Class #4539

Strong and Stable Mat

50 min - Class
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Description

Get ready to build some heat in this intermediate Mat class with Melissa Connolly. You’ll fire up your abs with variations on the Hundred, then slow burn your way through Single Leg Circle. You’ll be grateful for the stretch during the prone series, but then she targets your glutes and inner thighs with a Julian Littleford variation. By the end of the class, you’ll feel worked in all the right places!
What You'll Need: Mat, Overball

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All right, here we are on our mats, we have our ball with us, and this is the first class of eight week series called "On Center". This first class is "Our Strong and Stable Mat Class". We're gonna start on our backs, okay, so place that ball between your knees, and let's go ahead and lie down onto our backs. All right, so take a second to get yourself aligned, you have your toes, your heels, knees, hips, shoulders in a line. And then just to center ourselves we'll take three deep breaths.

Nice deep inhale through your nose, and then as we exhale give that ball a nice tight squeeze, engaging your core, your lower middle upper abs. Breathe in again, and then exhale, squeeze the ball, engage the lower, middle, upper abs. One more, nice centering breath, inhale fully, and then exhale, squeeze the ball, draw the lower, middle, upper abs in. Breathe in, and on this next exhale we're gonna curl the tailbone under coming into a pelvic tilt, and then roll through your lower back into a small arch, and exhale, come into your pelvic tilt, and now inhale, roll through into a small arch. One more time, exhale, engaging from your center, curling your tailbone under, roll through the lumbar spine into a small arch, and then we'll come into a bridge.

So let's give that ball a squeeze with the inner thighs, engage your core, roll your spine up one vertebrae at a time. Once you're nice and lifted stretch your arms up and overhead, keep reaching back through your fingertips, and roll down through the upper back, the middle back, the lower back, the tailbone. Now curl your chest up, reaching the fingers towards the knees, and then we'll lower down. Again, exhale, curl your tailbone under, rolling up through your spine, tighten through your glutes, inner thighs, and core, arms reach overhead, and now exhale, roll upper, roll middle, roll lower, tailbone, raise the chest reaching above the knees, and lower down. And one more like that, exhale, roll up nice and flexible through the spine, stretch the arms all the way back overhead, and then roll down.

Keep your glues, hamstrings, inner thighs, core engaged, and now curl your chest up, good. Stay lifted, place the hands behind your head. I have my fingers laced together. And now raise the chest up, inhale, lower the chest down, curling up, breathe out, inhale, lower down, exhale, curl up, and lower down. We'll do two more, use your core to lift, and lower down.

Now let's keep the chest lifted, stretch the right arm forward, so it's reaching to the right knee, and little lift for five, lift, four, lift, three, lift, two. Now stay there, extend the right leg long and straight, and lift for five, four, three, two, and one. Now place your foot down, bring your hand to your head, and then let's lower the chest down, curl your chest back up. We have five more, lift, and lower. As we lift keep your tailbone anchored onto the mat.

Inhale, lower, slide the lower ribs to your hipbones, inhale, lower, three more, drawing the belly to your spine, inhale, lower, two more, and lower. Now curl and stay, extend the left arm to your left knee, and raise one, little lift, two, exhale, three, four, and five. Extend the left leg out to straight, and lift one, two, three, four, five. Lower the foot, and let's lower the chest down, reach the arms down by your sides, squeeze the ball, tighten your glute muscles, and just press your hips straight up, so straight bridge, we lift the hips, and now tap your hips to touch the mat, press up, engaging through your glutes, and down. Three more, just press straight up, hip bones to the ceiling, and down, two more, press up, down, now last one you're gonna press and stay.

Let's squeeze the ball for five, four, three, two, one. Now keep your hips stable, let's alternate heel raises, right heel up, down, left heel up, down, right heel up, down, left heel up, down. Keep your right heel up, squeeze the ball for five, four, three, two, one. Lower the right heel, let's alternate, start with the left heel down, now the right, strong and stable mat class, keep those hips nice and still. Right heel, now raise the left heel, and squeeze the ball for five, four, three, two, one.

