Class #456

Challenging Mat Flow

60 min - Class
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Description

Spend the first 7 minutes of class working with balance while loosening up your arms, low back, and legs to prepare you for the movement still to come. Once down to the Mat, you'll practice some simple but challenging moves that lead into more challenging exercises like Hip Circles Prep, Side Kick Kneeling, Side Bend, and Thigh Hinge.

What You'll Need: Mat

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All right. I'm just watching you guys go on. Yes. Okay. Right. These guys know what they're doing. So we'll go feed together parallel but together and just focus in on the feet. Um, I have a suggestion. Let's look out the window. 50 right? Oh, I had this window standing behind your mat, so we'll feel the floor.

Let's feel the wood surface feet together. Somewhere in between. In the middle there. All right, lovely. And then zip up, sort of, not sort of feel the ankle bones come together as best you can feel the knees come together if you, if your structure makes it so that you have to bend a knee in order to make them touch or the ankles touch, let the ankles be a part and go for the knees. Get a little taller and create the sensation of that zipping in and up. Right. Look for it. Just look for sensation. That might be my theme. I'm not sure I'm going to stick with that one, but that's what's coming to me right now. Going further.

Positioning your pelvis so that it feels level. Check it out. If you're not sure, tilted forward, tilt it back, find it side to side and find level. Then lift the ribcage up off the pelvis. Create what spaces you can and then stabilize and support it. Let the arm bones be heavy and recognize. Remember that they are attached to the shoulder blades, right?

The shoulder blades are heavy, not forced, but heavy collarbones are wide. Do you want to do these? I know you guys can't see. Just reach your face forward for a moment. Oh, let's not do that again. Let's pull back and also up and that probably feels a little strange too, but we'd rather be there from here. Lift just your toes. All 10 toes. Come up. See if you can spread them out there and put them back down. Do it again.

Lift them up. Trying not to lean it all. Spread them out as best you can. Put them back down and again, so the big toe joints are still together. We're just gonna work our way up the body and down. Nice Renee and lift them up. Spread them out a little and down. Excellent channel and spread them out. Feel your feet and Andy's like me.

We find our hands doing it to up spread and somehow that helps and down. Now shift your weight forward. Hover the heels, just hover and then put the heels down. Shift back, not real far, but just a bit nice and forward again, however the heels, a little put 'em down, but let's not shift back again from here, a roll down. Inhale, exhale. Imagine the spine itself just rolling forward and down, drawing in and up on the abdominal. Still looking for that sensation of a zipping feeling. If you get to the floor, that's great. Inhale. If not, that's okay too. Or maybe bend the knees. Exhale. As you roll, reminding ourselves at the arm. Bones are heavy and sensate them falling down your back almost to the point where it pulls your head up. Inhale, exhale, body weight.

Still slightly forward. Yeah. Down we go. If I end up, I'm going to speed up a little here. If I go faster than you want, you can either just go partway or bend the knees so it feels a less impactful up by com and inhale, listen up. Exhale, float the heel, go almost all the way back down. You can kind of barely feel the floor. We'll do a roll down like that. Inhale, exhale down. You're going to probably feel some wobbling in the feet. That's all right. Just feel your feet. Do your best to keep those ankle bones, big toe joints together. You do have to drop your head and that will be the hard part up on the ABS.

Feel that collarbones wide. Inhale. Exhale, same thing up. Keep those bones of the legs pressing together, sliding down, and now, all right. Just to stretch out through the chest a little. Once you're back in alignment, I've got my heels down again. I'm just pushing the sidewalls away. I've got flex hands have really flexing at the wrist. Okay. For the moment.

Fingers together and then try to lengthen your arms even more without, hm. Without using the muscles. What I want to say, I want to say just allow the arm bones to go further. You might get a little connective tissue stretch. Spread the fingers out as much as you can. Can you flex your wrist even more, Erin? No. Okay, good. She's trying and then point the hands down, fingers down, do a couple of circles each way, as big as you can, but all the while reaching and then reverse it, reaching through the arms, just opening up whatever you've been doing and then lace the fingers down behind you without popping the ribs out just down with the arms. I have the palms apart for the moment. Let the arms come away from the body.

If it's available to you, then the knees hinge forward. Taking it all the way over. It's gonna Waken up the body. I'm going to move us a little bit here a lot in the minute. Release your hands down so they let go and roll yourself up. Okay. Hopefully still feeling relatively connected from the start. All right.

Taking your right leg behind you. Trying to keep the hips exactly as they were. Make sure you can feel that the leg is already kicked in. Reach the leg further. Kind of like we did with our arms a moment ago. In fact, let's do the arms again. Okay. And then start to tilt forward. I'm not gonna. I don't really want to go to full scissor here, so let's keep it about 45 degrees. You're pushing the wall away in this position.

Flex the foot and push the floor away from you and see if you can feel your abdominals and your powerhouse almost more than anything. Reminding yourself that the powerhouse includes the glutes. Feel those. All right. Then as you bring that like forward, bend the knee, laced the fingers behind you and lift the arms up. If you can do it with, for one, if you can grab on. If you can't grab the hands, you can just have the hands apart and try to lift them up. Okay. From here, extend that leg that's in the air and bring it down. Let go the hands and the like. That's still in the air. Push the walls, flex the foot. Lean forward to the, from the crown of your head to that leg that's in the air is one long line and you're aware of it, so we don't want to break it there. The waist or the hip. It's long. All right, let the hands go back. Bend the knee.

