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, twists, twist, and release. Excellent, very nice.

Let's go into preparation for balance control. So heels together, toes apart from me, please? Good. We've walked on this already, so you guys got this, but I really want to cement this. I want to take it home.

Wrap the shoulders around for me, please. Scoop the abdominals, feel the obliques bracing together as you wrap the shoulders and close the armpits and release. And, again, wrap it around, scoop the abdominals, wrap it around. Wrap the shoulder weights, activate your lateral rotators and release. One more time.

Here we go. Rotate out. Now from this position, retract the scapulars and with your serratus anterior push one of the shoulders out. Your armpits are still closed. Again, retract and protracts.

Scoop the abdominals, feel the obliques engage. One more time, retract your shoulder blades and protract them, wrap them forward. Now keep them wrapped forward, just press the heels back and bring it forward. Press it back, bring it forward. One more time, press it back and release.

Excellent. Now we're going to open the shoulders the other way and we're going to go into primal crab. So here we go. Rotate. It's not the same as Pilates Crab.

It's Primal Crab. And all I want you to do is point your fingertips outward, rotate the shoulders out and lift the pelvis off the floor. So we did this at the beginning of our session but I want you to start connecting your upper body. We're going to take some time to feel that lateral rotation. Yeah, and from this position, you know what they say this is good for in classical.

Especially with people that can kick up with a straight leg, this is a great introduction to get your lateral rotators and your back muscles to operate as well as your glutes and bring it back down. Are you guys ready for more? Here we go. Lift up, pelvis off the floor, we're going to find a balance but lifting left leg with right arm and hold. Whoa hold, two, three, and switch to the other side.

Push away from that supporting arm from that leg and hold two, three and down. Good. Again, and twist and hold, two, whoa. You can see which side for me is the most challenging one. But if you really connect with your obliques, you should have no problem applying this position.

Now, let's walk it forward. Like a crab, boom. This is why it's called a crap. Now let's walk it back. Excellent.

Good work. And, again, forward and back. Navel deep, awesome, very good. Let's move it around a little bit in one way. Yes, I know this is a little bit hard for some people on the risk.

We have to work on that. Here we go. Navel deep into the spine and let's sit down and we are ready for the seal. The crab, the seal, we can combine both of them. If you guys want, we can even do the politest crap, but that'll be for tomorrow's session.

Here we go. So let's clap three times one, two, three, and I really want you to lift those hips off the floor. Inhale brings you forward and the exhale brings you back. One, two, three, scoop one, two, three. Again, one, two, three, scoop, one, two, three.

One, two, three. Now this last one you're going to cross the feet and stand up for me, please. And we are ready for some fun. Here we go, elephant. Arms up to the ceiling, inhale.

Around the upper body forward and articulate to the spine bringing the hands down on the floor. Classical Pilates Elephant. You're gonna walk your hands forward for me, please, scooping the abdominals, good. And from here, see if you can lengthen the neck, close the armpits and walk your feet through the arms, the hands. Scoop the abdominals if you need to lift your hands up for a second and then we connect.

Yes, scoop the abdominals and walk forward again. Navel deep, walk your feet forward and walk your hands forward. And this is my favorite, walking opposite arm with opposite legs. Scoop the abdominals. Yeah, if you need to bring the head up to see what you're going, I personally, I'm going to go in the circle.

Scoop the abdominals in more, good. Now come back to center your mat. Yeah, heels together, toes apart, rolling up one vertebra at a time. Lift the arms up to the ceiling for me, please? And now let's go on to breathing.

Here we go. Joseph Pilates breathing. I want you to inhale, lift the arms up to the ceiling and with the exhale. I want you to take your elbows back, one, two, three, and inhale, lift the arms up one and down. So here we go.

Inhale lift the arms up and bring it down, one. Again inhale. If you need to use your mouth to expel the air out it's completely permissible. Now our body is heated and now we have to really some of the heat. Inhale lift the arms up to the ceiling and bring the arms down.

Excellent. Open the legs out to the sides for me, please. Lift the arms out to the side and press the air out, pressing the knuckles together and inhale lift the arms up and bring it down one. Again, feel the abdominals, inhale and exhale. I was pressing so deep that I could get a word out.

Inhale again and press it up. Push all the air out, inhale and let's bring those legs together. Please lift the arms up to the ceiling, place one hand on top of the other, we are gonna exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale and open the arms out to the side, one. Again, inhale, a little bit quicker and bring it down. Excellent.

Two more, just like that. Inhale, exhale, inhale, inhale and bring it down. One more time, inhale, and let's go down the elevator. The matt you're going to stop at five different floors. So reach the arms up to the ceiling, take the arms behind you, and we go down by bending the knees into a deep bending of the knees.

So we go down, one. Try to keep the heels down as much as possible. Two, three, four, and we go all the way down to the bottom four. Now, we go up to the fifth roll, one, two, three, four, five. Let's go down one, two, three, four, five, press the heels down.

One, two, three, four, five. Again, one, two, three, four, five. Press one, two, three, four, five, and inhale. Lift your arms up to the ceiling and now let's go into the Disc Thrower. Open the arms out to the sides for me, please.

Lift the arms up to the ceiling. Yeah, from this position, try to really stretch from the center. Feel your erectus pecs arms all over the fingertips. Nice and together with those those fingers. And let's go high on your toes and bring the heels down once, scoop the abdominal.

