Class #478

Pilates Day Mat

50 min - Class
20 likes

Description

Saturday, May 7 was Pilates Day around the world. Amy Havens opened her studio, Centerpoint Pilates free of charge, to both experienced and novice Pilates practitioners to celebrate the work of Joseph Pilates. In this class, Amy masterfully teaches the basics of Pilates while managing to occupy the more advanced students with her insightful cueing. Amy had a great turnout of about 25 people. Several people in the room are attending their first Pilates class while many are experienced instructors. When you take this class expect the detail you've come to know from Amy's teaching but enjoy the celebration of all that this work we call Pilates has to offer. Thank you Amy and thank you Joseph Pilates.
What You'll Need: Mat, Fitness Ball

About This Video

Jul 03, 2011
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Transcript

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So just a couple things really quick here. For those of you who might've, uh, brought your purses or bags in here, cell phones off hopefully right now, or at least on the silent mode, um, because it's a mixed the level of students in here. Um, be careful, you know, don't do anything that doesn't feel right for your body. If you know you have certain things going on in your spine or your wrist or your back or neck. Uh, you know, you may want to watch what we're doing first and then move forward. Uh, but again, because it's a mixed level, it's, it's pretty moderate work. We're gonna do nothing to exacerbated. Okay. And then this, yeah, just for some fun. We're gonna do some things with the little prop. Um, so I think what I want us, everybody to start is just down with your ball and go ahead and, uh, you can face me if you'd like to. I'm Amy, by the way. I didn't say that before. And let's start with our feet all the way together. Our legs all the way together and arms by your side.

And there's a one Q I'm going to give everyone right now if it's kind of imaginative that you've got to like a strip of sticky tape or velcro or some magnets maybe between your legs. You've got a little bit at your ankle, a little bit above your knee and way up at the high inner thigh. And just press that together and just hold yourself fairly firm through your midline of your body. And you're going to stand like this for a little bit while I chatter. So some of the movement principles we'll go through in [inaudible]. Um, breathing number one, no, hold your breath. Pilati is really about trying to maximum and uh, perform efficient breathing with movement, uh, fluidity, precision control, concentration, all of that is in every exercise and so out a little bit throughout different exercises, but we'll try to get all of that in. Um, breathing is the number one feature of [inaudible].

A couple of the other principles, total body health. Total body health means your whole body's healthy. You brush your teeth, you brush your hair, you keep yourself clean. Joseph Palladio's embodied all of this in his work. It wasn't just physical exercise, it was mental work. It was a lifestyle. So breathing, total body health, your feet, clean your arms. You know what I'm getting at? Um, eat right, get a balanced diet, sleep enough, have a good time, drink a little, eat a little. Um, and then whole body commitment. And that's the same thing.

Embodying your mind, your body and your spirit all in one. It's a Triology of all of that put together. Okay? So if you've done Palladia, most of you know that that is in all of the work. If you've never done Palladio's before, that's part of what it is. It is a lifestyle for many of us.

So what we're going to start with as your legs are pressed together, a little breathing exercise, just hold your arms down by your sides and as big of a breath as you can get in. And we're going to take our arms up just shoulder level. So it's an inhale through your nose. And as you exhale, press your navel back towards your spine, squeeze your legs firmly together. We'll go again. And your exhale, you're trying to engage your middle. That's in your inner thighs. It's also your stomach to your spine. Again, I'll probably talk a lot during this so you just keep going.

A couple of you know what's going on. You want to keep thinking of your shoulder blades down your back, never lifting up towards your ears, which can create tension. So again, this is about fluidity, muscle control. Three more times. Can you press your legs more? Can you stand taller through your body? That's up through the top of your head. Your stomach can go back toward your spine, a little hug toward your back.

Two more [inaudible]. And one more time. We're going to take a standing roll down right where you are. Take a good breath through your nose. First thing that'll move is your head. And once your head just around, stay right there. Take another breath in.

Exhale, let your shoulders and your upper spine start rounding forward. Another breath in. Exhale and keep rounding now all the way down or as close as you can get towards your feet without any stress in the back of your knees, your hips, your neck, or your shoulders. And that's very different for all of us because we are a mixed level class. Take just one second therapy. I want you to feel where you are in your feet.

I want you a little more forward on the balls of your feet than back on your heels. Continue to press your legs together and holding your belly button up. N N as if it's trying to make its way underneath your rib cage. Alrighty and wouldn't be out of the question to think of your heels being light on the mat or on the floor. All right, I'm going to have you take a nice breath on your exhale. Eight slow counts to roll up to a standing position. Here's one. Press your legs together to keep thinking. Press together. Three, take all your counts for this little concentration.