Bring it up. Lace the fingers and stretch. Can we do one more now that we know what we're doing here comes push the walls away. Energized. Again, it doesn't take a huge strain to do it. It's almost more ease. That'll give you the good stretch. Flex the foot if you didn't already, and bring it all home to change sides. Yeah. So Danny here, we'll take the other leg back, right, left leg back. Same, same stretch here.

Let's see if you can make it a little different and you don't really want to go behind. You could change things. Make it a bit of a diagonal line. Okay. And flex the foot hinging forward. Imagine you're being pulled from the arms of the wrist and the ankle energizing there. Noticing the shoulders don't have to come up. Turn the fingers down. That'll be a good screenshot. Not really. Let's go back out. That's gotta be pretty. And then we come back up.

We're going to lace the fingers behind. Actually lace them. Take your hands up as high as you can on your back. Yeah. And then as you extend the leg forward, point the elbows forward. Yeah. All right. Same thing. Here we go. Flex and push.

That's a great time to remind yourself of all that opposition. As you push the ceiling away, you're pushing the floor away, the middle. In fact, once you do that, you kind of can relax to the arm and leg and hold in the middle. I mean you can play with energy dispersion. That's half the fun of [inaudible]. Then you take it out in the real world and do it there.

Standing the leg forward, stretching through the shoulder, you get one more flex reach and from the middle of the body. This time, not so much tension in the arm and leg, but still energized. Which check shoulders involve those feet little and we'll just bring it all the way back home. Yeah. Okay. Now let's have a seat on the mat and get moving a little bit more. Stretch your legs all the way out tonight. Everybody got room enough room. Okay. At the sun in your eyes Shannon, you can turn if you prefer. Alright. Alright.

Sitting til hinge forward to the best of your ability at the moment. Then bend your knees and what you're looking for is this long flat back here. I dropped the arm somewhere using this strength of the lots a little bit. Pull yourself more forward. Yeah, just a little bit. Then from here, rest your toes or not. It's up to you. Wherever your knees are, it's fine from there thing to pull the hipbones, the top of the hip bones backwards a little bit, but not much movement of the spine, so there's the exhale. Okay. Inhale, lengthen.

The hipbones are going to ever so slightly forward as the spine goes up. Exhale and pull back again. Pretty tiny. I'm not looking for much. I am looking for a big abdominal contraction. Inhale and exhale. If we were to let go, we really continue rolling and of course we'll do that in a minute. Inhale, press down with the shoulders, a bit up with the spine, and now exhale, pull back with the HIPAA and one more time like that. Inhale and exhale. Flex the feet.

They're still together. One more time with a flat back. Pulling yourself over to let go of the arms reaching forward, squeezing in his eyes. And now once again, lead with the hip bones as you roll back, downward press of the heels. We're going halfway here. Hold. Inhale, exhale coming forward. Keep holding back at the hips. Curve at the low back. Hands go down, hold them anywhere and an extend the spine. Just basically neutral, maybe slight diagonal forward again. Exhale, rounding back, pressing down with the heels a bit. Inhale, exhale, come forward. Inhale, extend the spine. This time, China, to extend the knees any differently, probably some of you have to bring them in a tiny bit in order to make that work.

Keep the knee angle about the same set means you have to curve your spine more. Told you. Inhale the arms up, bring them back up again and back. We're going to go to a v or t if you've got room. Inhale, open, exhale, inhale, expand. But press downs, the abdominals and spine. Hold for inhale. We're coming up on the exhale and here it is binding your hands to shins. Inhale, extend the spine on a bit of a diagonal, or at least two straight.

Exhale. Down we go. I'm flexing the feet just to be aware of them at mostly. You could let that go. Arms up first. Exhale, press them down from the spine to the side with the arms. Inhale even a little bit, right? And exhale. Inhale, exhale. We're going up scooping our way to the top. Find hands to shins or knees.

Inhale, one more of those. Exhale. Down we go. Are you squeezing your glutes? Yeah. In here, I know your exhale to the side. Inhale. Exhale. I'm gonna Change it. Inhale, arms up. Hold it there. Exhale, point the toes. Inhale again. We're lifting, extending, I should say the right knee. The knees are still together to just straighten it. Inhale, put it down.

Just switching legs. Exhale deep in the belly first, right, so you feel like there's your anchor. Inhale, two more alternating. Squeeze the glutes. Lower leg is so relaxed, you almost don't feel it right, right. Heels down, flexed feet. Toes are together. Inhale, exhale. We come up. Scoot yourself forward on your mat. Picking up your feet. Draw the feet in close. Elbows wide. Squeeze your glutes here. Rolling like a ball. Five times its UF. Inhale, exhale and inhale, keeping the shape and nice.

Ah, one more time. [inaudible] holding it there. Slide the hands up to the knees. Slowly lower yourself down to tabletop. Tailbone is down. Take a minute, press the knees into your hands, but make your hands firm and Tuck the pelvis. Push everything back down. Keep your upper body still again. Exhale, Erewhon and down.

So you don't want to rock. You just want to pick up the lower end, not the upper end too, right? You keep the upper body exactly where it is. You're bringing your pelvis to you. Last one, keep it down. Check for it in [inaudible] forward. Exhale, reach the arms forward, extend the legs, squeeze the glutes and soften the lower leg. Here we go. It's easy. Inhale, two, three, four, five and exhale. Listening to your body, right? You want to make sure that low back is down but not cause you're in a half teaser either. You're pretty low yourself. Oh two, three, four or five and email.

And notice how calm you can be. A number six already so the arms can be vigorous, but if it's bouncing you, it's now working for you. An eight good, nice try to calm the eyes if you are looking around, even if your eyes are closed. Last one, two, three, four, five. Bend your knees and set them down slightly apart for pelvic curl. Let your whole body come down, pressing the arms and hands into the mat. Inhale, feet are slightly apart. Exhale to roll all the way through the spine.