Lower the heel, hips stay stable, lift both of the heels up, and down. Let's exhale, inhale, lift, three, down, lift, four, down, stay up, squeeze, and one, two, three, four. And hold that squeeze, keep your heels lifted, take the arms all the way up and all the way overhead, let's press those hips one inch higher, and roll down one vertebrae at a time. Curl your chest up, and then you're gonna grab the ball, and it's gonna go between your ankles, all right. So put your head down, your knees are in a tabletop, so knees in line with your hips, stretch your arms long.

We're gonna breathe before we go into hundreds, so take a breath in through the nose, exhale, raise your chest, energy reaching through your fingers, look down to your stomach, just take a big breath in. When you breathe out, squeeze the ball, pull the stomach in. Raise your legs straight up to the ceiling, breathe in, exhale, squeeze the ball, pull the belly in. Take your legs to your point of control where your back is stable, breathe in, and exhale. Let's pump those arms, breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, squeeze the ball, breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five.

We're halfway there. Exhale, two, three, four, five, four more times, squeeze the ball tight, three more, exhale, two, three, four, five, two more, exhale, two, three, four, five, last one, exhale, two, three, four, and five. Just pause for three, two, one. Bend your knees, let's lower the head down. All right, good, we're gonna do a challenging hundreds variation.

Curl your chest up, now bring your legs out wherever your back is stable. They can stay in tabletop position. Turn the palms of your hands in, let's stretch the arms out, exhale, pull in. Two more, out, pull in, three, resist, hold it here, raise the arms up. Again make sure that back is stable.

Bend your knees if you need to. Two more, press down, one more, and then we're gonna combine the two. Breathe in, open, exhale, close, inhale, lift, exhale, lower, inhale, open, exhale, close, lift, exhale, lower. One more, close, lift, and that is it. Hug your knees to your chest, pull them in.

Hopefully you bent your knees and it felt better or modified whenever you need to. All right, we're gonna come up to seated, grab the back of your thighs, come on up. Okay, so using this ball we're gonna place the left ankle on the ball, the left foot will be flexed, sit up nice and straight, lace your fingers behind your right thigh, and now roll yourself down. We're just transitioning onto our backs, we are gonna stay on our backs. Roll down one vertebrae at a time.

And then once you're here, let's extend the right leg, stretch, bend the knee. Breathe out, stretch, and bend. Now we're gonna hold that leg nice and straight going into climb a tree. Raise your head, walk with your left hand first. We walk up left, walk up right, walk up left to stretch, walk down left, walk down right, lower the head.

Two more, limbering up here, one, walk, two, three. Walk down, one, two, three. And one more, walk up, and up, and now stay. You're gonna bring your leg to about 90 degrees, you're gonna place your hands behind your head, the left foot is flexed, anchor the leg down into the ball, tighten your core, leg circles, leg goes across, down, around, and center. And remember this is our strong and stable mat, your head is up, check your hips, keep 'em still.

Let's do two more, last one. Reverse, inhale, exhale, lift, two, exhale, lift, three, scoop your abs in, four, exhale, up, one more. Okay, great, from here bend your right knee, reach your arms forward, press your left leg down into the ball, let's roll up, one vertebrae at a time, and once we're there, we'll switch sides. So right ankle goes onto the ball, take your hands, lace 'em behind that left thigh, and roll yourself down, once we come down onto our backs, extend the left leg to straight, just limbering up. One, stretch out, two, and we'll climb a tree, raise your head, and walk up the leg with the right hand, the left hand, and the right, walk down with the right hand, the left, the right.

Two more, raise the head, walk up, and stretch, and stretch, walk down, and two, and three. One more time, walking up, walking up, and up, walking, no, don't walk down, bring your leg to a 90 degree angle, foot in line with your hip, abs are in, flex the right foot, push it into the ball, we'll place the hands behind the head, and bring your leg across down, around, and center. Inhale for half, exhale, lift. Three, exhale, lift, four, scoop your abs in, five, reverse, take the leg out, exhale, center, two, scoop your abs, center, three, exhale, up, four, exhale, up, five, exhale, up. And then bend your left knee, reach the arms forward, press the foot, right foot into the ball to roll up, good, and then place that foot down.