Five and six and seven and eight counts to roll down and exhale one and two. So concentrating, trying to take all your time and four and five on, six and seven on. Just stay right down there. Keep breathing in and out. As you exhale, I want you to think, can your stomach, your abdominals scoop in? Pull up toward the sky with your tummy muscles. Keep shifting your weight a little more forward on the balls of your feet, the lecture size, if you're in there efficiently, three through your stomach.

Okay, let's take that again. Let's roll up. Inhale, one and two, and three and four. Keep it rolling up in five and six and seven. Let's do one more without stopping. Exhale, rounding forward one, two, and three. Shifting that weight forward a little bit more forward. Five. If you feel like you're gonna lose your balance, that's okay.

You won't fall and eight last breath in and let's take those eight counts. Roll Up. One and two, coming up taller. Three and four and five and six and seven and eight. There we go. Lift your shoulders on an inhale, pressing down on an exhale. Again, a breath. So I'm in focus.

Have you focus on the downward movement of your shoulders. Let's do one more. Just an easy one and just stay right there. Can you press him lower? What does it feel like to press them lower? I'm going to have you think it comes from here, right underneath your underarm, the base of your shoulder, blade and Mo. Move it down more and more. You've got heavy milk cartons in each hand and more. Okay?

Now at the same time you're reaching that down. This part of your body reaches up a little posture work. Keep going, keep breathing. Press your legs together. [inaudible] two more times guys. Inhale, let this be easy. So you're finding muscle engagement, but we don't and we don't want to be stressed and you know, get too much tension. Find enough tension for efficiency. Enough contraction for efficiency. Okay, now put your hands like this.

Palms back and do this with your arms. In a moment you'll be doing this on the floor and a lot of you've done this before. As you're pumping your arms, your circulatory system is getting a little more work. Let's do a breath pattern that sounds like inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale. Okay, keep going. I'm going to talk a little more so legs together, right? Squeeze and tight or navel into your spine.

The chest is lifted. Address a little idea of cross the collarbone. Can you make it wider? Can your navel go back a little more, little more ease in this moment here and four, three, two, one. Okay, let's take that and put that on hold for a second. You'll do that on the mat when we get down there. But let's get down. Find it easy way down to the mat. We can get creative, but I'm gonna have you do, once you get down there onto your back, you've got your fun little beach ball here. All different sizes because we're all different sizes.

Put it in between your knees. Okay. Oops. Yeah, it's cool. And it may pop. I'm not sure. It may diff. It may deflate. I don't know. Some of the little closures are not quite secure. So take it just a quick scan. I'm going to have you think about your feet for a second.

So when we are in standing, we are all the way together. Of course down here you can't be all the way together cause you've got the ball there. But we do want even weight on her feet. So you've got a big toe underneath your big toe. You've got a base of your pinkie toe and you've got to heel. Try to have a weight evenly in all those three parts.

All your toes facing forward. Okay? And then take a breath in through your nose. I want you to squeeze the ball as you exhale. Much like you were just squeezing your navel to your spine when you were just standing a moment ago. Good. Inhale, release that work. Ooh. And exhale. Squeeze again. Now I'm going to think, have you think of your high tummy more than anything else? Here, take a breath.

This is high abdominal region and you're going to really feel that in the next couple of exercises way up there where your ribs split the one and are you squeezing your ball? Yeah, keep going. I want you to lengthen your arms by your sides with your palms flat. Make your arms longer and longer as if you're trying to touch your toes or your heels with your fingertips. Take another breath in and you want to feeling work in your core, your middle of your body. Yeah, keep going. I'm going to allow everyone to just let your tailbone curl up a little bit underneath you just to experience that. Squeeze.

Good. The base of your shoulder blades that we were pumping with a minute ago. Make them a little bit more down the back of your back. There we go. Two more breaths. Just plain look right up to the ceiling. One more or less. Do an inhale together and exhale and squeeze. Squeeze, squeeze. Okay. Now just drop your tailbone, relax your tailbone down.

Keep it down as much as you can for the rest of the work. Okay? All right. I'm going to have everyone interlace your hands behind your head and as you're down I liked a little bit of a, take your elbows up just up a tiny bit off the mat so you can see them in the corners of your eyes or out the corners of your eyes. Rebecca, we'll do some of upper abdominal strengthening, so I know on an exhale, squeeze the ball, keep your tailbone on the mat and roll your head and your chest up. Most of us refer to this position as a chest lift. It's a curl of the spine, concentrating on that high abdominal region and squeeze your ball a little more and inhale, let's take it back and to take us through six or seven more repetitions. Exhale, squeeze. [inaudible] try to squeeze all the air out of your lungs and squeeze. Squeeze a little more.