Drawing your knees out over the ankles. Inhale and exhaling down making, allowing, I should say the wave of your body, the wave within your body to be there and I'll restrict it. Let it be and down knowing that a wave doesn't start. Then stop and start and stop. It's fluid. Let's get one more out of the deal and stay up there at the top, spreading out the collarbones. It'll be the right leg on your inhale.

Keep the knee bent. Exhale from right below the chest or the whole trunk and float that leg up. Inhale, it'll go down. I'm doing four. Exhale, two and and three. How much can you work the support? Like here's the fourth one. It'll stay up. Extend leg four kicking down and up a little faster.

Go down and one flex to come up and to reach longer. Three come up on this one. Hold it. Flex the foot. If it's not already, lower the hips without the wave. Ah, push right back up one. We'll do 10 of these and two and three. Checking the level, pelvis and and getting [inaudible]. Two more. One way up there. Look at your foot.

Flex it strongly articulate through a pointed and change. Other side lifts up on one there. They're slow at a four and draw to become aware. You working the entire backside of the leg or you kind of focus more on the outside or inside for that matter. One more time. You'll go up, you'll stay up and as if the leg somehow were connected to the breath, it'll exhale its way all the way up there and now here it is. Exhale down on one. All right. I said I was going to move.

Apparently I'm not moving fast enough. This is already four. Stay up there. Flex the foot. Inhale down. Exhale, push up. One and two and [inaudible] and four strong, five, six. I know you're in a hurry. However we are going to articulate the foot, so find as much as you can in your foot point when it's canned and bring it down. Inhale, exhale, roll. Here we go. At the bottom, we pick up both legs. Good. You ready for a rollover? If you don't want to do the role of you're doing that reverse crunch.

Similar to what we did earlier, we just picked it up the hips. Extend the legs out. Inhale 90 exhale. Take your time. Take a moment here please, and just check out the side bodies or the waist, the space, whatever's there. You are supported. Flex your feet. Remember all that oppositional. You reach the feet deep in the belly, lower the legs if you can, and roll down. Still looking for opposition. It means the hands and arms are in the mat. The feet are reaching the other way.

Now you know, here we go. Exhale. Also critical that you're working in the back of the legs and the glutes. I shouldn't say work because they're not doing a whole lot. Keep going, coming down, but they have to be there. Otherwise you're just pressing the abs into the spine with no protection. Flex separate and now the throat, the chest, feel the vertical one by one. We're back to that idea of the wave, if that works for you. And Circle one more in that direction. Gorgeous Heron.

Really Nice Flex. Take a second here and push the feet as if they were against a wall, but deep in the belly so you feel that scoop and when you're ready, come on down. I will do three the other way. Finish those and here we go. Inhale to the Wii. Exhale over. Inhale and close. And this is where your opposition can be at its most. Down we go.

You can let the legs come closer to you or if you're hyper flexible, maybe challenge yourself to keep them away over. Inhale, flexing, close and exhale. Let's see. How can we maximize the breath here? Still exhaling. That's why I'm still talking. Inhale. Last one over eye. Sandy. Inhale, flex and close. Still feel the glutes work in a little bit to support you. Finishing it, finishing it, finishing it. Keep the right leg up.

Let the left leg go to the ground. Holding somewhere where you can gently guide the leg towards you. First stretch. If you want to bend one needs, I mean if you want to bend it a little, that's all right. Then the right hip, the outer part of the hip, sort of swivel it a little bit towards the left knee so it'll feel like you're sitting. I don't know. I don't know what to feel like, but do it anyway. All right. Then bring your head up for a second. Check out your hips. You might need to do it.

More it tendencies to really hike that hip and then if you can bring your leg a little closer, do setting our heads back down, challenging the stretch. Then by holding on somewhere deep in the abs and pressing the lower leg into the mat, you let go and we, let's just leave the legs pointed softly like it is. We're going to do three circles in one direction, three the other with Sri Four. Here we go. It's a full inhale, same direction. Exhale, full inhale. Stir up that hip socket and exhale and again. Inhale, two, exhale. One more set.

Inhale and exhale, go the other way. Let the leg bumpy heavy. It's inhale around and exhale using that support leg as an anchor and exhale, two more full cycles. Inhale, trying for our parallel. One more time in and fold the knee in and cross it over your body for a stretch. You could take that arm opposite arm out. Again reaching. If you want to just lay there, you could do that too, but why not maximize it and I'm not saying strain again, I'm thing just look for the end range of the tissue or the muscle or the whatever. Come on back.

Slide the leg down and we change sides so we bring the other one up. Hold on. Where you can be gentle. It's not quite ready like the other one now and draw closer to you or letting the leg be heavy in the hip. Finding your opposition points that lower leg reaching and pressing gently reaching me opposite hip, checking yourself out, right? Gotta Watch yourself. Self responsibility. It's a Palladio's is all about, or maybe not all about, but it's important part of it, right? Can you bring it closer?

Allow it to go that. Let it shake. If it shakes, it's all right. As long as it's not painful. Well too painful. Alright, let go. Hopefully it stays there and here we go. Four and four. It's Ian Hill and and in two more rounds in, one more time in and around. Other way to get around. So range of motion is dictated really completely by your ability to hold your hips still. If it's one of those days you should be making them smaller, make them smaller and vice versa was at it. Last one. Thank you.