We're gonna grab the ball, sit yourself up nice and straight, reach your arms forward, breathe, and lift, and lengthen. Pull your lower abs in, roll down, roll down, reach your arms as your belly pulls back, touch the lower back down, touch the middle back down, the shoulders, the head, and arms with the ball are straight up to the ceiling. Take your knees up into a tabletop position, okay, so now stabilization, keeping your back anchored down, hips are square, belly's pulled in. You're gonna tap your right toes to the mat as the arms reach back overhead, and then exhale, pull your legs center, bring the ball over up to the ceiling, and then left leg goes down, arms reach back, and exhale, center. Just four more, breathe in, and breathe out.

Really tap into those deep core muscles. Exhale, pull up, we'll do one more on both sides. Exhale, up, last one, and exhale, up. Good, now both of the feet will go down towards the mat, you're gonna hold the ball in the right hand, the arms will open out to the sides. Exhale, pull center, hold the ball in the left hand, open the arms, exhale, center.

Right hand, open the arms, pull your lower abs in, left hand, really engage those lower core muscles to lift. We'll do one more on both sides. Lower belly draws in. One more time, and exhale, lift, good. Moving into single leg stretch, you have that ball in your hands, curl your chest up.

And guys feel free at any point to modify by placing your head down onto the floor. You're gonna stretch your right leg long and forward, squeeze your quad, your glute, your abs, stretch the arms back overhead. Keep the arms there, stretch that left leg, lengthen, squeeze your quads, and glutes. Now one more slow, bring the right arm forward, bring the ball forward, and then switch, left leg. We're gonna pick up the pace.

Single leg stretch, arms are back for two, arms are forward for two. Breathe in, in, and breathe out, out. Breathe in, in, and breathe out, out. Breathe in, in, exhale, exhale. Last time, inhale, and exhale.

Stay here, bend your knees to tabletop, lower your chest down. Okay, double leg stretch, keep the arms straight up to the ceiling, we'll do two slow. Engage your core, raise your chest up. Now the legs go forward, feel that back being nice and anchored onto the mat, nice and stable, and strong. Arms back, take the ball in your right hand, open the arms out to a T position, and then pull it in.

One more slow, stretch the arms and legs back, hold, hold, hold strong and stable through your center. And now ball in the left hand, open the arms out wide to a T, and pull it in. Eight more quickly, breathe in, exhale, breathe in, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, four more, stretch out, ball in the right hand, out, ball in the left hand, one more on both sides, exhale, whoo. Put your head down, place your feet down, put the ball between your knees, squeeze that ball with your inner thighs, tighten up your glutes, we're gonna roll those hips up nice and high just to get a little stretch here. Take your arms all the way back overhead, roll down upper back, roll down middle back, roll down lower back, and tailbone.

Curl your chest up, grab the ball, lower your head, arms to the ceiling. Now bend your knees to tabletop, lift your chest up for scissors, extend both of the legs up. Now keep your right shin and your ball connected, stretch the left leg down, lengthen your left leg, engage your glute, your quad, your core. Kick the right leg towards the ball, kick, kick, switch, kick, kick. Legs are long, squeeze your thighs, abs are tight, stable through your center.

Here we go we breathe in, out, breathe in, out, breathe in, out, breathe in, out, last four, three, and kick, two, and kick, one. And raise your legs up, bend your knees, put your head down. All right, so from here place the ball between your ankles, bring your hands behind your head, the fingers will lace together, elbows lift up into the peripheral. Anchor your back, take a big breath in to prepare, big exhale, raise the head, neck, shoulders, lengthen your legs straight up to the ceiling, and then start to lower your legs as low as you stay stable through your center, and your back, exhale, scoop your belly, lift the legs. Four more, we breathe in to lower, exhale, we lift up, inhale, lower, and exhale.