There's more. Squeeze it out. Inhale back and again, exhale and he'll take it back. So I want you to now start putting your mind on the center of your body even more so than you had been strengthening the abdominal muscles, gaining some mobility in your back. Inhale, take yourself back, maybe feeling your body temperature increasing a little bit. Holidays is a workout for mind and our body and our spirit. Two more guys. Let's exhale again. Curl up.

Maybe this is a moment to check back in. Have you lost the squeeze on your ball? Maybe inhale that concentration I was talking about. And one more time. Exhale. Lots of things to constantly be thinking about. So here we are going to stay. I'm going to have us take our arms by our sides.

If you're feeling any neck tension during what we're about to do, just go back to here. Okay. Few choices. You could keep your feet down. You could take your knees up. You could even just go up and do that with your legs. Okay? Anyone want to go for the bigger range of motion? Your challenge? I'm going to show this way. Alright, we're about to do that pumping of the arms. Let's go.

We're going to do two in and two out ad. Keep going. So a, can you squeeze doing this? Are you arms? As long as they can be using those upper abdominal muscle fibers as much as you can. You're doing the exercise called the 100 because there are 100 pumps. I'm not counting as anyone counting. That's okay.

And for three, two, last breath and rest back all the way. Good. Okay. I'm going to continue to just move on. Take that ball away into your hands now. Yeah. What the heck do that? And you can, let's just stretch the legs down the straight. You're gonna find out in a minute if that works for your body or not.

Chances are half of us, this may not work and if it doesn't, you'll know we'll have you bend your knees. Okay? But here we are. I want you to take your ball above your body and reach it back a little bit behind you and flatten your stomach. Really compress your belly wall towards your spine. And take a second again to check the squeeze in your legs. This like you were when you were standing up a moment ago. Yeah, that velcro or those magnets all the way through you.

So it's called the roll up. You take your arms to the ceiling, you let your head and chest follow, look at your ball and now use those upper abdominals curl. Wow, this room got reach. No, go for a big reach. How far can you reach for where do with your belly pulling back and your arms reaching forward. Your head down, right? This is a principle maybe or kind of a movement principle of opposition. So I want you to reach more forward. I'm going to oppose you.

Pull your way back. Okay, everybody breathe right there. Exhale and begin to roll back. Use your low belly. Go back to the mat. Can you go bone by bone, bone by bone, by bone, with control. I've never seen it that smooth in my, with the new group ever. Let's pick up the pace. Inhale. Exhale, squeeze. Yeah. Do you think of the crown of your head?

Reaching toward your ball is your navel is trying to pull back to the back of your mat. Take your breath there. Use that pool to roll you back to the Mat. Ah, I see. [inaudible] it's the idea here of articulating the motion of your spine. Stretch your body. Squeeze those legs together. Keep compressing your belly wall to your spine to more today. Inhale, follow your ball. If you're good, you guys reach more reach, but still pull that belly back.

There's a visual image that we often will say is that you're making a c curve with your back. Yes, I see more cs. Inhale and roll back. Exhale, smooth and controlled. Pulling up pants. We're doing good. Inhale, reach your arms up. Exhale. Squeeze your stomach in, in, in, in, in, in all rights and renewal. And that's roll back again. Exhale.

[inaudible], Mr. Inks, incredible rule. Uh, roll-ups. You guys really, really good. Put your ball just to the side. We're going to use it again in just a short minute. Now I want you to take both legs up. You can do one at a time into this position. We often call it the tabletop.

90 degrees of hip flection, 90 degrees at your knees, and just hold yourself there. Okay? Take your arms and make them nice and long. Once again, you're going to bring that ahead and chest up. Amplify the region, your arms. If you start to feel that neck tension, you're allowed to go back here like this. Absolutely fine. Now precision. Let's take our right leg. Can you reach that right leg forward? There's an invisible line that connects our big toes on the same line in space.

So if your leg, you're stretched leg is way down here, it's not in line with your big toe. The precision is learning about where can you put that leg in space and hold it? Okay? Take your breath in through your nose. Change it on the exhale. Stabilize your body as you change. There's some concentration and control. Let's take a breath in. Exhale, change the legs and [inaudible] stretch and stretch. This is called single leg stretch.

The name of the exercise. You're stretching a single leg. There we go. Okay, keep going. Those high upper abdominals doing great. Can you use your end goal there, you guys hitting and reach. We're going to pick up the pace for 10 more. It's all going to be one and two and three and four. There we go, five and six.

Seven and eight and nine and 10 and rest. Okay. Pick up your ball. Bring those knees back up and put that ball in your hands. We're going to do our double leg stretch, double leg stretch, two leg stretch at the same time. All right, so once again, curling up into that upper body contraction. The arms are going to go back alongside the ears as your legs can either go straight up to the ceiling. That might be the safest place to go, or some of you know you could open that way out.