Bend the knee and cross it over. Enjoy the stretch. Reach the arm. Maybe look toward that hand. That's her reaching. And we're going to play with these next few. Let's go to the stretcher, like back out. So your level and situate yourself and then bend your knees. You've done all of these with me, I'm just going to give you a couple of different variations to work through. Um, starting with the double leg stretch. So for now, hug your knees in very, very close to you as much as you can while keeping the tailbone down. From there, roll up into it. And for starters, for the devil extra, you're simply going to let go and tap the toes as you reach the arms forward.

That's it. That's your inhale. Now start the XL scoop and bring it back and hug. Inhale. So actually take the stretch of the double leg stretch here without letting your hips come up. Not at all, Renee, not even a tiny, tiny bit. And grab on right there. You go in here and squeeze case. So that's one. Raise the feet up a bit deep in your contraction. You'll reach back, keeping the knee angle a little wider there. Tap and exhale.

Grab on or and inhale and to at a four, three, keeping the abs down regular. Here it is in, he'll reach, exhale, pull, inhale, reach and pull. Two more. Either keep to that or it goes to inhale, reach down first like you did a moment ago. Stretch it out if it's available to you and bring it back up. How do you know if it's available to your back? Doesn't move. Not at all. Exhale two more if you're doing that version or pick one of the ones before it.

And one more time and heads go down. Look to the right or pick a side. Didn't matter. Look one way. Look the other way. Hi. Okay. Hang onto your right leg. Extend the other leg up for the moment. Hug it and close right way up there. And then once you've done that for all of us, it's going to want to make us want to bring the hips up. Let it for a moment.

Curl your head into it so you're actually almost touch your knee with your nose or face or something. Then keeping your knee exactly where it is. Reach your tailbone downward. You almost have to let go of the leg a little, and I don't mean to like go with your hands. Let go so you're not having to hold it. Deepen the or. With the hip flexors much the hands are supporting it. Lower the leg to the level you can without your back lifting.

Squeeze your butt but don't Tuck. Can you pull the knee in any closer but not with your hands. Change legs. Hold it there for a second. Feel for it. It's a downward pressure on the hands and elbows for the moment. Draw the leg in even closer without using the front of the leg at all and change here goes a little faster and it's pull one. Whew. I'm going away in there. Two, two and three.

Taking that stretch to keep in the powerhouse or the hips. Engage. Let's do two more sets. Here they go. Mourn. One more to go. La, la, la, La, both in heads down for one second, but don't lose the energy. Come right back up. Extending the legs up. Release Table and support your head and let's go. Let's go into a hamstring pull too. So it's Paul Paul.

Change pressing your head back into your hands. Making the curve come not from the front of the face or the face, but from right under the chest. And now keep it a little smaller and we'll go a little quicker. So it's cool. It's just walk, walk, walk, walk. Can you reach out of the hip more without changing your back?

How about a little quicker for 10 and on? Two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, both legs come up. Fold the knees into your chest, hug them, and briefly put your feet down. Please walk them to the width of your mat. Okay. Hands behind your head again. Take a moment with your head on the ground and in your hands. Press the back of your head into your hands.

Press your shoulders to your waist. Then take a big inhale on the exhale. Feel the rib bone sort of drop into the mat. Feel your chin roll toward your chest. It's still on the ground though and or your head is, and now it lifts off.

Keep following that line. Alright, rotate toward the front of the room, but your hips don't get to move. Check it out. It's hard to do in your legs or wide. Put a little more weight in the hip that's closest to the back. Then release that arm that's closest to the back. Reach forward more, but the arm stays in its pocket, right? You don't get to slip it out of the off the back.

You just take the entire front of your body more forward. Press the opposite hip down more. Press the back of your head in your hand. Is this dreadful or what? You feel it though? Okay, good. Now you're going to pulse. By pulse, I mean slow, but your arm doesn't change, right? So you're going to see me. I don't what you're gonna see. Maybe front of the shoulder ribcage to opposite hip three.

Get that opposite hip down and I know it is, but focus on it. I don't know. Is that five? How about six? Good change. Hand back for the moment. Check your level pelvis as you go to the other side. Okay. This is how we're going to do a good crisscross. Then reach for it. Press the opposite of down. Even if it kind of knocks you off balance a little, oh, I'm cramping and the ABS. Reach further.

Check the shoulder on the pocket and we go. One, I know you've already done your six, two, three, four. Keep thinking of that opposite hip. Pressing down five here's your six. Then put your hands back. Go back to the first side. Opposite hip is down and just leaving the hands back. Thank you. And switch again. So I'm taking, giving you a little bit extra time to think of the opposite hip.

It might feel like you're swiveling a little. It's all right for now. And just two more. One more. All right, come center. Walk your feet together. Pick up the lane closest to the window please. I'm feeling very drill certainty. I don't mean to do that, but it's going to have to do from there.

Rotate toward that leg, grab onto it somehow. I like to kind of grab actually usually over it or off the side and pull myself higher into it and rotate a little bit more. Squeeze the inner thighs together. You're almost crossing your legs here almost, but the hand back, press your head back into your hands. You don't need to see anything except for what is directly in front of you. And now exhale as you pull [inaudible].

But let's let the thigh come into a to not the hits, just the thought. Here's three ish for keeping this energy, but it's going to go in with the leg out with the leg. Upper body stays up and in inhale out and the Reese, I intensify coming forward a little for one more time and five to switch to the other side like is that grab onto it. There's your brake would get up with it as well. Rotate opposite hip down. Let it go to hang out here for about three counts.

Hand goes back and just breathe into it. One inner thighs, squeeze them almost together. Almost crossing the legs. Head is pushing back and now you allow the five bone to travel and to the little one. It's pretty small. First to your head. Might want to be reaching forward here. Careful that it doesn't. Then we'll add a bigger extension of the leg. It's in and press it out. Exhale as it pulls into.