Engage the deep core to lift up. Two more, lower, scoop the belly into lift up, last one, like this, we are adding on, and exhale, up. This next one is called, we call it anyway, mermaid tail. The legs go down, the knees bend, you lift up. Down, bend, lift, two, breathe in, breathe out, lift, three, inhale, exhale, four.

Do one more, lower the legs to your point of control, pull them in, and stretch it up. Reverse, bend, reach, and lengthen, out, and up. Bend, reach, and lengthen, out, and up. We'll do three more, exhale, stretch, and lift, two more, bend, and stretch, and lift, one more, bend, and stretch, and lift. Bend your knees to tabletop, place your head down, take that ball, put it between your knees.

We're gonna do another bridge, so feet are flat, feel the weight of your feet pressing into the mat, squeeze the ball with your inner thighs, roll your hips up, lift them higher than neutral, so really lifting. I want you to open up the front of your hips, and then stretch your arms all the way back overhead, lengthening here, and now roll down, creating some nice space and length between every vertebrae. Raise your chest, reach your hands to the ball, and then pick it up. Okay, put your head down, we're gonna move into some obliques, so I'll have my camera leg face you. So extend your left leg forward, so the knees are in line with each other, that leg is to about 45.

Bring your left hand behind your head, raise your chest, and then reach the ball towards the knee, pull your left elbow back, and lift for five, and down, exhale, two, and down, connecting to the left obliques, three, down, a little pulse at the top, four, down just one more, lift, five. And then we'll bend that left knee, reach the ball straight up, we're gonna extend the right leg, right hand goes behind your head, ball to the right knee, exhale, let's lift, and lower. Pull the right elbow back, lift up, and down, exhale, lift, lower, we have two more, lift, little pause at the top, lower, one more time, breathe out, and then from here bend your knee, raise the arms, lower your head down. Okay, we're gonna bring the knees up, place the ball so your knees are together, not apart. You place the ball in front of your thighs, bring your elbows onto the ball, lift your head up into your hands, and then from here you're gonna extend your, sorry, your right leg as your left elbow pulls back, so you're working in that oblique crisscross position.

Now come to the center, extend your left leg as your right elbow pulls back, and then come back to the center. Exhale, rotate, inhale, center. Twisting, and both of your hips are staying equally weighted to the back of the mat, and we rotate, and center. Breathe out, twist, and center, exhale, last four, and center, rotate, twist, three, center, two more, twist, and center, last one, twist, and center. Okay, put your head down, I think this is the first one without the ball.

Put your ball to the side, hands to your head, we're just gonna crisscross, so raise your chest up, up, up, lengthen your right leg, rotate to the left, lift your left shoulder blade up for three, two, one. Switch sides, lift the right shoulder blade up for three, two, one. Let's pick up the pace, we breathe in, in, exhale, two, breathe in, three, exhale, four. Keep your hips steady as you twist, breathe in, in, exhale, one more, and exhale, fantastic. Let's hug those legs to the chest.

Okay, before we sit up bring your knees all the way over to the right, extend your left arm out, take your right hand on top of your left leg, turn your head to the left, give yourself that nice spine twist. Just hold it there for a big breath in. Hold it there as you breathe out and reach. And then pull your legs through the center. Take your knees over to the left, left hand on top of your right thigh, reach the right arm, turn your head, look at the right hand, stretch, and stretch, inhale, exhale, pull your legs to the center, and then grab the back of your legs, and let's rock up to seated, fantastic.

We're gonna come around into a tabletop position. Have your ball near you, we will pick that up in a second. So we're in tabletop, now from this tabletop bring your knees back, so you're more of a kneeling plank position. You have your shoulders directly over your wrists, shoulders pressing down, core muscles engaged, hips engaged, glutes engaged. We're gonna pull the elbows into the ribs, pause there, and then press yourself up, and just do that four more times.

So elbows come in towards the ribs, exhale, press up. Three more, breathe in, exhale, press up, tighten up your core, and then lower down. Exhale, press up, inhale, down, exhale, press up. Now on this last one hold it here, and then slowly lower yourself all the way down to your stomach. Separate your feet about hip-distance apart, bend your right knee, and grab your right foot, place your forehead down onto your hand, press your hip bones into the mat to stretch out your quads.