The idea is can you keep your back flat? Okay, that's an inhale. Exhale. I want you to curl, reach the ball over your shins, so you've got to squeeze those upper abs to get you up there. Let's do five. Here we go. Inhale, keep your chin down, everybody. Exhale. I'm going to keep going. Look down at your tummy. That'll help you see your next not reaching back.

That's going to be head stress. Exhale. Inhale, good squeeze and retreat. Retreat, retreat, reach two more and breeds exhale, curl. Last one, stretch and exhale, reach that ball over your shins and everybody arrest. Okay, put the ball down. We're going to put her hands behind her head. You'll like that and big to another exhale and bring those legs up to tabled. Hot position or that 90 90 another breath here. We're going to work the sides of the tummy a little bit more than just that front panel. Okay, so as you exhale, again, curling up, getting really good at that. Whenever everybody take their right hand, put it on the outside of your left knee just for a second.

Contact that make a little contact, press a little bit, help you get a little higher. Now start to open up that left side. You might even think you can look towards your elbow a little bit there. No stretch your right leg away. Could that right leg and big toes be on the same line in space? Again, there is that precision. Okay. Now we're going to take the little check in on that shape on the other side.

So neon hand, hand twist, let's check it out. So we're not resting on our shoulder blade. We're going to come up a little bit off of that. I'm going to get picky with you cause I can. Okay, now both hands behind your head. Let's change legs, change diagonals with your body. Ready we go. Exhale, twist. Inhale, come through center. Exhale, other side, come through center. Exhale and twist and Shange. Exhale, twist and again, stretch your leg, come through center. Stretch your leg. And again, stretch and stretch and again, twist and picking up the tempo. Twist and twist and twist and twist and [inaudible] and with keep it going.

Shamed and shamed and changes for fun. And for three and two, a couple takers, their okay and rest. Good. All right guys. Find a creative way up to sitting tall. It's called Chris Cross ball right here. Now this is not easy for everybody to sit up straight and I take this for granted. I have pretty looser rather reller kind of flexible hamstrings, which are the muscles in the back of your legs.

So if you feel right now that this is not easy to sit, you're allowed to do this to bend your knees, okay? That's gonna help you sit up a little bit taller. What we're trying not to well to do is to learn how to get up straight from tail to head, integrating your tummy and letting your back muscles get some work. Because a lot of what we've just done so far is a lot of tummy. Okay? The next one is some tummy, but you're going to stretch your back in the back of your legs.

Hands are going to be on top of your ball. Look straight out. Pull your shoulders down away from the ears again, just like we warmed up with right at the base of your shoulder blade. This is our spine stretch forward. So can you keep your heels reaching? Inhale, Gotcha. XML You'd seen like we did when we rolled down. It's your head that goes first. It's your shoulders that follow you.

It's your chest that follows. You know, if you're not satisfied with that stretch, roll your ball a little bit. It's going to help you go farther and farther and farther and farther. Let that had dropped down. It's okay to look at your tummy with your eyes. Upper abdominal squeezing it. Everybody stay there and take a couple breaths. We're going to have, oh, there's your neck, Wendy. I'm going back to opposition.

So if you reach farther forward and if I could, I'd hug all of you at the same time and I'd pull you backward. Oppose me. Oppose. That's the idea. Okay, now we get to roll back up to sitting tall. Let your head be the last thing that comes up. If I'm a wall, you roll your spine right up the wall and you come up a little taller. Your shoulders are open, you're up tall on your buns. Let's take a breath in. We'll go a little more fluidly. Exhale, contract your tummy in round.

Roll that ball. If you need to take a couple breaths here, use those upper abdominals and go a little bit farther forward if you want. Okay. I liked that you. Some of you are taking care of yourselves and keeping your knees bent. It's completely fine. All right, take another inhale guys. Exhale. Here we go.

Restacking we'll often say restack. It's from the bottom of your spine. Your lower back. Sorry. Middle Back. Your shoulder blades, your head, your collarbone is open. You're really, really tall. Let's take two more and it said for breathing. It's a breathing exercise. Squeeze the air away from your lungs out. Out, out as much as you can. You're going to have to breathe in. Exhale, go a little farther. Exhale, squeeze. Upper belly. Good.

Inhale. Let's start rolling up. See if you can keep your head down as long as possible. Let your lower back come toward me. Here you go. Your middle back, your upper back, your shoulders in your head. And one more time guys. Breathe. This is our spine. Stretch forward. Flex your feet, reach, reach, reach. Good me. Meanwhile, does it feel good to stretch? Probably some of you are going to say no.

I think now their breath in and then exhale. Everybody roll up bone by bone. Come up taller. Come up taller in your body. Okay, good. So I think I'll give you some choices. We're going to do something to cause or creates a little more rotation.