Inhale out and three like inner thigh again here for one more time and five back to the center. Leg goes down, feet are together, right? Everyone puts in together. Yes, sure. Draw them closer to you, but be careful that your back is going to want to arch here and you're not going to let it. You're going to think about lightening up on the bottoms of the feet, dragged them in closer. Heels will come off of course, and then pick up the legs, chin, all that setup. Come back up into him. You're so ready for your criss-cross. Here it is toward the front of the room and one pull the knee in close to two, two and three and four. I'm counting like I have an end game. I'm thinking six. Here's six already back to center and let it all come down.

I said all didn't I? All right, so we'll let it all come down since I said that. Wiggle the feet away from you. Keep the knees and feet together. Curl forward. Feel free to grab onto your legs, but do not let the shoulders come up at all. Anticipate that they're going to want to take your time. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Find something to hold on to that is gonna feel supportive and said good. From there, we're going back up. I should say up and then arch the upper back from there.

Try to Tuck your pelvis. Yep. Even with this upper arch back, think about trying to check your pelvis and then bring everything back to neutral. Relax. Let's do it again. You might decide you like it holding underneath. That would be fine. Here we go. Lifting first, straight up. Let's squeeze the glutes a little and then as the front of the body continues to try to go up, you start to feel more contractions to the back of the body without leaning back. The reason I said try and Tuck your pelvis is for those of us that could so easily throw ourselves into our low back, we don't want to feel the low back at all. Upper back keeping your position.

Can you start to let go? If the mere thought of it goes to your neck and low back, you're too arched for what you can handle. So come out of it a little, float the arms forward and then come back to level. Set yourself up. So for spine stretch square, he was just there. He was never there. Could hear it. All right, so you know spine stretch, look at your feet first though. Let's go from there. Today you're pushing a wall like Emily and I are going to push each other away in theory. Right? So she's, well I had an idea but I'll work it out later without [inaudible]. Yeah, because what I'm thinking, but you've got long legs. Okay. So from here the idea is that we're not going to back away from each other, right? Of course.

But we're actually going to be trying to push into each other and make the hips be pushing back. Okay. All in imagery or any, Huh? You got it. All right, carry on then inhale. Hey, and so pull him back though. Pull him back. Pull the shoulders back more. Really? Okay, so let's not shoulders. It's chest. Maybe. There we go. I knew it was something. Exhale, roll back. I mean roll foam, roll forward. There we go. Inhale. Exhale, come back. Okay.

Taller, taller, taller. Inhale, exhale forward. I didn't really Q, a hand position. I normally go externally rotate it, but I'm pretty sure I showed it down. Either one's fine and roll it. So keep going. Think about what are you trying to do? You're trying to stretch your spine. So that actually comes from tightening the abs in the front, which I know you know, but don't forget you got to use your back to come back up. So be aware of that energy that needs to be distributed there. Again, one more and then we'll add back extension and all of your air should be gone by the time you're ready to come up and exhaling up. Here comes our back extension. Inhale, exhale forward. Right away.

Start lengthening through the low back, the middle back, the upper back, long arms right alongside your ears. And then from the pelvis you start to pull those hipbones deeper into the body. Round forward and roll back up, hugging the space between the arms and the legs and exhale forward. Inhale, the arms are simply following the spine as you lengthen on the diagonal, trying to go almost more up than forward. Exhale, round and roll back up to a vertical position. Inhale and exhale.

How much could you draw energy through the inner thigh here? A lot. Think about how you could do that and down to roll up. This next one. We'll add the pulsing or whatever we call it. Exhale. Here we go. [inaudible]. Inhaling, half. Take a minute. Take the arms behind you, put them on the ground and give yourself a little assist so that you know you're not long through the low back. Bring the arms back up, breathing however you want. When you get there, we simply exhale and pull back.

One too. Pretty small, right? We're not interested in moving the shoulder blade so much as we are going home. Long on the diagonal. Finding our upper backs, your head in line with your spine. Do three more from here. One, get longer to inner thigh. Hold three soften around the neck. You have to think of that sometimes. Exhale round forward. Roll yourself up.

[inaudible] yeah, right. Just bend the elbows right from where you are. That's right. I think palm storage, you'll be good. Shoulders reach straight ahead and then pull them back without thrusting the ribs. They're gonna move some reach and forward. So I'm thinking elbow points going forward. I know it's not a great look, but showing that difference, pull back and forward. I might want to look down a little as your elbows go forward so I don't add tension and then as you draw the shoulder blades back just to level, I'm not really pinching them much. There are some, I suppose.

Then you hold it there. From here. We're not letting the shoulder blades move, so there's not a whole lot of energy in the arms themselves at the moment except for in this position to think of reaching that way with your upper arm. Then bring it back in. It's just more like floating and the sheer fact that we did the exercise we did a moment ago, I suspect you're feeling it a little bit already. Good. Lift the chest a little more without leaning back and again, lift the chest a little more and back one more time. Let's stay here. Whatever. From here we're dropping this shoulder blades, the arms are loose or light as they float up.

If you're tight in the shoulders go wide. Then from the shoulder blades again, they dragged down like your arms are melting. Paint or not melting. Painting, paint, dripping down a wall. Mixing my images. And again, it's as if the shoulder blades got so heavy that it automatically made the arms float up last time. Bring it down. Can you lift your chest in opposition and from there two pulses to the front of the room. Let's go. And it's pulse whole center doing it from the spinal column rather than the arms. Oh lovely. And you can straighten the legs or bend them. It's up to you. I'd rather than be bent in you a straight spine though and changing it. It goes. Hold it there. Inhale and soft forward. Bring it back up, fold it and to the back. You don't have to double poles. Extend the arms first.