And now let's release that right leg down, bend your left knee, hold the outside of the foot, place your forehead down onto the right hand, and then pressing your hip bones down giving your quad a stretch, good, and then release. Okay, we're gonna go into some hip extension, so your head will stay down on the mat, so go ahead put your forehead down on your hands, bring your legs together. Okay, so this is a little variation that I learned from Julian Littleford to really fire up your glutes, your inner thighs, and your hips, and your hamstrings. So keeping your legs long raise the right leg super duper straight, and then bring it across the midline, center, and then put it down. Raise the right leg up again, cross it two times, one, two, center, put it down.

Right leg goes up, cross it three times, squeeze across, two, three, lengthen, center, put it down. Raise the right leg, cross it for four, three, two, one, stretch, center, put it down. Right leg goes up, cross for five, four, three, two, one, lengthen, and squeeze, lower down. We're gonna work our way down, raise the right leg, cross five times, one, two, three, four, five, stretch, lower down. Right leg goes up, cross, four, three, two, one, center, down.

Right leg goes up, cross, three, two, one, center, down. Right leg goes up, cross two, one, center, down. Last time, lift, cross, center, and release. Good give it a little quick shake, shake, shake. Readjust, squeeze through your glutes, forehead can stay on the hands, let's lengthen and lift the left, cross, center, down.

Lift, two, cross, one, two, center, down. Raise the leg, cross, one, two, three, center, down. Lift the leg, cross, one, two, three, four, center, down. Lift the leg, cross, one, two, three, four, five, stretch. Repeat, five, lift the leg, cross, one, two, three, four, five.

Stretch, and lower, lift the leg, cross, four, three, two, one, stretch, down. Lift the leg, cross, three, two, one, center, down. Lift your leg, cross, two, one, center, down. Last time, lift, cross, center, release, give it a quick little shake, shake, shake. Okay, so grab your ball, and if you guy don't have a ball, you can absolutely do this without a ball.

But since we have the ball we're gonna take the arms down, so you're holding it with two hands, feet are now hip-distance apart, lower your forehead to the mat, and then raise your chest. We're gonna get into some good back extension work here. Lower your chest, two more, inhale, raise the chest, exhale, lower the chest. One more, stay here, hold the ball in your right hand, lengthen and reach the arms out to a T position, lower down, raise up, one, exhale, down, raise up two, exhale, down. Hold it up, three, bring the arms back behind you once again, use that ball, reach it back to your toes to lift, and lower.

Two more, raise up, and down. Now hold it up, ball in your left hand, stretch the arms out wide to T, and lower down, lift three times, one long line, head, neck, shoulders, lift two, one more time, raise yourself up, bring the arms behind your back, stay here, raise your chest a little higher, and lower down, forehead to the mat. Okay, one more variation, legs are reaching long, engage your core, and now lift your chest, take the ball in the right hand, sweep the arms out to the sides, bring them overhead, hold the ball in two hands, lower your chest, lift yourself up, hold the ball in your left hand, open the arms out wide, bring the arms all the way behind you, lift your chest. Lower down, raise your chest, hold the ball in the left hand, they sweep out to the T, they go overhead, reach, and lower. Raise yourself up, arms reach out to the T, bring it all the way behind the back, lift.

We are gonna do that one more time. You're gonna add your legs. Here we go chest and legs, lift, arms go out, arms go overhead, reach, lower, and we lift, arms in a T, ball in the left hand, go out, bring it back. Take this opportunity to lift before you lower. Here we go lifting up, ball in the left hand, reach out, overhead reach, and down, and last one, lift, stretch the arms out to the T, bring them behind your back, lift your chest, and release.