You can stay seated like this. You can bring your legs all the way in. You could change it to this. You could cross. Those are your choices. Hardly anyone changed their out their mind. That's good. So with our elbows bent, I might show it this way. All right, so again, we're trying to establish a vertical line. Head over shoulders, over ribs, over hips. Press your, I've got my arms like that. Yeah.

Now press your hand and elbow together. The top one and the bottom one. Just press, breathe and press at the same time you're doing that. Can you pull your shoulder blades or your arm pits down? Yeah, if you let more press more. So there's some opposition. There's press here, there are stretch up here. There's pull down here is all kinds of things. Your stomach going in this way.

All right, we're gonna take another breath in to get ready. On Your exhale, twist your your torso toward your right. Now I'm going to have you think of your torso is a big column like a killer. The whole thing turns at one time or head doesn't go too far. Our shoulders don't go more than our head. Okay? Now keep pressing your elbows together. Press your shoulders down, your back.

Everyone can you breathe in and use your exhale to rewind yourself and come back to your center a little taller than you started. We'll do one slow, one to the other side just to feel what it is. Breathe in tall. All right, stay tall. Squeeze. I'm gonna have you stay there and take another couple of breath. We often will kind of communicate a cue. Ring all of the air out of your body. Ring it out. It's in your lungs. It could be in some Oregon tissue. It could be your muscles, blood, water, all this stuff. Squeeze into West. Okay, now come back to center. We're going to take your breath in together.

Change the arms the other way. Find the same press. We're going to take an inhale in this position and go to the right for three little exhales. All right to the right. Here we go. Exhale. And two, you're ringing more air out, more air out in hill center. Other side. Exhale n one. Can you ring out more? Two a little more. Three. Inhale, center and again, exhale, m twist and shoulders down a little. Let's all see our next. Feel your neck long center. Okay.

And pull your under arms down. Twist the other way. Oh No, we're done. We're not done don't guess. And to West, back to center. Change your arms for more to the right. Exhale and one to three. Whittling the waist away. Center to the left. Exhale and twist.

Navel to spine to there we go. Three Center. Come to center. Taller. Last one to the right. Your whole Roman pillars turning in one unit. That's it. Back to center. Here's our last one. This is our seated spinal rotation. Ah, two and three.

And let's come back to center and everyone just let your arms come down and around your spine. It's rest for a second. So that most of you I think were, I it looked as though you did got pretty good rotation. Rotation isn't just about the ABS, it's a lot in the, in the back muscles to, did you feel some back work? Yeah, it's a balance of front, back, sides, top and bottom. So more backward. Let's come onto our tummies. Okay. So yeah, tell me and I think for now, no ball, it could get Kinda wacky. Um, yeah, going here. So forehead down, arms long by your sides. And I'm going to make it a little challenging. It doesn't seem like it will be, but I think it is. I heard it. For me it is. Hold your legs.

Yeah, put your hands right. Right on the side of your legs or your hips and press. Okay. So that press actually has to come from the muscles in your upper back, inner arm here, your triceps, your shoulder blades, your lats. She's going to have a nice broad collarbone. Keep breathing as I'm talking a lot. Okay.

That same long arm idea that we started to warm up with, make your arms a little longer as they're holding by your sides. Okay? You might start to feel some energy and some effort around your underarm. Again, it's not a bad place to think about it. All right? Now keep thinking about your core, your belly, those upper abdominals that we talked about earlier. Okay. Does that work? Okay? Yeah, and your belly button.

Let me feel your belly button. Pull up to me off that mat. There you go. All right. This is called a flight. I learned this as flight on an exhale. I want you guys to hover your head and your chest. Just a skosh off the map. Just a little look down to the mat. Now. Can those arms stretch? Can your arms get long towards your feet? There you go.

Heal some work up in here. Yeah, longer through the crown of your head. Everybody breathe in and then exhale and just float that down without losing the integrity of your work in your body. We'll do four more. Let's take a breath in and exhale. As you float, you engage your back muscles. Your Tommy's still pulled up, so we'll see. We're not really getting too high off the map. Think long, long, and long. Let's breathe in and everybody exhale as you come back down, lightly touch the forehead. We're going for two more. Inhale and exhale. Can you reach your arms longer? What does that feel like? Does it feel like to broaden your chest in front of you?

Probably will tap into more upper back work. Inhale, exhale and lengthen down longer through the crown of your head. One more time. Inhale and exhale and reach. I'm incredibly impressed with your head positions. Don't anybody change a thing? There's some good Mojo in here. Really good because no one's really misaligning your head and your neck.