Now reaching forward, hindering forward. Come back up with those long arms. Refold them and back to center. So we'll go. Inhale, stretch them out. Exhale, long opposite hip down. Inhale, sit up. Tall, refold and center. Exhale. Inhale, grow tall. Exhale, reach. Don't forget those feet inhaler.

They're mostly for measurement at this point in hell. They don't move at all. Stretch, reach, coming back. Bold Center. One more. You inhale, stretching, reach coming back and you're home. All right. Moving forward for OpenLink rocker. No custom family show lotion. Is that what you said? Okay, so you're behind the tailbone, right? And let's play with this a little bit.

So you are in a little bit of Tuck, very pretty small. But let's extend the upper back and see what you can do in terms of the tiniest little rock without changing. There's no, I have to exaggerate to make the point. There's no wobble of the hips. Okay, so it's tiny. You might drop your feet just to feel that at first. That's where it all hinges right there or balances. Okay, so leaving your legs like this, let's roll back to the shoulder blades. Come back and try to get to that place. Yes.

Again, no. It takes a few to kind of find it when if he, especially if you're used to doing it with straight legs, but find it this way cause this is sort of the heart of it and then practice it with the legs straight. Okay? You're going to the same spot. Just takes a different amount of time. Don't forget the back extension at the end and it initiates from the same place you can hold the legs. You can hold the like firmly, but know that that's the momentum alone isn't what gets you going. It's that decision that you make right here and the trust that you make right there. And two more. One more. I'm trying to avoid throwing tension into the knees.

We're going to stay up with this. Close up the feet. Put your hands behind you. Palm facing aware. Fingers facing away. Okay. You can bend the knees or keep them straight. You could also do this on your elbows. Okay. Either way, we're going toward the window. Inhale, exhale, circle around and up. Same direction. [inaudible] and around. I'm doing four.

Let the hips move a little. It's all right. One more, I think. Reverse it. Either way you can drop to the elbows if you want. You're keeping the back pretty still. Two more. One more. [inaudible] and Walla bending the legs and come down onto your side facing front. All right, so for the first one, rose stacked up straight.

If you know you're going to need a little balance or your hips need a little more support, you can let the feet come forward a bit. Otherwise your long through the waste arm up, down, or for more support on the mat. It goes in him. Exhale. Lengthen from the chest almost to lift both legs. Inhale, reach further. Trying to connect with both sides. Double check that your knees aren't super tight, especially if you hyper extend or you're just used to working hard. Let's let that energy travel up a bit. So I think for you Emily, if you roll back a little bit, I think, yeah, nice job.

Let's get one more out of here and from here turn both legs out. You might need your hand to turn that bottom leg out. Press the inner thighs so strongly together that it's almost too much to handle and then soften the quad a little and you're going to feel some there, but not much. Okay? Take one leg forward, one leg back, focus on the one going to the back. Is it straight and change? I'm not going to do a double pulse. Paulson, just going to sweep, sweep, putting the focus on the leg into the back, whichever one it happens to be, and on the stability of the middle. And let's go for three to thinking long and one line and back up. From there, we're going to just pop up either to the tip of the elbow or the forearm. I'm staying on the forearm tonight will lifting a bat of the shoulder top leg lifts. At this point you might want your legs a little more forward.

That would be totally appropriate. Take this hip though and reach it long. Here we go. Two pulses for flex to come forward. Kick, kick, inhale back and two. Two. I always catch myself. Hang on for dear life. I shouldn't do that at three or four. Yeah. Here's four. I'm only doing six. Make them good and one more to the front and back. Hold it to the back. They're probably going to want to bring the top hip forward.

Find the glute and just lift to make it generate it all from the hips. Okay. Might as well go for all 10 watching Andy's fingers. Thank you. Okay. Come forward. Bring it up. Hmm. No, lean in back. Lift up. Dig It by. [inaudible] you're used to doing these on the ground.

It's going to seem so unsatisfying to be up like this. But how fun for the change you can go down if you want to hear spore. We are changing it. Take it to the back. Now what we've got to be mindful of the back of, you're trying to keep that leg. Well I think of it as externally rotated, but it doesn't change a whole lot.

If anything changes. Hello this up. Uh, one more and it feel good. Fantastic. I think it not quite working for me today. Ben, that top like grab onto it at this point. Let's go down. Let's say this shoulder for something else. All right, reach the lower leg, flex it, take a peak at it that it is level that it's not heal up and lift the whole leg up. One tried to get to the top two as you reach the Ri core, generating it right from the middle. Here's six. Stay up on six and now just push it to the back. You're still high though. Yeah, flick said heel and make a full circle out of it for three.

One that was one. Here is number two. One more full. One three, go the other way. That give to the top come forward. Go Way back there and then up [inaudible] last one. Okay, good. Lovely. Help yourself up.

Top leg is in front for the side vent. Okay, so if you're not wanting to be on your hand, you can be on your elbow. Protect your shoulder. Okay, so either way we are away from resting on the shoulder joint. We go, inhale, lift up, taking our time. Here's a modification for you. In fact, it's not a bad idea for everyone to go there first, but too late. So Renee, drop your hips when you drop your hips first. I know you know where I'm headed. That's it. Emily and Aaron. Just finish it with your head and there we go. From there, from under the waste you lift up, feel that lower arm pit almost reaching to your waist all the way over and then from out of the crown of the head, press into the feet and bend the knees.