Let's put the ball to the side, hands by your shoulders, press yourself back into a lovely child's pose, so go ahead and sit to your heels, stretch your arms out long, place your forehead down onto the mat, stay there, take a big breath in, fully expanding your ribs, your lungs, and then breathe out all of the air. Awesome, and now with your arms nice and straight, elbows straight, fingers reaching long, shift your body forward back into that kneeling plank position. Okay, shoulders press down, abs are in, we're gonna bend the elbows five times in again, so little kneeling push-up. One, but focus on your core, hips and glutes in tight, two, exhale, three, exhale, four. Now on number five bend your elbows, and then lower all the way down.

Okay, one more back extension series, you got your ball, it's overhead. We're gonna do a lat pull and then a side bend. So the ball is in two hands, actually the ball's gonna be in your right hand. Raise your chest, okay, palms facing down. Now feel your lat muscles pulling down as you bend your elbows, and reach overhead.

Breathe out, reach overhead. Just one more, we're gonna hold it here for a lateral side bend. Keep your hip bones pressing into the mat but bring your right elbow towards your right hip, look over to the right elbow, and then center. Two more, side bend to the right, center, side bend to the right, center. Stretch your arms overhead, lower the chest down, take the ball into your left hand, palms facing down, raise your chest up, exhale, lat pull, and reach, lat pull, and reach.

One more, hold it here, we side bend to the left, look down to your left elbow, and center. Try to feel your hips bones staying square on the mat, center, one more. And then reach the arms overhead, and lower, place your hands on the ball, let's just slide or roll that ball in as you lift into a lovely swan extension, and then exhale, lower down. Feels so good, let's do two more. Take a big breath in, lift your chest, exhale, lengthen down.

One more time, breathing in, lift the chest, and exhale, lengthen down. All right, we'll take another child's pose, brief child's pose. Sit on back to your heels, stretch out, take another big breath, breathing into the front, the side, the back ribcage. And then exhale, breathe out all of that air. Place your hands next to your knees, let's roll up to seated.

Okay, we're gonna move into sideline. Grab your ball. The ball is gonna go to the front of your mat, take your bottom ankle on the ball, hips to the back of the mat, and then stack your feet. So when you're lying on your side place your head into your hand, all right. So the ball is gonna challenge our center, challenge our stability.

I suggest you tighten up your glutes, your hips, and your core, and the range of the motion is only as big as you can maintain that stability. Raise your top leg for five, squeeze lower, four, lower, three, lower, last two, lower. Now keep it lifted, keep that core pulling in. You're gonna reach the leg forward, one, two, press the leg back, flex, point. Stay super still and stable.

Reach back, and point, breathe in, breathe in, breathe out, breathe out, breathe in, breathe in, breathe out, breathe out. Last time, in, in, and out. Now hold, the back of that leg is long, you're gonna flex your foot, go into a bicycle, kick forward, bend your knee, reach back, and kick forward, bend the knee, reach two. Any brave souls out there that wanna bring their hand to their head? Whoo, let's give it a go.

Bend and reach back. Last one, forward, bend. Reverse your bicycle, bend your knee, flex forward, reach back, bend the knee, flex forward, reach two, bend. Are you squeezing your butt? It might help.

Two more, reach, press, last one, bend, kick, and reach. Now that foot is pointed, abs are pulling in, we're gonna circle the leg, hand can be in front or to your head. It goes forward, up, and around. So make the circle just as big as your hips stay stable. Three, exhale, around, and four, exhale, around, one more.

Let's reverse, take the leg back, and circle around, two, exhale, around, whoo. Hand behind the head makes it that much harder. Three, and exhale, four, and exhale, five. Now we're gonna bring our heels together, toes apart, my feet are now pointed, tighten up through your glutes, and your hips, and your core, readjust. The leg is gonna go front and really tight to the back, quickly forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward back, last time, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

And then bring your heels together, toes apart, keep that squeeze, we're gonna lift the leg up, flex, control it down. Only four more, breathe in, exhale, squeeze down, breathe in, whoo, control it down, breathe in, control it down, in, exhale, down, last one, lift, and lower down, fantastic. All right, so from here bend your knees. We're not gonna use the ball for the moment. You're gonna come up onto your forearm, now stabilize your shoulder, so feel that strength of your shoulder, your lats, and your obliques.