Inhale, exhale, come down. That's rare for us to see. I it is for me. Okay, we're moving on from there. Inhale again. Exhale. Same thing. Lift your head in your chest. Now it's Kinda tight space, but we're fine. Bend your elbows. Put your hands now on the mat, right near your chest. Some of you know, you can go up pretty high. This is a swan. Uh, just follow along. I'm gonna say press on your, on your mat with your hands a little bit. Just little with your hands, but small. But lift your back a little higher. Now if you feel like you're okay and you know what you're doing, go ahead and extend your arms all the way, but not locking them out.

Okay, so your elbows are gonna remain just a little bit bent. Look out. Can you tell me a scoop up? Can your shoulders sneak down away from your ears? They don't need to be up there. All right, inhale there guys. Now come down slowly. Let me give you four counts. One, two, three and four. Stay there. Inhale.

We're going up for four counts and one take all your time. Two, three, nice. Sarah and four. See right there. Inhale and exhale slowly coming down and bend those elbows. One. Just follow me. Two body down, three and four. One more time. One more time. Inhale. Exhale. Four counts and one, two, three. [inaudible] go down, away from your neck. Better. Inhale slowly down through the top of your head.

One bend those elbows two and three and four. Okay, good. You guys, come on back into something we call a rest pose. Just an easy transition to stretch your lower back. You're not used to doing those kinds of exercises for your back. It may feel like it's gotten a little more work than usual and it has your back extensors. Get some work.

We need a strength back there just as much as we need in our tummy. Ah, one more nice deep breath in and out. Okay, so I'm going to have this come up and the front support position, we call it a plank or front support. Lots of variations to it. You can, if you know you have a little wrist issue, maybe you don't like to be, you know, no pushup position, you can make fists like that and put your fist down. Okay? You can come flat handed. If you're flat handed all your hand, all your fingers are open, spread them really wide. Okay? You can also do this on your elbows just down there.

So what we're looking to do is get into a pushup position. All right? So your feet are back. You're on the tip, the balls of your feet, Wendy. Excellent. Now, what could go awry would be your tummy and it could sag out of you like a heavy sack of kittens or something. No sagging. That could stress your lower back tremendously. We don't want stress, we want strength. I would say if you're feeling of that bias that by lifting your hips and bum a little up, okay? Just breathing is a lot of work.

Just being on arms as a lot of work. Okay? This is front support challenge a little if you want to and maybe float one foot off the mat just a little. It doesn't have to go too high. Okay. Just notice what challenge, what changes when you take one base of support away, change it to the other side. Stay right there. That head and neck position. Still looking pretty good. Look, walk your eyes forward like an inch. Everybody with your head there. Okay, and place that foot down.

Bend your knees and come down for a second. So I'm gonna have to go back up and yourself a little rest. Ready? Here we go. Back into your position. Let's breathe in and out five times together. How much air can you take in? Here we go. Inhale. How much air can you squeeze out? Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. And again, inhale, exhale.

Like you're pushing the floor away from your chest. Inhale. Wow, that was awesome. Feel the strength at the base of your underarm. Two more breaths. Exhale, shoulder blades down your back. Yeah, last exhale guys. Everybody come down. That's plenty. Yeah. Okay. And then once again, just ease back. You could maybe take your wrist and just do little circles. Doing Great. Okay. Couple more. We've worked our front, we've worked our back. There's lots more we can work, but we're going to work tiny bit more on the sides of our body. Okay.

So we will use our ball here. And why don't you all lie on your left sides with your head's facing them. Windows. Okay. And we're going to have you put your balls right there at your ankles. Extend your legs long from your hips.

I'm going to have this go all the way down. I think this may be safest today for right now. And move your legs also a little bit forward. Maybe think of the front of your mat. Okay. So they're not in line with you and they're certainly not behind you.

That's gonna that could stress your lower back a little bit more in front is safer. Okay. And then just your head down on your arm. You could also make a secondary pillow with your bottom arm to lift your head more if you want more support on your neck. Alright, so, so, uh, tell me work before we do anything. Can you make your top leg? I need you to make your top leg really long as if it's a half an inch at least or more longer than the other leg. And it's Nice you've got a ball, it rolls over the top of the ball. So we're going to do this. Let's let that go. Let your hip go back up into your waist. Kind of get a little squish. All right. [inaudible] we talk about elongation all the time, so we want to Elongate the side of the body, the top side of the body and the leg itself. Okay, let's go back again.

So you feel we're not to go ideally and then the extension long in a way. Okay, so balancing on the of the body can be tricky. What I want everyone to do, all this before we lift the legs up is go into the upper belly. Again, Kinda just think about your upper tummy and squeeze that in. Okay? Stay focused on that. It's actually kind of can help you balance if you connect into that.