All right, just three more. I won't hang out that long, but feel frustrate lines. You don't need a mirror, feel free to tell me. Thank you. That's great. Up and over. You look down at the end, but we do have to be careful. Come back and down that you don't turn the body. So it's Ian Hill to rise up. Exhale to lift more from the underside and I include the lat in that in length. Lengthen out. You're so strong here. And one more time.

Inhale and up. I'll be heading into sidekick kneeling. So I'll come back to the plank. Your lower leg will come down. Stretch the top leg a little more. I go to my fist just cause it's almost more of a habit, but it still be there. Top leg lifts.

Let's put the hand behind the head and feel for a long neck and lower limb. Lower down, lift up and down. And as you look at your leg, don't let your butt pike out just for it so that you can get higher. One more time. Here's high as you can be. Kick forward, kick back, kick forward, kick back three more. One more time. Come back to the side, reach it long.

Stretch the opposite arm for a truly for a stretch and then help yourself up from there. Folding that leg in. Let's go all the way to the beginning so we're all the way down. Hips, legs are static as a way of measuring your what is probably more shoulder flexibility. See if you can look straight ahead and still rest your arm. Rest your head on your arm. If that's too tight for your neck, you can bend your elbow. Okay, here we go. Exhale, reach left one and reach. Lift, right?

We will. You guys actually look quite fine but still worth mentioning that the top arm doesn't hang out. Thank you. Holding it there, stretch a little longer. Turn the legs out if you need to adjust you do. And then taking the top leg for one link forward one back and switch that and then we'll go a little faster and it's reach. Reach says if you have a band, a support around your center, which in fact you do. That's your main focus so that everything can move easily.

Hang on one more finishing here, come back together and then, then we came up to sidekick. I'm quite certain. No, yes, of course we did. Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm sure. But when the two of you are questioning me, I have no idea. Right, because we kicked forward back and then the circles. If not, we'll think of it eventually. Okay. Helen, we're ready. Yep. Here we go. And kick. Kick Shit every right to just be going.

Hurry up Christie and three of five, right? Six. Thank you. Okay, good. Hold it there. Reach back. I heard five and Angela [inaudible]. Sure. I did six again cause that would be logical. And then we went into our circles. So we took our time, we came forward, we lifted up, we tried not to change the hips. I'm sorry. Yeah, the hip and the leg changes but you don't roll back cause what I'm trying to say two oh four.

Here's your fourth. Once you've finished the circle, line them up and then reverse it. Here we go. Take it back. So you're going to have some motions in lift up. Shannon, thank you. Uh, in your spine but not a lot. It can be done both ways but I'm choosing to go for stability. Here's four I believe. Thank you. And we went down to save the shoulder knowing side bend is coming rotted in close. The foot was flexed in level and we lifted up one for six, lift away high two, no, five I remember now or cause.

Then I went and we circled first we pushed way back. We were so high we pushed way back. We finished the circle one, we did three of these [inaudible] there and reverse and lift up and circle phone. All right. Then we came up for something came up. What would become a for side plank? I mean say bend, swear I'm paying attention. I just, I've lost my confidence when you guys question me. If you're going to question me, tell me what I'm missing. Sorry. Here we go. Ah, challenges have not to separate the news on this one or the inner thighs. Here it is up.

Take a minute and find it level and then lift out of the arm so it's not a push into the ground. Really lengthen button in lower leg or lower body is strong and lift to go over. All can be done on the four in here and an lift. Energize like someone's pulling you up and then use all that ability to, to find opposition. This is it. We came out of this into our side then, right?

Find your length first. Bring the knee down before you pick up the leg. What you tried to do is lengthen out the front of this hip because you may not lift the leg. Once you've done that, hand behind your head. Leg lifts up and we just came back down. We lifted it again. Feel the back of your neck as it meets your, your upper back, making sure it's all nice and long. Little longer. Imagine someone's holding your leg so you can actually take weight out of the arm.

Last one comes up and we brought it forward and back and forward and back. One more time. Coming up front and back. Go to the side, stretch the leg down. Stretch the arm in opposition. Okay. All right, staying here, but face the middle.

Sorry, it's the center of the room. That way. Little sigh hinge I may throw in back extension. So let's leave it out first and then I'll show you the difference. So the first one is to Tuck the pelvis. So you're going to have a little [inaudible].

Actually let yourself look down so that you know you have a bit of a curve, basically flat in front of the hips. Inhale, exhale. Take the hamstrings closer to the calves. You can use the front of your shins. It's fine. Inhale, exhale, come back and then straighten out so you can feel the difference. So you're looking on the horizon. Inhale, re tech exhale, glutes are very tight. You gotta have that. You gotta know you have that inhale. Exhale, no waving on this one. Not yet ever.

Probably and two more and then we have an option for you. Squeeze glutes, but don't let the knees flair back. You go full, luscious. Inhale here. Fill up the lungs and up. We come on the exhale one more time. So challenge yourself, but you don't go to the point of pain on those kneecaps at all. Here it is. Back you go. I sometimes keep my hands where I'm having them just so I can feel if I pike and I'll know. Okay without the sigh hinge.

I remember when we did the back extension earlier. We will squeeze the glutes. We can do this together. Squeeze the glutes and for the moment just put your hands to the side, a little to your legs if you can. You can even bend the elbows to do it. Then we've inhaled on the exhale at the front of the chest rise. Feel the back of your body dropping down.

It's like a conveyor belt as you gradually look up. Okay. And feel how subtle the movements in your spine are. Hey, if you're finding neck tensions cause you've leaned back, we're not looking for that. And then inhale, exhale, come back. Can we do that one more time just again so that you don't feel like it's a big wave of the upper body. When you're ready. Exhale to start that rising chest in the front. Push yourself forward on your thighs, meaning you're gonna almost lean forward and thigh bones as you're doing this.