So lift the waist up, pull the core in tight, arm goes straight up, lift your hip. Okay, for side plank either stay with the knees down or you can bring your legs out to straight. Okay, good, we're gonna lower the hip, lower the arm down, exhale, raise, up, four more, exhale, lift, two, three more, exhale, lift, up, breathe in, exhale, lift, last one. And then just hold it, take your hand to your head, keep your top hip square, and do a little rotation, breathe out, breathe in. To modify place your knee down, two, inhale.

Hips are still, hips are still. Three, inhale, two more, four, inhale, last one, breathe out, breathe in, lower your hip to the mat, and then from here, we're just gonna swing our legs around to the other side. Grab your ball, all right, so place your ankle on the ball, bring your hips to the back of the mat, so the feet are flexed. You have feet stacked one on top of the other, and then come on down to your side, side two, so just take a second to stabilize. So let's tighten through the glutes muscles, the hips, the core, feel the legs are long, press up your heels, lift, lower, and two, lower, parallel, small leg raise, three, and four, and just stay up on five.

Pull the abs in, let's kick forward, one, two, kick back, flex, point, breathe in, kick, and back, point, and three, kick, and back, point. Abs are pulling in, and back, point, one more, and back. Now leg is long, belly is in tight, flex your foot, bicycle kick forward, bend the knee, and reach, flex forward, bend the knee, reach. Are we ready to try it without a hand? Whoo.

You might have one side harder than the other, and back, and forward, bend back. One more in this direction, forward, bend, back. Reverse, bend your knee, flex forward, reach back, bend, flex forward, reach two, bend, flex forward, reach three, two more, kick forward, reach, four, last one, and five. Okay, good, point your foot, readjust, abs in, circle the leg, goes forward, it goes up, and around. Getting that range of motion where you are the most stable and strong.

Exhale, around, two more in this direction, exhale, around, last one, and around. Let's reverse the circle, it goes back, up, and around. Breathe in, exhale, two, breathe in, exhale three, breathe in, exhale, four, one more, and five. Bring your heels together, toes apart. Now again just readjust, I always readjust on this one, squeezing through your glutes, hip, core even more to keep it tight.

Bring the heel front, bring the heel back, front, back, front, back, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Front, back, front, back, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 more. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Heels together, toes apart, let's kick the leg up, flex, control it down, lift, exhale, down. Stabilizing muscles from your core, your hips, squeeze the glutes, we'll do two more.

Last one, and lower down. All right, so now we're gonna come up onto the forearm, and we don't want that ball right now, so press your shoulder down, and then I always just take a second feel the ribcage lifting up, so you're connected through your center, raise the arm, lift your hips, and then find the best side plank position for you where you feel strong and you feel stable. And then lower the hip, lower the arm, raise up, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, two more, exhale, last one. Raise, hold, hand to your head, top hip stays still as you rotate down, and center, exhale, two, and center, nice and controlled, rotate three, center, really strong from that bottom shoulder, four, and center, one more, five, and center, lower your hip down. Good, just press yourself on up.

Okay, so just sit up nice and tall, sit up straight. Grab your ball, the ball's gonna go right between our feet. Okay, so from here reach the arms out in front of you, take a big breath in, pull the lower, the middle, the upper abs in tight, lead with your bellybutton, round your spine back, halfway just C-curve, hold it here, inhale, open the arms out, exhale, close. Raise the arms up, exhale, lower, pull the stomach in, round your spine, up, and over your legs. Such a good stretch.

Roll up one vertebrae at a time, sit up nice and tall, pull your abs in, round back halfway, inhale, open the arms, squeeze the ball, hug the arms in, raise the arms, squeeze the ball, press the arms down, belly to spine, round up, and over your legs, roll up one vertebrae at a time. One more set, round your spine back, breathe, and expand the arms, exhale, hug it in, raise the arms, stay round, exhale, press down, round forward, stretch, roll up one vertebrae at a time. Flex your feet, roll all the way down to your back, roll up, roll through the lower, the middle, the shoulders, the head, reach the arms, arms up, raise your head, exhale, roll up. You're gonna pick up that ball, reach it forward, point your feet, stretch, roll down. You're holding the ball in your hands, feet are pointed, reach back, raise the arms, raise your head, exhale.