Also down low is your whole abdominal wall, but I have found the upper belly helps me a little more. So on an exhale, lift your legs up. Okay, keep the top leg long. She's got it. I'm just helping her. And then as you inhale, lower down with ultimate control, you're just gonna lightly set him down like a feather landing on the ground and x, he'll go right back up again. Inhale, reach long as you lower them down. Light little feather just barely touches. And up again. Exhale, doing really, really well. Inhale, lower. Exhale. Again, reach long to lift them up. Just keep going about that tempo. I'm going to do a couple more reminders.

Where are are? Can you take your top shoulder blade a little bit away, down, away from your jaw? I'm going to stretch that shoulder down. I'm picking on you because you're right here in front of me, so that's good. All right. Inhale light. Little float down. Exhale and squeeze to lift. Inhale, lightly lower down. Exhale, squeeze to lift. Let's take two more.

Inhale light, little lowering down. Exhale, squeeze to lift. Do. Okay. Inhale, lower last one guys. Exhale, reach long and lift. Now we're gonna change the tempo. It's going to be a little quicker about like that. Those are going to be exhales as you lift your legs a tiny bit higher. Where you want to lift is right from your waistline and your hip. Here we go. Exhale, one and two and three and four.

A little high. You're five, maybe your inner thigh, bottom inner thigh, eight, nine, last one, 10. Hold right there. Let's test our balanced. One more little idea. Take your top hand and reach it up to the ceiling. That might prove, make you feel like you're gonna tip top around, not this class. You guys have done this before. Then most of you can. Your upper belly work a little more. Can your legs go any higher? Little higher, little higher, a little higher. Let's breathe in. Exhale, everything can come down. Okay, now transition. Try to keep your ball in between your ankles and just come up and creatively turn yourself around. Stella did a teaser through there.

Hey, we'll probably try to do a teaser in just a second. So you just, uh, foreshadowed the whole program. Okay, so let's find our checkpoints. You're on the side of your hip. Your legs are slightly forward. It didn't really address your top arm a whole lot. Most of you just set it down where it should be kind of right in front of your waist and your rib cage. Just keeping the shoulders down. A lot is full.

So much about that. Long neck and shoulders down. There's a lot of tension. If we squeeze the shoulders up, okay. And that could do a whole lot of other things we don't want to work on. So take your hip first and lengthen it away from your waist. How long did that top leg gets? And then let go of that idea.

Let your hip just ride up to your waist and then again, activate the reach or elongation of your body, your hip, your spine, your waist, and then let the hip ARIDE back up into your waistline. And then once again, reach from your hip to the ball. Okay, you're doing excellent. Bring your whole belly wall in, especially your upper belly. Taken an a. Here we go. Slowly exhale the legs up, trying to stay balanced right on the side of your hip. And inhale slowly lower like a feather. And exhale, reach as you lift. Inhale as you lower. Exhale, reach as you lift. Inhale, lower annex.

He'll reach as you lift and lower, so bottom inner thigh, but a lot of top wastes. Maybe someone in the side of your hip. Inhale down. Exhale long and long and longer. Inhale, lower soft feet. Exhale, lengthen and lift. Inhale down. Three more guys. Exhale, reach and lift and lower. Could you take some tension out of your neck somehow? Where would you put it? You take it out of your throat and down. All right, last one. You're going to keep it up there?

No, I'm just going to have you think about that hip again. Some of us kind of, let's all right. Lost a little of the hip reach. Take one extra thought to good me while reach your hip toward the ball. Your top hip, your left hip. There you go. Now a little extra squeezes a tiny bit faster for 10 we've got a one and two and three and fours long and five. Six, seven, eight, nine. You're at the highest place you can get there. 10 let's take our top arm up in balance.

If you can stay connected to those high tummies. Grieve. I'm just going to put you back in some other place right here. Okay. Hi Tummy. There you go. Little longer with your legs, you're welcome and exhale and all the way down to rest. Good work you guys. Let's come up off of our side. I don't know where best it will be to have us. Look, I'm my guess I'm going to say, look, let's look out the window toward the mountains for this one here.

Isn't that a popular exercise in Pilati called the teaser? I'm just gonna have us try it. Uh, some of you know the teaser really intimately and very well. Let's try sitting like this for a second. Up on your sits bones, as tall as you can be right there. That's, we're in our center of gravity right over our center of gravity, which is our pelvis. So if we take our center of gravity and shift it back a little bit, you're going to go onto the back sides of your sits bones are just behind your sits bones. Now did you go back there? I want you all to make a little c shape with your spine.

Just in your lower back mainly. Okay, that would be fine there. You could. You could even just put your legs up. Now let's go for it. Just take your legs up. I'm going to say points your feet toward the window. They don't have to be straight. The legs stay right there. I'm going to check what's going on behind me. Yeah, yeah.