Okay. And then level it out. We'll do that way from here. Feel like yes, absolutely. Yeah, that's great. And let's take it further. So she's saying when you're in that position, and she was just vertical I think unless she leaned, but either way that you can feel the stretch all the way starting from the top of the thigh, maybe further. Um, but can you feel the opposite side as well so it never feels short. Here we go. Inhale and get the Tuck. Exhale, hinge back. So you're slightly rounded to start normal.

Then make sure you've got your butt tight as you inhale to extend. That's fine. You came from slightly around it, so you're gonna feel a little more difference. Exhale back to level and then come home. That's actually better. Which which part does stretching or back one? Add that to add it later or just edit it off.

Ah, okay. Yes. Coming away from your anchor. Thank you. You do. Just out of curiosity, do you mean instead of doing it from here? No, instead of just, and we've been back and forth. When you scratch out, it actually relieves pressure somehow because you're oppositional and script. Great. That's exactly what I'm hoping for. I wish I could say it half as good as you guys can. I'm learning. Keep talking. Here we go. Tuck. So you're kind of rounded.

So you're going to feel that luscious opposition. Exhale back. Now just make sure it's my butt tight, not mine, yours. And now start feeling that opposition. It's like your knees are going one way, your extension, and it's not a huge arch, but there are some, it's heavenly, isn't it? Level it out first and then bring it home one more time cause someone's loving it. Here we go. Tuck. I am and back we go. I think inner thighs a little. If I were you, I'd think about whatever you need and here counts. I like to inhale here.

Squeeze your glutes, squeeze your glutes, squeeze your glutes. Can you breathe still? Level of out. Then come home. Woo figure for now. Figure four hands on below your shoulders. We're almost there. Promise. Lovely. Extend your legs into plank. Flex your feet and push through the heels to the point where you feel your butt tightened so you still on.

Oh, here's a cue for you. You're flexing your heels. Push the thigh bones toward the ceiling until you feel your glutes tighten and then linkedin out the rest of your body through the crown of the head. Bend your elbows a little to lower down if you want to. You can do this on your knees. Exhale up one. I'm going to do three too, I think adds more than arms. Here's three. Hold. You still have that sense of my something.

You feel the hamstrings is what I'm really going for a point your left foot [inaudible] as you press the thigh bone to the ceiling because it's not anchored, it's going to live. Rock forward on the foot you're using. Back it up again. Do two more of those stretching out the feet. Not to mention the wrist one more time, but that foot down. Change. Reach it long. Go forward. Get that leg up in the air. Higher than you think too. One more time.

The three foot goes down. Lift your hips up, bend your knees. I'm high on the toes trying to balance my weight through my feet or through my ball on my foot. Reach the tailbone to the sky. Head hangs. Check the shoulders are reaching slightly down to the waist. Pull the ribs up, but don't pull them so much that they around your back. Try to keep all that in place and straighten your legs and maybe even press the heels down.

Okay. Trying to almost come away from the arms of bed and with that we're just going to unfurl. Stepping forward with the right leg, right foot forward, back, knee down. Okay. And then instead of going just straight ahead like so move that right leg out a bit, turn it out of it, and then she kinda aiming a little more for that adductor.

Let's see what you get here. So if you're, if this is fine, leave it there. Okay. If you need more, you might move the needle that's on the mat further back. If that still doesn't do it, you can go down to your elbows, but if all of a sudden you're way away from it leaning, it's probably not worth it. And then one last piece, wherever you ended up with all of that is to make sure that the foot that's in front doesn't roll out. But rather if anything, almost roll the foot in. But keep the knee right over that ankle. Okay. The tendency would be to let go there, but we don't want to do that if you still need more, straighten the leg that's on the back so the knee comes off the ground.

And if you still need more, you need a good yoga. Okay, that's good. Walk them foot back in however carefully you can and then you can either keep the back of me down or go to the back knee again and change. Okay, so I kind of line up a little first so I know when I'm moving away from. Yeah, if it turned out you can kind of just see what you need. If you're too far forward, it becomes really like work. If you back up a little, if you don't, maybe maybe don't even have to bend down at all. So it's looking for it. High inner thighs, really what I'm going for. But you very possibly could be feeling a good stretch to the glute or even the hip flexor, the leg that's behind you.

Hmm. All right. If you needed to straighten the back leg, do that now and then gradually when you feel like it's time to start walking your way back and let's make it so that the feet are together and you're in a semi almost standing position, just bent over. Hang your head. Find those big toe joints again like we did at the beginning. Ankle bones, knees, upper inner thigh, a little bit of activity through the whole lower body as you then draw the abs up in a way, placed the shoulders back where they belong easily though. Hen Roll up and then when you get to the top, just to open the arms, not just the hands with the arms, spin them outward, reaching down still, I engage your glutes a little so you don't arch the low back.

The pelvis doesn't move. Lift the chest one last time as you then look up, sweeping up, come back to neutral with the spine, letting go with your arms, and then one more kind of like that, but a little looser, a little freer up and let it go. Good guys. Very good. Very good.

Comments

Great class with some good variations. Thanks!!
1 person likes this.
Great class Kristi, especially loved that new exercise at the end!
PilateNewBee
Loved all the combinations. Helpful transitioning from level one to level two with ease of flow from one exercise to the next!
Wonderful to hear PilateNewBee! Love your name too!
amazing class!!!! 
Wow! This was great! I had actually done it two years ago and saved it in my “To do again “ playlist. It will now go into my regular rotation. Really loved the build up to cross cross.

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