Let's flex the feet, put the ball between the feet, stretch forward, roll down through the lower spine, middle spine, shoulders, head, raise your arms, raise your head, exhale, roll up. Okay, good, keep the ball where it is, roll up to seated. I'm just gonna scooch forward a bit for roll overs. So reach your arms forward, pull your abs in, let's roll down, your arms are gonna come down to your sides, the legs are gonna go straight up, point your feet, squeeze the ball with your legs, squeeze your center abs in, abs in, abs in. Now start to take your legs back, your hips lift, and the legs go overhead, breathe in, exhale, squeeze the ball, roll down through the upper back, the middle back, use control, lower back, tailbone.

Let's bring those legs down to 45, raise the legs. Now keep pulling the legs back so your hips lift first. Then you go over, so nice and controlled overhead. Squeeze the ball, let's roll through the upper, the middle, the lower, the tailbone, the legs go down. One more time, here we go, take the legs back, now just use your core, peel your hips up off of the mat, squeeze the ball, roll upper, roll middle, roll lower.

All right, guys, we're gonna transition into teaser. Lower your legs to 45, pick your head up, and then reach yourself up into a beautiful teaser. Breathe in, and then exhale, roll down, touch the lower back, the middle back, the arms reach, raise your arms, float your legs up to the teaser. Hold the ball in your hands, legs together, roll your spine down through the lower, the middle, the shoulders, lengthen everything out. Raise the arms, raise your head, exhale, roll up, ball between your feet.

We're gonna do one more teaser, roll down, control it, lower, roll middle, roll shoulders, stretch back. Last one, raise your head, exhale, exhale, roll up, hold it here, turn your palms up, pull your lower abs in, take your legs down three times only, exhale, scoop, and lift one, breathe in, and exhale, lift, two, breathe in, control it up, exhale, three, last roll down, take your time, touch the lower back, touch the middle back, touch the shoulders, the arms, and the head, whoo. Circle the arms around, just grab that ball, just go ahead place it between your knees, feet flat, shoulders down. Now just stay here a second, open across your chest, feel the width in your collarbone, the length in your neck, the length of your spine, breathe in, exhale. Let's squeeze the ball, roll your hips up, and then just stay here one long line, knees, hips, shoulders, glutes are tight.

We're gonna squeeze the ball for five zero, 50, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 20, little tighter, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 30, squeeze, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 40, little tighter, last one, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 50. Amazing, you guys. Let's stretch the arms all the way back overhead, press your hips up nice and high, breathe in, and last roll down of class. Touch the upper, the middle, the lower, the tailbone, draw your knees into your chest, put your ball to the side, bring your knees all the way over to the right again, look to your left hand, take a big breath in, exhale, pull your legs up to the center, bring your knees over to the left, look over to the right hand, breathe in, and exhale, pull to the center, and then just grab the back of your legs, curl yourself up to seated. And I just wanna thank you all for joining me for my first class "On Center".

I hope you really enjoyed it. I really appreciate you all coming.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Excellent strengthening and stretching!  Really enjoyed it!  Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Good solid level 2 class. Melissa has a musical upbeat quality to her voice which is fun, charming, and makes her cues easy to follow.  Looking forward to the rest of her series. Thanks Melissa:) 
Giulia C
1 person likes this.
great lessons!!
Wonderful, strong, centering class to join in with you on a Sunday.  Revitalised for the beginning of the week!  Looking forward to more classes.
1 person likes this.
Great class!
Lina S
1 person likes this.
Fun and challenging class! Thank you!
Laura Maria
1 person likes this.
worked up a sweat ! great class 
Very challenging, as always!
1 person likes this.
I love that you are being featured live right now!  The mat classes are so much fun, variations keep things interesting, flowing, perfect!

Heather B
1 person likes this.
So lovely Melissa!
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