If anyone's feeling icky, stress, don't do it. Watch. There's a lot of learning that can happen from watching. Okay, so you can stay right there. A little more work is to let go. The hands might reach towards your shins, your feet. Some of you like to go right, hands higher above the ceiling, reaching up. It's about balance, strength, control, precision, concentration. We're all there.

Okay. That's the position and we have to move to that position, so if you want to keep your leg straight, you can also Brenda back in. We're going to roll ourselves backwards. Let's just see what happens. Roll back bone by bone. I would say just reach your arms to the ceiling.

Your head is going to touch the mat and let's see what happens if we use all of what we had work in a day to roll back up, extend your legs out to the diagonal and see if you can hold your balance. Won't get inhale right there. I had to have you try it. Exhale. Roll back. You can bend your knees on the way back. Arms to the ceiling. Head just lightly touches the floor. Don't let go of your tummy. You got to work it more. Exhale and Cru.

Reach toward those toes or up to the ceiling. If you want a little more work, breathe in. Nice you guys. Exhale and roll back. Remember, this is a mixed level class. Some teachers in here, so we're all doing incredible work. Let's do two more. If you've never done mat work before, you've done amazing work. Roll up now. If you had a big ball in your hands, summer, reach it to the ceiling. Stretch your spine tall. Let's breathe in. We're gonna roll back. Exhale, I'm holding on. Gotcha.

One more guys. Inhale and rolling up. Exhale. Upper belly. Yep. Inhale and exhale. Everybody roll back and rest. [inaudible]. [inaudible] okay. Find your way up to a standing position. You can put your ball away.

Fogging up your glasses. Yeah. Face me this way. I am kind of known for doing jumping jacks in class just because they're fun and they're good for you and they Enlive in your spirit. I think here we go. [inaudible] so what I want us to do here at the, after this, we're almost done with this introductory class. I want to try to, uh, have us all kind of spell out the word Palladio's or at least a letter p a letter I a letter l. We're going to see if we can make a little sculpture of the word [inaudible]. If anyone's game for that or at least, or maybe the 100, we could do a one in a couple zeros. That could be easy to, let's take 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. Don't walk away yet.

Hold right here. Just stand there. Squeeze the legs in. [inaudible] just bring your body back to where we started. [inaudible] I finish all of that with one more roll down. It's like a period at the end of a sentence in my eyes. So let your head around. That's, that's your body round.

Let's think about some of the movements that your body went through today. Especially some of you who've never done this before. For those of you that have done it for a long, long time. Maybe something was new or refreshed. Shift your weight a little more forward.

Let's take one more breath in and then that slow roll up to sounding with the eight counts. Him All one, all eight counts, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Yay. Thanks you guys. [inaudible] some of you better have never done mat work. You did beautifully.

Comments

thanks for a magnificent example of fundamental Pilates - made challenging in the right ways. The participants in this class were real-time; your cueing, pacing, caution and challenges were directed appropriately. Such a great class for new instructors - loved the use of Pilates principles. Also a solid workout for the more experienced client, if they really respond to the cue.
CJ
2 people like this.
amy, it is awesome, I thoroughly enjoyed the class. the instructions were great, you are spreading lots of love all over. thanks . blanche.
1 person likes this.
Hi Joleen, thank you so much for your kind words! This Pilates Day class was so much fun for me to teach and yes, I did have a room mostly of beginners, it was great! I am always careful to not give too much, but strive to give enough---with all my classes---but this one was extra special. I wanted to give the folks a taste of the history, foundation and fundamentals but not bore everyone. There were a few very skilled movers in the room as well and they too commented on the challenge of the class. Sometimes going back to the fundamentals is the most challenging of workouts!
1 person likes this.
Hi Blanche......THANK YOU!! I am happy.....and grateful to be spreading lots of love all over! :)
Amy..
Thanks for a great class. You gave such thorough directions that I was able to follow them without having to look at the screen all the time. This is going to be one of my favorites!
Diane.....thank you so much for your comments! I'm so happy to hear that this class was a good one for you and provided you the flow and focus to not have to keep looking sideways at the screen :) Talk again soon!
Hi Amy..
very good cues and very clear directions..and you're right fundamentals is the most challenging workouts...thanks
Thank you very much Berna......I appreciate your comments! I just had a wonderful session today myself and we focussed on 'foundation' pieces.........ahhhh, felt so good!
Amy
I have a question regarding the breath pattern your using with the hundred. Inhale for two, exhale or two. Is that easier to do thn inhale for five, ten exhale for five. It sounds like it would be, but I thought I learned that increased paced breath s harder. I not sure which would be the one to introduce to my client who is struggling with the inhales. Thanks for any feedback.
Amy
Some typos. Inhale for five, then exhale for five
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