Again, lift up and two. Again, higher with the heels, three. Now you're going to stay up there and it spiraled the upper body. Twist the body to the right for me. Please, scoop the abdominals.

Yeah, and keep turning, see on your toes until you can't see on your toes anymore. And you're around the upper body, away from the center and reach your heel and toe. Now lengthen the body away from the center, start going high onto your toes, lift up nice and tall, close the rib cage, open the arms out to decide and we go to the other side. Here we go. And inhale high and your toes, twist the upper body, torso forward, lengthen and bring it out, reach to your ankle and toe.

Stretch it and dropped the head down a little bit and inhale, lengthen the body. Away from the center, stretch nice and long, high in your toes, navel deep. Find the adductors, opening the arms out to the sides and bring the arms down. Again, let's do this one more set. Here we go.

Inhale, lift up, long fingers, twist the body to the right length and ring it out, ring it out, ring out, ring out, good, and drop the head like rolling like a ball, grab onto ankle and toes. Now stretch the body away from the center, really reach out. So I'm feeling the inner thighs to get yourself up onto your toes and we're going to give you a break right here. Bring the heels down one more time. You just inhale, twist the body, and ring, reach, lengthen out of the hips high on your toes, bring the body down and let's go into breathing jumps.

So what you're gonna do is you're gonna inhale lift the arms up to the ceiling and exhale drop the arms down and inhale arms up, one, okay? So really scoop the abdominals and keep the ribs connected. Again, exhale, inhale. Again, exhale, inhale. Again, exhale, inhale.

Now we're going to add a jump at the bottom of your movement. You're going to inhale and jump up and come up, one. Again, jump up, two. Cool, inhale jump, three, two more, four, last time, five. Now we're gonna do two jumps, one jump at the bottom and one jump at the top.

So this is just watch once. Here we go, you're going to go down and jump up. Okay, we got it. Here we go. We're going to do five repetitions and inhale up, exhale.

Inhale, exhale. Use your powerhouse, two more, last time and soften the knees, roll up one vertebra at a time and let's go back to center. Take a deep breath and exhale. Again, inhale and exhale. Lift your arms up to the ceiling, inhale, open space with the scapula to breathe deeper and exhale with the arms down, one.

Again, inhale and exhale, two. Good. Again, inhale and exhale, three. Reverse, please. Inhale lift your arms up to the ceiling and exhale down.

Again, inhale. One more time, inhale and do this, step forward with that right foot, please, and imagine you're doing front squats. So just bend that leg forward and straighten it out and one. Good. Again, rotate that leg out a little bit, the back, this one, you can keep it exactly where it is.

And just feel that stretch and press place your hands behind the neck now, and challenge yourself and center. Bend that knee forward and step forward. Change to the other side. Here we go, step back, slight rotation with a back leg. Here we go, bend that front leg and straighten one.

Good. Bend that front leg and straighten, two. One more time, bend that front leg and three. Bend that front leg and this time you're gonna step forward and let's breathe. Let's do the wall, we're you're just gonna lift the arms up to the ceiling for me, please, to empty lungs completely.

From this position, from the upper body forward and exhale two, three, four, five, six, and inhale come up, rolling up. Lift the arms up to the ceiling and open the arms out, one. Again, empty the lungs. Inhale and exhale. One more time, inhale and see if you can expel the air out for 16 counts, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, and inhale to come up.

Open the arms out to the side and you guys are finished. Thank you so much. It was so much fun spending this hour with you. I hope you enjoyed it.

Rise and Recharge: Return to Life

This Video
Mat, Flow, Intermediate

Jan 28, 2021
Thumbnail image
Step Into Flow
Saul Choza
Intermediate
60 min
Romana's Pilates®
Mat
Watch Next
Mat, Traditional, Flow, Advanced

Jan 29, 2021
Thumbnail image
Ready To Return To Life
Saul Choza
Advanced
55 min
Romana's Pilates®
Mat
Mat, Flow, Advanced, Athletic

Jan 30, 2021
Thumbnail image
Primal Play On The Mat
Saul Choza
Advanced
60 min
Romana's Pilates®
Mat

Comments

1 person likes this.
Great Fun Class with some challenge. Good class to practice squats (milasana) and balancing on one's toes (releve).  Nice mix of standard Pilates Exercises combined with Saul's Unique Exercises. I feel lengthened & toned.  Saul is only the 3rd instructor I have seen who taught Joe's move of sitting down cross-legged without using one's hands. Thanks Saul:) 
2 people like this.
That was wonderful - love the variety of movement , good flow. Thank you !
1 person likes this.
Changes from beast to crab are made underneath.

1 person likes this.
Absolutely energizing, amazing what a high !!! Thank you
Gary M hello! Thank you for all your positive feed back.
1 person likes this.
LAALE you can bring your right knee underneath as you flip the body to supine position and lift the left arm to place it behind you. You can also make the change over. Checkout the class Primal Play on the Mat.
Rebecca R I’m glad you liked the variety of movement. Hope you like the other sessions. 
Cheri D definitely a good high. Enjoy! 
2 people like this.
Good pace, great with explanations, and good variations and challenges ... very enjoyable 🇩🇰
1 person likes this.
Another wonderful class! Thank you 
1-10 of 37

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin